Information
Riptide the Phyra
Waterlogged
Legacy Name: Waterlogged
The
Hydrus SerpenthOwner:
FrenchiAge: 8 years, 7 months, 1 week
Born: September 20th, 2015
Adopted: 8 years, 7 months, 1 week ago
Adopted: September 20th, 2015
Statistics
- Level: 1
- Strength: 10
- Defense: 10
- Speed: 10
- Health: 10
- HP: 10/10
- Intelligence: 0
- Books Read: 0
- Food Eaten: 0
- Job: Unemployed
and watched the sailors go down
oh, oh, you talk to me in siren song
yeah, anyone would drown
Her serpentine body slid weightlessly through the water, currents rushing past on either side. She surfaced, sharp eyes darting about until she spotted the boat, crushed against the rocks. He wasn’t there; he had fallen overboard. She dove back under and swam towards the wreckage. There he was, sinking and unconscious.
She preferred it when they were awake.
She hooked an arm around his neck and dragged him onto her favorite rock—it was especially jagged, she had found. He lay motionless, even as she curled her hand around his neck. There wasn’t much life left in him; the wreck had no doubt knocked him out, and his lungs were certainly engorged with water. She squeezed. He gurgled. There wasn’t any air left to choke out. She rolled her eyes, pulled his head forward, and slammed it against the stone. She repeated the motion until she felt the sharp crack of his skull, saw the blood staining the rock and dripping into the water.
It wasn’t a particularly satisfying kill. She didn’t even get to drown him. But he had brought it on himself by being swayed by her song. A weak-minded man of the sea, no different than the ones who had left her here to be consumed by the waves all those years ago.
He deserved it.
The sound of waves hitting a ship’s hull awakens me. I rise from my resting place amongst the sodden wreckage of my past. A small sailboat appears in the distance—unusually small for this far out at sea. A bit less of a challenge, but an easy kill is better than nothing. I push just enough of my head out of the water to begin my song. The lilting tune suffuses the sea spray salted air. The boat slows and changes course, pulled by my voice like a horse on a tether.
Maybe this one will actually put up a fight.
The boat draws nearer. Surely he’s losing control, lost in my melody, destined to crash and fall right into my clutches.
And then the boat stops.
How could he have been of right enough mind to stop? No man has ever escaped my song! Furious, I charge the boat. Perhaps I can at least get him to jump overboard, or else drag him down by force. As I approach, the sailor comes into view, and it’s—it’s a young woman, a girl.
A girl, leaning on arms folded over the edge of her small boat, gazing directly at me with eyes like the moon. She doesn’t look any older than—well, than I was. Before.
“Hello?” the girl says. I can’t respond. My throat is not made for speaking. I am not made for anything but destruction.
Better to destroy others than myself.
The girl fascinates me. She is at once young and soft, yet wizened and rugged. She seems an experienced seafarer—russet skin darkened even further by the sun, dense curls wild and wind-whipped—and both she and her boat look as though they have weathered many a storm together.
I don’t want to destroy her.
“You’re a siren, aren’t you,” she says.
I nod, cautious. Of course I’m a siren, or at least, I fit the definition. I’ve never known another like myself. After those brutes... well... I had become this, this slithering, savage beast, and I had been all too eager to return the favor. If siren is what people will call me, then it’s the only name I have anymore.
But this girl... this girl is different. She wasn’t swayed by my song. She’s heard legends of sirens in the area, she explains, which confuses me because I’ve never left any survivors to tell of my deeds—and if there were others like me, surely I would have... well. She tells of her exploits in search of sirens, which have up until now been unsuccessful. She weaves her tales with dynamic gestures and effervescent expressions, face creasing with bravado. She’s a charming girl with a kind heart, I can tell. It’s a wonder she would spare a monster like me such kindness.
In my living days, I had never felt such affection for another. But now, I ache for this beautifully wild moon-eyed girl. So I smile, careful not to bare too many needlepoint teeth, and reach out to touch her hand. She flinches in surprise, then, relaxing, takes my palm in hers.
“I wish we could actually... you know... talk,” she says with a sad smile. Her hand is warm and rough. “You must have so much to say.”
What is there to say? If I could speak, what would I have worth telling a good soul like hers? I am horrid and monstrous and cruel. As the ocean plunged the last of my humanity from my lungs, as my final breath left my body, I was rendered empty and bereft. There was nothing left in me until I found retribution—and still it has never been enough. Nothing will ever heal what was stolen from me all those years ago. Is that what she wants to hear?
