The Sirens' Origins

A Story by Bookwormgirl32

Chapter 1

It was a wonderful life. Calanthe was the daughter of Erasmus, a wealthy magistrate of Greece, and had had pretty much anything she'd ever wanted; she had a loving family in her father, her mother Filipina, a priestess of Athena, and her older brother Alexander, a soldier in the Greek army, and a strong friendship with her slave-girl Ines (as well as all the other slaves in her family, really; they were known for being extremely good to their slaves). On top of all that, Calanthe's outstanding beauty had prompted many of the young men in Greece to ask for her hand, but now, she was truly in love – and engaged to be married to him, too. To young Leonidas, only two years older than herself, and who had fought in various battles alongside Alexander.

Little did Calanthe know, however, that her happiness was soon to be taken away from her.

A couple evenings ago, Alexander had told his family that he was needed to fight in another of Greece's battles against Babylon – and when Calanthe had asked, he had told her that since he and Leonidas were in the same part of the army, that meant that Leonidas would be going off to fight as well.

And now, on this particular evening, Calanthe and Leonidas were walking along the tops of the cliffs near the sea together and talking somewhat about this fact.

"You leave in two days, then, with Alexander?" Calanthe asked as they walked.

"I do. And by the gods, I wish I didn't have to go," Leonidas replied.

"So do I," she answered, looking up at him. "But if anything were to happen to you –" Tears came into her brown eyes.

Leonidas shushed her gently. "Nothing will happen to me, dove. Even if I'm wounded, I'll fight to stay alive harder than I would fight any accursed Babylonian soldier!"

Calanthe stopped walking as she looked out to sea. "Still, it would mean postponing our wedding. Great Hera, if only there were some way you could stay!"

As she paused, she felt a hand slip around her waist. "I'll be coming back to you, Calanthe, I swear to you."

Calanthe turned to face Leonidas again – her tears had silently spilled over. "I'll be waiting for you, Leonidas," she whispered as she wiped her eyes. "And I'll ask my mother to pray to Athena to protect you in battle. You know how much my family loves you…almost as much as I do."

As they started walking again, the gentle sea breeze ruffling their hair, Leonidas declared out of the blue, "I'll tell you what, dove…I'll swear to you that I'm coming back to you on…on…on everything that's in the world!" He paused. "Because I can't think of just one thing that's good enough for me to swear on," he finished – and smiled when his joke got a laugh out of Calanthe.

"And this," he added as he pulled a ring off his finger. It was nothing fancy – just a small band of gold with a round piece of amber dug out from an old tree in the center of it. "As a token of my vow," Leonidas stated. Still giggling slightly, Calanthe took the ring and slipped it onto her own finger. She looked up, smiling, and promised, "I'll wear it until you return – and then I'll give it back to you."

Leonidas smiled as he took Calanthe in his arms. "Calanthe, you look absolutely gorgeous when you smile like that – I believe you look even more beautiful than Aphrodite herself."

Calanthe was still smiling, but all of the silly girlishness in her smile had faded. She tilted her head up a little as Leonidas leaned down slightly and met her lips with his. Calanthe closed her eyes as she lost her fingers in Leonidas' short brown curls and felt his arms pull her close. Oh, she would never get tired of his kisses!

It was too bad, however, that this would end up being one of their last ones.

A few days later, Leonidas and Alexander had left for battle together.

One morning, about a week after their departure, Ines was styling Calanthe's hair when Calanthe asked, "Ines…do you think our world will ever know peace? Peace between men, and no more battles or wars to be fought, ever again?"

"At the moment, it seems not, my lady," Ines answered. "And I don't think there will be peace here until the gods declare that there shall be peace on Earth."

Recalling the various stories she'd heard about battles and feuds between the gods, Calanthe answered bitterly, "They may have to learn peace first themselves."