LC Satusi Prologue

 

Part 4.

“So you’re a siren”, Shawn said, shaking his head as if to clear it.
   I had gotten out of the water, and now we were both sitting by the shore, watching the ocean through the snowfall. I didn’t think the cold bothered him more than me, as he hadn’t even suggested us to return inside. Maybe some remaining vampirism thing. 
   “Half-siren, these times”, I corrected him. “Half-human, too. Look at these legs.”
  I extended my legs, comparing them to his.
“They’re, uh, great legs”, Shawn said, running his hand through his hair as he stared. “So tell me I got this right. You used to live only in the ocean, but now you live on land as a human?”
   “I swim from time to time”, I shrugged my shoulders.
“This all makes so much sense”, Shawn shook his head to himself. “You’re… I’ve never seen anything like you, Sisu. I think I would’ve believed you’re a siren without you showing me – no human can look like you. You’re unbelievable.”
   I smiled slightly, recognising the compliment. I rolled my eyes.
“You’re not running away from me, so… Is this changing things?” I asked him.

“I – no, Sisu, its not”, Shawn shook his head again. “I promised to protect you, that’s not changing. As long as you accept it, that is. I want you to be safe, and I know Axisca is targeting you. I’m not sure if they know what you are, but they know you’re not completely human.”
   I nodded, considering it. It made sense now. Why I had felt watched. It hadn’t been paranoia then.
I didn’t want to think of that much more though, not now. I was – I was happy, that Shawn was here. At this one moment, it was all that mattered to me.
   We got up together, and it felt like no words were needed anymore. We moved carefully closer to one another, slowly, but it was clear neither of us was moving away.

It was starting to get slowly lighter, the first lights of dawn coming out, when we kissed for the first time. I felt like this was where I was meant to be, and this was who I was meant to be with. The feeling was everything I had hoped for when I had chosen to be turned into half-human – when I had chosen to look for a mate here in human world.

I pulled back.
   “I didn’t - ?” Shawn asked, worried.
“No, nothing like that”, I shook my head, smiling slightly. “I forgot to say something to you.” I looked at him; the only human I could have told my truth like this. “I promise to protect you too”, I said then.

Shawn took my hands into his and I looked at his beautiful blue eyes that were so much like the ocean. All of the threats of Axisca felt so far away in this one moment. And I wasn’t alone anymore.

.

We ended up moving in together soon after, as it felt safer to stick close with Axisca’s ongoing threat. Shawn took it very seriously when I told I had been followed for some time already, and as he was a police from his profession, he believed it’d give us an advantage. He had access to more databases and such than most, and he said he had started his own private investigation now that he had escaped from them. When I told of the Outlanders organization, Shawn decided it was the best course of action for him to join forces with them, to see how much they could influence Axisca. There were numbers on non-humans side as well, after all.
   I felt safer not being on my own anymore, but also now that I knew what was going on, I wasn’t afraid even if I’d still be followed by some shady people from some shady corporation. Shawn had made a valid point that I had more visibility now that I was more important in my work and I had already few close friends – him and some Outlander people – who’d make some noise if something happened to me. I wouldn’t be going quietly missing, that was for sure.
   Moving in together meant some practical problems though. I wanted to stay at my home as it was so close to the ocean and Shawn was all okay with that, but there wasn’t much room. Shawn made pretty decent money as a police officer so that income helped to make some revamping to my little house, including buying a double bed.

Sometimes I thought how I had started from nothing, coming to live on land, and now I had a lovely home in a lovely location and a promising mate prospect.
   I also had Sike. I was thrilled to introduce Shawn and Sike to one another, although neither seemed to be very sure about the other. Still, they would get used to one another, I was sure of that.

Through Sike I actually made myself another friend – and not a guy, which I thought was great. Sunset Valley had an Equestrian Center which I visited to learn more practical skills about horses. It was a beautiful place by the coastside, overlooking the ocean, with a lot of space for their horses.
   With one of the women working there, Heidi, we got along great from the start. She didn’t mind my skin colour at all, was merely a little curious at the start, and said people could learn a lot from animals who didn’t care about one’s looks, but their personality.

