Aurelia the Pink

Chapter 10: Belly of a Whale, Fins of a Fish

- Aurelia (Ling) POV -

I was cooped up in Herald’s stomach for about an hour. It is not a pleasant feeling. It is completely dark in here; the only source of light is my biological mother’s dragon scale pendant glowing purple in the dark. In addition, my nose was tortured with a disgusting putrid stench, probably from the digestion of Herald’s rotten past meals. The air is stale and suffocating. If I had a choice, I would be resting and enjoying seafood in the ship while travelling continents. For now, we just have to make do. The sea was the fastest way of escape from those vampires. Despite the horrible experiences in Herald’s stomach, the ride is smooth. Herald has been navigating the waters really well. Besides, it beats drowning from exhaustion of swimming long distance.

Suddenly, I jerked forward as Herald stopped swimming. He started heading towards the completely opposite direction from his original route. His swimming became rough, causing me to bump frequently against the walls of his stomach. Then, I heard it. The beautiful singing of female Sirens. Although Herald is a sperm whale, his ears picked up their tune. This caused his human mind to be entranced by them, thus he is heading towards them. This is bad! Now I know why the vampires refuse to approach the shorelines. They were afraid of getting lured. “Herald, Herald! Snap out of this! Do not let the Sirens get to you!” I shouted while pounding the insides of his stomach wall continuously. I tried my best to pull him out of his trance. However, it was too late as we wound up in Siren territory.

Sirens are dangerous creatures who had the power to captivate anyone with their melodious voices. With their songs, they lure unsuspecting people to their habitat to kill them. They live in a small island in the middle of the Veldebar Sea. Although they were part bird and part human, they are very good swimmers. Some powerful Sirens have even evolved and developed a tail and fins when swimming to capture more prey in the sea. Due to their territorial characteristic, Sirens are in discord with Merfolk. Since they often reach an impasse, they split the ocean into two territories, one of the Sirens (Veldebar Sea) and one of the Merfolk (Merlep Throne), via an invisible line known as the Great Divide. Afraid of being killed by Sirens, everyone avoided their territory, and only travel peacefully through the Merlep Throne.

Once Herald reached the Siren’s island, he vomited me onto the shore near the cliff. I braced myself for the impact and dived head-first onto the ground. Thankfully, my dragon scales have saved me from a fatal concussion. Herald instantaneously shifted back to his human form. The Sirens, shocked by the situation playing out before them, stopped singing momentarily. In that brief moment, I grab a fist full of mud and smear it onto my ears as a form of makeshift ear plugs. Unfortunately, Herald did not have the opportunity to react before the Sirens broke into song again. One of the Siren jumped onto me when I was still lying down. Before she plunged a knife into my abdomen, I propel myself with my legs to gain enough torque on my hips to pin her down instead. Remembering my training, I bent her wrist the other way to disengage her and pulled the knife away as she yelped in pain. I got up and dealt a fast downward diagonal elbow strike onto another incoming Siren. Once that Siren was stunned, I raised my master knee swiftly to my waist and deliver a powerful front kick to push her back. At the corner of my eye, I saw another Siren in front of Herald, raising a heavy sharp-edged rock, ready to bludgeon him with it. He stood motionless, clearly entranced by their singing. I ran towards and tackled that Siren before she hit him. I punched her to knock her out. Then, I covered Herald’s ears with another handful of mud. His eyes was still glazed over, hence, I slapped him. He finally snapped out of it.

Before we could escape the island, the first Siren that attacked me had grabbed onto me and flew up towards the cliff. In the heat of the moment, I pulled out the knife that I had stashed away under my cloak earlier and stabbed one of her arm. I did not think this through. She immediately let go of me, releasing me to fall down that treacherous cliff. Before I could hit the ground, Herald shifted into an albatross (one of the largest bird), and gripped onto my shoulders with his sharp talons. Although the talons were biting into my flesh, I was grateful for the rescue. However, unable to take his and my weight combined for prolonged periods, Herald was struggling to keep us in the air. We managed to hit the ground without much of an impact. Herald pulled me into a run and gestured me to cover my ears. I obeyed. Once we hit the waters, he shifted into a 3-meter long sailfish (one of the fastest fish). I grabbed onto his fins with my elbows as he swims as fast as he could away from the Sirens while I still covered my ears. He swam near the surface to enable me to breathe. Not wanting to take any chances, we never slowed down until we passed the Great Divide onto Merfolk territory.

I was so glad to see hunky Mermans guarding the border. They stopped and questioned us. We explained that Sirens were in pursuit of us. After hearing the word ‘Sirens’, they nodded and instantly let us through. As we were uninvited guests, one of them led us to the Royal Merlep Throne to be further questioned by the authorities. I was grateful to be there as I have never gotten the opportunity to explore and experience the Merfolk culture. Apparently, they are known to be great party people and nice to the other supernaturals, except for Sirens. Suddenly, the guard beckoned us to dive deeper into the sea. I explained that I cannot breathe underwater. He shrugged, pulled a greenish bubble over my head and nudged me forward. “This enchanted bubble allows our distinguished land guests to breathe underwater for one whole day,” he explained as a matter-of-factly. Herald also shifted back to his human form just because he wanted to experience the enchanted bubble. I rolled my eyes at him.

We swam towards a grand underground castle made of slab stones. I was not expecting the castle to be so prim and proper. There were no algae or seaweed on any walls. When we swam pass, Mermaids and Mermans alike twirled gracefully before heading their way. The playful little ones did amazing backflips and somersaults instead. I clapped my hands at their actions before getting pulled away by Herald. We continued heading our way until we saw a room with a golden throne. On the throne, sat the King of the Merfolk, King Jeffrey. He had white beard and long hair framing his face. His eyes were strikingly blue. He has a golden crown encrusted with sapphire and rubies. His scales were different from the others: his has a reflective gloss to it and was darker in colour. I never knew that we will be meeting the King today. If I did, I would never be in this dreadful black cloak.

“Royal distinguished guests, Siren slayer …” King Jeffrey trailed off for us to introduce ourselves.

“Aurelia and Herald,” I piped up while doing a curtsy. In my actions, the king laughed heartily. “No need for formalities. You are my interesting guests-of-honour,” he boomed.

“Your Majesty, Sire, might I ask, why are we your guests-of-honour?” I probed curiously.

He explained that we helped defend his kingdom from the onslaughts of Sirens, or at least this was what his guards told him. I could tell Herald was about to tell the truth instead. But, I felt that this was not the best decision. The king would be mad that we provoked the Sirens and lured them towards the Merfolk territory. I stopped Herald before he could open his mouth.

“You are most welcome, your Majesty. However, we must get going as we have something else to see to.” I replied cautiously.

The king insisted that we joined him for a celebratory meal to commemorate our courage and comraderie. As much as I wanted to dine with the King of the Merfolk, I knew that any additional minute there might put us in danger once the King finds out the truth. Herald was shooting questioning looks at me the whole time, but he just played by ear and complemented me. Once we excused ourselves from the King’s presence, we swam up towards the surface. However, on our way up, we heard the sounds of horn blowing and Mermaids screaming, “SIRENS!” The whole area was in a frenzy. Mermans hugged their families before gearing up for battle. Although I felt extremely apologetic and guilty for this entire circumstance we threw onto the laps of the Merfolk, we had to go. We are not adept fighters in water. We will only be a liability. With that, I dragged Herald up towards the nearest land, away from the precarious situation and onto the shores beside the Desiree Forest.