The slap of Damari's sandals against stone as he left Alena echoed in her ears as he moved to the entrance of the cave.

She had picked up the brass spy glass and held it tentatively in her hand as she remembered what Kaiya had warned her about, that she would be lost if she were to use it wrong.

But surely wanting to find an entrance to the underworld to save one's best friend wasn't a reason to have her lose her way from the true path..was it?

Just look through the spyglass already Alena, she grumbled to herself, rolling the brass in her hands a couple of times before cursing and raising it to her eyes with both hands.

At first, it looked like the glass was blurred, nothing could be seen through it except for the faint outlines of rocks around the cave, causing Alena's frustration to grow all the more.

Grumbling under her breath, she pulled the glass away from her eye momentarily before inhaling deeply. "Just breathe and look through the bloody spyglass before you lose your mind more than you already have."

Letting out an even deeper exhale, she lifted the spyglass to her eye yet again, struggling to quell her anger as she peered through what she thought would be muddled glass yet again.

At first, it was just as it was before and she nearly tossed the useless spyglass across the rocky cave, until a small glint caught the corner of her eye.

Daring not to lift her spirits too high, she situated her eye once more to search through the looking glass, her breath hitching as the glint became a far brighter light to the right side of Hades Helm.

It stunned her for a moment as she leaned closer to make the anomaly move closer while a faint humming sound began to reach her ears.

Ignoring the insistent melody, Alena moved even closer until the same shining glow seemed to be radiating from somewhere outside her line of sight.

She turned quickly to find the glow peeking out from her bag, giving her caution, but also curiosity as to what could possibly have caused it.

As she reached her hand inside the bag, still holding the spyglass tight in her hand, she heard another loud screech sound from the entrance of the cave.

Her head shot up and she looked out in the direction she had seen Damari last. "Damari! Are you all right? Something's wrong and Hecate could be closing in."

A muffled thump, like a body falling to the ground, echoed through the caverns, worrying Alena even further.

"Damari! Please answer me!"

"I'm okay." he called out breathily. "It just appears that Hecate has decided to send in the first wave of forces."

Raising the glass back up, Alena searched hurriedly through her bag in hopes of finding the source of the light. "What do you mean the first wave?"

"I mean that we haven't even begun to see what she can do. What she did to our minds a few hours ago, that was child's play. The real battle has just begun."

Nearly clearing out the entire bag, Alena carefully pulled out one of the items that she had yet to remove from the bag.

The scroll that held the prophecy glowed almost like a star on a clear night, shining brightly for all to see.

Lifting up the paper, she held it next to the brighter light, inspecting what could be in common with the two when the same, eerily soft melody spilled itself through the air.

It caused a shiver to run up Alena's spine as she listened intently while reading the prophecy yet again, but through the use of the spyglass; hoping it would reveal something deeper than what was seen by the naked eye.

She couldn't quite make out what was being sung, but as she neared the end of the prophecy, three lines stood out in the second to last line.

The Lost Siren's call holds the key to all, though doom is soon set in her palm.

Through the dawn at first light, till the solstice at midnight.

The Goddess calls out for her heart.

The last sentence caused the breath in Alena's throat to hitch as she listened closer to the Helm, hearing the voice grow louder and stronger until she was inches away from the stone.

Her eyes focused on the rock and she could barely make out the words that were being sung, but she knew she had heard the song from somewhere before.

The octave at which the singer was able to reach sent shivers down her spine and Alena glanced down at the prophecy once more, the creature inside her squirming at the heart wrenching melody that far out exceeded her own.

Humming lowly, Alena tuned her voice to such a point that she was able to sing in complete harmony with the foreign voice, raising her voice gradually until she was confident in what she sang.

And beneath her harmony as well as the sorrowful melody, their was an underlying hum that carried from outside the cave, and she knew it had to be Damari.

At the peak of the combination of the three voices, a deep, resounding boom sounded from within the cave as the ground began to shake, the light fading from the stone and the prophecy as the rock beneath Alena's tail split in half.

"Damari!" she screamed, snatching the bag, along with its contents, and swimming away from the gaping chasm in the ground as she raced towards the entrance; a thunderous wail piercing the silent night.

