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Carried on ocean mist, thrown about by the waves, and falling into the murky depths below was a song. One heard in the minds of dreamers as they laid awake at night. A cacophony of notes that didn’t form a sensible melody, a sharp discord where a harmony should’ve fit.
It was a song of anguish, of a love taken too soon.
Sailors dreaded the song as much as the dreamers- but unlike the dreamers, they were not safe when they heard it. They knew they’ll be the next prisoners in an ongoing war between the sea and land.
Hunter and Luz stood mostly unharmed on deck, save from the rain, watching as the rest of the crew followed the siren’s lures to their watery deaths. They didn’t feel such an urge.
Blood filled the water splashing back onboard, pooling at their leather boots. Neither of them spoke. They couldn’t. The ship needed a full crew to keep sailing, and they were just tiny swabbies, made for cleaning and not much else. They knew their only choice was to go down with the boat.
“I love you,” Hunter called against the wind, back slamming into the mast as a gust knocked him off his feet. He’d hang on to it, but he knew there wouldn’t be a point.
Luz didn’t hear him, though. She struggled with a knife and rope in her mouth, latching on to the beam behind him, and desperately clawing her way up. She never gave in, even in the face of certain death. She really could have been captain, if Sir Hopkins hadn’t been so influential back home.
But where was their fearless leader now? Taken by sirens, probably floating in pieces on the tide.
He’d tell her she shouldn’t bother, but she probably wouldn’t listen. Even as the ship began to keel over, she held fast to the sail, whole body wrapped around the mast.
Cold ocean caught him. For a minute, he saw the underside of a wave, throwing his home for the past six months across his vision. Rain hit the surface and it looked like glitter. Air bubbles escaping him shimmered on their way back up, and that’s when Hunter knew it was over for him. Funny, he always thought he’d die a hero. Only cowards die of accidents, alone, against the whims of nature.
He didn’t dare look down into the black. He didn’t want to spend his last few seconds afraid.
Hands grabbed him, and yanked.
The next thing he knew, he was breathing again. He could feel warm sand under his back, the wind blowing his cold, wet clothes. Something touched his hand, something whispered to him, but he couldn’t make out what it was.
The voice beside him was soothing, but unintelligible. It sounded like a girl, maybe it was Luz? No, she was singing in a language he couldn’t understand. Did concussions do that? Blinking awake, blurred clouds and gloomy sky slurred above him, swimming like they had no concept of time. The voice and the presence weren’t there- only Luz.
She sounded more urgent than before, and she held his hand in her fist. “Hit your head,” was something he just barely managed to understand.
Why did everything sound like gibberish? Things looked familiar too, but he couldn’t quite place what he was staring at. Something wood beside his head stood out to him. Circular, like… A wheel. That had been the steering wheel of their ship. Had everything else been shattered and thrown around like bits of trash? So how did he and Luz make it out in one piece?
He blinked slowly… and then quickly lurched to the side to vomit. Seaweed and sand spilled from his maw, and all the water that came with it evaporated in the blazing heat.
“Ooooof... Gross. Okay dude, let’s get you fixed up.” Luz leaned up on her knees to have a look around, let out a frantic whine, and scrambled back down to his side. “Gah, there’s nothing here!”
“There was a girl,” he said stupidly, sputtering and coughing. “Where’s the girl?”
She balked. “Hi! Hello?”
“No, no, she was singing. We both know you can’t do that.” He winced and sat up a little, and the world spun even more.
“Dude, we’re on an island who-knows-where and you’re cracking jokes?” Her hands came out to steady him on his shoulders.
He tried to roll his eyes, but maybe they were already rolling. Hard to tell when you’re looking at everything everywhere all at once. “You’re usually the one coping with humor.”
“Not when you’re bleeding!” She tentatively touched his forehead, empathically wincing with him.
“So are you,” he reasoned, immediately reaching down to yank at his own sleeve. Sandy fabric tore and slid off his arm. “Here, let me-“
She would’ve shoved him off at the insistence she could do it herself, but here they were as the last two standing. Who else could she take comfort in? Maybe he’d be the last and only face she’d see for the rest of her life, and then she started wondering how short that would be. “Oh god we’re both going to get infected.”
“No, no we’re not. Uncle's going to send another ship when we don’t come back, and they’ll pass by. Right?” His hands tightened the sleeve around her bicep, blood already soaking through. He pulled and knotted, the pressure would help.
“But that’ll take weeks!” She threw her free arm up with a huff. “We’ll be dead in days. No food, no water…”
Hunter took a second to look around. “Trees? Probably some coconuts. That solves both needs in one go, but I can also use the rest of this,” he pointed to his shirt, “to make a water filter for rain. We don’t have much to purify with so I’m not so sure about it, but… yeah, that’s the least of our troubles right now. I’m sure I can even find us some kind of herbs that might help the wounds, but that’s a long-shot.”
Luz stared at him dumbfounded for a second, before facepalming. “Right! Royal education. You know how to read and stuff.”
