Melody searched the seas for hours, but could find no trace of the man. She cursed Hydra’s name, pulled her own hair out in rage, and eventually, exhausted and feeling defeated, she found a forest of kelp to lie down in. She was lying on her back in the sandy ocean floor, watching the tops of the long kelp moving to and fro above her. She meditated on what to do next as she watched the kelp. The kelp reminded her that she was far from her tropical homeland, in foreign waters that she was not familiar with. She was sure that she would have been able to find him if she was in her home sea, not far away in this damned cold place.
She closed her eyes, and a few minutes went by before she felt a darkness descend over her as the light dimmed behind her eyelids. She opened her eyes and looked to the surface, where a huge shape was floating there, obscuring the sun. She quickly sprang to a ready position, and her heartbeat softened as she recognized the threat. A whale… She swam to the surface to speak with it.
This whale was unlike the ones that she had befriended in the tropics, but she had seen them here and there before. It was black with white markings. She swam to one side of it so that she could look into one of its eyes.
“Hello, friend.” Melody greeted the orca in its native dialect. Her accent was thick, and she felt embarrassed about it as she stumbled over the intricate vocalizations. She thought of her linguistics instructor of her youth teaching her the languages of various whale pods that they might encounter in their travels. She had been the star student, due to her exceptional voice. Even before she was chosen by the Goddess to lead the Siren’s song, she was skilled in that area. Still, she hadn’t much practice in speaking orca outside of the classroom, and her vocalizations could be described as clumsy at best.
“You search for a man.” The orca was kind enough to speak in slow, elementary phrases that she could understand.
“How?” Melody asked, surprised that the orca was aware of her search. The orca laughed.
“Everyone in sea heard you.”
Melody blushed, realizing how careless she’d been in her desperation. She had no idea what sorts of threats were lurking in this unknown territory. The only thing that she knew for sure was that there were no other mermaid tribes nearby. That was how her tribe had been pushed so far north, looking for sea that was unclaimed.
“Do you know where man?” She asked the orca.
“Follow me.”
Melody’s stomach did a somersault as she understood the phrase. She just hoped that she wasn’t being taken to a dead body. The orca turned around and swam away, and Melody followed behind. The orca did not know of her gift of speed, so it was nice enough to swim slowly to accommodate.
“You can go faster!” Melody shouted, and the orca took off at a very quick pace. A normal mermaid would not have been able to keep up, but she had no trouble. She could not see what was ahead of them due to the orca’s size blocking her view, but she hoped that they were almost there. Then, the orca stopped, and so she stopped.
“To the surface.” The orca said, and Melody swam up until her head broke through to the air. They had reached a marvelous island that she could see was a part of an archipelago. This island, from what she could see, contained a large mountain next to the beach, and lush greenery. The water near the beach was a beautiful turquoise color that reminded her of the tropical beaches she was used to. If the arctic water wasn’t so cold, she could almost be fooled into believing she was in her homeland. She searched the beach with her eyes and saw a human lying on the sand, unmoving. The orca’s large head had now breached the surface and was surveying the beach also.
“Is he dead?” The words caught in Melody’s throat. The orca looked at her for a moment, as if searching for the right response.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Not dead, but not far from dead.”
“I must go to him.” Melody looked into the eye of her new friend. “Thank you. Please tell me your name.” The orca replied with a new sound that she had not heard before. Melody emulated the sound as best she could. The orca laughed, but not in a mocking way. It was a kind laugh. “What does it mean?” Melody asked.
The orca thought for a moment, and then said “The sound that is made when you remove a head from a body.”
“Ripper.” Melody said, her eyes crinkling with amusement at the thought of her new friend having such a barbaric name. “Thank you, Ripper. May the Goddess swim with you always.”
“And you.” The orca replied, nudging her in the direction of the beach. Melody swam as quickly as she could until she met the beach. Once on the sand, she struggled to reach the man, dragging her lower half using the strength of her arms. She was out of breath once she reached him, and she felt an ache in the underside of her fin from being dragged in the somewhat dry sand. However, she barely noticed these discomforts, because of the fear that overtook her when she saw the state that he was in. His lips were a blue-ish color. She touched his wrist and could feel a weak, thready pulse. His breathing was irregular. She couldn’t tell if he was lying still from being close to death, or if the immobilizing poison that Hydra had injected into him during her feasting was still coursing through him.
