Surprisingly, living in the ocean is boring. Being a siren, different from what humans thought we were, scaley, webbed and clawed hands, short fins in place of ears as humans had, and sharp teeth. We of course didn’t cook our food. I found myself increasingly bored with just swimming around, sometimes I’d find old things of humans that would interest me though, my favourite was a small, shiny loop with a jewel on it. I wondered what it was meant, what it was for.

We weren’t allowed to go too close to the surface, humans could spot us, and the fear was they would hunt us. It wasn’t like that was irregular human behaviour, but my curiosity would always get the best of me. I liked going to the reefs, it was just so warm and colourful up there. Sometimes I liked to slap my tail on the water’s tension, to feel the sun’s warmth on it, I rarely did that with my head though, even if my gills were on my sides, not on my neck like some others.

It was one of these times that I saw what I thought was another siren. They were black, they had something over their eyes and mouth and a big silver thing on their back. They didn’t have a tail, instead two limbs with fins on the end. That’s when I realized it must’ve been a human. What else in the ocean had limbs like that? I swam behind a rock, but the bubbles I made must’ve given me away and they swam over before I could get away. I saw their eyes widened just as much as mine did under that thing on their face. Then they swam away, as did I.

I didn’t go to the reefs for a while, but when I did, that human was there away, seemingly playing with a shark. They would bring up the sand and the shark would sneeze, then put their hand on its snout and lean back and forth with it. They were kind. I had never heard of a human being kind to the sea, legends say that ended centuries ago. I swam back up to them, and they didn’t swim off this time, instead they looked as curious as I did. Shockingly, they invited me up to the surface and there I heard them talk the first time.

Her name was Kade, and she was a marine biologist, which was apparently a profession for humans who wanted to study the sea. That was interesting, she was kind, and curious, and not like what my species had been told of in stories so old. So we started meeting at the reef every week, sharing things from our separate worlds, then it became every other day. Then we started meeting every other day at a dock, where she could sit and I could see her without that suit she had to wear to be under water so long.

She was so different from sirens, and in her own way, she was pretty. An underlying thought I always had was to use my song on her, one that hypnotized other species into doing what sirens sung. I could bring her down under water with me, hold her there and keep her there forever more. But a dead friend wasn’t much of a friend, I knew that. I just wanted to be closer to her always, so maybe instead I could figure out a way to get on land, like her.

I was swimming through the reef towards the dock for our usual meeting, carrying tightly in my hands the shiny loop I had found so long ago, maybe I could have her explain to me what it was.