Deadly Little Siren

Mermaid Off the Port Bow!

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.