The Siren of the Titanic

Chapter 14: The Third

"So what is the High King like? I mean I don't even know his name." The four of us had been swimming south for quite some time. The sun was setting, but the further we went the warmer the water became, which was both good and bad. Even as a human, I never liked the heat and the warmer waters made me quite drowsy, Talon, on the other hand, seemed to be charged by it.

"I've never met him personally, but Mom has always liked him, and he seems kind enough through his actions. He's always had his people's safety first, whenever he's made a law. But seriously though, bro, no one besides the other kings, knows his name, hell I don't even know." He smiled at me, but it swiftly dissipated. "Hey you alright, Frost?" His voice was laced with worry.

I smiled weakly back at him, weary eyes half shut. "I'm fine Tal." Talon only placed his hand on my chest feeling my heartbeat.

"No, you're not, idiot. Why aren't you regulating your temperature? You're from a place of ice, and here we are traveling to the Bermuda Triangle, where it's warmer. You need to regulate your temp, otherwise, you'll get sick stupid." I blinked at him in confusion but took a minute to understand his words. He was right, though, I was an ice cube being thrown into boiling water. I started to think about how to do that when he cleared his throat catching my attention.

"A mer's tail is extremely sensitive to temperature, so are your ears, fins sorry. Simply cover them in a thin layer of ice, you'll be good. You could also try to lower the temp of your blood, but that's kinda an advanced thing. And try to make sure you freeze you and not me." He chortled a little. I nodded and did as he instructed, covering my ear-fins and my tail in a thin, but flexible layer of ice, I also tried to lower my blood temperature, just to try. I started by visualizing my blood as individual cells and imagined slowing down due to the cold. After a few moments I began to 'perk up', I no longer felt tired, and felt ready to continue our journey. I smiled at Talon and he smiled back, pleased.

"Hey, boys, warning there's a shark nearby!" Venus called to us, almost yelling, the four of us swam into a group. "He's coming straight for us!" I summoned my weapon of ice, remembering my training with Master Adhira. She had taught me about the different types of lances and trained me to use them. After many trial-and-error I came across the Halberd, the end looked like an axe for chopping and a sharp point at the top for stabbing. Talon summoned a two-bladed scythe, which could be unscrewed into two smaller scythes. His scythe's blades seemed to be made of pure flame and made the water around them bubble.

Soon the shadow of a great white came into view. It was huge, twice as large as a human, roughly four meters long or twelve and a half feet long. At first, the shark simply circled us, his black eyes watching our every movement, but he turned and started to slowly swim to us.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you guys." He said, his voice was calm and without malice. I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding, and released my weapon, which dissolved into nothing. Talon took a quick look at me before doing the same thing. Once the four of us relaxed, the shark became enveloped in a curtain of bubbles. They disappeared to reveal another merman.

His tail was the same as his shark form, grey and white with the pointed dorsal fin, it was as if, from his pectoral fins down stayed the exact same. He was tanner than me but not as tan as Talon. His eyes were a deep grey, not quite black, and his hair was shaved on the sides leaving only a strip of long hair in a mohawk but hung as a long braid at the back of his head. His light grey hair had streaks of white and darker grey. Like me, he had gills on his neck and under his ribs, his ears more Talon's, more human-like then mine, but instead of being round his were pointed, like an elf. He also had long dark grey claws. A tattoo of a shark decorated his chest and his back and shoulders had grey marks which faded into his normal skin color.

"Sorry if I scared you guys. I wasn't expecting to see other mer all the way out here!" He was loud and bubbly, and his smile revealed sharp teeth that could easily cut through flesh, but he seemed like a nice person. "My name is Alto, Alto Carcharias. Just a simple, lonely Shifter, wandering the oceans. It's nice to meet you! What are your names?" Talon seemed to be uneasy so I answered instead.

"My name is Frost, this is Talon, Venus, and Jupiter. It's nice to meet you, Alto." I smiled softly. Alto smiled back and was about to say something before Talon interrupted.

"Holy shit!" The rest of us looked at him confused, before falling into a fit of laughter. Talon looked at me, a false betrayal crossing his features. "What! I wasn't expecting the our third to be a Shark Shifter." Alto and I immediately stopped laughing.

"Wait! What!" We yelled in unison, we looked at each other surprised by our echo. "What do you mean our third? Wait,  Alto here is out final partner?" Only after saying it did it finally click. Talon told me earlier that Partners came in groups of three. Alto's features betrayed the moment when he also realized.

"Well damn, wasn't expecting that!" Alto said making us all laugh again.