Tahless's Story

It had been a while since she had heard a siren singing.

In fact long enough that she had stopped playing, and raced though the woods, her wolf familiar beside her in an attempt to reach the singer. The last time she had heard one was when her mother had taken her on a trip to a colony of such creatures and to this day she still remembers the song,shikata akiko, they sang that day in greeting of their guests, for all water creatures were related however how distantly, and spirits of the waters more so. The time she had spent with them was enjoyable to her, and though she would never reach their proficiency in singing, she had begun to sing, able to speak and understand their language through her mothers blood.

Quickly, though it still took awhile for she was a distance, Tahl arrived at the lake. It seemed only moments since hearing the song, but minutes had passed instead. Enough that all that had happened on the beach was past and the image that hit her was of two people, close to her, one laying on the ground, bared skin sparkling with the water from the lake next to her, obviously she had been swimming. The other a young looking male who was looking desperately around.

Walking quickly Tahl used her long strides, her height from her father, to approach, and kneeling besides the girl, but opposite the boy, spoke, her soft voice of whispering leaves and burbling springs.

"Mani naa raika?" (What is wrong?) Tahl asked her eyes troubled as she looked down at the apparently human looking woman before her. "re quorin?" (she drown?)

It took a moment for Tahl to understand what the male wanted her to do. It took less then that for her to blink in understanding and lean over to repeat the actions he had shown her. Taking a breath Tahl leaned over the woman and began CPR it surprised her however to feel the water in the woman's body.

"Nau brorn! Il xo'aus ulu naerden niar!" (No wonder! She tried to breathe water!)

Imitating the boy Tahl began to breathe into the womans body, but at the same time, pulled out the water that was in her lungs, done by calling the water to her.

Thankfully I can control water Tahl thought to herself as she worked over the woman as well.

"Please wake up."

Eyelids fluttered, light caressing iridescent irises of clear water. Eyelids? Mermaids did not have eyelids yet Rilletta the mermaid did. Solid ground sat beneath her, lumps of rock pressing against her slim back. Rilletta coughed, moaning at the stinging pain in her nose and throat. Her lungs felt heavy as she considered whether she even wished to awaken. Perhaps it would be easier to sleep for an eternity, another millennium are so.

"Open your eyes."

The familiar voice sneaked into her human skin, causing a shudder to ripple through her. Her eyelids lifted wearily, squinting and looking quickly away as she raised a hand to block the relentless sun. A familiar, red haired figure stood over her. "Man clam," she managed to croak, her sugary voice bumping along her vocal chords.

Rilletta looked around, her kaleidoscope orbs drifting over unfamiliar figures. Pressing her palms to the heated earth below, she pushed herself up, tucking her legs on either sides of her body as if she did not realise she was stark naked. Then again, she most likely didn't or if she did, saw no shame in nudity. She'd spent hundreds upon thousands of years undressed in her water form, after all. Clothes were strange curtains humans insisted on wearing. For modesty, her man clam had said. She did not quite understand what the word meant - modesty.

"You, you, you," she began, pointing an ivory skinned finger at each person around her in turn. "Man and lady clams?" she asked, gesturing toward Roth with her chin as she asked if they were friends of his. Her poor knowledge of the human languages was evident in her messy grammar and limited vocabulary.

Her eyes paused on a young girl with short, light hair. The creature had beautiful, large and rather innocent looking eyes and the dainty features of an elf. Yet, she was not an elf - at least, not completely. Her pale skin and the slight blue aura emitting from it hinted at her water creature ancestry. Rilletta tilted her head to the side, observing the small child.

"Dee fran huul crased fronelia?" the Siren asked in a lovely voice, now void of liquid taint in her human body. She did, however, speak as water would if it, too, could speak. Rilletta's voice was flowing, reminding those who heard of ever flowing streams and gentle ocean waves at night. You are a child of water? she'd asked. Seeing that the young girl understood, Siren beamed a pearly smile and continued, gesturing toward Roth.

"Rrha ki ra hymme paja yor getrra, en gott wi gyas." He is a mighty clam of the ocean, yet he can transform into fire. He is my friend. Rilletta smiled proudly, gripping Roth's hand to pull herself upright, brushing the sand from her backside. Her legs wobbled as she held onto Roth's shoulder, she was not yet comfortable with her strange body of flesh and blood. Roth was significantly taller than her and she frowned as she asked in the human tongue, "Why is Roth higher than Rilletta?"

Turning back to the short-haired girl, she continued, not so subtly jerking her head at the teenage boy with hair of brown and orange. "En chsee fwal fwal mea. Fou paks ra, diasee, sarrifis hyzik tes dies for?" she asked. Who is the little man? she'd asked, even though the 'little man' was still taller than Rilletta. He looks weird for he is beautiful but he has no breasts. What do you call those in your human world? Men?

"Why are you not a woman?" she asked in a language the teenage boy would understand, her accent thick like a Spanish person who'd just recently learned English. "Wear dresses and carry what do humans call? Mum bells?" she asked, meaning umbrellas.

"You are all weird," she declared, nodding as if she were agreeing with herself.

The man spoke softly, in a slightly accented language different from her own and called to the woman laying out on the sand.

"Man clam" the woman spoke, her voice sounding much like the sirens of the sea that she had heard in the past.

This must be the one who was singing that song earlier Tahl thought to herself as the woman pushed herself up into a sitting position and pointed to each of them in return.

"You, you, you, man and lady clams?"

While Tahl's grasp of the human language was not complete it was better then the woman's obviously, though it still took tahl a second to grasp what she had said.

As the siren turned to study her Tahl was surprised when she spoke in the language of the water.

"Dee fran huul crased fronelia? Rrha ki ra hymme paja yor getrra, en gott wi gyas." You are a child of water? He is a mighty clam of the ocean, yet he can transform into fire. He is my friend.

nodding Tahl answered in her rich yet soft voice "Siyo, pholor ussta ilhars suul, 'zil ph'dos, d'elezz Usstan tlun brornus dos ph''zil rivvil lu'henotep drowned, vel'bol uri'shoelt?" Yes, on my mothers side, as are you, though I am surprised you are as human and almost drowned, what happened?

Shooting a curious look at the siren, for it was now obvious that was what the woman was, as she spoke again, this time in english. It seemed that she was under the mistaken idea that Tahl was a male but when the elf opened her mouth to correct her she instead settled for a bemused expression as the male answered for her.

"Mistress Rilletta, You are correct in saying she is beautiful, but she is not he. She is indeed a young woman, at least in appearance," glancing at Tahl, the male continued to speak "They are called umbrellas, if you like mistress I can change her clothes to that of a dress if you'd like."

"Usstan saph ussta ofil'nisha fridj ula g'rftte whol l'gultah. Sefal, ele zhah il lar'ild dos nesst clam?" I like my clothes just fine thanks for the offer. Anyways, why is she calling you man clam?

Tahl, looking down at her self and her clothes, knew why she had assumed that she was a male, for even though she had passed the right of adulthood, or as much of one as the elves had, her body had yet to mature, and wouldn't for another 100 years or so.