"Siren! Come fight with me!" Takeshi, a very young, orange koi-tailed merboy, called across the room as he dashed through the door a few centimeters from the top of the rugged frame. He almost snagged his umber hair, but a flick of his tail pulled the too-long tendrils free.

The music that had been echoing through the hall of statues stopped abruptly. A graceful boy with a pale face framed gently with azure and crimson locks peered around the base of on of the great warriors carved from coral. Before he could answer though another boy sank slowly from the shadows near the ceiling, he scoffed, tossing his head, the spikes of his sea green hair glittering with trapped bubbles.

"You should know better, little brother. Siren doesn't fight. He's too weak." The much larger male loomed over the other two, his equally sea green tail swaying in the current. There were scars along it, and the fin was torn in multiple places. He wore an eyepatch and had more marks of battle than one could count littering his torso. "All the flounder-head does is sit around and sing all day long. C'mon, I'll show you a good time."

He reached out a muscular arm and snagged Takeshi, who looked up at him like he'd just been given the best present ever. "Gee, thanks, Jason! That'd be awesome!"

As the two left the hall, Siren sank back onto the pedestal of the statue. He sighed, and the sound came out as a mournful isolated tone. He blinked his mismatched eyes, and a small sad smile curled the corners of his mouth. "Ah!" He sang, and smiled happily again at the way the tone echoed.

Only a moment later, Epona entered the hall, following the sounds of the echoes. She was small, wiry and had the tail of a sea horse. Upon spying Siren resting against the statue of Apollo. she darting over using her tail like a propeller. "Siren!" She called happily.

"Ah." He sang with a smile and then whistled a series of cascading tones and notes.

"Don't let those meatheads get to you. You know I love your songs. So what if you don't like violence. Just because you look like a Fighting Fish doesn't mean you have to be one. C'mon! Dea's making takoyaki!"

He trilled and closed his eyes, his tongue coming out to lick his lips. She laughed and grasped his hand, pulling him towards the kitchens. He followed happily, the earlier slight against his habits forgotten in light of good food.

~*~

New character. I swear my muse is on SPEED!!! XD Inspired by Siren by Trish Thuy Trang.

The storm in the background was created using this tutorial.

And he's supposed to be modeled after a Betta, or Japanese Fighting Fish. He's mute, only speaking through song, and is a die-hard pacifist, refusing to even fight back when the more violent members of his tribe decide to gang up on him.

Other merfolk mentioned in the drabble:

Takeshi - Siren's younger brother; he's rambunctious and over-eager, wants to prove himself a great warrior, as his name suggests. He's based on an orange and white koi with almost yellow hair that hangs into his face unless he's swimming forward.

Jason - Siren's older brother; he's the leader of the merfolk's hunting party, a lauded fighter and quite violent. He can't stand anything that doesn't involve physical activity and thinks Siren's obsession with music is a waste of time. He's very muscular, with a sea green shark-style tail, and keeps his matching hair chopped short. He lost an eye in the mating fight that won him his wife.

Epona - Siren's best friend; bubbly and talkative. She seems to be the only person who understands Siren 100% of the time. She's small, and like her name suggests, is based on a sea-horse. She's a great scout, and is the best clam-digger in the tribe.

Dea - mother-figure; based on a benthoctopus. She often takes Siren in when the other males of the tribe gang up on him for his "short comings"