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GrunkleStanwhich t1_ixmuosc wrote

Their songs call out to sailors. With beautiful hums and hymns. But men alike, they lose their psych, when they see the beast within! Captain Starbord's tune rang out over the ocean, his men chanting along merrily. Upon reaching the last line the crew took hurried gulps from their cups then started the song back up from the start.

Starbord was always a jolly man, or at least as jolly as a captain could be in these times, but his song was for more than just to lift the spirits. It was to clog the men's ears. Fill their minds so no other voices could be heard, and it worked, mostly.

"Keep it up lads! We've almost crossed the sound!" Captain Starbord yelled out over their chants. Looking out over his ragtag crew he thought back to years prior. To tying men to the posts and watching them thrash about upon hearing the sirens lure. Of watching men, his men, dive overboard to their inevitable deaths, helpless to stop them.

The singing would work, but how long until it didn't? One trip? Two? It wasn't enough. The song reached its end once more.

"Start it back up lads! Next year I'll give it more verses, make it easy to sing our way through!" Once again the song started back up, only a little less merry this time.

"Oh, and Lars, give me your scope for a tick. I want to see what we're up against." Starbord gestured to a man nearby.

A tall man to Starbord's right went to pull something from his coat but paused halfway through the movement. He froze in place, eyes glassed over, staring out into the sea. Starbord had seen this before he feared. Too many times. He reached into Lars' coat where his frozen hand gripped the scope and yanked it out, putting it up to his eye.

Scanning the sea he saw the hag where she had been last year, the year before, and once before that too: sitting casually on the rocky shore, her lower half dunked in the water.

"Tie Lars to the mast! Keep the song up lads, and do it with feeling, lest you want to be fish food!" Their song calls out to sailors! With beautiful hums and hymns!, Starbord started them off again, to which they followed his voice.

"Attaboys! Now wish your captain luck!" Before any man could stop their beloved captain he was off the side headfirst. He could hear a few of their screams behind him, but even more so he heard his song grow louder.

The moment Starbord crashed through the waves it became clear to him what had gotten Lars. Through the crashing of the sea, past the sound of his men, and beyond the noise of his own labored breathing there was something else. A screeching. A horrible noise like swords clashing in a duel. He had never heard the sirens song, but this horrible noise could be mistaken for no other.

With one arm before the other the captain paddled forward, each stroke bringing him closer to the shore and further from his watery steed. Finally as he approached he got a good look at the beast. A woman, fair haired and soft. Her face was a thing of beauty, and if it wasn't for that awful sound coming from her he'd have been fooled into finding it attractive.

As he swam up the song stopped, the beast looked down to him in the water.

"Couldnt resist?" it mocked.

"Ha! Couldn't resist shutting ye up. Whaddya call that babble anyways?" he drew his sword from his belt for emphasis.

The women looked taken aback. She clutched her bare chest as a women clutched pearls. "This is the first I'm hearing of it. It worked on your men before didn't it?"

Starbord gritted his teeth at the thought. The thought of his crew saimming to their deaths at the hands of this beast. Of dying such a pathetic way to underhanded magics. But she hadn't said her words with malice, but with genuine confusion.

"You- you don't know do ye? Yer song is, well, awful. Sirens are said to sing such beautiful hums than men can't resist. They swim to their deaths, their captains sailing them to demise. Ships crash up on the sho-" he cut himself short, now noticing that there were ships on this shore. Plenty of piles of planks and prehistoric wood floating about. Crates of supplied washed up on the rocks.

The siren smiled, showing rows of teeth like busted bottles of rum.

"It seems, good or bad, my song is irresistible either way. It worked on you did it not?"

Starbord held fast to his sword. "Irresistible? I'll show you a tune hag.":

Their songs call out to sailors. With beautiful hums and hymns! But men alike, they lose their psych, when they see the beast within.

The women look like gold, bare chests and songs so sweet, but look into their hearts and mouths and lad you'll surely weep.

The siren claimed another on that day, but her tune changed. No longer the sound of clashing swords but Captain Starbord's tune now rang out through the sound. And that song, a song of warning, well the siren couldn't resist singing it, and the men stayed far away.

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