The waves crashed against the large group of rocks that the seven mermaids were sunning themselves on. Melody was lying in the crevice of one particularly comfortable rock that she always claimed. She was feeling a little cold, but she didn’t want to complain, because she knew that her friends were trying to suppress their discomfort, too. Ever since their tribe moved far North several months prior, they had not been able to get used to the new climate. She missed the tropical seas that she had lived in since birth. Another mermaid, Marina, sat up suddenly. Her long, flowing lavender hair was blowing in the breeze as she studied the horizon.
“What is it, Marina? You see something?” Rain raised her head from where it was resting on her starfish pillow, and, brushing aside some thick blonde hair, looked up at her friend. Marina continued to glare into the distance silently, blocking the sun with one of her hands, jellyfish-painted nails glittering with every movement.
“I thought I- nevermind.” Marina shook her head and Rain laid back down, resting once again on her starfish pillow. Marina turned to Melody, who had her eyes closed.
“Melody, are you going to offer Tidus the sacred coral at the next full moon? I’ve heard rumors that he fancies you. Well, more than only rumors- he makes it quite apparent that he wants for you to choose him.” Marina smiled, but there was pain behind her eyes. “I’m happy for you to have caught the eye of Tidus, but I can’t pretend that I didn’t wish it was me.” She fiddled with the seaweed that she was weaving into a new purse for her store. Melody opened her eyes and looked up at the blue sky. She thought about Tidus, and his strong arms. She tried to imagine them around her. It’s true, he was the most handsome merman in their tribe. She thought about the rumor that he was hoping for her to propose to him. Her stomach clenched. There was so much pressure on her recently to secure a marriage with one of the merfolk in her tribe, as the daughter of the chieftess she was obligated to join hands with another. Now that she was almost five years past the coming-of-age ceremony, her people were becoming even more impatient.
“I don’t know what to do… I don’t think about him in that way. I love him dearly, but as a friend or brother. I don’t know if I could… be with him like that.” She sighed. She leaned over to grab a piece of rough coral out of the supplies she had brought, and began filing her nails absently.
“How could you not be attracted to him, Melody? You’re crazy. He is the perfect specimen of a merman. I, too, would do anything to get his attention, if we’re being honest.” Rain had lifted herself onto her forearms now and was gently prodding a little sea anemone next to her that was sitting in a pool of water in a crevice on her rock. “I bet he wouldn’t be interested in you anyway if he knew your dirty little secret- that you’re a human sympathizer.” She threw a mischievous grin at Melody. Melody fumbled her coral and dropped it into the water below. “Don’t worry,” Rain turned over and laid back with her arms behind her head, “Your secret is safe with me, Melody.” She giggled.
The other mermaids all looked intently at Melody. She wiped beads of sweat from her brow. “Is that true, Melody?” Luna had stopped braiding her hair that was the color of the deepest ocean, and her hands were now frozen, holding the strands.
Melody swallowed. She felt annoyed, because she had confided in Rain, sharing her feelings, and now those feelings had been tossed out for everyone to see. “I’m not… a human sympathizer. I just,” her mouth started to feel dry, “I just don’t enjoy violence, okay?” She shrugged and picked up another piece of coral, trying to avoid all of the ocean-blue eyes that were on her. One pair of eyes strayed from staring at Melody. Marina was once again studying the horizon.
“I knew I saw something there.” Marina pointed. All of the mermaids turned to look where she was pointing. It took a few minutes for it to come into view for the others, but once they could see it, the object was unmistakable. A human ship was moving towards them. As it sailed closer, it became clearer that this ship was unlike any they had seen before. The sharp eyes of the mermaids were able to pick up details that would have been unseen by humans at this distance. The ship was very long, and curled up on either end. One end was taller, and had what appeared to be the head of a dragon or sea serpent carved into it. There was a large sail that was spread across the middle of the ship. About thirty oars, fifteen on either side of the ship, rhythmically moved in and out of the water, propelling the ship forward. The oars were being moved by humans- mostly men, with a few women sprinkled amongst them. The mermaids were awe-struck because this was the largest ship they had ever seen.
