Glaciers. Animals. Entrapment. Zevora’s fins naturally were adjusted to the icy water, the gills on her neck feeling sliced by the rope net surrounding her. The water here was too warm, she hadn’t grown in this temperature. It was boiling. Disgusting. How someone could be raised with their fins in water you could feel so harshly against every scale of your tail was foreign to her. But the air on the surface was worse.

The howling wind was relentless, every breath slicing what was left of her dignity. Her pride and soul destroyed by the oxygen. It wasn’t comfortable like the towering glaciers she weaved through in adventure, it was horrifying — feeling the air hit her figure as the ropes tighten; she couldn’t take it any longer. To try escape was a craven ending to her humiliation, feeling the weightlessness of a breeze unwelcoming against her fins.

Aboard the ship voices roar, every slosh of alcohol a threatening display of power. Men? Women? It doesn’t matter, pirates are cruel creatures whose souls are less human than her own.

‘Filth.’ She snarled to herself, the word grinding against her tongue as if a gravelly venoms Mermaid fins sell for a hefty price at pirate markets, and Zevora’s seemed to be on the menu. Lured from her icy home she followed the current, just to be swept up by brutes.

She was no siren, if she was she would likely be having a field day right now. Pirates are prey for some, but predators for all others. Imagining her fins sold to the highest bidder, her body and soul torn apart to appease those with legs around the table, and the oxygen slowly suffocating her with every inhale didnt ease any fear she had. It was reality, she was no siren; Zevora was prey.

Did she mention a pretty set of scales sell for a high price? Her head was spinning, the crowd on the deck splitting as the net is dropped harshly onto the wooden flooring. The scent of the scum almost made her puke, humanity was cruel, and the rough crowd was splitting to let one warm human body through. The smell of blood and alcohol wafting around the ship without a care for the shift in atmosphere.