I went to the pawn shop before most people where up. I walked in as the shop opened, got my money, paid my hotelier, and went back to bed.

Light filtering in through my window eventually got me up. The smell of food wasn't hurting my motivation to go downstairs either. I was still wearing the same clothes from last night and I didn't take much care to make it look like I wasn't. I practiced my morning ritual of running my fingers through my hair to make it seem like I'd at least tried. An hour with a brush would end up with the exact same result anyway.

The hotel didn't idely claim its title of "South Hellendun's Finest Hotel and Eatery." It might have helped that it was South Hellendun's only hotel and eatery, but no one much minded that. The food was delicious and the service was even better.

I might have gotten special treatment, but that didn't much change my opinion of the little hotel. The main floor had tabled crammed as close together as the limited space would allow, but somehow it never felt too crowded. Warm air always blew in off the sea to make the hotel seem warm and cozy.

During the day someone was almost always eating. I'd slept past breakfast and consequently missed all the sailors. I'm sure they didn't mind missing the chance to eat with a pirate.

I'd also missed the time when everyone who didn't work sauntered in and spent their family's money on whatever the cheapest of the luxurious foods were.

I'd missed lunch when the women all had their social clubs. Instead, I was down for the time when the hotelier and waitresses and staff all supported the people who practically lived in the hotel.

They all knew me. They all knew I signed too. A waitress promptly came over to me, looked at me, and reluctantly set down her tray of food to sign.

"Do you want your normal?"

I nodded and sat down. I slid into an empty chair and waited for my food, scanning the room.

No one I knew was there, leaving me to eat as quickly as I could to get back out into the seaside air.

I ran as fast as I could to the pier that overlooked the vast expanse of blue to look at the boats on the water. My heart swelled with pride as I saw my father's ship bobbing in the sea. It'd originally been a government ship before it met the sirens of South Hellendun. Then it became an abandoned and mostly gutted chunk of wood floating on the rough waves.

My father always bragged that he had saved her. He never talked of anything more fondly that he talked of the Red Revenge and its crew.

Though everyone on the crew had vowed and worked towards fixing her, even from a distance, the Red Revenge looked like a memory of glory that had passed and was unlikely to return. To me, it also looked like home.

I took a deep breath of the ocean air. I'd have to swim back out to it if I wanted any chance of getting back on any time soon. I sat down, not quite ready for the journey. I'd rather do it at night anyway. No one normally cared if a girl was swimming in the deep sea when it was midnight.

ψψψ

Everyone first figured out something was wrong several minutes after I had. They heard the cannons go off in a spray of gun powder, but I'd seen the two ships on the sea before they had. I felt the way the ground trembled in terror. I was in my special grove before it'd really started. I was in the water by the time the first round of cannons were fired. My tail swished through the water as fast as I could and I had a sinking feeling I would still be too slow.

The closer I got, the whiter the water was. I put my head above the water to watch the Red Revenge frantically maneuver around a much larger ship.

It was only a matter of time before the sirens showed up. I was there, wasn't I?

I couldn't help much where I was. Warships never normally came down as far as we were unless...

I didn't have time to debate the political implications of the ship's presence with myself. I needed to help.

A cannonball severely missed whichever ship it was supposed to hit and came whizzing towards my head. I dove underwater, and in my hurry to get away from the projectiles being flung through the air, I ran into one of the sirens that'd finally come to play their part in the destruction of the battling ships.

I swam back in embarrassment.

"Please don't kill them tonight," I signed, suddenly aware of how much air was still coming out when I breathed.

"Wait," she signed, her fingers gracefully moving through the water.

I desperately tried to remember her name to give my plea more weight, but I couldn't for the life of me. She was turning away from me anyway.

Sirens were closing in all around the battle.

My mother was suddenly behind me.

"Everyone," I gestured. "My father is up there. My family is up there. Please don't sing to them."

They all looked at me, and I realized with a jolt that my mother would probably be the loudest of them.

"Mom," I turned.

"We're your family." She smiled with her eerie allure.

She began to swim up with about half of her sirens. The rest looked at me.

"We're your family," the girl who I'd bumped into smiled.

It was somehow more reassuring. I didn't know why I felt more comfortable with the group of women around me with my own mother, but I smiled back.

"What are we going to do?" I asked, more baffled by the situation that I ever would've admitted.

"We wait." Came the response.