#MerXSiren

[salstray]

MerMay - Siren Songs

Me? Posting Mermay on the last possible day at 10:37 pm?

Yes. Yes I am.

This is my first for real, self written story I’m posting here and I want you to know that I finished this a few days ago at 1 am and skim edited it. Its a little under 7,000 words. 

But I hope you enjoy anyway! Feed back is deeply appreciated. 

       "Hannah!"

       I sighed.

       Here I'd been, sitting on a lovely rock near the reef, warming myself in the sun. My deep blue tail had been resting in the shallows, every now and then flicking cool drops of water up over my stomach and arms.

       And of course, it had to be ruined by someone. The same someone that always ruined it!

       "What do you want, Alli?" I asked, propping myself up on my elbows. I reached up with one hand, pushing my dry, loose hair out of my face as I stared the younger Mer down.

       She sank lower into the water, her inky black hair pooling around her pale face.

       "Reus told me to come get you. The Siren's are coming up from the depths today and Maru doesn't want anyone in the shallows when they go hunting."

       I perked up at that.

       The Sirens!

       Deep sea Mers that spent most of their time in the total darkness of the ocean floor. They only came up during the busy fishing season of summer to hunt. Once a year! And this year, I'd finally get to see them!

       I'd always been to young to be allowed out when they'd come by in the past. But now, I was finally of age to be let loose whenever I chose to be. Maru could keep my reined in, but she couldn't keep me out of the fun this year!

       "Why didn't you say so sooner! When are they coming?" I asked, rolling myself off the rock and into the water. She swam back as I twisted towards her and we ducked our head's below the surface as she began to lead me back towards the drop off, where our Pod made our home.

       "Reus said it should be in about an hour... do you think they'll be close to the reef?" I could hear the fear in her voice. She was still young. Young enough that she'd be taken inside when they did finally appear from the big blue expanse of the sea. And she'd always been taught to fear the Sirens.

       Of course, so were all other Mer children, but it didn't stick for all of us like it did for Alli.

       "I don't know. This'll be the first year I get to watch! Next year, you can swim with me! If I manage to make a friend, I'll be sure to introduce you when you're old enough."

       I had to hold back laughter at the sight of her stricken expression.

       We swam farther into the water, following the slope of the reef as it angled down into the water. Fish joined us for a while before moving on to the corals and sand. We passed a reef shark on our way, which Alli gave a gentle pat as we passed.

       When we reached the drop off, Reus was waiting for us.

       Where Alli and I were simple Mers, with colored tails and rounded fins, Reus was a scout.

       His tail fins were sharp and he had more then just that. Along his spine was a spiked fin and down his forearms he had two more, which were flatted against his skin as he floated motionless in wait for us.

       My tail was bright blue and sparkled in the sunlight. Alli's was a silvery green that matched her eyes. Reus was all grey. From his fins to his skin, he was a single color, save for his eyes, which were completely black.

       "That was quick," he stated, circling us as we dove down to the rocky shelves and caves that our pod had made a home out of.

       "I'm eager! I can't be shoved into the darkness this year! I finally get to see them, Reus!"

       "I just want to get inside," Alli muttered.

       Reus narrowed his eyes at me as Alli swam into the arms of her mother.

       "You shouldn't be so excited, Hannah. The Sirens rarely speak to us."

       "I don't care if they speak to me, Reus. I'm sure they'd be just as riveting conversationalists as you," He frowned at me. "I just want to see them. I want to see how their different from us."

       "That's also not something to be excited for. They look like us, but with sharper teeth and darker colors."

       I rolled my eyes at him, using my tail to propel myself down into the thin fray of Mers my age that were excited to see the Sirens.

       Reus took to paroling along the edge of the reef as I vanished into the group. Most of the others were full of fear as much as they were full of excitement. Some of them, the young scouts and males of our pod, wanted to use it as a show of dominance. How they'd do so, I'd have to wait and see, but I swam as close to the deep water, down where the bravest or stupidest of us were.

       Which of those I was depended on who you decided to ask.

       "Hannah."

       I winced at the tone of the voice, as it was one I knew well. The three other Mers that floated down here with me shared a look, then glanced over my shoulder with bright, innocent eyes.

       I turned, turning to look at Maru with a sheepish grin.

       "Hi Maru. Come to look for the Sirens?"

