Chapter Text
Everything was dark. The darkness trying to squash Ingo while screaming into his ears. His lungs burned, he was desperate to breath in, but that would only allow the blackness to rush inside of him, assault him with the taste of salt -that already stung in his eyes- then tear him back down into the depths. When his rib-cage felt like it was about to crack, suddenly light filtered from above. Maybe he was saved! Maybe he did not have to die! Silver bubbles rushed past him, the air taunting him for being unable to fill his lungs with them, for being so much slower than they were. But he had almost made it! Just a bit more! The darkness returned to frame his vision. Just a little bit more! His fingertips broke through the surface! He had made it! In his relieve he inhaled just a moment too early, the water rushing inside him like he had been afraid of. Ingo choked and coughed, but it was too late, every small panicked action only allowing the ocean to invade him more. He struggled until his limbs grew heavy, sinking back into the unforgiving darkness; the light -chopped off so suddenly by the depth- appearing like hands trying to grab him and pull him up, but he was just barely out of their reach already.
The silver haired boy shot up with a terrified cry. It was still dark around him and he immediately held his breath. Tears pricking at his eyes he looked around for the light he had to swim towards and found it, silver-white gently swaying like a curtain. Wait…
that was a curtain!
A choked sob escaped him as a sound of relieve. The door to his room opened with a creak.
“Ingo, what is going on? Why did you scream?”, the boy looked up at his father peering into his room, a nightlight in hand.
“My apologies father! I- had a nightmare again!”, at his words the old man’s grey eyes softened with understanding, he sat down on his son’s bed.
“The ocean is scary! There is no way of knowing what kind of creatures lurk within its depths! I trained you to be a good swimmer, I showed you to navigate in the dark and taught you to hold your breath longer than most other children can! Still, that would not be enough should you ever find yourself lost at sea! Do you understand Ingo?”
The words were stern and not really reassuring, but looking at his father’s face, how it appeared to grow older and sadder while speaking of the ocean, he knew his old man had only his son’s best interest at heart.
“I do!”, Ingo spoke loud and earnestly.
“Good!”, his farther placed the oil lamp onto the bedside table: “I should ask your uncle about that Pokemon he claimed would be a good fit for you! He said it could shed some light while you slept!”
At that notion the boy’s spirit rose drastically: “Really? You would allow me to keep my own Pokemon?!”
“You will turn ten soon, I’d say that is a good age to start training your own partner! But let us talk more about this matter tomorrow!”, the father walked to the door, yet hesitated a moment the handle in his grip: “And remember Ingo! Always stay away from the ocean!”
“Of course! I promise, father!”, the boy had sworn that night like he had many before, his mind already running wild with hopes and wishes about his promised partner Pokemon. The Litwick he received a month later had -while not being able to expel the nightmares- managed to make the child’s sudden startling awake a lot more bearable.
Clutching his trusted partner’s pokeball -made from Apricorn and metal- tightly, Ingo kept his eyes closed a moment longer, breathing in the salty sea breeze.
Today he would break his childhood promise; he already was closer to the sea than he had ever been in his life and soon he would be even nearer.
On a ship sailing from Hulbury to Undella Town in Unova.
He had been skeptical at first when his uncle had suggested the move. But with his father’s funeral, the now 23-year-old had no family left in Galar. Furthermore did the Unova region hold a few interesting job prospects for Ingo; Drayden had offered his nephew a position as a gym trainer in Opelucid City and if that ended up not being to the young man’s taste, the rapidly expanding railway network was always looking for people to hire.
He could think about work again, once he had survived the journey, Ingo decided, tentatively stepping onto the boarding plank that moved beneath his feet following the rhythm of the waves.
If he was to fall in here, certainly he could still swim to shore, or if not, someone would at least dive in to rescue him, right?
Clinging to the handrail with knuckles white from the force of his grip, the frowning young man looked around for any potential help. A few sailors still standing at the dock, at least four or five other passengers bidding farewell to their families and three more buff looking seamen standing on deck watching him with thinly veiled amusement.
Thinking every step forward through carefully, Ingo finally got onto the ship.
He gave the men a serious nod.
“Never been on a ship before, ay?”, the tallest of the sailors asked.
“No, I am regrettably very thalassophobic!”, the passenger informed the crew in a polite apologetic manner, though he was only met with blank stares: “That is to say, I am afraid of the ocean, to be more precise, drowning …”
“Aye! No worries! Ye won’t be drownin’ with us around, ye landlubber!”, the sailor reassured: “Besides… t’is worse fates out sea than that one!”
