FicWad

"Donovan, my firstborn," his mother's silky voice drew his attention from twirling thumbs, her smile welcoming and warm. Her long fish like tail flicked slowly back and forth, the small stripes and dots that speckled along the shimmering pale blue scales glowed softly. She had her arms folded against her chest and her body moved like a winding snake to keep herself a float. "Your time is coming close, my love."


Donovan furrowed his brows and his heart thudded harshly against his ribs. His head crest closed with a wet sound as he sucked in a long breath with the flow of water. "My time? Mother, what do you mean?"


She let out an amused noise and smiled. "My son, as you are aware, each siren must go through their rite of passage. You are charged with the task of tracking down a water vessel made by the land dwellers and following them to an isolate area. You must then lure a land dweller with what ever methods suit you, and drag them beneath the surface of the water until their last breath escapes their lungs. Thus their essence will seep into your body and leave you with more power than you know what to do with.”


The young siren’s lips curled downwards into a slightly frown as his gaze returned to his folded webbed hands, the claws on the tips of his fingers starting to dig into the scaled flesh. In the pit of his abdomen, butterflies tickled and flapped about and in response to this unwanted sensation the fins that lined along his spine flattened.


He was aware of the rite of passage, every siren in their might tribe went through it to prove that they were mature enough to become adults. But he was unsure if he was ready; unlike most of his fellow younglings, he did not enjoy taking the essence from living creatures. His mother was unaware of his own hesitation to kill and absorb and the young siren was pleased that she did not attend to his training sessions like the other mothers did with their younglings. Often times, she was busy doing her daily border patrols or hunting and catching sharks or krill for the others to have a full belly.


Being one of the few surviving males, Donovan knew what difficult tasks and battles laid ahead for him, and he was in no rush to get on that vessel. But his mother beamed with pride over her first born of many failed bloodlines that had existed previous to his birth. He merely pressed his lips together to stop the speech that threatened to slip out from his own betraying tongue and flicked his emerald green gaze up her warm aquamarine eyes and managed a very nervous and awkward smile.


"I...I will not let you down, my mother," he uttered softly, unfolding his hands before the sensitive webbing tore from his dark blue scaled skin. He felt her gentle and soft hand press against his cheek and that warm smile came back upon her face.


"I know you will not, my child." She leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on his forehead before turning her body to swim downward, the water bubbling at the spot where she was before like it was upset she decided to stir it.


The male was left alone, lifting his gaze up to the shimmering surface of the ocean with a confused and worried look. What was he going to do? He was no true siren.
Yet if he did not pass and kill a land dweller, he would be cast out of his tribe and wound be bound for certain death by sharks or predators.