Little Siren

So, here we are again. My travels have taken me far and wide since last we met, Friend. I've got plenty more stories of the dark and disturbing to tell, and I do so enjoy having an audience to listen to them. If you believe your constitution is strong enough, then let us begin.

Tales of merfolk are as old as the waters upon the Earth itself. Many a sea-faring man and woman has claimed to see one at least once in their life, playing and dancing in the waves alongside their ships. The subject of this story is not much different from those fabled creatures. In fact, upon first blush, one might find her a dismally common figure in fairytales. Among her people, she is considered somewhat of a princess, yearning for more than what her aquatic life can offer. She's quite a silly and vain creature, and honestly not too bright.

Instead of attending to her lessons at home with her dozens of mer-siblings, the pretty, bubble-headed little siren much preferred exploring sunken ships; pilfering treasures from their long dead occupants and smuggling them back to the palace right under her stern but loving father's nose. More than once, she was caught in the act red-handed and reprimanded severely for her foolish and quite dangerous expeditions. Crumbling hulls filled with half-rotted human bones are no place for a princess after all. In the king's eyes, humans were not the fascinating and beautiful creatures his ditzy daughter believed them to be.

To merfolk, humans were nothing but food.

The silly little siren simply brushed off her worried father. Clearly he'd been forty fathoms deep for far too long. Surely those strange, two-legged creatures up there had more value to the world than mere sustenance. Granted, they were quite tasty, but she'd seen first hand the wonders human hands could create. They had music, art, and so many exquisite, unique treasures. After being sent to her cave - again - she burrowed under her coral bed and looked over her ever-growing collection. Each piece was more valuable to her than gold or jewels, even if she didn't know what their purpose was. For instance, why would a human need an entire set of tiny, silver tridents?

Despite her father's words of warning, Little Siren continued exploring shipwrecks with reckless abandon, bringing home whatever trinkets she could get her scaly, webbed fingers on by the bagful. Eventually, she realized simply collecting human treasures was not enough. She wanted to be with humans; watch them create and use their beautiful things, so she could better understand their bizarre yet fascinating species. Even if it was just for a day. This yearning grew stronger by the year, luring her closer and closer to the surface. One day, she finally took the plunge, pulling her head above the choppy waves. It took a minute or two for her gills to adapt to the cool, briny air rushing through them, as it was understandably quite a shock to her system. Once she got her bearings, she couldn't believe the sight that lay before her.

An enormous human ship, floating upon the sea instead of laying on the bottom of it. It was magnificent, and much more attractive than any ship she'd seen before. Certainly it had a lot less algae, and far fewer holes in its hull. Fascinated, she swam closer, climbing up the anchor's chain until she reached the deck. It took more effort than she bargained for; although moving through air was easier than through water, her body felt much heavier out of the sea. With one final huff of exhaustion, she wrapped her arms around the railing at last, blowing her thick, seaweed-like hair out of her face. When she did, she got her first, up-close and in-person look at humans in their natural habitat.

She'd seen a human before, of course; many of them, in fact, during her expeditions. They looked quite different with skin on their bones, however. It was difficult to tell with those strange, cloth coverings they kept on their bodies, but all of them appeared to be male. There was music and laughter flowing from every nook and cranny of the deck. A celebration of some kind, she thought. Humans celebrated quite a lot, based on the pictures and paintings she'd seen on their wrecked vessels. This seemed a particularly joyous occasion: the humans were embracing and singing in a highly jovial manner, clinking containers of liquid and gulping it down with gusto. Some spilled onto the deck in front of Little Siren, so she dipped a finger in it curiously and brought it to her fanged lips. It tasted awful, like rotten seagrass, but she couldn't resist having another taste.

While she finished lapping up the funny-tasting puddle, her yellow, bulbous eyes were drawn to a human standing at the very front of the ship. He seemed different than the other humans; quiet, contemplative, and a bit forlorn as he stared out at the moonlit sea. Drawn to this strange human, the little siren crawled along the railing toward him to get a closer look. When she saw his face, she knew for certain that he was in a league above the rest.

To put it simply, he was breathtaking.

His crisp dark hair framed his chiseled features in waves, just like the sea lapping the hull far below. The stars danced in his soulful green eyes, making them shine like polished pieces of sea glass. His bearing was so strong, yet gentle as a summer's breeze, making Little Siren's hearts flutter beneath her scaly bosom. The longer she looked at him, that old, familiar feeling welled up within her. Just like when she happened upon a new and exciting human treasure.

She had to have him, and she would do anything to get him.

Without thinking, she reached through the railing and wrapped one of her cold, slippery hands around his leg, intending to pull him overboard. He let out a cry of shock and terror as he yanked his leg free of her grasp and stumbled backward, knocking over a little wire and glass cage full of light. When it shattered, the warm, flickering light it held crawled out as if it were alive, growing to immense size the further it stretched out across the ship. Soon it grew so big, bright, and hot, that Little Siren had to dive back into the sea.

