Call of the sea

by sunsetsjournal

A strange new world

Chapter 6:

A strange new world

“How I am supposed to stand up on these all day?” Sonata wined terribly: “I mean it’s just so tiring and what are they even called?”

“Legs, Sonata” Aria intervened, while playing with a curl of her hair: “They’re called legs, now stop complaining for once”

“Oh c’mon” her younger sister protested nervously: “Can’t you just say something nice to me?”

“Will you two cut it out!” Adagio exclaimed, interrupting the conversation: “Look, we all know that we still need to get used to this new world and doing such thing will not be easy, but your constant wining isn’t going to improve our current situation. So, if you two don’t mind, can you please stop complaining and fighting with each other over every singe little thing you don’t like?!”.

Hearing these things, the two young sirens suddenly shut up and turned their faces so that they would avoid meeting the other one’s gaze:

“Oh, for the love of...” their sister thought, placing a hand on her forehead to express her disappointment:

“We’ll never going to get us out of here if you two don’t start cooperating again”

“This place is the worst anyway...” Aria added after a few more moments of silence:

“What do you mean?” Adagio questioned, giving up at the fact that she would need to deal with her sisters’ unpleasant mood, at least for the time being:

“This...house you found us to stay...it’s horrible: the floor is dusty, some of windows broken, the light bulbs don’t work and I think that the bed we have here may as well be infested with bugs; not to mention the squeaky staircase, plus the whole atmosphere feels haunted. Thought you had better taste.”

Although at first she might have been feeling the desire to protest, Adagio knew too well that would bring to no conclusion, if not to make both her and her sister even more mad, so she decided to ignore that comment and answer as briefly as she could:

“It was the best I could find in such a short time: we do need somewhere to spend the night, don’t we?”

“Even it that place looks like it’s inhabited by some sort of spirit?”

“What spirit?” Sonata shouted at that moment: “You guys know I don’t like that sort of things!””

“Yeah we know...” Aria said, smiling maliciously:

“Which is why we won’t bring them up, right?” Adagio intervened:

“Ah, right.”

“Good, now let’s get focused. First things first: tomorrow we’ll have a little tour of the neighborhood and see what it’s like, only then we’ll start doing what we know best, okay?”

“Yes!” the two other sirens answered, even if Aria did sound far less enthusiastic than Sonata, which did not escape Adagio’s hearing.

“Ah...” she sighed almost desperate: “Tomorrow is going to be a long day”.

---

The sirens did not spend a peaceful night: the weather quickly changed and the sky was filled with black storm clouds. Thunders disturbed their rest, and the deep threatening howl of the wind only made things worse.

Adagio kept tossing and turning in her bed so much she could swear Aria was right about the bugs infesting the mattress, furthermore on the wall of the room hanged a clock which harassed her with its ticking.

“It’s useless...” the girl sighed, opening her heavy eyes: “Even though I feel tired, I just can’t relax enough to sleep. It’s like something’s preventing me from doing it...ah… but perhaps it’s better this way.”

Adagio slowly left her dirty and uncomfortable bed and stepped out of the room; then shut the door behind her, producing a terribly annoying noise. The corridor she walked through afterwards was so dark it truly seemed spectral; Adagio was particularly careful, as she stepped forward, being unable to see were she was going.

If there was a thing she could sense was a stink so tremendous it almost caused her to vomit:

“What the blazes is it that smells so disgusting?!” She exclaimed closing her nose with two fingers:

“I shall make some spring cleaning tomorrow, hope I don’t find any animal carcass or anything of the sort.”

Once she had reached the living room, the girl stopped walking for a moment to stare at her two sisters, resting together on an old sofa. Both of the them we snoring loudly, plus they slept covered in the same smelly gray blanket they had found on the floor.

“Look at them now...” their older sister thought, witnessing at the scene of the two sirens unconsciously hugging each other in their sleep: “... snuggling under that blanket. I wish they were like this even when they are awake...”.

After a few more moments spent staring at her sisters, the siren silently stepped away from the sofa, heading to the exit door; right before leaving, she took one of the black hoodie sweaters she and the others had come by, searching their new house, then opened the door.

---

As soon as she was out, Adagio felt the cold of the wind, passing through her body, penetrating her veins, freezing her blood.

