Syrena

let the water take me

Once, she was the hunter. Syrena has never known what it is like to feel hunted. Even now, without her powers, she is large enough to be formidable, her face a mask of disinterest and somewhere in those hollow eyes, just a bit of a warning. There’s nothing outwardly cruel about her, but rather something just a hair other, that she has not and will not lose. Just a tiny flicker of her personality that will always be siren, even though she no longer wields the power of her sisters.

She is nothing now. Just another face in the masses, gray and slippery, more seal than horse on the outside. But her body is fully horse, some Friesian mix that doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Her mane and tail curl just slightly from that heritage, and feathers fan out from her large feet. The siren is no dainty little girl, and she is not beautiful out of the water (not in this drab, gray form). But she is noticeable.

So is he though, the rattle of bones giving away only moments before the yellow eye does as well. Truthfully, Syrena has no idea what she is doing here. She was bored, and so she came, thinking it would be prudent to prove herself useful. But she is not useful. She is good at standing in the sea, the waves lapping at her feet, dreaming of what she used to be.

She is not that mare, anymore. She is this one. The one that recruits, that smiles, that pretends.

He is the first one she’s come across in her attempt to navigate a forest (not a skill those who prefer the water tend to possess). She doesn’t stop to decide if he’s actually worth approaching, or pretend she can read his face and decide if it might suit the Falls. Nuance is not her skill, and she doesn’t really care much anyway. She’s here, he’s here, she might as well.

“Hello,” she says, her voice without much emotion, but at the very least, not unfriendly. She smiles, and it looks easy (a well-practiced thing for the mare), and even reaches her eyes. “I’m Syrena, from the Hidden Falls.” She falls silent then, not actually sure what else to add. She assumes he is new here, but maybe he’s just come back to this hell-hole of a place looking for somewhere new to live.

So she leaves it at that, and lets him do with it as he will.

"words"