A Christmas Miracle on Dewdrop

The sails were furled as the night air hadn't brought any more wind than it had while Swegl still shone. The current would carry them south but too much to the east but they'd had to tow to get to it. Sirena knew she'd slowed Theo and the couple, who'd agreed to lead them to the island, but with their new knife and her singing as recompense they'd expressed no annoyance. But her three companions hadn't been happy about something revealed as dusk had morphed from reds and oranges to night's black. But Theo had reassured her.

Her companions were seasoned in the open country of the ocean and while Sirena travelled regularly amongst the settlements and the outlying villages that grew up around each, like most people going into the wild was rare for her. Her travels the last few years had followed well-worn paths and she'd been taken by crews used to carrying passengers. She had a regular exercise regime but it had taken only a single day to prove that was no substitute for real work. She'd accompanied the Old Melon on many trips but as he'd aged those had fallen off and she'd not been as enthused with any of the younger ones.

But now, if dusk had offered colors, it was nothing compared to what she saw in the water as she sang and watched the little phosphorescent squidleys put on their light shows as they tried to attract a mate. They surrounded and were between both barges and darted left and right and up and down in a three-dimensional dance as they worked through all of the colors of a rainbow and more. People had tried to keep them for pets for their beauty but these were creatures of the broad currents and they were born, lived, loved and died in never-ending circuits around the great oceans. A few of their larger and more sedentary cousins had much more muted guises but almost all definitely lacked the playful and friendly demeanors on display. The larger ones could be dangerous. Hunters and explorers claimed in the wide spaces far from people there were some large enough to battle sharks and whales and simply swallow a human.

Theo laughed and slid into the water, Sirena held her note with only a surprised wobble. He stretched flat and settled a couple of arm's lengths below the surface. The light show intensified as explosions of color revolved around him as he did a slow spin. Sirena finished her song and Bebe's contralto immediately took up a chant with Sy adding a hooted bass accompaniment. Sirena's eyes widened when she realized that the couple's rhythm was being matched by the 'dance' that Theo and his partners performed. Squidleys flashed colors and darted to Sy's deep hooted beats and Bebe's hypnotic chant that wasn't really words.

People didn't glow like these creatures, Sirena knew, but they could reflect. And she was amazed. Theo spun and swished and his partners rippled with colors from the tips of their tentacles to their heads and those colors reflected off of the man's scales as Bebe seemed to conduct her orchestra of light with the sounds of hers and Sy's voices.

Her resolve broke and Sirena slid into the water. These barges were designed to run with a current like this and the rudder was set. It would continue on its way and the rope would discourage wandering.

The squidleys immediately surrounded her as they dared each other to come within a finger's width of her before they'd dart away. She looked down and Theo rotated to face her. He spread his arms and the glowing creatures outlined him. Sirena relaxed to let herself sink as she matched his movements to spread her arms and they both lifted them to point forward and kicked quickly to dart forward half their lengths. Squidleys kicked their light show a notch higher as they jostled to accompany the people. Sirena indeed felt as much as heard Bebe's and Sy's song and let it guide her.

Half an arm's length apart the two people angled their arms to allow their hands to meet before they went into a slow spin that caused their escorts to set up a faster rotation around the couple. Sirena couldn't keep her eyes on Theo, despite the beautiful and sensual man's gaze, the little squidleys all around them were the most amazing thing she'd ever seen. The couple's arms spread but they kept their hands together and minimal effort kept them oriented as the current carried them.

Sirena's eyes locked again on Theo's. Both of them responded to one of Sy's deep beats with quick hoots that released bubbles that reflected mad combinations of colors. They separated their hands and they approached and their arms brushed against each other's sides and wrapped. She let out a quick note as her already excited nipples made contact before they pulled each other tightly. She opened her mouth slightly and matched it to the other. As their grips firmed their mouths opened more and tongues made their first tentative forays.

Sirena opened one eye slightly after some amount of lost time but she made no move that would interrupt the kiss. The song from the surface had changed, slowed, become even deeper. The couple were truly talented. The frantic movements of their colorful escorts matched the rhythm and had slowed and become more regular but continued to graze the submerged couple.