Heidi taught me horsemanship skills, how to care of horses and was curious to hear about Sike, telling me how uncommon it was for wild horses to approach people. I wasn’t sure if my siren-side had something to do with it that animals worked so well with me, but that I couldn’t ask her.
   We had few training sessions with their riding school horses whom I adored about as much as I adored Sike. I already planned how to use all the things I learned with Sike.

Heidi introduced me to a horse called Cyan, who was a very spirited individual. She taught me groundwork, how to give proper cues to the horses by voice commands and body-language. She taught me that it wasn’t so much about the words that were used but more of the tone of voice, which made sense.

“So pretty much, calm voice for calming them and quick, zippy voice to get them to go faster”, Heidi informed me. “They’re smarter than we think, you can count on that.”
   It was a lot of fun, giving different cues to the horses and seeing how they responded to them. According to Heidi, I could directly teach these cues to Sike as well, as long as I didn’t stray from them but stayed true to the commands myself so as not to confuse him.

I stayed late at the stables, only leaving after dusk had already settled. I even saw another little creature on my way out, and I watched the animal for a while, unable to stop myself from smiling. I remembered it was called a raccoon.

I remembered at the last moment I shouldn’t be petting all animals I crossed my paths with, and settled only to watch how the little thing scuttled off.
   I didn’t think there were any animals I didn’t find a reason to like. Although I heard people complain a lot about different animals. Birds made a mess, deers ate their trees, horses trampled yards. Weren’t fences and other shelters for that very reason?
   I didn’t want any fences around our home. Small as it was, I considered it a home. I liked watching the creatures, liked tracing their tracks and guessing what had been there using an animal book to guide me.

I started training with Sike for him to get more used to me, which went surprisingly well right from the start. He was very food-motivated and loved red apples. Sometimes I wondered how the herds fared with the snow, but Shawn assured me wild animals were very adapted in ways people often struggled to understand.
   Shawn also introduced me into dating; a human concept, clearly. Sirens didn’t date. In our culture, whoever wooed who, brought them food, and the more impressive the catch, the more meaning it held. It was attractive to know that potential mate prospects were strong and able, and often that was all that was needed. Then hunting together showed what harmony was between the two, and usually that sealed if the mating happened.
   Humans were more complicated. Most didn’t hunt their own food. Or fight over threats. They showed their interest in other ways. Shawn took me out to try something called ice skating. I didn’t know what skating meant, but ice in it sounded fun.
   Ice skating turned out to mean that you strap knives to your shoes and go walk and run on ice, only for the fun of it, for no other reason. Insane, it seemed like, and I could not comprehend how one could contain their balance like that. And I did not.

Shawn merely laughed lightly, supporting me and holding my hand as I struggled to learn it. I held onto his hand with a death grip and was determined that if I’d fall, I’d drag him down with me for thinking this was a good idea.

Humans clearly made the oddest ways of spending their time, and I was sure that if there had been others on the ice with us, I would’ve been crashing against them. I would’ve never thought to try something like this on my own.
   “I’m going to fall”, I said, my eyes wide as I gripped Shawn’s hand.
“You’re not going to fall”, Shawn answered, as if he could somehow know that.
   “This is insanity.”
“You’re doing well, don’t give up.”
   My skates made a sudden sharp screech against the ice and I screeched with it, almost knocking myself first forward, then backwards.

“I got you”, Shawn smiled and pulled me back to balance.

After some time I started to catch the point of it and wanted to try on my own. While Shawn skated backwards and spun around in some, I had to admit, impressive show of skill, I went around in a wide circle, sticking close to the railing so I could use it if I needed it.

It was strange, but I was surprised to realize I found it fun. Human experiences, wasn’t that what I had come here to find out? Smile made its way on my face even though I didn’t get much better in the end.
   We finished off our ‘date-night’ by rolling around in the snow, making figures that were called snow angels. Being surrounded by water in the form where you could make figures into was again something I couldn’t have experienced back in my before-life, so I chose to enjoy it in full.

