Siren Call

Adventure in the Great Wide Somewhere

The sun was absolutely delicious on as it poured through the thick roof of leaves and branches and settled firmly on the mossy ground.

Adalynn stretched and arched across the vast mesh of tangled roots underneath a dying tree.

With a contented and lazy smile, the young girl blinked slowly across the wide hill that struck up across the land like a smooth green scar and down at the gentle hum of the ocean crashing wearily against the glistening white sand.

Amazed yet again by the serene and picturesque beauty of the forest kissing down to the ocean, Adalynn was lost in her own little world of adventure across the land. Perhaps one day, she would spy the glorious heartland that her people had been banished from.

Fully aware of the consequences should she stay out any later, Adalynn staggered to her bare feet and pulled her cloth knapsack from the ground.

With a quick glance at the tall and twisted trees surrounding the area for any person to catch her, Adalynn shot off at a running start from the green wall of the forest, across the grassy hill and down to the coastline.

There, a magnificent graveyard of broken ships lay before her. She swept a bright gaze across the dark and ragged hulking masses that littered the beautiful beach; emitting a siren call to only the bravest.

She stood there for a long moment, letting the cool brush of the frothy ocean swarm over her sinking feet. Her dark and deliciously long braid had already begun to unravel as the salty wind whipped loose strands from her grubby face.

The wreckyard, as her people called it, was no place for a young and naïve girl such as her.

Truth be told, upside was no place for anybody.

Letting the intoxicating warmth of the summer sun melt across her body, her skin began to prickle. A sense of adventure was good for a warrior, but that sense would do absolutely nothing to save her once her father discovered her latest foray into the upside.

Gritting her crooked teeth, Adalynn trekked across the sticky white sand and clambered onto the jagged and unforgiving rocks. She chose her footing carefully for if she fell, she would be dashed to little pieces like so many of the half sunken wooden carcasses here.

Yes, the wreckyard was not safe.

If it was, her people would not have chosen it as their outer defenses.

The nearest wreck was still quite a ways away as the cutting stonework went out for nearly a quarter mile into the ocean. As she shimmied and slipped down, the frothy emerald waves swished angrily below her, spraying her generously.

Looking up into the graying sky, Adalynn could tell there was a storm coming. She always knew, for it seemed to emanate from the land and down into her very bones. Of course, she was probably one of the few people who seemed to know when a storm would come, or even what the sky's blue face looked like and she was most certainly the only one who directly disobeyed the king's strict rules and went upside.

She sighed internally, her little heart full of disappointment and disenchantment. She knew that her quick trips aboveground would have to come to an end and soon. Her young age granted her immunity from her father's rage but already her chubby cheeks have begun to slim down and her stubby fingers had grown longer and leaner. Her body too had begun to stretch into a more delicate shape, as if understanding time's demands.

On the threshold of growing up, Adalynn knew full well that this was most likely her last trip.

The sea frothed wretchedly beneath her, as if sensing the dark turn her infantile mind had taken and was determined to keep her.