She sat up with her fin spread out in front of her, and pulled him into a position where she was cradling his head in her arms. She closed her eyes and tried to visualize him in a healthy state. She began to sing as she kept this vision in the forefront of her mind. After a few minutes of singing, she opened her eyes and found that his state had not improved. Her singing did not evoke the same power that it usually did. Of course, she thought, Our Lady has no sovereignty on land. We are too far from the water. She felt stupid at the realization. She struggled to pull him onto her back, his arms around her neck, and began to move back towards the ocean. All of her limbs felt heavy as she struggled against gravity, and she recognized the loss of her usual superior strength that her kind was blessed with. She only made it a couple of feet before she slumped onto the sand, huffing from the effort. She laid the dying man back on the sand and looked at his body, which was covered in heavy material. Furs, leather, and metal- common armor found on the human warriors that she had encountered. His clothing was holding the weight of the salt ocean, making it more difficult for her to move him.
“Sorry, sir, I have no choice…” She chewed her lip as she thought about what she was about to do. The beautiful, sparkling nails of her fingers sprang out to become two inch long claws. She made an incision from his neck all the way down to his groin, and then one down each leg. She finished by slicing down both of his arms. Her claws cut through the heavy material easily- even the metal- and once all of her slices had met one another, she was able to smoothly peel away all of his heavy clothing. There was cloth underneath that she had spared, which was covering his lower half. The skin of her face reddened as she tried to ignore the strong features of his body. As she had thought when she had first seen him on the ship, he was the largest man that she’d ever laid eyes on. She admired his braids that were intermixed with his long, wild locks. She looked upon his brow, and his jawline. The mermen did not have similar features to him, and she was fascinated by the way that he looked. Whereas the mermen were delicate in features, he was robust and broad everywhere. He looked powerful and almost terrifying. She eyed something shining on his chest, wrapped around his neck by a thick braided cord. She picked up the metal charm and moved it around, looking from every angle. She pulled the cord over his head and wrapped it around her wrist, securing the charm in her hand. Her heart began to pound as she realized that she was wasting precious time. She hoisted him back onto her back, and continued their journey back to the water. Without anything weighing him down, the man was must easier to move. Finally they reached the comfort of the waves.
She placed the man in the water and they moved away from the shore until he was floating, face up, his body gently rocking from the movement around him. She held his head with her hands and began her song again. This time her melody resonated as she sang, and the water around them vibrated. Despite their Northern location, the water around them became very hot. Soon they were both sweating and steam was rising from a circle around them. She continued to sing for several minutes, her eyes closed as she again visualized his healing. She opened her eyes as her song came to an end, and she searched man for signs of life. The color had returned to his lips and face. The beat of his heart was strong, and his breathing regular. Her own breath caught in her throat as she watched him intently. A moment later, his eyes began to open slowly.
He blinked several times, his vision unfocused. He saw the sky above him, the clouds. He closed his eyes again, listening, trying to remember where he was. He heard the birds of the sea around them and the waves crashing against the shore. He felt the warm water cooling as it enveloped him. Then, his eyes opened and and he tilted his head back slightly, meeting her gaze. He began to flail in the water, his legs and arms trying to find their balance. He flipped over and found his footing on the ocean floor. The water was crashing against his body as he stood there, waist-deep in the saltwater that was now going back to its usual frigidity. He was staring down into the eyes of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. They were the deep blue color of the previously unexplored oceans that he traversed. The sunlight glinted off of her hair, which was very long, thick, and curly, with a faint pink hue that he had only seen in the wildflowers of spring. She was crouched in the water, and thus he was unaware of her fin below the surface. He held out his hand to her.
“Were you the one that was singing to me, or was I dreaming? Let me help you up so we can dry off.” He said, but all that she heard was a thick human tongue that she was unable to understand.
She looked at his hand, and with a heavy heart, she began to back up in the water, getting deeper and deeper into the ocean. Her eyes never left his face until she was quite far, and by then he was shouting at her. She slipped beneath the surface and turned around, swimming away from the man that had stolen her heart.