Totoka River tomorrow will be kinder

The stink of blood and fear sullied the healing balm of the sea - Marbas wanted to choke on it, to spit it from his mouth. Stand and denounce it with every fiber of his being. Somewhere, in the periphery of all the horror and shock clamoring in his mind, he could feel her moving, hear her ragged breaths. He knew that there should be more than 'I'm sorry'; more than lying there in with her blood in his mouth, pink spittle dripping freely from his defiled maw.

He'd done wrong. He'd done something very, very wrong, and he didn't need the harsh whisper of Siren's growl to tell him that. But she told him anyway, and his eyes squeeze tighter still, refusing to be opened. Refusing to look upon the devastation he'd caused, because part of him still prayed that it was no her. Not Siren.

But would that make it any better? She was trying to clean your wound, to help you...

Marbas let out a low, wordless, sorrowful cry. The sort of sound Siren surely wanted to make, to protest and condemn his actions. Why have you done this? How? A toneless, soundless, wordless thought. Why did you hurt me, Marbas? Why do you hurt things?

"I don't know," he muttered, eyes still squeezed shut. Why did you let this happen? You should have stopped it before you became a danger. You should have ended it. "I don't... I don't..."

You promised not to snap - you promised you wouldn't fight again. But you snapped and you fought, and you hurt me. You hurt me, Marbas. Why did you hurt me?

"S-siren," he choked, the taste of her blood still making his stomach roil in protest. "Please, I didn't mean to... I won't again, I won't... promise, please... Si - "

A wave of harsh, cold water washed over him, cutting off whatever he'd been trying to say. For one endless moment, he swirled in a mixture of salt and sand, hard rock and stinging water. He drew breath into his lungs, but not air, and when the moment ended, he came up choking once more on the other side. The blood-taste was gone, but his shame and grief stung more strongly than ever; and ache in his chest that would not be alleviated.

His eyes cracked open, and he sought out her freshly-sullied frame.