"JUST try and focus all of your thoughts on this little drop of water." Kalysta muttered to her sister whilst she was deftly juggling drops of water around her fingers.

    Ophelia was sat opposite Kalysta, nodding off every few seconds and then jerking awake. Both of the girls were kneeling near the edge of the water at Pebbly Beach which lived up to its name. Tiny grey rocks scattered the beach and a strong breeze glided towards the pair. The cold salt-air rejuvenated Ophelia. Ophelia rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and yawned. Her gaze shifted back to her sister when she gathered some energy.

    "How can I possibly focus when I haven't had proper sleep? And I forgot to thank you for that. It was so very kind of you to yank me out of bed before the sun was even up."

    "You wanted to learn. So we're learning."

    "Whatever." Ophelia rolled her eyes at her sister.

    Kalysta skilfully wrapped tendrils of water through her fingers and stretched and compressed each molecule. Kalysta demonstrated again and again different ways to move the water but it seemed Ophelia couldn't grasp any of the concepts Kal was teaching her. Ophelia felt foolish when she tried to summon the water multiple times and failed. So instead she just looked like a one-winged chicken flapping its wing at a painstakingly slow speed. Ophelia passed her inability to conjure the slightest part of her power off as lack of sleep but secretly worried that she would never be able to embrace her true nature. Or maybe she wasn't like her sisters and something was very wrong with her. She brushed off her thoughts and once again focused on the water in front of her. Her brow furrowed as she imitated her sister's movements and she bent her fingers to feel any sort of connection. But there was nothing.

    Ophelia saw her sister raise a mass of water into the air for the fourteenth time and saw the gears turn in Kallie's head. The sphere splashed to the ground and covered Ophelia's toes in freezing water. Ophelia ignored the itch to transform when the water reached her. Ophelia gave her sister a look but stopped once she spotted the concentration on Kallie's face and the fact she wasn't paying attention to her.

    "Maybe I'm approaching this wrong. Let's start with something bigger instead. Imagine the water in front of you as a giant wave. Try and shape it into that." Kallie tried to seem confident but she became less and less sure of her teaching abilities as time went on.

    Once again, Kallie lifted the water with an effortless motion of her hands. Ophelia stood near the water's edge and let the waves roll over her feet. She reached for any connection to the water wherever she could. She felt a minuscule twitch in her fingers, as if the water was tugging at her, that it wanted to be near her, but as soon as the moment arrived; it vanished. Almost as if something was suppressing it. She tried to recapture that feeling with the water again but alas, she failed. But she was determined and raised her arms time and time again.

    The two sisters were ready to leave and Kallie left to grab her bag which was away from the shore. Ophelia reached out towards the water for the final time that day. She felt the familiar tug again and forced herself to reach even further to the source of it. When she felt so close that she could grab it she heard flashes of screams, the clacking of chains, and later what she would imagine to be the smoke. The suffocating smell of ash and fire. The punishing voice of a pastor. They all inched their way to the forefront of her mind and she involuntarily brushed away those ideas. She felt a coldness, almost a presence, envelope her and shudders raced across her body. Her hands started shaking and she balled them up into fists, cutting her palms with her fingernails, when she realised what she was doing. Every muscle in her body seemed to tense up. After a couple of seconds the feeling was gone and Ophelia sighed in relief. Every muscle in her body relaxed and her heartbeat slowed down.

    "Are you okay Ophelia?" Kalysta brought her out of her trance.

    "Yes. Quite well thank you." Ophelia looked at her sister. She didn't want her to know what happened. Even with sirens it was a very rare feeling to have, maybe even the only time it has happened. "It's just I'm so close. I can feel it. But...it's like I can't really connect to it." Ophelia sighed and hoped Kalysta didn't dig any further.

    The sun's rays were peaking through the horizon. The tree branches stretched their limbs to catch the golden light. It had been hours that they spent there and yet no progress. Ophelia yelled and threw a tiny stick into the water. And then another. She knew this action wouldn't accomplish anything but it made her feel slightly better. She was tired of her inability and she hated that she couldn't explain what just happened to her. She couldn't help but wonder if all her other sisters' thoughts were true. Maybe she wasn't one of them and she never would be. She let the anger course through her body and the fire spread with each of her heartbeats. The heat finally reached her eyes and her tears welled up in response. Ophelia chocked back tears as she watched her sister masterfully perform what she longed to do.

    "May we please go to Tunstall Bay now? I want to see the whale." Helping someone else was the only thing that would make Ophelia feel better at that moment. When she helped she was in control.

    "Of course. We'll try some other time." Kalysta took a pause to look at Ophelia's watery eyes. "You will understand your abilities someday Ophelia." Kallie touched her sisters arm and consoled her. "And you are a siren just like your sisters, even if you did come into this existence a little bit differently then the rest of us did. Come on, let's go see if we can do anything to help this poor creature."

    Kalysta jumped to her feet and reached her arms down towards her kneeling sister. She lifted Ophelia to her feet and they both walked back to the road that led away from the beach. Their trip along the path was a silent one. Ophelia focused on other things than her sister and found two squirrels knocking acorns and branches off of the trees. It was entertaining enough for her and she smiled at the animals. She didn't notice the presence again when it arrived. She was too focused on her other surroundings. The chorus of bird song, animals scattering, and the wind whooshing through the leaves made Ophelia want to stay under the trees forever. There was something magical about the woods that she always loved. She just wished she had some of that sense of magic and power that the woods possessed. They didn't even have to try. But she did.