Theo broke the kiss but Sirena had no time for disappointment as he let himself lag and his lips found her chest before he kissed his way onto her left breast. She angled an arm to press the back of his head as his mouth engulfed her nipple. Her soprano offered a wordless match in a register that complimented the chant and the squidleys responded with a shift in their pattern. Theo encouraged first one nipple then the other to harden and grow. It had been awhile. Too long, Sirena's song reflected her regret at that morphed into relief.

But she eased the pressure on his head and slid down herself but only kissed his mouth quickly before continuing and kissed his powerful chest then onto his abs. His muscles rippled as she moved further and the song from above changed to a slower cadence. She nudged against his sheath. He was teasing her, she knew, she felt his readiness. She pressed, heard a hooted 'oh, well, if you insist.' She replied with 'you couldn't handle what I give anyway,' before they both snorted.

His sheath parted.

She sucked his hard flesh into her mouth. The head was large and she swirled around it with her tongue. Her cheeks pressed against the flesh of the shaft and her lips were tight. She pulled back and pushed forward and he massaged her shoulders as she sucked him.

She released him and opened her eyes to gaze on his tumescent flesh lit in the wildest colors she'd even seen. She stuck her tongue out and pushed it against the tip of his prick, found the hole and tasted his first juices. The taste of his pre-cum was sweet and pleasant. The first boy she'd ever sucked had been sent to her by Beatrice. In a wine-fueled conversation after the singer had expressed her dismay at his sour taste, to her golden-haired friend's surprise. Further conversations with other women had convinced her that while most could 'taste' a man she tasted so much more. And no matter a man's looks or anything else, if he tasted poorly... she couldn't be with him.

But why was her sense of relief so strong now? She buried that thought and swirled her tongue around the head before she kissed sideways along the shaft then quickly moved to engulf the entire thing to pull a few more drops of juice. She blew bubbles out and her throat and mouth rippled against hard flesh and his reaction offered a bit of surprise. His touches indicated he was no naif but her mother had been a Rachel and Sirena had always had good acquaintance with those women whose entire being was to bring pleasure to others. Had she not had such a voice, her only reticence at that path would have been that a true Rachel had no limitations, be it to pleasure a man or a woman. She repeated her treatment and he moaned again. Why had it been so long since she'd done this?

She released his cock and hands gently tugged at her shoulders. She responded and kissed her way up his body with quick flicks and rubbed her flesh against that lovely and hard cock. As her mouth met his he began to slide, she knew what he meant, but she didn't want it. There would be time for that another day. The chant had slowed and amazingly deepened and their escort now rippled in colors in unison from one end of the beasts to their other. She pushed her sheath against his cock and she made it quiver, another 'trick' of the Rachels. He rubbed against her before she slowly opened herself.

She moaned into his mouth. Without his hands he'd guided his cock's large head to make contact with her expectant clit. But the pressure was controlled and slow as she felt it slide along her own erect flesh. Two more strokes and the pressure disappeared to her momentary disappointment and she readied a hand to guide him.

It wasn't needed. But only the head entered her. She pushed her body, she wanted it all but he backed off. She stopped. He pulled back then again pushed only the head in. She snorted and broke the kiss and moved to his neck and bit lightly on a flap. He laughed and blew bubbles before she blew her own hard burst of bubbles when that rampant cock was shoved with speed and perfect aim into her slit. She squeezed him hard and jumped and he withdrew most of it before he slammed it again to full depth and pressed his body hard against hers.

This was war! She slammed her mouth hard against his and tightened her pussy and held him as he tried to back out and squeezed only the head of his cock, another move she'd learned few beyond the Rachels mastered. That head pulsed inside her. They laughed into each other's mouth as the battle raged and the light show offered a sudden and fast flash of every visible color.

And then, a truce was agreed to and each relaxed just the right muscles and he pulled back before he reentered her at a more deliberate pace. She rippled the flesh in her pussy as the intrusion deepened. The chanting from above shifted and the colorful mass slowly expanded but continued their synchronized flashes. Sirena kissed Theo as they drove each other to further heights of pleasure as their escorts joined in their own groups of two, three, four or more and spread further from the couple but continued to surround them.