From the safety of the sea's warm embrace, she watched that strange light swallow the entire vessel. Even below the surface, she could hear the humans shouting, trying to kill that living light with all their might. After a few minutes, they gave up, lowering miniature, mastless ships over the side and jumping into them. Some humans ignored the little ships completely, diving overboard directly into the dark, choppy billows. It was all so intense and terrifying to watch, especially when the big ship slowly dipped beneath the waves to join its sunken kin. Little Siren thought it would be best to leave - as word of a newly sunken ship would reach her father's fin-like ears soon - but something in the water caught her eye as she turned to swim away, sinking to the sea floor alongside the wreckage.

It was the same male; the beautiful one. His stunning green eyes were closed and bubbles poured from his slack lips, his limbs floating limply by his sides like a starfish. Little Siren flapped her fins as hard as she could, propelling her to his side. She tried frantically to wake him up, until she noticed he had no gills on the sides of his neck like hers. Realizing he needed air to breathe, she dragged his shockingly heavy body toward the surface again. Even with his head above the waves, however, he refused to wake up. Little Siren didn't know what to do; all she could think was that maybe one of the other humans could help him. They were long gone by now, though, steering their tiny ships toward the shore. Taking the male back to dry land as well seemed like a good idea, so Little Siren followed in their wake.

It took the rest of the night for her to drag him back to dry land, but she made it. The sand scratched her scales as she flopped his limp body upon it, after which a jet of water shot out of his mouth. He lay there coughing and sputtering for a long time, his eyes rolling loosely under his closed lids. Seeing him in the pale light of dawn was entirely different than in the moonlight. She didn't think it was possible, but he was even more beautiful with the sun shining on his face. Without realizing she was doing it, she brought her face closer to his, her slit-like nostrils flaring as she took in the smell of his skin. As she pushed back his damp hair - revealing more of his face - she noticed a deep gash on the side of his head. Maybe that was why he hadn't woken up yet. Not that she minded.

The smell of his blood was almost as intoxicating as his beautiful face. She couldn't resist sampling it, her scales quivering with delight as her tongue raked over his flesh. He not only looked beautiful, but he tasted beautiful as well.

At that moment, his eyes opened at long last. The two of them stared at each other - nose to flat, scaly nose - for a wonderfully long time. Little Siren's lips stretched in a wide, sharkish grin, overwhelmed by every part of him. She could've stared into his eyes forever... but then, he screamed.

She echoed his terrified bleat, diving back into the water instinctively. Even as she swam back home, that human was all she could think about. Her need to have him was even greater than before, and it grew by the minute. More than anything, she wanted to be a part of his world... but he was terrified of her. For weeks on end, she wracked her smooth little brain, trying to figure out a way to get close to him. To gain his trust. Perhaps if she found a way to make herself more appealing to his senses, that would work. No matter what she tried or how many hours she spent at her vanity, however, nothing seemed to feel right. Her scaly, blunt, and bug-eyed face simply wasn't the proper shape to fit a human's standard of beauty. She needed help. Eventually, she decided where the best place to get it was.

When she was a small fry, her father's closest sister in age still lived at the palace. Her father and aunt had been estranged for years now, though, ever since he found out she'd been sporting with humans in her spare time. Allegedly, she'd learned through ancient sorcery how to make herself look like a human female, allowing her to carry on so. Whether that was true or not, it got her banished to the far edge of their undersea kingdom. Hoping her aunt still had some of that magic left, Little Siren sneaked out of the palace early one morning and crossed the sea for a visit.

Auntie was surprised and delighted to see her favorite niece, of course, embracing her with both arms and octopus-like tentacles on sight. As soon as Little Siren finished explaining her predicament, Dear Auntie led her right to the back of her home. A massive stone cauldron sat in the middle of the floor, flanked by shelves upon shelves of potion bottles. In no time at all, Auntie had whipped up a special concoction. Before giving it to Little Siren, however, Auntie issued a stern warning: the potion's effects were only temporary. Whatever her niece wished to do with that human male, she only had one week in which to do it. And, she couldn't go back into the sea again until it had worn off completely. Otherwise, there was a chance her appearance could be altered permanently.

Only half-listening, the fluff-brained Little Siren agreed to her aunt's terms. As soon as she had the potion in hand, she swam back to the shore where she'd left the human male so long ago. When it was in sight, she downed the potion in one gulp, tossing the bottle into the surf behind her. Immediately, she could feel the change overtaking her. It was more painful than she expected, as her tail split in half right down the middle from fins to hips. Little Siren was quite a ways out to sea, not realizing that she wouldn't know how to use her new legs to propel herself the rest of the way to the beach. After quite a lot of flailing, and drinking nearly a gallon of sea water, she managed to crawl onto the sand at long last.

