Siren's Song

Chapter 8

Aight y'all overwhelmly picked cold so here we go I hope y'all are prepared goes all heck is going down in these next three chapters.

Tikki's POV:

Adrien and I stood on the edge of the surf, talking to Linora. She hugged me, and then as one the two of us dived into the sea. I held out a hand and began to transform Adrien and myself, once the transformation was complete I sighed and swam to the bottom of the sea before hesitating. It was more real now, and I wasn't as confident in my plan as before. Adrien looked at me questioningly, and I took a deep breath.

"Alright let's go find us some Sirens!"

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Adrien's POV:

We'd been swimming for about a day and a half when I felt something change. Tikki had used a spell to get us a lot closer to our destination making a trip that would have lasted weeks only take a day. I asked her why she hadn't used this when Plagg got captured and she said something about portals, alignment of the tides, and the fact that she wasn't certain where Plagg was going so she couldn't use the spell. I didn't understand half of it, but I did know I didn't want to do it again. It had felt like I was being twisted inside out by an angry brawler. This feeling was worse. We'd spent the whole day swimming from where the spell dumped us, toward where Tikki said the Siren's territory was. I'd been feeling tired, but now I suddenly felt very awake, I didn't know how I knew it, but at that moment I knew we had entered Siren territory. I felt the small hairs in the back of my neck begin to stand on end. Maybe it was the chill in my bones, maybe it was the strange numbness starting to creep over my senses, whatever it was I suddenly knew that I was in grave danger. I felt like a mouse that had been spotted by a lion, whatever lived here was the apex of apex predators. Far more dangerous than anything I had ever met before. Suddenly this seemed like a very dumb idea, but despite the fear in my heart I pushed forward. No matter how scared I was, I was going to do this for Marinette. I would do anything for her. The numbness grew stronger the farther we swam, and then the feeling started to change and it started to feel like a sort of magnetic pull. Suddenly I didn't feel all that frightened. In fact I felt as if I were doing exactly what I was supposed to. Nothing had ever felt so right as swimming toward the pull. Never in my life had I felt so at peace. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder and Tikki pulled me to face her, a strange expression on her face.

"Adrien, careful. You need to fight it. You can't give in to it. You can't ignore it, but you have to stop it from controlling you."

I shook my head to clear it and felt my head clearing slightly. I suddenly felt very afraid. This wasn't good, we hadn't even met a siren yet and we were already falling under their spell. As if in response to my thoughts, I saw something flash ahead of us. Ahead of us earth and ice stretched upward, the bases of islands, and throughout these bases underwater caves yawned ominously. Rock formations partially coated in ice protruded from the ocean floor, strange plants and creatures spread among them. Something flashed again, and Tikki and I came to a full stop. The sea was eerily silent, and Tikki's hand drifted toward her sail finn where I knew she had at least a few weapons hidden. Tikki took a deep breath and pulled her hand from her sail finn.

"Akuji I need to speak with you."

The already quiet waters went dead silent. The silence was deafening in its stillness. All signs of life vanished, and the whole ocean seemed to hold its breath. Tikki drew in a sharp breath when suddenly a presence came up behind us. I froze my heart beating faster than it ever had before, so fast I thought it would burst like a balloon. There was a strange blurring motion and suddenly I found myself face to face with the most beautiful person I had ever met. But she wasn't beautiful in the way Marinette was. Marinette was beautiful because you could see her very soul shine through everything she did. This person was beautiful in a way that simply wasn't right. The face before me was as emotionless as stone, and its expression was as cold as ice, or that is to say its lack of expression was like ice. It was as if I was staring directly at a blank wall of frozen nothingness. Her eyes were large framed by perfect lashes. They were a stunning azure blue and they sparkled like sapphires literally glowing in the dim light. Her eyebrows arched perfectly and gently over her eyes, and they were a pale silver blue, just like her hair. Her skin was pale as snow, her jaw was sharp, but not pointed. She had high cheekbones and full pale pink lips. Her silvery hair floated above her and around her in a sort of halo that shifted and bounced gently as if it were alive. Her sail fin had sharp spikes that looked like pale purple and blue icicles and the webbing in between them was translucent and delicate almost as if it was made of frost. Her pale shoulders were bare except for strange glowing marks that continued down her arms in a gentle spiral wrapping around twice before tapering off. Similar marks were visible from beneath her halter top cutting across either side of her waist before vanishing around her back. The top itself looked more like armor then fabric. It flashed silver and bronze in the light filtering from above and in its center a black gemstone pulsed strangely. Her pale skin melted into scales at the waist and unlike tikki she also had patches of scales on her waist arms and neck. She also had small fin-like things extending from her forearms like gauntlets. Her scales were ice blue and lavender purple fading slowly into a cobalt blue. Her tail fin was also cobalt blue, but it faded into silver at the ends. Her fingers ended in perfectly shaped claw like nails. Her ears were delicately pointed, and her teeth were perfectly straight and white, with long serrated canines, and a faintly shining second row of razor sharp teeth glinted at me when she spoke.

