Your Blood is Mine

As they traveled a bit to look for a good place to camp, Vladstin suddenly had a thought. "What did Ofelia eat by the way?"

The two humans riding with the wolves beside him both asked, "Huh?"

"We never asked. She never left, and her mother seems to be there quite a while too. So what do they consume? Don't sirens eat human meat?" Vladstin rubbed his chin. "Did they just eat rocks their whole lives?"

"I will ask." Sangfroid said. "But.... I think we should be more careful about bringing up her mother. She misses her, and was separated from her for a long time."

"You sure aren't careful enough to have her look at us as her new fathers though." Vladstin jeered. "Wait, does she even know her father or even have one?"

He turned to Leron, who was still not used to being seen as a fatherly figure and a little dazed by it. He did not have a good example of a father for most of his life compared to the other two, and suddenly felt pressured by it. What if he becomes a bad example to her? What if she greatly dislikes him or found him completely irresponsible---

"Hello. Pluterria to the siren expert." Vladstin waved a hand over his blanking out face, snapping him out of these thoughts. "What are you ruminating about so seriously?"

"Nothing!" Leron shook his head. "Pardon me. You were asking about sirens?"

"Yes, about their biology. How do they repopulate? We heard from Ofelia that she came from a pearl, but does that siren pearl need a mother and father to bear offspring? Or is it like mushrooms that just grew spores, where she only needs her mother and develops from there?"

"Well..... There's no really in-depth study about sirens in the books I've read. They were only known through hearsays, anecdotal reports, and the legends about them." Leron scratched his head. "So I really cannot answer...."

"Then all those book reading you have done is useless. It's not helpful to be a classroom genius after all it only amounts to this." Vladstin sighed with his hand hanging low to the side.

"Do not say that to His Highness." Sangfroid frowned. "I will ask Ofelia myself. His Highness is the only one who knows about her hatred for swordsmen."

"So? He doesn't know the solution for it anyway! Even without him, we can still manage one little siren."

Leron suddenly felt even more of a burden. That's right, he only serves as a liability to the group. So far, he aggravated two creatures... Oh, make that three, because the one he loves also counts as a creature now.

Sangfroid approached Ofelia, asking her the father question first. The little siren replied:

"Ofelia has only heard of 'Father' now. What does Father really mean?"

The three looked at each other for a while, stumped by this question. It seems that the more time they spend with this little siren girl who is completely detached from their concept of the world, the more they began to question these concepts themselves. And sometimes, it truly makes sense to question them, making them wonder why they never had before.

"It could mean a lot of things." Leron supplied. "In science, a father is a man who helped your mother create you. With the two of them, you were made."

"Hmm.... A man who made me....." Ofelia rubbed her chin. "Ophelia only knows Mommy, and the pearl is with her."

"Did she mention.... someone she might have loved?" Sangfroid went in this route instead, hoping for the best that this child was indeed born out of love between two people.

"Mommy loves friends."

"Other than friends." Vladstin contributed. "A man or a siren like you that she may have told you about."

"Oh. Mommy did mention someone who is a siren like her and Ofelia." She nodded. "She says she's pretty like me, and very kind. But then..... They got separated. So now she had to live on the lagoon with friends coming by to make sure she's safe."

Sangfroid relayed this, and the three felt like they'd hit a dead end. Ofelia's mother probably did not want her to know about her father.

"Well, it doesn't matter if she doesn't know who her blood father was." Leron shrugged. "What matters is she has someone to take care of her. And now that her mother is away, it's up to us."

"So you have fully accepted the idea of being a father of this siren much much older than you?" Vladstin was amused. "Because if I'm not mistaken, I can feel you so struck and shaken by being called 'Daddy Leron'. What changed your mind?"

"Oh....uh... Well...." Leron scratched his head. "It was only because I was flustered by how sudden it was. And perhaps.... Because I didn't really have a good example in my first few years of childhood, while King Lazar felt so perfect that I cannot attain to be a man like him. That's why I was a little.... daunted by it."

"But then... I thought at least there were three of us to share the daunting task, and what matters if we do it together. For Ofelia." He smiled brightly.

This caused some stirring in Sangfroid's heart, that His Highness is willing to be family with him and this child.

Vladstin spat on the ground. "Ah, what a boring answer. I expected something more than that, like using the child as leverage for relationship."

Oh, right. This vampire is also included. Now Sangfroid's joy was spoiled a bit.

"Let's focus on food now." He changed the topic. "What did you eat while you were in the cave, Ofelia?"

"Worms!" The girl said proudly.

The humans were terribly shocked by this, but Vladstin just grinned. She's basically half-fish after all, what did they expect?

"Do you specifically like worms or was it because you have nothing else to eat?" Leron felt pity in his heart.

