Hunted

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Finn explained to me that his home was like the main metropolis. Anybody who was anybody lived there, as did most of the siren population. There were much smaller towns spread throughout the ocean for those few that preferred to live more quietly, but for the most part everyone lived in this one central place.

So of course, I expected it to be a big city. But oh boy, was I wrong. It was absolutely colossal. Unlike most “Upsider” cities, what made it gigantic wasn’t that it was all sprawled out but rather that it was tall. I almost couldn’t comprehend how towering the underwater buildings were. There were dozens, hundreds of skyscraper-like structures that seemed to go upwards for miles – and they might have since we were in a very deep part of the ocean.

The city was set in the middle of a giant underwater plain that went on for leagues, and I could see it for miles ahead of us before we actually reached it. I had no idea how they got lanterns – or light bulbs, or whatever they were – to work under the water, but all the buildings were lit up magnificently with all different colors.

As we approached the city, Finn said that we had to go in through the main gates. When I asked why we couldn’t just swim over the huge wall surrounding the city, and why put it there in the first place, he explained.

“Even though most of us live here, it’s a very secure place. Nobody gets in or out without the King knowing. There are guards posted at the main entrance that will admit us, and there are constant patrols above the city to make sure nobody swims over the wall, as you suggested.” He said all of this very matter-of-factly.

I was getting the idea that these siren folk didn’t like outsiders… which was inconvenient considering I was very much an outsider. What if they didn’t let me in the city? Panic and nerves knotted in my stomach as each downward stroke of our tails led us closer to the heavily guarded gate.

I saw now that there were at least five guards with strange, large weapons at the ready. They were almost like spears, but with four spearheads instead of just one, and they looked very sharp. All the guards were burly-looking men with glinting armor made of a material I didn’t recognize. Did they have metal underwater? I didn’t see why not.

“Halt,” one of the guards said in a slightly bored tone as we arrived. Upon seeing Finn, all five of them visibly straightened somewhat and tried to look more official, making my eyebrows draw together in confusion. Was Finn someone special?

“Welcome home, M–…” the guard trailed off, not finishing his sentence due to a warning look from Finn. “Ahem, welcome home Finnègan. Your father has been expecting you.”

I was now shifting my eyes between the two of them, trying to determine just what the heck was going on. I mean, not that it was any of my business really, but still. Something was definitely fishy.

“Thank you Garrett, I’ll go to him directly. This is Tegan, she’ll be staying in the city for a while,” Finn explained to the man, whose name I now knew. Did Finn know all the guards? Maybe he was friends with them, or his father was a guard.

Garrett looked to me, his eyes travelling from the bottom of my tail to the top of my head, not seeming to object to Finn’s statement but I sensed obvious curiosity coming from him. Maybe blondes weren’t so common among sirens, or perhaps it was my normal-colored eyes that gave me away.

Or, it could be the fact that you’re wearing a t-shirt that has your old volleyball team’s name on it, dummy, I thought to myself, mentally rolling my eyes. I doubted they had that around here. I wondered briefly if they had an alphabet and writing system like humans do.

“Welcome then, Tegan, to Furron,” Garret addressed me and then motioned for the other guards standing in front of the massive portcullis to move aside.

Finn took my arm and nodded thanks to Garret before pulling me along under the gate and great stone wall, and just like that we were in the city.

The buildings, even the small ones, would look strange to a human. They certainly looked strange to me. The small homes on the edges of the city were built out of yet another material that I didn’t recognize, but would later learn that it was packed sand – something they had in abundance out here in the ocean. As we swam farther and farther towards the center of the city – the tallest and most well-lit of all of them that Finn explained was the palace – the buildings got nicer looking, bigger, and taller.

The closer we got, the more those dang nerves popped up again. Finn had decided that someone like me was enough of a rarity to warrant a meeting with the King. And then what?

What would the King decide? I figured it couldn’t be good. I mean, I was an outsider. Even worse, I was an “Upsider.” I’ve already worked out that the sirens were a fairly closed-off community and they didn’t like strangers.

I realized as we approached the palace that I wanted nothing more than to go home. This was a nice trip, and very interesting of course. I knew things about the sirens that nobody else knew. No other human being had been given an opportunity like I had.

But of course, I knew what the King would say. There is no going back. I was a siren now, and just because a siren turned me didn’t mean there was a magical antidote to go back to having legs. I was stuck like this.

With that thought heavy on my mind, I fought the urge to cry and drew strength from Finn’s grip on my arm as we reached the palace and the doors opened.