Siren
Legacy Name: Strand

My heart is pierced by Cupid
I disdain all glittering gold
There is nothing can console me
But my jolly sailor bold

I'll never forget first laying eyes on him. That was the day my voice failed me. It was a still morning, and his boat had drifted lazily through my waters. He stood upon the deck, his strong arms folded on the railing as he looked wistfully out onto the sea.

His hair was shaggy, streaked golden from the sun and tousled by the ocean air, and his eyes were a hue of blue so bright and pure that I could see them from within the boat's shadow far below. He was beautiful. He was calm. He was unaware, blind to the monsters that lurked just beneath the surface for that idyllic, glassy water. Monsters like me. I watched him then, breathless and still, feeling something I had never felt before; hesitation.

He was so vulnerable, I thought, ripe to fall prey to my melodious charms. And yet so too was he strong and assured, as though nothing could change him or the way he felt in this moment. In all my many years, I had never encountered a presence so deeply moving. I could see him smile now, his eyes twinkling as they filled with the sea. They held the same depth, the same mysterious beauty.

Though my lungs filled with air and my lips had parted to let loose my siren song, nothing came. The haunting melody I had sung to lure countless men before him was lost in a breathless bid to compose myself. My chest constricted and my lips closed. What was happening to me?

As I silently drifted in the waters beneath him, I could not look away. The sun shown brightly down on him, illuminating him there on that deck in a radiant, otherworldly glow. I felt an unnatural ache building from the depths of my soul, a feeling I had never known. It became clear to me in that moment, as my eyes took in every inch of him. It was not he who was to be lead to ruin on this day, it was I.



Credits

Profile: Opal
Story/Art: Opal
Background: pixabay.com