Drowning in the Siren's Song

Chapter 5

Percy was on his daily rounds, checking for any irregularities when he saw a paper placed under a rock. He had been finding many such notes from the forests rangers for the past few weeks. 

 Sighing, he picked it up, smoothing the wrinkled piece of paper. The rangers were starting to get  too dependent on him, he thought as he unfurled it, revealing the neat handwriting he'd become accustomed to. As usual, the note was short and precise.  

An injured fawn, cut on right flank by a sharp branch - northwest of the reserve, near the bend of the river. Fawn's mother, very defensive. 3 rangers already injured. Medicine and bandages are in the hollow of the tree with a blue ribbon 10 meters away.
~Delilah

Percy's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Deers usually weren't as aggressive, and that fact that 3 forest rangers had been injured was quite alarming. The little one must've been severely injured if his mother was acting so protective. No wonder they reached out to him. 

He hurried to the location she'd written, moving through the tress, swinging branch to branch like a monkey, greeting the dryads he met on the way. He reached the small clearing, a usual place for the deers to graze, taking in the scene.

Indeed, there was a tiny fawn who was hurt, a thick gash oozing blood on his right flank. He winced, knowing that it must've hurt, and especially more to a young fawn, who he guessed could be no older than a few days. But he had to move quick; it wouldn't be good if he lost more blood. 

He ran towards the tree with a blue ribbon, and took out the little box which the rangers left him. He grabbed it with a hand and returned to the small buck who was lying on the grass, whimpering in pain.

He wanted to rush to him immediately, but there was a slight problem. His mother was too agitated for him to treat him. She was hovering around him, stomping the ground and licking the blood away. There was fire in her eyes and her body language promised death. Her motherly instincts were high and he need to calm her down if he wanted a chance to help the fawn.

He spoke to her in a clam voice, spouting nonsense in the most soothing tone he could muster. His siren powers made his voice beautiful even without singing so he had hoped that it would calm her down a bit, but she was just too defensive. 

Percy had started worrying now. Even though the deer was licking the wound, the bleeding continued and the fawn had even lost the energy to even whimper. He needed to get there as quickly as possible. 

Deeming the situation and emergency, he opened his mouth and started singing, charming the deer, telling her that he only wants to help and not harm her child. He soothed her and aimed his singing towards the fawn as well, slowing down his rushed heartbeat and reliving some of his pain. He could've healed him, he had enough power, but it was always better to heal naturally. 

He first approached the mother, showing her the contents of the box and letting her poke around. The animals knew he would never harm them, and now that she'd calmed down, she trusted him as well. Understanding that he had her permission, he approached the fawn, treating him with quick, practiced fingers.

Once he was satisfied, he sung a bit more, focusing his power on the fawn, lulling the exhausted child to sleep. He exhaled, finally realizing how tired he was. He'd run quite the distance and his arms and feet were complaining. As if sensing it, the deer sat down beside him, licking his face and nuzzling him softly. He could feel her saying thanks and he petted her neck in response. 

He was glad he found them quickly. If the fawn had stayed the same way for another hour, his life could've been in danger. He was thankful that the rangers left him the medicine and bandages as well. It would've taken him a lot more time to make the blend, not to mention he would've had to run all over the forest to collect the right herbs and roots. 

He was glad for the connection he had with the forest department at times like this. He knew that he would be noticed some time or another, but now that he was, he didn't know whether he should be happy or not. 

A month or so back, the humans who were in charge of the reserve went on frequent patrols to check up on the forest and had noticed that there might be an intruder. Suddenly, the injured animals had make-shift bandages made of ragged cloth and herbal pastes lathered on. The trees were well- maintained and the soil was moist. The forest somehow looked lusher and brighter.

There were thorough investigations to find the intruder, but Percy was just too skilled to be caught. Finally, after no results after days on serious searches, the department seemed to give up and accept the fact that there was someone in the forest who appeared to have more power to help the reserve more than they did. 

They could have appealed to to a higher authority to comb through the nature reserve, but as far as Percy had noticed or heard, the head of the rangers was a lenient person who knew that Percy was doing more than they'd done in years. 

So they decided to work with him instead of against him. The couldn't find out who he was, but knew that he was definitely a human. No animal could make bandages and splints like that. And thus, they started leaving behind little things, like medicine meant for animals and proper bandages and food. 

Their trust in the unidentified 'man' in the forest slowly grew when they kept on seeing that their products were being properly used. They could see the medicine being used and the tied bandages on the animals just days after they left the items at a random spot. The condition of the reserve was steadily growing.

Trying their luck, they also started leaving little notes asking him for help with the problems or situations which they couldn't handle for some reason or another.  At first, they weren't sure if 'that person' could even find the notes or even read, but slowly, they knew he did find them indeed,  unaware that the 'man' they thought of was simply a 7 year old child.

When they were sure their messages were being received, the rangers asked him about himself, things like his name or how old he was or who he was and left  behind a pencil so that he would answer. But Percy ignored them all. They would find the paper crumpled, a little sign which told them that he read it but chose not to answer. He'd found out later that the one writing him notes was the head herself, a young woman called Delilah.

Once she knew he had no intentions of responding to messages like that, the notes started to become more no-nonsense and on-point. The one thing they had in common with the mysterious helper was their wish of the protection and well- being of the reserve, so the department simply learned to focus on that connection and keep taking advantage of this miracle worker. 

There were only a few things Delilah knew about 'him' for sure.
First, he was a human. Second, he had the ability to get as close as  possible to animals, even predators. Third, he was well- versed in herbal medicine (Some scientists had taken some of the paste applied to a rabbit as a sample and had found out that it was scary good. They'd chewed her ear off to find the person who made it). And fourth, he kept moving through the forest every day.

No matter where she left a note for him, he would always find it, and though he would not respond, he would leave a mark on the paper to show that he'd read it. Whether it be under a rock or tied to a branch, he would find and respond to it within a day or in some cases, no more than week, but it mostly depended on the urgency of the request, she'd noticed. 

There were only 2 explanations for his behavior. Either he would roam the whole forest daily and had amazing eyesight to spot a piece a paper no bigger than a fist, or he could teleport. The former seemed more likely.

And so, Delilah gained a new pen pal who never wrote back to her.