Sirena open her eyes as slits then wider and blinked. Her confusion took a moment to lift. She was curled on Theo's barge on a combination of rope and seaweed mats. Unlike the previous evening's flat sea there were small rolling waves and a steady wind blew. The sun was at her head but seemed muted. But what woke her up were the voices. She twisted and lifted her head but was careful of the sail.

Theo's barge was lashed closely behind the other. Her lover was at the front of it where he held steering ropes for the rudder and sail and spoke in urgent but low tones with Bebe who was at the back of her barge. Sy was at the front and occasionally turned and added a quick comment. Sirena slid under the sail then sat up and pushed herself forward.

"Storm? What storm?" Both Theo and Bebe seemed surprised to hear her worried statement, their concentration had been so fierce. Theo offered her a grim smile.

"My fault," he said, "the island's dead ahead of us, couple twentyfourths at this speed. But a hurricane's coming from the south. I thought we'd make it here and out before it got here. We have the wind but it'll be close."

"Don't lie, young man," Bebe said firmly, "it was we who said it."

Sirena looked into the woman's eyes. Was she trying to 'protect' the man for the singer's judgement? But no, whatever exactly had happened, undue blame couldn't be laid on Theo. But the clouds that spread from the south explained the muted light of Swegl.

All thoughts and conversation on that issue fled when Sy hooted loudly. His right arm pointed but that was unnecessary.

Orcas. How many was unclear but they held a parallel course and speed. They weren't close, tens, maybe fifty, lengths, but they held there. Two, then a third distinctive fluke broke the surface as Sirena and her companions watched. As even children knew, this showed the predators hadn't committed to either attacking or retreating.

"Young males," Bebe said to Sirena, "kicked out and looking for new pods."

The singer nodded but fretted. This was closer than she'd ever been to them, the stories of the wars of her ancestors against these creatures her and most people's primary experience now. Orcas didn't like the shallows and reefs people favoured but they still clashed over prey in the open spaces. But the great beasts had been pushed back and each species generally kept their distance from the other.

"They may have chased that mackerel school you found," Theo said, "and now they're a bit lost."

"There is a good place on the north side of the island," Bebe said, "it will be defensible. And the island will be between us and the hurricane."

"If we get there," Theo said. He put his arm around Sirena's shoulders and she hugged and kissed him quickly.

Without other needed skills Sirena stood watch to track the orcas and for a twentyfourth sang requests. After that, the wind and waves forced her to grip the barge and one of Theo's spears, two-thirds as long as her with a wicked black crystal blade. He had a half dozen, as did Sy and Bebe. The shafts were mostly solid whale bone with one a piece of hard wood.

"Lash there," Sy yelled over the wind's screams and pointed to standing rocks at the north end of the island as lightning danced in the sky and at the island's peak.

"Take a spear," Theo said, "keep an eye."

His anguish at his request was clear to Sirena, but she touched his lips.

"I'll sing, music soothes the wild beasts," she held a spear and jumped off the barge where she bobbed in the waves. The orcas had halved the distance but still seemed wary. Melons who'd studied them claimed they had a rudimentary language and enough wits to pass on 'people tasty but dangerous.' She fought to avoid being dashed against the rocks and managed it, if only by a hair.

There was no splash but Theo was suddenly next to her, one spear in his right hand and two more in his left.

"On the barge," he leaned and spoke into her ear to be heard, "lampplant bulbs."

She nodded and turned and grabbed the bag woven from seaweed strands with her left hand. It held a number of them, none yet activated although it may as well have been dusk.

"Come," Bebe shouted as she and Sy came alongside, spears and another bag of lampplant bulbs in their hands. They dove and Theo bobbed his head for Sirena to follow and she left him to bring up the rear.

Bebe led the quartet as they fought the waves and followed the jagged slope of the island into the darker depths. She searched for a hollow she and Sy had seen, it was deep enough to avoid the turmoil of the storm and would force the orcas to attack only from the front. A front door of black crystal spear points would mean only those contemplating suicide or starving would press an attack. But if they remained close by after the storm? Tomorrow's problem.

