It was night, with the full moon shining bright overhead. The normally cerulean water was now darker and far more ominous, and the feeling as Selene sliced through the depths was indescribable. As she raced towards her Sisters' calls, the Hunger pangs began to feel like a sensation that one might get from sleep deprivation. The basest of needs. She could smell blood in the water already, the familiar copper tang making her increasingly lightheaded. It had been two weeks since her last proper meal and she could feel her own blood pumping with desire. No, not just desire. Hunger.

As Selene got closer she stopped and waited, her eyes just above the water level, her light brown hair floating eerily around her. Watching as the men, who had been thrown overboard when their ship crunched up against the rocks, fought desperately with sabers, debri, knives, anything. It was a losing battle.

The beautiful Sirens had sat on rocks and combed their hair, leaving just enough of their hip-length locks untouched to cover their breasts and drive the sailors' imaginations wild. Those same mythical beings who serenaded the sailors so sweetly into the welcoming arms of a cliff face now pulled them into the drop off below one by one. Down, down, down until each mermaid deemed herself safe from the retaliation of the weapons which were too late being brought to bear, to bite into the man's neck. Each man fought, of course, but now that he was underwater his strength was in vain. His struggles quickly weakened as the life drained from his body until the fight left him completely, at which time his cruel mistress would abandon the corpse without ceremony to find another.

Sixteen mermaids and a small ship of thirty or so men to sate their appetites. Men and mermaids screaming as the fight waged on. It was chaos.

Selene was ever the opportunist. She waited, observing unseen and watching as Avalon, a mermaid with hair as black as an abyss, threw herself out of the water toward what she thought to be an unsuspecting seaman's back. She was wrong. The huge sailor spun around with a roar and drove a harpoon through Avalon's chest, turning and nailing her lifeless form into the stone wall behind him.

Well, Selene mused, I bet that stung a bit.

The problem here for both the sailors and the water maidens was that next to the cliff, a bounty of sharp rocks and a two foot ledge of sorts sat about a foot underwater. The men had the wall to their backs for protection, but their panic and the fact that the drop off was so close meant that they could only last so long.

During Avalon's little stunt Selene slipped up next to the man. As he speared her Sister like she was some pathetic trout Selene lunged at his ankle, throwing the seaman off balance and dragging his thrashing form into the water. Selene wrapped her hands around his throat and pushed him deeper letting her powerful tail propel them through the dark water. He tried to scream as she snarled, her long sharp canines glinting in whatever moonlight came down this far, and merely ended up losing part of his air supply. Now that he was in the water she invaded his mind.

"Where is your fight now human?"

His eyes widened and she could feel his shock and fear as he struggled in vain. Selene grinned and sank her teeth into his neck, basking in the life that flowed from his body into hers. Finally she pulled back and stared into his blank eyes.

Men, she thought, nothing but animals battling for survival.

Selene swam back up to survey the scene again just as the last man was ripped from the ledge. She took a deep breath and, with her fellow Sirens, willed the water to assist them in their need. She let her hands float just on the surface of the light waves, her fingers splayed like those of her Sisters around her, creating an eerie sight of thirteen water maidens bobbing with their upper torsos above the water. Except for the waves they were completely still and utterly silent in the moonlight. The men still on the ship waited on deck with baited breath. Suddenly a stream of water, the width of man's thigh, burst out of the ocean in front of each mermaid and shot toward the seamen. The Sirens manipulated the streams with a thought, effortlessly plucking men from the deck of the ship. The sailors scattered in a state of sheer panic but it was no use. The water followed them around corners and up into the rigging, wrapping around their waists and jerking them overboard into the arms of a gleeful mermaid.

After the massacre was over Selene and two of her Sisters soaked water through the ropes that held a liferaft in place and manipulated the moisture in them to lower a small craft that contained the two women that had been on board and three ship's boys that were under the age of sixteen, still children in the mermaids' eyes.

"Can you finish without us?" Narissa inquired, speaking mind to mind since they were in the presence of humans.

"If I say no will you still dump me with them?" Selene snapped.

"Yes."

"Then I suppose I might as well, it's not as if I had anything better to do." As her Sisters flitted away Selene pushed the boat holding the terrified women and the boys around the cliff face and as close to the beach as she could. As Selene swam hurriedly away she took care to avoid the shipwreck, with its sharks and shark-mutilated bodies there. She slowed as she reached the small cove where her pod slept, pulling herself onto a large flat rock that was inches above the water, next to her fellow ocean maids and a few sea lions.