“Shoot!” she exclaimed, sneezing: “It’s pretty chilly out here tonight. I shan’t spend too much time, scouting the city”.

With her hands in the sweater pockets, Adagio slowly began to stroll through the road in front of her: it was desolated, not a single soul in sight; the only thing she could hear in that dreadful darkness was the spooky noise of approaching thunders: it was clear a storm was about to begin.

Having quickly left the neighborhood where her house was, the girl reached downtown, the place that had seemed so full of life during the day and the perfect spot to begin her and her sisters’ feeding, was now more ghostly than the haunted houses in the stories her mother used to tell her, when she was a little siren.

Although Adagio had seen many things and lived terrible moments in her past, there was something about that place that she could not help but being scared of it. There was something mysteriously frightening in the shut doors of those shops, in those glass windows, shaking at the howl of the cold wind, in that uneven road that had clearly lacked maintenance for a while.

Sighing, the siren kept walking forward with her gaze facing the ground and reached the city park which was nothing but a few paces away from her. The high pines and the old oaks shook dangerously, each of them gave the impression it would fall down any minute. Despite that, the girl sat on a wooden bend very close to a pond.

For a while Adagio said nothing, thought nothing, she just remained there, staring at the surrounding environments: the small and usually cheerful song thrushes, known for they white and tawny feathers, were hidden in their homes, carved deep into the tree trunks, and at that moment their singing sounded more like a cry.

A family of tiny sparrows, which had built its nest between the branches of a giant willow, was living a true nightmare, for, despite its proportion, the tree was being bent by the enormous strength of the wind, while the birds were doing everything they could no to fly away.

A group of large pigeons was flying above Adagio’s head in a desperate attempt to reach a safe spot, while they still could.

In the mean time many flowers were being torn apart by the tremendous power of the incoming storm: the green garden of the park was slowing loosing its beauty.

The week camomiles were the first to be destroyed, shortly afterwards the violets followed, suddenly loosing all of their petals.

The voice of the greenish frogs, inhabiting the waters of the pond, was heard loud and clear as soon as some of their adored lotus flowers, on which they used to sit all day, came to fly away as well; then a vivid lightening stroke, illuminating the sky in a light so bright that one could have sworn it would spit the clouds in two: finally rain began to fall.

“Great!” Adagio exclaimed, bothered by the sensation of wet on her chicks: “And I thought tonight could not possibly get any worse... it seems I was wrong.” The girl covered her head with her black clothed hood: “I guess it’s time for me to get going”.

Having gotten up, the siren had taken nothing but a few steps, when all of a sudden she heard a familiar voice, calling for her:

“Adagio!”

“Uh?!” The young woman said, turning around: “Girls!” she shouted, once she had recognized her sisters, coming toward her: “What are you two doing here?!”

“We could ask you the same” Aria replied, scowling: “What were you thinking, when you left us in the house? It’s pouring with rain out here!”

“Well I...”

“Luckily for you Sonata is a light sleeper and heard you open the door, so, as soon as we noticed a storm was approaching, but you weren’t coming back, we figured out it would be best for us to come and get you ourselves and it looks like we were right”

“You see, girls I...”

“No time for an explanation!” Aria interrupted her: “We need to get back home before the weather here gets any worse, Sonata, hand her the umbrella and let’s go”.

Despite having remained speechless from seeing her sisters, acting with such care and kindness toward her, Adagio, not wishing to be caught by the storm in full might, quickly grabbed the old black umbrella Sonata was holding in her hand and followed the other two sirens back to their new house.

---

After she had returned home, Adagio had avoided talking to Aria and Sonata, fearing they would bring up the what she had done: “What was I thinking, going out there alone in the middle of the night, while a storm is headed this way?”

At that precise moment a new lightening stoke in the sky, a violent thunder followed: “Correction” the girl went on saying: “It is already here”.

While thinking her situation could not get any worse, the girl was surprised to find out that horrendous place, she had chosen to live in, was unexpectedly provided with a shower:

“Well at least I can get cleaned up...”.

Adagio removed her clothes and entered the shower: it was smaller than it had looked like a moment before, its floor was so dirty it had turned from white to black.

As soon as the siren opened the water a loud: “Ahhh!” came out of her mouth: “It’s freezing! Shoot, I guess I should have expected this, after all, this whole place is not exactly luxurious, is it?”.