“Would you...” she starts. Her voice is hesitant, but it fills me with something. Something other than the rage and sorrow that has lived there for so long. I have only ever used my voice to take life. It sounds like she has only ever used hers to give it—in the stories she tells, in the kindness she speaks.
“I don’t know what you must think of me, this strange girl seeking monsters, but... I want to talk to you. However that may work. Would you visit me? I know you stay out here for a reason, but. Even for just one night? Just me. No one has to know.”
To go where humans are would be the most foolish decision I’ve ever made. And yet, I consider her offer.
Why? Surely it’s a trap. Surely someone will find me. Surely she will realize just how awful I am and kill me.
But.
But if anyone is to exact judgement upon me, there is no one I would rather do it than her.
And so I nod.
“There’s a cove a ways east of here. Meet me there after sunset?”
I nod again, and she squeezes my hand in hers. She begins to pull away, then changes her mind and bends to leave a delicate kiss on my cheek.
“I’m looking forward to it,” she says with a grin, and sails away.
I watch until her boat disappears over the horizon, and I already miss that moon-eyed girl.
Sunset can’t come soon enough.
Pet Treasure
Breezy Bit of Netting
Mother of Pearl
Ocean Grit
Bones
Pale Sand Dollar
Pale Octentacle
Wentletrap Shell
Whale Fat
Cave Jelly
Blind Flesher
Broken Hydrus Coral
Giant Squid
Triton Shell
Nautilus
Spider Conch
Clawsion Paw Shell
Shrimp
Hydreel
Cursed Copper Doubloon
Krakling
Dyed Jute Monkeys Fist Knot
Subdued Octosnack
Cursed Red Crab Pincher
Hog Fish
Coral
Giant Crab Daddy Legs
Mermaid Tear
Ginger Rum
Loose Hydrus Barnacles
Cursed Yellow Coral
Battered Golden Doubloons
Blank Parchment
Dented Circlet
Lead Line
Siren Song
Sea Robin
Seaweed
Cursed Tan Crab Pincher
Giant Mud Crab Claw
Flowing Hydrus Seaweed
Edible Kelp
Cave Moss
Mimic Kraken
Briny Deep
Urchin Shell Beanbag
Striped Mollusc Shell
Cursed Green Coral
Bog Bean Tangle
Cursed Blue Crab Pincher
Aventurine
Dripping Elder Tome
Barnacle Brittle
Caggly
Splittifish
Severed Evil Tentacle
Siren Stein
Kraken Terrarium
Cursed Blue Jellyfish
Swirling Ocean Bead
Sunken Ship Terrarium
Whale Shark
Sailfin Plate
Spindle Shell
Fish Heads
Cursed Pearlescent Coral
Hydrus Seahorse Comb
Ghost Ship Terrarium
Whitetip Reef Shark
Thresher Shark
Piranha
Great White Shark
Fisher Hook
Nurse Shark
Elmos Flask
Cursed Silver Doubloon
Barnacle-Encrusted Whale Beanbag
Ghost Crab
Koirpse
Weathered Sailors Flask
Tiger Shark
Fossil
Giant Ocean Sunfish
Goblin Shark
Sea Charts
Lost Man
Very Fresh Pearl
Snail Shell
Manila Monkeys Fist Knot
Scallop Shell
Watchers Telescope
Cursed Pearlescent Jellyfish
Commemorative Freyalise Stein
Ship in a Bottle
Primitive Merfolk Knife
Brown Cuttlefish
Shipwreck Plushie
Bilge Water
Loose Rictus Teeth
Crab
Octentacle
Tarred Hemp Monkeys Fist Knot
Boot with Foot Inside
Tribal Fisher Harpoon
Pleco
Blunderbuss
Rowboat Cloak
Sodden Driftwood
Sea Witch Tome
Inelegant Zombish
Hessian Monkeys Fist Knot
Leopard Shark
Squid Ink
Solemn Albatross
Oysters
Eelbit
Hammerhead Shark
Baby Banner
Giant Manta Ray
Octello
Kaitos
Entangled Abyssal Starfish
Glowhere Fish
Tatterfin
Caro
Big Red Jellyfish
Dark Octentacle
Black Axolzombl
Dark and Spooky Fish