The song in the imagine is My Jolly Sailor Bold by Ashley Serena (also the same one used in Pirates of the Caribbean)
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Three fishermen's boats floated atop the swaying ocean waves. It was a late summer's evening, and the tranquil bay was perfectly illuminated by the silver rays of the full moon.
Among the boats, there were a total of four men. The youngest, Jung Wooyoung, in his early twenties, stared out at the undisturbed water. He, unlike the other men, wasn't much of a fishing enthusiast. The only reason he agreed to accompany the group of fishermen was because his mother was ill and it was the only opportunity for income at the time. But he was picking up on the whole fishing business fairly quickly. He was trying his best for her.
"Any of ya got anythin' yet?" one of the fishermen asked. His face was characterised by the creases on his forehead and the laughing wrinkles that adorned the sides of his deep-set dark eyes. Although already past the midpoint of his life, he had an unbreakable love for the ocean, and for fishing. Old age did not stop him from sailing away from his overly talkative wife to find comfort at sea.
"Nothing yet," another one of the men spoke up. He was middle-aged and far more capable of reeling in a huge tuna.
"What about you two young ones?"
Wooyoung looked up from the net he was mending. The other, the grandson of the old man, quickly checked the net that was submerged in the water. Just like his grandfather, his blood probably consisted of at least half seawater.
The net was empty.
"Net's empty, Grandpa," he replied.
Wooyoung didn't say anything and continued mending the torn fishing net. He was glad to have someone around his age on the team, although they didn't talk much. That's why he preferred to keep to himself most of the time, just listening to whatever the men were blabbering about instead.
As the night grew older and the stars continued on their journey through the sky, Wooyoung felt his eyelids becoming heavy. He still wasn't used to staying up the whole night like the other men. However much he desired to sleep, it was crucial for him to stay awake. You never knew when the sea decided to turn on you. So Wooyoung started to sing softly to himself, hoping that it would keep him from falling into a dangerous slumber.
The other men listened to him in wonder. They couldn't sing; or at least not as beautifully as Wooyoung could.
"Where'd ya learn to sing like that, son?"
Wooyoung stopped singing. He shrugged. "I don't know, Sir. I've always had a talent for singing."
"Ah, I wish I had a voice like yours. Then I could make any woman fall in love with me," Wooyoung's peer joked.
"It's not that easy," Wooyoung chuckled half-heartedly.
The older man straightened up and cautiously looked out onto the dark water surrounding them. His face darkened, and the men felt a sudden sinister atmosphere befall them.
"Ya ever 'eard about 'em sirens, boy? You shouldn't sing. You'll lure 'em here."
Wooyoung's eyes widened. "Sirens? As in mermaids?"
The old man lowered his voice. "No, no. Mermaids are not like sirens. They may both be beautiful half-fish women with voices like angels, but they ain't nothing like each o'her. Mermaids are kind-hearted. Sirens are evil."
"Sirens kill sailors and fishermen so they won't live to tell the tale, right Grandpa?"
Wooyoung glanced from the old man to his grandson. He knew very vague details about the local legends of the sea. Hearing that sirens killed fishermen made a shiver run down his spine.
"They do. Although some men have escaped to tell the terrifying legends of these horrid creatures. They intoxicate ya with their sweet voices, and then before ya can say 'carp' they drag ya down into the ocean and eat ya."
"What if one comes here?" Wooyoung asked carefully.
"Then we hit her with our oars. Such evil creatures shouldn't be alive."
Wooyoung felt uneasy about hitting a siren with an oar. Even if it was a half-fish woman, it was still half a person. And hitting a woman was wrong, no matter if she was fully human or only half human.
After the talk about sirens died down, Wooyoung mulled over the possibility of the existence of sirens. He had never heard of someone in his village spotting one before. And sometimes the fishermen's peculiar stories aren't reliable when alcohol is involved.
•••
From afar, behind the nearby rocky reef, the fishermen were being watched. Two emerald green eyes observed them in silence. The siren's skin itched and burned as her aqua scales morphed into human skin. In place of her tail, two human legs now treaded water.
•••
"Help! Help me!"
The four men were startled by the sudden desperate outcry for assistance. Their eyes landed on a young woman a little way from their boats. She was treading water like there was no tomorrow. Soon her strength would fail and she would drown if no one was there to help her.
"Don't worry, miss! We'll help ya!" The men left their nets and fishing rods in the blink of an eye to save the damsel in distress. They speedily rowed over to her, afraid that she might drown before they reached her. Wooyoung was the first to reach out to the unknown girl.
"Take my hand!" he demanded. The girl obeyed and gripped tightly onto his hand.
Together the men helped Wooyoung to pull her into his fishing boat. Her chest heaved as she regained her breath. "Thank you," she whispered. Her voice was barely audible.
"It's nothing," Wooyoung replied, feeling his heart beating faster. This girl's beauty was unusually wondrous.
"Where'd ya come from, miss? It's a long way from shore." The old man watched her intently, waiting upon her answer.
"I was on a ship in a storm. The waves were too violent and rocked the boat back and forth. I fell into the sea because of them. I floated around on a piece of driftwood, but then I saw your boats. Now you've saved me." A charming smile lifted the edges of her lips.
"It was nothing, dear. And oh my, excuse us for not introducing ourselves first," the old man laughed. One by one the four men introduced themselves to the girl.
"It's nice to meet you all. I'm y/n."
"Well, where are you from?"
