Treacherous Waters (Devious Bunny & vo_dcc)

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Devious Bunny

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@vo_dcc here ya go, hope this is good...

Treacherous Waters



Legend tells that this world has many secrets – secrets potent enough to grant immeasurable power to those lucky enough to discover them. In this world, there are many curious men - travelers, adventurers, pirates, marauders, thieves, and the like. Yet no man has come close to finding the elusive Chalices of Destiny, goblets rumored to contain elixirs that can grant the consumer several different advantages.

The Chalice of Youth, known by many other names, has the power to grant immortality.

The Chalice of Fortune provides the consumer with incredible luck, capable of getting them out of any sticky situation.

The Chalice of Strength, like its namesake, grants the consumer unmatched strength and power in battle.

However, despite the usefulness of these elixirs, the chalice is most sought-after throughout all the Seven Seas is the Chalice of Gold, more commonly known as King Midas’s Flask. This goblet is rumored to grant the consumer with the power to turn any object into a noble metal. For greedy pirates and treasure-hunters, Midas’s Flask is the pathway to fortune and riches.

The task of seeking out the Flask is tough for any adventurer; no one was quite sure where it resided, or if it even stayed in one place. They all faced treacherous waters to find it, and those who got close were never heard from again. Countless men tried and failed to attain the flask, and those who were lucky enough to return brought stories of their travels back to taverns and bars, which always provided the barkeepers and waitresses with hearty laughs and entertainment.

However, no one ever suspected that the waitresses were really listening, collecting tidbits of information that all connected to form what seemed to be a solution to finding the elusive treasure.

And when one day, the entire staff of the Goddess’s Nectar, the most popular tavern in Tirrenia, went missing, no one suspected that the team of women would be on their own adventure to find the treasure.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦​

“We’ve sprung a leak!” shouted one of the crew members.

“Oh, hang me upside-down and flog my mother!” Captain Stormhook shouted back. Her boot connected with a barrel, sending it flying overboard. Her anger was not out-of-place; a leak was the last thing her crew needed right now.

Stormy waters violently rocked the boat, and heavy rain pelted the crew, completely soaking everyone. It was dark, and the sound of leather squeaking across wood filled the air as nervous crewmembers rushed to find some sort of shelter. Cowards. The young captain gripped the helm of the ship, using it more to keep herself upright than to steer.

“Make yourselves useful and stop the bloody leaking!” she commanded. At this point, she wasn’t even sure if anyone was listening. The thundering rain made communication an arduous task. The captain squinted through the darkness, shaking in her place as the cold wind blew her shirt from its tucked-in place and made goosebumps rise up on her skin. She almost thought she saw figures in the water.

“No way. My girls are too brave to jump ship, even if they are cowards.”

The red-haired woman brushed the thought aside and set her focus back to not being blown overboard, when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Ah, Amber, I knew I could count on you. What is it?” she inquired, glancing at her assistant navigator.

“Captain…I think we’re being attacked.”
 
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There was a reason why most of those who sought out the flasks, and got close, never lived to return home. In fact, they seemed to disappear without a trace-- even when their ship remained intact and often found with their supplies still ample.

A secret that the dead had taken with them to their watery graves laid in the deepest parts of the sea, where another civilisation prospered without the human's knowledge, despite the two species being very similar.

The merpeople.

Or at least, that was what the few humans who spotted them called them. To most, they were a creature that only existed in fairy tales, but to the few unlucky sailors, they were deaths disguised as dreams that came to them in dire times.

The merpeople themselves didn't know much about the humans at all. They only considered them a delicacy that their hunters, often called sirens, brought back to their homeland occasionally. Even then, the human was dismembered and cut up into pieces, so most of the regular merpeople did not know what humans actually looked like at all. But to the few who did saw humans, they would be irked.
'Humans looked like disfigured mermaids,' they thought. 'Ugly things. Without a tail.'

Hecate however, found them very interesting to look at. The young siren was a stray-- hunted alone without a family to return to. That didn't mean, however, that Hecate was alone on that day. Ezekiel, another stray, was with her. The two fish, one who was light gray like a shark and one with bluish purple skin, followed a ship for half a day before the grey one decided to go up and take a look at their prey.

"My god. It's an entire ship of females," she gasped with delight, grasping the merman's arm and pointed at the ship. The women were fattier, with meat that was not as hairy and tough. They were a rare treat that the merpeople went crazy over, and they often pay a great amount for just a small piece of meat. "An entire ship of them! I checked, really Zeke, I did."

