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Amara was shaking as she dragged herself a few feet more along the shoreline. Doing everything to distance herself from the chill and wetness of the sea. The hot sand clung to her mocha skin, The cry of the Pelagorn and the Great Auk were foreboding. A reminder that she was no longer on human shores. Where the Auk wasn’t that big of a deal and couldn’t fly, the Pelagorn could be dangerous if they decided the merchant wasn’t able to fight back. A thirteen-foot bird with serrated beak wasn’t fun to play with when it felt opportunistic.
She breathed heavily, her heart racing. Exhaustion tugged at her body, limbs weighed down by wet linen shirt and britches. The woman grew still as she tried to catch her breath. She was already regretting the earlier desperate swim for shore.
The trade vessel had gone down, along with everything and everyone. The moment she’d hit the water, time was of the essence. Not because she didn’t care or that there wasn’t anything of worth on the ship, but because they’d all heard the laughter and the songs. They were like hideous hungry angels on the surf, as the ship began to sink into an inexplicable fog. Then the screaming gods; the screaming.
The blood-curdling cries had filled her ears alongside a haunting song of so many voices. Never had she imagined that, even on the edge of Tideborn territory could, so many predators be in the sea.
Amara turned on her side, just trying to catch her breath as she gets a glimpse of the sea.“We barely ventured into Tideborn waters, and they drove us straight into their feeding frenzy.”
The sight of a man clinging to driftwood brought Amara crashing back into reality. Sitting up, she looked around trying to spot anything that may be useful. The best hope was a knife on her hip, but that wouldn’t do, it wouldn’t stop them.
” Damn it! I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, but I can’t come in after you. They’ll rip me to shreds.” The trade captain’s eyes caught the man’s on the surf as a tightness settled in her chest.
The man waved at the shore, looking around himself, his eyes filled with terror as he spotted the shifting shadows in the surf. The deckhand shifted to try and keep the circling monsters in sight. Amara shuddered when serrated fins began to circle him, a woman’s torso with long flowing black hair slowly rose up out of the water. He looked afraid, even puzzled for a moment before the yellow skinned Tideborn suddenly lunged at the deckhand.
She looked away when the screams started, squeezing her eyes shut and praying it would be over swiftly. His keening and terrified cries filled the air as the women of the seas shift into a hungry high-pitched shriek while others sang. The words were inhuman and beautiful. They swirled in the human mind until Amara gleaned a type of feeling from what the song meant.
*Hunger…hunt…joy…death…birth…*
The captain opened her eyes in time to see the blood mixing with the surf. Any sign of the man was now gone. The heavy hammering of her heart filled her ears as she stared out at sea.
This close to the water was dangerous, she had to move and soon. The captain felt her body tense when one of them stuck its head up out of the water. The mermaid was pale with flowing red hair like fire. Her eyes solid green, skin a soft sea foam to match them. She wasn’t eating with the others but watching Amara from a distance. Freckles of a darker shade dusted the creature’s skin, and it had no shame as Amara glanced away at the sight of the Tideborn’s exposed upper half.
“God, Sometimes it’s scary to think that thing could be beautiful at a distance…”
Shivering, the woman slowly crawled to her feet and tried to get to the treeline. She grabbed a tree for support, still shaky, clinging to it. “Figure out where to start just to get through the night, then find a way off this cursed rock”, sighing, she rested her forehead against the trunk for a moment. The woman tried to calm down and collect her thoughts.
She should be safe, Tideborn couldn’t walk land, without storm or solstice, at least that’s what Amara had been told growing up. Gods, hopefully that was the truth, otherwise it was only a matter of time when they got curious or hungry enough to come after her. “I’m not sure which scenario would end worse for me.”
The exhausted woman dared to glance back. She felt a cold jolt run down her spine. A second mermaid had joined the first to watch her from a distance. Its hair was dark black and flowed like long strands of seaweed, her skin carried a rose like tone that shone in the sunlight. Amara doesn’t wait any longer and slipped into the tree line. She would need rest and water before she could even try to figure out how to get off the island. Not to mention food if she was lucky enough to survive the night at all.