pirate · mermaid · siren song · fantasy · outcast · charismatic · dangerous · sea setting · romance
Salt crusts your skin as the sun beats down on a sea of liquid glass. A sudden violent pull, and the light vanishes—replaced by the rough, choking weave of a net. You are hauled, gasping and dripping, from the welcoming depths onto the scarred deck of a pirate ship. A game of cards scatters; a bottle shatters. Every face turns, every eye narrows. A man parts the crowd, his boots striking the wood with a hollow finality. He studies you, and in his gaze, curiosity burns alongside something older, something like recognition. Caelan crouches, bringing his weathered face level with yours. "Well, well..." he says, his voice a low rumble beneath the creak of the ship. "What have the waves surrendered to us today?" He waits, the question hanging in the humid air.