"Don't get too excited," said Ezekiel, the purplish fish with a dark navy tail. The sun was still up, and the two of them were outnumbered. The only time that was suitable for hunting was at night where the human's vision became limited, but they pay attention to their ears. Siren songs worked best that way. "And stop going up. Let's just watch them from here."

Siren songs were not actually songs at all. They were a series of sounds that tricked the human brain into seeing what the human wanted to see, instead of a reality. But more powerful sirens could alter their songs to create different kinds of false settings, for a different kind of effect. One of them was Ezekiel (who also had pet sharks, which Hecate adored very much). That was one of the reason why Hecate latched onto him so often to go for huntings. She liked to play around with the songs to see how the humans react.

The song they were going to use today was titled "Shipwreck."

It was to be used in the rain, and make the humans feel panic and become overly sensitive to the weather. The two carried their plan out after the sun went down and the sky started drizzling. The winds were not strong at all, and the waves were still relatively calm, but the effect of these factors were amplified to the sailors whose balance was affected, giving the impression of strong waves and bad weather. Giggling at the ladies wobbling around and yelling even though the ship was still very much upright and intact, Hecate swam around the ship for a full 360 degrees view of the crew. It was quite silly.

She went and do her part soon after that-- went underneath and knocked a hole in the ship. This would cause more hysteria, and give the captain more things to worry about. Zeke's sharks surrounded the ship, knocking against it and aggravating the leak even more while Hecate swam up to the surface and began her song, along side with Ezekiel. A normal, pretty typical siren song; a soothing one that was meant to lure the women seeking for comfort into the sea.

She watched the crew intently, and wondered what kind of form she would take in their eyes. A lover? A treasure? Whatever it was, she would enjoy the utter lust in their eyes as they stared at her-- the last thing they would ever see. A favor for them, she supposed, it must be quite a pleasant way to die.
 
"Attacked?!" yelled the captain back at her navigator, giving her an incredulous look. Sure, the weather was completely destroying them, but Mother Nature couldn't be that angry with a bunch of women on a ship. "Attacked by what? Poseidon himself?!"

Amber shook her head and grabbed onto the captain's shoulders with both hands, shaking her and forcing her to let go of the helm. She stumbled as the rocking of the ship threw her off balance. In what little bit of the woman's eyes were visible through her slick, raven locks of hair, there was pure fear. Captain Stormhook had no choice to believe that something unforeseen was really going on; it took a lot to phase this woman.

"No! No, no, no, this is serious, Jackie -," Whoa. How long had it been since anyone had addressed her by her first name? It sent shivers down her spine, and her own eyes widened. "I swear to the gods I saw a monster in the water! A mighty beast like a dragon, with claws that could pierce through the very earth! It's talons came up from the water and pierced through the hull!"

The captain's voice dropped, displaying a great deal of concern. Surely, if a creature this massive were swimming around in the waters below them, she would be able to see it as well. Of course, that might explain the terrified behavior of everyone else, but there was no way that something that impressive would fly right past her knowledge. In any normal circumstances, she would brush it off and tell the crewmate to stop her fantasizing, but the fear in Amber's eyes told her to do otherwise. "Where did you see this...beast...exactly?" she questioned, raising an eyebrow.

Without a word, Amber pointed port-side, directing the captain's gaze. Her green eyes narrowed as she tried to look through the darkness for any sign of a mighty, clawed beast, but alas, she saw nothing. She was curious, however, as that same direction was where she thought she saw a figure swimming.

"I don't see anything, mate," Jackie replied, shaking her head. "Are you sure you-,"

"Yes, I'm sure! Why won't anyone believe me?!" The raven-haired woman's voice cracked, and Jackie was unable to tell if she was about to cry or just hoarse from yelling over the stormy weather. The captain raised her hands, stepping back a few paces and forward again to keep from stumbling, and attempted to reassure the other woman.

"Listen, I respect you, and I want to believe you...it's just...do you still see this thing?"

"It's still there, writhing about...if it strikes the ship again, we're done for!"

The captain squinted again through the darkness, if not only to humor the navigator, but still saw nothing. She shook her head a second time. "I still don't see it...maybe if I get closer...?"

With very careful, calculated, wobbly steps, the red-haired captain ambled to the port-side of the ship and gripped the railing hard. Still no monster. She felt the ship starting to lean especially far to the opposite side. What the hell was the crew doing down there instead of shoveling out buckets of the water? Swimming in it?

