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Humans are dangerous. Humans are bad. Humans are the cause for all wrongs.
They are unseemly, with the two legs and the round ears, unable to survive under the water or even go deep enough to truly see the beauty of the sea. Rejected by the Queen of All Waters, they took to building on land, and even created structures to traverse above the waters. The most sinful thing, however, was the destruction they brought. To the land, to each other, to the water. They who have no divinity, sought to bring ruin to all else.
This was taught to all sirens, who, alongside other beings, fought back. We waged battle in order to protect the water. Our sisters on land fought the same battle, and it has been like this for many centuries. The humans fought for destruction, we fought for our home.
Seonghwa was no different. The sole survivor of a pirate attack, he’d been guided by the Mother Goddess to a nearby pod, where he was taken in with reverence. Born under the bright light of Mars, Seonghwa’s scales were the colour of night, glowing under the stars. It helped him escape the notice of the pirates, leaving him to watch in horror as everyone he knew fell to the awful, awful humans. But that was many seasons in the past now, and Seonghwa proudly called his new pod his family, fighting alongside them in many victories.
So why is it that he has saved a pirate- and his crew!- multiple times in the past few battles?
Seonghwa groaned, head in hands as he swam around his cave. He doesn’t even know the pirates name! All he knows is he’s the captain (the way his crew behaved towards him was enough to gather that much), but name? Forget it, the sirens never bothered learning human tongue and what little Seonghwa knew was from him sneaking off to the societies humans built on land.
See, what differed from Seonghwa and other sirens (that he knew of) was that he had an odd fascination with humans. Perhaps it was seeing the pure panic on a pirate’s face as another was injured, or maybe it was the genuine love and care they displayed to each other. While Seonghwa had his pod, those he held dear to his heart, the ultimate figure of devotion for sirens was the Mother Goddess. They would gather into pods mainly to fight against the humans. Love, connection, devotion? All was for the Mother Goddess, the Mistress of Rivers and Oceans, Queen of All Waters. Her titles were endless like the domain she commanded, such was her reign, such was her magnificence. So seeing the pirates, the humans, regard each other with the same care and devotion as sirens reserved only for their deity? Was it blasphemous for Seonghwa to wish he could experience it too?
And so he took to sneaking out, losing his tail for a few hours in exchange for those clumsy land…things. Blended in with the locals, and slowly learned how humans lived. How they were so social, their cultures, their customs, their empathy. How a women saw Seonghwa walking with his land flippers (feet, they were called) uncovered and gasped in worry, giving him animal hide to wrap them in (shoes, she said). It had taken the pain away, and she asked for nothing in return. He also saw how some humans were just as bad as he learned, stealing and killing for petty reasons, sometimes for fun.
Humans, Seonghwa realised, were not monsters.
He had seen in one town the grieving mothers, wives, children of those his kin killed. Wrapped up in a cycle of endless bloodshed, but the humans mourned in such a beautiful way. When sirens die, rarely does the entire pod gather. The sire and immediate relations hold a small ceremony where they release the fallen back to the water, and the siren dissolves, only leaving their song behind. When humans mourn, they shed tears, anger, sometimes even laughter. They remember those who have left, and the entire community is with them. Even strangers bowed to respect the dead, mourned alongside the family, and joined in whatever ceremonies were held.
‘When I die,’ Seonghwa thought, ‘I will not be mourned. I will not have a ceremony, nor will anyone receive my song. I will be alone in death.’
I don’t want to be alone.
And so, it had started as a regular battle against pirates. Seonghwa fought distractedly, mind plagued with the images of grieving people. His claws slashed through a man’s neck. ‘He might have a wife.’ He tasted the warm blood of another. ‘His mother will grieve.’ He ripped out a women’s heart. ‘Could she have children on land?’
“NO!”
Turning to the sound of the agonising painful wretched scream, Seonghwa watched as a man pushed another away from the sharp claws of his kin, a devastating blow dealt as he slashed the sirens head off. Hello, Hannah. Apologies for the deception, but I wanted to make sure you started reading, so I thought it best not to announce myself. I'm assuming you're alone; you always did prefer to read your statements in private. I wouldn't try to stop reading; there's every likelihood you'll just hurt yourself. So just listen. Now, shall we turn the page and try again?