Took a while to sort out what exactly I wanted to happen from now on in the story, but here it is! Enjoy!
I had been napping on a nearby rock, in the heat of a blinding midday sun, when I was woken from my doze by excited chattering. Waking up, I heard the crowing of the guardian birds', loud and raucous. Quickly I slipped into the cool salt water and glided towards the place my sisters were gathered at. Well, all four school sisters. As Mother Dora told us to, we had stayed together as a gigantic school of mermaids. As I came closer, I heard what made all of them so excited.
A band of ships. All of them were Greek.
Aglaope, a sister from another school, called out, "We will take our positions when the ships approach the first of the islands."
I watched, confused. Were they going to try and lure the ships here? Granted, the other schools had not seen what my school had seen, but surely my closer sisters remembered the horror and death that came after luring ships. Everyone was now taking positions on the expansive rock flat, fishtails coiled around each other, a blend of shimmering colours. Quickly, I swam to Himerope, and tugged on her tail. She pushed me away. I tugged harder, and she flicked slightly with her tail. I got to impatient. I bit her tail, if nothing else would work.
Alma, the sweetest of the pack, the one most like our peacemaker, slapped me across the face. Hard.
Stunned, I cradled one cheek. Himerope stretched out one hand. "Do not interfere, Charis."
I could not believe it. "Don't you remember what happened before, with the other ships? The men drowned." It hurt to say that, to recall the memory, but surely it affected them too?
"We have arranged stations to be at. When the ship wrecks, we will go and pull them from the sea," was the reply. What? I had not heard them, and I said so aloud.
"That is because you do not pay attention Charis. We talk when you go off, and when you are asleep."
They planned without me? How could they go behind my back like that? We were a school, and were not meant to exclude others. Though my main objective right now was to make the others see sense. "Their ship will wreck. They will die here."
My sister set her lip stubbornly. Already, the first waves of an irresistible melody had risen, sweet and promising. "We will save them. They will love us."
"There is no food or water here. They will hate us," I argued. My sister was impatient to sing as one with the others. I could not give in this time, however. This was where our differences would collide, possibly revealing their morals. Maybe that was why I was so different to them.
"They will love us first," she said with finality, and added her own delicious voice to the melody. I could not believe my sisters would risk the lives of others like this. There would be those that would drown, I was certain. I observed all the mermaids in desperation, but they were also desperate, for these men to give them immortality. It made rigid lines across their bare, pale shoulders and body.
Alma and Himerope both beckoned to me. "Come Charis." I did not linger this time, I dove underwater and headed for the cave mouth they were expected to wreck at. All around me, like the humid air of a blazing day, the song of my sisters rose, blanketing the area, compelling and promising sailors, things that would not come true. I would not join. Instead, I swam out to meet the boat, desperate to save these men. My sisters were probably so caught up in singing as beautifully and seductively as they could, that they did not see me.
The men on the boats were already deeply enchanted. Their glazed eyes and desperate, rapid movements towards my sisters told this. I leapt like one of the dolphins I had observed, and grabbed onto an oar for attention.
"Stop! Turn back!" I shouted as loudly as I could.
The men around that part of the ship looked at me, dumbfounded. No doubt a half woman, half fish that hung onto the oar like a barnacle to ships. One shouted something. A second later explosive pain lashed across my back, as an oar was slammed into it, luckily on its flat side, but still quite forcefully. I slipped off into the water, and felt blood slide down my back in small rivulets. It stung even worse in the salty water. I drifted and was swept aside by a current. Fighting it, I rose above the surface, gasping, some distance away from the rocks.
There was a crash and splintering sounds as the boats wrecked. The screams and thrashing began. I was too stunned to move, and the current carried me out further into the sea. I didn't care, I couldn't think. Once again I was locked within the clutches of a horrid truth.
More people had died. It was this cursed voice of enchanting, used wrongly, but sirens are bound by Rhodope to continue like this until they find love. She must have known that this gift of singing desirably would turn us into the real monsters that humans called us. Sirens were cursed to be monsters.