Biting her lips to bare the cold, Adagio began to shower: every single drop of water felt like snow slowly slipping on her back, she despised that sensation almost as much as she despised the house she was stuck in; but there was nothing she could do: if she wanted to get clean, she would need to handle the pain.

“It’s done” the girl sighed, once she got out: “I’m never doing that again”.

Having looked around, Adagio ended up finding a white towel which looked surprisingly clean, and wrapped herself in it. Once she had closed the door behind her, the siren walked through the corridor which divided the bathroom from the rest of the house, holding her only clothes in her hand.

As she was expecting, her two sisters were waiting for her in the leaving room. Thy were staring at her deep into her eyes, as if they were slowly searching for the answer to their obvious question inside the corners of her soul.

“Spit it out” Adagio exclaimed, having decided she was finally fed up with that awkward silence: “what is it that you want to ask me so eagerly?”

“We said nothing so far” Aria calmly replied:

“As if I couldn’t tell you two are keeping something from me.”

“You must be imagining things”

“No I am not, plus you’re a terrible liar”

“I am I?”

“Girls!” Sonata suddenly intervened, trying to calm them both: “Can we just not start feuding about this? It’s just not the right time, besides, if you ask me...”

“Stay out of this!” Aria shouted, interrupting her sister nervously: “We’ll settle this here and now!”

“Is that so?” Adagio said maliciously: “And how is it that you wanna settle things, uh?”

“By teaching you the lesson you deserve!”.

Hearing those words, the oldest of the sirens stepped proudly forward, keeping her head high:

“C’mon, what do you wanna do?”

“Cut it out!” her sister replied, grinding her teeth: “don’t provoke me!”

“Oh, yeah, and what will you do if I don’t?!”

“Something I would regret afterwards!

Adagio’s face became pale as that of a ghost, as the girl stopped talking stunned: “You’d dare hit me?!” she finally said: “You would dare hit me, even though I raised you and gave you everything you needed, you wish to hit me?!”

“The fact that you raised me and Sonata does not keep me from teaching you some respect once and for all!”

“Respect you say?! For what? I am the one who saved you by bringing you to my shelter, I taught you everything you needed to know to sing, so you could feed on your own, I never denied you anything you wished for!”

“You’re also the one you brought us to this cursed place!”

“We’ve been banished by some crazy old fool!”

“Yes, but you did say you would protect us from any harm, you were the one who should have stood up for us, and above all you were the one you dragged us in that mess of a situation!”.

Those words hurt Adagio like a spear, piercing her heart: “Fine!” the siren shouted in the end: “If I am the one bothering you, maybe you all would be better off without me!”

“Sounds good to me!”

“It’s settled then!” Adagio exclaimed, while her chicks suddenly became red as peppers.

Having turned around, the girl grabbed her coat from the sofa, where she had left it, and left the house without thinking twice, slumming the door so loudly the whole neighborhood heard her.

In the mean time Aria was still boiling with anger, her breath was heavy like that of a mad bull, her eyes were red like rubies and the expression on her face scared her sister Sonata so much she initially thought not to approach her, yet eventually realized she need to calm her down.

“Aria...” the girl shyly said, placing her hand on her sister’s shoulder: “was that really necessary?”.

Aria did not reply, but kept staring at the door she had heard being slammed with great violence just a few moments ago: her eyes looked lost into an infinite darkness.

Seeing her in that state, Sonata began to shake her shoulder, until she answered: “What have I done?!”.

---

The clock on the wall indicated three am, when Sonata served her sister a cup of hot tea:

“Where did you find it?” Aria asked stunned, seeing the young girl, approaching with a smoking white cup in her hands:

“I...got lucky, searching the kitchen: here”

“Thanks”.

Aria did not hesitate to take a few sips of the infusion, which did seem to calm her down: the girl slowly laid down on the sofa, not uttering a single word.

“So?” her sister, starting asking, sitting beside her: “Do you wanna talk about what happened or you’re not feeling like doing so”.

“Ah” the siren sighed heavily: “I guess I might as well talk, no point in delaying the inevitable, is there?”

“That’s the spirit...I guess...” Sonata exclaimed confused:

“Not exactly the kind of answer you were expecting, I take?”

