resist the siren's call

34

"Fear is stupid, so are regrets."

"Astrid?" A knock sounded on my door.

I opened it, "What do you need Olly?" I smiled at him.

"Oh, um, some of the crew is getting together for a story night, and some of them asked me if I would invite you to join." He paused before adding, "Cap'n is gonna be there."

"A story night?"

"We just sit around, drink ale, and tell stories." He leaned in and whispered, "Most of them are lies though, but they're still entertaining."

I beamed, "Of course," I followed him out of my room and down into one of the dining areas where a medium sized group of men were crowded around a table.

Olly led me to the only chair not attached to a bench that had been cleared and separated just for me, "Nobody will bother you Astrid."

"Thank you for the concern Olly, but between you and me I could kill any man here before he even knew it was happening." I said, clearly being heard by the rest of the crew who looked down.

I crossed my arms over my exposed stomach and took a glass of ale offered to me by Olly, "Billy was telling a tale from when he was a young boy." One for the crew mates close to me recapped.

Who I assumed was Billy nodded and launched into the ending of his story, where his cousin and him tamed a whole colony of rats with a flute.

The next crew mate, Colin, told a tale of when he was a teenager and he traded a cow for beans that grew over twelve feet tall.

Then Olly told the story of when he was a kid and his sister went with him through the forest and he found a house made of candy, in the end he had to escape a witch trying to eat them.

The next was of when the crew mate was a kid and he lied to his whole town about seeing a wolf, he then dramatically showed his arm where a large scar could be seen and he ended it off by how when he said there was another wolf nobody believed him and the wolf took a chunk out of his arm.

The rest of the night stayed consistently weird with each story being more fabled than the last until it was well past midnight and Caspian joined the madness.

The stories got crazier and more sinister after he joined, one even dealt with him witnessing a woman who was half octopus being stabbed by the tip of a boat.

Nobody questioned the reality of the stories.

Everyone went around sharing their tall tales, Caspian even indulged and told about the time he taught a dragon with his father (something I'd never believe). Sooner then I realised, but hours into the story session it was my turn.

"What stories can the story herself tell us?" An older crew member asked.

I smiled before lacing my words with coaxing magic, "I'll tell you an old siren story. This is the story of the first siren to walk on land. She was the princess of the sea, with five older sisters. This princess was obsessed with the people who lived on land, and when it was her turn to explore above the surface, she saved a young land prince from drowning from a ship wreck."

I scanned each enraptured eye before landing on Caspian, who had a more thoughtful look, "After saving him, she returned to sea, completely infatuated with him. But reality wasn't kind to her, as she found that humans don't live as long as sirens do." A strangely sorrowful feeling spread through my chest as I looked Caspian in the eye, "As sirens live around two hundred years."

I broke eye contact and looked at the crowd as a whole, "The poor siren was so enraptured by this man that she decided she was unhappy with her life as a siren and would trade her whole life to live a day with him. She goes to the sea witch, who makes a deal with her: she will make the siren a potion to give her legs, but she would trade her tail and her home for them forever, and if the prince ever loved another she would die a painful death."

"The price for such a potion was the gift of her beautiful voice, leaving her mute when she descended on land. She found the Prince, who dressed her in the finest clothes. He applied her, and she found that even though he liked her, he could never love her. As his heart belonged to the one who saved him from a shipwreck."

"The prince declares his love to the woman who saved him, leaving the siren heartbroken and helpless. She would die because he failed to fall in love with her."

"Luckily, her sisters made their own deal with the witch: their hair for a way for the siren to return to them. The only thing for her to do was to kill her love: the Prince."

"When she saw him so utterly in love with this new woman, she couldn't go through with his murder and instead accepted her fate."

The room was quiet when the tale was over, and I took a soft gulp from my glass of ale before everyone exploded at once, expressing their opinions on the story. 'That's unrealistic.' 'Who would choose a human over a siren?' 'No wonder sirens kill men'.

I smiled at the dramatic thoughts of the crew and turned to Caspian, who had a contemplative look on his face, "How can Sirens walk on land now if they couldn't then."

"We honed the skill, as it was given to us for her noble sacrifice of her own happiness."

He smiled softly, "You'll have to tell more siren stories."

I gave a noncommittal look, "Perhaps."

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

(A/N: the tales and stories concocted in this chapter are loosely based on common fairytales, and the one told by Astrid is meant to be loosely based on 'The Little Mermaid' by Hans Christian Anderson. However, if you know anything about the history of sirens/mermaids, you'll know that they were two seperate myths before they were confused and combined at some point, with Sirens originally being half human-bird creatures and mermaids being the typical half fish people. It's important to note that I am referring to sirens as they are more typically known (evil mermaids with beautiful and deadly voices) just to clear all that up. Also, most of the siren lore in this story is loosely based on my own knowledge of mermaids/sirens and some things I just make up for plot convenience. I know it's kind of pointless to clear everything up this late into the story, but in case you're confused: Most of this is make believe or loosely based on famous myths. And yes, I am old enough to be well versed in mythology and Hans Christian Anderson. (I'm 17 btw) so with ALL that in mind lol, thanks for reading and lmk what your thoughts are thus far.)