The Siren's Song.

4

Sabrina was about to continue, but another siren dragged her away, leaving me alone. I swam to the surface to work on getting into the rock. As soon as my head breached the surface, something hard hit it and the world went dark.

When I came to, my head was throbbing and my hands were tied behind my back. I tried to cry out, but as soon as I opened my mouth, a filthy cloth was shoved into it. A man in a blue coat and hat leaned down to look at my face, snarling, "None of your poisonous words, sea wench. They'll make you seem uncooperative. And uncooperative girls don't sell for much, even when they're as pretty as you." I glared coldly at him as I swiped at him with my tail. He moved just in time and shouted at his henchmen, "Oi, you scurvy scum, tie the wench's tail. Can't have her swishing it around." Several filthy men came down into the room with ropes and lashed my tail to the bottom of the chair I was in, making sure I couldn't slip loose. As soon as they left, the captain gave me a slimy smirk and tied a piece of cloth around my eyes, turning my vision black. I heard his footsteps leaving and I tried to force the cloth out of my mouth, but it was wedged in too tightly. I sat in the blackness for a while, until I heard footsteps coming closer to me. They went around behind me and something hit my head. I blacked out instantly.

I woke up tied to a different chair, this time in a fancy dress. My tail was bound in loops, hidden beneath the skirt, and the filthy cloth had been replaced by an apple wedged in my mouth, like I was a roasted pig. My hands were tied behind me and something heavy rested on my head. I appeared to be on a stage and I could hear people behind the curtain talking and yelling. A loud voice shouted over top, "Alright lads, today we have a foreign princess, stolen from a small island nation." The curtain in front of me raised and I saw tens, even hundreds of people sitting in theater seating. The man who seemed to be running the auction continued, "Bidding starts at fifty shillings." A voice in the back shouted, "Seventy shillings!" The price continued to rise, until a woman's voice called, "I will pay the princess's weight in gold." A stunned silence dropped over the room and everyone turned to see a beautiful woman with pitch black hair. She had a determined look in her eyes as she repeated, "I will pay the princess's weight in gold." The auctioneer seemed to regain his senses and called, "Going once. Going twice. Sold to the woman with the black hair!" The woman smiled and climbed onto the stage, then handed the auctioneer a note and came over to me. She removed the apple from my mouth and untied my wrists, then wrapped one of my arms around her shoulders. She picked me up like that, making it look like I was walking as well, and carried me out to a carriage. As soon as the door of the carriage closed, the carriage began moving and the woman chirped, "My name is Lorelei. If you don't mind, I'd like to untie your tail. It's never comfortable, having it bound." I whispered, "I'll get it myself, but thank you for the offer. How did you know that I'm a siren?" I awkwardly lifted the skirt and untied the knots as Lorelei answered my question by lifting the edge of her skirt to show that her legs were covered in scales, but had patches of skin showing. She stated, "I'm a tracker. Basically, I'm an experiment between the sirens and the Savascis. I can change my tail and hypnotize people with my voice like a siren, and I have the tracking abilities of a Savasci. I help track and rescue sea women who have been taken by mainlanders." Fascinated, I queried, "How were you created, if you don't mind my asking?" Lorelei laughed lightly and chirped, "I was a human that died at birth and was dumped into the ocean. Princess Cordelia found me and took me to Madame Pearl, who brought me back to life and made me a sort of siren with her blood. I know it sounds gross, but that's what happened. Commander Deniz of the Savasci proposed that, as I was neither a true siren nor a true human, that they try an experiment with me. Commander Deniz gave me some of her blood and I gained the tracking abilities of the Savasci, in addition to my sirenian abilities." The carriage rumbled to a halt and Lorelei opened the door to show that we were on the edge of a small cliff overlooking the ocean. She smiled at me and said, "This is where we part ways. Try to stay out of trouble. Hopefully we won't meet like this again." I nodded and scooted myself out of the carriage. There was a short period of free fall before the cool water enveloped me. The skirt I had been forced into dissolved into sea foam and I swam away from the cliffs.