“Please, don’t do this!” She pleads with tears falling down her eyes, her voice becomes hoarse, and cracks. The men give looks like a hungry beast waiting to hunt prey. The wind picks up and the waves roughen up slamming into the boat.
“Storm is comin’ now” The captain says.
“I Told yar father a ship is no place for a gurl,” he says tilting his cold, unforgiving eyes to her. “Told ‘em to find another vessel, told ‘em to just keep you home, if e’ had ta. But did he listen? If yar goin’ to blame anyone, blame him. Tha ocean is cold, cold and cruel. And she ain’t gonna let us through this without a scar, without a cost.”
The wind blows her black hair back from her face, showing her bright green eyes filled with fright and tears. A crewman…
She feels herself changing, being reborn.
Her dress is pulled away by the currents, button by button, seam by seam. The sea strips her and soothes her. Slowly swaying, her hair floats around her in a halo manner. Small water stream creeps over her injures healing them. She stops becoming something more than a scared girl or a single person in a endless struggle, as her body glows a soft green her legs brush together and begin to fuse…
She feels her tail, she feels her change.
When it’s over, she is bare, but feels no shame just pride. Her tail sways and twists in the water beneath her, more natural and stronger than her legs ever felt. She runs her webbed hands over her dark sea green scales, the same shade as the surface in a storm. She smiles with sharp canine like teeth.
Siren, she thinks, mermaid. Sister of the sea.
The captain was right, a ship is no place for a woman. This is the place for a woman.
And when she drags him and his crew screaming down into it, they will realise, the ocean may be cruel… but her sisters are worse.
The girl smiles again, and begins to swim after the ship fading into the…