The Siren of the Titanic

Chapter 24: Dinner with the King

The three of us followed Kylin into a large stone room adjacent to the courtyard. A large fireplace stood at one side of the room, the blue fire warming the long stone tables. It reminded me of Norse mead halls. It was obviously Norse in theme. Norse runes plastered the ends of the tables, while the walls were covered with murals of Norse dragons and men. One mural was divided into four parts. The first showed a strapping young man fighting a monster in a wooden mead hall, dead bodies of his comrades at his feet. The second part showed the same man fighting another female monster with a gleaming sword. The third section showed a slightly older version of the man fighting a dragon, but it shows him holding his sword to a second man a sad smile on his face. The last part showed the second man with a crown upon his head.

"Beowulf, huh?" The story was one of my favorite Norse stories.

"That's right. I'm surprised not many know of the story." I turned to see the great king smiling.

I chuckled nervously. "Yeah, I studied mythologies and ancient religions, mostly the polytheistic religions. They are far more interesting than monotheistic religions, at least to me. I found them to have more drama, more stories, that type of thing. Greek, Roman, Norse, Egyptian those were always my favorite.

"But in order to learn the religions, you also had to learn of the other stories so you couldn't really miss anything. Beowulf was my favorite of the Norse myths."

"It is also my favorite story. I liked the Norse ways, they were very similar to my homeland's ways. Women on the battlefield as well as men, drinking with friends, not to mention the architecture." He said motioning to the hall. We shared a quiet laugh before he motioned for us to sit at the large stone benches. Thick strips of bacon, quail eggs, corn, beans, biscuits, and fruits, were carried in by seaweed servants.

Gareth sat at the head of the table, the three of us sat at his left while Leora and Kylin sat in front of us. Leora took a bite of her bacon before speaking. "After breakfast, I will start working with you and your magic. All mer have a small amount of magic that they can use, even shifters like you, Alto. However, it all depends on song and verse. Basically, I'm going to teach you to sing." She smiled sweetly, Alto almost choked. I had to hit him on the back so he could breathe.

"Sing! I can't sing! I'm a shark, not a fucking whale, sharks don't sing dammit." We all chuckled, his expression shifting from shock to giddy.

"You can sing all mer can you'll see." Leora smiled her voice soft and gentle. She really was beautiful like a flower. I smiled, my eyes on her, what I didn't know was that Gareth saw me and smiled as well.

Sorry if the chapter is short. I've had a lot going on lately, and a serious case of writer's block. Hope you guys enjoy, and I promise things will start picking up pace soon.