Captain Edison Fletcher had a mission to make the sea a safer place one mermaid at a time. Captain Fletcher's father was an explorer. His long expeditions caused Fletcher's mother to worry about her dear husband. On his last trip, he decided to take his wife along. They left their ten-year-old son in the care of his grandmother so that he could still attend school.

It was common knowledge to anyone who dared to sail the treacherous seas that sailors should steer clear of mermaid waters, but the captain of his parents the ship was trying to cut time by sailing just along the outside edge.

Their voyage had taken them longer than what anyone expected it to. One night a storm picked up tossed the ship well into the heart of mermaid seas and no one from the exploration was ever heard from again. Fletcher wanted to avenge his parents and would do everything it took to do so.

As a young man, he put together a crew full of men with nothing to lose. Catching and killing mermaids wasn't a safe job. One mistake could mean death for the entire crew and hunting mermaids could pay well but it was a gamble.

You have to find a crew desperate enough for money to do a job that was this dangerous. Fletcher had the crew well trained, they had to be working around mermaids.

1. While on mermaid waters you had to keep your ears completely stuffed with cotton, one mermaid wasn't a problem, her song isn't powerful enough to enchant an entire crew but a whole swarm will quickly lead you to your doom.

2. Whether with one mermaid or one hundred you are never to utter any one's name. It was well known that mermaids had an extraordinary hearing. If she knew your name she would whisper to you from the depths chasing you to drown yourself trying to respond to her call. Most of Fletcher's crew didn't know each other's real names. They would come up with nicknames nothing that a mermaid could use against them.

3. Always be on guard. Mermaids are very cunning and could just about talk you into anything even without magic.

4. Keep them away from saltwater if you catch one. Something about the salt in the water amplifies their magic.

Siren Hunters were considered friendly pirates. They would bring back hoards of jewelry that the mermaids would salvage from their victim's ships.

It wasn't only gold and jewels that had Fletcher's crew hungry for mermaid blood. Certain buyers that will pay a lot of money for mermaid parts. Women liked the mermaids' unique hair it would change colors according to the seasons even if it wasn't attached to the mermaid's head. Merchants would turn them into fancy wigs for the aristocratic ladies.

Others would want their bones, buyers would grind them up and put them into vials to sell them as a good luck charm.

A mermaid's scales are beautiful each mermaid had her unique scales. Women would use them as decoration in hair combs, purses, or fans.

But what Fletcher wanted most of all was a mermaid's tears. Tears of a Mermaid are a fountain of youth, they could heal any sickness, if you rubbed them on your face your wrinkles would disappear, and if you drank a little every day you probably could live forever, but nobody could afford to do that. Fletcher and his crew had hunted mermaids for over a decade and he had never been so lucky as to get one. His crew had even tried to torture mermaids to death in hopes of getting a single tear to fall.

Captain Fletcher stood at the wheel of his massive ship guiding it across the giant ocean waters. The water crashing against the side of the ship and filling the air with the scent of the ocean.

He never felt more at home than he did when he was on his ship. There was nothing more empowering to him than knowing her was harnessing the wind to take him where he willed.

Fletcher's crew had just come from Mermaid territory and were ready to bring a decent size haul back to the mainland when one of the crewmen shouted, "CAPTAIN, MERMAID!"

Men that were about their daily tasks soon rushed to the aid of their crewmates who were manning the nets. They were fishing for dinner and didn't expect to capture a mermaid this far outside of their area.

Mermaids never traveled this far out it wasn't safe for them there were too many predators. They were safe in their territory there was safety in numbers for them, but one mermaid this far away from home was asking to be eaten by sharks or even sea monsters. Which made the captain curious about her. The captain grabbed one of the officers putting him on the wheel before running down to the deck.

The men parted for their captain to get closer as several men pulled on the nets hauling the catch up. The mermaid flopped around in the nets struggling to get free. The more she struggled the more the ropes of the nets tightened around her.

Once the dropped the full net on the deck the crew could fully see what they had caught.

The mermaid's fading teal hair was matted and tangled against the nets. Blue terror-filled eyes darted around the deck as she was tried to sing, not that it would have made any difference outside of the seawater. Her voice had no potency. Even if her song could have enchanted the men outside of the sea waters, the ropes of the net twisted around her milky white neck. The more she struggled against them the tighter they got.

Her long tail was so tangled in the nets that it was twisted in an awkward and uncomfortable position. The only part of her that was free where her arms that were desperately pawing at the ropes around her neck.

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When the mermaid's eyes fell of the captain she calmed immediately. She stared at him in wonder, as if she was as fascinated with him as much as he was of her. Normally Fletcher would order her death without giving the monster a second glance but the mermaid before him was different. Something inside of him stirred and the unusual need to protect her took over. Fletcher hated himself for his own body's betrayal.

Her mouth moved but no word came out as a single pearly white tear slid down her face.

Fletcher was shocked mermaids had very good control of their emotions. They only release tears if they want to, why would she give one over so freely? The captain quickly snapped and pointed, one of the crewmen quickly pulled a vial from his pocket and captured the whole tear. The entire crew cheered, the tear would feed the crew for a year.

"Gag her, then cut the rope off her neck. When she dries out and gets her legs, shekel her and dress her in something decent." The captain said.