“Oooh, fresh meat,” the silence was broken by Hydra’s voice as she licked her lips, maniacal smile widening. She pinned back her ruby red locks with a clip made from the claws of a crab.
“Hold on a minute,” Melody said nervously. “You remember what the Chieftess said when we moved to these waters. We’re supposed to all lie low for now, and not draw any attention to ourselves until we learn more about this area and the nearby humans.” She was afraid that her pleas were falling on deaf ears as the buzz of excitement spread around the group of friends, everyone except for two turning to one another, planning their attack. The mermaid on the far end of the rocks, Echo, jumped into the water and swam over to where Melody was sitting. She hoisted herself onto Melody’s rock, and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Melody is right!” She cried, and all of the others fell silent because her voice was so deafening that they could feel the sound down to their bones. “We can’t attack this ship, we can’t risk it. What if this group of humans are tied to some kind of warrior clan? We don’t know anything about them. We can’t put our tribe in jeopardy.”
“What can humans do against us?” Marina scoffed. “We’ve never feared humans before.”
“That’s true, but our tribe lived in the tropical waters for decades. We knew how things worked down there. This will be the first time we’ve even seen humans since we left our home waters.” Echo stared into the eyes all of the other mermaids in turn.
The ship was getting closer every minute, and Melody could feel the palpable bloodthirst amongst most of her peers. She breathed through her own urges and tried to keep her thoughts in order. She was grateful that she at least had Echo on her side. She knew that one other, Wave, also felt the same way. She glanced over at her shy friend, who nodded in agreement but stayed silent. Melody couldn’t blame her, because she had always been picked on by the other merfolk, especially the Sirens, and now she was just trying to focus on fitting in as best she could.
Melody looked at the ship that, she was thankful to see, had turned and was moving in another direction now. She was able to see the men on board, who were the largest men she had ever laid eyes on. She wondered if they were giants. Most of them had long hair that was braided intricately, and were shades of brown, red, blonde, or grey. They had some facial hair and their eyes were hard and expressions serious. The women, too, were large and had braided hair. These people looked like warriors to her. Her thoughts were interrupted by a sound that caused her to feel a wave of panic. A sound that she hadn’t heard in months, not since they moved away from their homeland. She hated the violence, hated her own power. She began to shake with fear of what was to come. Why was I gifted with the Siren’s song? The same thoughts that always came at these times paralyzed her.
The song started with Rain, who had one of the most beautiful voices amongst them. She began to project her ethereal soprano tone louder and louder. Hydra, Marina, and Luna joined in, and they closed their eyes as they synced with one another. They seamlessly filled in the parts that were supposed to include Melody, Wave and Echo, who remained silent. Melody had buried her head in her hands as soon as she heard the song start. She looked up and was relieved to see that the ship was still heading in the same direction away from them.
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“Melody! Stop holding out on us!” Rain suddenly stopped singing and yelled angrily. The other three singers stopped their song, too, and silence fell over the group as Melody and Rain stared at each other intently. The tension between them felt like the calm before a storm. Rain was speaking through gritted teeth as she said, “We’re too far away to lure them without you. We need you. The Goddess didn’t gift you so that it could go to waste.”
Melody shook her head and looked down. “I won’t do it. I’m sick of the chase, sick of all of this. I wish the Goddess had never chosen me to lead you into the hunt.”
Rain spat at her with disgust. “What would the Chieftess of our tribe, your own mother, do if she knew of your treachery- that you would dare to put our tribe in danger? By refusing to take part in a sacrificial offering to the Goddess, you would doom us all. Do the lives of these filthy humans really mean more to you than your own clan?”
