Fan Fiction ❯ The Forgotten ❯ Names ( Chapter 3 )

Author's notes: Well this is the third chapter, it's really short, but the next one is going to be in Siren's point of view.

 

 

The Forgotten

 

Chapter Three: Names

 

 

The boys soon caught up with Iroh and found themselves on an old path. Quickly worry, nervousness and nausea enveloped the teens. Bodies of men and women hung from various trees at different levels of decay. Though all were of different nations, all had something in common. Words had been carved on their chests and backs.

 

`Reaper', `Siren' or `Beast' was written on the corpses. Aang had gotten sick because of the ghastly décor, mainly the image of the skeleton with the dull blue arrow on its skull hanging from the branches.

 

“I told you we shouldn't have come near here!” yelled Sokka. “That Beast is probably going to eat… us…” His rant trailed off as they broke into a clearing. A large cabin sat in the middle; vines with blue and violet flowers covered the walls and windows. A garden lay just beside the doorway. The door itself though, was merely a hide flap.

 

The saw Iroh entering the house and soon followed. The shock from the scene change still evident on their faces.

 

“I see you've upgraded your living accommodations Siren. Any particular reason?” Iroh was sitting in a chair and Katara was laid out on a cot against the wall. Siren was busy mixing something. “Boys, you can sit anywhere. She won't mind.”

 

Iroh then turned to the woman, “How many years has it been, Siren? Forty?”

 

The hood nodded and she poured a dark blue liquid into a clay cup. The woman knelt beside Katara and put the drink to her lips. The girl coughed and sputtered at the taste.

 

“At least she put mint in it for you, water bender… When she gave me that potion, I was sick for days.”

 

“Uncle, how do you know her? Who is she?” asked Zuko.

 

“Many years ago, when I was a little younger than you, I was attacked by an earth bender and injured. I stumbled into the woods and Siren found me and helped me. She cleaned my wounds, gave me a place to sleep and food to eat until I was healed.

 

“She goes by many names, nephew. Fire benders call her the Bloody Siren. Water benders tell of the Beast within the Forest of the Damned. And earth benders call her the Reaper, or sometimes the Gatherer of Souls, or Soul Stealer.”

 

Sokka turned to Aang; “There any legends from air benders?”

 

Aang was quiet for a moment. “There was a ghost story Monk Gyatso told me a long time ago… Something about a demon masquerading as a beautiful woman in mourning that lured men into the forest and slaughtered them…. Lady Death.”

 

“No one has called me that in a long time, Air bender,” Aang jumped at her soft voice, it seemed so young. He started as she suddenly handed him a cup of a dark red liquid. He paled and an amused snort came from beneath the hood, “It's not what you think.”

 

Aang drank it and felt better almost immediately. He handed the cup back to her and watched curiously as Siren's hood snapped towards the door and her grip on the cup tightened.

 

The cup broke, sending earthen shards flying, and Siren tore out of the cabin suddenly. The men exited and watched on as the scene unfolded.

 

 

 

 

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Ack, another short one! Freak, man… I'd be hating me if I was a reader. Well, I'm about to start typing on the fourth chapter. It's either going to be in third person like the rest or in Siren's point of view… I haven't decided yet… I'm about to type it both ways and see with one I like better, so it might be up tonight or tomorrow morning.

 

Thanks for reading even this far,

 

-StraitJacket