The Beast Within

CHAPTER THREE

Dew tugged her hand from Adrik's cruel hold, dashing across the sand, her dress billowing, feet bare.

Someone had to stop him or he would go running to his death, she couldn't live with herself if that were to happen.

"Dew!!!" Adrik shouted after her, cursing up a storm as he ripped off his precious jacket that had been made from whale skin, tossing it to the ground carelessly although he wouldn't even allow his mother to touch it.

Quickly he muttered a couple spells under his breath, it was to protect himself and give him the strength he would need, it wasn't much, no Mage ever had overwhelming power anymore, they barely had enough to guarantee their survival but it was better than nothing.

He dashed across the beach as well, following Dew, he could see her dark hair waving as she ran, dress swaying with her every step.

Ceraun had already gotten to the point of the chaos, the adults were distracted with not dying and trying to defeat the creatures of the sea to notice a child running in-between the boats and around their legs.

He got close enough to properly see a Siren and he froze, just like the first time when they first heard the shouts and again when they saw the Sirens, he was terrified, hands shaking so bad he could barely hold onto the harpoon.

The Siren wasn't like the sweet and funny stories Nana Leona told him of impossibly beautiful women who would lure Mages out of their ships at night and return them the next morning drained of their energy and hopelessly lost at sea.

This one was absolutely hideous, a malformed face with slimy green scales and sharp jagged teeth, yellowish eyes were slits on her flat face, lower body a powerful tail with long powerful tentacles at the tip with which she used to reach out and snatch the fishermen to be pulled closer to her only for them to be ripped to shreds by her jagged teeth and vicious claws.

Impervious to the crude weapons that were being used to attack them, this was a hopeless battle but the fishermen couldn't give up or they would be all wiped out.

Ceraun could see the hopelessness in their bleak faces even as they yelled and charged forward only to turn the shore red with their blood.

For some reason, Ceraun's gaze was dragged to the Siren's neck, it was a paler shade of the mucky green that covered the rest of their huge bodies, almost like muscle memory, he lifted up his harpoon and crouched low to aim for her neck.

He heard his name get called at this point and he looked back in a split second only for a tentacle to sweep him off his feet, making him land hard on his back, disorienting him.

The tentacle started pulling him rapidly into the sea and Dew's screaming only got louder and she jumped to him, grabbed one of his hands and started pulling him back.

Adrik caught up to her in no time and joined her as well, knowing that if he tried to pull Dew away, he would most likely get a kick to the groin.

She had that steel look in her eyes again, the kind that she got whenever she stood up to the older Mages or gave her opinions on things.

The Siren however was too strong for them and he was already looking around for something sharp to cut off the tentacle with before they all got dragged in.

No adult even paid the three children attention, hopelessness had spread through the rest of the fishermen, the kind that was gotten when facing off an adversary immensely more powerful than you were, the cold sinking feeling that settled deep in your middle and made your blood run cold and your limbs as stone.

Adrik caught a glimpse of the harpoon clutched tightly in Ceraun's hand and he reached for it.

"Give me the bloody harpoon, bastard Feyrer!" He raged at the other, half wanting to drive the serrated edge of the spear into the boy's middle.

Ceraun paid no attention to him, deep in thought although he was half in the water now, sand in his hair and lower body wet.

He was too busy making plans on how best to get the blade of his harpoon in the Siren's neck, it was a risky plan, if for some reason, their necks were also impervious, then he would be dead.

But Ceraun wasn't even thinking along those lines.

"Let me go, Adrik." He said solemnly to the other, moving the harpoon out of his reach.

This stunned Adrik speechless, the taller boy just staring unblinking at him, leaving the entire weight of Ceraun to Dew in his shock as his hands went lax.

"Let him go Dew." He said to the girl who was splashed with wet sand.

"No…" Dew started to deny violently.

Adrik noted that the tentacle was squirming and that the Siren was about to pull again, rather viciously this time and he didn't hesitate to tackle Dew to the ground, using his weight to pin her to the ground.

Ceraun got pulled, true to his predictions, the Siren already spreading out her claws and opening her mouth wide to better rip him apart with.

"Ceraun!!!" Dew screamed from her trapped position, tears running down her face and tracking through the wet sand that coated her red cheeks.

"Why do you bloody care?" Adrik whispered furiously.

This earned him a vicious slap that drew blood and Dew managed to throw him off her and scramble to her feet.

Ceraun on the other hand was yelling bloody murder as the tentacle pulled him ever closer, deeper into the ocean, harpoon raised high.

"Is that not, Elder Feyrer's son?" Someone spoke up blankly, everyone stopping to watch how the story would unfold.

The second Siren diverted her attention from the rest of the fishermen for some reason and also went after Ceraun.

Dew watched on in despair, reaching out her hands, her powers, although being one of the strongest, not just in her family but the entire village would make next to no difference but she couldn't sit back and just watch just as the others were doing.

The tide picked up, making it difficult for the Sirens to move with ease, Dew's eyes glowed with the energy that was being used up, her hair whipping around, her hair adornments falling away.