"Why seek you Akuji young Mer and Human. Why enter ye here at all? Do ye not know the dangers of confronting us?"

She did not seem angry, or even defensive, merely curious. As if we were a strange enigma she wished to solve. Suddenly another voice interrupted us coming from behind the first siren. The first siren's voice had sounded like bells made of ice, this second voice sounded like the deep thrumming of drums, and the gentle keening of the wind.

"Hush Keres, I know this Mer. I will speak with her."

The second siren looked much like the first. Only her hair was dark as midnight, her tail black and blue with silver star like patterns, and skin the color of ebony. She was also larger and her markings were sharper, harsher then the first and they glowed a deep blood red just like her eyes. She nodded to Tikki, and Tikki grabbed my hand dragging me behind her as we followed the second siren down toward the ocean floor. Suddenly cool smooth fingers grabbed my wrist and easily pulled me from Tikki's grasp. It was the first siren. Tikki didn't even get the chance to turn back before her guid had dragged her toward a cave. The siren who had my wrist smiled gently and I felt suddenly woozy as if I were viewing the world through a thick haze. She spoke, her voice now sounding like several sets of ice bells gently layering one another.

"Akuji said nothing of you little human, only the mer. So you will stay here with me, for as long as I wish to play with you."

The words should have worried me, heck they should have scared me witless, but for some reason they soothed me, making me smile stupidly back at her. I felt myself nodding while deep down something in me screamed for me to RUN, or SWIM as fast as I could. Her smile widened and that second row glinted in the light. Her hands pulled me closer, and her head bent towards mine. Then it passed me and I felt something bite into my neck. She yanked her head back and warmth spread from the wound in my neck. I wanted to scream, and I knew I should be in pain, but all I could feel was the strange bliss, being near this strange girl gave me. She bent forward again, her fingers trailing along my jaw as her mouth came near my ear, I felt her teeth begin to bite into where it connected with my head when suddenly a voice sounded. Not a shout, not a yell, but a command nonetheless.

"Release him Keres. He is the mer's companion and I did not say you could eat him."

Akuji was back, Tikki frantically tugging in her grip trying to get toward me. I simply floated limply unable to comprehend what was happening as the teeth gently released my ear and Keres turned to face Akuji and Tikki.

"You do not rule me Akuji. Besides I was first out here, you're lucky I spared the Mer. The human is mine."

She didn't sound angry, merely bored. With that she turned back toward me her jaw opening wide once more, her once white teeth and pale chin now stained crimson. Akuji spoke again with a dangerous note entering her voice.

"I will give him to you if you can defeat me in combat Keres. He is this Mer's companion and I have offered her safe passage for the time being, therefore this extends to him, at least for now."

Keres turned back, studying Akuji. Finally with a sigh she released me, her fingers coming unhooked from my shoulder with a squelching noise. Red trails followed her fingers and I was dimly aware of that, that ment her fingers had been puncturing my skin, burrowed beneath it like hooks in a fish. She left, without another word. Akuji swam towards me and placed a hand on me. I felt myself sort of vibrate for a moment and suddenly the dull numbness from my wounds vanished as the wounds snapped shut. Still in a daze I let myself be towed alone behind her and Tikki as we headed once more for the cave. The cave where Tikki and I would beg for her help.

A/N:

Sorry for the slow updates, but hey these next three chapters will be well worth it trust me. Anyways some fun little facts for you today. Akuji means "Dead and Awake" because I wanted to make her as much like living stone, and wind as possible so even her name is a bit eerie. Keres I wanted to be super sinister, so I picked Keres which literally translates to "evil spirit". So yea they are not the nicest. Well they're not really evil either per se. The thing about some magical creatures is that some of them don't really have emotions, at least not in the way humans have them. Siren's are a great example of this. They genuinely see nothing wrong with what they are doing. They aren't as old as Lorelei (hint/foreshadowing for later) but they are still a lot older than Mer's. They are essentially living embodiments of nature. Nature doesn't really care if you live or die, it just is itself. The same principle applies here they simply are themselves nothing more nothing less. They are not monsters, but they aren't kind creatures either. They simply ARE. But yea hope you enjoyed y'all Love yourself and Fly High!