Siacus could taste the sour, acrid scent of terror. The rafters shivered; a chaotic thudding spurred him into action. He reached for an axe tucked in a corner with his possessions, strapping it to his waist. A stranger swung off of his hammock barefoot, trying to follow the man up the stairs to the deck.

Something was happening on the deck.

“Don’t let it touch you!” A deckhand yelled as his kin fussed with the net, a massive creature wriggling within its confines. Siacus stopped short as the net leaped towards him. A yellowtail’s fin slapped the deck, nearly striking one of the men.

The fish gasped, but not with silent open-mawed desperation. There was a voice in the gasping. The fin split apart, morphing into two scaled legs covered in old scars and bleeding cuts.

A head raised from the pile of seaweed, hair dripping with seawater. A woman’s neck strained against the open air. Small hands scooped water off the deck as she shoved it into the gills under her ribs. The deckhands looked on at the naked aquatic spectacle before them. One of them was forced aside by Siacus’ large, stern hand.

“Kill it, it’ll only mean death for another crew!” First Mate Cedric called out from his perch, looking over the men.

“What are you doing?” Siacus reached a man closing in on the woman. The man had pulled a knife from his belt, ready to stab her as she started to wilt under the warmth of the sun.

“Thing’s dangerous.” Cedric snarled from the safety of his balcony, “You know not a siren’s fury.”

“But I know man’s foolishness!” Siacus scoffed at the man, reaching into the netting. He tore it apart with his bare hands, using his axe to chop away at knots. The woman recoiled, unable to understand what was happening with the muffled yelling in her waterlogged ears. One of the deckhands reached for Siacus. He was pushed away with enough force to send him tumbling to the ground. To Siacus, it was a light tap.

Siacus reached out to the woman, stopping short of her soft, lightly scaled skin. She looked up at him with eyes reminiscent of a bay seal, wide with black terror.

“She’s not a siren.” Siacus said, “She’s a Nymph.”

“What bloody difference does it make?” Cedric stormed down the steps. He pulled a fish knife out from his bandolier, “If we don’t kill her, she’ll come back with more of her kind.”

Siacus guided a piece of net out of the woman’s hair. His lips moved, but Cedric couldn’t catch what the man was saying. He stood like a pale reed compared to the oak-bodied bjornborn before him. Siacus’ eyes were emblazoned with rage. His head leaned towards Cedric, nose flaring like a beast. Siacus’ teeth were pushed apart by growing canines. He clenched his fists, willing his teeth back into human form.

“They can’t breathe outta water, either.” Cedric pointed at the woman’s gills, trying to appear like Siacus’ immense gaze had no affect, “Looks like she’s strugglin’.”

“Because she’s scared! You pulled her up out of the fucking ocean!” Siacus yelled, quieting when he noticed the woman flinch, “I’m freeing her.”

“I don’t care if you’re the king of Gairm, I’m the-”

“I don’t have time for this!” Siacus waved Cedric away as though he were a cabin boy. The Nymph reached out with a shaky hand, barely able to lift her arm. Siacus scooped her out of the net, carrying her to the edge of the deck where a ladder was rolled down to the sea. He looked back at the men, shaking his head. He hoisted the woman onto his back, slowly descending towards the sea. Once the water tickled the woman’s calves she let go of the stranger’s neck, falling into the sea.

“Oi, did he really-” A man stared in disbelief. He couldn’t find the words. The deck hands looked at one another, unsure of what had just happened.

“She had his neck right there.” Said another, “She left nary a bite!”

The sailors craned their heads up at Cedric, trying to make sense of it all. A siren would’ve killed him on the spot. This one acted differently.

Siacus hung on the side of the ship, looking over his shoulder at the woman. His left hand released the rope for a moment.

“Are you okay?” Siacus asked, his voice took on a paternal rumble. The woman nodded. Her toes touched the water. She felt the immediate comfort of the sea beckoning her.

