Siren Song

Chapter Twelve

"What in the frozen hell did you do that for?" Lionel hissed, glancing around worriedly. The courtyard was empty, but for a few beds of carefully cultivated coral, but the very walls had ears in the palace.

Tyri blinked up at him, confusion gradually morphing to anger.

"I could ask you the same thing! You made me drop my plate!"

"It's fish. It floats."

"That," Tyri said sternly. "Is not the point."

"Then what is the point?"

"The point is that it's rude to just grab people and drag them places without a prior warning!"

Lionel narrowed his eyes. "You're literally a siren. That's, like, your whole exact thing."

Tyri sighed, apparently not even willing to try arguing the point. "Look. Your obvious hatred for my kind aside-- which I share in, by the way, because I was kicked out of the tribe for no good reason, if plenty of bad ones-- you can't just turn every conversation we have into an argument. We're apparently going to be stuck with each other for quite some time, if I don't want to be thrown into the pit. Which, surprisingly, I do not. I mean, it's called the pit. Nothing good comes from that.
Anyways, what I meant to say is that we need to at least try to get along, for our own good. So if you stop making baseless accusations against a whole species based on nothing but rumours then I'll..."

"You'll?" Lionel prompted.

"Actually, I've done literally nothing wrong. I'd just like you to stop bringing up what I am all the time. I can't change that. So please just try to judge me based on who I am instead."

Lionel nodded slowly. "Alright. I suppose I have been judging you with a little prejudice."

Well, it was a lot, actually, and he knew it, but his pride wouldn't let him admit it. Besides, he was the guard, the authority. He couldn't make mistakes, or else he'd lose control. That had been taught to him from a young age-- mistakes were punished harshly, likely too harshly at times. He couldn't complain, though-- it had let him rise through the ranks to where he was today, despite his rather average voice.

"I will try to hold back my judgements," he said. "If you will stop this infuriating habit of singing in public. It draws attention, which will make my job harder, not only because it makes me look incompetent but also because it runs the risk of exposing you as a siren. And believe me, my prejudice is mild compared to some of the extremists in the palace. If your true nature becomes known to the nobles, there will be a call for your execution. That's why I had to get you out of there, though there's very little chance that a noble would listen to a word a commoner said."

"Alright," Tyri said with a nod. "Truce?"

He held out a hand and Lionel shook it, the merman a little surprised to feel slight callouses on the siren's fingertips. For some reason, he had expected to find Tyri's hands to be smooth and soft, though in retrospect he couldn't imagine why. He had found the siren swimming alone through the reefs. Even if he had not believed his story, it was obvious that he was no snobby noble who refused to hunt or gather.

"Truce," he replied, his fingers brushing slightly against the ridge of the fins on the siren's arms.

"Good," Tyri said, a slight smirk crossing his face. "Now, I believe you owe me a meal?"

Lionel sighed. "Fine. The time for food being served is probably over by now, but I can likely sweet-talk one of the cooks into getting us a little something."

"Alright. Then it's a date."

A/N: Sorry for the very short chapter, especially after such a long break, but I'm getting back into the swing of things so there should be a longer one coming soon! My plans for this chapter were originally quite long, so I decided to split it here and get something out so you don't think I've disappeared again. :) My writing speed is picking up again, so I'll be seeing you soon with the next chapter.