“Well, like it or not you’ve got a tutor.” He groaned and made a move to stand, but she pushed him onto his back again.
“I know what a coconut looks like. I can do that while you get some rest.”
Luz wasn’t typically this sincere, and Hunter could never truly relax. But it’s the end of the world anyways, who cares?
A few leagues below in the absence of sunlight, stood a mass of dead coral, growing out of a crack in the seafloor. To many a mermaid, it was a place you didn’t venture to. If the terrifying aura wasn’t enough to repel you, the sea-witch who lived inside definitely would.
Amity was that kind of good, Poseidon-fearing mermaid, and she definitely had to be dragged there.
“Well come on! You said you wanted to help them, right?” Willow pulled her along, water flowing through her curly hair. “She’s the only one who’s been around enough humans to know what to do.”
Willow was her polar opposite, though she wasn’t always so bold. There was once a time Amity used her crown and power to belittle her, but after a few years they both realized how silly it was. Now they were partners in crime- quite literally, as visiting the Sea Witch’s abode could be treason. Something about her attempting to overthrow the queen.
It’s definitely not something a princess would be caught doing, that’s for sure. “I still think it’s a bad idea.”
Around deep orange brambles they swam, curling deeper and deeper into the heart of the strange structure. Amity clung to each one, half-heartedly holding herself back.
A little gray nudibranch crawled over one of the fingers of coral and grabbed Amity by the hair. “Weh? Who dares enter my fortress of solitude?”
She was almost frightened, until she spun around to see the little guy, adorned in an axolotl skull. “Oh, awww! I’m sorry little fella. We didn’t mean to disturb you, we’re just looking for-“
“King? Who’s out there?” A light flickered on somewhere deeper down. “Feed ‘em to Hooty if you want, I don’t care.”
“No! N-no,” Willow quickly stuttered out. “We’re here for you?”
A beat of silence. “…Me?” The voice inside snorted. “Oh kid, I haven’t had visitors in a real long time. You’re looking for somebody else.”
“You’re Eda the Sea Witch, right?” Amity peeped, her eyes closed as she felt a presence creep up behind her. “We’re just trying to help some humans, and I kept trying to tell my friend this was a horrible idea! Please don’t eat us!"
“Relax kid, Hooty’s a Dumbo. Unless you’re an isopod he’s not interested.”
“Hoot! I like bugs!”
Amity screamed and lurched forward right as the octopus in question landed on her shoulder. She landed in Willow’s arms. “Where is he? Oh Poseidon it’s too dark- where did he go?!”
Willow held her protectively, wary eyes scanning their surroundings for whatever was coming next. “That’s not funny!”
Eda’s voice grew closer. “Gotta disagree. But yeah, yeah, I’ll help out, I’ve got nothing better to do.” Her hand shot out from the coral in front of the girls, long red nails curling in a come-hither motion. “Are you coming inside or are you just gonna float there?”
Amity gulped, but she was pretty determined to see this through. “Okay. Yes, I guess we’re coming in.”
She slipped into the same opening the hand had come from, and that’s when she saw the witch in full. She wasn’t some horrifying monster, just a one-armed mermaid with aging scales and silver hair.
“Great. So what kind of situation are we dealing with?”
The root of the coral had been almost completely hollowed out, making room for furniture just as strange as the structure itself. Eda guided them in, and stopped them in her kitchen. Everything was black or a deep rust color, tiny anglerfish lights stuck in the corners to lighten it all up. Spooky.
“Ah- um, injured humans, lots of blood. Also a shipwreck,” Willow said. “I overheard them talking about infections and needing food.”
“Aha!” Eda called from head-first in a crate. She popped back out, holding a rusty metal tin. “Penicillin. This thing’s air tight, so ONLY open it on land, got it?”
Amity blinked. “So we didn’t have to convince you?”
“Ha! No… I used to have a human friend, and I still got my empathy. You gotta help out no matter the species. Bird, fish, human…” She passed over the box, and went to rummaging around in a cabinet.
“What’s a bird?” Willow asked her friend quietly, who shrugged. “Thank you, Eda. That’s how we felt, and anyone else would’ve told us to let them die.”
“Ah! There’s that eelroot,” she came back with a handful of bottles, and unceremoniously dropped them all in her cauldron. The thing suddenly lit up, plumes of hot water and silt billowing and obscuring her face. “…So I need something from you in return. An earring. See, I know it’s up there, I’ve just never found it. Fresh set of eyes would be nice.”
Willow nodded, wondering how one could be so casual while setting such a terrifying mood. At this point, she was realizing she’d gotten in over her head. Amity, though, looked strangely hopeful about the implication of roaming the island, presumably on feet. She tilted her head, watching her eyes as she hovered all too close to the cauldron.
“Think you can handle it?” The smoke cleared, leaving Eda to ladle the potion into empty bottles. More than two.
“Deal,” Amity said a little too quickly.
“Dramatic, much? You didn’t even let me tell you what it looks like! Bronze, rectangular, dangly.”
“Right,” Amity’s face had a little determined spark to it. “Bronze earring. Won’t let you down.”