Chapter 1: A Siren's Storm

I finally have an audience. An audience that actually screams for me.

How awesome is that?

Granted, I'd prefer "UUHH's" and "Aaah's" to "WAAAH" and "MAKE IT STOP" and "MY EARS, I THINK MY EARS ARE BLEEDING." But hey, an artist can’t choose how their art is perceived.

All I can do is keep going.

Keep singing.

Even if they don’t want to hear it.

Because, like all sirens, I love to sing.

It just so happens that I am terrible at it.

I know, a siren who can't sing. It hasn't happened. Not ever.

Which is why I choose to believe that it simply isn't true.

Maybe the problem isn't my voice. But everyone else's ears.

I swim in tiny circles in my bucket of water, imagining giving a performance to an adoring crowd.

This is almost like I'm going on tour! The first siren touring the human lands. I wonder what my stage name should be?

Fishy? No that sounds like I’m smelling weird.

How about silky Siren? No, that sounds like I’m selling bed sheets.

Maybe I should just stick with Leia. Because that's my name and I did always want to see it in lights.

I grin to myself. Leia it is.

Prince Ludwig stands a few feet away, ears filled with white fluff. Applying ointments to his bruised skin from where I've slapped him with my tail.

I just know that it's a story that he's going to tell his grandchildren.

'How did you get those scars, grandpa?' They're going to ask.

'These?' He'll reply and his eyes will start glossing over with joy at the memory. 'Leia, the siren whose voice touched the land gave them to me' he will say.

And they will look at him in awe.

"I really am sorry about this," Ludwig says, tearing me from my daydream.

I raise my head, and scoff at him. He can't know I'm actually somewhat enjoying this. At least in this moment. He still tore a siren from the sea! I can’t endorse that!

"You don't know what you've done," I say. Because I think it sounds like something a queen would say. And 'Leia, the siren whose voice reaches the land and sea' seems like she should be respected.

He startles, as if surprised to hear me speak. I wonder why. I've been singing for hours. Did he actually think I couldn't speak?

To my surprise, he suddenly looks defeated.

"Sadly, I know exactly what I've done," he says.

And then leaves the room.

Just... leaves.

Without asking for an encore or solo!

I shake my head. "N... no. You really don't!" I scream after him.

Desperate to have the last word.

Damn, it’s hard to be a true artist.

I focus on the water in my bucket. Move my hands and watch it respond.

At least they gave me real seawater. Water that dances with me.

I can hear them, the humans, talking over each other.

"Is it? Is it really over?"

"I can't believe it!"

"WHAT? Sorry, I can't hear you!"

I sigh. Well, real art is supposed to be polarizing.

Wait, is it polarizing if everyone hates it?

I shake my head.

I shouldn't focus on them. As much as I would love to tour the human world, I do need to get back home.

To my adoring fans.

To my sister, Pia.

I lean forward, ready to leave. Pia would urge me to think this through. Consider possible outcomes. But thinking has never been my forte so I’ve decided to just not do it anymore.

You never know what happens anyway, so why not improvise from the start?

As I try to climb out of the bucket, it sways forward with me.

Well that’s not good.

I rush back.

The bucket reverberates for a bit but stabilizes.

I dip my hands back into the water. It obeys me, following my movements. It’s like I’m leading a dance partner. I need to be in contact with it in order to guide it.

I move my hands in a gentle rhythm, shape a part of it into a tendril and move it towards the door.

When it reaches the handle, I guide it down. But the door doesn’t budge.

I frown and make the tendril rattle it, but the door won’t open.

I try again and again.

Until I can finally accept that it’s been locked.

So I snake the tendril into the lock, but something is blocking it.

The key, is the key still inside?

I swirl the water around it, and manage to move the key... but then someone pushes it back into place from the other side.

How rude!

I call the water back to me.

And lean back, sighing. My tail hits the wood with a thump.

More water sloshes out.

This is no longer fun.

I can hear the sound of the waves outside. So I scurry to the corner where I can best hear it and press myself against the ship's planks.

The sound of the ocean washes over me like a lullaby.

Slowly, it drowns out the sound of the humans scurrying about.

I close my eyes and let my mind drift back to the sea. To the moments before they captured me.

I can picture it vividly. Like it’s happening this very moment.

***

I am swimming with my little sister, Pia. Though she isn’t that little anymore.

Time really does fly, eh?

It’s such a beautiful day. Which is why I wanted to go up to the surface. I love the way the sun’s rays dip into the water. How they cast a gentle shimmer across the waves.

Of course, they’re nothing compared to Pia. When she sings, the water doesn’t just shimmer, it sparkles like gemstones.

