Prince Eric was playing his flute on the deck of his personal pleasure ship when he heard Ariel's siren song. The gentle sound pulled at Eric's heartstrings in a way no music ever had. The flute fell from his hands and clattered to the deck, completely forgotten.
The siren song swirled around the ship, weaving through its sails and diving down to enchant the unsuspecting crew.
"First mate, do you hear that?" Eric said.
"Aye, milord," the first mate said. His voice was wistful and his expression dazed. The prince wondered if his own face looked the same.
"Her voice is so beautiful..." Eric said. "I must know who she is."
The prince rushed to the prow of the ship to look for the singer. Surely any girl who owned a voice so delightful and sweet must be just as beautiful, and the desire to meet her swelled inside him.
The prince scanned the horizon with his spyglass. Boiling black clouds gathered to the north, but he didn't pay any attention. He was too desperate to find the beauty whose sweet voice called to him.
And then he saw her: the most gorgeous creature he had ever laid eyes on. The mermaid lounged peacefully on an outcropping of rocks. She sang without a care in the world, seeming to notice neither the prince's vessel nor the approaching storm. She ran slender fingers through the long tresses of bright red hair that flowed all around her.
Eric cleaned the spyglass and looked again, just to make sure he hadn't imagined her.
"Oh my god," he sighed. "She's even more beautiful than I thought."
At that moment the captain stomped up from below deck. His eyes were wild, and his stance urgent. Cotton stuck out from his ears.
"My prince," said the captain. "We need to leave these waters! Immediately!"
"Please," the prince said. "We have to get closer!"
"I heard the siren too, milord," the captain said. "That's why we need to leave!
Even with cotton clogging his ears, Ariel's song leaked through, seeping into the captain's mind. He shook his head to clear it.
"My boy, I fear I may not hold out much longer if we don't leave, and our sanity, if not our very lives, may be forfeit. Is it really worth risking that on a pretty little mermaid?"
"But captain, look at her."
The prince handed the spyglass to the captain. Begrudgingly the captain looked through the glass. He gasped when he saw her.
"I– oh wow. Oh my."
The little mermaid was gorgeous beyond description. Her skin and scales sparkled like jewels. Bright red hair flowed gently over the tantalizing curves of her body and fell all around her. She lay on her rock with back to the ship, completely oblivious to the captain's eye and the passion her beauty incited in him.
The captain's mouth hung open. He gripped the spyglass tight and leaned over the railing as if moving just a few inches further might give him a better view. The prince had to pry the thing from his hands.
The captain couldn't bear it any longer. He ripped the cotton swabs from his ears. He had to hear the siren song.
The mermaid's mesmerizing aria rushed into his mind. The longing in her voice reached into his heart, and pulled at something deep inside. He could feel the magic of her song flow through him, and for a moment he resisted, but then he remembered seeing herand he succumbed to her seductive enchantment.
"Helmsman!" the captain barked. "Do as the prince says. Pilot us closer to that mermaid!"
Ariel sang on, oblivious to her audience and the power of her song, until the ship was nearly on her. The entire crew clambered on deck and gathered on the port side to see the little mermaid sing.
The mermaid looked over her shoulder with wide, shimmering eyes. She batted her lashes innocently.
The urge to jump into the water and swim away gripped Ariel. She had been taught not to get too close to humans—to never even let them see her if she could help it. But curious wonder overcame her.
Ariel had never seen a ship before—at least not from this angle. She'd seen the shadows of vessels pass overhead, and her older sisters had told her a few stories of seeing them, but she had never been this close before. Now, seeing this ship's full bulk, and the sails like puffy white clouds filled her with amazement.
A mix of uncertainty and excitement filled her heart as she greeted her audience.
"Hello!" she sang sweetly. The crew waved back merrily.
These humans didn't seem so dangerous to her. In fact they struck Ariel as more friendly than any merfolk she had ever met.
"You're so beautiful!" one of the sailors called.
"Please keep singing!" another said. He was more beautiful than the others, with deep blue eyes and a voice like silk. "Your voice is so lovely!"
