Hudson's POV

"What are you going to do now?" Ler asked as he tried to look over my shoulder at the marking on the wood. I'd been staring at it for a good five minutes by now. "Is that the evil thing? It doesn't look very evil."

"Looks can be deceiving," I reminded him with a shake of my head. "I'm torn between two ideas. I don't know which one would be better." I had whittled it down to two anyway, two sensible decisions. It was arguable how sensible they were.

"Can I help you decide?" He sounded pretty excited and eager to help. I wasn't sure about telling him what I was thinking. I tried to come up with a way to make it seem less violent and harmful.

"We could go around asking about this mark," I began. "Or we could lure down one of the sailors, take them to where we keep the food, and interrogate them until they fess up all that they know."

His eyes widened. "Torture?" I was somewhat happy that he seemed horrified by the idea.

"Not torture exactly. I could probably go more for blackmail." I wasn't quite sure if that was the right word. "Or bribery."

Ler looked confused. "Which ones are those again?"

I shook my head. "Nevermind." I swam away front he ship and looked up at it. "Albion didn't seem like he knew what he was doing, did he?"

"He fainted," Ler pointed out. "He looked really sick. I don't think he likes being on water." He shuddered. He never understood why some humans didn't like water. I told him a few stories which I had heard when I was younger about humans. He never seemed to fully grasp the concept of not being able to breathe underwater. Since the two of us could breathe air and have gills so that we could survive in the sea. It was something difficult for us both to understand.

"Or maybe he hadn't seen sirens before," I replied. "That's a higher chance. He is on a boat after all, it didn't look like he was there against his will." Or it could be both. I hadn't seen this ship before, which wasn't unusual when it came to the sea. "Or he could've been sick. There are many explanations as to why a human would faint."

Ler simply hummed in acknowledgement. "We might lose the ship if we go around asking about circle symbols. We don't know if we'll come across an evil ship again."

I nodded. "Very well. We should keep an eye on the ship and follow it until we see Albion again. We cannot risk any of the other sailors seeing us. We do not know how they would react."

"But what if Albion faints?" He fidgeted with his hands anxiously. "I don't want him to faint when he sees us." There was a hint of self-consciousness in his voice which cracked my heart just a little.

"I doubt that he will." I put my hand on his shoulder. "He will get used to our existence after a little while. If we start off friendly, he might calm down enough to tell us about the markings on the boat."

Ler's face brightened. "Oh, okay."

And so we stalked the ship.

I ended up carrying, or at least dragging, an unconscious Ler through the water as I watched the ship. I couldn't blame him; it wasn't very entertaining. I didn't hear a lot from the crew members, other than a few were drunk and had a very loud argument about someone's parents being ungrateful and neglectful. I watched and waited until Albion's voice reached my ears.

He didn't seem to be talking to anyone, just leaning over the edge and muttering to himself. "What have I gotten myself into? We're in the middle of the sea, with who knows what beneath us." I had to smirk at that. "I'm completely out of my depth here, Ma. I wish you were here with me." He sighed.

The smirk fell from my lips at the last comment, and I narrowed my eyes. I knew that mortals also card for their families, or at least most did. I had heard some horrific and horrible opinions from sailors over the years about family. I'd also heard men cry and scream for their loved ones to return, vowing that they would be back home soon.

I glanced down at Ler with a soft expression. My grip on his arm tightened slightly as I slowly swam to the surface. I moved my brother so that I was cradling him in both arms, holding him secure to my chest.

I circled the ship twice before making it back to where Albion was leaning over the edge, still muttering. I stared at him until he could feel my gaze. Our eyes locked, and I knew that I had caught him.

"Hello," I spoke. "We were disturbed earlier." I tilted my head and tried to give a charming smile. I had been told that I looked creepy when I smiled, but that was probably because it was a rare occurrence. Smiling was also a method of making our prey feel comfortable. That worked when we had our usual teeth anyway. Our teeth we used when feeding was another story, and far from comforting. "I'd like to continue our conversation."

The poor mortal looked like he was going to faint again. "Conversation?" He stammered as he spoke. "What conversation? I'm seeing things, I have to be. You can't be real."

I hummed before flicking my tail, making a few drops of water hit him. It was quite tricky, considering the ship was rather tall. "I am quite real, thank you." I swam side to side in the water, staring up at his dumbfounded expression. He was rather cute when he was trying to convince himself he wasn't seeing what his eyes were perceiving. "I want to talk to you about this ship."

"The ship?" he repeated. "I don't know much about it, to be honest. Why are you asking me? I'm new on board. You don't want to talk to me."

My heart sank a little, but I tried not to let it show. "But I do want to talk to you." I stared at him as I let myself drift a bit further back. "You're going to come down here, and we're going to talk about the ship."

A low hum began to leave my throat as my eyes began to glow. His muscles relaxed as he stared down at me. I feared I had gone too far, and he would faint again. But he slowly pulled himself onto the edge of the boat and dived into the sea.

I quickly shook Ler awake so that he could swim on his own and darted towards Albion. I grabbed him in both of my arms and began to swim towards where we kept our food. "Ler!" I yelled. "Come on, we don't have much time."

Ler seemed somewhat disorientated, but he nodded and quickly swam after me, ending up in front. "You got him?" he asked excitedly. "Hi Albion." He gave a wave.

Albion began to thrash in my arms and gasp for breath, which wasn't the smartest idea on his part. I swam faster, putting all the force I could into my tail. It wasn't far away; we could make it if Albion didn't get out of my arms. Sirens didn't have the strongest arms, and he was panicking quite a bit.

"Calm down," I told him. My voice sounded rather different and distorted underwater, but I hoped he could understand. "Or you'll drown."

He stopped moving his arms and became as still as a rock. He closed his eyes and tried to hold his breath.

It took a little longer than I had anticipated to get to where our food was stored, but I lifted him up onto the rock, alongside the fish Ler and I had hunted down, and lifted myself up. I turned him onto his side and tried to make him cough up any seawater he had swallowed.

"Albion," I spoke close to his ear. "Wake up. You're safe now."