Suddenly, Captain Stormhook found herself lying flat on her back, with another crewmember on top of her.

"Oof...outta my way!" said the petite woman. "Marcus is in the water! I see him! It's been so long!"

Before the captain could do anything - reprimand her insolence, inquire about her strange actions - the woman regained her footing and leapt right over the side of the ship.

"Oi! What are you-," was all the captain managed to say. Amber tried to grab the woman, but she was frozen in place. Captain Stormhook stood and looked over the side, only to find no traces of the insane crewmember.

She placed a hand on her forehead, completely shocked. But soon, she found herself in her own confusing predicament. The entire storm seemed to melt away for a moment as her jade irises locked onto a spectacular sight. She saw, rising out of the turbulent seas that seemed so calm for a moment, what appeared to be a beautiful woman. She wore an elegant robe, like some sort of goddess, that somehow seemed to be completely impervious to the water. The mysterious woman's hand rose up from the water to reveal something even more desirable - King Midas's Flask.

"Amber...Amber," she grabbed the other woman's arm and redirected her gaze. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"Yes, a giant, clawed sea monster?"

"No, you silly woman! It's...it's the Goddess of Love herself. She's calling me, I know it!"
 
"Got one!" yelled Ezekiel as he swarm towards the first woman. The sharks were very well fed, so they weren't much interested in eating human flesh. The woman was knocked unconscious and hauled along. Zeke's job was done and now it was Hecate's solo.

Everything was going accordingly to plan. After the sailors were driven to the peak of their hysteria by Zeke, Hecate was suppose to sooth them and lure them into the water. Then Zeke would catch the humans and once the entire crew was present, and they'd leave with a delicious feast. If everything continued to follow their plan.

But apparently not.

The rain was getting worse, and the sea became turbulent. For real this time. It was still not as bad as Zeke's version, but then something began to fall from the dark sky. And hit the singing mermaid on the head.

"Ow--!" Hailstones. The song was abruptly stopped and the illusion faded, revealing a grey mermaid with matted, inky black hair that seemed to blend in with the water. She did not have big breasts like the humans do-- that would be a great inconvenience if she were to swim. But she did have a smaller form than Zeke, who was already very slender. Her face was small and round, freckled with bluish grey dots, and her eyes were big, and entirely black-- even the sclera. As she communicated with her friend, humans could hear a high, almost squeaky voice speaking in a language that no one had ever heard of before. Even the males had a high voice.

"How am I suppose to know that this was going to happen? I don't predict the human's weather!!!" Zeke yelled, ducking occationally from the hailstone. The one that they had woke up, and was banging against the side of the ship, and Hecate went towards the woman despite Zeke's warnings. The waves were getting stronger, and all mermaids knew that storms only affected the surface of the water. They should go back down; strong waves could wash them to shore where they'd be stuck or seriously hurt their tails and fins because of the strong current.

But Hecate being the stubborn, human loving fish that she was, went near the ship instead to try and at least grab the woman that was already in the water. And sure enough, the strong waves hurled her against the side of the ship. She slammed against the hard wood, and tried to regain her control of her tail which whipped wildly around in the water, but failed and hit the wood again. Her tail rubbed against the ship, and she winced as a couple of scales came off from the friction. She tried to go back down into the water, but the current pressed her tightly against the ship.
 
At the exact moment the illusion dissipated, the ship's captain was half-way over the side of the ship with her entire body from the waist-up hunched over the wooden railing, and her trusty navigator was holding her back from the edge with a firm forearm across her exposed midriff.

"Let me go!" Jackie was kicking, thrashing, and screaming.

"Captain, you can't! You'll be eaten alive!" Amber yelled back. The black-haired woman had one boot pressed against the railing for support, but the captain was too strong.

However, as soon as the captain's thrashing had started, it stopped, and her eyes focused in on their real surroundings. The turbulent storm seemed to die down, although the ship was still rocking more than what was desired, and hard chunks of hail rained down around them. Some of the other women were starting to resurface from the shelter of the ship. Captain Stormhook relaxed her muscles, confused once again, and looked back at her navigator, who was equally perplexed. Why am I here? she asked herself.

After pulling back and brushing herself off, haphazardly re-tucking her shirt in her leather pants and shaking out her jacket, her eyes perceived the truth. The figures that she thought she had seen earlier - the same that Amber saw as a sea monster, and the same that the other crewmember, Carrie, saw as her long-lost-lover - melted away and turned into...fishpeople?