       She narrowed her sharp, orange eyes at me, a frown just barely tugging at her lips. Her maroon tail flicked below her, a sign that she was irritated. Probably by me. It was usually by me.

       To my surprise, however, she closed her eyes and let out a deep breath. For the first time in my life, I watched her body relax.

       "Yes. I have. I've also come to make sure none of you get to close. They may be cousins of our kind, but they are still dangerous. They come up to hunt. Some of them will be ravenous, so none of you get to close," At that, she gave the boys behind me the same stern look she'd just given me and I heard a few mumbled words of acceptance as she looked back to me. "And its easier to listen for them. They sing as they approach."

       My eyes widened as she smirked and swam up towards the main bulk of the group, herding a few bold Mers back towards the sheer cliff that we lived against.

       Sure enough, I could hear them before I could see them.        It was a beautiful, haunting melody, that was mixed with countless other voices from across the sea.        The bulk of it was female, but I could hear the deep tones of the males at the same time, giving strength to the rising chorus.        The first one I saw was a woman.        Her hair was dark as the night sky and flowed down towards the bottom of her tail. Her skin was pale as the moon and her eyes were completely clouded over from the time she'd spent down in the deep. Her tail was long and thin, the tails at the end jagged and sharp. Her scales were the same black as her hair, but shone as though stars were piercing through them. She was quite clearly the leader of this pod.        Her lips were just barely parted, leading the Sirens Song with her deep, mournful voice. She rose past us, appearing from the darkness and tilting to swim off into the empty blue waters of the open ocean. She ignored us completely.        Below her, more of them appeared.        All of them were the color of night. All of them with black scaled tails with flecks of color or light. Some of them had smooth scalps, some of them had hair like their leader. Others had rough cuts that had been removed out of necessity. Some of them had scales that traveled up their entire bodies. One passed us with nothing but the eyes exposed. I could not tell if they had been male or female. Others had finned ears or none at all. There were so many of them. More then I'd ever expected to see in my entire life.        Every single one of them were singing.        Most of them kept clear of the reef, heading out towards open waters in the wake of their leading lady. Some floated around us, seeming just as curious of us as we were of them. None of them got to close, however, as our scouts were keeping a clear line between us that they were not meant to cross.        It took nearly half an hour for the full pod to swim past us.        And from the whole pod, there was one near the very end that caught my eye.        He was smaller then some of the Sirens I'd seen. His skin was the same pale color as the leader's was. His hair was lighter then some of the others and it streamed behind his face as he swam, landing just at his shoulders. His tail was thin and black, more matte then some that I'd seen. It seemed to absorb light where most of the Siren's reflected it. His eyes weren't completely black marbles. They'd been a deep, dark blue with hints of mossy green reflecting from them.        I'd only noticed this Siren because as he'd swam past, he'd spotted me.        And he hadn't looked away.        I'd watched them all coming from the waters with the eyes of my fellow Mers. My gaze had been stuck to a woman with a long black braid of hair and a thin, wiggling tail like an eel, when I'd glanced down to find something else interesting and I'd looked right into his eyes.        It had scared me a little at first, to suddenly be looking into the eyes of a Siren with no warning. I felt like he was looking through me, into my very soul. And whatever it is he'd seen had made him smile at me through his song.        I felt like all the air had been taken from my body as he rose up, swimming steadily past me, his eyes still locked with mine.        Then he'd twisted, angling away from me and breaking the contact he'd made. The voices were suddenly quiet and I watched as he and all the others disappeared into the ocean, leaving us in a heavy silence.        None of us moved or spoke.        Then Maru's voice cut through it like a dagger.        "Alright, you've seen the show! Back to your lives now, go on!"        She swam through the crowd, whacking people with the tip of her fins as calling names of those that seemed locked in the trance of the Sirens song. Eventually, she came down to me, as I was the only one left near the bottom of the pack. The others had swam up to the surface to talk about what had happened and what they'd seen. I was still floating still in the water, staring off at where I'd last seen the Siren.        "Hannah?"        I turned, trying not to flinch at the sound of her voice.        "Yes, Maru?" I asked, my own voice quiet.        "What did you think of them?" She asked, swimming past me to gaze off into the blue.        "I... they were beautiful... terrifying... strange... and beautiful." She looked back at me, her brow furrowed and her lips pulled down into a frown. "Their song was like nothing I've ever heard. Our songs aren't like that."        "Aye... because their song is magical. It doesn't work on us as it works on humans, but it can still have an effect... how did it make you feel?"        "Um... amazed? That a song could sound like that."        "Seems like you're less easily taken by their magic. That's good. It will keep you safe when they return after their hunt."        "When will they be back?" I tried to keep the urgency out of my voice, but I desperately wanted to see that Siren again. Talk to him, if I could.        "A few months time. When it gets to cold for the fishermen to be out so often." She turned away from me, looking back out into the water. I could just barely see the side of her face from here. I could see her brows move together and I saw her chew on her bottom lip. Something she did when she was worried. When she turned back to me, however, she held the same stoic mask as always. "Well, the rest of the day is yours. I hope you make the most of it."        After that, she propelled herself up through the water, pausing to talk with one of the scouts that was still patrolling the side of the reef.        I stayed there for a while longer before turning away and heading back up towards the reef.        Hopefully my rock was still unoccupied.