"Damari, get in here!" Alena screamed louder, shooting through the cave as fast as her tail could take her only to find Damari standing stock still at the mouth of the cavern, utterly mute in the empty silence.

Moving in front of him, Alena wove her hand in his face, gaping in shock at the glazed look in his eyes.

"I said to get inside!" she yelled. "What about that is so utterly incomprehensible that your sad excuse for a sailor's mind can't understand it?!"

Her shoulders were heaving by the end of her tirade and Damari didn't so much as flinch, instead flickering his eyes to hers before lifting a visibly shaken hand to direct her gaze beyond them.

She rolled her eyes, still continuing to face him as she turned. "I don't see what could honestly be scaring you this much, Damari. I would have thought a man such as yourself would know a thing or two about the sea and how its creatures wor--"

Her words were cut off abruptly as she took in the blue mist that had spread itself far out across the plains, leaving no spot of land untouched as it increased in speed towards the base of the mountain.

"I think Hecate has come to call." Damari whispered deeply in her ear, pushing her behind him as the mist came closer. "When I tell you to run, you do it."

Alena looked at him incredulously, stepping out from behind him and grabbing ahold of his wrist to pull him back inside. "Damari, I found the entrance, we need to go now before they catch up to us."

"Alena, look behind you," he ground out, gesturing to the mist that was now climbing from the rocky base, "they've already caught up to us. There's no way we're going to be able to escape without confronting them."

"Oh when will you learn that confronting enemies isn't always the smartest solution!" Alena shrieked aloud, snatching her bag from the floor before staring down into the molten rock that lay below her feet. "You're going to get us killed if you don't start thinking with your head!"

She gradually slid herself into the gaping hole that resembled the maw of a blood thirsty animal when a strong arm grabbed her upper bicep, drawing her up short as she struggled to wiggle down in.

"What are you doing?" she growled, her eyes flashing with anger as Damari glared at her. "We need to go now, and that's what we're going to do."

He held tight to her arm and refused to let go, heat radiating viciously from his arm as the mark on Alena's wrist twisted painfully, dragging a pain-filled hiss from her throat.

"No, it's not what we're going to do." he replied heatedly. "What we're going to do is get rid of this problem once and for all, and you're going to listen to me whether you like it or not."

"What gives you the right to order me around like you do then?" Alena retorted, tilting her chin in a haughty manner at his demeaning expression.

"What gives me the right," Damari spat out, lifting Triton's conch shell closer to his lips, " is when there is a goddess willing to see both our bodies as cold as stone on the ground before her feet without taking a moment to even think on it. I'm not going to let that happen, and you're not going to stop me."

Holding the instrument to his lips, he blew into it and sent the powerful sound rumbling across the watery plains and deep into Alena's bones, running so jarringly out over the landscape that it severed the ground; splitting it in half as it went to create an even larger chasm then the one inside the cave.

As soon as the note died off, all was silent, nothing moved across the desolate plain until a low, monstrous howl broke from the horizons of the immense abyss.

The light of the sun rising above the surface shone through the water in rays as an unexplainable beast rose up from the depths.

"What have you done?!" Alena screamed over the thundering roar, holding her hands tightly over her ears as she stumbled back into the cave.

Damari's eyes widened as the girth of the brutish creature surged up onto the sea floor, his breathing uneven while the abnormally large scales on the beast's tail glistened in the eerie light of morning.

The creature was unlike anything Damari had ever seen before, the tail resembling that of a fish while six long, darting heads rose up from the human-like waist and shoulders.

Three rows of sharp, grisly teeth protruded from the being's mouths as they pulled back into a murderous smile, swimming towards the mist that had since halted its journey of claiming the mount.

The being was female, as could be determined from the upper half of her body, but what slithered out of her throat sounded far from anything that could be described as female.

"Greetings," her snake-like voice hissed, approaching the mouth of the cave as two of her heads shot forward to inspect Damari and Alena, "I believe you were the one that summoned me, young sailor."

Her teeth clanged shut on the head closest to Damari, making him jump back with alarm as he struggled to escape the woman's unerring gaze.

