STRANGER TIDES
Chapter One : Capture
She flicked her tail slowly, listening with amusement as one of the not-quite dead sitting in the prow of one of the jolly boats ordered a sailor to 'sing. It attracts them.'
She flinched as he started to tunelessly hum a scale-raising rendition of 'My jolly sailor bold'. Please. Even a tone deaf seagull could've done better. And as if they needed to be attracted. They watched all ships from the moment they entered the mermaid's territory, planning their attack.
She watched idly for a minute as Tamara headed for the middle jolly boat, before waving six after her and seven to the other boats, before moving forward, leading the rest of the hunting pack towards the men holding the long nets in the shallows.
She stayed back in the water, watching out for any complications as her sisters shot into the shallows to claim their prize.*She would feed when they where safely away.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw a pirate that knew how to swim reach the lighthouse, somehow escaping her sisters, as a man from the shore ran across the walkway and into the lighthouse, dodging hands that ripped through the wood like it was seaweed.
She was just about to collect her next meal when her world exploded, sending her tumbling head over tail into the deep.
When she had finished tumbling (rather painfully, against a rock ), she straightened and found herself locking up at a pirate who was watching her sisters fleeing with smug satisfaction. She had an irrational urge to slap him across the face.
Ignoring the urge, she surfaced to perform one last sweep of the area and was about to follow her sisters when she spotted a splashing by some rubble near the lighthouse, a pirate with a sward scrambling over the rocks and the rest of the pirates closing in with nets. She flipped over and began to swim towards the lighthouse. This could only happen to Si-si. She was the only one young and curious enough not to be focest on the hunt.
She arrived just as the pirate stabbed Si-si in the tail, stumbling back as she popped out of the water. With a low hiss, she lunched herself out of the water and sent him flying. She pulled the sward out of Si's tail as carefully as possible, wincing when she flinched.
She glanced up, eyes widening, as she shoved Si in the direction of the open water from where she was sitting stunned. The first times always the hardest. Hissing 'go' at her to snap her out of her stupor, she was turning to follow her when she felt the net drape over her. Damn sneaky pirates. She whirled to face the pirates, tangling and tightening the net around her as she did so. One of the not-quite dead had a firm grip on the net, but she struggled anyway. Or started to, when she caught sight of a figure striding towards her. Her hand automatically drifted up to her cheek as she hissed a word.
"You."