Ash stood outside, hand on the door, the sound of music, singing, each note floated around the room but nothing came out. She watched Mayra laugh at her new friends and sometimes sing along as well. The high priestess' word rang in her ears uneasily.
Then Mayra turned and looked out at her through the small glass giving her a peek inside and Mayra a peek outside.
Ash smiled, held her breath and opened the door. The class fell silent in an instant. Mayra waved enthusiastically, "hey girls. This is my friend from back home. Ash. Ash, these are my classmates this year. Can you imagine, an all siren class? Some of them are taking music box workshop we were talking about."
Ash gave her enthusiasm to Mayra and engaged in conversation, "that's great. When are you signing up?"
"Right after orientation. Also hear them sing. Let me introduce you to my class." Mayra wrapped her arm through her elbow, as usual, and said, "these are…" and tuned a high pitch that could have broke then barriers of sound. And that single sharp sound was her new friend's name. Mayra laughed and said, "but you can call her Kalash."
A question bubbled up to her lips, "nice to meet you," she said, swallowed her curiosity. The siren's brows were broad, eyes unfocused and brown with a mop of brown hair that fell to his back. His features were strong but small, strong jaw and angles that could all fit in two of her palms. Overall, it wasn't memorable enough for her to remember if she did not meet him often.
Mayra turned to another siren and kept going, "Kalabash and Kaling. All brothers," and that answered her curiosity. The sirens all stepped forward where the eldest took her hand and flashed her a big smile, "please to make your acquaintance darling. You smell of the sea that laps at the shore at night, embowered by the moon goddess."
"Your eyes hold endless depths of mysteries I wish to dive in," the next brother took over and Mayra giggled besides her.
Ash watched amused and the third brother simply took her hand, kissed it softly and avoided eye. "Let none of my brother's words affect your heart."
And just like that Ash liked Kaling better than his brothers.
Now Mayra laughed loud an alluring bell sound both windy and thin, "you will be surprised to know but my friend here is resilient to any siren song, let alone your little tricks."
The brothers looked at each other, two surprised and one relieved. Ash took her hand back gently and said, "thank you for your immense compliments."
"I have never heard of humans resisting siren songs." the youngest spoke, "you have piqued my curiosity."
Ash looked at him, unsure if he was joining his brother's league or his words were genuine. Irrespective, she spoke, "me and Mayra have grown up together, if not for some resistance, do you think we would be friends for all these years."
She heard a mutter from behind the group of three, "if you had lesser reasons to hate the new siren, she brought in one more."
"A human who cannot be enticed is useless," her friend added. Another siren beside them called, louder than other, "if you are not into siren or siren song, why are you here. I doubt you want to study marine biology."
Others laughed, the three brothers leading the group looked uncomfortable, smiling uneasily but did not stop their jabs. This encouraged the others.
"That's too much for puny human brains."
"Hey. hey. Don't bother her, since she has developed resistance to siren songs she must also have developed a great resilience to jokes."
"More like insults," Mayra spoke louder and Ash quickly tightened her arm, making her siren friend stop.
"Choose wisely little fish, where you want to swim. Side with the human and you might become fodder too." A siren stood by Mayra's shoulder, chin almost touching, eyes farther apart than most, small and beady with a wave of lush red hair. There was no sheen on her as if she had been out of water, in human form for far to long.
Mayra opened her mouth and Ash stood up quickly, "I was here to join the orientation but since my stay is interfering with your free play, I might as well get a move on. I have other places to be."
She squeezed Mayra's hand, disengaged her elbow and moved away from the small group. Kalinga, the youngest of the siren brothers smiled apologetically. "The classes start in two days, mayeb you can come tomorrow too."
She looked at the mop of red hair and smiled back at the youngest, "perhaps. My schedule is full," and slipped out of the class she wasn't wanted in. As she left she heard the brothers grumble, "if your words cannot be melodic to someone's ears without the siren effect, you might as well not be a siren."
Ash smiled at the defense but it came much too late. She buried her head in the paper once again. The next orientation was the centaurs and kelpies but she didn't have to attend the centaurs, only kelpies. However, they both had a joint orientation before the individual group's orientations. Hesitant and unsure where to make her way, she climbed the stairs up and wandered the hallway, too empty to belong to anyone. However, through a door, faint smoke rose. Ash stepped close to the window and caught a glimpse of a short human, a goblin perhaps through the white haze. Unsure if this was normal or not, she looked around for a smoke detector and found one right outside the door.
A little more assured than before she made her way down the staircase and out of the building. In the open, with the small podium cleared and the earlier crowd dispersed, she found some sirens, perhaps seniors and their goblin friends, trading things. Money, a dash of blink, crystals, even secretive black pouches were being passed around.
