Starvation

Standing at the bow of an old wooden boat similar to the ones from Europe in the 1700's, I'm letting the salty breeze pull my straight brown hair from my ponytail. I have on my favorite black leather work pants and black boots along with my steel chest plate, for we are in dangerous waters, supposedly. I have my bow, arrows, a shield and a few spears on my back. My belt holds a small knife, healing potions and a few mana potions. Matilda threw a few vials of water breathing potions at me before leaving too.

Behind me I hear my trainee hurling what I will call rainbow sparkles up over the side of the boat. I turn to see her long wavy dirty blonde hair tied in a low ponytail. She has removed her chainmail hood to not loose it over the railing. Her leather armor over her chest also has some chainmail under it. She doesn't have much for pants so she has black leggings with her blue tinted leather boots. Samantha's white bow, arrows, purple shield and green spears are laying on the deck beside her as she slowly lowers herself down. The tints are from enchantments and since Samantha is frugal, those are her battle spoils.

People and the creatures that speak make fun of her gear but we are the last ones standing in a fight. Meaning we are the ones with the last laugh. I personally save being stylish for my boyfriend James who is back home. She doesn't really care for styles and is always jeans, t-shirt and hoodie if cold out.

"You going to live?" I ask my trainee.

"Why am I... the only one... that gets motion sickness... in my family." Samantha replies holding back a dry heave while trying to look at the horizon while we crest another 10ft swell.

"Probably should have asked Matilda for something for seasickness." I comment. 

I see the one eyed captain with a pipe hanging from his mouth and a white beard and mustache, he's heading our way with cloth strips. His blue coat is trailing behind him, his tan skin is wrinkled from years of hard work in the sun, storms and salty seas. His pale blue eye is kind while looking Samantha over.

"Here little Missy, hold out your wrists. I have an old trick for those who get seasick." He grins kneeling by her.

The usually shy girl that hates being touched thrusts her wrists over to the man. He places a small pea sized stone on the tendon before wrapping her wrist up.

"Ow." She queitly says.

The captain chuckles while tying the cloth.

"Give 'er a little while and you'll be just fine." He says confidently getting up to make his way to me. "We're close to where my brother's boat went down. Thank ya again for coming out to rid these waters of those flying beasts." He looks out over the water.

"That's alright, we are sorry for your loss." I tell him. "Tell us what happened."

"We were on our way with goods from the Terish kingdom. Hubert had most of the food goods on his ship while I had the crafted metal and wood that trade well in these parts. We put wax in our ears to keep the songs from gett'n to us but this time them buzzards swooped down perching all over Huberts ship. Next thing I know the ship is on fire. I got my ship close and we tried saving Hubert and his men but most died in the fight. May they rest in peace."

"That sounds awful." I reply waiting for more of a story. None came as he puffed on his pipe.

"I'm feeling great!" Samantha says springing up from the deck.

"I'm glad to hear that Missy, I'll go to get my men ready for this fight." He says turning.

"We might not need to fight, just so you know." I inform him as he leaves.

"Ha! You ain't seen these blood thirsty hags." He sneers over his shoulder.

"Well he got mean." My trainee whispers.

"That's expected, he lost his brother. I think I know what's going on out on these waters though." I tell her.

"Yea?" She asks.

"Yea. We just need to know if they have the craving for humans or not." I saying looking up at the clouds.

"Do we need wax?" Samantha asks quietly.

"Nah, we have that basic protection spell on, it covers song based lures." I explain.

"Ah. So is that what we are looking for." She points toward port side.

On the railing is perched a scrawny brown siren. She is mostly human looking but her scaly legs with talons are gripping the rail and brown wings coming out of her back. She has a loose white shirt on acting as a short dress. The wind moves the shirt more so I can see her ribs under her arms.

"She's starving." I whisper to Samantha.

Slowly I step toward her and she gets into a defensive position hissing. I stop moving, the captain is barking orders to his men to prepare for a fight. 

"Tell your men to wait! I'm the one being paid to settle this matter." I sternly say. The crew stops and watches.

From my bag I'm able to pull out an apple I had packed. My other hand resting on the handle of my knife on my belt. Just incase she wants me and not the apple. I hold it out for her to take. She slowly inches forward, then she snatches the apple and takes off to the sky.

"Captain follow her. You're going to take us close to her island but you and your crew are not to come close. You will leave me and Samantha there." I command.

"What will you be doing there alone?" He skeptically asks.

If I tell him the truth he won't let us go alone or might even throw us over board before getting there.

"We'll be hunting and we don't need anyone getting in our way." I say giving him a believable grin. His grin back is nasty yet happy one.

We follow the siren to her fairly rocky island. The reef and rocks surrounding the place would easily break the big boat like the other boats scattered in the water. We have the captain lower a dingy for us. I had given him orders to head home and that we have a way off the island. Then how we will meet him at the port town we got on at. He was hesitant but word of our work has reached this part of the world so he sailed back. 

Rowing the boat to shore was awful. Samantha did most of it but what little I did was painful! Sirens fill the sky over head. Many were circling, some were singing and gliding low while others were perched on trees and cliffs. Pretty much all of them were skin and bones.

A golden scroll pops into existence in front of me. I catch it mid air, the contents from Aba state how there are 4 hostile sirens on the island have hunted humans and we are to put them down. Then once that is done we are to inform the towns and traders that they should offer food for the sirens. The sirens won't only offer safe travel but will help guide them through storms.

We touched down on the shore, being watched by all. Soon a brown and black siren that wasn't starving approached us.

"What do we have here? You're not affected by our songs and you're not men on top of that." She sneers.

"Rumors have it some of you are feeding off men. And you know what happens when species hunt each other, us hunters get called." I inform the siren.

"So what, you're going to kill us all?" She holds her arms out gesturing to her flock.

"Nah, we have orders to take down quite a few of you but if you can prove restraint then, perhaps we can let you live." My voice is calm but firm. This isn't my first island of sirens. When you take down the leading force the others tend to cower and obey fairly well.

"How generous, you may be woman but some of us are hungry though." She bends into a pouncing stance.

Of course she is going to strike. My bow is in hand already, in a smooth quick motion I'm able to pull an arrow, knock it and have my string pulled back. She hesitates for a second so I do not fire.

The siren takes off into the sky. I follow her with my bow but I don't think she is one of the hostile ones. I lower my bow and stop pulling back on the string. Samantha is ready with a knocked arrow herself.

"What's going on?" She asks.

I sigh at our difficult task at hand. "Some of these sirens seem to be redeemable. We have to figure out which ones."