"Mermaids?" Jackie said, tasting the word on her tongue. She had heard myths about sentient creatures that dwell in the ocean, luring sailors to their deaths, but she never thought they were real.

"...Mermaids, Captain?"

"Yes, mermaids! It must be! Oh, just look!" As the red-haired woman grabbed Amber around the shoulder and pointed her to the place where she was looking, one of the figures ducked under the surface. However, upon hearing a dull thud against the side of the ship, the two women rushed to the railing and looked straight down. Sure enough, there was a petite woman-like figure in the water. They knew it wasn't the woman who jumped ship; she could be seen floating off in the rocking waves. She didn't appear to be moving. This strange creature, on the other hand, seemed to be in great turmoil trapped against the side of the boat, and Captain Jackie thought she saw the beginnings of a gray tail thrashing about under the dark surface of the sea.

"Somebody get over here and drop a net!" she yelled. Who knows what we'll get for capturing a mermaid?! "Let's get us some exotic bounty!"

Quickly, a bunch of crewmembers brought over the net, dragging the heavy rope behind them. Obeying the captain's command, the sent the net hurtling down towards the trapped creature.
 
"Zeke!!" she yelped, noticing that her human was drifting away. Dammit. She got over here for nothing and now she was a stuck.

"Still thinking about your stomach first??!!" Zeke yelled back above the storm, pulling the corpse under and dissapearing into the sea waters. The sharks had all left. The few times Hecate could push herself away from the side of the ship, she thrashed unconstrollably in the water before slamming back against it. Her tail was very long, and flexible, which was not working to her advantage right now. She couldn't quite control it properly when the water kept dragging it back to the ship.

Then she felt a downward tug, and turned to look down and see Zeke trying to pull her by the tail. He had a firm grip on it, even though he was struggling to swim on his own. It was hard to swim against the current-- their only hope now was that the ship turns and move with the current instead. Which was probably not going to happen soon.

Something hit her back-- a strange, mass of woven rope. The nightmare fuel of every merperson's childhood. The Fish Net.

It was often featured in horror stories and urban legends. Their mothers often tell them that if they go to the surface, the Fish Net would catch them and drag them into land. Hecate screetched and thrashed against it some more, and Zeke was unfortunate enough that he was caught too. Fish Nets were a real fear to him, considering how his parents died because of a fishing boat. But he still tried to pull Hecate out of her predicament only to get himself in it too.

Both pulled out their hunting knifes and started cutting and gnawing away on the net, but they started to loose hope when they were completely lifted out of the water. Hail was still pelting against them, but at least now their tails weren't getting slammed against the ship.
 
"We've got a catch!" shouted the captain as she looked over the side with pure greed twinkling in her eyes. Yes, capturing a mermaid would mean pure fame and fortune for her. But what made matters even more exciting was that there was not one, but two merpeople caught for the price of one. The captain couldn't believe her eyes - if she were wearing her hat, she would've taken it off and held it against her chest in reverence to whatever deity must've been watching over her, but the wind already took her hat for her long ago. Her hand gripped the rough rope connected to the net, shortly followed by the hands of several of the other crewmembers. "Heave ho!"

"Heave ho!" shouted the other women in unison before pulling on the rope with all their might. The rope was taut; they could tell that the two creatures were fighting hard to make it out, not to mention the shrieking noises they heard. The entire procedure was almost compromised as a few of the sailors tripped over chunks of hail that slid across the already-wet deck. The rope lurched forward, along with all those holding onto it. The captain herself was slammed right against the railing. She was really starting to feel the repercussions of having things slammed into her torso at this point.

"Oi! Get your acts together!" The women of the ship regained their footing, giving out cries of effort as they rose and starting pulling again, this time being more careful of where they placed their feet. They heaved and heaved, until the mass of tangled rope holding the two merpeople was lifted over the edge of the ship. A group of crewmembers with free hands rushed forward and finished the job, yanking the net right onto the wooden deck, followed by cheers of all who witnessed the event.

Captain Jackie sauntered towards her catch with her hands placed firmly on her hips, the same greedy look still plastered onto her face. Her navigator followed closely behind her with crossed arms, looking equally as menacing. Both women, along with all others, were breathing heavily. The red-haired captain cleared her throat before giving out another command.