Ingo had no real desire to be even more afraid of the journey ahead than he already was, regardless any information that might help him survive should the worst arrive was welcome and it would be beneficial to be on good terms with the crew that would be sailing with him: “Please do enlighten me!”
“The course we sailin’ leads through sirens’ waters! Aye”, the man was all too happy to share this information: “Ever heard of ‘em matey?”
The black coated 23-year-old shook his head.
“That’s cause them ain’t real!”, the youngest of the three sailors challenged.
“Yes they are! Seen ‘em myself!”, the last man of the trio took the opportunity to spin some sea-men’s yarn: “Beautiful beasties they are! With huge tits!”
That was not the kind of information Ingo had been hoping for but he decided to stay respectful: “Well… my father always said one could never know what kind of creatures lurk beneath the waves!”
The youngest sailor seemed dissatisfied with the even younger man’s response, but the elder grinned happily.
“Indeed me boy! Though there’s more important things to know ‘bout sirens than that they’ve pretty teats! Ya see: these creatures have the faces of people an’ the tails of fish.
When fog lays thick over the waves an’ cliffs, they come out to sing, ay! Them voices lure the sturdiest of men to jump ship to get to ‘em! An’ once the waves got a hold on ya, the beasts pull ya under an’ feast on ya’r flesh!”, the first of the seamen spoke up again clearly enjoying the way his mates and the newcomer shuddered at his tales.
“And we really have to sail through where these sirens are supposed to live?”, the swaying of the waves was no longer the only thing that made Ingo nauseous. '
“If ya need to spit do it overboard, landlubber!”, the buffest of the sailors advised with a joyful glint in his eyes: “No need to worry! We keep ya from drownin’ an’ warn ya once there’s any signs of sirens!”
Ingo profusely thanked the seamen for their thoughtfulness, before bringing his belongings into the cabin that had been assigned to him. Through the bullseye he could see the ocean throwing itself against the vessel; this would truly be a strenuous journey!
The ship made easy progress on its travel, that only meant it would take closer to three than to four weeks to cross the ocean.
The first few days Ingo would pray every chance he got that they would not get into a storm or a shipwreck. Eventually he calmed a bit; as the ship’s swaying stopped tripping him up, he got to know his fellow sea farers better and learned to appreciate the beauty of the water’s surface, the freshness of the salt in the breeze, the splashing of sea-foam and most importantly the Pokemon that called the vast ocean their home.
His nights however were plagued with nightmares; fears that could hardly be soothed, because the view outside was dominated by the very thing that haunted Ingo’s dreams and letting Chandelure out on a vessel completely made from wood was an accident waiting to happen. The trainer however found some solace in taking walks on deck as the sun was just rising and no one else was awake yet.
Two weeks into the travel Ingo had almost forgotten about his original conversation about sirens, similar had happened to the three buff sailors’ recollection.
The nightmare was as horrible as ever, the darkness of the depth crushing the life out of the young man’s body, then finally light and bubbles rising around him. As he neared the surface however, he could hear a murmur coming from below. Many voices speaking words he could not quite make out, in any case they sounded expectant, excited… hungry.
Ingo turned his head, hoping to get a better understanding, but all it did was steal time he could have been using to get to the surface. As his lungs filled with water instead of air, the whispers around him continued, rising higher while he sank.
Once again he shot up screaming.
He listened intently into the darkness, but there were no other sounds than his frantically pounding heart and his heavy breathes. Dim grey light fell through the window, it was still quite early in the morning and exceptionally foggy at that. One could barely see more than an arm’s length away from the ship's wall, not like there would have been much but water to see. Regardless, Ingo needed to clear his head, now more than ever and so he made his way on deck.
The first thing he noticed was again the fog, but the second thing he registered was the singing.
A harmony of maybe ten voices, all brilliant and clear albeit a little far away. The words they sang were intelligible, but that did not matter; they conveyed a deep sense of longing and home sickness that hurt the human heart, but they also held a soft promise to heal the pain they caused if only the listener would come close enough to the source of the melody.
Ingo found the song beautiful; he made his way to the railing at the bows of the ship, resting his arms on it and his face in one of his hands. The warmth in the singing increased, beckoning him closer, welcoming him home; but the 23-year-old was content just to stand still and listen.
At his inaction a hint of annoyance slipped into the tune, more voices joining in, in an attempt to make up for someone’s impatience.
The new voices were easily placeable to be coming from the waters below, so that was where silver eyes directed to.
