The dreamscape seemed far more surreal than usual. Vynx's body, which had previously felt like a hundred tons, now drifted weightlessly in a sea of soft lilac waves. He could hear the flow of water moving through his ears, as if his body were one with the ocean itself. Somewhere beyond his consciousness, a feminine voice sang in a sweet melody, reciting words in a language that escaped his comprehension. Even when water washed over his face, Vynx had no trouble breathing and admired the endless rosy sky in peace. After the long hours of swimming and fighting for his life, the tranquility of the ocean was a welcoming embrace, and he offered no resistance as sleep threatened to claim his weary bones.

Another voice suddenly overlapped the song—one that was far less serene. He tried to ignore the secondary voice until it angrily shook him from his slumber. "Wake up, you idiot! Don't you dare go any further!" 

Vynx felt a hand grabbing his wrist. With great reluctance, he reopened his eyes, only to see a blur of sunlight and bubbles dancing above him. He tried to stand, but there was no ground under his feet. The hunter snapped back into reality as panic took over, and the sensation of suffocating underwater became glaringly apparent. He rapidly kicked his feet and followed the tug of the hand around his arm. His head breached the surface again, and he gasped for air. 

"Are you trying to drown?!" Laven hissed. She was hovering above the water, holding fast to Vynx's arm to prevent him from being dragged further into the deep. 

"I was just taking a little nap!" Vynx sputtered and splashed around frantically until he spotted the desert isle again, nearly thirty feet away from where he was currently wading. With Laven's help, he swam back to shore and dragged himself to his feet. Vynx wrung the water out of his jacket, then looked up at the sky. To his bewilderment, the sun was dipping low towards the west, its light already fading to a deep orange hue.

"You slept long enough for the tide to rise and carry you away," the succubus scolded him.

"Sorry, I was exhausted," Vynx yawned. "I was also having the most relaxing dream… There was this voice that I could have listened to forever—"

Laven rolled her eyes. "It was most likely a siren." 

"Yeah, that would do it." Vynx leaned to his side in an attempt to shake any water out of his ears. Sirens, much like mermaids, were elusive creatures. Many tales often conflated the two species, while other legends described the songstresses as the children born from a union between the God of the Sea and the Goddess of Wind. Their songs were famous for enchanting sailors and luring them to a watery grave, and Vynx had no doubt that without Laven's protection, he would have fallen for the enchantment as well. The singing from his dreams had stopped, yet he could still faintly recall its melody playing in the corner of his mind. A sweet lullaby that made him want to close his eyes and drift all over again. He scanned the beach for any sign of the mysterious singer, but the coast was clear.

Regrettably, the hunter could not simply sleep the rest of the day away. Catching up to the Princess Marianne would be impossible at this point, and they were well over a week of sailing from home. "Maybe I can get a smoke signal going and pray that some other ship comes this way." His options were limited. Vynx marched from the beach to the grove of palm trees further inland. 

The island itself was roughly the size of two or three acres by his estimation, with enough foliage and jutting rocks to provide shade and shelter. He took stock of the fallen palm leaves and driftwood scattered around his feet and began to collect them in a spot beneath a circle of trees, repeating his trained routine of scrounging together a makeshift camp. While the residual afternoon heat kept him from shivering, it would not be long before the sun set, and Vynx worked briskly to assemble a pile of wood and leaves enclosed with rocks. His flint and hunting tools were all, thankfully, still in his pockets, though the rest of his personal belongings had been left below deck on the Princess Marianne. The hunter scraped his dagger against his piece of flint until sparks caught on, and the pile of leaves was set ablaze. At last, he peeled off his sopping clothes and hung them on some nearby mossy boulders to dry. 

"I can't believe we're really stuck on this island," Laven exhaled warily. 

As she planted herself next to him, Vynx pulled the end of her cloak over his shoulders as a makeshift blanket. Unfortunately, he realized, fabric spun from shadows was hardly warm. "Well, there's nothing we can do but wait for help to come." Vynx shrugged leisurely in an attempt to keep his spirits up. "Just think of it like a little vacation, our reward for taking down a Vampire Lord. If nothing else, at least we finally have some privacy around here," he snickered and draped his arm over Laven's shoulders. Her presence brought a degree of comfort to him that kept Vynx level-headed despite their situation. 

The demoness cracked a cynical smile. "Aren't you glad that you signed my contract?"

Vynx did not even pretend to rebuke her question. "Let me show you how grateful I am." He softly cupped her chin and leaned in for an impassioned kiss. 

Four days passed uneventfully. In that time, Vynx scouted the rest of the island and acquired more materials for his shoddy camp. Food and water were not urgent concerns for his survival, but hunger and thirst still gnawed at Vynx as constant reminders of his predicament. He satiated his cravings with fresh coconut water, and by the fifth day, he had assembled quite a collection of the hard-shelled fruit. His attempts at making a fishing pole and net were far less successful. Fortunately, Vynx found that shellfish around the island were plentiful; a diet of raw oysters, mussels, and clams was nothing to complain about. He only missed having some rum and a squeeze of lemon to pair with it. 

By the sixth day, hope of rescue was starting to look slim. Vynx knew that the Princess Marianne would be heading homebound by now. "Maybe they're taking a few extra days to trade at the port and restock…" he told himself. Sitting in just his underwear, surrounded by coconut husks with poorly carved faces, Vynx felt the most useless he had ever been in his life. It was too early to panic and resign himself to an eternity trapped on the island, but he could sense his sanity slipping with each new coconut added to the pile.

