"Stop struggling!"

"Fucking fish bait! I'll rip you a new hole!" Syryn snarled at the siren and struggled harder. His fingers dug into the armour-like scales that protected the softer flesh inside.

Enkansh hissed and uncoiled his tail when he felt the fingers penetrate the scales, ripping a few in the process. Syryn threw himself at the shocked siren with a vicious snarl. The human displayed a strength uncharacteristic to his kind. And like a feverish nightmare, Enkansh was flailing against a human biting his ear.

"Syr-yn," the siren gripped the mage's hair and yanked hard. "It's just a fucking ear lobe!"

Syryn's teeth grew and he chomped down with a vindictive cruelty that fed the fire in his chest. Enkansh ripped the mage's mouth away from his ear. One hand still fisted into the mage's hair, the siren stared at the human. His chest was heaving with anger.

Syryn's wild grin was triumphant. He spat the blood out of his mouth and challenged the siren with a mutinous jut of his chin.

"Now we're both half an ear lobe down, belly crawler." His violet eyes shone with disdain.

Enkansh's mouth was drawn in a tight line. He squeezed Syryn's cheeks hard enough that the mage unhinged his jaw and revealed sharp teeth.

"You're no human," Enkansh growled. "No wonder your blood tastes like piss!"

"Whose piss?" Syryn grinned.

"Yours probably."

The violet-eyed mage squeezed the siren's wrist. A bone snapped.

Two pairs of eyes looked at Enkansh's wrist in shock.

"You broke my wrist," the siren dispassionately observed.

"I didn't mean to." Was this his power? Superhuman strength?

The siren let his wrist dangle against his side. "What are you?" He asked the man in front of him.

Syryn stared at his hands. "A strong human?" His heart was racing.

The siren wasn't an expert on humans so he couldn't refute Syryn's claim. But did humans have such sharp teeth? "You don't taste like a human."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what I said." If the taste of human blood was like water then Syryn's was like alcohol. There was an electric zing in his blood that tasted funny. "Ugh! I'm gonna get food poisoning." Enkansh made a gagging face.

"Serves you right for attacking me."

The siren sobered up. The foolish human was hiding a secret. Did the king know what kind of creature was being harboured at Silisia?

"Don't let the mermen find out you're not human," he hissed at the mage. "Hide your teeth and your monstrous strength if you know what's good for you."

"Why are you looking out for me?" Syryn asked with suspicion.

The siren's gills flared, letting in more water. When he could no longer smell blood in the water, he turned his back to the mage and swam away.

Syryn followed discreetly because the way to the palace was confusing to him.

_____

The mage was back in his room. He found Ryn, the jellyfish, sleeping on his seagrass bed. The little baby had rotated all night like his life depended on it.

The mage spent time thinking back to what had happened and to his discovery of strength. About an hour later, Syryn's quiet bubble was popped.

"Syryn!" His door was thrown open. A worried Drevin came barging in.

"What's wrong?" Syryn asked when the silver-blue mer grabbed him by the arms.

"I heard about what happened, Syryn." Drevin replied, solemnly. "Enkansh has been punished so you don't have to worry about him attacking you again."

"What? I'm fine, Drevin. What do you mean punished?" Syryn knew that the siren hadn't meant to eat him. He had given as good as he had gotten from Enkansh. Punishment wasn't necessary. And why had the siren confessed to wrongdoing?

"Enkansh lost control and he bit you, did he not?" Silvery eyes enquired.

"Is that what he said?" Syryn asked.

"A guard saw what happened and reported the incident."

Syryn's blood ran cold. How much had the guard seen?

"Was it Arhak?"

"No. Why aren't you happy to see your attacker getting punished?" Drevin blinked down curiously at the mage.

"We were play fighting. Enkansh did not hurt me," Syryn said to the prince. He tilted his head so that more hair came forward to cover his missing lobe.

"Are you sure, Syryn?" The large merman curled his tail to get to the mage's eye level. "Are you sure that the both of you aren't hiding a secret?"

Syryn frowned. "What secret would I be sharing with a siren?"

Drevin looked over Syryn carefully.

"When asked about it, Enkansh confessed to attacking you. And here you are telling me it was a play fight," Drevin's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I don't like being lied to, Syryn. Especially not by the hostage siren that I've befriended."

Syryn felt something cold settle in his chest.

"So, Syryn. Which one of you is the liar?"

The mage cursed the siren for confessing. What the hell was wrong with Enkansh anyway?

"I am the liar," he said, breaking eye contact. "I provoked him into losing his temper and that led to a fight."

Drevin observed Syryn. The mage felt his heart drumming as the mer prince did a once over of his body, likely making sure that he had no cuts.

"If that is true then it is unfair for Enkansh to bear the punishment alone."

Syryn looked up into hard silvery eyes. "Syryn, it was your mistake for provoking a siren, and his bad luck being seen by the royal guard. I knew Enkansh would not lose control without provocation."

"I will take responsibility."

"How foolish are you to play with the temper of a siren?!" The prince thundered. "Do you not know what you are!"

"I was asking a few questions! How was I to know he would get so angry?!" Syryn snapped back.

The merman appeared taken back. "That's not like him at all."

Syryn remembered goading the siren into eating him. Guess he shouldn't have done that.

"Whatever. Punish me."

Drevin sighed.

"Don't let it happen again. Do not provoke the siren."

"Understood," and yet his spirit revolted at obeying the merman. Syryn wasn't weak but Drevin didn't know that. "Thank you for reminding me that I am a human, food for sirens, and trash to mermen."

Drevin shook his head but he was unable to refute the teen. Merpeople and humans did not get along. Syryn was right about the treatment that his kind received from the mers. Even so, the surface world was just as cruel to his people. Maybe one day there would be less animosity between the two but he didn't expect for it to happen in the next hundred years.

"I'm sorry that this happened," Drevin awkwardly said to Syryn. "You are not trash."

The mage snorted and inhaled water accidentally.

"Foolish human."