Hide and Seek

Although her colony had relocated and settled into an area that was significantly warmer then the waters in which they had originated, the lack of food in the colder months made her father, mother and the hunters have to travel much further too find even barely enough food to keep their intire colony alive. Sometimes causing them to be gone for days to a week at a time. And although there were still sirens out there who prefured to lure humans into the waters with their siren songs and feast on their victims, as all sirins once upon a time had done, many conlonies, including Waterlily's, much prefured to eat only the seacreatures that they hunted for. And although this made it harder for sirens to live, after discovering that humans and other human like creatures could potentially be a fated compainion to sirens, most sirens felt that it wasn't right to eat another sirens potential love, no matter how hungry they became. No matter how much they prepared for the upcoming winters, it was always a struggle until the surface thawed out, the waters warmed up, and the migrations of sealife returned. Waterlily, a young siren of only 14 had spent the earlier years of her childhood living in the icy waters of the north until her colony had been attacked and their leader killed. Her father, becoming the colonies new leader, decided that their home was no longer a safe place for his people to dwell. Two weeks after sending three of his fastest and strongest worriors out on a mission to find a new home for their colony, two of his men returned with good news, the third chose to stay at the location of a channel of unoccupied caves they had found and guard them until the colony arrived. In the two weeks while they waited for the worriors to return, the rest if the colony had time to collect what they would take with them, which wasnt ever much for a siren. Mostly weapons and traps, some jewelry, trinkets and treasures. Mostly handmade of random things they found floating by or lying on the ocean floor. once they got word that a new home was waiting for them, Waterlily's father gathered up their colony and led them with his warriors to there new home. At the time of their relocation, Waterlily was still to young to fully understand the dangers of the waters outside of their domain. She was much to busy collecting pretty things off of the ocean floor, like seashells, pearls, seaglass and smooth shiney stones. When her father took over as the leader of her colony, and made the decision to move his people south, Waterlily was just excited that she would have a chance to find new treasures along the way. Waterlily's father, though bigger and much stronger then most other sirens she had yet to meet and very intimidating to sirens outside of their own colony, had a very large weakness in the size of his heart when it came to his family and when it came to his family, it always surprised Waterlily how gentle he could be. WaterLily adored watching her father dote on her mother. she loved the way he twirled her when they danced, the way he combed her hair every night, the beautiful gifts that he made for her. Lily would often donate the pretty things she found to be used in the decorations her father would make for her and her mothers hair, and the jewelry he would craft for them. He had taken an interest crafting jewelry when he was younger, and had found that he was quite talented. some of Waterlily's favorite pieces were the ones that her father made as matching sets for her and her mother, but her most favorite of all was a princess tiara he had made out of pearls and gemstones, held together by pieces of a cage wire he had found. Now that her father had taken over as their colonies leader his time spent making jewelry became few and far between as he had much more responsibilities then before. Her mother, being his fated companion, also had a responsibility to be by his side and help with their colony and much as she could. Although Lily understood that her parents had to be away often, it still made her sad every time they left for a hunt, or were called out to defend their home from predators or other siren colonies, or called out for other random reasons. Waterlily was often left in the care of her grandmother, specially during the winter months when her father would lead the hunting party with her mother by his side out on missions to find food. and each year that went by, it seemed that the hunt to find food lead her parents further and further away from home. Now, at 14, because her father didnt have much time for jewelry making, Waterlily's treasure hoard had become overflowing from the chess she had found in the lower level of what her father had called a sunken ship, that they had sheltered in one night during their journey to relocate to there new home. One day, while her parents were far off on a hunt, Lily, left in her grandmothers care, had been in her grotto, sorting through her treasures, trying to organize it a bit. She had decided that since her father no longer had enough time to make jewelry for her and her mother, that she would try her hand at it, in hopes that she might have inherited her fathers talent. Lily's grotto was a hidden space in the cave that her colony had settled into. The back left side of a small easy to miss shelf just inside the caves ceiling as soon as you swam inside, led to a tunnel that ended in a small room, perfect in size for a young girls treasure collection. A hole the size of a football in the cave