Days passed. Life went on in the little town by the sea. Anon continued working at his job, both bored and frustrated with the amount of work his place had been getting. He had no problem working, but if one’s boss needed to make the work day a mandatory eleven hours six days a week to make quota then that was where he started complaining. 

Two whole weeks passed like this until the amount of work tapered off. His boss had a meeting with everyone, and the whole shop found themselves with a few paid days for a job well done. It was the perfect opportunity to go back to the beach. 

He could go back there as an ambassador for the human race to these Sirens. Well, maybe things weren’t [i]that[/i] significant, but maybe he could get some bragging rights for his friends? How many other people could say they personally knew magical aliens?

So with that in mind, he had tossed in his best folding chairs--the camo ones his uncle had “misplaced” on the last fourth of July--and a cooler filled with everything he thought the Siren’s might like into the back of his truck. He brought along an old duffle bag as well with a few things and knick-knacks, just to cover his bases.

The drive to the beach was once again uneventful. It was the weekend, but the sky was looking pretty ugly, so Anon wasn’t too worried about fighting the crowds. Sure enough, there were just a few cars in the parking lot. 

Getting everything ready was a bit of a hassle. Nothing seemed to want to fit right in his wagon, and he didn’t have any rope in the truck for some reason. Luckily, what he did have was a few rolls of duct tape, and after taping down everything he started off.

Black clouds stretched out in all directions as far as the eye could see. The wind whipped and the waves were churning angrily. Today might have been a very bad day to be doing something like this, but he was already here. He was pretty sure the Sirens would take shelter in this storm anyway, so they might already be hiding in one of the coves. The largest cove actually had a cave in one of the cliff sides, big enough to fit a few people comfortably. If not then he’d just wait out the storm before going home and trying again another day.

A light rain began just as he made his way into the first cove. It was dark, and deathly silent. Stopping, Anon reached into his duffle bag and pulled out an electric lantern. It’s light reached from one side of the little cave to the other. It was empty. It seemed as if the Siren’s had found somewhere else to shelter the storm.

“Damn, guess they’re not here,” he said, dropping his cooler. It slammed against the sandstone with a thunderous bang. 

He pulled a folding chair from his wagon as he gently sat his duffle bag down. Just outside of the cave, he could see the rain really start to come down, bringing the temperature down with it. Unzipping his bag, he pulled out a thin blanket. It was supposed to be his gift to the Sirens, but he figured they wouldn’t mind if he used it to keep warm. He also took out his little radio, trying to find a station that wasn’t just static. 

“Come on… come on… there we go. Good ol’ one-one-six coming into the rescue.”

Old pop rock began to echo throughout the cave. It really wasn’t his cup of tea, but this would be a heck of a lot better than just listening to the sounds of rain and him breathing. Opening up his cooler, he grabbed a beer, wrapping the blanket around his shoulders before sitting down.

“She was more like a beauty queen… something, something, something, who will dance on the thing…”

Thunder flashed outside. Anon made himself as comfortable as he could, just watching the sea. One beer turned into three, and his singing started to get louder. Soon, he had a radio turned up to full volume and he was butchering each song that played. He was halfway through a Brittany Spears song when he saw something outside that made him pause.

Three sets of glowing, animalistic eyes. He could see them not far from the cave. There was also this glowing red light. Anon leaned forward, squinting, trying to see what they were, but it was no use. It was too dark and raining too hard to see anything. Just then, there was a flash of thunder. The world lit up, revealing three humanoid figures.

“Hello?” Anon called, picking up his lantern.

The red glow disappeared, but he could still see the eyes. The figures were making their way toward the cave, one much faster than the others. There was a yell that was drowned out by the rain. 

“Anon? Anon? Is that you?”

Sonata, soaking wet and grinning from ear to ear, leapt into the cave. 

“Anon!” she said, with a hop. “I [i]knew[/i] I heard you! Dagi, Aria. It’s Anon! He’s here like I said!”

She skipped over to him. Anon had just enough time to sit up before the Siren wrapped her arms around his neck and mashed his face into her cleavage. He was too shocked by the contact to do so much as blink, allowing her to hop into his lap. The chair creaked, but thankfully it didn’t fall backwards.