Then, as if to shake him from his despondent woes, a woman’s voice drifted through the air in a lovely melody that only the gods could have written. "Ah… right on cue. How quaint." The hunter got dressed, gathered his weapons, and stood at the ready in front of the makeshift camp. It had been quiet for too long; Vynx had to assume that the sirens must have finished picking off dead sailors from the sea floor and were now coming for him.

On the beach, a tall, feminine figure with a feathered white tail strolled by the water's edge. At a glance, she resembled a human woman, save for the additional tufts of feathers where her ears would be. Her navy blue hair extended past her lower back, and she wore what Vynx could only describe as a short blue robe cut from fabric of a foreign design. She was undoubtedly a siren, because what else could she be? Yet she carried an armful of books and seemed occupied with scanning for something in the sand as she sang.

"Hmm…" Vynx lowered his blade. Laven might berate him for it, but maybe the best way to get off the island would be to make good with the locals, as it were. "Um… excuse me?" Vynx called and tilted his head. 

The woman swivelled around in surprise as she heard his voice from the trees. "Oh, a survivor!" she exclaimed. Fortunately, it seemed that the bird-like woman spoke in the common tongue. "I didn't think that anyone made it out of the storm. You must be a very strong swimmer!" 

Vynx smiled dryly. "I might not be too keen on ships, but it'll take more than a storm to strike me down." He could not sense any malice from her, which was exceptionally odd. "Looking for something specific?" If this was a mirage or hallucination, he might as well see where it led.

"Why yes, actually. I collect any trinkets and books that I can find whenever they wash up here," the siren responded breezily. She looked him over, eyeing the cutlass in his hands with an air of caution. Still keeping a fair distance from where Vynx was standing, she asked, "What is your name, my wayward sailor?"

"Well, um… The name's Vynx. And up until a few days ago, I was employed on a vessel that was attacked by a lovely little pirate ship right before it sank. May I ask for your name?" Vynx then tried to see if he could contact Laven. "Hey Laven, you awake?" the hunter thought. "It’s not an emergency right now, but I need to know if there’s any magic going on around me—I can’t sense it otherwise."

His succubus companion sleepily responded, "Nothing out of the ordinary here." 

"Thanks, Laven." He sheathed his sword and crossed his arms expectantly, waiting for the siren to leap at him or continue her song.

Upon seeing Vynx taking his hand off the weapon, she approached with a smile and beamed brightly at him. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Vynx. My name is Seiro. I live right on the other side of this island." 

"Really now? Are there more of you around here?" He remained cautious of the siren. Where there was one, there would most likely be others nearby.

"My sisters also reside in these waters, though they have their own isles a ways from here." The siren fluffed her tail in excitement, and her wing-like ear pinions perked up. "It has been ages since I've last had a visitor! Oh, you must be hungry. If you'd like, you can come to my cove. I have fresh water and other supplies that I've gathered," she offered.

Vynx was perplexed; this was the first time he had encountered a siren, yet she did not have an ounce of hostility in her. It could all be a trap, and he knew better than to trust her word. "That sounds lovely, Seiro. Though I must ask… Was it you who sang to me a few days ago?" Vynx wore a cold, scrutinizing look on his face, warning her that he expected the truth.

Serio gasped. "I do believe that I was singing to myself nearby… But you must understand, I was not trying to drown you! I did not think that anyone was still alive after the shipwreck," she paused and furrowed her brow before muttering, "I should also mention, none of the bodies that my sisters and I found down there were even appetizing." 

"So undead pirates don't taste too good, huh?" Vynx chuckled. "Well, I guess if you weren't intentionally trying to kill me, then I'll let it go." It was hard to resist such a welcoming invitation, especially from a woman as eye-catching as the one before him. Vynx decided to take the bait and let his shoulders relax. "Lead the way, Seiro." If things went awry, he still had Laven to keep him from falling under another captivating enchantment. 

"Your weakness for beautiful women remains ever so predictable." 

"If she wanted to eat me, she would've triggered at least a couple of the traps I had hidden around the camp, but no dice. I think she means well," Vynx noted cheerfully to Laven. At this point, he was ready to latch on to any lifeline if it meant finding a way off the island. The hunter made sure that his weapons were hidden from view as he followed Seiro, all the while admiring the sway of her hips and tail as she walked. "By the way… I noticed that you've picked up a couple books. Aren't they all soaked from the storm?" he wondered. 

Seiro replied, "They are, but I'll be able to mend them once they dry." She showed off the largest tome in her hands, which appeared to be some kind of grimoire with bones and chains embossed into the leather. "I can't restore any magic they may have once contained, but I can at least make them readable again. And out here, any reading material is a blessing." 

"Well, in that case, boy, do I have a favour to ask." Vynx pulled his predecessor's journal from his jacket. The book, now sufficiently dried from days left in the sun, was still terribly smudged and wrinkled. "This journal is pretty important to me. It would mean a lot if you could restore it, Seiro." He gave the siren his best pleading pout and held out the book to her with both hands. 

Her eyes lit up as she took the journal. "Oh, I'll be happy to fix this right up for you once we get back to my nest." 

"Her nest?" Laven scoffed in his mind. 

"Be nice, Laven. She's obviously part bird on her mother's side."