5 - The song of the cursed water

The high peaks which at that time masked his sight suddenly revealed a vastness of deazur where the sky mingled with the ocean without any real distinction. The vast blue expanse came to be reflected in the milky eyes of Sulfur, giving them a melancholic air. He soon lowered them, erasing all the colours reflecting them. The smell of air had also changed. It contained an iodine tip that was more present at each step singing not only in its nostrils but also on its fur, skin, wood. He took a look at the foot of the mountain massif and realized that the mountain massif formed a cove that bordered the azure waves like a mother pampering her child.

Without warning, Sulfur made a leap towards the void. Fear and hesitation did not seem to be part of his vocabulary like many other emotions elsewhere. With one hand, he came near the rock wall to slow down his fall. Dusts and rocks accompanied almost silently in his descent. It is in an imperceptible rust that it lands smoothly on a sandy beach. This new texture intrigued at the highest point and plunged his hands into the friable soil. It was soft but at the same time rough, firm but at the same time fleeing.

All to his discovery, Sulfur experimented with the sand that escaped between his fingers for a moment before hearing a very close sound. It was like something was coming out of the water. Intrigued, he turned his head and saw a creature with a strange appearance in just as strange water. The latter quickly hid behind rocks that littered the shore. The savior hesitated. Should he focus on the creature or on the strange shade of water?

A detail came and struck him. The place where he stood gave rise to an unhealthy and familiar atmosphere. The air had an acrid taste, rotten and water until then from a celestial blue was now shooting on a shimmering green. And what about the creature. She seemed not to dare approach him. It did not look like fear or shyness, as he had seen in his past encounters. No, it looked more like something like... shame.

Wanting to satisfy his nascent curiosity, he decided to take the first step and headed towards the edge of the water. Seeing this, the creature waved and panicked, it disappeared into the waves. Sulfur frozen a few centimetres from the shore. This one seemed to have many colors. At once reddish, then azure and now green. Why? Why so many different nuances for one and the same thing? Even normally clear water had become cloudy and opaque to the point where it was difficult to see its own reflection. He squatted and stretched out his hand for the waves.

"Noooon!"

A loud cry sounds and Sulfur left his gesture pending. Without his knowledge, the mysterious creature had reappeared and stood a few meters from him. She was close enough that he could distinguish her perfectly.

The top of his body had a humanoid aspect that he had never seen before in any other creature except himself. The bottom, on the other hand, seemed to have taken a more suitable appearance for the environment where she resided. One could see a long appendix covered with scales ending in a fine and delicate caudal fin. In other times, this being might have been bewitching, but its dark, mutilated skin now gave way to an icy terror.

Knowing that the siren was hideous, she tried to hide her body with her frail arms, but it was hardly lost. Sulfur Could clearly see her skin skewed and deformed as if she had melted. He could see his tail sometimes dotted with scales sometimes covered with pustules. He could see her trembling with shame and embarrassment. He stood up in a supple manner and made his head appear interrogating. When she did not see the disgust she expected, the creature opened her mouth again and had a little guttural voice, she briefly explained:

"Water... Danger... acid."

Sulfur Then smiled, as if he had not heard the warning, he pretended to put his feet in the water.

A new "Nooon" sounds.

Forgetting her unease, the siren approached the saviour, hands stretched forward and tried to push him back to the shore. Sulfur executed but his smile had disappeared. His white eyes fixed the aquatic creature and a visceral desire to catch him struck him body and soul. His fingers trembled to the memory of the jackalope he held in his grip. A dry movement, he then stretched his arm towards the siren and opened his hand as if to receive something.

Surprised, the siren looked at him without understanding. While she was looking for answers to her questions, her eyes crossed that of Sulfur. The contact was brief but he left her both confused and trembling. It was as if, for a short moment, we could read in the depths of his being. His weaknesses, his pain, his dishonor... Everything! Not knowing how to react, she undertook to observe a little closer Sulfur. Then she lives them. Four beautiful gems who proudly trumped on a duvet of ebony.

And everything became clear.

A tailbeat disappeared into the depths of the ocean. Time seemed to stop but Sulfur And patiently waited for the siren to reappear. When she returned, she was accompanied by her peers. Like her, the latter presented the same mutilations and their raucous and extinct voices seemed to whisper a name. Then he felt her, that strange sensation that seemed to chase him wherever he went.

A shimmering and burning hand presented a St. James shell. Sulfur seized and opened. His gem was there! Like a jewel with iridescent reflections resting in its mother-of-pearl box. Then he heard them. He heard their melodious songs turn into raucous cries. He saw the sea boil and the beautiful smooth skin of creatures melt like snow in the sun. Then everything changed. Water, sirens, air. Everything became gloomy and sick.

He took the gem and placed it among the others. The sirens began to cry with warm tears in unison, as if a weight had been taken away from them, as if we had finally come to release them. Sulfur, as for him , still visualized the images of the past which were constantly repeated in his mind. Everything seemed to become clearer.