RP:Siren's Song

Sandy Beach

Aptera leaned her upper torso against a sunbathed rock near the shore. She hadn’t seen any sailors for days and the lack of activity was heartbreaking. Flexing her nails in the morning sun, the mermaid stretched skyward, while her tail flicked softly below the waves to keep her position. A low rumble reached her ears; the sound of someone nearby. Gritting her teeth in an unholy smile, she made sure that her lower half was completely obscured from the shoreline’s view point.

Krice wasn't on the shore. In fact, Aptera would be more likely receptive to ripples in the ocean. The man was in the water, his long hair pulled back by a simple black cord. He swam with the grace of a merman but was clearly human, strong legs and arms propelling him along the uneven surface in arm-over-arm stroke. His scarred body was obscured by water, making him difficult to spot, but sunlight reflecting off his silver hair gave an intermittent point of focus to whomever was looking eastward across the ocean.

Aptera cursed. She’d misjudged the location and now was going to likely ruin her own rouse for her ignorance..until she saw what looked like a silver fish darting through the waves. Dipping down below the surface, she spotted mammalian limbs and structure. His speed was impressive, she noted, but the mermaid was sure she could catch up to him quickly if she wanted. She was half tempted to try….but playing the damsel seemed a bit more fun. Plus, if he got close enough, her Siren’s song will do the rest of the work for her. What fun! After repositioning herself on the rock to hide her lower half and give her the guise of a land dweller, she called out in a rather urgent voice, which carried well over the waves. “Hello? Hello? Is anyone there? Please, help me!”

Krice swam seemingly without a care in the world, against the current and then with it, toning his already taut musculature to peak condition. After many weeks away from Cenril, this was his return to the oft-visited beach, the ocean once more his partner in solitude. What he hadn't counted on, however, was the company of someone else - least of all another swimmer. A call for help appealed to his nature and he stopped his swim, lifting his head with a quick jerk to shake away excess water. Gilded eyes scanned the surface as his toes brushed the sand of the ascending seabed, and it didn't take long for his acute eyesight to note the woman clinging to a rock. After wading closer, he called from a couple metres away, " What's the problem?"

Aptera played her part well. Wet hair clung to her panic-stricken face as she grasped onto the rock with her hands, knuckles white with strain. “My legs…Something happened to my legs…I can’t feel them anymore.” The more she talked the more breathy and panicked she seemed. “I’m slipping…I can’t hold on…” She clawed at the rock while tears formed in the corners of her eyes as she looked at Krice, pleading him to come closer. “Please!”

Krice frowned at Aptera's apparent distress but didn't hesitate further. He swam forward, fluidly ascended the opposite curve of the rock, and stabilized his balance as he reached out to take hold of the female's closest wrist. " I gotcha," he reassured, his guarded gaze fixated on her face - for only a moment, ere he searched the depths behind and beneath her for sign of injury to her legs. If she took hold of his outstretched left arm, the toned and scarred figure of the man would tense slightly to accommodate her weight as he pulled her up onto the rock. Presumably, of he got that far, he'd be able to tell that her weight was greater than her torso alluded to, indicative of something more beneath the water, perhaps.

Aptera would start to sing when Krice’s hesitation ebbed, doing her best to keep the melody low and just soft enough for him alone to here. When he appeared, she would shift into Krice’s arms, repeating her thank you’s in a heartbreaking tone with one set of vocal chords, while the other weaved it’s bardic magic to pull him into her spell. If he allowed her to touch him for long, she would try to dig her claws into his back to hold him still until her tune took full effect and his brain melted to her command alone. Sinister was the smile of the mermaid as she locked eyes with the kind hearted warrior. Humans were such weak fools.

Krice didn't hear Aptera's song until her arms were around him, which further confirmed her weighty figure as anything -other- than human. Not one for contact anyway, the man eased Aptera's arms off of his body, but his movements were slow. Was he falling into the trap of her siren song? Something in his eyes softened, but as the strength of his mind overcame the bewitching effects of the mermaid's singing, his gold-freckled eyes darkened with malice and he shut them to her gaze, his strong arms forcefully shoving her back into the water. Clearly, Aptera was not one of the friendlier mermaids. A hard shake of his head helped the enigmatic warrior clear his thoughts but he knew it wouldn't be enough. Already feeling the pull of the female's allure, Krice pushed off the rock and swam in the opposite direction, his speed lending itself to the belief that he was -not- an average human - though he still only had two legs, swimming through waters in which the mermaids had been for generations. If he could get to the shore, then he could escape Aptera's pull without harming her.

Aptera continued to sing as her body was heaved into the water. Surprised at how nice the warrior was being about all this, she gave a fun little chase after him, using her favored terrain to her advantage. She swept towards his side, still singing out, small ripples rolling through the water in response to her song as it increased to an almost deafening volume. Her tail lashed out to send a flurry of waves to slow Krice’s advance towards the shore but he seemed to handling them with less difficulty than an average human. Again, the mermaid colored herself impressed. “I just want to have a nice little chat, darling.” She cooed through her ear piercing notes, hoping for just a little more time. Sure, it was true, she couldn’t crawl up on the sand after him…but her song had a decent enough reach.

Krice hated that song - the sound of manipulation, disguised by the beauty of a woman's voice. He set his mind straight and focused on the task of returning to shore. Given his shallow location previously, it didn't take long for him to reach waist-high waters and he immediately stood, shooting a malicious glare toward the sly mermaid. " Return to the sea," he growled, his warning buoyed by the tone of a man unimpressed with her manipulation. The strain deep in his gaze told of his struggle to fend off Aptera's magical song, however. " You're ugly," he threatened. " I don't like looking at ugly mermaids."

Aptera seemed to take a very personal offense to his comment. “My! You seem to have a nasty attitude for someone who just won. How can you say such things?” Vainly, her clawed fingernails rack through her otherwise beautiful crimson hair. Her lips pout in defiance. “You were trespassing, I was just doing my job, you know.” The tone was meant to sound sincere but instead it just sounded rude, and uncaring. “You really shouldn’t try to save everyone, Human. Lest you get dragged down by their loads.” The singing stops then, the mermaid appears to have given up for the time being. “I won’t forget that pretty face of yours.” She calls with a smirk, ducking back under the waves, kicking up a large back spray of water as she goes.

Krice accepted the mermaid's pseudo-rant with a glare on his face and tension in his well-structured body, poised for defensive or offensive movement depending on Aptera's behaviour. When she threatened to remember his 'pretty face', the warrior's expression softened and he adopted a frown. Clearly he had upset the female, which had at least stopped the siren song and thus allowed his mind to clear, but still... When Aptera splashed away, Krice hunched up a shoulder in response to the waters that subsequently sprayed him. Only once the female was gone did he grumble and depart the waters. " Not the nicest mermaid I've met," he mumbled in irritation, approaching a far off boulder behind which he had placed his items. Once he was dressed, he'd depart the beach and leave the mermaid to her own space.