The crewmen quickly obeyed their captain's orders. Mermaids didn't bother covering their breasts and when their leg appear they had the same anatomy as a human woman.

Having a naked woman on a ship full of men wasn't a good idea, at least not until he decided what to do with her. Captain Fletcher never gave orders to keep a mermaid alive but the crew didn't question him. They would never question their captain.

After her legs appeared one of the crew members pulled her to her feet and she screamed out in pain. She was a young mermaid who has never tried out her land legs. Their feet are extremely sensitive the first few times they use them. Despite her pain, the crewman pulled her down to the brig.

Several empty cells lined the hull of the ship. The sour smell of wet unkempt linens and rat piss filled her nose. A man threw her into the first cell. She fell to the cold bare wooden floor.

A large hairy man walked in a tied a think piece of material around her head gagging her.

"Pretty, pretty," a skinny slimy man said as he leaned against the outside bars.

The hairy man huffed, "You better hope the captain never hears you. You'll find yourself shored quicker than you can say, Davey Jones."

"Maybe the captain will get what he wants from her and then give her to us as a treat," the slimy man said as he licked his lips.

The hairy one growled and grabbed the pile of clothes from the skinny one.

"Get up to the deck," he ordered before throwing the pile of clothes at the mermaid.

The skinny man sneered at him and retreated up the wooden stairs like he was ordered. The hairy one then slammed the barred doors closed behind him as he left leaving the mermaid only and cold in her cell.

With her hands tied, she wasn't able to put any of the clothes on, not that it mattered, they all seemed too big for her. The mermaid scooted to the farthest corner and curled up into a shivering ball.

She noticed the other cells were used for storage. Some were wooden crates labeled in a language she couldn't read. She had learned some of the languages of men but not their script.

What caught her eye was the opened box with golden necklaces hanging out. The jewels glistened in the lamplight. Her mind was filled with new putrefying scents and noises of the ship that she was only used to hearing from the outside of the boat.

Meanwhile, in the captain's quarters, Fletcher was pacing back and forth raking his hands through his thick black hair. His first mate, Bobby Gates, came in.

"You alright Captain?" Bobby asked.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" Fletcher grumbled.

"It's just you seem... distraught," Bobby said.

Bobby knew his captain well. Ever since Fletcher locked eyes with the beast his head was filled with the thought of her. He could shake the feeling of being worried about her as he watched her in pain as she was dragged off by his crew. But Fletcher knew he couldn't tell Bobby about what he was thinking, or the rest of his crew for that matter.

"There is just something strange about her," Fletcher told him. "Mermaids never travel this far out of the territory and that tear, she gave it over too easily."

"Do you think the mermaids are up to something?" Bobby asked

"I don't know, she seems to be alone. If there were more mermaids in the water we'd be in their stomachs right now."

"It's odd to find one out this far much less alone. She'd be easy bait for a shark or something much worse."

Fletcher nodded in agreement, "Good thing for her we stumbled across her then. I think we can use her to our advantage, though"

"How so?" Bobby questioned.

"We've been trying to navigate the mermaid waters for years. And every time we only catch one or two a trip. I to take out the mermaid queen," He told Bobby.

Bobby's knees became weak at the thought. To take out the queen you had to navigate far into the heart of their swarm. Fletcher's crew was considered crazy for venturing in just a few miles going that far into mermaid territory was complete suicide.

"How do you think you can persuade her to do that?" Bobby asked.

"We'll force her to give details of her home and make her sing to her fellow monster's to get them to lower their guards," Fletcher said it an air of confidence. Bobby wasn't sure that it was going to be as easy as his captain made it sound.

"Captain," Bobby said doubtfully before Fletcher interrupted him.

"We are returning home to sell and resupply anyway. A land snared mermaid is a living corpse. It shouldn't take long to crack her," he assured his first mate.

"People would pay a lot of money to see a living mermaid, Cap," Bobby suggested.

The captain had already toyed with that thought but he didn't want to expose her to society until he got what he wanted from her.

"But," Bobby continued, "maybe we won't have to even bother. Maybe we can get the information out of her here on the ship and just part her out like the rest of the monsters we caught."

"Bring her to my quarters," Fletcher commanded.

"Right away sir."

A giant hairy man came to the mermaid's cell, "Get up," He ordered.

She pretended that she didn't understand and looked at him confused. What could he want from her? He unlocked her cell and took one step inside. "I said, get UP. The Captain wants to see you." The mermaid slowly stood up the pain in her feet was excruciating. The burly man took two steps toward her and grabbed her wrist. He unshackled her and pulled the wrinkled shirt from the floor and pulled it over her head.

The shirt was giant on her and hung more like a dress. The collar of the shirt draped off one of her shoulders exposing more of her shoulder and breast than what would have been deemed descent.

The man grabbed her arm and pulled her from her cell. On the way up the stairs, she tripped on one of the steps and winced in pain. The man paid it no mind and pulled her to her feet.

When they were up on the deck she looked around to see several men tending to nets, cleaning the deck, and tending to the mast. None of the men seemed to pay her any mind.

Her eyes wandered to the edge of the ship where her freedom laid. She struggled against the man's grip hoping to get free, but his large hand only tightened around her. Her arm started to lose feeling within his grasp.

He jerked her into place next to him before knocking on the door.