"Remove the rope." A few of the lower-ranked crew members obliged, and for the first time, Jackie was able to get a clear look at the figures who had put her women through all this trouble. Human up top with the tail of a fish...these two caused all of this ruckus?

"Behold, ladies!" the redhead shouted, raising her hands triumphantly and making a 360 turn to address her entire crew. She pointed a finger at the two merpeople. "Behold the beasts that almost got us all killed!"

"Flay them alive!" someone shouted.

"We might do just that!" Captain Jackie faced the two. "Do you speak our tongue? What say ye in your defense, creatures?"
 
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Both of them only slightly resembled humans. Their skins were of totally different colors, and was shiny and slippery to the touch. Their hands were webbed, and equipped with claws for hunting. There were slits along their rib cage, gills for when they were underwater, and they have no visible ears.

"Do you speak our tongue? What say ye in your defense, creatures?" Hecate perfectly mimicked, down to the tone and the voice of the captain. Mermaids can make a high range of sounds, especially sirens, which enabled them to mimic voices. But other than that, Hecate showed no sign of understanding, and only stared at the humans with wide eyes. Then she returned to talking with her fellow mermaid, in her squeaky voice.

"Was that an attempt at communication? What did she say?" Zeke spent more of his time at the surface, so Hecate hoped that he had some grasp of the human language.

"Dunno? I know 'tongue' is this," Zeke gestured at his. "And 'creatures' propably refers to us..." They couldn't make the link between tongues and mermaids. But Hecate decided to give communication another try.

She pointed at the captain, and then pointed at her own mouth and showed off her sharp teeths. And then she started chewing and tearing at an imaginary piece of meat. Wait--- tongues and mermaid. Maybe the humans consumes merpeople too? She knew they ate sharks, which often upsetted Zeke very much, and various other sea creatures. So it wouldn't be surprising if merpeople were a delicacy too.

"Are they going to eat us?" Hecate gasped. She had always thought of herself as the predator, but never as the prey. The mermaids were at the top of the food chain in the waters, and they ate the humans which where at the top on land--- or at least, that was what Hecate knew. The two biggest predators against each other, huh? While Hecate was afraid, she was also very curious.
 
The captain, along with the other onlookers of the scene, watched the two merpeople communicate with confusion. They weren't quite sure whether they should be scared or not. Captain Jackie cocked her head to the side and let out a quick, "huh?" as the grey-ish mermaid mimicked her voice. She fought back the urge to shiver. The redhead tried to make out some kind of meaning from the mermaid's movements, but it just seemed like she was hungry or something. And that wasn't a problem the humans were interested in solving.

The captain turned to the side and scratched the back of her head. "Does anyone here speak mermaid?" she asked, more as a sardonic remark than an actual question. Of course no one spoke mermaid. She smacked her forehead with her hand. What was she thinking, trying to speak to mermaids? She wondered if they could even process the same feelings, the same emotions, but she shook the thought aside and made another attempt at communication.

Looking into the black eyes of the mystical creatures before her, she felt like she was staring into black holes, ready to suck her in. However, their faces registered expressions of...fear?

"Do you-," she pointed two fingers at her captives, "speak-," she paused again and made flapping motions with her hands, "our language?" she finished off the question by pointing to her tongue, like the female had done earlier. Why am I asking this question, again?

"Just skewer the damn things!" a crewmember shouted, the same one that had requested they be flayed alive. A chorus of voices rose up, obviously agreeing with her. And when did my shipmates become so bloodthirsty?!

"Goddammit, they're better off alive than dead! What's the matter with the lot of you?!" the captain shouted in frustration. She glanced at Amber for any sort of suggestion, but nothing came. She sighed heavily, dropping her head. At the very least, she would like to learn a bit more about her captives before she sold them off to some collector of strange artifacts for some extra gold.
 
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The fear of being eaten quickly left Hecate, though her friend was still wary, and she immediately went back to staring at the humans in wonder. Now, Hecate had spent a lot of her time watching the humans. So did Ezekiel. But they never really communicated, and while they've seen people talking, they never really understood them. So there was no way of knowing what exactly the humans said, and while Hecate knew what humans call fishes from watching fishermans, that was useless here.

"Speak! I know that one," Hecate squeaked. Was the captain trying to figure out whether they could speak human language? Was it not obvious that they couldn't? Well she could try, but there's no guarantee-

"No," said Zeke, with someone else's voice. With every word he spoke, he had a different tone and a different voice. It was as if he took millions of recordings of conversations and cut them up word by word, before stringing them together to form sentences. "Release. Need water."

