1: No More Hope
< Evadanea, siren >
The rocky shores of the mortal’s kingdom stick up like an ugly mass that rises from the sea. Yet as I perch upon a slimy, gray rock in the foamy surf, I sense the sailors as they approach in their ship. I turn around, studying the horizon.
My purple and black scales shimmer in the fading sunlight, and I drop into the cold water. I swim through the cold waves, my tail swishing powerfully as I ascend back to the surface. Once my head is free of the water, I begin my song.
A haunting melody sweeps across the foamy waters, and I hear the men aboard the ship scrambling. They’re frantically searching for me, to find out who is singing. I smile, tossing myself onto a nearby rock, where I keep my long tail in the water, my upper half all humanoid.
My pale, scarred skin is visible to all aboard the ship as the men shout that they see me upon this rock. I smile as I sing, and then, the first one dives into the sea. He swims toward me in a frantic, desperate motion. I smile, beckoning him forward.
But then, a net flies down from above, coiling around my body. I scream, falling onto my back. The sailor is joined by several others, all of them racing to me. They want to kill me, or worse.
Frantically, I claw at the rope. But there is no give to it, it’s just tightening up as I move.
“Lookee here, men!” one of the sailors shouts. “We got ourselves a fighter!”
I glare at him. He meets my eyes with his own watery blue ones. I grin. “Kill your friend.”
His eyes glaze over and he draws a knife, then stabs his closest sailor friend right in the throat. He turns, his gaze dead as I tell him to cut my ropes. He moves toward me, but an arrow strikes him in the leg. A scream breaks out of him, and he topples into the water.
The captain jumps into my line of sight. “Don’t make eye contact with it, men! It’s trying to trick you!”
He walks up to me, a sadistic look on his pale face. “Grab her and go, men. We’ve been here too long. Let’s go!”
I am hoisted up by six men, as I thrash and buck, my tail striking a few of the nearby men and sending them crashing into the waves. The water churns and the waves become far more choppy, and the sailors start to scream as chaos unfolds. The men drag me on board their stinking wooden ship.
I am a siren, not just a mer. But they can’t know that, not right now. I look around the ship, trying to find anyone who might help me. But there is no one. They take me down below the deck, and shove me into a medium sized tank full of far too salty water.
The men leave, and I look around as I surface from the water. There’s someone else down here, I can sense them.
“Hello? Who’s there?” I ask, calling into the darkness.
“Leave me alone,” whispers the other captive.
“I won’t hurt you, I promise,” I tell them. “I am Evadanea, what’s your name?”
“Aetila,” she says. “I am an Elf. What are you?”
“Siren.”
Aetila sighs hard. “Do yourself a favor and die. They won’t do it for you. They’re gonna sell us off or worse. We are not gonna have a happy ending, Evadanea.”
“I won’t give them that satisfaction.”
She snorts softly. “You’ve got some fight in you now. But just wait. It’ll all turn to ash, sooner or later. Trust me, there’s no hope down here. None whatsoever.”
