Amelia felt her heart begin to beat faster, and she swam slowly, and cautiously. She didn't know what, but something about the salty taste of blood in the water seemed oddly familiar, more than it should, and unnerving. It made her think of a cold, inescapable fate, the thought of death, and how it would be the flaw in all merfolk- no, all living things.

Still, she swam closer, adrenaline taking over and her senses heightening. Suddenly, there was a brush against her tail, and she twisted back in surprise, arming her tail blade and pointing it at whatever had touched her. She snarled, showing off sharp teeth in the front of her mouth and emitting a low growling sound of danger as she felt every sense, every feeling sharpening to an extreme, every muscle tense.

Little Leon, Yao's youngest son, cowered in fear. Upon seeing him, Amelia relaxed, withdrawing her tail blade and looking at the merboy, who peaked at her through his fingers covering his face. "S-sorry," she said sheepishly as she realized her mistake. "I was just… um… I tasted blood and I thought we might be under attack, and that you might be the enemy or something." Leon peaked further out of his tiny, chubby hands. "Yeah, if there was an attack, the heroine would save us all!" Amelia exclaimed, trying to make the merboy feel more comfortable, despite her own extreme discomfort.

It worked, and he smiled at her slightly. "Um, Yao's looking for you. He's in that caveden that no one lives in," Leon said, pointing at the caveden he was indicating before quickly swimming back to Yao's caveden, where he lived with the rest of his family.

Still cautious, Amelia crept closer, the taste of merfolk blood growing stronger. She peeked into the caveden, glancing at the happenings inside. There was a mermaid stretched across the floor, Yao attempting to comfort her, while Katyusha, the clan's healer, bound a long gash across her lower body. Her mouth was moving, making soft sounds that Amelia could hardly hear, words she couldn't quite distinguish. The mermaid was not someone who she had met before, but she looked oddly familiar. That was when Amelia realized that she looked just like that reflection she had seen so many times in that metal broken off of the ship. The mermaid looked just like herself, except with long, flowing hair unlike her own short hair, and the color of her tail having the slightest purple tint, Amelia's tail being a deep blue instead.

Amelia's entire body revolted against the sight of that long, dark gash down her side and that awful taste of merfolk blood in the water, but she forced herself into the caveden, partially out of curiosity as to why the mermaid looked just like her, and partially because Yao told her to, and considering he was the clan elder, so she should probably listen to what he told her to do. The mermaid was speaking, soft words barely audible. "Sister… bring me my… sister…" she whispered.

"Your sister is here, the one with a face and tail almost like yours, right?" asked Yao, receiving a week nod in response. The mermaid looked up at Amelia, her face pale and her eyes faded, week, lacking life and vigor.

Katyusha half pushed, half laid her down back to the caveden floor. "Do not exert yourself," she pleaded, before turning to Yao. "She's dying, I don't know how to save her, I'm sorry…"

"Let me have some time… alone… with my sister…"

"You can't! You'll die!" Katyusha insisted. The mermaid reached out a desperate arm towards Amelia, who was speechless, not understanding what was going on. She didn't have a sister, and this certainly wasn't her, but she supposed it would explain the similarities between the two of them.

"No, let the dying mermaid have her wish," said Yao, taking beckoning Katyusha out of the caveden, leaving Amelia and her "sister" alone.

"Sister… C-come here… closer," she beckoned.

Amelia was still unnerved by the taste of blood in the water, but Yao was right, she should make any merfolk's last wish come true, friend or enemy, related or not. It was tradition, and Amelia usually wasn't one for tradition, but she liked this one.

She swam closer to her, taking the spot Yao had been laying in to comfort the mermaid. "My name is Madeline," she said, her voice barely distinguishable in the water around her, but more relaxed now with Amelia by her side. "You were probably too young to remember, but I'm your older sister, and… they got our parents…"

Amelia took some time to process the information, and it made sense. It would explain how she arrived at the edges of her tribe's territory no older than an infant, and abandoned. Alone. But who or what had killed their parents. Was it the humans, or something else?

"Who? What happened to our parents?" Amelia asked softly.

"You… you don't know?"

"No."

"Oh, I see now." Madeline shifted her position, causing the wound to open slightly further and her to cry out in pain. "Your tribe is one of the ignorant, where the story was lost."

"What story?"

Madeline's face was pale, and her eyes had began to glaze over, her gills no longer flapping to continue the flow of water into them. The mermaid was dying, but Amelia needed to know what was going on. Amelia's past was something she had always found interesting and irritating due to not knowing it, but now, with the possibility, the capability to find out, Amelia couldn't give up and let the mermaid die yet. She had always been curious, but as the merfolk said, curiosity killed the dolphin. Then again, it sounded like something was trying to hunt them down, kill them. Maybe it was better if she didn't know, and her past remained shrouded in mystery.

"The… the sirens… they're..." Madeline said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"What about sirens? I mean, what even are sirens?" she urged the mermaid, knowing it may be cruel of her, but she simply needed to know.

"I love you… my dear sister… Amelia…" Madeline rasped. She wasn't listening now, and she slumped over in Amelia's arms, dead, gone. The taste of blood grew stronger, her entire mouth felt full of the awful, choking taste and suddenly a sinking feeling grew at the bottom of her chest. She was a selfish, awful mermaid for commanding her sister, her own blood related sister, in her dying moments to tell her some stupid information due to some sense of curiosity. She felt her heart in her chest thumping due to the blood, and that awful sense that came with it. But also a slight ray of hope, because maybe she would finally find out about her birth, and her real family, and she had already started by finding Madeline, although she had died in her arms.

With a storm of emotions clouding her head, Amelia exited the caveden, her eyes blank and dull.

A/N: This chapter is about 300 words shorter than usual, but that's alright, because I introduced a new character and then killed her off in the same chapter. I love being a writer.

Also, before I continue this story, I want to let everyone know that this story might not turn out the way you expect, maybe. I promise I won't pull any surprise ships or suddenly change from one ship to another or anything like that, but it might go in a different direction than you think it will. I'll explain what ships I'm likely going to have just in case any readers are uncomfortable with them. I'm definitely going to have LietPol, probably a lot. I most likely will have some HongIce, SuFin, DenNor, a small amount of GiriPan, maybe BelaLiech or GerIta. Hope you all like it!