"Fish," Hecate piqued in English, using her own voice instead of someone else's. "Shark! Mackerel!"

"Kill your friend," Zeke continued, not very sure of what he said, but he said it anyways. Hecate, however, halted and stared at him. It was meant to be a threat-- these ladies had not thought much about the risk of bringing them up to the ship. Their siren songs would still work, not to mention, their weapons were still with them. They were still in the middle of the sea, on a piece of wood, so the sirens were still at an advantage.

Now come to think of it--- this area was a hunting ground for sirens. Which was why sailors rarely ever left this spot. Soon enough, groups of them would gather and they will conduct a symphony. The sharks must've informed someone too, so it would be a miracle if no fish noticed this ship full of prized women.
 
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Amongst all the strange, random words that the mermaids called out in different languages, "Kill your friend" was without a doubt the one that stood out the most to the captain. Especially since it was followed by the sharp pain caused by a blunt object coming into contact with the redhead's back.

The unexpected contact brought the young captain to her knees, only for her to turn around, grimacing, and look up at her trusty navigator, who was now standing above her with her sword raised with the pommel facing the captain. Amber's eyes looked wild, as if they contained fires inside of them. "What the bloody hell are you doing?"

The captain was able to jump to her feet before her raven-haired companion swung at her again, this time blade-first. "I'm sorry, Captain, but I just can't do this anymore."

Amber continued to advance, holding her sword at the ready, and the captain placed a wary hand at the hilt of her own sword. "What do you-,"

"I thought that life at sea would be a great break from my boring, one-track life...and a chance to exist as a part of your world. But I see that this was never where I belonged." The navigator's words were laced with a bitterness that seemed to be genuine, and she punctuated her speaking with swings of her scimitar, all of which came nowhere close to actually hitting the captain, but they pushed her backwards.

Jackie narrowed her eyes. Those creatures are behind this, aren't they? Strangely, none of the other women on the ship seemed to be reacting. She would think that they would at least look surprised to find the captain's right-hand woman attacking her so suddenly, but their faces were all blank, as if this entire ordeal were a planned mutiny.

"Don't just stand there! Do something!" she yelled, not really knowing what she was asking for. Did she want them to go after Amber or after the mermaids? Maybe she shouldn't have even bothered pulling them on-board. Regardless, there was no positive response from her allies. Instead, they all slowly drew their weapons and turned not to their scaly captives, but to her.

The captain sucked her teeth and cursed before silently drawing her sword, preparing herself at least a little bit for what was coming. At least, she mused, her crewmates didn't have their guns on them at the moment.
 
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Hecate gasped, shocked by the display when the humans turned against their leaders. Abhorrent!! Even though Ezekiel and Hecate were strays, the schools still welcome them whenever they visit or pass by! One do not turn against their own kind.

Well, except when there's outside influences.

"Zeke??" she squeaked, noticing a song, insanely soft and low, that came from her friend. This one was foreign to her, and it was sinister. So much so that the sirens who were gathering around the ship left, thinking that there was already someone powerful with their eyes on the ship. Hecate looked back and forth between her friend, and her humans. On one hand, she really wanted to be able to leave and go back into the water-- her skin was starting to dry out-- but on the other...

It was a wild dream, and it was why she became a stray in the first place. The desire to one day visit land like Ariel, the idol that she very much admired. Though because Ariel never returned to the sea, the merpeople automatically declared her dead and decided that it was unsafe to go up. Tales of fishing boats and the infamous Fish Net began to arise, and now, rarely anyone ever thought about going up to the surface. It's suicide, they say.

But Hecate thought that there was more to the story, and she ignored the words of her own father, who was the King of a great empire of mermaids (and she was suppose to be the queen soon, but she went and became a stray so her younger brother took the place instead). She joined sirens in hunting, and ate the rare delicacy that was human flesh. In those early, foggy mornings, she would often going up to the surface just to observe the humans. And now... now...

Zeke's song was harshly interupted with a slap. "I want to go to shore!!" Hecate yelled.

"You insane doofus!!" yelled Zeke in return, touching his cheek.
 