“Where’ve you been? Aria thought you weren’t gonna come back! I did, but I was getting worried that something had happened to you,” she said, hugging him tight. 

Two more figures stepped into the cave. Adagio and Aria were both soaked from the rain like Sonata, though they didn’t seem to mind it. Not that Anon could see them, his face trapped as it was.

“Sonata, let the poor boy go before you smother him,” Adagio said.

“But Dagi.”

“You were raised better than that. You’re a Siren, not some flea-bitten mongrel. Now get off him.” 

With an unhappy sound, Sonata let him go. He leaned back in the chair, taking a deep breath, eyes huge as he looked around.

“Who? What?” he mumbled, wiping the water from his face.

“Hi Anon!” Sonata said, still sitting in his lap.

“Hello, nice to see you. I think.”

The grinning girl giggled, one of her hands reaching up to play with his hair. Adagio made her way over to him, smile on her face. Aria, meanwhile, walked over to his wagon and popped open his cooler.

“The girls are I were getting worried that you wouldn’t be coming back,” Adagio said. “Though you picked an… interesting time to return, the three of us are very happy to see you.”

“I didn’t think it would storm this bad. The weather said it was just gonna be a light rain, not this.

Aria snorted.  “Landlubbers. Hey, did you bring anymore of that beer?”

“I did. It’s the silver can with the mountain on it.”

“Good.” Grabbing the beer can, Aria cracked it open. Taking a sip, she made a face. “Gross.”

Adagio cleared her throat. “Yes, well, now that you’re here--”

“Anon, what’s this?” Sonata interrupted, pawing at his blanket. “Are you cold?”

“A little. It’s starting to get chilly,” Anon replied. “What about you? You girls really aren’t wearing anything. Do you want some blankets? I brought one for each of you.”

“Hah! He barely knows us and he wants to be a homemaker. Typical guy,” Aria said, earning her a dirty look from Adagio.

“We appreciate the thought, but there really isn’t a need. We Sirens have a high body temperature,” she said, grabbing one of the chairs. “We could swim in the middle of winter and be perfectly fine.”

Anon looked up at Sonata. Sure enough, he could [i]feel[/i] the heat coming off the curvy girl. Whether it was because she actually had a high body temperature, or the fact he had a wet, dripping, smoking hot girl in his lap and his body was reacting was a question he really didn’t want answered. 

“We could share the blanket if you’re cold, Nonny,” she said, pressing herself against his side. “I’ll warm you right up!”

“Sonata,” Adagio said as she unfolded her chair.

“What? I’m just trying to be helpful, Dagi!” Sonata replied, wiggling around in his lap to get more comfortable. This only succeeded in getting his clothing soaked right through with water. 

Adagio sighed, placing a hand against her face. “I’m sorry, Anon.”

“It’s okay,” Anon said. “I do have a chair for you if you want it, Sonata.”

“Nah, I’m fine here. Thanks though,” Sonata replied lifting his blanket off his shoulder and draping it over hers. “Sooooo… did you like the lobsters?”

Aria stopped midstep.

“Oh yeah,” Anon said, smiling. “They were awesome. I ate like a king for three days. Thanks for those. Really, I mean it.”

“You’re darn right they were awesome!” Aria said, chest puffing out. “They better have been. I had to go to the bottom of the ocean to find those suckers and--” She stopped, clearing her throat. “Not that it was hard. I [i]am[/i] the best hunter in the pack. If I really tried, I could have gotten ones three times bigger than that! Especially during a storm like this?”

She took another sip of the beer, making a face.

“Blah.”

“Do you guys usually hunt during storms then?” Anon asked.

“Oh yeah,” Sonata said, nodding. “Fish usually hide when the seas get like this. It’s the perfect time to go out and get something to eat. We were hunting some sharks when we saw you walking around.”

“Sharks? You were hunting sharks?”

“Uh-huh.”

It took a few seconds to process that. He stared up at the siren girl--who couldn’t have been more than a hundred and twenty pounds, even soaking wet as she was--trying to imagine her or her sisters trying to kill a shark in the water. Sure, it wasn’t like they were hunting great whites, but a shark was still a shark.

Did they use weapons? They had to, right? 

