Waves of Grey - The Harem and the Guard

Chapter 16

Keith

Keith pushed himself through the water, trying to pull himself away from the Siren's chambers, leaving Lance to deal with the creature. He needed to find Petal. Petal was his objective. Find the pup and then wait for Lance so that they may make their escape.

Just . . . where was he supposed to find Petal?

He drifted to a stop in the main entrance that they first came upon, the piles of scales scattered about in front of him, trophies of lives taken. He looked up. The chamber was open and dark. On the opposite side of the room from where he stood in the entrance tunnel to the Alpha's den, there were two other entrances to be explored. One didn't look deep, but the other looked dark as if it perhaps was but a tunnel leading to many dizzying branches he could get himself lost in with no way of calling for help under the water should he be turned around.

So that's the way he went by the light of the glowing algae and lichens growing along the walls of the rock, giving the tunnel an eerie atmosphere as he went. He wished he could call out for the pup or correctly hear in the water, but everything was muffled, and even his vision unfocused enough that he couldn't make out the fine details of the textured rock around him.

He swam slow, peering into any crevice or entrance he could fit through, searching for any sign of life. He passed little to nothing that he could see, only plants and small rooms stored with small treasures that were typically weird and in a wide array of things. From old corals that must have been picked long in the last before they had been bleached, odd ends of old jewelry (some he might even say could be lost royal heirlooms), to a few crystal lights used to illuminate Altean windows. He quickly pulled himself out of those odd spaces to venture further into the darkness.

He flinched when the screeches of fighting Siren's echoed through the water. He paused, looking back towards where the sounds had come, waiting as they fell silent. Suddenly something was swimming towards him quickly, their bright glowing markings lighting the tunnel around them as they sped towards him. He could see the flash of bright teeth and panicked as warm-colored fins flared out behind the Siren.

They startled when they ran into him, scaring the living piss out of the prince when they grabbed ahold of him looking as afraid of him as he was of it. After a moment he realized this was nothing but the mate that they'd swam in on. The Siren released him, shoving him away with wide eyes as the sounds of fighting started up again, only louder now as the competing pair moved towards the entrance of the main cavern.

Keith was pushed back onto the sandy floor as the mate fled, speeding into a nearby entrance and disappearing out of sight. Keith sat up and cautiously glanced back the way the siren came before he edged closer to the entrance the creature had ducked down. He pressed against the wall to peer inside to find the room brighter with glowing purples and orange to give the space a warmer atmosphere alongside the greens and blues of the plants along the walls.

The Siren was peeking back at him from a nest of seagrasses, a layer of weaved leaves covering their head. They shrunk down at the sight of him, not making any move to come after him so he pulled away and moved along, he paused a few yards down when he noticed another room that looked like it was brighter than the rest. He pushed himself towards it and eyed through the entrance, wishing he could shout his proud success when he found a small little lump that was about the size of a baby under a pile of grass.

He pushed into the room and glanced around. There was a small bowl filled with some sort of chewed salve and long leaves of seaweed stress laid off to the side. They must have been for the little pup's tail.

He approached carefully and knelt down on he sandy floor, spotting a tuft of brown hair sticking out of the pile of grass. Keith smiled a little and carefully reached down to move some of the grass away from the pups head and nudged that little cheek he exposed.

The pup squirmed deeper into the nest of grass and stilled, only to slowly pop his head or when Keith persisted to do it again.

Big eyes opened to lazily look at him, blinking slowly before they widened, Petal sinking deep into the nest with a frightened chirp and a quick jerk.

"It's okay." Keith mouthed, wishing he could speak as he reached for the pup carefully and slowly.

Petal tried to struggle but soon enough tired out and started to cry, high pitched, panicked chirps echoing through the water and bouncing off of the stone walls.

Keith panicked, not sure what to do and afraid the other siren might react to respond to the pup. He hugged the baby to his chest and stroked his hair. It didn't help much, but it didn't improve, it wasn't until he started to him softly that the pup quieted. Keith didn't know many songs. If any. It was a soft and light tune, a snip of a lullaby he could hardly remember from when he was a young child which morphed into similar soft bites he made up as he went. He repeated the rhythm and looked down as the pup stared up at him, frightened but his attention stollen by the hint of song.

Keith continued to hum as he turned to leave the room which caused Petal to start to whine again, but he soon quieted as Keith responded by humming louder.

The prince followed the tunnel back the way he'd come, growing close to the sounds of fighting. He could fast blood in the water. He froze when he saw that the two had moved out to the entry cavern, lashing at each other with claws and fangs bared.

Keith's blood ran cold when the pup in his arms gave a loud high chirp at the sight of the two, making both sirens freeze to stare at him.