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There was loud clang that resonated as the many women aboard the ship dropped their curved blades. They all seemed to be confused again, a common feeling for the humans that day, it seemed. Amber seemed to be taking it the hardest; she sank to her knees in front of the captain and began to rub her temples with her fingers. Truly, the captain was lucky for the brief interruption as the gray mermaid slapped the other. There was no way she would have been able to fend off her entire crew, no matter how skilled she was with a sword. Not to mention that she had no intention of hurting any of the women. She sighed in relief, closing her eyes as she returned her sword to its sheath.

Within a few steps, the captain stood directly above her navigator, and she offered the dark-haired woman a hand. Amber accepted her gesture and stood. "Amber, did you...mean any of what you just said?"

"Hmm? Captain, what's going on? I said something? I just remember...tripping." Her voice was shaky and hesitant, and Jackie could barely tell if she were lying or speaking the truth. The redhead shook her head, her hair flipping in the wind.

"Why don't you go below deck, Amber? You...had a pretty bad fall. I don't want you getting hurt anymore." The captain cast her gaze around, meeting the eyes of her crewmembers. "And that goes for you all, as well. I want you all below deck, now." Normally, her command would have been delievered with some ferocity, but there was almost no life left in her voice. Her crew, her navigator - their loyalties meant so much to her, that the thought of them turning their backs on her was too much for her to even fathom. Even if it were just an illusion.

She silently wished that she could just listen to that one crewmember's idea and just skewer the hellish creatures that had put them into this mess, and she contemplated the idea for a good minute as the women followed her orders and went out of sight. Another part of her also really wished she could speak mermaid.

The captain returned to her original place in front of the two captives, and her face contorted into a vicious glare. "Listen to me," she said, pointing at them, "I don't give a damn whether you understand me or not, but hear me when I say this: the second we get to land, I'm selling you two off to the sickest, meanest, most sadistic bastard I find. Mark my words."

Jackie walked away without another word, not stopping until she reached her private cabin.
 
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"See?" Zeke sighed, exasperated as he gestured towards the captain. "She doesn't want you around. You pissed her off."

"That's because you went and got her crewmates to attack her," she grunted in return, crossing her arms. "But she said land. We are going to land." If they could prevent themselves from shriveling up and die right here, somehow. Hecate considered calling the captain up again somehow-- by making a racket? Possibly. But she didn't want to anger the human any more.

But then again, they were not tied down or held by anything, and Zeke had already hobbled and crawled over to the edge of the deck. He made a loud, high pitched sound, opening his mouth and blasting it in quick pulses. This guy never failed to amaze Hecate-- the sheer vocal control and power needed to pull off something like this was immense. Not many other sirens could do it.

He had also made sure that the pitch was high enough that it would not be detected by a human ear. By the time he was done sending the message, he let himself slide back down and breathed heavily.

"Called megalondon," he rasped, voice hoarse from the intense strain that it just went through. "Should come in a sec. No worries, he won't eat all of your humans. Just tip the ship a bit and jostle it around so we can escape."

Zeke was also quick to regcognise the sad pout on Hecate's face, and he sighed.

"We can tail them from behind-- let's see what they're up to." This was suicide, he decided. And even if they didn't die--- it was still dumb to follow some human to their territory. He couldn't help but wonder, though, why these pirate ships keep coming near the siren's territory. Just passing by, unknowingly... but still... what were they looking for?
 
Captain Jackie sulked in the chair behind her desk, rested her head in her hands, which were supported on the table by her elbows. She closed her eyes as her red locks of hair fell onto the wooden desk before her. There was an old, worn-out map on the table, one that was marked up with ink in several different locations, a compass, with broken glass, and a quill that sat in a puddle of ink.

The captain pulled open a drawer and retrieved her journal, the place where all of her musings that she would rather keep to herself went. Scrawling the black ink across paper, she wrote:

I think I'm starting to understand what regret feels like. Life at home was clear and filled with promises of safety. Life at sea is murky, unsure, and dangerous. My ship is so close to the Flask that I can nearly taste its sweet waters, and it pains me to come to this conclusion. The gods have presented me with two choices: return to land, sell my captives - damned mermaids - and forever live in hiding from my countrymen, who'll likely have me hanged, for a woman at sea is as good as treason, or, I continue towards the Flask, and risk being skewered by my own women.

O, how easy this would be if I had someone to hold at night.

The captain set her quill down, creating another tiny pool of ink on the bare wood of the desk. She really had to stop doing that, or the whole thing would turn black. The red-haired woman shook her head and gritted her teeth. "The hell am I thinking? Turn around because of some pesky fish?" she chided. She silently rejected the very idea that backing down was a choice, and she decided that what she really needed now was some sleep.

