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Ah yes. Getting back for the story of the creatures in the forest of Wicked Willow I see? Well yes, the place has many love and tragedy stories to tell. But one stood out the most amongst other than the werewolf and the witch were a story about a young and gentleman siren who falls in love for a medusa.
Oh! You're curious? Well then let me tell that story for you readers out there, this will be a long one so buckle up.
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So we know previously it was about a werewolf and his witch husband, now it's about the friend of the werewolf. There's this siren that has a small shop in the village, his name is Benthomaar or for short is Bentho. Bentho usually works as a shop owner, but in his free time he likes to go to the deep oleander to find something interesting for his shop or maybe sometimes stalking human lives to steal their treasure and lure them.
That is until a new rule was added, where mythical beings are not allowed to be seen by humans or know their existence at any cost. Well he didn't mind that at all, at least he can go and steal stuff in peace, “so I heard from Neuro, that the medusa likes shiny stuff. Which you're lucky you have that, or are you just doing it on purpose so the medusa can buy this stuff…” Shade was now grinning like a madman as bentho just let out a chuckle that sounded like a ringing bell. “Maybe… but don't look at me, I'm just doing my job as a siren and collecting this stuff is my favorite thing!! One day tho—”
Suddenly one of the customers walked in, and as soon as Bentho looked at them, it was the medusa that he and Shade talked about. And Bentho could feel his cheek suddenly turn pink, “Hey, I heard you sell something shiny in here?” ask the medusa while Bentho just stands there and froze, cheek still covered in pink color, making Shade snickering at him from the sideline. “uhm… I take it as wrong place then, I'll go search on other place—”
“No wait!! I have– we have many kinds of shiny stuff!!” The siren exclaimed and stopped midway his words before he cleared his throat and rephrased his wordings, “ehem. Sorry about that, but we do have some shiny stuff that you want, you can look first if you want” he said and the medusa just nodded, slithering to the shelf for the shiny things that he searched for. Meanwhile Bentho just looked from the counter, while Shade tried his best to cover his laughter with him getting a small glare from the siren himself.
Bentho ignores the werewolf as he keeps staring at the lovely medusa in front of him, watching him closely as the medusa just humming while he searches for something that caught his eyes. He noticed that the young man was finding something interesting to him, as later he met with Bentho eyes and later asking for his help. “excuse me, can you help me for a second?”
With an eager nod, Bentho suddenly stands up and rushes to where the medusa is as he points at the thing he was looking for. It was a small music box with amethyst and jade surrounding it. “I see you seem to have found the rarest item in here” the medusa then took a glance and smiled a little. “Really? Then I'm glad…” his smile somehow made Bentho blush over as he looked away from the cute guy. “Ah.. then is that all that you want to buy?” He asks, and the medusa nodded his head and they both went back to the cashier. Both stayed silent until Bentho tried to talk again to him.
“I have never seen you before…. I'm Bentho by the way.”
“I'm Scott… also thank you for helping me back there”
Just from hearing his voice, Bentho was sure he was falling for Scott and his name is adorable in Bentho's opinion. And his voice was nice, maybe even more alluring than any siren. He himself was a siren but he seems to feel like under his spell just from his voice. “I'm just doing my job, you don't have to thank me” he said and Scott just smiled at him. “Well thanks for earlier tho really… I should go home now, I need to carry my hunting outside to stock.”
“What hunt did you mean by that?”
Scott then pointed at the deer that he hunt and put them outside the store, his hunting was quite big for his size and bentho can't help but to wonder if the medusa needed any help with carrying it, so he asked the medusa that was in front of him.
“That's quite a big hunt for your size… are you sure you're not going to be occupied while carrying that and this music box? It can be quite heavy to carry two things by yourself. If you don't mind, maybe I could help you carry your ravin?”
