The Stabbington Brothers rummaged through the bard's pack. Two Wanted posters stood out in particular.
The Stabbington Brothers' faces stared up at them from the parchment.
"He knew," Patches said.
"Son of a bitch."
"What are the changes he's holed up by that cave entrance waiting for us to come out the other side to ambush us."
"Yeah. We need to be on our guard. Arm ourselves to the teeth. Unless the siren got 'im; that'd make things simpler."
"Well, until she gets us, too."
"True. We can't assume anything, though. For all we know he's in league with the siren."
His brother snorted.
"Stranger things have happened. Besides, they both sing songs."
"We're going to spend the rest of our lives suspecting every person who sings is in league with sirens, aren't we."
They both had a good laugh about that, to relieve the tension more than anything else. It didn't last, though. The walk through the forest to the secret passageway erased any good humor they had had. Eyes darting, shoulders tense, they passed through the dark passageway by the light of its glowing fungus and emerged in a picturesque valley.
The air was sweet and seemed to hum with life. Vibrant foliage grew all around them. The distant roar of rushing water was the only sound. No birds, no crickets. Odd.
Across the valley a tower stood like a pillar rising from the mists of a nearby waterfall. Nearer to them, under the watchful gaze of the tower stood a proud oak. It was overgrown with broad-leafed flowering vines.
And on a rock just a few paces from the shade of the tree lounged a woman, if indeed she could be called that. Her beauty was surreal, an inhuman beauty bordering on divinity.
A song flowed from her lips as she ran her fingers through her long blonde hair, the very picture of a siren, bathing in a river of gold. The long golden waves lay coiled loosely around her on the rock like the body of a snake sunning itself. Flowers were tucked in the waves, their pretty purple petals closed tightly but burgeoning as though caging something that desired to burst free.
Her breasts glittered in the morning sun. The light catching in their eyes. Rapt and filled with mingled awe and desire, the brothers watched the exquisite creature.
She made no indication she had seen them, but she continued to sing her haunting melody. As her voice grew stronger, so too did the coils wrapping around the brothers' minds, spiraling tighter, softening their will and filling them with need.
A crown graced the siren's head, the crystals catching the sunlight and casting prismatic flecks in all directions.
Patches nudged his brother and tilted his chin at the tiara resting atop her head.
"She has it," Patches said.
Barely able to process his words, Sidesburns nodded, and all too slowly his mind caught up with him. Realization dawned on his face, but he struggled to respond, and settled for a subtle nod. He didn't want to be talking with Patches. All he wanted to think about was the naked blonde maiden stretched out before them.
"You get the crown," whispered Patches. "I'll distract her."
This snapped Sideburns out of his daze.
"Like hell!"
Patches looked surprised.
"What?"
"You just want a closer look at her tits! I'll distract her, and you sneak up behind her," Sideburns hissed, and he added under his breath, "No way I'm letting you have all the fun."
"And what if I did? We both know you're more stealthy than me. I'd give us away before you took a second step."
"You're not that reckless. Just get in there and grab the crown. It's not that hard."
"If it's not so hard for you, why don't you do it."
"Boys, boys!"
The brothers looked up in surprise to see they stood mere feet from Rapunzel.
She giggled. She lay between them in an open posture that invited them closer, her naked, sun-kissed body arched and waves of golden hair spilling over her curves.
It was only now that they realized she was no longer singing, and they saw they had already stepped within the spiraling circle of her hair that wound through the undergrowth like a snake through the grass.
Their eyes didn't leave her body for long though. With dazed expressions, they returned their gaze to soak up her beauty, and she gazed back with a expectant look on her face. She lifted a dainty hand to her mouth as she giggled again.
"I can't believe my luck," she said, "To have two strong, handsome men fighting over me,"
"Oh no," Patches, "we weren't fighting over you, we were just—"
"Shhh," Rapunzel said, rising to stand between them. "I can tell you both want me. Isn't that right?"
They were speechless, their voices caught in their throats and thoughts lost on desire for her, but their expressions told her all she needed to know.
She sauntered away, her hips swaying and the curve of her cheeks glittering as she closed her eyes and took in the warmth of the sun.
She turned back to the brothers with a look of feigned shock, as if just now remembering her audience. And then her expression melted into a coy smile.
"But there's only so much of me to go around. Isn't that right?" she teased, and tsked at them with mock sympathy. "Such a dilemma."
She ran her fingers through her hair, and with absent-minded strokes to one of the purple buds pulled her hand away with a palm filled with pink pollen.
Then, with a wink, she cupped her hand beneath her plump purple lips, and blew a kiss. The pink dust swirled through the air with a magic shimmer and planted sweet, passionate kisses square on their lips.
They staggered back, woozy with lust. The pollen filled their lungs with its sweetness. Their bodies with need. Their hearts, with lust. Where it touched their lips it dissolved a thick coat of nectar that tingled on the skin.
"So which one of you lucky boys gets to kiss these lips first?"
Not so much as a beat passed before the two were clamoring for her, shoving each other to get to the beautiful siren, who just giggled at their antics.
"Boys, boys!" she said between laughs, "You poor love-addled things!"
She took Sideburns' face in her hands and kissed his cheek before turning to Patches. He tried to kiss her lips, but she managed to dodge and smooch his cheek instead.
"You do understand my lips are poison, don't you?"
Patches didn't seem to register what she said. He just watched Rapunzel play with her hair with glazed-over eyes. But Sideburns quickly wiped the residue her poison had left on his cheek and stared incredulously at its purple smear on his palm. Both his cheek and his hand tingled from the venom seeping in the skin. He put his hand to his cheek and smiled, his eyes going glassy like his brother's.
"You really shouldn't let me kiss you. I'm just not good for you." Rapunzel put one hand under each of their chins and drew them close enough for her sweet scent to surround them. "But you can't help yourselves, can you?"
"I don't care," Sideburns said, "I need your kisses."
"And neither do I," pleaded Patches. "Please, kiss me!"
They both lunged for her lips but she pushed them down. They kissed either side of her neck simultaneously and she shrieked with a burst of musical, mesmerizing laughter.
The gold glitter that shimmered over her sunkissed skin melted into nectar on their lips and tasted sweet on their tongue. Every kiss drove them deeper in love with her as they explored up her neck and around her shoulders.
Sideburns took one of her breasts in both hands and smothered it in kisses, his well-conditioned whiskers brushing against her skin with surprising softness. Patches knelt beside her as he left a trail of desperate kisses down her side, his fingers unintentionally smooshing her other breast and getting caught in the wet center of one of her flowers. Pleasure shivered through Rapunzel's whole body and she sang out with more of her hypnotic laughter.
"Stop, stop! That tickles!"
But they didn't stop. The song of her laughter only drove them deeper into lust. Patches continued his trajectory downwards, and Sideburns returned his lips to her neck. His breath was hot on her skin, his kisses growing even hungrier and his sideburns brushing her throat.
"I said stop!" Rapunzel gasped between giggling fits, pretending to try to push them off of her, "One at a time!"
Rapunzel's hair whipped around Patches and tore him away as she shoved Sideburns back with surprising force for her size. She followed Sideburns down, and took his face in her hands. And, with aggressive abandon, she kissed Sideburns.
"Please!" Patches begged from behind, "Kiss me!"
Rapunzel tossed her hair and shot him a look over her shoulder.
"You'll get your turn," she said. "I promise!"
She shook her head at his drunken eagerness with a roll of her eyes, and tossed him down in a bed of springy vines before returning to Sideburns.
She poured her love into the rogue. If kissing could be a song, she sang a choir of desire into him, and he drank eagerly from the unending spring of her lips.