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⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖
Two weeks after she had almost been killed by a siren, the sea was choppy. Most pirates would sail through this with barely a second thought, but Gem had learnt how the ocean would warn you of danger before it happened. Around her, the sky was clear, with no signs of an oncoming storm or of any other natural danger. She peered into the water again, fearing she had made a mistake, but no, the sea was frothing like a rabid animal, wild and dangerous. Gem looked behind her to check for any other unnatural events- and there were others. A ship, almost triple the size of her vessel, with sails the size of cows and a figurehead shaped like a person swinging from the bow, holding on with a rope, was approaching at speeds, aiming for her boat. As she looked closer at the ship, she noticed the figurehead was an actual figure, pointing a sword at her, evidently instructing others aboard the ship.
Gem hurried down towards her storage room, knowing there was no way she would outspeed the other ship, and grabbed a gun from below deck, loading it with ammo. As she came back up, she noticed the ship was closer than before, and she was able to view it in much more detail. In the few moments she looked at it for, she saw that along the deck there stood around 20 pirates, each armed with a sword. Every one of them stood in range of the many cannons that lined their ship, and each cannon was aimed at her. Gem felt a sinking feeling of fear wash over her, filling every inch of her body, chilling her bones and turning her breath to ice. She had heard what pirates did to their prisoners- she had had a few herself, previously, but most of hers were sold off to prisons and towns in need of labourers. Female prisoners, however, other pirates did much worse things to them. The horror stories lurked in Gem's brain almost every minute she was on the sea. She did not want to find out the details.
𓇼 ⋆.˚ 𓆉 𓆝 𓆡⋆.˚ 𓇼
Pearl looked up at the ship above her. She was watching the woman at the helm- the only person on the ship – with wide eyes. Pearl had known from when they first met that she was beautiful. Her hair was long, curly and ginger, and poofed out from underneath a newly acquired captain's hat. And her eyes- her eyes were green. Pearl saw green often, it being the colour of seagrass, but in the underwater world, colour was dark and dull. The pirate's bright green eyes looked like life. So much like life, in fact, that they had taken Pearl's breath away and convinced her to stop singing. Pearl ducked away from view again, as the gemstone-eyed girl looked into the water with a crease between her eyebrows- was that for concern or happiness? Siren emotions were different from human ones. The pirate- Pearl was referring to her as Gem –looked back up towards something in the distance.
Another ship. This one was big. Bigger than Gem's by far. And this ship had a crew. A crew scurrying around the deck, a crew preparing for something. Pearl swam closer, curious, but didn't stray far from Gem's ship. On the new ship, people hurried around the deck, loading cannons.
Cannons.
That’s what the new ship was doing. Preparing to fire on Gem's. Pearl turned her head to The Golden Lady and saw Gem, now also hurrying around the deck, clearly having noticed the others preparing. Pearl wanted to help. She wanted to help more than anything. What could she do, though? It wasn't like she could jump up onto the deck- sirens didn't have legs. And even if she could, she couldn't swing a sword. All she could do was sing. She could sing, and at that realisation her hopes rose. She could just sing, couldn't she? The other ship's crew would jump into the water, and Gem would be fine. Except Gem would jump in too, wouldn't she? Pearl couldn't prevent Gem from hearing the song. So all Pearl could do was watch as the battle happened. Unable to help the beautiful pirate, she would have to watch her die.
⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖
Gem stood on the deck of her ship, absolutely terrified. The new ship had approached at extreme speeds, and, within the course of a minute, was now close enough for her to reach out and touch its front. She heard a cry from above her and watched as the pirate clinging to the ship's actual figurehead leapt down, landing on the deck of her ship with a graceful roll. As he stood, Gem got her first good look at him- tall, taller than her, with a mop of dark and greasy hair on his head. He was wearing a white shirt, but had his sleeves rolled up to show off his muscles and tattoos, which spiraled around his forearms and biceps. There was a sword at his waist, which he made an effort of pulling out. With a flick of his wrist, he pointed the sword at her face.
"I will not waste time." He said in an accent that sounded vaguely French, "surrender." It wasn't a question, but Gem took it as one anyway.
"No." She said, as simply and clearly as possible. "No, I will not surrender." His eyebrows furrowed in frustration.
"That is very stupid." He inched closer to her so that his sword was now barely 10cm away from her nose. "I would hate to ruin this pretty face." Gem hated how he said it. She sneered.
"Go to Hell." Then, summoning all the courage she could muster, she looked him in the eye and spat on his boot. His leather boot, freshly polished, with barely a scratch on it, was now covered in spit. He moved to say something else, but before a word left his mouth, they both heard cries from the ship behind him. The ship that was now tilting. Rapidly tilting.
𓇼 ⋆.˚ 𓆉 𓆝 𓆡⋆.˚ 𓇼
Pearl had to admit it- she was a genius.
When the pirate had swung down onto Gem's ship, she had felt hatred like never before. This man felt like he had the right to board Gem's ship and get away with it? She wanted to slash at him with her claws.
Her claws.
Could her claws cut through wood? She hadn't tried it before, but figured there was no better time than the present to test. She swam as fast as she could towards the enemy ship. The hull was a dark wood, held apart with nails and glue. Pearl flexed the claws on her right hand. Then, she swung them at the wood. When they connected, she felt her claws drag through the wood, creating a large gash in the bottom of the ship. She had cut through the bottom of the boat, and water had started to slowly pour in. She narrowed her eyes.
It wasn't enough. She could feel the ocean around her, reacting to the new space, and the water just wasn't filling it up fast enough. The boat was simply too big. By the time she could tear through with her claws, it would be too late. But was there anything else she could do? Yes. From the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of metal, silvery gold, shining in the revealed sunlight.
An anchor, lying at the bottom of the ocean. It was rusted and corroded by the sea, but other than that, it was intact.
And it wasn't the only thing lying there. Pearl was swimming on top of a ship graveyard. All around her, unnoticed before, she could now see pieces of wood strewn around the seabed. The ocean had come through. She swam over to the anchor and began to lift it towards the ship. It was so heavy. She closed her eyes and just kept swimming. Just when she felt like she couldn't swim anymore, her head bumped against the ship. She lifted the anchor to her side. Then, she swung it upwards.
It hit the ship's hull with a crunch. What looked like half of the base of the ship had been taken out with that one swing. The ship leaned to the side as water rose to fill the space. It would sink much faster now.
Pearl grinned. Her job was done. She swam back to The Golden Lady as fast as she could.
~- 𓆉 -~
The pirate on deck had left when Pearl got back, presumably having gone back to help his crew. It didn't matter. That ship was sinking, no matter how hard they tried to stop it. She had made sure of that. Back on deck, Gem looked confused but thankful. She walked over to the steering wheel of her ship and began moving away from the soon-to-be wreckage of the other ship.
And Pearl followed.
⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖
Gem sailed away from the encounter, incredibly confused. Why the ship had begun to sink, she had no idea, but she was grateful for it nonetheless. She turned her head to her right to watch the ocean, hoping it was no longer choppy. It wasn't, but that wasn't what stuck with her. As she looked towards the sea's surface, she saw the fin of a tail, red and navy blue, for just a moment before it dived back below the surface.
A siren's tail. Gem smiled under her breath. Her new friend was still following her, apparently.
"Thank you." She muttered to the sea air.
And if, within the next month, she got a new crew member who looked strangely like the siren, she didn’t bat an eye. Just looked out to the ocean breeze again, and muttered another thank you.