Beneath the Waves (Ocean Song Book 1)

Chapter 29: Lost in Thought

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance, my name is Aquanetta." The woman flashes a grin containing naught but sharpened teeth all around.

Pelagios's body tenses as he sharply says, "You are a Siren of the Deep! I thought you accursed creatures to be sealed deep within the Azarian Trench!"

Aquanetta cackles darkly as her black eyes flash with a murderous light. "Indeed, I was, but my Lord Proteus saw fit to finally release me from my prison."

"But how?!" Pelagios growls, but quickly shakes his head before continuing, "What is your purpose here?!"

Another chuckle. "My Lord has seen fit to grant me a most important task!" Her eyes finally land on Serena and Rodion, who stand behind Pelagios with tense expressions upon their faces. "He craves the almighty powers of these humans that the Ocean's Curse has bestowed upon them."

Pelagios releases an inhuman hiss in warning as Aquanetta regards him with a displeased scowl. Serena grasps onto Rodion's arm as she glances at the rapidly setting sun.

"You two need to dive into the sea! Mount the hippocampi and hurry back to Aquaria!"

"You think I would allow them to get away so easily?!" Aquanetta quickly rushes in with elongated nails poised to kill and mouth agape in a terrifying display of ferocity. An ear shattering screech rips from Pelagios's throat as the pupils in his eyes constrict like a cat's; meeting the attack head on.

Serena and Rodion both cover their ears at that ensuing shrieking and screaming as they look about behind them for any passersby's that may be looking on.

"QUICKLY!" Pelagios roars out just as he catches on of Aquanetta's hands whilst the other sweeps across his chest in a diagonal slash. He winces slightly as his shirt is torn and a metallic-looking light blue substance leaks from the slash marks lining his chest. 

Rodion quickly grabs his sister's wrist and makes a beeline for the end of the pier as Aquanetta finds herself hard-pressed to stop them. Just as the two make contact with the water, tails spontaneously appear in a flurry of sparkling blue mist in the place of their legs. Their clothes fall away leaving them in exactly what they had on before, or in Rodion's case, shirtless.

However, when they move to approach the hippocampi they immediately take notice of that same light blue substance that had been leaking from Pelagios's wound. Serena holds in a shriek by covering her mouth as their gazes follow the trail of blood to Serena's hippocampi laying upon the ocean floor. The poor beast has been maimed and ripped to pieces with a wide-eyed gaze filled with terror from her last moments of life. Not even her spine was left in tack as pieces of it listlessly float about them with pieces of the hippocampi's ripped flesh attached to them.

Rodion's grip on her wrist tightens as the remaining two hippocampi emerge from hiding at having felt the disturbance in the water. They quickly rush up to Serena and Rodion in a panic after having verified them as the last to ride them. The hippocampi possessed of green and black scales presses its head into Serena as its dark eyes look into her own with a sense of terror still evident within their depths. She strokes its muzzle in an attempt to calm it, but just as it begins to calm, a splash disturbs the water's surface and all look up to find Aquanetta and Pelagios locked in battle still. Though Aquanetta has taken on a most ghastly form that strikes horror in the two as they gaze upon her grotesque form. Pelagios, however, isn't as bothered by it after having spent years as a battle-hardened warrior. Serena, for the most part, is relieved to find that his form hasn't changed too drastically as she's quite certain she couldn't handle another grotesque form. The only thing different about Pelagios is his constricted pupils, glowing eyes, and the newly appeared fangs sitting in his mouth that are made visible whenever he screeches.