Melody’s face felt hot as shame engulfed her. Her tribe was everything to her, but these acts of violence in the name of the Goddess had been weighing on her mind for a long time. Her mother had been so proud when she was chosen by the Goddess to become a Siren, and not only a Siren but the leader of all of the other six, the one blessed with the strongest voice. She was following in her mother’s footsteps after all, and everyone expected for her to become the Chieftess when the time came for her mother to reunite with the sea. Five years had passed since the coming-of-age ceremony, but she could still remember the look on her mother’s face when she was chosen to take up this most important mantle in their tribe. The full moon had shone on her mother’s beautiful face as her eyes brimmed with tears.
Melody looked into the distance and could only just barely make out the speck of the ship sailing away from them. Her eyes were not as keen as Marina’s, who had been blessed with sight, but she still had the ability to see quite far, as it is with all mermaids. She sighed and choked back tears as her voice filled the air. The Siren’s song, a high-pitched tone that could control thousands of men at one time. That could summon ships even several leagues away, ships that even Marina could not have seen.
All of the sirens joined her song one at a time, including Wave and Echo this time, until they were all singing in unison. The addition of their voices accelerated the advent of the large ship.
While she sang, Melody was internally debating whether to swim back home once her part was done, to avoid watching the horrific show that was about to commence, but when she looked up once again at the people on the ship that was now moving rhythmically and trance-like towards them, she made eye contact with someone on board. He was tall and broad, like the rest of his men, but his eyes betrayed a softness behind them. He was wearing armor and fur, and he looked scared. He was the most beautiful man she’d ever seen. She watched him turn to the others on the ship and yell at them in a foreign tongue. They seemed to ignore him as they rowed harder and harder, eyes glazed over, towards the beefy rock upon which the Sirens were perched.
“Dive!” Rain shouted. The mermaids dove into the crisp ocean and backed away from the rocks as the ship grew closer. They never stopped their enchanting song, which grew in complexity as they continued to weave a score that would undoubtedly draw their victims into their trap.
Melody watched in horror as the ship crashed into the large rock formation at full-force, pulled by the song that rang from herself and her peers at either side of her. They all stopped singing and watched the shipwreck as it happened. Wave was grabbing her hand, holding it, tears flowing down her face, quietly praying to the goddess of the sea as she continued to sing. Echo stopped singing, cursed everyone loudly, and dove into the depths of the ocean to return to their tribe. Wave also started to turn back, pulling Melody’s hand with her. Melody started to follow, her head dunking below the water’s surface, but a couple of meters down, she let go of Wave’s hand. Wave turned around to face her friend.
“What are you doing? We promised each other we wouldn’t get involved in the violence anymore.” Wave pleaded. Melody floated there quietly for a minute, mind racing. She saw that man’s face in her mind, the look of fear on his face as he realized that his crew was mindlessly propelling themselves towards their doom.
“I’m going back. Please go home, Wave. Don’t worry about me. I won’t be far behind.” She turned and quickly swam back to the scene.
Her head broke the surface, and she saw that the massive ship had now turned on its side, emptying its contents into the ocean. There were people flailing all around, trying to grab onto anything that could keep them afloat. Rain was the only one singing now, her head thrown back and hands held open towards the sky. Wind was whipping around them, blowing the men off of the rocks and jagged pieces of wood from their ship. A few had been using ropes to desperately try to heave their ship back into the proper position, but they were blown apart by the huge gusts. Water drawn from the sea and falling from the sky was spinning around them. The humans were yelling at each other, but their voices were drowned by the storm. A few people had made it back onto the rocks despite the weather, and were breathing heavily, soaked from head to toe. Marina flipped acrobatically over one of the rocks, and she grabbed one of the men, as she went, trying to wrestle him back into the water. However, he caught her mid-air and Melody watched as they struggled. The man was huge and powerful. He was using his hands to choke Marina on the rocks. Sharp spikes broke free from the skin on her forearms, and she slashed across his face with them, drawing blood. He cried out, but continued choking her. She was laughing now, barely audible as he was constricting her throat. More spikes emerged, now from the tip of her fin. With a swift movement, the spikes were airborne and dug easily into his eyes. He let go of her with a yell as he clawed at his face. She grabbed him and sunk her teeth into his neck. Her eyes rolled back in ecstasy at her first taste of human blood in months. The man went limp, and she remained latched on as she dove under the waves with him.