For a moment she wondered if this is where a siren's hoard came from. Not looking to pry, she forced her eyes forward and headed straight for the next building over, where a group of centaurs, kelpies and the human transformed kelpies walked around. Most of them looked like catching up to their friends, so she headed into the building. The architecture was identical. Relieved, she looked at the map again and this time found her next stop more easily. The door's length was twice her size and weight, from floor to ceiling but the room was empty. Too early.
Unable to step in, she eased out of the empty room and heard a soft melodic voice right over her shoulder. "Watch where you are going? Fregging short sighted human."
Surprised, she turned around to find a centaur towered over her. She smiled slightly, "thank you for your patience," and stepped out of the way.
The centaur stepped into class. She closed the door, or attempted to, after herself and walked away, slightly failed. As she descended the stairs to head out of the building, she heard a tune, a music box tune, even and sharp, and a voice buried in it. A song played from overhead, a soft melancholy tone. It reminded her of back home, the home she left behind with crushed hopes and broken heart.
She hurried her steps to escape from the memories of her final moments on the island and with her family. However, the song carried through the stairs and a couple sitting at the end of the stairs, squished into each other talked in low aggravated whispers.
"But you never look at me the same way you see him."
"And you never treat me the same way you used to. Forget treat, you never even invite me to your room."
The other one sighed to himself, "you want to come over to see him."
It was turning into a fight but none of their tone sounded aggravated with the other. Each rather sounded lost in their own insecurities. Unsure if it was the song's doing or not, she paused at the last step and cleared her throat.
"Apologies for interrupting the two od you. There is siren's song playing upstairs, so you might want to move somewhere out of earshot."
"Now even the new student can tell her to get lost." There was no bite in their words and they were not directed at her. She wished they'd snap out of the affect but she could do nothing more. She passed them and heard one of them speak up. "It might be the affect of the music box, let's go from here."
"Yeah," the other cleared his throat and she heard footsteps with the fading conversation, "thank the moon goddess for an interruption, or we would have ended up fighting," one said while the other laughed, "or crying."
Soon, she was outside the building. A kelpie, in human form, was riding another kelpie in her natural form. Their combined laughter and delighted grunts could have echoed through the mountains that surrounded the campus. The scene was a delight to watch.
Much like others she watched as the human-formed kelpie took her turn while someone on the side, "alright here is the next lucky draw. No. 37."
The ride stopped, the laughed died as the other kelpie dismounted her fellow and the said, "I will see you in the back. Hope that helped with the raffle."
"Thanks a bunch sis."
As the two parted way, she aimlessly, followed the other woman to the back of the building and came upon the exit door.
She checked the man and found there was a large lake behind both sides of the campus. She pushed opened the door, hoping to find a place to skip until the next orientation.
However, the loud grunts and giggles and huffs reached her ears quickly.
The sight by the lake could only be comparable to a beach on mainland where all kelpie and centaurs gathered for a private party. Kelpies were jumping into the lake, rolling out, naked and dry while the centaurs raced around, leisurely.
Was this the combined orientation? Should she join them?
She wondered how it would go if she joined ahead of time. A queen must never be early but she was no longer a queen. In fact, she did not know if such a feat was possible to work into her future- near or far. Simply being a student wasn't what she was trained to do. And didn't know how. She reached for her phone and paused. Who could she call? None of her friends had trouble fitting in but she. She couldn't pull them down just by calling them. Then again, none of her friends would have insight to share about being a student. Perhaps she could wander but that did not go as planned, unsure of where to go, she eventually took a step forward.
One, then two and more. Behind her, a presence called, "Aishwariya?"
The voice of a siren, older siren, she knew before she turned. Indeed, the woman behind her had greying hair, grey eyes and ashen skin tone, as if she was storm and the calm, all wrapped in one. She stood out of the professor's way and asked, "yes. Please you make your acquaintance professor."
"Keen eye for a human. I take you parents raised you aware of our society?"
Ash nodded, "they did, trained me based on our limited interactions as well. Though I hope to look forward to get to know everyone more."
"Polite and nice. I like you. It's been a while since we got a nice human royalty among us. Come on. I will introduce you to the class."
She hesitated, "Thank you for going through the trouble."
The siren smiled, a thin stretch from ear to ear, beautiful and unnerving. "It is part of my job and you do not have to be so formal about it. These are a rough bunch and rougher together. I advice you to watch out for yourself. Tripping, falling, getting wet are all part of the first meeting. It was perhaps the reason they did not put you in the combination class. I teach both of them, you will be fine as long as you stay close to me."
Unknown to her, someone far away was feeling weary as he pushed his glassed up his nose for the nth time. Bree bumped his shoulder. "Don't tell me you are tired."
"Thirsty. These tables are heavy and you are not helping."
"I am hauling the chairs."
"Doesn't count."
"How can you make the sick work?" Drew chipped in and Vance gave him a concerned look, "we still haven't figured out what happened and I still haven't received any word from my father."