Beautiful Cries

Chapter Four: Oracles Speak

The water lapped at Alena and Jesenia's tails as they rested in the sand, hours having gone by since the two had saved the man from his boat.

"When you said we couldn't just leave him here, I didn't think that meant you were going to baby him until he revived himself," Alena muttered with a roll of her eyes.

Jesenia continued rubbing the man's head as the first rays of sunlight began to cast themselves across the horizon, catching the flecks of brown in the sleeping man's hair.

"He deserves to survive, Alena. Don't be so heartless."

"It's my duty to be."

"What was that?" Jesenia asked.

"Nothing," Alena quickly replied, tilting her head back into the sand as her body shivered in the midmorning air.

"Alena," Jesenia whispered after a few minutes, "do you think it's possible that we could die being out of the water this long?"

"I suppose we could." A smile smoothed over her lips. "I don't know quite how long it takes for our bodies, I've never been out of the water long enough to find out."

Jesenia's mouth fell open as she began to ask another question when a muffled groan reached both of their ears.

They sprang away from the rocks when the man sat up slowly and rubbed at his eyes, shaking his hair as sand fell from his curls.

"What happened?" He moaned, wincing at the glow from the morning sun as he struggled to stand to his feet.

Jesenia remained speechless, whereas Alena frowned and began to pull Jesenia back towards the water.

"What are you doing!" She shrieked, trying to pull her arm from Alena's grasp.

At the sound of her scream, the man turned towards the pair. His eyes bulged from his head at the sight of the two sirens, and as he started to shout himself, he promptly fell backwards into a slosh filled puddle.

Alena again grabbed Jesenia's arm as she sprang into the water, disappearing into the crashing and frothing waves before the human could confront them.

~*~*~*~

With water dripping in slews down his body, he wiped the liquid out of his eyes with fervor.

They had to have been apparitions, Damari thought, being out for so long is warping my mind... I must be having sea madness.

He stumbled to his feet and held onto the closest rock until he regained his balance.

Although maybe I simply drank too much last night before...before...

He blacked out.

He was boggled. He could come up with no plausible reason for the disappearance of his boat, the way he was rescued or why he needed rescuing in the first place.

All he could remember was being hit in the head with one of the leaden floats on his net and then darkness, the cool and empty darkness.

What confused him even more was that a basket woven of material he had never seen before in his life sat on the rocks near his body with fish overflowing from it.

There was no explanation at all for his frazzled mind except accepting the fact that his life had been spared by beautiful maidens of the sea.

He ran his palm over his face and heaved a deep sigh, keeping care to avoid the tender cut on his forehead, and making his way over to the basket to carry. Staring vaguely out into the waves that held more mysteries then answers.