Y/n looked in the direction of the shore. It wasn't very prominent in the half-dark night though. "Not from around here. But I just need to get to land, then I'll be on my way." She smiled timidly.
"All by yourself?" Wooyoung heard himself asking. Her eyes met his for a brief moment. Wooyoung felt himself drowning in them - an ocean of emerald green.
"I'll manage," was all she replied.
The old man was quick to cut in. "We'd be happy to help ya, but we're only going back to shore after sunrise. Ya don't mind waiting for an hour or so, do ya?"
Y/n shook her head. "Not at all. Will it be okay if I sing to pass the time?"
The men nodded eagerly. "We could do with some entertainment. I bet your voice is lovely," the middle-aged man spoke.
The girl just smiled. When she opened her mouth and the first words danced off her lips, the rest of the world fell silent. Her angel-like voice was all that filled the clear air. The melody enchanted the sailors, and blocked out their ability to think clearly. All they were focused on was the magic projected by her voice.
My heart is pierced by Cupid
I disdain all glittering gold
There is nothing can console me
But my jolly sailor bold
Wooyoung admired the girl in front of him as she sang. Her hair was still damp and fell down the sides of her face like waterfalls. Her face was like that of a goddess. Her vocals bewitched men. She couldn't possibly have been a sea goddess, but for a mere second, Wooyoung thought of the chances as highly probable. He had never seen someone with such profound beauty before.
Y/n smirked. She was fully aware of his fixated gaze, and of those of the other fishermen too. It had been Wooyoung's voice that lured her here in the first place. Soon though, the admiration in their hearts would be replaced with terror. Her sisters were on their way.
My name it is Maria, a merchant's daughter fair
And I have left my parents and three thousand pounds a year
Come all you pretty fair maids, whoever you may be
Who love a jolly sailor that ploughs the raging sea
While up aloft in storm, from me his absence mourn
And firmly pray, arrive the day, he's never more to roam
Far beyond the horizon, tints of pink and yellow stained the sky. Still, her voice carried the light before the dark. Y/n felt her sisters' lurking presence beneath the ocean surface. They were waiting.
My heart is pierced by Cupid
I disdain all glittering gold
There is nothing can console me
But my jolly sailor bold
None of the men expected y/n to dive into the ocean. Disappointed that she had stopped singing and worried that she might drown, they called out for her.
There was no response. Instead, uncountable small bubbles now floated on the water surface. A strange aura infected the air.
"Where'd she go?"
"What's with all the bubbl --"
The boats were abruptly pushed by an external force, causing the men to stumble. When an unknown beautiful woman with darkened eyes and sharp fangs emerged from the water, it didn't take long for the men to realise they were under attack by the very creatures they feared so much - sirens.
"We're under attack! Take hold of ya oars!" The old man's voice thundered. Luckily, with dawn near, the men could see much better than they would've been able to do at night with only three dim lanterns.
Like one man, they all picked up their oars. Their boats perilously rocked back and forth. Fear crept into the depths of their hearts - especially Wooyoung's. Earlier in the night, he had thought that he would never dare hit a half-fish woman with an oar, but things are different when you are in a life-death situation. Sirens jumped out of the water without warning. The old man's oar cracked when he hit a black-haired siren.
Wooyoung trembled. What would his mother do without him?
He nearly stumbled backwards into the water when a siren appeared right in front of his boat. In reflex, he raised the oar above his head, ready to defend his life.
"Y/n."
She stared up at him, guilt present in her eyes. He dropped the oar, but his boat toppled over, sending him falling into the ocean.
Everything around Wooyoung was a blur as he sank down into the saltwater-abyss. He could see the sirens swimming around, trying to catch the other men. Their fishing nets were drifting away, abandoned.
There's no way out of this, he told himself. He felt bad for his mother. He didn't intend to die and leave her. Just as he was about to close his eyes, a siren's silhouette appeared in front of him. As she came closer to him, he could make out more of her face and the detail on her tail. Her tail was an ultramarine colour with shades of violet mixed into it. The scales had intricate details. When he recognised her, he nearly breathed in seawater out of shock.
It was y/n.
The last thing he remembered was her arms tightening around his body.
•••
They reached a few rocks relatively close to the beach. Y/n laid Wooyoung down on the soft sand next to one of the rocks. He immediately started to cough, trying to get rid of the excess water in his lungs. His mouth tasted like salt, seaweed and fish.
"You are lucky I saved you."
Wooyoung stiffened when he heard her voice, yet he felt at ease in her presence. "You ... you tricked us! You were one of them. You're a siren."
Y/n tilted her head. "Yes, I'm a siren. But if I were like the others, I would've killed you by now. Besides, your humankind isn't any less violent than mine."
"Then why did you save me?"
The girl’s face remained expressionless. "Because you are different from the other humans. You didn't hit me like they hit my sisters." She paused. "You showed me that not all humans are merciless."
Wooyoung saw the sincerity in her eyes. He gulped. "And you showed me that not all sirens are evil."
"Don't get me wrong, but I can be evil when I want to be," she laughed. "It's in my nature after all."
Wooyoung chuckled nervously. "Right."
"Now go. Tell your people about me. Let them know that not all sirens are as bad as they perceive us to be." Y/n turned around to swim back to the depths of her home.
"Wait!"
Surprised, she turned back around to look at the attractive man before her.
"C-can I see you again?"
The girl smirked. "If you dare."
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Fun fact: In Greek Mythology, sirens are actually winged half-human, half-bird creatures and not sea-dwellers like mermaids. 🌊