“And the poor people living here? I wonder if any of them had survived in this flooding.”
“Whatever happened here, life is long gone from here, Marina. There is nothing we can do to bring life back here. Even it could be turned into a fishing village; this fog is just like any other fog in the south: not created by magic. And no one would want to live in an endless view of a large fog.
“Now we’re talking about this, I’m starting to think there is only one possible way this village had been destroyed.” Vaeludar paused before he could was going to say a word he didn’t’ want to say. “A Banshee.”
Marina spat in anger. “Those black hooded fiends! They are considered to be the original Sirens. What makes them similar with my kin is they have voices, too, but they use their voices to spread mostly hatred, by creating illusions a person doesn’t want to hear or see; basically someone’s worst nightmare or their most hateful day they don’t want to remember.
“Among the Sirens’ legends, it wasn’t after the Shadow King’s downfall, they were mutated by the light of the Crystal Dragon’s scales, clothing and skin and ugliness turned into love, beauty, and singing enchantments of love. The remaining Banshees fled into the foggiest places on the island. Or so how Sirens tell other Sirens about these scary stories.”
“And we could be entering a potential Banshee’s territory,” stated Vaeludar, realizing they must in a lair of a Banshee. “How is Naìra? Is she secured?”
Marina showed Vaeludar Naìra sleeping next to Flavius. Both brother and sister were cuddling each other, which made Vaeludar and Marina stand closer together than ever.
“Typical family bonding,” said Vaeludar.
“I wish I was part of this family,” said Marina.
“What makes you say that? Was King Uragiru not enough?”
“He’s a good father, but he doesn’t a lot of time with me, due to his responsibilities as a king. And Princess Stephane doesn’t act like a real sister; she’s always out in the market places. I’m just left alone in a large dining hall with nothing to do.”
“Well, I’m sure I could arrange Geraldus to have you live at his house. That is if we do make it back south. This could be a one-way trip for all of us.” Vaeludar strolled away from Marina and walked to the boat’s font. “We must be weary of Banshees around these parts. It’s better if we let our companions sleep. I hope they don’t have the abilities to wake them.”
“Any evil can even wake the heavy-duty sleepers,” pointed out Marina. She was putting some blue think liquid on her arrows, dripping from her a deep cut on her calms. It was blood.
Vaeludar wasn’t amazed of what Marina was doing.
“Siren’s blood,” she said. “The most poisonous blood a creature could have. It can mutate a rabbit into a human-size monster. Anyone or thing touches a Siren’s blood, my blood, can be affected with a dreadful disease far more gruesome than smallpox and leprosy that can mutate and liquefy any kind of living being. Even the Shadow King himself, body and soul, can be harmed by my blood. My blood was the only living blood that can harm Spirits of the Dead such as ghosts, ghouls, and even Banshees.”
“Banshees are undead creatures?” asked Vaeludar.
“I consider them Spirits of ladies who hate men with the most disciple attitudes. They died with great hate; their spirits turned into wrenched, hooded figures, and started to show people their hates and told them their fears. And that is how show-and-tell was made of. Then years later, the Crystal Dragon comes and washed their evilness and redeemed them in his light. The surviving Banshees hid.”
“Ah, what a beautiful morning,” yearned Wonomi. Wonomi was looking at the fog, thinking he was seeing sunlight. He seemly was happy if he had won a tournament and people cheering out his name.
Vaeludar instantly knew Wonomi was hallucinating and tried to use his dragon eyes to see in the fog. Yet, he could feel a barrier provoking his vision to see deep into the fog. For the hybrid, he wasn’t going to give up his vision. But the harder he tried to get pass an invisible barrier, the stronger it became.
After minutes of trying, Vaeludar could feel his head starting to pound him like ten boulders smashing on his head. His hybrid eyes were aching as he was trying too hard to look far ahead. His headache was hurting so heavily he felt like he was sick. This made him drop to the floor in a weaken state.
“Vaeludar,” shouted Marina. She grasped him before he could fall flat on the ground like a dead man. Marina pulled Vaeludar in a knelling position as long he kept a wing of his from whipping in her face. “Vaeludar, can you hear me?”
Vaeludar could hear her voice alright but he couldn’t tell what she was saying. Vaeludar was wearing her voice chanting in his ears like the witches’ chanting he had heard yesterday. His eye vision was clearly fine. He could see Flavius and Naìra getting up; he was seeing their mouths move but sounding distorted.
Marina saw them, too.
Flavius was holding Naìra by the hand and looking overboard.
“Look at all the fish,” said Naìra. “Aren’t they pretty?”
Monico and Flarefur got up and they seemed to be happy too. Galvin was the only one who was sleeping heavily if he had a thousand bottles of alcohol. Marina saw the crew heavily happy and enjoying what was around them. She knew they were hallucinating by the fog, but she never knew the fog would show them something with great happiness.
She would try to wake