“Thank you for this”, I smiled at Shawn when we walked back home, feeling somehow… Light, like every step was weightless.
   “Next time I’ll show you how to make a snowman”, he grinned at me.
“You can make men out of snow?"
    Shawn laughed at that.
“In a way, yes. I’ll show you another time.”

I started liking this dating thing, trying to think what I could come up with. Mostly it seemed like Shawn was content simply by being in my company, no matter what we did. As was I in his. And he liked to ask things about my previous life, and I liked that we were getting to know one another more.
   One late evening when we had made food, Shawn surprised me yet again.
“Hey Sisu”, he said suddenly, staring at a fork. “Do sirens use atrains?”
   “What’s an atrain?” I glanced at him.
“It’s like a big fork”, Shawn said, showing his fork. I raised my eyebrows.

   “Where in the water would we get big forks?”
“It’s how classic mermaid stories are told”, Shawn shrugged his shoulders. I rolled my eyes.
   “No. We use as weapons these…” I paused, thinking how to word it. “They’re these sharp, big teeth of animals. One kind of whale. I’m not sure if you have a specific name for it.” Though they often had very specific names for different creatures. Like us.
   Shawn was staring at me. “You mean… narwhals?”
“Maybe”, I simply said. “Are they big and have this long, sharp tooth? A tusk?”
   “A tooth- what, no”, Shawn answered. “Narwhals have a horn… That’s a horn, right? That thing can’t be a tooth.”
   “We can check on that net thing”, I suggested. Humans had a very useful collective site where they had almost all of the information they had, but this one wasn’t in a library. It was in electricity form, accessed by phones and such. For some reason it was called a net. I didn’t like nets much.
   “It’s Internet, but yes”, Shawn nodded, already taking out his phone to search and see which one of us was right. It was me, of course.
   “Big forks”, I muttered to myself, shaking my head as I tried to get rid of the mental image. Humans seriously had such odd ideas, once again. 

It was then when I heard that sound again. A car sound. I almost dropped my plate.
   Our house was so out in the nowhere – almost never anyone simply drove by. Only times when I had heard a car here was when mail was brought, which was in the daytime, or -
   “Sisu, wait!” Shawn shouted out but I didn’t wait, slamming the door open and rushing out, not caring if it snapped shut behind me.

It was the same car, again. Stopped in front of the house, surely not even trying to be subtle. A scare tactic. I wasn’t scared, not anymore. I was angry.
   “Leave!” I shouted out, raising my hand in the air, trying to see who it was that was driving – a vicious thought had hit my mind. What if I’d recognise them, what if some of these people were some I knew?

The car flashed its lights at me as if as a sign of some kind as it started to drive off again. I ran after it a few steps to see if I could catch the number it had in its back.
  “Sisu!” Shawn shouted again, running to the yard him as well. “You cannot run like that, at least wait for me to come with you-“

“It had to be them, again!” I scoffed, feeling rather riled up. I had done nothing bad to anyone, what would give anyone right to be so harassing by my own home?
   “I got the license plate”, Shawn said. “I’ll run it by our system tomorrow at the station and see if I can pin the driver.”
   “I don’t know what pinning means but it better be bad”, I snapped, staring after where the car had disappeared. Shawn stepped in front of me, clearly trying to calm me down.

“It does mean bad, it will from me”, Shawn convinced. “I’ll have this looked at, Sisu, trust me. We’ll make sure to lock the door securely, we can look into better surveillance system here. I’ll make sure we’re safe.”
   “I should’ve thrown a snowball at them”, I scowled, still angry and feeling a little bit adrenaline.
   Shawn huffed a laugh and pulled me into a hug.
“We can build a weaponry of those too”, he assured me.

I didn’t sleep well that night, and I didn’t think Shawn did either. I spent most of the night listening if the car came back, trying to think what I’d do if we’d find out who was the driver. Or drivers. It had to be from Axisca, who other would it be?