Bubbles

Character name pronunciation

Acharys - a-car-is

Ouras - or-a

Yrrine - ear-ene

“Hey!”

“Oh get over it you- AH!”

For the love of-

“DON’T TOUCH THAT OURAS!”

“I wasn’t-”

“CAN YOU TWO SHUT IT!”

They pause, fuming.

Ouras twists round, glancing at me before rolling his eyes. “She’s at it again, Acharys. Tell her she’s being daft.”

Sighing, I turn to my sister. “Yrrine, what’s going on?”

“What, aside from the fact that our meat-head brother is going to ruin the shrine?” she glares at Ouras, slapping the back of his head with her palm, but he just backs away from her reach, shrugging his shoulders.

“I wasn’t going to touch it.”

“Why does it matter if he touches it? We all do,” I raise my brows at her.

Turning, she leans over the slab on which our shrine sits and beckons me forward. “You see this?”

My eyes follow her finger until they rest on a series of small cracks nestled between the offerings of fish and shells I had left yesterday. I reach out, moving a piece of fish that sits at the foot of the carvings in order to see how far the cracks run, but Yrrine’s hand grabs my wrist before I can get very far.

“What are you doing!”

“Yrrine- ”

A crunching sound stops me in my tracks. Ouras swims quickly to my side, his dark grey tail moving clumsily from nerves, all of us watching with wide eyes as the cracks grow larger.

My sister’s voice comes out in a shaky whisper. “Do either of you know what this means?”

Neither of us answer. We don’t need to.

Shit.

“What do we do?” Ouras falters, his face paling.

I move towards him, resting my hand on his shoulder. “Let’s not panic-”

Shoving me off, he backs further away. “Panic! What else do we do? The Gods are angry with us Acharys!”

“Enough of this! If you ask me it’s pretty obvious what we must do. It’s been a while as it is,” Yrrine looks back, glaring at the offerings. She’s right, they aren’t enough. It’s been too long.

Ouras sighs, shaking his head, his greyish hair flowing in front of his dark eyes. “The humans don’t come to these parts often anymore.”

“So we don’t stay here waiting for them,” I watch their faces, guaging their reactions. At some point they’ll have to accept that it is the only way. Yrrine clenches her jaw. “We have to go on land.”

“Brother,” she spits, “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just suggest that.”

“Think about it! If the humans don’t come here often anymore how are we going to make an offering before our time runs out? The fastest way is to cut out the waiting and go to them. Once we’re there, you can do your thing and we’ll be back here in no time.”

She growls, swiping locks of ebony hair out of her face. I don’t like this either, but we have to do something.

“It’s the only way we’ll get one in time,” looking to Ouras, I can tell that he’s sceptical too, but on board regardless of his reluctance. “Besides, living as a human for a little while can’t be that bad.”

Growling again, she bares her razor teeth, but it doesn’t faze me. “I take it, since you’re so keen on going to live as a human, doing the very thing we’re trying to avoid, you’re volunteering,” she sneers, flicking her obsidian tail in frustration.

I’ll admit, I hadn’t considered that I might have to do the hard work, but I suppose as long as we get this out of the way as soon as possible it doesn’t matter to me, just as long as I don’t have to watch when the time comes to finish things. Shrugging, I nod.

She turns back to the shrine, placing her webbed hands either side of the cracked stone. “They will have to be pure. One that the Gods will appreciate.”

I place my hand on her shoulder, looking at the carvings. “If that’s what they desire, that is what they shall have.”

*****

Sighing, I stare at the object in my hand.

A compass, I believe it’s called.

One of many things from the humans I have kept over the years.

This particular memento fell out of the pocket of an elderly man that Yrrine lured into the bay. He was so taken with her voice, completely entranced, as they all are, and was in our territory within no time. He even hopped off his little boat to get to us. Barely even knew what was happening when Ouras cut his heart out.

Ouras and I have tried luring them in, but there’s just something about Yrrine’s voice that just works a thousand times better than ours, which is why we always prepare the offering afterwards. I shouldn’t have any issues this time though despite it being a while. There will be more than enough people to choose from.

To find the best place for us to settle, Ouras has gone to scout the cities and villages in his avian form. I was surprised, considering that the Gods are angry with us all, that any of us could still transform into our birds. Whenever we have struggled to supply enough in the past, it’s always been the first thing to go. But then I suppose that it’s understandable. Despite having been given the ability to transform both into birds and humans, it is difficult for sirens to stay out of water for long while keeping up their end of the bargain - it is believed among our people that our avian forms are purely just for convenience while fullfilling our duties. I’m just hoping that Ouras can find somewhere close to a river or lake; travelling back here every few days is going to prove tiresome.

“We never did understand why you kept all this junk.”

I turn quickly, dropping the compass at the sight of my sister. She has never approved of my collection but hardly speaks much on it. Whenever she has brought it up, I find myself unable to find the words to explain why I keep it all. Mostly because I’m unsure myself. Something about these things intrigues me. Not that it would matter even if I could explain it to her. Whenever we make a large offering, she always accuses me of sympathising with the humans. I don’t, of course. I just don’t wish to watch.

When she realises I’m not going to give her any different an explanation than I have before, she scowls. “Well, you’ll be happy then. The humans will have plenty of shit like this for you to obsess over,” she glides over to the alcove where I keep a selection of watches, taking one into her hand and turning it over. “What does this even do? Pile of crap if you ask me.”

“Yes, well I didn’t,” she raises a brow, placing the little gilded watch back in it’s place. Neither of my siblings know much of the humans and their way of life, but then they also have no interest in learning about it. They would never go to the surface by choice. They rarely even come to my cave unless they need something, preferring to stay away from my collection.

“Is Ouras back yet?” I ask, wondering about the reason for her coming here.

“Just got back. It’s drained him, Acharys. I’ve never seen him so tired, he wasn’t even gone for long,” she perches herself against the side of the alcove, frowning.

“Did he manage to find somewhere?”

“Some place by a large lake and a few rivers that lead back not too far from here. Apparently it’s not too densely populated but there will be more than enough people for us.”

I nod, satisfied for now. I do wonder how far away from home we will be, though I suspect not far if Ouras is already back and the rivers run nearby.

“He also told me of a witch that lives in the area. She sensed him from a mile off. Told him she’d help us,” my brows furrow. We don’t have a lot of run-ins with witches - they tend to keep to themselves from what I can tell. It’s not like them to offer help to beings like us, regardless of moral alignment.

“How’d he manage to convince her to do that?”

She shrugs. “Didn’t ask many questions. If whoever they are is willing to offer a place to stay we might as well take it.”

Behind me, the sound of our brother clearing his throat echoes. Turning, I see his weakened state; his grey eyes drooping and appearing almost bruised. He doesn’t look too pale, so I doubt that we will have to wait too long before we leave. “How are you feeling?”

“I think I’ll be alright to go by sunrise. The sooner we get this shit out of the way, the better,” he presses his palm to his temple.

“Lets all get some rest. We can see how you feel tomorrow,” Yrrine swims past me over to Ouras, checking him over.

Chuckling, he puts an arm around her shoulders, bringing her close. “Don’t you go worrying about me. I’ll be fine as long as I take it easy.”

Sending a smile my way, he leads Yrrine out.