Claxton

Chapter Twenty-Five: Siren Attack

Song: "Siren's Call" - Gabriel R. Shadid and Tobias Marberger

        Selene waited for a while before she communicated with Makenna in her dreams. If she was to do that then she too would have to fall asleep. Right now, it was hard to fall asleep when you had your hands full with a really sick fairy. Also, there was a lot of noise outside. Soon after Makenna left, a group of people came to the end of Kiawah Island to have a cookout and admire both the shipwreck and sunset. These people made Selene nervous. She didn't want them to come out to the boat and discover both she and Tracey. Besides, noise wasn't good for a sick fairy.

Before the group of people could even look at the boat, Selene quickly closed the hatch, locked the door to the lower deck, and pulled shades down over the portholes. Then, she killed the lights. Now, from the outside, the boat looked deserted again.

In the lower deck, after Selene finished, with the help of her cane, she sauntered over to Tracey and whispered,
"All right, Tracey, let's figure out what's wrong with you." She carefully dragged him out of the front berth and over to the berth Makenna had been resting on where it would be easier to work on him. Tracey had woken up, due to the noise, but not much. His wings, which had lost the shine in them, hung limply behind him. He was very pale. Even his clothes had turned pale. When fairies turned pale, including their clothes and wings, it usually meant they were dangerously drained of magic. Tracey's right arm, the arm that had been punched, was back in a sling. It wasn't broken; it was just pretty banged up. Selene set him down on the new, couch-like berth and put a pillow under his head. Then, she tossed a blanket over him. Before starting to search for the problem, she rested her hand on the towel over his forehead and said, "Your towel's pretty dry. I'm going to re-soak it for you." She carefully took the towel off and left him for a bit. She stopped at a bucket of water that was resting on the boat's wooden table and soaked the towel.
While she was working, from where he was resting, Tracey weakly lifted his head and asked, "Where's Makenna?" to Selene.
"Shh," she told him, "She's going to be back tomorrow. I need to keep you overnight so I can figure out what's wrong with you."
"I want to go home." Tracey mumbled, "I want to see Gina."
"I know," spoke Selene, and she took the towel out of the bucket and started to squeeze the water out, "You're going home tomorrow." However, Tracey didn't want to wait that long. He wanted to go home now. He's had enough of Makenna's world of bullies. Weakly reaching for the mask he wore, he pulled it off and tossed it onto the front berth. Immediately, he started having trouble breathing, and his skin, wings, and clothes grew even paler. However, for Tracey being Tracey, he refused to just lie down on his job. He pulled off his blanket and tried to get up, but he couldn't. He was way too weak. He just rolled off the berth and fell. His face and arm hit the rug on the floor of the boat, and Tracey flinched.

Selene heard the thump and whirled around, gasping,
"Tracey! What are you doing?"
She finished squeezing the water out the towel and hurried toward him. "I want to go home," whimpered Tracey again, and he attempted to stand but only fell again, "Gina. I miss her. I want to see her." He breathed heavily on the ground and tried to lift his wings, but he failed. Coughing, for the third time, he yelled, "I want to go home! I don't belong here!"
Selene pressed her finger up against his lips and whispered, "Shh. I know how you feel, my dear, but you can't go home yet. Here." She took him by the uninjured arm and lugged him to his feet.

Selene dragged Merlin's apprentice back over to the berth and helped him lie down.
She pulled the blanket over him and added, "Sleep. Just sleep. You need to sleep." Picking up the mask he had pulled off, she put it back over his nose and mouth, and immediately when she did, Tracey started to relax. The sleeping potion in the mask started to seep into his body. He stopped thrashing and just breathed deeply. As he was falling asleep, Selene next put the towel over his forehead. Then, she got straight to work. She felt him up and down and tried to figure out what was wrong with him. However, the Octopus Man's curse was a complicated one. It wasn't easy to find. Really, the only way Selene could find it was if the mark appeared on Tracey's arm again. However, it didn't. This only made the job more complicated.