1 The Anastasia

The salty wind pulled the water while the moon blocked out by the blazing sun pushed the waves back making the harsh waters unsafe for any ordinary swimmer. The sea blue water splashed against the passing pirate and naval ships without compromising their voyage, only rocking the crew. Below the clear sky and murky waters, the ocean held many secrets that man could only dream of discovering one day. This including the last siren unknown to man.

Venus has been alive for more millennia than she cared to count. For her time spent in the water has made her wary of her early years when she'd swim alongside her family and friends. For the last two decades, she's been looking for any trace of another siren since mysteriously waking up one day with no other siren around her. She soon came to find out that it seemed like she was the last left.

She'd spent the coming years from that day on swimming across every river, ocean, and sea to find just one other creature remotely like her. As she searched, the human world above her kept adding more and more ships on the water while children swam in the shallow waters for the first time in a while. Venus always wondered why they'd only started swimming now but didn't dwell on it too much. In her search, she sent out calls and sang throughout the empty water so that if there were other sirens, they'd hear her. But after all this time, no one answered but the sailors jumping from their ships down to their watery graves.

After all these years, Venus has finally resurfaced thinking he was alone. Spitting the last of the salt from under her lip, she spat out in her native tongue, "I forgot how much I hated the smell of air! This is why Posi and I never surfaced all these years, this shit reeks." Looking around, she moved just in time for a boat to just miss ramming into her. "Watch where you're going!" She shook her partly blue and green scaley arm in the air at the big boat but paused at the sight in front of her.

Her jaw dropped back into the water when she saw the wooden statue of a siren that matched her features in a flattering way. The carbon-copy of herself bewitched her long enough to be spotted by a couple of crew members.

"Cap'n! There's a broad that's gone overboard!" The men on the boat bustled getting a rescue boat together for Venus, while she paid no mind to hem knowing she could escape in no time at all. When the small boat hit the water, she was already on the stern below the waves. She listened to their muffled voices panicking when they couldn't find her.

Rising above the sea foam, she made a disgusted face as she sucked in the air around her. She looked up to see the boat being pulled back up with the men getting off and being yelled at by who she believed was the captain, "you say there was a woman out there but then get down there to no longer see her?"

"Yes, Cap'n! It's like she vanished into thin air." Venus moved around to try and get a better look at the men but realized she'd have to climb up the side of the boat to see them, so she settled for the safer position.

"And what did this 'broad' look like?" The captain's voice slithered down the poor boy's neck and choked him as he tried his best to make his claim soundly.

He took a few deep breathes while swallowing his ego and cracked, "well..."

"Stand up straight and answer me clearly Scotty," the captain bellowed.

The boy named Scotty jumped at the demand but did as he was told, "her hair was drenched but I could clearly tell it was a light brown!"

His captain motioned for him to keep going, "yes and?"

"She had lavender eyes that bounced off of the water, which was how I spotted her!"

One of the other crew members bellowed, "did she have a bluish, greenish golden tail too, mate? How about her hair? Did it change colors whenever she pleased?" The other sailors cackled with each of them adding on to the propaganda.

"I bet she sang him an alluring song too!"

"Why do you think he jumped into a boat before Cap'n could say anything?" Venus listened to the men as they spouted things she never knew they knew about her kind.

She whispered in her lost siren language, "it seems these humans knew more than I thought they would..." She was about the grab the ladder to climb up and hear more about the sirens until the deck's chaos split.

The sound of heavy boots slowly walking across the creaky boards was all that could be heard over the crashing of the waves and the chirping seagulls perched atop the flagpole.

"Are you trying to tell me you saw a woman that looks exactly like our figurehead on The Anastasia?" The captain question with malice with a hint of hope, like a child wanting to know more while still being upset about who knows what.

The crewmate lowered his head and mumbled, "I know it sounds ludicrous but she really looked like her, Cap'n."

Venus went back under the water having heard enough of the foolish squabble. She was most intrigued by the siren perched on the front of the boat they called The Anastasia. Swimming to the front, she came back up to gaze up at the wooden girl that could've been her younger sister or even twin a that. The muffled voices of the pirates got closer to her but she paid no mind. Her concentration was on the figure above her as she thought of things she should do next with this newfound proof that there could very well be more sirens out there just like her.

"Head for the docks, men. I want to hear no more talk of the lass you thought you saw Scotty. Meet me in my quarters when we dock, I have a mission for you." The man's voice drifted away with the sea.

As the ship slowly drifted closer to the docks, Venus realized there was only one real way for her to find more of her kind. So, making sure no more men were to come from the ship, she grabbed the side of the dock and hoisted herself up letting her brown locks shine in the sun and slowly turn blonde. Sitting on the side, she watched her iridescent tail separate into two beings and change into a porcelain skin to match her arms. Stepping up, the rest of her tail floated down into a royal blue dress that stood out like a butterfly among moths.

Taking her first steps across the wooded path, she looked around with nonchalance and picked up a familiar voice that was ordering men around left and right. She turned the other way to avoid coming in contact with anyone that saw her but instead she turned right into a firm chest blocking her way. She looked up to see a man with scruffy sandy hair and a five o'clock shadow. His brown eyes peered down into her lavender ones that quickly shifted to brown to match his.

At the sight, his eyebrows shot up and he asked her, "Is there something you're looking for lass? My name is Captain Caspien P. Neptose, I can help you find your way." Looking down, he scratched his chin and asked, "looks like you're not from around here, where'd ya sail in from?"

He thought to himself, 'no one here has enough gold to have royal blue silk shipped into this town. She has to be an envoy from another kingdom or even a noble of some sort to get her hands on this quality of fabric. Not even that, there's something strange about her.' He patted her back and felt droplets of water and realized she was soaking wet.

"Baia," Venus flung the word out into the air without realizing she'd translated from her native language to English for the first time. She wasn't too phased because she's known for a while that sirens can adapt easily to speak in other languages after overhearing others speak around them.

Caspien's cheeks flushed at her single word. The soft breezy tone of her voice mixed with her languid scent of lavender and lotus wafted around her entangling the captain in her shifting eyes. He stepped forward and reached out for her hand without having a clear state of mind to ask her name.

But Venus had no time for him, "who sculpted that siren on your ship?"

In an instant, Caspien came back and looked down at the young girl he yearned for. Blinking one too many times he answered, "uhm, you mean the wooden mermaid?"

She nodded her head with an obvious annoyance in her eyes.

He coughed and scratched the back of his neck, "yeah well, it was a gift from my mother. She had it carved from my memory. Apparently I always talked about seeing a mermaid when I was younger on my father's ship." Looking up at the wooden mermaid, he continued with a mischievous smile, "I remember my mother always getting upset with me throwing her jewelry overboard the ship to give to my imaginary friend. Isn't that--"

Turning back to where Venus was standing silently, all that was left was a puddle of water. He turned in every direction to find no trace of her still on the docks. Raising his hand high into the air, the men that scurried around him all froze and faced him. Captain Caspien echoed over the water and wind, "find her!" He pointed to the mermaid on the front of his ship and watched as his men didn't question his orders like they did to Scotty's words. He looked off towards the sea and wondered if the two women he'd met could be the same then thought of his imagination getting the better of him, 'she was a mermaid and that girl just now was just lost. There's no way they could be the same person.' He stood there watching his men scramble to look for the mermaid while most seemed confused, others like Scotty knew exactly what he meant as they rushed into the town.

As they rushed around, Venus softly stepped across the deck without a care in the world for being seen or caught by any crew members. According to her, they had all been called away to look for the siren on the front of the ship she was now snooping around.