Between Mind & Heart

“Two monsters-made-sisters you will have to pass through, to evade a god’s wrath and see your family again. But not without a price.”
"Captain?" He tapped my shoulder, pulling my thoughts back to the moment before me. Sirens, cruel and carnivorous temptresses, snatched out of the water and onto our ship, hands and tail bound by spared rope from our masts.
"What shall we do with them?"
I looked at him, meeting his eyes as he squeezed his sword’s hilt. My men’s faces blurred with his, all gaunt from fatigue and hunger. Hungry, but trying to ration what food we had left between us.
"Please.." I read her lips as she pleaded, showing her thin-sharp teeth. Again it spoke, "Odi…spare us, please...I beg you…" Slowly I saw it reverting to its true form, attempting to fool me with its fake tears.
"Yuri."
Our eyes met once again, and then he nodded. As I shut myself in my study, I collapsed against the floor. Even with it and the beeswax muffling the sound, their screams found a way through. My stomach continued to churn as I came out, while my men were bringing the Sirens' remains below deck.
--..--..--..--..-
His eyes shifted from me to the silhouette of islands ahead, the strait in particular.
"Brother, is that-"
"Yes." I said.
"..so Skylla is our only way?"
I paused, remembering the Siren's directions, "Yes."
"How sure are you that any of them will agree?"
"I'm not. But it’s either they do, or we die."
I felt his hand coil over my shoulder, then pull me towards him as we embraced.
“I know they will. You can relax, my brother.”
-..
What was once so far has only gotten closer, from a speck in the distance to open water allowing passage to the East Sea.
Some of the rowers looked on as the whirlpool formed, bigger than anything we’ve seen before, turning to pull in anyone or anything that came near. Yet eagles would weep at the presence of two all-devouring, forever-hungry abysses in the same place as each other.
"Yuri, round up the strongest we have, and gather seven torches, seven stakes and seven sacks."
“What will we fill them with?”
I stared back at the man who asked, “Sirens.”
They remained silent, then ran to grab what I had asked.
Moments later, her shrill roar pierced the air: louder than the waves, louder than my men’s chatter, louder than even the thoughts in my head. From the depths around our ship rose the heads of wolves upon snake-like bodies, with all-white bulbous eyes and a stench from their maws which, propelled by their heaving breaths, overwhelmed the rowers with the scent of rotting flesh and fish.
One head came, but not for the bait we laid out. Like a boar, it stole Uripedes in its jaws and left quickly just as it came.
"Steel yourselves, comrades!" I found myself shouting before I could think, "Rowers, make no mistake, we will make it out but we must keep moving! Row for your lives and ours!" Even in the dim lighting of the torches, I could see their heads turn to the cave’s end. The sun was setting, casting an orange glow bright enough for them to focus upon.
It was stupid. The fear I felt facing a beast not even a god would approach. But if I felt fear now, who knew what Yuri and my men felt? Who shall they look to then, if not me, in this time of peril?
"Any able-bodied man, take a sack and divert attention away from our rowers!" I directed Yuri and four other men to the decoys we placed around the ship. I tore the sack at the ship's bow off its stake, then grabbed a torch. It felt no different than a sack full of bones, yet held a stench I bet would be more than enough, in combination with the torch, to garner one of the hungry wolf-serpents’ attention.
Once Yuri and the rest of his group got to their bags, there was no time to breathe. In the corner of my eye, I saw another of my comrades get eaten just as he tore a bag from his stake. Yet I was fated to fall the same as a head watched me from the waters, watching for movement with those same piercing-white eyes as it went towards me, mouth drooling as if I would so easily jump in. I stepped out of its path, but it was smarter than that. Turning to catch me slow-to-act, I stepped to the side again but I was not so fast this time. Its teeth tore my arm off in an instant, leaving torchless as the pain coursed through my body like a burning poison. But the beast did not relent, and neither could I.
"Ody!" I heard Yuri cry, but I could not turn my head away. The world reduced to a haze as I ran to recover while evading its attempts to east me. As it lunged towards me, I tossed the sack into its maw and leapt to the ground. I waited a few moments, then pushed myself up just as we reached the end of the cave.
There were pools of blood, but none of the rowers were harmed. And when I called forth the men who helped me, only three came. Breathing, bloodied, but alive.
"Captain?" I heard, but when I turned, it was not Yuri. Instead, it was another of my brothers, a man I did not know very well yet with green eyes like the leaves back home. I lamented at what this trial cost us in order to survive, but looking at their faces again reminded me of the lives I did not lose. He hugged me like we were brothers.
While Skylla demanded seven, she could take only three. It was our wit that we defied her ultimatum, fated to reach home together.