"I used to eat plenty of sailors such as yourself," Her throaty laughter echoed out, a sharp tongue sliding out across her teeth leisurely, "but I am here on business of a different matter if I do remember correctly, and what a shame it would be to ruin an encounter as sweet as that to eat something as delectably alluring as yourself."

Alena could see the terror racing through Damari's figure, yet he stood tall, refusing to fall under its sense dousing abilities.

She stepped forward in front of Damari to shield him from the woman's prying, wanting to keep as much distance between them and any possible attack as she could.

The head closest to Alena hissed with laughter as it moved within an inch of her face, its beady eyes staring into hers defiantly. "I must say, it is a pleasure to finally meet the siren responsible for losing the Goddess of Spring. My name is Scylla. I have long protected the Underworld for her husband and have yet to see you try and save her from his burning grasp. I fear you will not find what you are looking for if you enter those caves, but do remember to say hello to Hades for me, he still owes me a debt from a few centuries ago and I have been meaning to ask for his payment."

Pushing Damari further behind her, Alena nodded her head briefly before forcing herself to move back as well, watching the creature as she bent down towards the mist and let out a terrifying roar.

"Greetings, Hecate!" Scylla called out brazenly, "I haven't stumbled upon your endearing face in centuries! Would it please you now that I am here, in the grace of your presence?"

"What is she doing?" Damari whispered carefully, staring at Alena in bewilderment as she ripped open the top of her bag and began to search through the contents again. "Alena, say something to me before I go out there and ask her myself!"

"I'm getting the potion that Amphitrite gave us for the gods sake and I'd appreciate it greatly if you would shut up!"

Abiding by her words, Damari promptly shut his mouth and instead chose to stare out at the creature as she screamed into the mist like a lunatic.

"I have come to repay a debt of my own!" Scylla shouted again. "Long have I been imprisoned, waiting for Triton to call upon me in servitude, and dare I say that day has come! I send greetings to you as well, Mother, in hopes that you finally face the daughter that you allowed to be cursed!"

Alena's fingers trembled as she pulled the stopper from the translucent bottle, the woman's words slowing her efforts while she tried to listen to what she was saying, handing the bottle over to Damari to drink from.

"I never allowed you to be cursed, Scylla." A voice resonated calmly from the mist. "You brought this malediction upon yourself and have no one to blame but yourself."

"I do when my mother was the one that aided the thieving witch who turned me into this! When will you face me, Mother? Are you afraid to show yourself to one in so lowly a stature as myself?"

Another laugh, this one much deeper and raspier than that of Scylla, wrenched itself from the encroaching mist, following the emergence of an elderly woman.

Damari swallowed half of the drink quickly before passing it off to Alena, observing the elderly woman as she staggered out precariously.

Alena was gazing at the woman along with Damari as she raised the bottle to her lips and swallowed.

It felt like liquid fire burning down her throat, trailing down into the pit of her stomach where it seemed to pool and grow in intensity.

She looked over to Damari quickly to gauge his reaction, seeing that his eyes had gained a glassy quality to them while he grabbed ahold of the rocky wall.

"We need to go." Alena whispered, pushing Damari back. "We don't know what these two are going to do, they could very well be planning to kill us off before we even make it past those gates."

"Alena, wait."

Damari seized her wrist and nodded his head towards Scylla who had now stepped only a few feet away from her mother in a jeering manner, her heads moving back and forth in synchronized motion.

To Alena's horror, the older woman straightened up from her hunched over position, her back cracking with the movements as a shimmering light eclipsed her frail looking body.

Her once graying hairs gave way to long, flowing, chestnut waves that coursed down her back in soft curls while her figure grew to nearly the height of her daughter, her weary looking cloak turning into the brilliance of a pure, white himation clasped together with a magnificent blue brooch.

Standing tall, she removed two torches from the inside of her overlying chiton. Their never ending glow cast a dark shadow across the goddess' face along with the golden leaves that clung to the band of silver wrapped around her head.

"If anyone should be afraid, dear daughter," Hecate whispered dangerously, a flicker of light dancing behind her in the mist as she brought the torches above her head, "it should be you and the ones that you so heartily defend."

~*~*~*~*~*~