The Siren’s Lullaby

Griffin sat next to Samantha at the edge of the pool, feet dangling in the warm water. Zinara floated in the center of the pool, her legs now fused into a long tail. Numerous other sirens surrounded the pool, both in and out of the water. Golden orange light shown from the setting sun through the skylight as well as through the bottom entrance to the pool.

“Are you ready?” Zinara asked.

Griffin nodded.

“Then come into the water, please.” Zinara beckoned.

Griffin looked back to Samantha, who gave her a reassuring grin. She then slid into the water, followed by Samantha.

“Have you chosen a name?” Zinara asked.

“Well yes, but I don’t know. It’s somewhat silly.”

“What is it?” Samatha asked with excitement.

“. . . Artemis.”

Samantha’s eyes widened and she grinned like a child given a sweet caramel on their birthday.

“It’s wonderful,” Zinara said.

Zinara addressed the crowd. “Hear me, sisters! No longer do we sing the name of Griffin Willoughby! As Sirens we now sing the name Artemis, and welcome our new sister into the pod!”

A chorus of cheers followed.

Zinara hummed a low melody, then opened her mouth and sang. Others joined, combining their voices with hers. The individual notes then split, stacking and compounding into complex harmonies and countermelodies. The song was a familiar tune, Artemis had heard it many times on the island before, but this time it was different. The main phrasings were the same, but reharmonized and structured in a way that felt less like she was searching for home, and more like she had finally, after a whole life of searching, finally arrived home.

As the song grew in volume and intensity, she felt a great pressure build across her body, like a heavy weight pressed all across her skin. It became stronger and heavier, until she felt as if she would be crushed under the weight of it.

Suddenly, Zinara grabbed her around the ribcage and pulled her underwater.

“Breathe,” she whispered, perfectly audible under the water’s surface. “Breathe the water in.”

Artemis panicked.

She held her breath and thrashed about, struggling against Zinara’s grip. The siren was much stronger underwater, and the powerful flicks of her tail easily outmatched Artemis’ strokes. She kicked and punched, jabbing anywhere she could find. It didn’t matter what or who she hit anymore, she needed to get away! She felt the horrible feeling of drowning slowly, the pressure from the siren magic was now so strong she felt like her soul was being squeezed out. The burning of her lungs became nearly unbearable. Griffin had to get to the surface! He had to make it out! He would find a way to live as a man, somehow. The refracted golden light of the sun above began to fade and dim as he slowly closed his eyes. This was it. The last dying moments of a pathetic man who could not become who she dreamed to be.

“Artemis, breathe!” Samatha’s voice cut through the water. “You have to breathe! Don’t fight it!”

Griffin opened his eyes. Samantha was there, in front of him, holding his hands in hers. Her yellow eyes shined in the dimming scattered light, and her brows furrowed with worry.

“Artemis, let it in!”

Yes. She was Artemis, not Griffin. A woman, a siren, who wanted to spend the rest of her life with the woman holding her hands. She wanted to live.

Artemis took a deep breath in.

Water flooded into her lungs, and the last of the air was expelled out of rapidly developing gills on her sides.

She breathed again, and she felt the water and magic flow through her body. Like a ruptured dam, the pressure released into her, spreading in and around, and uncomfortable sensations began manifesting all over her body. Purple spines poked through her skin on her arms, legs, back, hips and face, which then joined together with webbing to make fins. A wave of prickles washed over her as violet and yellow scales pushed their way out of her skin and rippled down, overlapping. A grinding sensation as her bones shrank and shifted, legs shortening, hips widening. Her waist shrunk and chest bulged out as breasts formed, and she felt a funny sucking sensation in her groin. In a flash, her legs knit together and formed into a tail, and her feet stretched out and thinned into a wide fanning tailfin.

Artemis, now a fully-formed siren, drifted in the water, holding hands with Samantha. Brilliant violet scales covered her head, arms, and torso, and then in a beautiful gradient, shifted into dazzling yellow towards her tail. Her dark brown hair had grown longer and waved blissfully in the current, shining purple highlights as it caught the sun.

With the unfamiliar tail, she struggled to keep herself afloat, and found herself sinking slowly. She attempted to pump it in some way that would be effective, but wasn’t gaining much headway.

Samantha tittered. “You’ll learn how to use it soon enough. I’m still learning too,” she quipped, grasping Artemis and pulling her upwards.

Samantha let her eyes run up and down Artemis’ new body. “You’re beautiful,” she said, and pecked Artemis on the cheek.

Artemis’ purple face turned furiously red. She flushed so hard she felt like her cheeks would melt off, and she stammered and stumbled over her words like a toddler. She hadn’t expected to feel so, so . . . turned on.

A nearby siren whistled, and Artemis noticed that all of the girls above water had poked their heads in and were watching gleefully. She blushed harder.

“I think Artemis is an appropriate name,” Zinara mused, working out her shoulder, “It’s been a while since we’ve had someone fight that hard against the transformation.”

Samantha chuckled. “My girl’s a fighter for sure!”

My girl. My. Girl. Two words that not only confirmed her womanhood, but clearly and succinctly stated that she belonged to Sam. Artemis could barely stand the cocktail of embarrassment and happiness coursing through her. She wanted to simultaneously curl into a ball and leap for joy.

With the help of Samantha and Zinara, Artemis broke the water’s surface and hauled herself onto the pool’s edge. She was met by cheers and clapping from the rest of the sirens. A towel was placed over her shoulders as she sat up.