       It had been nearly a week since the Sirens had passed our pod and still that one boy was on my mind.

       His eyes had been so deep. So amazingly beautiful. I felt like I could get lost in them if I looked long enough. And I wasn't sure if I'd ever want to come back out.

       Maybe I wasn't as safe against their magic as Maru had thought.

       Had he cast some sort of spell on me? Keeping him in my thoughts at all hours? Or was I truly just that enamored with some strange Siren that had simply made prolonged eye contact with me? Sure, I wasn't considered the pick of the pod among our generation. I'd yet to experience any kind of romance from any of the other Mers in our troupe, but did I really want something so bad that I'd be interested in a Siren?

  ��    He had been amazingly beautiful... like a shadow in the water. His voice had echoed through my mind during the night, lulling me to sleep with the very memory of it. I wondered if he was that enchanting when he simply spoke...

       I shook myself, turning to look up at the sky as I floated over the reef.

       I needed to get him out of my head somehow.

       But how?

       A month had passed.

       I was swimming along the reef slowly, letting myself lazily twist between the coral and the rocks. Fish fluttered around my tail, nipping off what little morsels they could find among my scales. I was humming softly to myself. It was the Sirens song, what little of it I could remember.

       I had yet to get that boy out of my head.

       Maru had seemed to notice, as I'd been singing this song to myself whenever I thought no one was listening. She'd pulled me aside earlier today, asking me if I was still focusing on the Sirens visit. I'd lied to her, told her that I hadn't even realized that I was singing it and that it must just be a side effect of their spell. I wasn't sure if she'd believed it or not, but she'd left me alone afterward.

       I sighed to myself as I finished the final note.

       What would he be doing right now?

       Maybe swimming under the belly of a ship. Tugging at the nets that carried in fish. Maybe he had a sailor in his claws and was dragging him down into the water to feast. I'd tried to put horrible images of him tearing a human apart in my head, but every time my thoughts were overpowered by those eyes and I'd lost track of whatever I was doing. The blood vanished into the water and I'd just be staring into those endless pools of blueish green, completely at their mercy.

       Would he have mercy on me? I'd heard a few tails of starving Sirens ripping into Mers that strayed to far from their reefs and their pods, but that had been when I was a child. To keep me from trying to escape to see them earlier in my life, as I'd done many times. Were they real? If I was weaker to his song, would he lure me out into the blue and devour me?

       Would I even bother to try and stop him?

       I sighed again, pushing my way through a school of fish and tilting down as I reached the drop off. In the distance, I saw Reus, swimming slowly back and forth near the surface of the water, the fin on his spine leaving ripples against the waves.

       Alli gave me a wave as I passed her family's cave and I returned it halfheartedly, propelling myself down to the shelf I'd claimed in my adulthood. Mine was lower down the cliff then most others, as I liked my solitude. It was probably one of the reasons most of the other Mers didn't try to befriend me.

       I looked up into the waves, seeing the glowing face of the full moon streaming light down from the sky. Then, I let myself rest upon the rock and I curled into myself, crossing my arms under my chin and closing my eyes.

       Gently, I hummed the song again to myself, steadily drifting off to sleep.

       I jerked awake, nearly falling off my shelf as I did.

       The water around me was dark. The moon had fallen to low in the sky to cast light down towards the bottom of the cliff.