Sirena screamed as she saw the movement just below and in front of her. Sy managed to throw his arm up but couldn't twist the spear quickly enough and one of the orcas clamped its jaw full of jagged teeth onto his arm. He hooted in pain and lost the two spears in that hand as he stopped and twisted his body upright. Sirena tried to aim the spear but Sy's twisting struggle caused her to collide with him and although the spear point hit home it seemed to barely break skin. The beast turned quickly and ripped the spear from her hand and it was thrown against the rocks.

The momentum from the attack drove Sy back and Sirena hooted in her own pain as she was squeezed between the unfortunate man and the rock wall. Fortunately it was relatively flat rather than one of the sharp edges but it still dazed her for the moment. She hooted in pain and looked for Theo and realized no help would come from him. Another hoot of pain and anger and defiance from deeper was proof Bebe too was beset.

The man she'd spent a most pleasant night with fought for his life. Her quick glance showed him skillfully wielding a spear in each hand to keep another of the orcas at bay. Small wounds on the orca showed the spears had hit home but now that Theo's opponent understood its attack had evolved and it simply forced the man further from the other people without leaving itself too open to those sharp points. The orcas were indeed young, and therefore almost certainly males, ejected from their birth pods and thrown together by chance for their wanderjahre when the survivors would be allowed to join new pods. But that meant they were still longer and much broader than even Theo. And one of those broad mouths already had almost the entirety of Sy's arm in its grip.

Sirena's attention was ripped back to her own situation as she was squeezed against the rock in a couple of quick hits. She let go of the lampplant bag and pressed that hand against the rock to cushion the hits. Then Sy was jerked away from her and his arm extended, still in the beast's mouth. Sirena saw he wasn't using the spear in his usable arm for defense but had wedged it into a gap in the rocks to prevent his attacker from dragging him away. The orca reacted by pushing forward and opening its mouth for a killing bite on the man's head or neck. But Sy sacrificed his shredded arm and forced it back into that mouth before his body was twisted to his left. Sirena hooted in pain as a handful of sharp teeth sliced across and just below her right breast before it pulled back.

Blood filled the dark water. People lost the ability to see colors and fine detail as it got dark, but broad shapes and movement were still easily discerned. No one knew how good these creature's eyesight was, but something Old Melon had told her fought its way to her brain. The orca's eye was large and flat and she swore that it had focused tightly on her and had returned to Sy.

Its prey.

Old Melon had taught her that some predators used their noses and pursued by scents. But people and others used their eyes. Sirena knew. She reached for her waist. Found... nothing. She'd lost her black crystal knife. They were slammed against the rock again but still Sy used what was left of his arm to shield them. Sirena felt something hit her hip.

It was the metal knife that she'd presented the couple. That she'd paid Cromley Melon with songs and views of her playing with her own tits to coax him to finish that day. She reached down as Sy and his attacker hit a momentary stasis and pulled the knife from its scabbard with her right hand.

"To the right," she managed to croak out. Whether Sy heard and obeyed she didn't know but he somehow twisted the beast slightly. She pushed herself slightly away from the rock and plunged the knife to the hilt into the orca's eye. The beast went rigid. She hurriedly pulled the knife out and it was followed by a stream of viscous milky liquid. Before she could strike again her foe thrashed its huge tail and struck her but it was at a bad angle and the blow had little force. But it opened its mouth and released Sy and jumped back half a body length where it seemed to shake before it thrashed its head side to side.

Sy tried to work the spear from the rock with his one good arm but it was stuck. He hooted in pain and frustration. Sirena shifted and felt something to her right. It was the other spear, the one she'd thought lost. With Sy not pressing her she shifted the metal knife to her left hand and grabbed the spear. The orca turned so its good eye seemed to shine with hate at them then it turned to face them and opened its mouth.

Sirena screamed and unconsciously slid behind Sy. She had no time to hand the spear to the man and tried to imitate her lover and leveled the spear as their attacker charged with a furious acceleration and opened its mouth, subtlety thrown to the waves. She hooted in pain as Sy threw himself backwards to crush her against the rock once more. She screamed again as shards of bone stabbed into her side, the loud crack of the spear's shaft breaking in stereo with another crunch.