CHAPTER 1
The Attack at Whitecap Bay
~Syrena's POV~
We were simply predators, sneaking up to our naïve prey, the unfortunate men that were brave enough to go into Whitecap Bay, even sing, and still hope to survive. As per usual encounter, as we approached the boat, we made sure that we stayed submerged, and let one of our sisters go up to the boat first. She approached, catching the gaze of one of the men and slowly lifting herself up to his level. Below, we heard somewhat muffled words, even with our enhanced hearing. The final promise of a kiss, and then the singing man stated to fall for her….. Slowly, ever so slowly, she brought his face closer to her own, which had drifted beneath the surface of the crystalline water.
However, suddenly on old man in the boat tried to attack our sister, and we had to hastily intervene. Unfortunately for them, the one man's action had spelled out the fate of the others. After having attacked one of us, they had harmed all of us. Some of my sisters went to the boat, easily ripping it to shreds, when a blast of fire came from behind, forcing us instinctively into the bay. We knew that the men in the boat were not the only ones, so we were ready to find them waiting for us. Alas, they were ready as well, wielding a net they had placed to trap us, though we used our advantages of our sleek bodies and special skills to drag them from behind it, and into the water. As long as they were on our turf we had all of the advantage. They were ours.
This is what we live for, the chaos that became us when tempted, though we were not all evil creatures, as those humans that we let survive made everyone believe. Most of us would no dare strike down something that was pure, but those men, and all of those before them, were nowhere lose to pure, they were vile. These men that we took had no value, since they had no purity, so we fed off of their vile souls as we took them to the ocean bottom. We enjoyed hunting these creatures that shouldn't be able to live in the first place.
Nevertheless, these humans knew what they were doing and proved to be somewhat of a challenge, but that was all the better for us; we thrived on their souls and loved the chaos of the hunt of those who had hunted us. So with my sisters I held onto the feet of the men who were enough to be in the water and dragged them under the surface, away from the air, and down towards my awaiting sisters.
Even once the attacked had calmed to a lull, I was ready for more. I attempted to drag their sole female from a dock, where she thought she might be safe. Even though I failed in bringing her to the water, I knew that she would relive the nightmare of her almost demise in her dreams. I moved on for another chance to bring someone under, and soon found a small area where the rocks were deformed from the tide. The water was shallow, but still deep enough where I could maneuver my body to swim, so I decided to adventure in. Finally I found one, a man, my prey, searching in vain for the threat that was me.
An explosion occurred from above, on top of the cliff, and I saw something that the human did not; giant heaps of misshapen rock hurtling towards us. They were still a ways up, abut would crash down in an instant. I was just going to watch as they crashed down and extinguished the life of the man, but then he turned around and faced me….. And something compelled me to pull him out of the way. I reached for him and pulled him to safety, just a mere moment before he would've been crushed by the boulder.
What have I done? I had saved one of them. .. I couldn't even comprehend why I had, but I knew that I had to escape. Yet, I found that the falling debris had blocked my path back to the bay. So I pushed forward, hoping that I could find another path out.
I got around him just as he reached his feet, and a moment later I realized that he was in pursuit. I picked up speed, which became increasingly difficult as the water became even shallower. After a minute, I found that I was stuck at a dead end with the human close behind. I turned around just as I felt a white-hot pain shoot through my fin. He had stuck me with a spear… but then, with a strange, disgusted expression evident on his face, he hastily removed the weapon. However, it was too late to escape; a group of other men had approached on my side. They didn't hesitate to grab me roughly and wrestle me into o a large, clear box.
~Philip's POV~
The look on the creature's face was almost more than human when in turned to face me, its attacker. For a second I forgot what it was and instinctively withdrew my spear, fearful and disgusted, thinking that I had harmed and innocent woman.
"Good job, boy!" bellowed the captain over the right shoulder of the creature. Black Beard had found what he was here for, the mermaid I had procured for him. The thing whose fate I had sealed with a single movement. The creature, who I had almost forgotten was evil, put under some sort of spell by its ethereal beauty.
They picked her up and placed her into a glass box, eventually to be carried by Black Beard's undead minion. Too weak to struggle and longer, she was forced to comply, and awaited the wave of water as they filled her prison, not wanting the creature to pass away before they collected their treasure. She showed no emotion until the thunk of the lid and the click of the lock closed the coffin, making her escape impossible.