Hudson's POV

I grumbled under my breath as I stared up at the strange ship. Ler had completely gone out of line. He knew not to interact with humans, even his laughter was too much. He had caught their attention, and now they'll probably search around with fishing nets to try and capture us.

Luckily, that human didn't look like one of the ruthless savages who do nothing but roam the sea looking for mer-folk to take as pets or sell or even kill for trophies. I knew that there was something wrong with that ship though. There was something drawing me to it.

"Does something feel wrong to you?" I asked Ler. Children were often a lot better at sensing when things were amiss. Ler was only nine, and he still had some of that intuition in him. I tried to train myself to work on it, but it would take some years for mer-folk to get that kind of skill back once it's been lost.

"It's weird," Ler said with a hum as he began swimming towards it, his camouflage tail almost hitting me in the face. "There's something wrong with it. It's like the ship's bad."

"Bad?" I questioned as I followed him. "How so? Like a bully, or like rotting fish?"

"Rotting fish," Ler answered. "I know I shouldn't eat it."

I chuckled a little, shoulders relaxing. "Of course, you shouldn't eat a boat. Wood isn't really edible, especially not big ships like that. You'll get as big as the ship and sharks will take you as competition." I reached out and ruffled his hair.

"I don't want to compete with sharks." Ler shook his head and shuddered. "We can kill them as we are, but sharks are big and scary and eat things like us." He wasn't wrong. We could probably fight off one big shark on our own. We had a venomous bite, alongside venomous fangs. It didn't mean that we killed everything we scratched or bit, but we had the option to if we felt the need to defend ourselves.

"That's very sensible of you," I acknowledged. I always found it best to point out when he made a decision which was the best one. I didn't want my little brother fighting against sharks either. "Can you tell where the bad is coming from?" I looked back at the ship again, trying to look for any sea-creatures trapped in nets and struggling to break free, or anything which could cause such a bizarre feeling.

"No." Ler sighed. "It's not like the one you think. I don't get any dangerous vibes from it. It's just bad. It's like bad luck, or when you do something, you know you're going to regret."

I tugged him backwards slightly, so we were a small distance away from the ship. I didn't like his talk about bad luck, unsure of what would actually trigger misfortune. "Something's drawing me in. I don't know what it is, but you're right that it's not good."

"Why are we looking at the ship anyway?" Ler asked for the sixth time in the past hour. "I like that human, Avion."

"Albion," I corrected quietly.

"He seems nice. He looked like he was going to be sick too." My heart warmed at the fact that Ler seemed concerned for the human. "Do you think he's okay?"

I nodded. "Yes, there are people up on the ship who will care for him." I guessed so anyway. The person who called his name sounded worried.

"Maybe he ate some of the boat?" Ler swam around me a few times. "Or the rotten fish?"

"Perhaps." I wasn't going to discourage his creative thinking. I didn't know humans too well, so I couldn't give him a better guess.

A few moments passed.

"Why are we still here?" Ler broke the silence. He sounded bored, which was very like him. It was a daily battle to keep him amused and entertained. He rather liked to watch fish swim by or see how long it took for him to get tangled in seaweed tight enough for me to come and rescue him.

"Because there's something wrong with this ship, and I need to figure it out." I didn't move.

"But you're scared of it. Is it because of what I said? It might not be bad luck, you know? Maybe it's the people on it who are bad luck. Maybe you need to say its name a certain number of times, and the ghosts of the ship would come to haunt you?" I really wished that I hadn't told him the ghost story connected to saying names. I was a paranoid person, but Ler took it to another level.

I took a moment to recollect my thoughts and shook my head. I couldn't help but adore him. "I'm trying to figure out if this ship was involved in the same thing which took our house." I tried to soften my voice slightly, but that wasn't really within my character. I had a naturally silky-smooth voice, deep and alluring. It was hard to adapt it for delicate conversations.

Ler's eyes darkened. "Oh." His tail swished anxiously. "Okay." He then became quiet, looking between me and the ship.

Six years ago, our family was taken from us. Or rather, they disappeared. There was barely a trace of them. The only suspicious occurrence in the area was a horrid foreboding feeling. It felt like all the energy and life had been taken from where we left them. Sirens, what Ler and I are, travelled in groups. It was safer for us, and it made it far easier getting food, since most humans didn't travel alone, and most sea-life was either big or also travelled in groups.

Ler had swum off and I went to find him, only to find nobody when we came back. The feeling was thick in the water, which I swore had grown darker, and we were forced to flee out of fear that something predatory was lurking in the depths.

We'd been trying to find them ever since. I had assumed that they also fled from the scene. There'd been absolutely no sign of siren life near where it happened. Nobody was at our usual rendezvous spots, and I hadn't heard a single word from any of the other intelligent sea-life.

But they had to be out there. There were no signs of death.

"Hudson?" Ler asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. "The ship's moving away."

I hummed as I looked back up at the boat with a frown. "Ler, hang onto my tail and don't let go unless I tell you."

He nodded with a determined expression, his cheeks puffing out and lips forming a line. He moved around me and grabbed onto the end of my tail, just like he'd been told. We'd been doing that ever since he was born. It was normal for parents and children to do it, or in our case, siblings. It was like humans holding hands.

"Okay, let's go." I readied myself before swimming towards the ship. We didn't go above water this time, instead opting to look under the ship. I'd done this hundreds of times in my life, stalking ships. It was pretty easy to swim under a boat, even if it did make it darker on some occasions. Which was really frustrating when you're actively looking for something on the bottom of the boat.

I think I scanned over the bottom of the boat three times, the bad feeling getting more and more intense the longer we stayed there. I was almost scared that the feeling would consume us.

I was about to give up when Ler tugged on my tail, bringing my attention down to him, and he pointed up at the boat. It was difficult to see, but there were faint markings in the wood. I couldn't quite make them out, but they didn't look friendly. I wondered if it was simply how wood was. I knew that there were lots of different types of wood and trees on land, I'd heard about that from other humans. I also knew that wood looked different depending on the ship. I wanted to think that the markings could just be a design choice, or a branding.

But it wasn't.

I was sure there was some kind of magic attached to it. The marking looked like a formation comprised of several rings, but it was the only marking like that on the whole ship. I couldn't remember seeing it before, but I knew I had to follow this ship. I had to find out where this marking came from. I had to find our family.