Goldheart stood at the bow of the ship, a beautiful song being sung into his ears.
My heart is pierced by Cupid...
It was a calming voice, wonderfully gorgeous. Goldheart has heard this voice many times before; he remembers this sweet lullaby from his youth—living by himself on the coast, dreaming of the day when he would sail the blue waves.
I disdain all glittering gold...
It reminds him of his mother, this voice, and of his younger days. Goldheart could almost smell the grass plains where he used to run and feel the soft sand of his childhood beach coursing through his fingers. He could hear the waves—the ones now and the ones back home. Home. He missed home.
There is nothing can console me...
"But my jolly sailor bold..." Goldheart sang, his mind blank as the lyrics just came to him magically.
"My heart is pierced by Cupid...I disdain all glittering gold...There is nothing can console me...but my jolly sailor bold..."
"Goldheart!" A voice yelled, pulling the blue hedgehog out of his singing trance. Was it a trance?
Goldheart felt someone grab his arm and he shuddered, turning to see who grabbed him so harshly. To his surprise, it was Shadow.
"Captain?" He asked, blinking. The black hedgehog beside him sighed with relief mixed with what sounded like anger.
"What were you doing?!" Shadow asked, yelling, still gripping Goldheart's arm tightly. Goldheart shrugged.
"Listening." He answered, looking back to the dark ocean ahead. "Can't you hear?"
"I hear and that's why I'm asking!" Shadow replied, growling lowly. "That's a siren song!"
Goldheart blinked again. Siren song? No, that was his mother's lullaby; he's heard it in his youth hundreds of times. He knew his mother's voice.
"I know what you're thinking," Shadow spoke again, lowering his voice into a threatening whisper, "roughly know. And it's not true."
"With all due respect, Captain." Goldheart retorted, glaring softly despite the captain's voice sending a shiver of fear down his spine. "I know this song."
The black hedgehog sighed, shaking his head. Why is it that everyone affected by the Sirens never listens to a voice of reason?
"I've heard this song," the blue hedgehog continued, "and I know it very well."
"Really?" Shadow snarled, growing impatient. "And just how–!"
Goldheart sighed, lowering his ears.
"As a child," he began, "I've heard this song a hundred, maybe a thousand times. It is my mother's lullaby; she sang it to me every night." Goldheart wiped the tears forming in his eyes. "She would sing it when the ocean scares me or when I couldn't sleep, or when the waves by our house crashed too loudly onto the beach when a storm comes around."
Shadow's emotions eased, watching the blue hedgehog intently. Goldheart sighed as he kept talking; talking about how the song calms him, how the voice reminds him of his home by the coast and how one day, his mother just vanished without a trace. By now, Shadow had calmed down and Goldheart was on the verge of breaking down in tears, having realised how much he missed his mother and his old home. He sniffed quietly, wiping his tears.
"Sorry," he said, "I got real sentimental there."
Shadow shook his head and placed a gentle hand on the blue hedgehog's shoulder.
"Don't apologise." He spoke with a comforting voice. "I understand."
He soon sent Goldheart back to his quarters, warning him not to step out on deck until the morning came. Shadow now stood at the bow alone, looking down at the waves, where sirens swam with evil and hungry intent. The black hedgehog shook his head again, denying what was the undeniable truth.
Goldheart wasn't affected by the Siren Song.
Goldheart knew the Siren Song.
He knew a siren.