I was one of them.
The drift had carried me far away by the time I roused myself to begin moving voluntarily. That was after long hours of reflection, and I had come to a conclusion. I could not go back-the screams of those who died, and the hatred filled comments about sirens would forever be in my mind. I would not be able to live with my sisters, live in the same, desperate yet playful lives they did, because I thought and acted differently. My memories with them were now tarnished with the display of desperation I saw. I could still hear the slap Alma gave me, for resisting, the ruthless careless way they dismissed that people might drown due to being wrecked. No, I would break away and start clean.
There was an island that could be found if you navigated by the stars. The island of Lemnos was once an island populated by men and women. Then the women rose up against the men for their abuse and sneering ways towards women, and killed all except the king. The king they put in a sealed chest and set him adrift in the sea. When he broke out and swam to the nearest shore, he walked through the lands ceaselessly, as far as his legs would take him, and tell of what he saw. Half deranged as he had become, people took heed of his warning, and none came to Lemnos. Fairly sensible, but they probably never looked further into the future, where the women would be dead now as there was no men to born babes with.
The women of the island had really had died long ago by now, and the island was bare of any humans. I would go and live there. I would take care of this body, half fish and half human, feed and nurture it, but it would never know love. I must throw away my petty day dreams of love and live alone. Immortality just wasn't worth the price. Wasn't it worth trading immortality for the right to live?
My past was not clean. My soul and honour though, from now on, will be clean. A siren who will keep her honour clean would then only be a monster in appearance, but not at heart. My instinct to sing must be crushed in some ways. If it cannot be completely crushed, for I am sure I will have the urge to as a siren, I will not sing in front of anyone.
For days after I travelled. The wounds on my back healed within the first two days, as cuts like those are like scratches to humans. Sirens have the ability to heal faster then humans. It was needed in a place where creatures may be cut on coral often when swimming. On the fourth day I came across a school of jellyfish. Like bits of clouds themselves, they slowly puffed upwards, lighting up the depths of the dark sea with individual, luminous glows. I mingled with them until my hair was like a hair of pale white-blue tentacles. It tickled and did not sting, as long as I did not stay long. Soon I was off, until I encountered a group of squid. Quickly, I hid in the wiry seaweed among spiky sea horses.
I was still afraid of taking risks. Never had I gone so far alone. Being alone was dangerous for a mermaid, anything could attack. Still, I argued with myself, the squid look more intent on chasing the prey they had caught sight of. There would be no harm in mingling with them for a short while, and I had to learn to be independent, and be braver. Slowly, senses humming with ignored thrills, I drifted into the centre of the squid group. It was mating season for them, as some demonstrated, and I gulped. It seemed embarrassing to me to watch, like an invasion of privacy though they could care less, as my sisters would love to peak. They teased my embarrassment for an unbearably long time. I turned away and looked up. A pressure of water was building up at my back, getting stronger. The squid were charging upwards for a leap. I steeled myself as they took me with them; charging upwards faster then my strong fishtail could ever propel me.
With a whoosh sound, we broke through the surface in a large outburst of clear ocean water, and flopped back down under. The rush of adrenaline had me laughing afterwards as I swum away, my sense of danger lessening as the gap grew wider between the danger and me. That was the first time I had laughed in many days, and for the next few days, those times of laughter would become rare. Some strain from being alone lifted after that bout of play, and I dove and surfaced leisurely. What was in front of me had me staring.
After resurfacing, I was in front of a large island. The beach where I was, was small, but had clean, yellow white sand, inviting me to sit on it and feel the sunlight. Trees grew sparsely, growing gradually thicker as it went further inland. Looking at the night stars, I saw the star I was navigating by, and realised this was Lemnos. Did I really hurry that fast away from the turmoil?
Even if deserted, the island was charming in its own way. I liked its quaintness and peacefulness. Here, I would not be seen by humans or siren sisters, as it was too far for them to bother travelling, with waters infested with creatures such as squids. They knew no risks. I knew, and was grateful to even be alive-the squid had not been hungry for mermaid.