Ariel blushed with embarrassment and giggled. She knew her voice and looks were coveted in the mermaid kingdom, but she wasn't often met with such eager praise.
The little mermaid shyly twirled her hair as she sang again. At the sound of her voice, her audience melted into sighs and speechless wonder.
Ariel could feel the warmth of their desire radiate from their souls. They wanted her to keep singing. They never wanted her to stop. She didn't want to stop either. She felt their longing inside her, as if it were her own, and she needed to fulfill it.
Ariel fixed her eyes on the beautiful man who had called her voice lovely and sang a love song to him.
Prince Eric watched with undivided rapture. Her spell swirled around him and filled him with desire. Her hair shimmered like a waterfall of rubies and garnets over her supple curves. Oh, how the prince longed to run his hands over them, to pull her close and kiss every inch of her gorgeous body. With every note, her spell wound tighter and tighter around his love-addled mind until all he could think of was Ariel. The edges of his vision blurred and everything else fell away.
Ariel had no idea the effect her song had on her captive audience. And yet she felt their arousal become her own. A new, unnamed emotion she had never felt before filled her. Without thinking, she cupped her breasts. Her breaths came heavy—nearly panting, almost moaning—as her voice crescendoed. Her breasts glittered as they rose and fell.
Ariel couldn't know it, but the entire ship's crew was fully under her spell. She had enslaved their minds to her body, unable to think of anything but her.
They were too enchanted by her beauty to notice the waves grow choppy. Only when the sky grew dark all around them did the storm even register to their minds. It wasn't too late yet; they had time to tie the sails and batten the hatches. But why would they try when they could watch the pretty little mermaid stroke her hair and sing her hypnotic song?
Waves buffeted the ship. Ariel sang louder over the groan of the ship's hull as it drifted against the rocks. It slammed against them with sickening crack after sickening crack.
Ariel's song encouraged the sailors not to worry about their ship crashing; life was so much better under the sea!
She didn't know they couldn't live underwater. And under her spell, entranced by her song and the curves of her body, the sailors forgot that they knew.
Her song invited them to take shelter with her beneath the waves, to sleep with her beneath the sea in her golden palace. The prince smiled dumbly. He'd happily give up his entire kingdom just to hear Ariel's song for the rest of his life.
Several sailors leapt at her invitation and dived happily into the black waves. Bespelled by Ariel's song, they forgot to swim, and sank happily into the depths.
It wasn't long before the ship splintered and the prince fell headlong into the sea. Ariel leapt from her place on the rock and dived after the prince to meet him.
Panic crossed the prince's face as he realized he couldn't breathe. He tried to swim to the surface, but the siren spell made it hard to concentrate on even the most basic moment.
She still sang as she descended, hoping her song could soothe his fear so he could see the beauty of the ocean around him. But as he continued to claw towards the surface, grasping his throat, it started to dawn on her that he needed air to breathe.
With a flick of her tail she rushed to his aid and pulled him up by the arms. He blacked out before they broke the surface, but Ariel managed to drag him to shore.
She laid him gently in the warm sand and sang softly to him as she stroked his hair. She couldn't help but admire his beauty. His strong brow and chin. Those beautiful eyes, now closed.
Ariel daydreamed as she lay beside the unconscious man, wondering what life would be like if she could stay here on land with him.
The peace was broken by loud barks as a shaggy dog came bounding down onto the beach, followed by a hurried crunch of footsteps and an elderly voice calling out.
Ariel darted into the waves and watched from behind a rock as a thin man with silver hair rushed down to the prince's body.
The prince and his men had seemed friendly, but she wasn't sure about the newcomers. Besides, being on the beach was a more vulnerable position than a rock in the middle of the sea.
"Oh my prince!" the silver-haired man said, and he put his ear to the prince's chest. "Thank goodness you're okay!"
Ariel watched the man help the Prince stand and guide him away. She was relieved that he was okay, but sad to see him go.
Longing welled up in her chest. She wished she could follow him—to walk on two feet, if just for a day—to be part of the human world. Still, she had done something she had always wanted to do. She had met a human, and a good looking one at that.
Ariel sighed happily and slid back into the waves.