Marella woke up out of breath, she didn't know where she was. Only that lasted for a short moment, then everything came back to her. Sirens attacked and murdered everybody, why was she still alive?  She did not know, but that purple man had seen something in her. He kept calling her Rʻulaʻula, Red, what ever that meant. She looked around why was she in one of this yacht bedrooms? She gasped for breath and looked at herself. Yep, she was naked. Did that purple man rape her? Why those she not remember it?  All those questions echoed through her head. She heard footsteps above her, there was somebody out there. Maybe another who had survived the attack, Rudy or maybe Cynta. She quickly grabbed her clothing which lay fowled on the nightstand. She buttoned up her jeans and ran out of the cabin.

"Hello, is there somebody there?" She yelled, running up the stairs. But after she set foot on the main deck she got tackled to the ground. Something heavy pushed her even harder.

"What have you done?" Asked someone, it was a male voice. "What have you done half-breed?" The man repeated his question.

"Nothing, I have done nothing." She said. Which was difficult, because the air was pushed out of her lungs.

"Then how do you explain this?" He asked and pulled her up by her hair. She screamed it out, it really hurt. But she could see who he was and what he meant. There was blood everywhere, tears started to sting in her eyes.

"It were the sirens." She said, through gritted teeth. "Sirens attacked the boat and killed everybody. Mister Nightstorm." He was the father of Ruby and Cynta.

"Everybody, but you." He snapped at her. "How lucky you are, are you really thinking I would believe you?" He slapped her in the face. "I should kill you here and now. You are just like your mother, a lying whore."

"Let her go, Aenon." Somebody else said. "She might tell the truth."

"Look at this Cato, look at your daughter! She is dead, they are all dead! Expect this lying..." Aenon snapped at his brother.

"I didn't kill anybody! I am telling you it were the sirens. I do not know why they spared me, but they did. Please believe me mister Nightstorm." She cried out. "I didn't do anything, I didn't kill anybody." 

"Shut up, you little whore." Aenon snipped at her. "Or I will finish the job for them." Cato appeared in her view.

"Marella, look me in the eye." He said. 

"Cato, you can not be serious?" Aenon said. But Cato raised his hand up. Marella looked him in the eye. 

"Did you kill, my daughter and the others?" He asked. She wanted to shake her head, only Aenon was holding her hair in a thigh grip.

"No I didn't kill them." She said through her tears. He nodded and sighed.

"Let her go, Aenon. I believe her." Cato said, but Aenon didn't let her go. No he pulled even harder on her hair.

"That those not mean that she didn't play a role in it." Aenon retorted. "Why else would she be alive?"

"Because one of them believed that I was one of them." She screamed. The pull on her hair was almost unbearable. No it was unbearable. "One kept calling me Red." Aenon quickly let go of her hair. "He took me away when an orange siren killed Ruby and Cynta." 

"Where did he take you?" Cato asked and she looked away. "Marella, where did he take you?" 

"One of the cabins." She whispered and tears again streamed down her face. She shrunk to her knees and started sobbing. She couldn't look them in the eye, knowing what she would see in them. Right now she was being judged. "He raped me." She whispered, she was not sure about that statement, but at least they wouldn't call her a whore. At least not out loud. "I want to go home, I want my mother." She wrapped her own arms around her waist. "I want to go home." 

******

Acale hid behind one of the Pōha'siren, barely restraining himself. When that... He took a deep breath, she was safe for now. But he should keep a close eye on her.

"So instead of killing her, you slept with her." Kalama said. Acale looked at one of the most obnoxious siren in the sea, always thinking he those know best.

"She is not one of those land walkers." Acale said, calmly. "You have eyes don't you, you clearly could see that she is part of the Rʻulaʻula family." But Kalama shook his head.

"All what I saw was a Naiad skank, that tried to look like use." Kalama replied.

"Then how in sea's name could she understand you. I know one thing for a fact, Naiads do not speak Mou." Acale snapped at him, and Kalama was taking aback by that.

"Alright you have a point, that was indeed strange. But she looked a lot like them." Kalama said. Acale nodded with regret, he knows that. Which made it even stranger.

"They just called her a half-breed." Acale said. "But that would mean that one of the Rʻulaʻula family slept with a Naiad." Kalama shivered by the thought, Acale did not, considering he had done the same thing. There was something about that girl, she looked so lost at first. But after he had brought her to the cabin, she melted in his hands. He didn't rape her, as she just claimed to those two men. She wanted him to have sex, she kissed him first. She was the one who made the first move, but that did not mean that he would have stopped if she wanted him too. Women were the leaders of his race, if he had continued after she told him to stop, he would have been in very big trouble. Live threatening trouble. He sighed.

"Let's go back, Acale. Your mother is waiting on our report." Kalama said and he dived underwater. Acale looked at the boat that sailed away from him, she was on it. On her way back home.

"I hope to see you again, little Rʻulaʻula." He whispered in the wind and then followed Kalama.

*******

"Marella, what in Dragon Lord's name has happened?" Her mother screamed, she almost strangled her in a hug. Marella was about to break in a million pieces. Who was she going to tell her mother this.

"Marella is the sole survivor of a Siren attack, Kelby." Cato Nightstorm answered for her. He leaned closer to her. "Take her home, Kelby and keep her there for the time being. Not everybody would believe it." Marella heard every word, and she would have to agree with him. Aenon alone was already difficult to convince. Marella's mother dragged her with her, she didn't look at the others on the dock. She didn't want to see their faces, the hate, disbelieve, the pity. Marella breath a sigh of relief when the doors of her grandparent's mansion closed behind her.

"Alright Marella spill." Her mother let go off her, and Marella started recount the attack. The men with different color scales, she told her mother about the man in purple. "In Dragon Lord's name." Her mother gasped. "O my."

"She is a daughter of her mother, a low life that sleeps around." Her grandmother, mingled in the conversation. Marella was ready to defend herself. But her grandmother stoke. Again tears welled up, in her eyes. "If she is not going to keep the child." Her grandmother said not to her, but to her mother. "I am not allowing another half-breed inside my house."

"Mom please, she has witnessed her friends being murdered. Give her a slight breather." Her mother said.

"Ha, those were not friend. Kelby, everyone with ears and a good mind knows that." Her grandmother snapped. "And that half-breed of yours is not a guilty free party. She spread her legs for that brute willingly, as you did for her father."

"Wait a second!" Marella screamed. "Are you saying that I have siren blood?" She asked this to no one in particular, and she didn't wait for an answer. "That is why I could understand Mou. That is why that purple guy kept calling me Rʻulaʻula."

"He kept calling you what?" Her grandmother snapped.

"Rʻulaʻula, that means Red." Marella said. "At least I believe it means red." Marella looked now at her mother. Who was as pale as a fresh sheet of paper.

"Your father, he was covered in red scales." She whispered. Marella looked at her mother in surprise, this was more information she ever got about her father.

"That is enough. Marella, go to your room, you will not leave it until I say so." Her grandmother snipped at her. "And you, you will not speak about that man in my house do you hear me!" She pointed her wrinkled finger at Marella's mother.

"Yes mother." Her mother replied, with her head down. Marella bit on her lip turned around and slowly walked to her room.