“No, not really...though you aren’t still feeling that good, are you?”

“ You're wrong, I am feeling better...really”

“You’re not going to fool me, Aria, what is it that’s bothering you?”

“Oh, nothing, I just sent my big sister away, that’s absolutely nothing t be nervous about, is it?”.

“Ironic as ever...maybe you are feeling good after all”

“Sonata quit moralizing: I practically threw Adagio out of home, saying horrible things to her. How I am supposed to be feeling?”

“That is not a question I am to answer”

“What?!”

“I mean...If you are feeling as badly as you say you are saying, then why are you still here? Why not going after Adagio? Besides, why sending her away in the firs place? What has she done to you to deserve all of this?”

“I said stop moralizing, didn’t ya hear me?!”

“Why are you insulting me now?”

“I am not insulting you, I am just emphasizing my point, that’s all!”

“Oh, yeah? And why are you doing it by yelling at me?”

“Because...because...because you keep harassing me with that hoity toity voice tone of yours and it’s really driving me mad. I thought you were trying to cheer me up, not making me feel even worse!”

“Aria, I am trying to help you, I am your sister after all, but you just won’t allow me to”

“What do you mean?”

“I am trying to say that sometimes, even if you think you’re right, you need to listen to other people: you could find out their opinions are as much valuable as yours”

“What an advice...like I didn’t know that...”

“It seems you don’t, since you are preventing me from talking some sense into you and you let Adagio go away in tears just over an hour ago”

“An hour ago?!” the girl shouted worried: “Why didn’t you tell me earlier it had already gotten so late!”

“Does that matter to you?”.

At that point Aria could not manage to handle the tension that was grewing inside her and blew off all of her steam:

“Listen here: I do not know what’s happening to you: you’ve never talked to me like this before, but, despite what you said to me, I am worried about Adagio and will do everything I need to bring here back here. I was a fool to treat her the way I did.

it was unfair, but I’ve realized the mistake I made and will make it up for it, by bringing here back here and I am sure that, when I find here will we’ll be able to come to an understanding. I’ll do what must be done:

I’ll find here, even if it means I will need to scout this whole cursed city, and I will apologize to her.

She will understand...she always does. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go, so I beg you to leave me be.”

Having said these things, the siren headed to the exit door, grabbed her black coat, which was pretty identical to Adagio’s, and opened the door.

“Wait...” Sonata shouted, grabbing her own coat: “I am coming, too”

“What made you change your mind?” her sister asked:

“I never said I was not going to join you”

“Is that so?”

“I, too, am worried about my sister”

“Fine then, it looks like it stopped raining, too”

“Good, I am not to keen on getting wet”

“Sonata, we used to leave underwater, how could a few drops of rain possibly bother you?”

“I know what I am saying, this rain is different from that back home”

“How so?”

“It feels cold, when it touches my skin and I despise cold”.

At that point her sister could not help but laugh: “C’mon” she finally said: “Adagio can’t have gone too far, plus I might just know where she is: follow me, quick!”

“Of course, let’s go”.

Having taken nothing but a few steps forward, Aria suddenly stopped walking and turned around, facing Sonata: “What is it?” the young one questioned, surprised at the unusually serious look her sister was giving her:

“Why did you get so lecturing earlier? It’s not really your thing, at least I’ve never heard you being so serious before and we spent together our whole life”

“Did it bother you?”

“A bit; it just felt so weird”

“I can be really weird, if it means it can help those I love the most”

“Sonata...”

“Don’t give me that look, Adagio is out there, waiting for us to find her: let’s go!”

“Stay right behind me and keep following: the place I have in mind isn’t that far, but these street corners are so twisted it’s easy to get lost!”

Comments

[Twily Brony]

“No time for an explanation!” Aria interrupted her: “We need to get back home before the weather here gets any worse, Sonata, hand her the umbrella and let’s go”.

hmm... if there is "no time", why not change "no time for an explanation" into "no time to explaine"? there should be less syllables. and, it seems that aria doesn't have to say that much, just make sonata hand over her umbrella naturally, doesn't have to wait for aria told her, isn't that better? what dya think?

because aria is in a hurry tone saying this, seems doesn't make any sense if she still talked that much but not act.

[Twily Brony]

and runing into a storm? ive done that before, sadly no one cared~ :(