Thomas watched the creature slowly swim towards him out of the corner of his eye. It wasn't paying attention to him but to his crew. They were all focused on the beautiful voices. It finally turned its eyes to Thomas and froze, never moving. Not an inch forward, not an inch back.
Then, it went under.
It took a while but Thomas had finally gotten his crew away from the edge of the ship, out of their spells, and back to work. Constantly did he go back to the same spot he saw the creature. It was obviously a siren. It was looked like a human but what person keeps their nose underwater that long.
Maybe the reason it wasn't singing was because it was a scavenger. Did sirens even have scavengers? Maybe it was too young to start luring victims and was there to watch how it was done.
Weeks pass and Thomas finally noticed how the water changes in that particular spot next to the shop. He saw a silver flash under the surface whenever the Sun hit the water just right.
It happened too frequently. The flash must have been the siren.
So the captain had his men cast out a net and slowed the ship. Just like he thought, the siren had slowed as well and had not seen the net lurking behind.
The crew were jerked around and fought long and hard to keep the creature in check. Thomas had to admit, he liked the fighters. His men managed to gain a foothold and with a surge of strength, pulled. They pulled and pulled and pulled again until it became as easy as a virgin.
With the growing approach of the siren, Thomas felt nervous. Was his hat okay? Did he look too stereotypical? His hair was definitely okay he double-checked. One more time couldn't hurt.
His men hauled the body onto the deck. The siren's head banged against the wooden planks and was essentially knocked out. With a quick glance to the chest, the siren was a male.
Thomas didn't turn to look at James. "Can you ask the crew if we have any spare beds?" He asked, wiping the hair out of the unconscious man's face.
"They have no bed to spare. I went down to see for myself. Not a single bed," James reported, coming back.
Thomas sighed. "They wouldn't give one of theirs if we asked. Would they?" He didn't need to turn around to know James had nodded.
Alexander would up with a rush. He was back in water but not the water.He reached out and felt his hands brush against something. Must be some shield or cage keeping him in. He was in someone's room judging from the human bed and door.
It was a lonely but eventful minute for Alexander and it only got less lonely when another showed up. A human, much larger than he, came into the room with those annoying loud clunky shoes humans liked to wear. His hair was wild but his beard was trimmed, quite the contradiction. Alexander was going to admit his outfit was pretty. It was a nice emerald color and oh, what wouldn't Alexander give to touch it? It would feel nice against his scales.
An odd staring contest began, neither party fidgeting nor even thinking of moving. Both of them knew the stakes if they did. The laws of nature still applied. Breaking eye contact is a show of submission and weakness. Thomas was impressed with the siren's defiance to break under his gaze.
"This is a very large tub," The siren said. His face was calm as was his tone.
Thomas decided that he would show that he was just as calm despite the shock and slight questioning of it speaking. "It's a tank, actually."
An eyebrow was lifted. "Oh. Where's the other fish?"
"In there," the captain answered, pointing his finger to a small rock opposite of the Siren.
Alexander smirked and opened his mouth. A shrill cry came from him and the fish were out and swam around him. Thomas broke eye contact to stare at the fish.
They were all eels that rarely left that rock since he put them in there and the fact that they didn't rip into shreds.
"How the hell?"
"My best friend is part Eel," Alexander boasted. "They must have smelled him on me."
Thomas' eyes narrowed. "So it makes you immune?"
"It makes me a friend. What they smell is a large, hungry, male. All of these are female. The only problem here is them trying to mate with me."
Thomas could not find a proper response. He walked up to the tank and tapped the glass. All the females slipped back to the rock and stayed there. Alexander hissed and covered the fins on the sides of his head. Thomas guessed they doubled as ears.
"Ow!" He cried. "You jerk!"
Thomas shakes his head with a laugh andturns to sit on his bed. "You were getting smug. Can't have that on my ship, can we?"
Alexander glared and looked up, which was a mistake. Above him was a huge blood stain mouth of a shark. The siren screeched and curled into corner and into himself.
"No, no, no, it's not a real shark," Thomas cried, jumping up and pacing over. He reached over the tank and pulled it off the wall and turning it to show to the panicking creature. "It's just a head!"
Alexander was scandalized. "Why would you have such a thing?"
Thomas shrugged. "Just to remember my brother. He always liked them," Thomas said. "Hey, how come I can understand you now?" The siren had managed to calm down and did a little twirl in the water to shake out the last jitters.
"Water. Without it, my vocal cords are extremely dry and scratch," he informed, turning on his back.
"But how can you kill your victims?" The pirate asked.
"We stay in the water. When we leap onto the side of your ships, we swallow some water so it won't hurt. Normally, we have you humans jumping in after us when we drop back down to get some more water."
And like that, Thomas fell in love.