Aria placed a chair right next to Adagio, bringing him out of his thoughts. “So, what’s in the bag?” she asked, gesturing at his feet. “You have anything other than blankets in there?”

Anon looked down at the duffle bag. “Oh, oh yeah. Here, let me see that.”

Sonata reached down, forcing him to place a hand on her lower back to keep her from flopping out of the chair face-fist, grabbing the bag and dropping it into his lap. He dug around in it until he found what he was looking for. It was an old, beat up iPad. Far too slow and old for home use, but it was perfect for what he had in mind today.

“I know you said you wanted to learn more about Earth, so I decided to download a few things to help out. Pictures, videos, stuff like that. This won’t answer everything, but I think it’ll be a good start.”

He turned on the tablet, and the Sirens’ eyes widened when they saw the screen come to life. 

“I got some snacks in the wagon too if you want any. Drinks are in the cooler. I had no idea what you guys would like so I kinda of grabbed anything and everything.”

~_~_~_~_~_~

It took a good ten minutes to convince the Siren’s that his iPad wasn’t magic--and even then Adagio didn’t seem entirely convinced-- but after that things ran pretty smoothly. The girls were utterly fascinated by the map of the world he had saved, and just how big the oceans were. They loved the documentaries about different fish and the coral reefs. Drinks and snacks were handed out and eaten. None of them seemed to like anything overly sweet, but they couldn’t get enough of the dark chocolate and chips that he had brought. 

Anon had no idea just how many hours had passed, as they looked at pictures, watched shows, and talked. The girls had questions, so many questions about so many things. He did his best to answer them, but felt like he wasn’t answering them as well as he should have. If there wasn’t a storm raging outside and maybe if he had proper reception he might have been able to google things, to make sure he wasn’t just making up stuff, but the wind and rain still raged on outside. Maybe another time.

In between the Sirens’ questions, movies, and having to charge his iPad with a jury-rigged car battery he had gotten a friend to build just for today, he was able to ask some questions of his own. He asked about the Sirens, their lives, what they did for fun. He also asked about Equestria, and what their world was like. 

The girls all answered his questions. It was hard to get a clear answer, each girl seemed to have different opinions on the same subject, and a lot of times what they told him was directly opposed to what another girl had just said. Arguments would also break out, and things would sometimes be thrown.

What he [i]was[/i] able to gather were that Sirens ran in packs, usually numbering around thirty or so. Each pack had a vast area to hunt. In Equestria, those areas usually consisted of lakes, rivers, and even streams. These places were hotly contested, as there was never enough water to house all the Sirens. Now that they had whole oceans to themselves however, no one was fighting. The girls said the only neighboring pack even close to them was over three hundred miles away.  

Each Siren pack also had a hierarchy. Adagio seemed to be in the upper echelon of the pack, while her sisters were middling in rank. This had immediately turned into a shouting match when Aria didn’t like Adagio’s tone when she said the words “middling”. It might have turned into an all out fistfight if Anon hadn’t turned on The Little Mermaid.

This was a time of plenty for Sirens everywhere, and everyone was beyond thrilled. The girls said the water was a little more dirty than what they would have liked, but they said that was being worked on, though they refused to answer the question as to how that was being done.

“Anon?”

“Yeah?”

“What’s wrong with that girl? Why does she have a fish body?”

Anon tried to take a sip of his beer, only for Sonata to take it out of his hands. She took a big gulp of it, then placed the can against his lips with a giggle. He took his sip, considering the question.

“Well… she’s a mermaid. That’s just how they’re supposed to look.”

His beer was placed back in his hand as Sonata grabbed another handful of chips. “Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, they look freaky,” Aria said, not looking away from the screen, her face curled in disgust. “If we find any of them on our turf there’s gonna be problems.”

“I don’t think that’ll be a problem,” Anon replied, helping himself to a cookie. “I’m pretty sure they don’t exist. At least ninety percent sure.”

Aria let out a ‘harrumph’. “They better not.”

“Nonny?”

“Yeah?”

“How do you think they have babies? Do they lay eggs like fish, or are they like dolphins?”

“I have… no idea.”  

Anon yawned, looking out toward the entrance of the cave. It had stopped raining, but it looked completely dark out. While he had a lantern, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to try to get back to his car. Sandstone wasn’t known to get slippery when wet, but he didn’t want to have a bad fall in the dark. As much as he wasn’t looking forward to it, it looked like he was going to have to spend the night.