Pushing my loose hair back, I was reminded once again of how much I revealed of my torso, with only my long black and blue hair as cover. The reed shirt I had woven had slipped off. Well, I knew what I was going to be doing for the next few days. Exploring home, gathering things.
The next day I started weaving a shirt made out of kelp. This time, to keep it in place as I swam, I worked out how to attach knotted kelp so it looped around my pale, long neck. It covered my breasts, starting from my armpits, and stopped a few finger widths above from where my fish tail started, showing off a hint of my white stomach. Maybe a bit tight, but it was better then the nakedness sirens flaunted to sailors normally, to seduce. I would get rid of those habits too, but the biggest challenge would be to stop singing. To make sure it didn't rip or wear, I wove several layers together. The straps I just had to hope were strong enough to last a long while. They were very strong by feeling and bending.
I slept in a little cave near the beach, but out of sight behind scrubs and hardy, tall trees. There was a sand bank at the back of the cave that remained, even at high tide, so I could rest there, half in and half out of the water that met the sand. Somewhere on the island I could smell freshwater, a clean, pure smell different to the salt of the sea, probably a freshwater river. The next day I had ventured inland a bit, to explore the human houses, though my tail did ache the morning after. The island was deserted, the inhabitants had died so long ago that even the burial grounds had become a place of vines. Curiously enough, tall yellow yarrow grew there, as if a continually blooming gift to the dead. I did not spend long there, for the dead should be left at peace. When I did come near, it was to give respects to the dead, well, those who had not slaughtered anyway, and sprinkle a bit of sea water
My days passed like this, for eight sun-ups. I rarely went onto land, for it hurt afterwards, and wild animals could still hunt on land. The loneliness of the island was a painful mockery of my past, with mermaid sisters that used to play with me, the naivety we were in before witnessed death close up. A siren, or mermaid, as we were also called, had instinct for company, and even if I was the odd one out who wanted more time to be away from noise and play, the times between them were long and laughter filled. It made my heart ache to remember. Had my sisters become immortal with the men they lured? Or lured more yet?
How petty my mind could still be. I had brought this silent, dooming resolve on myself.
On the evening of the ninth night, as I was lingering in the ocean waves sitting on a platform, something swam close by. It was a snake, almost the same blue as my fringe, with a smooth pale yellow underbelly and points on its crown in the points of a star. Its strange, black, cold eyes glared at me. Why was it so familiar?
Suddenly I remembered. There were tales of a snake that belonged to Hera, and did her evil bidding for her revenge against other poor women that promiscuous Zeus had slept with. But I had done nothing to offend the jealous goddess, so it could not be for me. Still the serpent stared with its cruel predatory eyes.
"I have done nothing to offend your mistress," I told it. It hissed venomously, and I hastily backed away from the bank. It moved with me, and I stopped, and watched it cautiously. Why was it following me? It was the honest truth that I had not done anything to offend Hera in any way. Maybe deserting the school had offended her, but she had little to do with the business of sirens.
My tail coiled around itself in a tight spiral, as it did when I grew tense or inwardly excited. The scales gleamed softly in the faint moonlight, dim, as the night sky was cloudy. Another sea serpent, this one a smaller, ordinary one, rose up beside Hera's servant. Both went after a fish which had strayed too close, and they ripped it to shreds in seconds. Then the larger serpent proceeded to gobble all of the fish, and the other, smaller serpent, whole. It turned to look at me afterwards, folds of its skin bulging as it digested what it ate. Its flickering tail whacked a few random things at me, pebbles, sand, and a rather large piece of wood, probably from a shipwreck. I could only stare, feeling sick.
The serpent gave a low, final hiss, and swam away, into the shadows of the ocean. I leaned back against a boulder, breathing quickly from nerves. That was a warning from the goddess Hera herself.
Disobey and receive consequences.
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