Once the pain and her disorientation wore off, she saw her reflection in a tidal pool. Her face was frankly hideous now: perfectly smooth and white, without a trace of the pretty green scales that once covered it. Her lips were swollen and badly discolored, turned the most unnatural shade of reddish-pink she'd ever seen. Her nose stuck out from her face in a woefully unattractive little bump like a baby shark's fin. Lastly, her eyes - which bulged fetchingly from her face moments ago - had retracted deep into their sockets, darkened to a plain, watery blue instead of their natural vibrant yellow.

Worst of all was her hair. She'd taken great pride in maintaining her long, luxurious black and greenish-brown locks, but now she couldn't stand the sight of it. Every strand had become so thin and stringy, forming bouncy, poofy curls as they dried. If that wasn't bad enough, the color of it was truly awful: an obnoxiously bright red, like boiled lobster shells.

As ugly as she felt, Little Siren didn't have much time at all to dwell on her new appearance. Voices from further up the beach caught her attention a moment later. Human voices. Fighting her instincts to swim away and hide, she decided to stand and greet them. She was human now after all, so they had no reason to be afraid of her. As luck would have it, it was the same male from that fateful night, accompanied by a human female.

Little Siren was unsteady on her new feet, falling over when she attempted to walk over and introduce herself. Despite her new, human features, the male and female both recoiled at the sight of her. At first, she didn't know why they looked at her so strangely. Surely the potion wasn't wearing off so soon? Eventually, she realized they weren't staring at her out of fear. There was something else in their eyes: shock, pity, and a bit of confusion.

The male approached first, much to Little Siren's joy. He smiled warmly at Little Siren, his face adopting an unusual pink hue, and took off his outer covering. Before Little Siren could ask what he was doing, the male draped the covering across her, hiding her bare body from view. Little Siren saw no point to the covering, but she kept it on anyway. Useless or not, it was very pretty, and it carried his scent. That, and he seemed to like her more once she was wearing it.

Although the male's tone was soft and tender, Little Siren still couldn't understand a word he spoke. Attempting to avoid suspicion and blend in, she tried her best to mimic the sounds she heard. Her small, flat human tongue felt strange and clumsy in her jaws, though, and every sound she made came out as a garbled screech. Despite being unable to speak or understand their language, the male and female were no less warm and accepting. That same minute, they helped her to her feet, bringing her to the male's home.

Little Siren learned very quickly that the male was an important leader to his people. A king, just like her father. His palace was much the same as the one she grew up in, with one major exception: the humans had built structures they called "stay-yurrs" in between the palace floors to travel among them, as they couldn't swim through the air. By the end of the day, Little Siren had learned quite a few words besides that one, most importantly what the male and female called themselves. As far as she could tell, the male was called "Hi-Ness", and the female "Fee-Yon-Say". She was proud by how quickly she was learning their words, especially when Hi-Ness and Fee-Yon-Say showed such delight at her attempts to speak their language.

Fee-Yon-Say was very kind to Little Siren, offering many more beautiful coverings for her to wear from her own collection. She even put pretty things in the Little Siren's hair every day and wove it into intricate patterns, making it look much less ugly than before. Little Siren didn't much care for Fee-Yon-Say, however: she only had eyes for Hi-Ness. She was drawn to him like a guppy to an anglerfish's lure, finding any excuse she could to follow him around and get close to him. He indulged her whims affectionately at first, but after a few days he seemed to grow weary and ill-tempered around her. Not that Little Siren really noticed or cared.

Every night around sunset, Hi-Ness and Fee-Yon-Say brought Little Siren to the palace's dining hall. Little Siren soon learned that this was a daily eating ritual, much like she had at home. The food they put before her, however, was bizarre and exotic to say the least. Everything she tried was quite tasty, but she left the ritual feeling oddly unsatisfied every time. As she was led out of the dining hall to the cave they'd been letting her use on day six, she couldn't stop looking at Hi-Ness. He looked tastier and more beautiful than ever. Even though she still had eight hours left to make him hers, she knew she might not last that long before her hunger got the better of her.

It was impossible to sleep on that soft, squishy sponge bed they gave her, so she took to wandering the palace halls that night as she had every night before. Very few humans were around at that hour, allowing her to explore without so many stuffy coverings to weigh her down. Her feet and legs were quite strong by now, too. She'd learned how to walk on just her toes, so every step was as soft as noiseless as possible. Although she hadn't a clue where she was going, her instincts carried her to Fee-Yon-Say's cave.