Scott was surprised by his offer to help him, nonetheless he was a stranger willingly helping him. Even Shade was surprised by this and he was grinning and leaving them quietly as he didn't want to interrupt the two, “you didn't have to! I can carry them just fine by myself really!!” He said while looking flustered by the offer, but Bentho insisted that he wants to help (as also for him to take this as a chance to get to know him). “it's alright! Bringing those prey and this thing could be heavy, especially this music box is quite heavy if you bring it alone”
“Just please, that's the least I can do. I can't just let you bring those alone”
Without any choice Scott just sighs and nods, but he smiles nonetheless to him, a sign as a thank you to him. “Alright if you insist, then can you bring that dead horse to my home? I really didn't want to make it too long for you, since you might still have customers later” he told Bentho as the siren just nodded and went over outside his store and put the sign ‘closed’ on it as he lifted the medusa prey, and smiled back at him. “Care to lead me the way to your house?” The siren asks slyly as he smirks at the medusa slithering in front of him, a small blush appears while he leads him to his home.
“Are you new here?” Bentho asked, getting a small glance from Scott. “No, I just never went to this place before other than around my home… Why is that? You're interested in me?” Now it's Scott turn to smirk, making bentho swoon over by him. The siren then laughed as he was caught red handed by him, “am I that obvious?”
He only got a small shrug from Scott, smiled quietly as he slithering fast enough making Bentho a little bit held back by his track. “It's obvious from the start… usually I would just turn them down or if they get out of hand I just turn them into stone, but you're pretty cute in my opinion…” a pink color then began to crawl into Scott's face as he looked away from Bentho.
“Me? Cute? In my humble opinion the one who's cute between us is definitely you— uhh I mean you're pretty— just forget what I said!!”
The two went completely silent as they continued their walk to Scott home. Their walk was not really long as later they somehow got into the border of the forest and the humans. “The border… isn't this quite dangerous to be out here? Consider we are almost in human territory?” He said but Scott just kept slithering through it, the siren was worried so he followed him too. “Well, my home is near human territory… it was supposed to be inside the border of our place but seems like it didn't reach the place, that's fine tho at least we're here” Scott smile and points to the cave that was at the left side, it was still on the Wicked Willow sides so it was safe that it didn't reach the humans.
“Welcome to my home… it's not much but you can help me bring the prey inside, feel free to roam around and please suit yourself here” he told Bentho as he nodded and went inside, still following him from back. While Bentho put the prey on the stack of meat piles, he could see that inside was filled with a lot of stuff. Most of them are shiny things like treasure and some were human skulls and their frozen statues that turned into stones. “Nice place. Especially the human decorations in here” he compliments the medusa as he just laughs and says his thanks to him. “Thanks. These humans are the ones trespassing my place so I turned them into statues, neat isn't it?”
Suddenly Bentho then heard a child noise and wings flapping as it flew closer to them. What Bentho saw was a child female gargoyle, who had long and big wings as she flew to Scott and hugged him, like a child hugging their parents. “Welcome home papa!! How was your hunt? Ooh! Did you bring me something new?!” the child ask excitedly, making Scott chuckle at her as he ruffled her hair
“Good to see you, Harumi. The hunt went well, did you protect our home from any trespassers that were nearby? I did bring you something, just wait a second alright?” Scott then gave her the music box as the gargoyle child squealed and began to play it, as a lullaby was played to her. “This is lovely, papa! I love it! And yes, I protect our home from any trespassers, I scare them away and even set a trap for them hehe– who's this fish man?” Harumi then pointed at Bentho, as the siren stood there looking around and then pointing at himself. “Me?”
“He's Bentho, he's the one that helped me brought our food and the one who helping me picked this music box for you”
A small sparkling wide eyes then looks over from the music box to the siren. Small wings then flew fast to crash and hugged the adult, as Harumi just gave Bentho a small awkward but warm hug, despite her being a gargoyle that was supposed to be cold and heartless. “Thank you Mr Fish man!! For helping papa!” She exclaimed and gave him a big smile, meeting his heart from seeing the warm affection. Bentho chuckled and patted her head and smiled back to her as a reply, “it's not a big deal, just wanting to help” he said and she then smiled more while hugging him tight.