Melody began grabbing bodies that were floating in the water and hauling them onto the rocks with very little effort. After she had helped about five people out of the water, all of them unconscious, she shielded them from the storm by creating a bubble of water around them. She looked around for the man that she had seen earlier, and her heart skipped a beat. Hydra was wrapped around the man that she had seen on the ship, the man with softness behind his eyes. Only the softness was gone now, replaced with ferocity. He was trying to fight back, but he clearly had the disadvantage in the water. They were surrounded by three sea serpents who were taking turns biting him. They were made of pure seawater, conjured by Hydra’s will. One of the serpents knocked his sword out of his hand, leaving him weaponless. Melody swam as quickly as she could to reach them, but even Melody’s super speed was no match for Hydra’s bloodlust. As she approached, Hydra’s fangs were visibly protruding out of her mouth, and in an instant they buried into the man’s neck. He went limp instantly as she began to feast. She was so preoccupied in her indulgence that she did not even feel movement in the water behind her. She did, however, feel the needling pain when a razor-sharp claw was pulled tight against her neck.
“Let him go,” Melody commanded. Hydra knew that voice.
“You little traitorous bitch.” She disengaged from her victim and hissed through clenched teeth, blood spewing out of her mouth. The man was still as limp as a ragdoll in her tight grip. The other Sirens were too overcome with their own feasting to notice that one of their own had turned against them, as though they were starving men at a banquet. The storm had calmed now as Rain had chosen her own victim, and thus her spell was no longer in place. Hydra’s eyes widened with rage at her predicament. “I thought you found violence abhorrent, or is it only when it’s against humans? You’re content with violence against your own kind.” She laughed sardonically. She tried to whip her tail out for an attack against her captor, but found that she was frozen in place. She swore under her breath, remembering Melody’s specific gifts from the Sea Goddess. Her serpents, too, were as stiff as stone statues, unable to bite or snap as they had been.
“Hydra, I do not want to hurt you. But this man is mine, I had claimed him before his ship was sunk. Did you not feel my intention on him already?” She spoke with an even voice, praying to the Goddess that her lie was believed. She knew that all of the girls took seriously their system of claiming victims for their own use.
Hydra’s voice fell, “I’m sorry Melody, it was my mistake. I hope you don’t mind my sloppy seconds.” She laughed bitterly. “I’ll hand him over to you if you give me my mobility back.”
Melody did as she was asked, and Hydra’s sea serpents began to coil and hiss at her. She ignored them, and retracted her own talons so that they were no longer scraping across Hydra’s neck. Hydra began to double in size, growing larger and larger, creating huge waves that threw Melody back with force. Once she had landed in the water a few meters away had and regained her composure, Melody looked up at Hydra, who now towered over the entire scene of the wreckage. The few men that were still conscious on the rock, shielded, were yelling in their foreign tongue. She was sure that the word “monster” or worse was being uttered. The other Sirens paused their feast and were looking up at her with questioning expressions
“Drama queen.” Melody muttered under her breath.
“You can have him if you can catch him.” Hydra’s voice boomed around them like thunder. She took the man and flung him into the distance, further than even the mermaid’s eye could see. Melody dove under the water as Hydra’s laughter boomed around her, slowly quieting as she got further and further away. Melody was speeding through the frigid sea towards where she believed the man had dropped. Her heart felt heavy as she pushed past several dead bodies of the men that had been rowing just minutes before. Can I catch him before he drowns and becomes another sacrifice to Our Lady? Oh please, Lady, don’t claim him- we’ve given you enough payment today.