Chapter Text
Q'nlin came to shore as a child; just shy of about ten years of age in the years of her people. She knew her mother was going to die as they swam to the shoreline, Mat’ln’s warm blood left a dark trail in their wake. The older siren said nothing as she banished her tail and deposited her only remaining child onto dry land.
"Mother?" There was no verbal reply, just a tight embrace and a kiss to Q'nlin's damp forehead before Mat'ln turned and walked back into the sea. Q'nlin changed out her own tail for legs and tried to run after her mother, but as soon as the siren child’s feet touched the water, she froze. Her mother's song had risen from beyond the breakers, the voice was fading but strong enough to tell the story of her pod. The betrayal and massacre of one of the most powerful families in the Pacific, the temporary exile of her only child and heir from the ocean for her own safety, and so forth.
It had been a rival pod who had betrayed a truce. They’d killed a human boy and blamed Q’nlin’s family. They then helped to incite the human child’s village to hunt down Mat’lin and her pod. As her song reached the telling of the massacre, Mat'ln's deep sorrow and pain strengthened her voice one last time and caused Q'nlin to collapse into the sand, the tide meeting her little knees as they sunk into the wet ground. She raised her voice in a response to her mother, a high pitched keening that wavered as her whole body shook. She heard one last call, one of pure love and regret before there was nothing. The young siren's gills flattened back; there was nothing but the sound of the waves, a storm was due and the wind was picking up. Just as she started choking and gasping for breath, the mourning began. Sirens in the area who had heard the dying Mat'ln began to wail, dolphins let out piercing cries, seabirds shrieked, and the whales sang songs of great sadness.
Q'nlin remained frozen in place, the wind whipping her long hair around her shaking body, and she began to cry.
--
By the time the sergeant and his men had reached the shoreline, the loud wailing had been reduced to a single voice. They followed a pair of tiny footprints that trailed haphazardly through the wet sand. It seemed like they had been following the imprints for an hour before they spotted the owner of the moaning cry. They were small and almost frail looking, with a child's voice that wavered with each sob. Upon noticing they were naked, the Sergeant removed his coat and ran up to the figure, dropping down on his knees and wrapping the child in his coat. The girl in his arms turned and his eyes widened in surprise as he began to take in her inhuman features.
"My family is dead." She seemed to sing to him in a softer voice.
"Will I die now too?" He brushed her unnatural hair from her face and began to properly pull her thin arms though the arms of the coat.
"No, my pearl from the deep." He replied as he buttoned her up. "It is too soon for y-" He paused as a tiny hand touched his beard.
"You hurt like me." She stated, looking into his face. Memories of his lost wife and children flickered through his mind.
"Yes, yes I do."