The Ocean's Daughter (Sequel to Sirene)

Chapter 28 and Epilogue

Dedicating this last part to Cwally. Thank you for your support, for reading and voting. :)

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Chapter 28

Oceana sat on the edge of the cliff, watching the sunset and softly singing to herself. For the last couple of days, songs were her one true comfort and she could spend hours at a time by the shore, singing to the waves. Of course, somewhere in the back of her mind, the hope that Wesley just might decide to come after her dared to entertain itself, but she didn't brood on it too much. He had his pride after all, and he was so stubborn, just like his father. Chandler had a point about the Scottish obstinacy. Oceana was trying to just forget the whole thing and move on with her life. If only the school year would come sooner. She needed a distraction and the rowdy bunch of children was just the thing to get her mind off the young sailor.

Her song came to an end, but Oceana wasn't in a hurry to get home. She would remain till the sun had completely sunk into the deep waters of the ocean.

"If we the shadows have offended, think but this, and all is mended."

The unexpected sound of Wesley's voice made Oceana gasp from fright and twist herself to look behind her. Surely she must be imagining, Wesley couldn't be up here, could he?

But he was, standing not far off, hands behind his back, a smile playing on his lips and his eyes peering at her with adoration. Oceana was so surprised to see him, she lost her gift of speech and just stared at him, eyes wide.

"Think but this, and all is mended," he continued, walking up closer to her, "that you were but slumbering here, while these visions did appear. And this weak and idle thing, no more yielding but a dream. There was more to the poem, something about gentles and reprehending and mending, but I'm afraid I don't remember any more, I never read very much of Shakespeare."

"What are you doing here?" Oceana at last found her voice and demanded of him.

"I'm disobeying McDuff's orders,"

"What?"

"He told me not to go looking for that which mortal eyes are not allowed to see, because it will only bring about ruin."

"And you are going against his orders because you want to bring about my ruin?" Oceana cocked her head to the side and lifted her right eyebrow.

"Quite the contrary, I think I've made ruin enough, now I want to see if I can somehow make amends."

"And your idea of making amends is coming here and scaring the very life out of me?"

"I didn't mean to frighten you, but you are sitting on a cliff, and the only way to approach from the front would be come by sea. The rocks there are very sharp down there," Wesley pointed to the shore below, "and the waters are shallow and I just didn't want to end up a mere carcass for the buzzards to pick on. So I had no choice but to come by land."

"You could at least have coughed a little, or made some other noise before jumping into loudly quoting poetry. For mercy's sake, you nearly had me fall off the cliff!"

"That would have been very tragic indeed," Wesley's voice was patronizing, "seeing as then Father would have surely cut off my head for ending your life and we would just go on to prove once more how sailors and mermaid never have happy love stories. I mean, it got tense enough when I first came to the house..."

"What?" Oceana cut Wesley off in midsentence. "You...you...you were at the cottage?"

"I've made peace with my father, Oceana. It wasn't easy, but it had to be done and I did it. We are of course nowhere near to what we could have been, but at least we are on the right path. I don't know how long it will take before we can be all a father and son ought to be, but at least we have a start."