       Silence seemed to suffocate me, pressing in on all sides as I slowly slipped off my shelf and looked up towards the rest of my pod. Nothing moved in the darkness. Not a single other Mer was awake.

       Then why was I?

       I moved a few feet out into the water, stretching my arms above my head and shaking my hair away from my face. I looked out into the vast darkness of the ocean and breathed out heavily, making a plan to go back to my shelf and let sleep take me once again. With a nod to myself, I turned back to my little hole, heading back over to it.

       Something suddenly stopped me.

       It was a voice.

       Not Maru. Not Reus or Alli.

       It was a song.

       A Siren's Song.

       I spun around, my eyes wide as I looked back into the darkness.

       It was a single voice. Distant and smooth. And there, in the shadows, I could see something moving. Something swimming towards me.

       My tail twitched and I looked up towards the top of the cliff, to the reef. I didn't see a scout or anything. Nothing was moving up there. Maybe it would be safe... I'd never know if I didn't take the chance.

       I looked back into the darkness, to the sleek, pail figure that was slowly shifting closer and I swam forward.

       I could already see from here that it was him. He was slowing down as he got closer, either not expecting me, or not wanting to get any closer to the pod then he had to. I didn't slow down, so I was right in front of him after just a few seconds. Up close, I could see that he was only slightly smaller then I was.

       The song he was humming fell silent as we just looked at each other.

       I kept my head down and held my hands up at my chest, trying to keep them from shaking. I didn't know why I was so nervous. Maybe I was afraid of him...?

       He smiled at me and I felt my heart start to race.

       "I was hoping my song would reach you," He said softly, turning to float on his back. He started to swim a lazy circle around me and I followed him with my eyes, not wanting to loose sight of him in case this was just a dream. It certainly felt like it was to good to be true.

       I opened my mouth, trying to think of something to say, but as he came around my side again, I lost my courage.

       His eyes met mine once again and his smile widened when I looked away, trying to hide my very obvious blush.

       He suddenly slid close to me, raising a hand to touch my face. He was nearly an inch from my cheek when I noticed that he had claws. They were black and curled sharply at the end. Probably good for hooking into skin and dragging someone out of a boat...

       I flinched when he touched me, but I still couldn't tell if it was fear or not. His hand gently cupped my cheek, his claws ever so slightly running against my skin. I felt my face get warmer as I dared to look up into his eyes again. His smile once again widened, which I would have thought impossible if he hadn't been a Siren. This time, though, his lips parted and I could see two rows of impossibly sharp teeth shinning at me. My eyes widened and this time I knew it was fear that sparked in my veins.

       What was I doing?!

       I was out in the open water with a Siren! His claws on my face, his teeth closer then they ever should be! I wanted to pull away. To turn and swim for safety.

       But I didn't.

       I had no idea why I didn't.

       "What's your name?" He asked softly, running his thumb across my jaw as he pulled his hand away from my face.

       "Hannah," I whispered, pushing down the strange emotions I felt when he'd stopped touching me. "What is yours?"

       "Fotios," He replied, swimming a few feet away from me. It didn't seem like he was trying to lure me out farther from the pod, but I did have a strong urge to move with him, farther out into the water.

       I managed to fight it, however, and kept myself where I was, letting my eyes follow him.

       "That's a strange name," I said softly, finally finding my voice.

       "Maybe to a Mer. For a Siren, its rather common." He did a flip in the water, tilting backwards before propelling himself forward, back to where he'd been in the beginning of our meeting. "I'm truly surprised you came out here. Most of your kind wouldn't dare trust a Siren. Certainly not one singing to you in the dead of night."

       "What makes you think I trust you?" I asked, a playful tone in my voice.

       His eyes widened a bit, both of his brows raising as he leaned back in surprise. Then he leaned forward, closer then he'd been before. I had to fight the urge to lean either away or even closer.

       "Then why are you here, little morsel?" His voice had become a low whisper. The rumble of his voice washed over me in the darkness and I suddenly felt very cold at the nickname he'd given me. "Why answer my song with your presence? Why not stop me from touching you? I'm sure you know very well that my kind will eat yours if given the opportunity, so why haven't you run back to your reef?" He tilted his head at me, his smile suddenly vanishing. "Why aren't you afraid?"

       That... was a very good question...

       Why wasn't I afraid?

       I'd honestly just assumed that he'd put me under a spell or something. But if he wanted to know, then that probably wasn't the case.