“Now,” Zinara said, pulling herself out of the water, her tail splitting and turning into legs in a flash, “think hard, imagine yourself with legs instead of a tail.”

Artemis thought about herself with legs instead, and with a zwip, her yellow tail split and shrunk into two yellow, feminine legs.

“In time, you’ll learn to morph into a human appearance as well, although that takes much more mental exertion.” Zinara pulled Artemis to her feet. “For now, let’s get you settled in.”

“Tonight,” Zinara addressed the crowd, “let’s have a feast to welcome our new sisters! Oh! And it looks like the main course has finally arrived!”

Half-walking, half stumbling through the entryway, Captain Richardson entered the cave. His eyes were glazed over, and a slight amount of drool dripped from his mouth and fell on to his matted beard. His clothes were tattered and dirty, and scrapes and bruises covered his exposed skin. He looked much more ragged and beaten than when Artemis had last seen him.

In fact, with her new eyes, Artemis could now see much more than that. She saw the blackness and corruption wafting off of him like steam from a fresh roast. She could see his heart, tainted and seasoned. And he looked delicious.

Wide-eyed, she put a hand over her rumbling stomach. What was this? Why was she so hungry? And why did he look so tasty?

“The crew finally staged a mutiny,” Zinara absently commented, walking towards him, “and left our dear captain all alone on the island. With no one to boss around, he could no longer ignore the call of the sirens, could he?”

She raised a hand to his chin, and he fell to his knees.

“This one's heart is marked with Greed. He, who cared only about acquiring more and more wealth, who disregarded and cast aside others, even his own friends, in the name of power. Yes, you will make a fine meal for us tonight.”

Zinara looked to Artemis and Samantha. “Would you like to say anything to him? He was your captain, after all.”

“Can he understand us?” Artemis asked.

“To an extent. If you’d like to have a conversation with him we can stop the song.”

Artemis nodded.

In a moment, the captain’s eyes returned to normal. He jumped up and was promptly tackled and held down by two of the stronger sirens. He thrashed and kicked, swearing his mouth off.

“Fucking demon spawn! Fucking monsters! Bitches and cunts! I’ll fucking kill you all! James isn’t fucking going down without a fucking brawl!”

“Okay, maybe turn up the song just a little bit?” Artemis asked. Zinara nodded.

The captain calmed down, breathing heavily. He stopped struggling and laid on the floor, pinned by the two sirens. After all the anger and rage had simmered down and subsided, fear shone in his eyes.

Fear, and a question.

Why?

Artemis felt fury rumble and boil within herself. “Why??” she screamed. “You want to know why?? I’ll tell you why!”

She knelt down and yanked him by the shirt collar.

“You insulted me and my friends over and over, to no end! You beat me! You mocked me! You threatened to kill me! You threatened to kill the love of my life! You were reckless and devoid of compassion! You ignored Samantha and willingly sailed through a monsoon, from which eleven of my friends died!

“You couldn’t even find it in you to mourn the loss of half your crew, could you?? No! All you cared about was the fucking drugs, the fucking money! When Leo went missing, did you care? No, you had to be convinced under threat of mutiny to actually give a shit!”

Artemis stood up and spat on the ground next to his face. “You’re a shitty captain, and a pathetic excuse for a human being.”

“. . . who . . . are you?” the former captain grunted.

“You don’t know?” Artemis spat venomously. "I'll show you!" She closed her eyes and focused all her mind on becoming human, turning into a form that would somewhat be reminiscent of Griffin, albeit still female. “Do you recognize me now?”

“Uh . . .” the captain said.

Artemis opened her eyes. She was still covered in purple and yellow scales.

“Dear, I told you,” Zinara whispered, “it takes a lot of practice to learn to morph human.”

“Oh,” Artemis said, flushing red with embarrassment. “. . . uh, I used to be part of your crew.” She whispered to Zinara, “Can we kill him now?”

“Gladly.” One of the girls grabbed his head and swiftly snapped his neck. The body of James Richardson flopped to the floor.

“Lovely!” Zinara exclaimed and clapped her hands. “Let’s get this man ready to eat!” A group of girls picked him up and carried the body into another room.

“So you don’t just . . . eat him here?”

“Heavens no, he’s filthy!” Zinara said, appalled. “We have to clean him, skin him, gut him, trim the fat, and cook him first!” she said, as if that was the most normal phrase in the world. “Shelila, our resident chef, will surely turn him into something spectacular! Come, let’s get you moved in.”

~~~

That evening, wearing one of the prettiest dresses she’d ever seen, Artemis sat at the end of a very long dining table, surrounded by other sirens, who were laughing, telling jokes, and enjoying each other’s company. All across the table, a smorgasbord was spread, with grilled mahi mahi and pineapple, roasted crab, clams, coconuts, papaya, and rice. And to top it off, being served with flatbread, was the most delicious-looking, sweet, barbacoa . . . human.

Artemis still couldn’t shake how bizarre it was to see her former captain now a pile of steamy, pulled-apart meat. Something still felt wrong about eating another human, even if he deserved every bit of it. Though she was clearly now siren, a predator amongst men, she still felt guilt at the thought of it. Did the man deserve to die? Probably. But eating him? That was an entirely different thing. Artemis was not a cannibal. But then again, she wasn’t a human anymore either. Did that make it okay? She didn’t know.

It sure looked tasty though.