A Siren’s Call
As she slowly peered over the edge, she saw nothing but the dark inky well of the open ocean. She kept
scooting down the rail to the bow, but the large gaudy figurehead made it difficult to see the water to
the front of the ship. She hated that ridiculous carving as if any woman would look like that. Now she
hated it even more.
Something grabbed Cassia by the shoulder and pulled. She would have thought it was just a sailor
grabbing her from behind to pull her away from the rail, but after a few moments, she realized it was
trying to drag her in the opposite direction. The arm was dragging her towards the sea. In the dark light,
she could only make out the shiny nature of something wet, but when she clasped it with her hands, she
felt scales.
Though she struggled to stay aboard, it wasn’t long until the tentacle pulled her fully off the ship. It
slammed her down unceremoniously on a rock island below but did not remove itself from around her
shoulders. Though the wind was knocked from her, she managed to look up. There was enough light
from the ship to see the short distance around her.
She couldn’t see anything immediately, but as her eyes adjusted three women entered the circle of light
from the ship. While there was nothing abnormal about the top half of the women, except that they
were in the middle of the ocean, their bottom halves were long muscular tentacles grasped onto the
rocks of the island. One of the tentacles lay across Cassia’s shoulders while the woman smiled at her.
“So, there is a woman on the ship tonight,” the raven-haired woman in the middle purred to her sisters.
They smiled as warmly as Cassia’s own mother had smiled to her as a child.
Cassia remained silent as the three women looked her over. Whoever’s tentacle was across her back
decided to remove it and Cassia stood up shakily in front of the trio.
“What will we do with her? I do not want to eat her,” the fire-haired woman on Cassia’s right whispered.
“She will certainly die if we leave her,” the woman on Cassia’s left replied; she had hair the color of hay in
the summer.
Cassia noticed then that she still clutched the maps and charts from the navigation bench in her hands. “I
will not die, fierce… women, because I am an accomplished navigator and sailor of this sea.”
“Oh, she is so brave and polite, sisters,” the raven-haired siren talked in melody to her companions.
“How far can you sail this ship alone young navigator?”
“As long as the weather is agreeable, I can sail for several days without aid to set the sails. The wind is
meant to carry us… I mean The Numenor, well on to the next shore.”
“Then we will place you back on your ship, strong navigator,” the blonde siren replied “…and if you are
ever in this stretch of ocean again…”
“We will pluck the meat from the bones of every man on board!” The flame-haired siren sang loudly.
They all smiled as though that should please Cassia, so Cassia smiled back as if it did.
One of their tentacles lifted her slowly back to the deck as they bowed lowly to her from their rocks.
Cassia was concerned about being lodged on the island, but she felt the ship break free as soon as she
was well on board. The women must be terribly powerful to launch an entire ship once it was grounded.
Dawn was breaking over the horizon as she readied The Numenor for sailing. Cassia spared a glance over
the rails of the bow before she set off. The three women lounged in the sun, braiding each other’s hair
and gnawing on particularly large bones. They smiled and waved at her. When she waved back, they
laughed and splashed the water near them with their long powerful tentacles.
As the main sails caught the light morning wind and she departed from the small island, Cassia was lost
in thought. On her return, there was a good chance of her promotion all the way to the captain of this
trading vessel, especially after she relayed to them her daring escape from a vicious pirate attack deep at
sea.
Now that the ship was moving, Cassia glanced down one final time at the sirens laughing and splashing
in the morning sun. Her mind floated back to that gaudy, overly feminine figurehead on the front of The
Numenor. Looking at the sirens, she already had some ideas on how she would improve it. << BACK
Written by: Emily Parker