She stayed quiet, keeping to the shadows so Fee-Yon-Say wouldn't hear her, but after a moment it seemed unnecessary. The human female was standing in front of a large mirror, gushing over her own reflection. She'd changed her coverings again, and this one was the finest Little Siren had seen yet. It was pure white, glittering like the sun on foamy waves, and hung past her feet like a sail. Fee-Yon-Say couldn't take her eyes off her reflection, constantly turning and preening in the mirror while another human female fussed with the covering's bottom edge.

After a few long minutes, Little Siren realized she'd seen a covering like that before. Back in her cave at home, she had a pair of tiny statues in her collection shaped like a human male and female. The female-shaped statue had on the same covering. Surely there was some kind of ceremonial significance to that type of covering. Little Siren wasn't sure what it was for, but she didn't like how happy Fee-Yon-Say looked in it. Nor did she like how many times Fee-Yon-Say kept saying "Hi-Ness" in that dreamy, giddy tone of voice.

A strong hand suddenly appeared on Little Siren's arm then, frightening her half to death, and pulled her out of Fee-Yon-Say's cave. It was Hi-Ness, and he looked very angry at her. He tried very valiantly to communicate why he was so upset, but Little Siren still didn't quite understand. With a sigh of frustration, he gave up and started all over again, supplementing most of his words with hand gestures and facial expressions. It took Little Siren a few minutes, but eventually she began putting the pieces together. He disliked how few coverings she had on for starters, and he seemed to think that it was wrong for Little Siren to be there watching Fee-Yon-Say show off her special covering.

Up to this point, Little Siren had wondered why Fee-Yon-Say was even at Hi-Ness's palace at all. They didn't smell like blood relatives, but she seemed more important than a regular houseguest. The fire in Hi-Ness's eyes and that ornate covering finally made it all painfully clear to Little Siren: Fee-Yon-Say wasn't just any female. She was his female. He gave her that covering, marking her as his mate.

It didn't make any sense to Little Siren, though. She wanted Hi-Ness more than anything. She'd gone through so much trouble to change herself for him. Over the past week, he'd been so nice to her, too. It was clear he liked her in this form. So why had he chosen Fee-Yon-Say instead?

What was she doing wrong? Was she not attractive enough? Had she not worn the right coverings? Was it because she didn't know his language, even though she'd been trying so hard to learn it? Why couldn't he just understand that they were meant to be?

When Hi-Ness seemed to realize how upset Little Siren was becoming, his anger melted away within seconds. He took her hand and petted her shoulder frantically, trying as best he could to calm her again. In his eyes was the same look Little Siren had seen on the beach, when he met her in human form: confusion, shock, and intense, fathomless pity. Suddenly, it all made sense.

Hi-Ness had never cared for her at all. He simply felt sorry for her.

Little Siren's broken heart quickly gave way. First to anger... then to ravenous hunger. As fast as a striking mantis shrimp, she lunged at him with a feral shriek. Hi-Ness hit the polished floor half a second later, never even having time to scream before she'd torn a chunk out of his shoulder with her teeth.

Her hunger was stronger than she realized after not having a proper meal in a week. She'd severed his entire arm at the shoulder joint with ease, stripping it clean of flesh down to the bone within a minute. Hi-Ness was in too much shock to do anything except lie there and scream as she scarfed down the last fragments of his arm, his eyes wide with horror and agony. Before she could rid him of his other arm, the palace guards came running up the hall to his aid.

Realizing the error of her ways too late, Little Siren turned and fled for her life. Her father was right: it was a mistake to ever get involved with the human world. Her only refuge at this point was the sea, where she belonged. She sped back to the beach like a sailfish through water, diving into the sea headfirst as soon as she was close enough to. Without her fins, however, she couldn't swim as well as she'd hoped. She made it a fair bit out - far enough that the palace guards stopped chasing her - but her floppy, awkward legs wouldn't propel her any further. As a last, desperate hope, she clung to a piece of driftwood floating in the surf. Condemned to wait until the potion wore off.

Auntie's warning entered her head far too late after fleeing. By morning, her tail and fins had regrown, but her smooth, pale skin and gaudy red hair remained. Little Siren couldn't swim back home like this, looking uglier than a blobfish. She was too weak to try anyway, and too heartbroken, so she continued to drift on the surface like a lonesome cork. By midday, the waves had carried her to a fishing boat floating lazily upon the sea. She hardly had time to notice it, however, before the three men working on it suddenly hauled her aboard.

Little Siren was not very happy about being pulled out of the water at all. When she realized how the fishermen were looking at her, though, everything changed. They weren't as beautiful as Hi-Ness, but they had a rugged type of beauty all their own. Just like with the other humans she'd met, Little Siren couldn't understand much of the words they used. Their eyes and faces, however, spoke volumes.

They wanted her, in ways Hi-Ness never did.

Little Siren sat up and smiled brightly, flapping her fins alluringly and pushing her damp red curls out of her face. Perhaps she could enjoy this attention for awhile. Besides, if they ever changed their minds, she was still plenty hungry.