       "I don't know," I said softly.

       He leaned away from me again, his head tilting to the other side as he did so. His eyes flickered across my face, then suddenly over my shoulder. His eyes widened and he suddenly grabbed both sides of my face with his hands, his claws just barely digging into my cheeks.

       Before I could do anything to try and pull away or stop him, he pulled me forward and pressed his lips to mine.

       It only lasted a few seconds before he pulled away and moved to my ear, where he whispered, "I'll come back for you," then pushed me back as he turned and vanished into the wall of shadow that the sea was at night.

       Moments later, a strong hand wrapped around my arm and I was pulled back as I turned to spot Reus, a coral dagger in his hand and murder in his eyes. I'd never seen him look so angry in my life.

       Of course, once half the pod was woken by him angrily yelling at me, Maru pulled us up by the reef for an explanation. Reus gave her one. I stared down at the sand, more shocked then ashamed, as I probably should have been.

       Maru had looked at me with wide, fearful eyes when he'd told her what I'd been doing. That I'd been in open water, alone, with a Siren.

       Thankfully, Reus hadn't seen that he'd kissed me. He just said that he saw Fotios pull me forward, then push me away. After that, Maru gave me a lecture that lasted until the sun rose. Then she sent me back to my shelf, telling Reus to stay beside me until the Sirens went back down to the deep sea.

       "Apparently, she can't be trusted to be smart," had been her exact words.

       Two more months passed with Reus acting as my chaperone.

       The fishing season was starting to end. The water at the surface was very slowly getting colder. People were whispering that the Sirens would be back any day now, and of course everyone knew of my midnight rendezvous with one. There wasn't a single thing that stayed secret in this pod.

       It was noon when a scout returned.

       He'd heard them coming.

       Everyone was called back from the water and told to stay at the drop off. The same group of young Mer gathered from before. I was instructed to stay on my home shelf, in the back, away from the Sirens. Reus was beside me, his gaze piercing the big blue as the song began to echo around us.

       I raised my head as they approached.  Since my shelf was so low, I still had a good view of them.

       It started the same as it had before. The voices slipped through the water, encasing the drop off in a strange, haunting melody. The woman in the lead swam towards us, noticeably curvier then she had been before. Her voice led the chorus and she tilted forward when she got close, swimming straight down into the darkness below us. A few moments later, a cloud of Sirens joined her, all of them fuller and fatter then they had been before.

       If I hadn't been so preoccupied looking for a very specific Siren, I'd probably have felt bad about what that meant for the people on land.

       As before, he was near the back of the pack.

       Every shape and size of Siren passed us by without a care in the world. Then he came near the end, once again locking my gaze with his as soon as he spotted me. At first, he was smiling.

       Then he seemed to notice my body guard and his grin faltered.

       He slowed his swimming at first, his eyes rolling over the many scouts that our pod had. It almost seemed like he was sizing them up. Then he sighed and continued on with his brothers and sisters, dipping down into the water to head down to the depths.

       My heart ached at the sight and I had to press my mouth and nose against my arms to keep my lips from quivering. I wanted so badly to cry, but I couldn't do it here, while everyone was watching. Reus gazed at me from the corner of his eye. I noticed him frowning, but I didn't make eye contact. It would just be good to be left alone once this was over.

       And very soon, it was. They vanished back into the shadows and their song faded from my ears and all at once, they were gone.

       Fotios was gone.

       Not to be back until the next year. The next summer.

       By then, I'd be lucky to have forgotten about him and for him to forget about me. I'm sure that this would happen again when they came back. Maru would put Reus at my side and tell him to stay and I'd have no freedom once again.

       Speaking of...

       Maru came through the group again, as she'd done the last time, telling them the spectacle was over and that it was time to return to their lives. She came down in front of me, nodding for Reus to leave, which he did.

       "It was for your own good, Hannah. He wouldn't have done anything for you but hurt you."

       Instead of responding, I pushed myself out of my shelf and swam along it, away from the pod, slowly angling myself up so I could go to the reef.

       She didn't follow me.

       It had been nearly two weeks since the Sirens left. I'd returned to my daily activities of swimming over the reef by myself and ignoring the rest of the pod. My romp with the Siren fell out of people's minds as they found new gossip to focus on. This time it was the question of who the father to Gilly's new baby was. Varus was claiming it, but she was betrothed to Yorrin.

