Ocean's Songs

The ship launches forward as the mast fills with air. The mermaids won't follow without that song. I begin rummaging through my bag for a portal scroll. It won't be much time to get a new shell since portals are stationary. But if I open this at the front of the boat I might have a few seconds to grab one from Matilda, if she even has one. I think I'm too far away from her to send a message on my arm translator. Damn.

"Come down below. Bring your sorrow. It will disappear with our touch. Come follow me. Let's start anew. Come follow me to somewhere new." Samantha is leaning over the ships railing, singing the tune and words. The mermaids are interested in her as we sail through the cold dark waters. 

"Well ain't that something." I mumble.

Samantha keeps on singing for the longest time. I bring her water that she sips on when there is supposed to be a break for a breath in the song, yet she is able to keep singing with little air. She told me a bit ago she is in choir and was taking private singing lessons so maybe there was a trick for air.

I know I have heard this chorus for the hundredth time today alone but I almost feel mesmerized by it. The mermaids are giving her their full attention. They dive down and come back up to look at her. Some are even leaping from the water to be closer to her. Samantha smiles at them while singing. I look toward the bow and a few men are staring dreamily at Samantha. Not sure if they felt my murderous gaze but they glanced at me before hurrying back to their jobs.

It's now late into the night. Samantha is very tired and is having a hard time staying awake yet alone continue to sing with her voice tiring. Her tone changed recently with the lyrics after a few hours of starting to drone on, the last few times though her tone sounded sad or desperate. The green haired mermaid from before joins in singing with her. Then the rest start to follow in song. Samantha curls up on the deck in the blanket I had draped over her earlier and falls asleep. The mermaids continue to follow us through the night.

"Hazel, did you stay up all night?" Samantha asks when she wakes up.

"Just wanted to make sure they kept following." I reply.

"You could have woken me up!" She cries.

"I would have if they had strayed but they seem to like you. What is it with you collecting living creatures every where we go?" I smile tiredly are her.

She raises her arms a little and shrugs. "I could use some food though. My stomach is bleh." Samantha holds onto her stomach. Then she sips on some water from her bag then gets up to look over the railing at the rising sun. The mermaids leap and sing at her presence, she smiles at them and then joins them in song.

"We are close to where these ones will be living, just so you know. I will see about food for you and I really hope they have coffee." I say leaving her nodding in acknowledgement before I go below deck to their kitchen.

I survive below deck getting some rice gruel for the two of us. Thankfully they do have coffee. Not as good as the coffee back home but I should survive. I hand Samantha the bowl and she scarfs it down in seconds.

"Wasn't that hot?" I ask blowing on mine.

"Yea but I can't stop singing for long. They are wondering since I slept so long last night." She replies quickly.

I nod an alright back to her, "they could be hungry too." I add. The guy closest to us swabs the deck a little faster while heading away from us. 

"Should I stop singing then?" She asks.

I look at my map on my arm translator (it's kinda like a smart phone but runs off my mana). "Not yet, we have a short distance to go." I let her know.

Samantha slows the song down then the mermaids start to sing a new song. She listens for just a bit before joining them. They begin twirling and diving into the water. When they surface they are holding fish and are eating them.

"They were hungry." I comment. Samantha looks happy that they are fed now.

Over the next few hours, Samantha records the songs they teacher her and she continues to sing with them to keep their attention.

"Looks like we made it so they are free to swim off to their hearts content." I inform her.

"Finally." She whispers melting onto the railing.

"You did really good." I tell her as we watch the mermaids swim off looking for more food and to see what their new home.

I man yelling from the bow catches our attention so we run up there. A white siren is circling around overhead. The men are yelling about shooting her and others are saying us hunters should shoot her.

"We can't harm her til she attacks or acts hostile." I inform the group. They didn't like that answer.

Samantha starts singing the siren's song that they were singing when we left. She moves to the port side railing and the siren and her sing together. The siren flies down and perches beside Samantha while singing. The men go into a bit of a trance while listening. Samantha plucks an apple from a barrel and gives it to the siren. The siren smiles before taking off away from the ship. The men come out of their trance.

They question each other on what happened while looking around the ship.

"Just offer them some food. They will help you later in your time of need if you do." Samantha says.

"You want us to give our food away to them?" The captian bellows and makes Samantha cower.

"Hey, she saves your backside and gives you decent advice. Now if you don't want help when the weather turns, that's up to you. Just know we did our part." I firmly say.

"Thanks to her that thing is going to bring it's friends back with it wanting food. We should have shot it! Not to mention those things you had trailing behind us. My uncle died from a mermaid! Maybe we should kill you all, right here, right now and do the world a service." The captain isn't happy. The crew is rallying behind him in agreement. All but the boy, he was cowering beside some barrels.

Well this is lovely.

I hear Samantha singing softly. The men slowly go into a trance. I look up and a few more white sirens have started to circle overhead. They swoop down singing along side Samantha.

"Well that works for now I guess." I say. "How about we get off this ship and let them fend for themselves?"

Samantha gives me a thumbs up as she continues to sing. I grab the kids shoulder and drag him with us, putting a protective spell over him so he comes out of the trance.

"You're fine kid but it's time for us to go." I tell him. We lower the boat we were rowing earlier so we can make it to land (well ice because everything is ice up here). I tie the boat up in view of the ship so we technically aren't stealing. 

A few sirens and mermaids gather around us to sing with Samantha. Then her voice gives out and she looks at everyone apologetically.

"You're fine. We really enjoyed your singing and we hope you can come back up here to visit. Oh my name is Ivy." Says the green and purple tail mermaid that saved Samantha earlier.

"Thank you Ivy for saving Samantha earlier." I say kneeling beside the waters edge.

"No problem," she says with a wink "so we heard what those guys said. From the looks of things you can't really do anything but I think we could be of assistance."

"Works for me, as long as I don't see anything I can't report nothing." I give her a thumbs up before she dives into the water.

The sound of songs mixing together with splintering wood is carried on the cold breeze away from us. 

"I feel bad that the money you paid them is lost." Says Samantha.

"Oh yea?" I hold up my gold bag.

"H-how?" She asks.

"While you were sleeping I heard some things. Took a little extra too." I smile. "Here kid." I toss the bag to him.

"What?" He looks dumbfounded.

"Dead men can't speak. To me it looks like you're the only survivor to a horrible incident. Plus I heard you're looking for your sister who is a mermaid. I already took our fees out. So let's go." I say leading the way to the closest waypoint.