This was going to be a real problem. I was on deck at 6 am as requested and the first thing I saw was a fish load of water. An abundance of water. The entire deck was soaked in it. Kai walked up to me and handed me a mop. "I want this entire deck to be spick and span by the time I come back. Brandon will be your help." Brandon. Ugh. Hopefully, these boots were waterproof otherwise I would be in a heap of trouble. "Is there anything else I could do? Anything else? Something that does not have anything to do with water?"
Kai's eyebrows creased as he frowned. "On second thought, mopping. Sounds great." I gave an awkward smile. Kai said nothing and just passed me down the stairs that led to the rooms and the dining area. This would not be too bad. I will just use my magic to keep water from touching my feet. This dress is long enough for me to be discreet about it.
"Hey, princess," Brandon says at the edge of the ship with a smirk. The sun reflected off his ruby-like eyes. I ignored him and started to mop. "That is not very nice." I sent him a glare and continued mopping.
"What was not nice was you capturing me. You are the reason I am mopping up this floor while being held against my will, so yes. I am going to continue to ignore you."
I turned my back on him to go mop somewhere else on the deck. Somewhere away from him. "Princess never did a single chore in her life? If anything, I did you a favor. Now you have some independence and life skills. Time for you to learn how the real world works princess."
I wish he would stop calling me that. He already has an impression of me, and we talked for less than two minutes.
"I know how the real world works. It is full of scum like you. And would you please stop calling me princess? I don't know how you produced that name for me." Why I was still talking to this guy was a mystery to me.
"You speak formally, and you look like a princess. Therefore, I call you princess." Humans were very strange. "Whatever." We continued mopping the deck until we had to get more water. "Here. Take this bucket and I will take that one to throw the dirty water out." Brandon handed me the other bucket that was full of water. It was extremely heavy. I tried to place it where the other bucket previously was but could only get there at a snail's pace.
Brandon stepped in front of me and put his hands on mine. He stared into my eyes and started to take the bucket from me. "Let me help you with this princess." Brandon was an attractive guy, there was no debate on that but the fact that he treated me with such disrespect when we first met was not forgotten.
"I told you to clean, not to stare at each other like lovers." The harsh voice came from the steps, and I turned to see Kai standing there with an irritated expression. "Don't worry cap, I was just helping her with this bucket. Ain't that right princess?" He threw me a wink and placed the bucket on the ground.
"Yeah, right," I say a little flustered. Kai's body tensed at the use of Brandon's nickname for me.
Weird.
"Lea stop what you are doing. I am sending you down to wash dishes." dishes?! There was no way I could be even remotely discreet about that. Whose hands do not get wet when they wash dishes?!
"Actually, I would much rather stay here and mop with Brandon. If that is okay with you." I timidly looked at him hoping that he would fall victim to my charm. He glared at me for a minute and turned with a grunt.
I exhaled a deep breath I did not know I was holding. "Here I thought you did not like me, princess."
"I don't."
"That's why you chose to mop with me instead of cleaning dishes." I groaned and dumped the mop into the fresh bucket of water. "I did not want to do dishes. The choice was between you or cleaning up the fish your people have been viciously gutting all morning. Not a hard one, so try not to flatter yourself." Just the thought of them gutting the guppies I spent my everyday life with brought bile to my throat.
"I will take that as a compliment. At the very least you consider me better than some slimy piece of meat. I wish I could say the same about those nasty mermaids. All they do is eat our crewmates as if our lives are disposable."
The disdain in his voice was extremely prominent. It sent a chill down my back. "Your crew isn't a fan of sirens," I said matter-of-factly. "Mermaid, sirens, all the same." Ignorant. Of course, humans never bothered to properly make out the difference between our species. That is why they fall victim to so many.
"You guys have it all figured out, huh." Brandon glared at me. "What is that supposed to mean?" I rolled my eyes. "It means your crew is so afraid of sirens- I emphasize the word -that you cannot bother to tell the difference between one and a mermaid."
Brandon scoffed at me. "We ain't afraid of those bastards. Don't matter which one it is, we kill them all the same." My eyes widen in horror. "What do you mean?" A smirk plastered itself on Brandon's face.
"Come with me." His sadistic grin made my stomach churn. I followed him down the hall past the rooms. We made a right outside of the dining room. At the end of the hall, we made another left. In front of us stood a big door labeled 'treasury'.
Brandon opened the door. "Ladies first." I rolled my eyes in distaste. When I walked into the room it was pitch black. I heard Brandon walk in after me and turn on the light. When my eyes finally adjusted to the light, the scene that lay before my eyes was repugnant. Bile rose to my throat.
There were a bunch of mermaid tails hung around like prizes. As if we were trophies to claim. It was revolting. The mermaid tails had dimmed, robbed of their previous glow. There were even a couple of siren tails. There were two dryad tails. I do not know how they got those, considering dryads live in the deepest depths of the ocean. If they knew anything about our race, they would know how invaluable they are.
But of course, they do not, because as Brandon says, we are all the same to them. Something to be killed and sold to the highest bitter. Many tails on the rack were mermaid tails. These halfwits were slaughtering my kind when we have never laid a finger on their kind.
Anger replaced the bile. Through gritted teeth, I asked, "You guys did this?" Brandon stared at the tails with so much pride. It was at that moment that I wanted to gouge his eyeballs out. I never had such a dark thought, but simply imagining the torture and pain my fellow Mer-people felt on an ignorant misunderstanding vexed me.
"Yep, every single time we saw one of those bastards we pierced them with our spears, knowing for every one we killed was a sailor we saved." A dark chuckle escaped my throat. "So that is what you are telling yourselves. Is that what helps you sleep at night? Your foolish hero complex is why you butcher innocent mermaids? Do you really think you are doing anything other than taking those poor creatures from their families?"
Anger seethed through every word I spat. My hands balled into fists. "Innocent?! Do you think those beasts ever cared about the families of the sailors they lured to their death every day?" Brandon walked up to me and shouted in my face.
"You know nothing about them. Nothing! Yet you trot around with your tools and murder them. You would not know the difference between a blubber-fish and your left toe!" With one more glance at the horrific sight in front of me, I left. "What is going on?" Kai came from the opposite side of the hallway.
Noticing my distressed look, he walked toward me. "Hey, you alright?" He reached his hand out towards me and instead of the comforting feeling that I would usually get from his touch the only feeling I felt was disgust.
"Don't touch me!" I shoved past him and into Sia's room. I must get out of here before they discover what I am and sell me like a trinket or worse, put me up on their wall. I did not care what part of the ocean I was in anymore or whose territory it was. I will be damned if I spend another second with these killers.