Wings and Tails

Chapter One

Thanatos was flying out to sea to gather souls after a shipwreck. He didn't understand how it could happen because most of the rocks in the middle of the ocean are quite visible. Unless Poseidon or a siren or some other sea deity interfered it just wasn't possible.

Thanatos really wished that they had left after the ship wrecked. He did not want to deal with a smug siren. That is, if he could see one. They were quite particulate about not being seen. If they were seen they disappeared within a blink of the eye.

He didn't exactly hate the ocean but it definitely wasn't in the top 5 locations to pick up departed souls. It was too windy and his wings always got wet. One time a mermaid managed to tackle him off a rock and into the watery depths. It took a few hours for his wings to be dry enough to fly again. He had to do his job on foot! He didn't get around even half a quickly and the amount of souls he had to find after they had wandered away.

It was annoying to say the least.

Huh, this is easy enough, probably a trap, Thanatos thought.

Flying down to one of the rocks. There was a cluster of them. The sea was calm, waves gently lapping at the base of the rocks.  A body lying on top of one of them.

Thanatos could only see his top half. His head lolled to the side, long dark blue hair fell from the top of his head. The sides a lot shorter. He was dripping wet. Tattoos ranged across his shoulders and arms. His skin slightly tinted green.

Poor guy, Thanatos thought. Looks like a siren got to him.

It was true, he sported some symptoms of a siren attack. Thanatos had become quite good at spotting them. Seeing as after most shipwrecks there was one or two bodies that would look like that.

1. The obvious one, dripping wet.
2. On full view on a rock, a siren likes to show off its prey. Especially if the day is sunny.
3. Green or blue tinted skin, an affect of where the siren brings the body before leaving it for all to see.
4. Unnaturally coloured hair, same reason as number 3.
5. Some bear markings, scrapes, red marks.
6. Some will have blood pouring from their neck. Always the same bite, thin sharp teeth, closely set together.

But this one's markings were different. The markings were usually brutal, as if burned on. Red circles were the skin had been raised. Always in a line, curving around a limb or waist.

This one had markings that looked like ceremonial. Like a status symbol or tattoos of a religon.

Sea folk are apparently big on status symbols.

Thanatos only knows this from some of the souls that he had retrived from shipwrecks. They were half out of their minds, their mortal minds unable to process seeing the divine. Speaking of men below the sea with two fish tails rather than legs. Women with one long elegant tail, with one or two fins. Some tails sparkled, some were slick, some were flowy. All of the tails ranging between 6-15 feet long.

Then the ones that were out of their minds, the siren victims. Spoke of being dragged down in the water by octopus tentacles of different colours. Black, blue, green, some constantly changing. Only to be saved and brought back to the surface by scaled men and women. Hefted onto a rock because the scaled beings believed they should see the sun in their final moments.

Though it is rather wrong to call them men and women. They should be referred to by their proper names. Sirens. Mermaids. Mermen.

Those that sing and lead mortals to their watery graves.

This shipwreck was odd however. The wrecked hull of the ship was broken among the sharper rocks among the bunch. Bodies clad in loose shirts and baggy bottoms lay dead, all heading in one direction. Towards the figure on the rock.