A Siren at the Helm

Prologue: From the water

Flanagan stared over the rails of The Bounty. It was calm, everything. The sea was happily lapping at the ship's sides and the wind refused to blow. The only thing carrying them forward, was the current.

He thought back to the night before; to how different the weather had been. Wind had torn the sails, almost ripping the black flag from the mast, and the ocean had lashed at their hull. At one stage, he had thought they wouldn't make it through.

Without warning the captain came walking past, "Get back ta work ye manegy dog." Flanagan obeyed grudgingly and continued to lacquer The Bounty's rails.

No one really liked Captain Breakwell. He was a harsh man; a good pirate but a bad captain. His morals were undeniably flexible and he had cheated his crew out of their pay more than once. He also wouldn't hesitate to shoot anyone who had done him wrong. It was a wonder no one had brought up the subject of muti...

Suddenly a cry from the crow's nest resonated about the ship, "Cap'n, there be something off the port bow!" Flanagan peeked in the direction mentioned and indeed, there was something floating in the water not far from The Bounty. He could not see much, other than it being tiny and brown.

As the ship got closer to whatever it was, Flanagan squinted. It was a dinghy, rising and falling with the gentle waves. He could see the slight frame of something... someone in it. The ship drew up right next to the little boat. The person in the dinghy was small and sat with a hunched back. They didn't even seem to notice the gigantic ship that was passing them.

Captain Breakwell gave the order to hoist the dinghy and its occupant onto The Bounty. After a lot scurrying, heave-hoing and few angry shouts from the captain, the boat was tipped over the rails of the ship.

The dinghy landed on the deck with a loud thud. A small girl came tumbling out of it, seeming to notice the pirates and their ship for the first time. She couldn't have been older than four or five and she was drenched from head to toe. Any other child would have been shocked, scared, maybe even have cried. She stared at them calmly, meeting the pirates' eyes one by one. She met Flanagan's too. Her eyes were whirling pools of ocean, blue as the Caribbean sea.

The ship was silent as death itself. Everyone stared at the little girl with blue eyes and obsidian black hair. She drew in breath as if to say something and the whole ship descended into chaos.

Flanagan's fellow pirates were shouting questions at the top of their lungs.
"What's yer name?"
"How did ye get out 'ere?"
"What 'appened?"
The poor girl just sat there wide eyed and still staring, until Captain Breakwell's voice bellowed at his crew, "QUIET!"

Her cerulean eyes locked onto the captain. He grumbled something under his breath and then cleared his throat. "Now lass, what happened to ye?"
"What happened? I...I..." the girl's voice was hoarse.
"You what? How did ye get 'ere? What happened before we found ye?"
"I don't... don't seem to remember."
"Ye don't... bloody hell lass, don't ye try playin' games with me! This ain't the time or the place fer nonsense. Now tell me; WHERE DID YE COME FROM?"
She looked at the captain with confusion and fear and answered as if it were the most obvious question in the world, "Didn't you see? I came from the water."
The captain's face went red with anger. He looked like he was waiting to explode.
"So help me ye little rat if ye don't answer me this second I will..."

Flanagan took this as his cue to step in. "Cap'n, maybe she's tellin' the truth." He used every ounce of confidence he had, to walk up to the girl, kneel down as to look her in the eye and ask, "What's yer name lass?"
Her eyes mesmerized Flanagan for a moment before he noticed that they had gone completely blank. "Right, ye probably don't remember that either," he realised. She just shook her head.