Five more howls echoed throughout the mountain ranges.
“Hobgoblins,” stated Vaeludar, jumping down and landing with a bam.
“Hobgoblins?” complained Galvin.
“Yes, they’re following us. They are three days behind. Maybe four if we were to move now. But it is dark now, and we won’t be able to see in the dark.”
“What do we do then?” asked Wonomi, worried.
“We’ll sleep through the night,” answered Vaeludar. “Marina’s siren voice is echoing throughout the mountains. We will be safe for the night. At dawn, be ready to march out. We need to stay ahead of them if we are to survive through this mountain pass. If we are to survive these wastelands, we need to hurry and be—”
Another echo was heard: a soft cry of a ghostly, female voice. The echo sounded like it was in trouble.
“Now, this place is getting even creepier,” said Monico, annoyed by these sudden echoes. “Can’t these echoes or screams or whatever stop?”
“That is no ordinary sound of a creature,” said Flavius. “That sounded like a girl.”
“And where would a girl be in these parts?” asked Galvin. “That is probably the sound of a dying Siren calling in agony and torture.”
They all were glaring at him.
“What?” Galvin asked again.
“Ahem,” Marina cleared her throat. Her arms were fold and her foot was tapping.
“Oh, um, no offence, my Siren, ur, Highness, un, Siren Highness,” gulped Galvin.
“Better watch your words, Galvin,” warned Marina. “Anger me again and you will receive a bite from a Siren that you won’t forget for the rest of your life. Don’t forget I am the last Siren. So the chances of meeting another Siren are zero percent.”
“A thousand apologies about that,” said Galvin, shaking. He had obviously heard the tales of the bite sizes of a Siren’s teeth.
The female voice cried out again and again and again about every twenty seconds until it fell completely quiet all of a sudden.
“That was ten cries of girl,” said Vaeludar. “I hope there are fewer noises when we reach the Lost Castle at the very pointed end of the island.”
“Ten cries of a girl voice? Lost Castle? Pointed End? Of course,” said Marina, realizing about something. “No wonder these things are sounding too familiar.”
“What?” asked Vaeludar.
“It’s called The Tale of the Lost Kingdom,” said Marina. “It is also called The Fall of the Ruined City.”
“Ah, I remember that tale far too well,” said Vaeludar.
“I also know that,” said Flavius.
“I kept hearing that many times, and the ending to it,” said Wonomi.
“Yeah, the ending always makes me wonder what really happens,” said Monico.
“What? A story?” complained Galvin. “Stories are meant for little children? So much ‘and they lived happily ever after’. There is none of that in real life.”
“This story is not your traditional happily ever after story,” said Marina. “This story is about a castle city, like the same place we live, that fell to ruin by a single monster.”
“Yeah, yeah a monster that terrorizes a town, kidnaps the princess, then rescued by a wonderful Prince Charming, and all live happily ever after.”
“THAT IS NOT HOW IT GOES!” yelled Marina, standing up. She was turning into a different form: fins on her sides, going from her legs to her arms, eyes from a fish that glared red-yellow, teeth of a piranha, and claws in the shape of a great white shark.
Galvin looked frightened by Marina’s Siren form.
Vaeludar touched her fishy, scaly hands and she turned back into her human form. Marina was calm within seconds.
“This story doesn’t have a happily ever after or a prince,” stated Marina. “Let me explain: this story was a Siren’s story, passed down by my kin for generations. It was eventually passed on to humans. This is how it goes:
“It was a time long ago when every person was living in harmony. Like today, there were many people but hardly any creatures of myth living in this castle that was also a city within. Traders trading, hunters hunting, peasants working, merchants collecting, fishermen fishing, and the royal family doing royal things; the average life just like today’s life.
“However, in years’ time, the city castle eventually fell into greed and anger. Everyone became drunk; they started fighting over priceless items, gambling over land, selling ladies into slavery, abusing the children like rats, and the royalty becoming greedy themselves. But there was a princess who tried to bring the city to its former glory.
“As the castle city fell into a chaotic place, a monster of ice came from deep within the surrounding mountains, crawling out of the dirt like a worm. This monster was called an Ice Serpent, a distant relative of the Sea Serpents and the only of its kind. The Ice Serpent attacked the city where no guards were present to defend and killed the king and the queen. The Ice Serpent held the princess captive. And in one icy blast that didn’t kill, the people living within the city castle were cast out like the people today did with the Sirens.
“Giving into despair, the people left and mysteriously disappeared; leaving the castle city and the princess captive by the Ice Serpent that guards the castle by mountains of ice. And through time, the voice, which was just like the voice we just heard, was her voice calling out to someone, to anyone to come to her rescue and kill the Ice Serpent that holds her as its prisoner.
“And that is where the story ends,” concluded Marina.
“The ending is ambiguous, Galvin,” said Flavius. “There are many, many theories of what happens after the story. Some say the princess was to be held by the Ice Serpent for all time.”
“Other say she died, lives as a ghost, her ghostly voice calls out to her rescuer to came to her aid and