At first Ingo was not quite sure what he was seeing; perhaps some kind of large fish or Pokemon? But the more closely he looked the clearer he saw a group of men and woman drifting in the waters at the keel of the ship. They stared back up at him with hungry eyes, large fishtails in a myriad of colors beating behind them.
One after the other the sirens stopped singing again, astonished by the fact their luring did not affect the young man they had targeted as their prey. However the original set of voices kept singing and they were quickly drawing closer.
Ingo continued frowning down at the creatures, baffling them even more, until the source of the music was right in front of him. His eyes climbed the rising of a rock sticking out from the waves.
Ten sirens were seated on the dark stone; their sleek tails were of silver color that gleamed in different hues of the rainbow, their fins had far more frills than those of their brethren swimming besides the ship, all of them had clean white hair, fish-like white eyes and adorned their bodies with beads of nacre and pearls. All except the one sitting at the very top.
Ingo’s breath caught as two sets of identical silver eyes met.
The siren’s hair was of a slightly more shaded, silver color than the rest of his choir, it was much shorter and lay close to his head, triangular sideburns sticking against his cheeks, just like Ingo’s. His slim torso -rills in his chest where his gills were- blended into a silver fishtail with white spots, that were smoothed triangles and had dark borders. Most notable however was the merman’s face -with a pointy jaw and straight nose- that was the mirror image of the young man standing on the ship, apart from the bright smile the other wore.
Time seemed to have come to a standstill for the almost identical pair, they starred at each other speechlessly. The remaining sirens continued singing but Ingo could barely hear them, they did not matter, not like this single merman did. As the ship drifted by Ingo turned to hold the eye contact, his hand reaching towards his doppelganger without a conscious thought.
The outstretched arm came in handy almost immediately, as suddenly the youngest of the three buff sailors from his first day of boarding the ship burst through the fog.
Ingo managed to grab the man by the back of his collar, barely able to keep him from jumping overboard to his certain death. A beautiful, simply heart-breaking cry pierced the sirens’ melody, followed by a loud splash.
“Let go! Let go! I need to be with ‘er!”, the sailor screamed, punching and kicking the air.
The black coated young man felt a sting in his heart at that, the merman’s cry still ringing in his ears: “Me too good Sir, but that would be suicide, I’m afraid!”
His voice was loud enough to overtone the sirens, for a moment the sailor calmed and blinked, then he was right back to begging and struggling.
“You need to focus! This is an important matter for your own safety and survival! These are man eating monsters and caution is advised!”, it was a true statement, yet the trainer himself failed to grasp it fully.
Sure sirens ate humans, but certainly the one sharing his face had not tried to lure Ingo to his demise, right?
At least not on purpose?
Oh, who was he trying to fool! What else would a siren see in a human but a delicious meal? The merman had simply been as shocked to see his own face starring back as the Galarian!
The sinking realization made Ingo miserable. He barely noticed when more crew members appeared from the fog, taking over the task of restraining the young sailor.
Slowly the mist faded and with it the sirens’ song.
“Good job, mate!”, the buffest of the seamen came up to the frowning passenger: “Without ya we would have lost a crewman to them damned sirens!”
“I guess so…”, Ingo sighed.
“A moment!”, the man held a hand up to stop the younger from talking, he pushed his fingers into his ears before pulling out clumps of wax: “I said: good job mate! Without ya- “
“Apologies, I heard you the first time!”, the 23-year-old quickly clarified.
“Eh? But ya stood ‘ere on deck all mornin’ before that bloke came up? When did ya unclog ya ears?”, the seaman wanted to know in wide eyed wonder.
“I had not put anything in my ears!”, Ingo revealed.
Every seaman that had not been too busied with calming the disoriented young sailor to take out their own ear plugs turned to look at the landlubber in utter disbelieve.
“What a fine yarn ya have spun, matey! No bad for yar’ first try! Now tell me tha’ truth!”, the buffest on board demanded, clearly on edge although his tone remained friendly.
“What reason would I have to lie to you, good Sir? I simply stood here all morning and listened to the singing! It was truly marvelous! And seeing the sirens was fascinating as well! They looked just as you described, except there was some male ones too”, the black coated man stood his ground.
A silence laid down over the deck like a heavy blanked until it was finally lifted by the third of the trio that had spoken to Ingo the day he had boarded: “Sweet Mew! Yarn’t kidding! Are ya even a human?”
“Of course I am!”, Ingo defended himself earnestly, most of the crew nodded in agreement, very few were actually convinced.