They had lost three mermaids that day. She had to admit the sailors fought valiantly, but in the end it was no use. There would be no retaliation - even the loss of what was considered a large fishing vessel wouldn't draw much attention in their small world, dotted with handfuls of islands - or rather not much could be done regardless of whatever attention it drew. They lived in a very small realm that was mostly water, where mermaid takes weren't uncommon and there were no warriors left - just fishermen.

Selene pushed away her thoughts and let herself drift off to sleep, her Hunger satisfied for the first time in weeks.

Unfortunately, sleep brought dreams, and the dreams of the women of the sea are far more lucid than those of their walking counterparts.

Selene ran barefoot across the beach, her legs carrying her home as fast as they could. She had stayed out too long again - the sun was setting in the north, and the first moon was rising in the east. She heard shouts coming from the small shack on the edge of the jungle that she grudgingly called home. Selene hesitated a moment outside the door until she heard a crash and a scream.

That was why they lived a good two hours walk from the village. The screams and the pleading. He was in a mood, she could hear that much.

She stepped over the threshold and was immediately accosted by the smell of liquor. Her sister huddled in the far corner of the one-room shack. The shutters had been ripped off the single window that was nearest her. The only furniture inside was a wobbly table with three chairs and two pallets for sleeping.

Her father stood next to the fireplace, his eyes bloodshot as sweat dripped off his brow, his tall frame hunched as he held his stomach and puked into a bucket. Another glance revealed a blossoming bruise on her sister's neck. Selene took a deep breath, drew up all of her five feet and eight inches, and stepped inside. "I'm home," she murmured as she tried to slip past her father to her sister.

"About damn time too," Vinmer growled. "Stop right there!"

She tried to ignore him but froze when the bucket of vomit hit the wall near her head. She slowly turned around. As hard as Selene tried she couldn't keep the tremors of fear out of her hands.

"You're late," Vinmer snarled, stalking toward her. "Very Late."

"I...I'm sorry I lost track of time. But look!" she said with forced cheer. "I found some clams! I can make stew and -"

Vinmer grabbed her hair and slammed her against the wall, "Disobedient little brat," he growled. He groped behind him, found a broken chair leg that was on the floor in the squalor and dirt, dragged Selene across the room and held her arm on the table. Being seventeen and slender, Selene was little match for her father's strength, though she struggled anyway.

"No! Father p...please! I'm sorry! I...I didn't mean to-" Selene's words cut off in a scream as her father slammed the wood down on her outstretched limb and broke her arm instantly. Selene slid to the floor in a sobbing heap as her father stepped over her.

Selene sat up with a gasp carefully feeling her arm. She looked around her at the sleeping pod in shock. Seven years of agelessness, frozen at seventeen, and still her memories of that man plagued her. She let herself slip back into an uneasy sleep.

Another dream. She was standing in what was obviously a very fancy bedroom, filled with stacks of books. Books were strewn across the ground, on a desk, piled next to a large four-poster bed, and everywhere were the colors green, gold, and black. In the center of the room stood a tall, lean and trembling man. His face was handsome in a way that made an observer realize that each of his individual features - except perhaps his eyes which were a shocking green - were not anything special by themselves. But together, they gave him an ethereal sort of beauty. His face was angular with prominent cheekbones and thinner lips. He had a distant look on his face and was incredibly still except for the slight tremors that ran through him. His black hair had been slicked back, but some of it fell into his face as he stood with his fists clenched, staring at a mirror on the wall.

He reminded her of a cornered wild animal. The black panthers that roamed the jungles on the islands had looked like this when she had seen them caged: wound tight and ready to attack or defend, whichever was needed.

Selene watched with trepidation as his eyes shone red for a moment. A deep blue color tinged his skin before he gave out a cry. The glass in the mirror he had been staring at exploded outward and the man spun and began throwing, tearing, and breaking things in a frenzy. Tears streamed down his face and she could feel the pain and anger radiating off of him.

"Loki! Loki no! No! NO!" Selene heard the shout and then she was falling into nothingness -

Selena screamed. This time her screams woke her Sisters, and she received more than a few hisses and glares when they realized that they were not being attacked.

"A dream." She spoke aloud, needing to hear her own voice to ground herself in reality. "It was just a dream."

"Who are you bloody talking to?" Narissa hissed. "We had a long night and we are trying to rest if her highness would allow it!"

Selene was quiet as her Sisters' breathing evened out again. The sun was coming up over the horizon, making the horrors done to the sailors seem like dreams themselves. The clear blue water sparkled invitingly. Selene gracefully dove into it, trying to erase her memories and the strange man's face.

To forget would be a balm.