Fish swim over, their scales casting a rainbow mosaic as they circle her. Anemones stretch towards her, like flowers towards the sun.

Her voice makes the entire ocean come alive with color.

I smile but it doesn’t reach my eyes. I am proud of her, of course I am.

But she makes it look so effortless, so natural.

Which it isn’t for me.

"You sound beautiful, Pia," I tell her and mean it.

"Thank you," she says and giggles at a fish nibbling on her hand. "Would you like to sing with me, Leia?"

"Oh no," I say gently. "Not today, my throat-"

"Oh please? " She begs. "Just this once?"

The fish surrounding Pia all whip around to face me. They look at me with pleading eyes.

Asking, begging me not to sing.

Those looks alone make me want to burst into song.

But I don’t. I don't want to sing in front of Pia. Never in front of her.

"We'll sing another day," I say.

The fish shudder at the thought.

Oh, they're definitely getting a three hour musical performance later.

"You keep saying that! It’s always later, my throat is hurting or later, I took a vow of silence in honor of the seahorses. Which never stopped you from talking by the way. But when will-"

I interrupt her with a wave of my hand. And she falls silent.

Not because she’s listening to my gesture.

But because she is carried away by a current that mirrors my movement.

She is making her way back to me.

"Can you stop being so impulsive? I just wanted to talk!"

She’s closer now, and I raise my hand.

"No! Stop pushing me away with your... water magic. Or whatever it is that you're doing."

I smirked at her.

"Would you like to fly?"

"Leia…" It sounds like a protest but I can see her eyes shimmer with anticipation.

So I rile the water below her and shoot her to the surface like a whale’s blowhole.

Pia screams with unbridled joy.

"This is incredible! Higher! Higher!"

Pia laughs, completely absorbed in this feeling of freedom.

Not thinking about anything else.

Not asking any questions.

I throw her in and out of the water like a dolphin.

When she’s in the air, she spreads out her arms. It seems like she’s flying. She looks more like a bird than a fish.

She’s majestic. Powerful. Like nothing could ever bring her down.

Then her eagle eyes spot something. A ship.

"Leia, let me down. Let me down!"

I don’t stop, instead I throw her even higher.

"Seriously, Leia. There are humans."

"Humans?" I say and let her drop back into the ocean.

Pia swims up to me. "Leia, no. We shouldn’t. You know we shouldn’t."

I smirk at her. "But that’s what makes it more fun!"

Fun. Right. It was supposed to be fun.

I remember my sister's fin getting caught.

I remember the fear in her eyes.

The cold shiver running through me.

No. It can’t be. It’s impossible!

Sirens getting caught by humans was a myth, a tale our parents told us to keep us from going to the surface.

Human nets weren’t actually strong enough to catch us.

Their rope could never hold us.

But this net wasn’t made from ordinary rope, was it? It was made of silver thread. Enchanted.

Because they weren't hunting fish. They were hunting us.

"Leia… Leia, help me! Please!"

I can hear her words echo in my mind.

They’re etched into my memory.

As is the hopelessness. The desperation.

I need to help her.

But it’s difficult to focus.

My heart is ringing in my ears.

My hands are trembling.

I try to shape the water but my fingers twitch and fumble.

Still the water responds.

It grows as restless as me.

No. That’s not what I want!

But it doesn’t listen to what I want.

Only to what I do.

And what I’m doing is frantic, unpredictable.

And before I know it, I have railed the ocean into a storm.

A storm that throws us both against the ship.

I gasp. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to…"

"Leia, I'm scared!"

When I look into her eyes, I realize something.

She isn’t just scared of the rope. Of being caught. She is scared of my powers.

My stomach ties itself into knots.

I’m not blaming her.

Sometimes, like right here, right now, I am scared of them as well.

So I stop trying to control the ocean. And instead use my hands, my nails, even my teeth to get my sister free.

Rogue waves throw me the ship, over and over again.

But I don't stop.

I can’t won’t let go.

Whatever happens to me, my sister has to escape.

With that in mind, I bite the net again, finally severing the silver thread.

Free. Pia is free!

I watch as she disappears into the endless depths below.

I blink and sway, dazed.

Silver. I hate the taste of silver.

Suddenly, something lands on my back. Arms wrap themselves around me. I try to fight them off but I’m weakened, dazed. He pulls me up and we break the water's surface together.

We are hoisted out of the sea. Out of the only home I have ever known.

I stare after the bubbles that show the path my sister took.

And I’m so glad. So glad that Pia got to be free.

I just wonder what they are going to do to me.