wall allowed light and fresh water to enter into the small area. At night, her treasure room was to dark to be in, but during the daylight, lily had set up shiney objects she had found around the small room to reflect the sunlight and light up her space. As the sunlight started to fade away, Lily put aside her treasures and started to head down the tunnel toward the entrance of the cave. As she was about to swim out something didnt feel right. she stopped before she reached the cave shelf and waited, listening. The cave was completely silent. Although sirens are normally a quiet species who comunicate telepathically within their own colonies, inside their caves, they are still often heard tinkering about or humming a tune. Lily knew that most of her colony was off on a hunt, but there was still enough sirens left home that she should have heard something, anything at all. But the eerie silence was all that there was. Lily crept foward out of the tunnel, her vision just barely able to see over the edge of the shelf, caugh a glimpse of a shadow that made her dip her head lower and freeze in place once more. Suddenly the silence ended as a hiss and a gurgled scream erupted from somewhere inside of the cave. followed by more hissing sounds and more screams, so much screaming. the smell of blood reached lily's nose before she watched as the top of the cave that she could see became a deep shade of red. Lily remained frozen half inside of the tunnel half on the shelf and closed her eyes, not knowing what to do. Suddenly the voice of her grandmother reached her in her mind, "My lil flower, if you hear me, hide, run, survive! I love you" and then with a final scream the link from her grandmother was cut off. Lily tried to respond through there telepathic link, calling out to her grandmother, but her words just echoed back to her as if her inner voice had no where to go but back to where it came from. She reached out a link to her parents, but once again her words just echoed back to her. she was completely alone. For a while, Lily remained motionless, a thick blanket of sorrow heavy in her chest. In shock, the final words of her grandmother now playing on a loop, run, hide, survive, over and over in her mind. as the reddess of the water that had absorbed her had begun to wash itself away, Waterlily slowely came to her senses. She knew that she was very much in danger, and that it was only a matter of time before they found her if she stayed there. As much as she wanted to go back into her grotto to collect a few of the pieces her father had made for her, she wasnt going to risk losing the only chance she might have of swimming out of the cave and away. Lily slowly lifted her head, once again creeping toward the edge of the shelf, peeking out just enough to see that the entrance to the cave was empty. she didnt know where the killers were, if they were still inside or if they had left. but where ever they were, she knew they had to be close by. Taking one final moment to build up her courage, Lily pushed herself off the shelf, dove downward to the caves entrance, and then shot out as fast as her fins could push her, heading toward the forrest of tall seagrass to the left of the cave. once she reached the grass she swam far enough in that she couldnt be seen, stopped and held her breath. she waited to see if anyone had spotted her, to see if any one was chasing her. After a few moments, Lily slowly raised herself to the top of the seagrass, peaking threw the thinner blades, she watched as a group of large male sirens began floating the corpses of some of her colony members out of the cave, her grandmother among them. the sorrow in her chest growing heavier. besides herself, she saw that only two of her colony members were still alive, two young female sirens, sisters that Lily had played with a many times, were dragged out of the cave, there wrists bound behind there backs, a chain linked to what looked like a heavy metal collar around there necks. Pain in there eyes as they watched there mother be floated away into the open ocean. Lily was so focused on the girls that she didnt realize that the seagrass had shifted, revealing her to the enemy. one of the men who held onto the chains around her friends necks spotted her, pointing to where she was. before anyone else caught a glimpse of her, Lilly dipped back down and darted away as fast as she could, racing threw the grass, the sharp blades knicked her flesh, it stung but she knew she had to keep going. she could hear them behind her ripping threw the seagrass, searching for her. she reached the end of the seagrass forrest. Darting out she knew she would be seen, but had no other option. Swimming harder then she ever had in her life, Lily reached a an area where the surface and the ocean floor became close enough for her to reach her arms out and touch both. Ahead of her she could see the land up above the water. She had never been this close to the surface before. poking her head up out of the water, ahead and to her right she could see a place where the water split the land in half, taking her chances she swam in. She followed the water's path throughout the night and into the next day. Reaching exsaustion Lily came across a deep spot in the water path, feeling like she was far enough away and hidden well enough for now, she dove down and snuggled herself under a small shelf at the bottom and closed her eyes. She would rest her body for a while but her the sorrow in her heart kept her mind wide awake.