       I didn't care.

       The first few days after Fotios had gone back to the ocean floor had been the worst of them. I didn't know why I'd gotten so attached over a single kiss and a hollow promise, but I had and I spent the days crying to myself, either dramatically draped across my rock, or silently to myself as I tried to sleep.

       Once I'd ran out of tears, I made a show of ignoring Maru and Reus, which I was still doing. That was simply pay back for stripping me of my freedom for so long. Something they deserved, in my mind.

       They had just been trying to protect me, sure. But I didn't care about that either.

       Was it childish? Yes. Was it petty? Yes. Was that going to make me stop? No.

       For the last few days, I considered simply leaving.

       It wasn't like that was against the rules. Mers came and went all the time. It was entirely common to find a single stray along the reef or the drop off. Sometimes they even came out of the open waters. And perhaps, if I left, Maru would reconsider doing it in the future, to some other young Mer that was unfortunate enough to become attached to something like a Siren.

       Although the idea was tempting, I'd never left my pod before. I'd been born and raised in these caves.. My mother had died in those open waters. My father vanished at the edge of this very drop off.

       If I left it? Where would I go? What would I do? Would I even survive?

       Those questions where what kept me awake in the night.

       I was laying on my shelf, staring up at the rocky ceiling, considering the options and preparing to make my choice... When I realized that I could once again hear a single voice singing to me through the water.

       A single, smooth, distance voice, calling to me from the water below me.

       I rolled onto my stomach, leaning over my ledge to stare with wide, hopeful eyes down into the darkness. The singing wasn't getting louder and I couldn't see him, but I knew that it was him. I knew that it was Fotios. He was singing to me.

       Calling to me.

       Beckoning me.

       Was it a spell? Maybe. A trick to kill and eat me? Perhaps.

       But I didn't care.

       I didn't even bother to check for the night patrol.

       I pushed myself off the shelf and propelled myself down into the water, straight down into the deep, looking for Fotios.

       The singing got louder the deeper I got. His voice got closer. I felt the water pressing into me. I noticed the light leaving the water around me. It was cold down here. But I didn't stop. I was blind down here in the water. When I turned and looked up, I saw nothing. Yet, I kept going. His song was so loud now. I knew he was close. That I was close!

       When it stopped, I did to.

       I heard something else in the water. The sound of someone swimming.

       "Fotios?" I called quietly. It felt wrong to talk here. It was so silent without his song. I hadn't realized just how much sound the waves made when you were near the surface.

       "Told you I'd come back for you, little morsel." His voice made me jerk in surprise. He sounded much closer then I'd expected him to be.

       I jumped again with surprise when his hand grabbed my wrist.

       "Calm down, I'm just letting you know where I am."

       "I can't see anything."

       "That's cause you aren't built for the darkness down here. And this isn't even that deep. Its much darker down on the floor." Before I could ask how it could possibly get darker, he let go of my wrist and something suddenly lit up behind me.

       I turned, my eyes wide as they rested upon Fotios.

       He was glowing!

       The scales along his tale lit up down the side of it, glowing a soft blue. It wrapped up along his sides as well, before trailing up his spine and up the sides of his neck, ending along his eyes, which were like two bright circles of blue, looking at me through the darkness. He had a dusting of smaller specks of light along his shoulders and chest.

       My eyes followed the light along his body and I was nearly hypnotized by the beauty of it.

       "Come on now, morsel, don't get all dreamy-eyed on me now."

       I laughed at that, which made him raise his brows at me.

       "How could I not? Look at you! You're... you..."

       "Glow. I know. All Sirens do, we just don't need to so close to the surface, so not many people know about it. Certainly not many Mers."

       I couldn't stop myself from reaching forward. He didn't stop me, but his eyes were watching my hand as I reached for him. I touched his shoulder, running my fingers very lightly across the parts of him that lit up. It felt no different then the rest of his skin. I followed the trail with my fingers, softly tracing it up his neck.

       His body shuttered suddenly and he reached up, pulling my hand away from his skin with a cocky smile.

       "Easy there, little morsel."

       "Sorry, I just... Its so... beautiful."

       He raised a single brow at me as he softened his grip on my hand.

       "What do you know about Sirens?" He asked suddenly.

       I took a moment to think about it.

