The Kraken

A pleasant humming-like song drifted across the blue sea, soft and melodic yet laced with an undercurrent of menace that made the hairs on my neck stand. The tune wrapped around the waves, growing louder as a towering wall of water rose on the horizon, dark and churning, before crashing violently onto the shore. Fortunately, Baker reacted in an instant—his muscular frame tensing as he stepped in front of me, using his broad back to shield me from the brunt of the spray. The clothes I’d left strewn on the warm sand were soaked through, clinging to my skin like a second layer, but it was better to shiver in damp fabric than stand naked beneath the sun’s unforgiving gaze. Two blue-skinned sirens were deposited onto the shore by the receding waves, their forms glistening with seawater as they collapsed to their knees. The moment their webbed feet touched the sand, a shimmering glow rippled over their bodies, initiating a breathtaking transformation. Their deep blue skin faded to a porcelai