“Go back home, be careful.” Siacus smiled, then looked at the front of the ship. A white foam stood, waiting for him like a pouncing beast. The impact blasted salt into his eyes. He lost his grip on the ladder, hitting the water with a bounce before sinking.

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The impact felt like pine needles pressing into his skin. The woman held on tightly as they fell into the sea, her legs forming back into a tail within moments of hitting the water.

Siacus released the nymph as he spun in the current. Her tail swatted upwards, slicing into his arm as a gap formed between them. Siacus resurfaced as the ship started to crawl further away from him. He gave chase, swimming quickly back to the ladder. He saw a glimmer of the woman’s dorsal fin as it slid into the ocean behind him.

“He’ll never catch up.” Cedric said as his men hung over the side of the ship. Siacus reappeared shortly after a second wave cleared the stern.

“You mad? Where’s the captain?” The sailor who had spoken to Siacus erupted, and soon the other men followed. Some questioned Cedric’s order to kill the woman, others demanded he slow to give the bjornborn a chance to live. Some were already devising a plan to help the man float to safety.

The Nymph inhaled deeply. The water caressed her like a warm bath. Her scales no longer itched from the drying sun; her hair flowed behind her. She dived down in time to avoid the wave. Siacus was forced under the ship, slamming his side into the hull. His head narrowly missed the rudder. Blood was pouring out of a wound in the man’s forearm. He limped in the water like stuck prey. She watched his head disappear into the great nothing beyond the sea, his arms propelling him to the ship. He reached for the ladder again, missing it by a few feet. Every time he reached up his body dunked beneath the waves again. He ended up further from the ship.

Every stroke was a fight against the weight of his own body. Saltwater began spilling into his mouth, and as he spat another mouthful took its place. The water reached his ears, and his head was pointed skyward. Exhaustion was setting in.

The Nymph soared through the water like a hawk swooping onto a field mouse. Her tail spurned the sea behind her. Seal eyes focused on the man as she swam beneath him. Her chest faced his as she tried to push him upwards.

The sudden presence of human hands from the deep startled Siacus, his heart leaping. As Siacus’ ears fell beneath the waves he heard a clicking from the woman’s mouth. It was like snapping small branches in a soft cave. Her head was turned away from him, staring into the abyss. As she held Siacus’ head above the waves, he felt pressure right beneath his armpits. A second nymph had appeared. She looked older, with dulled scales and messy gray hair. Her tail looked just like the young nymph’s.

The sailors watched, fascinated as Siacus was pushed against the ship’s current. They could see the shimmer of two tails on either side of Siacus’ body. As they swam their fins grazed the surface like sharks. Siacus reached for the ladder, finally grabbing hold after what felt like an eternity at sea. Dozens of human heads peeked out of the water, their black eyes fixated on the ship.

Siacus caught his breath, nestling his hand in the rope. The nymph paced with the ship, ensuring that he stayed on the ladder as he rested. The second nymph craned her neck up at the strange men, then flipped backwards into the sea.

Siacus panted, looking up at the sky in relief. His eyes panned back down to the Nymph, who was staring at him with concern. Her eyes beamed, her cheeks red. Her nose under the water, resurfacing as she held a hand out.

Siacus reached out, but she shook her head. She pointed at the arm with a gaping wound, and Siacus obliged. She held it gingerly in her fingers. She leaned in, pressing her lips against the skin. By the time she wiped the blood from her lips the wound had turned a silvery color, then disappeared.

Siacus smiled as the nymph receded into the water, never breaking her line of sight with the man until seal eyes melted away under a veneer of water.

“Lookit.” One of the deck hands pointed, “There must be half ‘dozen of ‘em.”

Two men reached down from the deck towards Siacus as he slowly started his ascent.

“You crazy bastard.” One chuckled stressfully, “What compels you to commit to such madness?”

“She needed the sea.” Siacus said, “So I took her there.”