       "Not much, honestly. I know that you all live in the deepest waters you can. Your like Mers, but with muted colors and more interesting details. You can only eat meat and... usually you choose to eat humans, but can eat anything if you're hungry enough. You only come up from the deep once a year, during the summer, when the fishermen are most active... I just learned that you all apparently glow. I... don't really know anything else."

       "Do you know how we're made?"

       "I... figured the same way as Mers..."

       He smiled at me again, this time showing his teeth.

       "Not exactly, little morsel." He let go of my hand and swam forward a bit, taking his light with him. I could still see him as clear as the moon, but it was slightly scary, having him farther from me. "I want you to look at me. Tell me what's different them someone like you, besides the glowing." He straightened his tail as he spoke and held out his arms, slowly twisting himself in a circle with his tail fins..

       "Well... your tail is black. I've never seen a Mer with a tail darker then grey or brown. Your tail fins are sharper then most, but still within the realm of possibility for Mers... You have claws. Your teeth are sharp." I looked him over, seeing if I could notice anything else amiss. "That seems to be it... besides that, you could be just a normal Mer."

       He smirked at me and swam closer once again. He took my hand in his and raised it to his hair.

       "What about up close? What do you notice?"

       "Uh... w-well... you're eyes aren't black or white. Most of the other Sirens had totally black or totally white eyes. Yours are blue... a deep, greenish blue. And...," I wrapped some of his hair around my finger and noticed that, while the roots and locks were nearly black, the tips were a very faded orange.

       "Do you want to know how Sirens are made?"

       I looked at him, confused, and nodded.

       "Pure Sirens can have children, the way the Mers do. But the average Siren cant. Because they aren't usually pure. Most Sirens that you saw in our pod were once Mers, like I used to be."

       My eyes widened at that.

       "You... used to be... a Mer?!"

       "Mhm. Sirens are made through magic. If you swim down into the darkness, as far as you can possibly go, you'll eventually run into a Siren. Usually an old one, one that doesn't leave the depths anymore. They can't handle the light from the sun. And they'll offer to make you into one of them. That's what happened to me."

       "How... how do they do it?"

       "Its a song. All Siren magic is channeled through song. They sing to you and from their mouths, with the music, comes light." He took my hand and placed it against his face, letting my fingers play along the light against his temple. "It comes from them and wraps around your body. The light is the first thing you get that marks you as a Siren. From there, you are usually led to a pod, where they teach you how to sing. You'll stay down there for the first few years, until your scales turn black and you won't get mistaken for a Mer anymore. Then they bring you up to teach you how to hunt. The transformation goes differently for everyone. We all look different in the end, as you saw. Mine isn't over yet. I'm sill young."

       "Anyone can become a Siren?" I asked softly.

       He smiled at me again, softer then he had in the past. He nodded.

       "Why doesn't anyone know that?"

       "You're elders do. They keep it from you so that you young, wayward Mers think that the only option you have is to stay with the pod and churn out more children for the next generation."

       I pulled my hand away from his hand and clasped them both against my chest as I thought this through.

       I could become a Siren.

       I could leave the pod and find a new life. In the deep water. With magic and music and... with Fotios.

       Would he even want that?

       "Why... are you telling me this?"

       "Isn't it obvious, little morsel? I want to take you home with me."

       I couldn't help but giggle at that.

       "Well? What do you think? Want to run away with a deep sea monster?" He asked, once again swimming away from me, just far enough that I wanted to follow to keep the light close.

       My smile faltered.

       "There's no going back if I do, is there?"

       "Afraid not."

       I glanced up. I couldn't see the reef or the drop off, but I knew it was there.

       Was I really ready to just... leave it all behind?

       My family? My friends?

       I looked down into the water, to where the Sirens made their home.

       I looked back to Fotios a moment later, who was watching me with an expression I couldn't read.

       "How far down is it?" I asked, smiling at him.  He smiled back at me, one that split his face from ear to ear.  He swam over to me and took both of my hands in his, leaning his face close to mine. His eyes were nearly blinding this close up.

       "They're going to love you... and so am I."  With that, he flipped backwards, taking me with him as he dove down into the depths. I kept pace with him, a smile spreading across my face as I did.

       Fotios suddenly started to sing.

       It wasn't the mournful melody that I'd heard from him before. This was a full, proud song. One that made me shiver with its power and its emotion.

       My smile widened and I let out a laugh, excited for what the future would bring.