However, the second that her head touched her pillow, the ship rocked violently, as if something rammed into it. And there was no way that it was another ship. The captain darted up out of her bed as quickly as she entered it. "Blast it all to hell!" she shouted, storming into the hall below deck.

How could I leave them up there unattended?! she thought as she speedwalked up to the surface again.
 
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Zeke fell over the ship quickly, since he was already on the edge. The giant shark was careful not to do damage on the ship, following it's command closely. Only nudge the ship so it's friends could escape. Lands basically meant death for mermaid-- they would either shrivel up and die from dehydration, since they were out of water for too long, or they would get skinned by humans. Humans weren't very nice to them. But what could they say? They hunted and consume human's flesh.

Hecate wasn't so lucky, however, and rolled over and knocked herself against the side before she could prepare herself. Disoriented and in pain, she tried to sit up and bring herself over the edge. But after two hits, once from before when she was still in the water, she barely had any energy left in her. Her head hurts, and she was starting to bleed from where her scales peeled off because of the friction against the dry, wooden floor. It was like everything out of the water was meant to be against mermaids.

The female mermaid quickly lost consciousness, slumped against the wooden railings. Without being able to propel herself, she wouldn't be able to get out no matter how much the shark nudged and pushed. And The captain was coming up to the surface too, and Zeke need to make his next move, fast, because he was pretty sure that this ship contained canons. Most ships that frequent the waters around here did.

"Hecate!!" Sucked for Zeke too, because he couldn't go back into the ship to get her out. He didn't think this through enough, damn...

But at least any other mermaids who had gathered around the ship had left, for someone powerful already had their eye on the prey. No one messes with a megalondon-- those sharks were bigger than the ships themselves. Could easily snap the wooden construction with a single bite; the ship was like a toy compared to the giant shark.
 
As the redhead passed through the lower passages of the ship, a few of her crewmembers emerged as well.

"Captain? Are we being attacked?" asked a short woman with spiky, brown hair. In her eyes, the captain thought she saw guilt. The other woman barely met Jackie's gaze. The other crewmembers in the hall had similar looks on their faces, and their dodginess poorly hidden. The idea that they had nearly committed mutiny - willingly or not - had begun to melt away their confusion into concrete memory. Amber was nowhere to be seen.

"Hell if I know," Jackie muttered. Her voice came out terse, bitter, and hushed.

The brown-haired crewmember made a few tentative steps forward, clenched her hands into tight fists, and locked her eyes on the captain's. Jackie narrowed her eyes. The ship jostled again, and the several women adjusted their footing, some of them holding out their arms and bracing against the walls.

"Should we...man the cannons?"

"No, Sandy. Stay in your quarters." The captain's eyes scanned the corridor. "And I mean all of you," she added before grudgingly returning to the deck. And of course, the first thing she saw upon returning topside was the female mermaid slumped limply across the railings of the ship. Her companion was nowhere to be seen, and the redhead cursed through gritted teeth.

"If you're going to escape," she spat, more to herself than anyone else, as there was no one to listen, "then so be it. But I'm taking your friend." As the young woman spoke, she marched forward in a series of rhythmic steps. The closer she got to the railing, the steeper the tilt of the ship was, and the more she had to carefully place her boots. The captain knelt as she reached the mermaid's position, and she wrapped her arms around the creature's slippery, unconscious form. She grunted in exertion as she lifted the limp figure, holding her bridal style and bracing her leg against the railing for extra support as she nearly fell to the side.

Jackie looked down at the mermaid in her arms, and she finally noticed the slipperiness of her body wasn't from water, it was from the blood that dripped from her scales. She inwardly winced, surprised at herself for even caring about the pain the mermaid must've felt. As she walked back below deck, into corridors that were now completely empty, she resolved that she would have to make sure her captive stayed in a much...safer condition than this.

The captain descended to the deepest level of the ship, where they stored everything. She set the mermaid on the wooden floor while she searched around the hold, dodging wooden beams in the dimly lit space. She found an empty barrel that was rather large, leaned it on its side, and kicked in the side, pulling back the wood to make a sort of makeshift tub. She dragged it over to one of the giant water kegs and filled the caved-in barrel with water. She darted back over to the mermaid, lifted her again, and set her down inside the large barrel. She knew it was cramped, and that fresh water probably wasn't the best, but it would have to do.
 
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