Amused by this, the medusa just smirks while cleaning up their home. While letting the siren and his gargoyle daughter play with each other as she tells her many stories and playing the music box. It's really rare to see his daughter so fond of this new stranger, usually she would be furious and setting a prank for anyone that dares to get closer to her papa. That's when he heard Harumi say, “Mr. Bentho! Why don't you stay here forever with me and papa?” That question made the siren scales stiff and Scott froze in his place with his cheeks getting warm.
“Harumi! You can't just say that to him!!”
“Why not? Papa likes him, don't you? You always mention that whenever you went to the village you said someday you want to talk to him to gather your courage and ask him out!”
A quick slither Scott then covers her mouth from talking and furthermore from embarrassing him even more than it is supposed to. “How about we just go eat and you go to bed faster now? We have a lot of work to do tomorrow” Scott could tell that Bentho was trying hard to stifle his laugh, “So care to join us for dinner, Bentho?” He asks, still flustered by the tease. The siren then looked outside, it was almost evening but to reject the offering, he can't say no to the medusa afterall. It's once in a lifetime.
“Yeah! Please have dinner with us! It's been a while since we have visitors!” The small girl chirped happily as she went to hug Bentho again in a tight one, so he doesn't run away. He just laughed as he patted her head and smiled, “ofcourse, if that doesn't bother you two at all” he then looked over to Scott who was secretly smiling, as his tail wagged happily. “Not at all, you're Welcome anytime. Well then shall we head to eat?” Scott asks as he suddenly grab Bentho's hand and leads them to the dining room.
After dinner, he stayed with the medusa and the small gargoyle for a little while until it almost midnight, which meant he has to go back into the deep wood of Wicked Willow and went back to the ocean near as he has to go and fetch some unique stuff that has been abandoned by humans. If he's lucky he could get some great collections for his shops. “It's almost midnight… shouldn't you go back now?” He heard Scott ask as he slither to him in front of the cave. “Oh– well I should but I'm afraid the humans would go scavenging at this hour. I don't want to be caught dead by them” he sheepishly chuckle and looking away, as the medusa just hum. “There shouldn't be any human in this area… since they have been long gone dead and turned into statues in here” he said and look back to the statue that was actually the original human in the land.
“So all of this human were the one that supposed to hunt you down?”
“I suppose yes… but they were such a foolish thing, thinking they can beat a mere medusa and his gargoyle daughter that he trained all those years. They were really wrong, to think they could beheaded me and sell my head to the village… I only do it to survive with my daughter. If I die, who will protect Harumi from those humans?” He lamented and saw Harumi waving at him and Bentho as she listening happily to her music box. Perhaps the siren can relate to that, since he himself was an orphan that hardly survived because those human killed all of his people in the deep sea. And all he do now was running away and surviving on his own in this new environment and place. And seeing Scott and Harumi surviving even though they both are outside the border, he felt… impressed by them.
“You're a strong person… for surviving this far, I can't say that for myself.” bentho about to said but his words was being cut off by Scott looked at him with a smile
“I think You're a real survivor too, I never saw a siren that survives after those humans…”
A smile then showed to bentho as the two could feel their face suddenly became hot by the second and bentho began to clear his throat. “Oh wow… That's cool. I should probably go back now, you know hunting for those shiny treasures… but it's nice to know you and for this night—” his words then cut off by a small peck kiss on the cheek by the medusa, making the siren blushing red. “I also have a nice night with you, wanna go on a date someday?”
“Ask him would he like to stay with us forever!?” A small voice from Harumi made the two blushing even redder than before. “HARUMI!?” Scott was now hissing and made the little gargoyle laugh and went back to her own room, leaving the two alone now.
“Sure… I will take you on a date. The next time we met again, and maybe I can take you more than just a date if you like~” he teased and as a reply he got a small hit on the head by the flustered medusa. Bentho just laughs and gives Scott a kiss on the cheek also and waves a goodbye to him. “I'll see you around then~”
And he left and Scott now was a mess and processing everything that just happened. Oh wow he did strike with a hot siren wasn't he? Now he needs to prepare himself more, the next time he meets him again. And maybe their story could evolve into something else and something more than their awkward blooming crush now.