Jolly Sailor || Elizabeth Swann

16

Benjy listened to the mens voices and to the thump and clatter of moving barrels. He let himself lean fully into the hold of the men on either side and began humming. "My mother told me, someday I would buy. Galleys with good oars, sail to distant shores", he sung softly. His good foot tapping on the wood. He was not good with this, but he might as well try. It was a last resort and he was pretty quickly running out of those. His luck had been rather dire lately.

"Stand up on the prow,

noble barque I steer

steady course to the haven

hew many foe-men

hew many foe-men".

On either side, he felt the men loosen their hold. The two soldiers were gazing at him dazedly. Benjy concentrated. His mermaid side was stronger after his plunge into the deep. His body having taken in more ocean magic to survive. Dimly, a fragile memory, he recalled his mother talking to him about it while he recovered. Her fingers in his hair as she traced over the new permanent scales on his cheeks with the other hand. "The ocean gave you more power to survive. She made you more like me. You were still too human to survive the dark depths where even we do not venture".

He had only tried this once before and while it worked occasionally on a singular person. It had never worked on more than that. The drawback of mermaid's songs was that unlike sirens, they could not enthral through sound. Their victims had to see them, see their eyes. Sirens could enthral from out of sight, their magic in their voices. Benjy reasoned that it was because Sirens were far more inhuman than mermaids. Mermaid lured because they looked like beautiful humans. Siren's were more fishy. Still, despite his failures in the past, he might as well give it a try.

"My mother told me

someday I will buy

galleys with good oars

sail to distant shore".

The grip on his arms, once bruising, now were so loose that he could pull away if he needed.  His two guards staring in dazed awe, as if they had seen something beautiful and scary yet could not tear away their eyes. Benjy gently pulled his arms from their hold and raised each hand to cup each man's cheek.

"Stand up on the prow,

noble barque I steer

steady course to the haven"-

There was a loud clatter as the last barrel was loaded up. He had not been singing very loudly, just loud enough for it to be disguised in the rest of the sounds. Yet in the sudden absence, his voice hung there like a cloud. Beckett whirled around and his face coloured red. "Shut him up! Make him stop sining!"

It was too late. Benjy was scrabbling away. His injured ankle throbbing in pain as he forced himself into a run. Behind him the men scrambled for their weapons as they gave chase. It seems that his mermaid was far stronger in other things than looks. If he wasn't running for his life (again. He did this far too much to be healthy) then he would be pretty proud of himself. It wasn't the best, but it was far better than he had ever managed before.

He was glad that he had waited until the inhuman crew had slipped under the waves to return to their ship before making his escape attempt. Beckett could not contact them until he got back to Davey Jones, who could not step onto land. Benjy just needed to find a good place to hide.

Feet clumsy on the cobbles, injured ankle screaming at him, he half limped and half ran through the narrow alleys and side streets only a local knew. Passages between buildings and through hidden doors. Some so narrow that his shoulders brushed against each wall as he stumbled through. His route, though rambling in an effort to distract the soldiers behind him, was aiming for one place. A safe place.