The Drowned Sailor

A raging tempest lures poor sailors to the Tavern’s old. They seek shelter from the wailing wind and angry waters. The storm surrounds them like a haunting melody, as the glow of the Tavern beckons them inside. The Drowned Sailor Tavern has served folks for many years and stands as a staple in this seaside town. As someone walks past the mismatched chairs toward the crooked bar, a quiet melody drifts from the corner. An old bard plays a beat-up fiddle, worn by the years, with strings missing, but the notes are still resonant. His face darkened from the years and the stories he shared. And on nights like tonight, in the midst of a powerful storm, comes a daunting tale. The bard slowly makes his way to the center of the Tavern, humming through the smoke. His melody was quiet under the sound of the sailors’ drunken games. Once in the middle, his tone became louder, and his humming became a chorus:

“A black-hulled ship with sails of white,

She cuts the sea by day, by night.

But the sea keeps count; the sea keeps near,

Every debt is paid, above or here.”

The once-loud Tavern hushed as everybody turned towards the bard. For a moment, he only played his fiddle. He scanned the room as he played, waiting until he had everyone’s attention. The room stood still, waiting, only clinks of silverware, and the raging storm broke the hum of the bard’s melody. A sudden crack of thunder with the force of a cannon echoes outside. The barge cleared his throat, gaining everyone’s attention once more as he told his story.

Once there was a girl born to a noble family. You may think she wanted nothing in life but to be born a woman, was to be born a servant to her family. She was named after a flower, delicate and fragile, but they could not see the thorns that lay underneath, hidden behind the beauty. She grew to a young age, but to her parents, she was old enough. They dressed her and called upon the eligible bachelor. It was said that she was promised to someone much older than her. Although she was young, she understood that this was not the life she wanted. Through the book, she snuck from the library, she dreamed of a world bigger than hers. One faithful night, while the others were distracted, engulfed in a party, she packed a few items that she knew she could trade for a good coin. Dressed in her brother’s clothes, she headed off into the darkness, silent. Catching a ride with a traveling musician, she headed to the coastal city.

Once in the city, she made quick work of trading off all the goods and getting rid of any evidence of her past self. From there, she spoke with many of the dock workers until she came upon the information she sought: a ship looking for cabin boys. It was a new ship looking for crew members. She made her way to the ship, convincing the captain to hire her as she disguised herself as a boy, not much younger than her actual self. Luckily for her, she learned from the traveling musician that in order to tell a convincing lie, all you had to do was hide a bit of the truth inside. She was honest when it came to her reasoning about running away from home, and that she had no experience. But of course, in the tale, she made it seem as if she were the male betrothed to the girl.

The captain grew to like her, and so did the crew around her. For many years, she did the work of a cabin boy. Most of her time was spent working in the galley. But on some occasions, she ran from the bow to the stern, carrying messages back and forth. Often, when she was carrying food to and from the galley, she would hear the sailors as they took turns telling stories. They spoke much of women, sirens, and the parlor houses back on land. When they spoke of women, rarely did they ever speak of them in good taste. To the sailors, women were nothing more than something to be bought and played with, or, in other cases, something to fear. They say that if a woman ever came upon their ship, disguised or in transport, it would cause bad luck to fall upon them. The men would call out, “Women have no place in the sea.” But then they would speak of the sirens, half fish, half woman, who haunted the sea, who would call out to men and drown them.

As by nature or fate, the young girl grew surrounded by these stories, and by the time she was promoted, she had forgotten that she herself was a woman. She grew tall like a man but skinny. Many of the other sailors joked that it was from living on the seas from such a young age. Her ship and her captain became wealthy, often stopping in coastal towns for some fun. Although she never took in any parlor house’s mischief, she shared the ideology and fear of the sirens, the lonely monsters that haunted the sea. Often when the ship did port, she chose to stay upon it. For her, the land holds only distant, bad memories. A life she never wanted to return to. She grew fond of the sea over the years, the smell, and the way the ship constantly rocked. Even when the storms threaten to overturn the ship, or blinding mist left them lost.

However, her love for the crew and the ship would betray her one storming night. The waves towered over them, threatening to capsize the ship. The wind broke their mast, and the crew started to lose hope. They use rope to tether themselves to the ship, although some were lost in the storm, ripped from the ship. The Captain and the First Mate spoke, blaming the gods; they refused to believe that this storm had no reason to be attacking their ship. As they did their best to outrun and survive the storm, the captain took every man one by one. He interrogated and berated his men as he grew desperate for an answer to the raging storm. Soon his gaze fell upon her. He was past anger by this point, a monster in all accounts. He grabbed her shirt with such force that it ripped. A silence fell over the crew as it revealed her secret. Then the voices of the crew grew louder than the thunder that surrounded the ship, and with an order from the captain, the crew bound her legs together, and she was thrown into the ocean below.

The icy water, unwelcome and overwhelming, surrounded her, dragging her further into the darkness. Her body twitched as the ropes bit into her. Each attempt to escape became more desperate. Freeing her arms, she thrashed wildly, but the weight of the sea turned heavy, each swing slower than the one before. Fingers clawed in vain, curling into fists that found only water, slipping through her grasp. Using much strength, she kicked her legs against the void as the rope cut into her ankles, draining her of energy. The cold water burled itself deep into her skin, stabbing her like a thousand needles until even the pain turned into nothingness. Eyes, blinded by the salt, blurred her vision as the last light of the surface faded like a forgotten dream. Her throat tightened as she clenched her jaw, keeping the unwanted taste of the ocean out. But to no avail, the sea surrounding her mouth and throat like a flood, burning fiercely. As the death of the ocean surrounded only the sound of her heartbeat, like the panics of a war-struck drum echoed against some mumble silence. As she drifted, she tried to recall the faces and the warmth, but all that remained was a rhythm echoing from the storm.

“A black-hulled ship… sails of white…

The sea keeps count… the sea keeps near.”

By the time she awoke and her eyes met the sunlight, she noticed her body. Her legs were still bound together, no longer by rope, but by flesh. Twice as long now, covered in scales instead of skin. Her hair had darkened and grown, drifting in the water around her. Her chest was bare, a faint reminder of her human past. She drew a deep breath beneath the surface; her lungs filled and expanded as easily as if she still stood on land. The water, lighter and warmer, allowed her to move freely, though in a way that felt entirely new. She rose to the water’s edge, her body cutting through the waves. All around her stretched nothing but the ocean and the sky. She opened her mouth to scream, but no pain came. Instead, a haunting melody poured forth.

Nights passed, and she swam the seas alone. Slowly, she grew content with her body, with the truth that she was no longer human but a siren. The very monster she had once feared. A creature that haunted sailors not for hunger, but to fill an endless void. Her soul darkened with every tide, as dark as the night she was cast from the ship. She had been loyal, nothing but what they wanted, willing to serve them until the end of her days. But to calm a storm, they chose her as a sacrifice. And so she swam, mapping every bay and every shore, her heart beating with only one purpose: revenge. She hunted the ship, her hatred deepening, not only for the men she once called brothers, but for all who lived the life that had been stolen from her. And it is said that in storms like this, her melody still haunts the winds and the waves.

“The sea keeps count. The sea keeps near.”

The bard plucked a stirring tune to match his hum. The Tavern grew lively once again, noise and laughter returning, though the chill of the song lingered in their bones. It would not be the last time the tale was told. Every sailor knows not to fear the storm but to fear its song.