"Mommy and Ofelia always eat worms. Friends smell delicious but Mommy said it's bad to eat friends. So Mommy and Ofelia eat worms instead!" She explained. "But sometimes, it's hard to find worms near the lagoon. Ofelia tries to crawl for them since there's more of them on the walls."

The idea of this bright little girl scouring dirt and rock and gravel for food is really disheartening indeed. But it's not over. She continued, still not losing her jolly tone"

"But there are sharp rocks on the walls, which sometimes make Ofelia hurt. Mommy used to be the one to get Ofelia worms, or even friends, but since they left, it's hard to get worms. The hurt is gone now though, but now I have this!"

She showed her arm, which bares a slash across his wrist, light and unnoticeable like a water stain. But as you get closer, you'd realize that it really was a troubling and dangerous scar, that must have only healed through time.

Sangfroid frown. "This time, you don't have to look for food alone, Ofelia. Don't do something dangerous like that again. We will look for worms for you."

"Really?" Her eyes brightened. "Thank you! Ofelia eats all sorts of bugs too, but their blood is awful and their meat is hard."

"Right, it is in your nature to like eating meat and flesh since you are a siren." Vladstin rubbed his chin. "Then why don't you try something different from worms today. Do you want to try fowl meat?"

"What is fowl?" She tilted her head. 

"They are birds. Like those over there." Sangfroid pointed. "Those are eagles. And this one...."

He willed the Amulet to produce a funny-looking biped creatures in front of Ofelia.

"These are chickens." Sangfroid said. "Both eagles and chickens are birds, both are fowl. But the difference is eagles fly, while chickens cannot."

"Why can't they?"

"Their bodies are too heavy for their wings." Leron explained, approaching the chicken and pointing. "These are wings. By flapping them, they can fly high in the sky. Like this."

He flapped his arms adorably so, and made different bird noises like 'tweet, tweet', 'coo, coo', and even a raven's croak. Sangfroid found it so adorable that the image made an imprint on him forever. Even Vladstin was mildly amused, remembering that this is just the kind of teacher Leron is, who doesn't care how silly it looks as long as he could get his point across and his student can learn. That student being usually him.

The edges of his lips are rising, but he noticed and flattened it again.

"Those are the different sounds of birds."

"Birds are confusing." Ofelia finally concluded. "But.... Ofelia likes them."

Leron smiled at this. "I can teach you more about them, if you want. And these chickens, I can cook them for you. You don't have to eat them raw like you did with worms."

After Sangfroid translated for her, her eyes sparkled, slowly softening up to this not-friend. "You'll teach Ofelia? And what is cooking?"

Leron explained it all to her, and soon, the skies turned into orange and pink hues. The sun is about to head for bed, and so he suggested. "Now that we're talking about it, why don't we settle down and have dinner? We haven't eaten at all the whole day."

"I'll be the one to cook."

It wasn't Leron who said that, nor Sangfroid.

Vladstin, who usually hangs upside down on the tree, approached the chicken and picked them up. "I know a good recipe the Orphanage's children likes. I just need a few vegetables."

Leron immediately offered up. "I can help you!"

But Ofelia pulled on the leg of his pant. "Hey, you haven't shown Ofelia how the owls sound yet!"

"You should entertain Ofelia more, bunny." Vladstin suggested. "And also teach her how to eat on a plate with forks and spoon. That way, you'll become closer, and she wouldn't be wary of you anymore. Who knows, you might become her favorite. You always become the favorite of everyone you meet, because you use that smart mouth of yours so well."

"I-I understand!" Leron nodded, still feeling happy with the back-handed compliment. He turned to Sangfroid. "How about you help Vladstin chop the chickens and take out the feathers, Sangfroid? I managed to learn some Gargen words from watching you translate, and besides, I'll communicate with my body more when teaching her about how to eat like humans. I also have to braid her hair so it wouldn't go on her food."

The hunter who has his one hair braided at the side was still unsure. "Are you sure, Your Highness? What if she suddenly becomes aggravated and attack you again....."

"We'll keep a watchful eye!" Vladstin hung an arm around his shoulder. "Come, my apprentice! We have chicken tomato soup to make!"

"Fine." Sangfroid grunts, shoving his arm away. But they did went ahead to prepare dinner.

The siren and the swordsman grew closer, and as the vampire and the vampire hunter watched them interact while cooking together. Humans let birds that can fly be free into the sunset, while those who cannot will be cooked for dinner. Strange ways of nature indeed what we choose to love or choose to eat.

But if a siren can learn to eat something else other than worms, if she can like a human she once hated... Maybe man can love something else other than what they are used to. 

This is what Vladstin was aiming for.

But not for himself. Troubled by his increasing attachment to both humans, he decided the best way to cut off such attachment.... Is to pair them up. And now he has a chance to give Sangfroid the talk he needed to, even if the vampire lord really would prefer not to play matchmaker at all.. But some things just needed to be done, and the time is ripe now.