“Hey, I don’t have a lot left on the iPad after this movie is done, girls. If you want to go ahead and go to sleep or keep hunting or whatever that’ll be fine.”

“Are you kicking us out?” Adagio asked, raising an eyebrow.

“What? No. I thought you three might want to get some shuteye before the sun comes up.”

“And what about you? Would you have us leave you here all by your lonesome?” the Siren asked, leaning forward in her chair. “What sort of hosts would we be if we did something like that?”

“It’s not--”

“It wouldn’t be safe to travel this late at night, so I suppose we’ll have to make this cave as comfortable as possible for the four of us.”

She took a sip of her drink, eyes flicking down to the duffle bag. “You brought us all blankets, correct? It won’t be as comfortable as one of your mattresses, but we’ll just have to make do with stacking them on each other.”

“You really don’t have to,” Anon said. “I’ve slept on way worse things than sand in way worse places. You guys don’t even sleep on dry land, right?”

“Actually, we can and do, and sand is a good deal more comfortable than the ocean floor or sandstone,” Adagio said as Aria stood up. “Now hush. You’ve brought and shown us all of these wonderful things, the least we can do is ensure that you have a good night’s sleep.”

Aria walked around the cave, kicking at the sand, a frown on her face. She walked the whole length of it, until she was at the back of the cave. Nodding to herself, she tossed the blankets down.

“Here’s fine.”

“Then I suppose it’s time for bed,” Adagio said, reaching over to turn off the iPad. “Sonata, please hand me the blanket you and Anon are sharing.”

Sonata did as she was asked, a grin on her face. “This is gonna be great. We’ve never slept with a boy before!”

“I…nope. I’m not gonna touch that one,” Anon said, shaking his head. “If you girls are gonna insist, at least let me help. Come on, let me up.”

“Oh no. You just sit right there and let us work,” Adagio said. “It’s the least we could do.”

Sand was flattened, and the blankets were laid out. Aria plopped down, yawning as she stretched. Adagio beckoned Anon toward her with a finger. With a happy sound, Sonata jumped out of his lap, grabbing his hand and pulling him to his feet. The Siren was much stronger than she looked; if she had yanked any harder she might have pulled his arm out of its socket.

“Come on, Anon. We’re gonna make sure you have the best night sleep of your life.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“Well, [i]I[/i] do. Now get your butt over here.”

Anon looked over at Adagio. “Do you guys…?”

“What?” the girl asked, head cocking to the side.

“You know, sleep in piles?”

“Of course we sleep together,” Aria said, laying down. “If you sleep together nothing’s gonna bother you.”

“It’s also a very good bonding exercise,” Adagio added. “If this isn’t something you humans do I suppose the girls and I can give you some room.”

“I mean, I’m not [i]against[/i] it. It’s just a little odd. We usually sleep by ourselves.”

The Sirens didn’t seem to take that very well, looks of unease coming to their faces. Sonata even stopped her pulling to look at him.

“That’s… weird,” she said.

“Any weirder than sleeping in a pile?” Anon asked.

The girls looked at each other.

“Yep.”

“Absolutely.”

“Yeppo.”

He was gently, but firmly, placed down onto the blanket. Sonata skipped over to the wagon, turning off the lantern and cascating the cave into darkness. Hands grabbed his shoulders, and he was pulled against someone. Someone else pressed themselves against his back.

“Fair warning: Sonata snores in her sleep,” Aria whispered in his ear.

“What? I do not!” 

Adagio, resting her chin on top of his head. “Yes you do, but tonight if I hear so much as a peep out of you you’re sleeping outside of the cave.”

“I don’t snore. Stop telling Anon I snore!”

“Shut your mouth and go to sleep.”

“Don’t tell me what to do!”

“Shut your mouth before I get up and [i]make[/i] you.”

“No!”

“Both of you shut up! Goodnight, Anon.”

Anon took a deep breath. The girls were soft, and warm. He heard Aria yawn, pressing her cheek against his throat. He had no idea what to do with his hands, so he kept them close to his waist, where they would, hopefully, stay the entire night.

“Goodnight, ladies.”