The men on the Valiant Treasure stand transfixed without moving a muscle. Their eyes stare emptily beyond the fog to something they cannot even see. On the gentle wind comes a humming that goes in one ear and out the other, stringing them all together. Slowly, they come back to life as their captain emerges from below deck. He is unable to utter an order before the humming pierces through his mind. His eyes glaze over for but a moment before he issues a command.
"To the rocks!"
In the distance, a woman flinches slightly at the crackling of the ship's keel splintering to dust amidst the screams of the panicked sailors waking up from her dream. The Valiant Treasure had been encroaching upon her home waters lately. She listens closely as the voices disappear into the waves. Next to her, her first mate, Davy, stands overlooking the dense fog.
"Did you sink them, Captain?"
"Of course I did."
"How many survivors escaped?"
"... None, unfortunately. There were no survivors to start with." Celeste curses under her breath. "Davy, tell Dorado to prepare a boat. We're going to dive for whatever the Valiant Treasure was carrying. I'm hoping the name doesn't disappoint."
Davy nods and goes off to find the quartermaster while Celeste continues to bask in the power of the sea before her. A wave comes a pounds against the side of the ship, sending up a wall of briny mist that rains down on the deck. It drenches Celeste's bare skin. She had long since left her clothing in the cabin. The only thing she wears a blue opal necklace made with a silver chain. The crew knows better than to disrespect or disobey their captain, especially since she lets them split her cut of the treasure. That and the macabre evidence of what happens to those under her spell.
When all of the distant screams have been drowned out, Celeste walks over to the side of the ship where Davy and Dorado are waiting.
"You sure never fail to give the crew a show, do you, Captain?" laughs Dorado, an older pirate and the former-captain-now-quartermaster of the ship. He looks her up and down with a vague semblance of interest, but Celeste knows him better than that. She meets his eyes and gets into the rowboat that they had prepared. Davy is already seated with the oars at the ready.
"Lower us, lads. We're ready to set off!" She plops herself down as the boat is staggered into the water. "I'll be depending on your help in the retrieval, Davy."
"Of course, Captain! I won't let you down."
"It's quite a pity that the rest of the men do not even want to learn to swim. They have such silly superstitions when it comes to the sea."
"Maybe, Captain, but you shouldn't be so hard on them."
"You know how to swim, though." Celeste leans back as the rowboat settles into the water.
"We're on a ship for weeks and months at a time!" Davy starts rowing the boat towards the fresh wreck. "It should be common sense."
"That's exactly why you're my first mate, Davy. You think just like me."
"Christ. You're contagious."
Celeste kicks Davy in the stomach. "Shut up and keep rowing, knave."
The mainmast of the Valiant Treasure still rises out of the water with the flow of the tide. The sails of the ship tear and strew themselves upon the rocks, mingling with the rest of the flotsam. A bloodied stench fills the air in some places but it is overwhelmed by the briny mist and the odor from the broken barrels of rum.
"Stop here, Davy." Celeste peeks over the water. "This place is deep enough."
Her first mate pulls in the oars. "Should I strip down then, Captain?"
"Of course! I don't see why you have to ask me every time."
"Not all of us are too comfortable with just being naked." Davy slides off his shirt and his bandana. Celeste's wandering eyes cause him to slow down his pace. "Can you not do that, Captain?"
"I let you look at me whenever I throw off those disgusting trappings. And you've only ever looked away once."
"Yes, yes." He continues shuffling off his boots and trousers.
A mischievous smirk comes on Celeste's face when he removes his undergarments as well. She finds most of her crew mildly attractive, though that was only after she enforced a law of weekly bathing. Davy is only a year older than her at twenty-seven, so she connects with him better than with the more experienced and more superstitious sailors.
With all of Davy's clothes in an unkempt pile and the oars stowed, Celeste removes her gem, hides it among Davy's things, and dives into the water. Her legs glow crimson and merge into a ruby tail. The enchanted blue opal was forced upon her long ago, to suppress her true form and keep her from escaping to the sea, but now she uses it for her own benefit.
She surfaces next to the boat where Davy is getting ready to join her. His eyes fix upon her bobbing breasts, whose sharpened nipples point back at him. He makes a big splash and treads water before her.
"Time for your favorite part, huh, Davy?"
"I can't pretend that I don't enjoy it every time, Captain."
Celeste leans in to plant her lips upon her first mate. She blows water down into his lungs. The first time she did this, he almost drowned, but he eventually overcame his reflexes. Her spell allows him to breath water and lasts until he dries off. Pulled under, Davy opens his eyes to take in the sight of Celeste in her mermaid form. Her cherrywood hair moves like a halo around her head, shifting with the stormy current. She is radiant in her human form, but her mermaid form completely eclipses that.
Sailors have long speculated on how they would actually make love to a mermaid, but almost none have ever been fortunate enough to see one up close and live. Celeste is far from what anyone would consider prudish or modest, so much of the crew has seen the truth with their own eyes. The transition from her seemingly-human half to her fish tail is smooth. Below her navel, wandering eyes will find their way to a neat slit edged by supple pinkish lips. If she were to turn around, Celeste would be presenting quite the pert ass, though Davy feels that that part of her looks better in her human form.
"Davy? Davy!"
"... Yes, Captain?"
She points at his manhood, which earnestly points back at her. "Do you need to take care of that before we continue?"
"Right now?"
"Yes, Davy."
"With pleasure, Captain."
Most of the Valiant Treasure lies at the bottom by the time they reach it. Only the aft of the ship remains intact - the ship's bow has been utterly destroyed by the rocks. However, it is the spilled contents that interest Celeste and Davy. Her first mate wades down to the sandy floor and inspects which chests have had their locks broken or weakened. He finds one with now-ruined spices and one with smudged, tearing maps and charts.
The breath that his captain gave him earlier did more than enhance his lungs - it enhanced his eyesight for seeing in the depths and adapted his body to the pressure and chill of the sunless waters. He moves on from chest to chest while Celeste checks the remains of the pirates.
"There's a curse at play here, Davy. Same as the other ships we wrecked."
Celeste has been on the hunt for someone ever since she became the captain of her the ship. When she was captured as a mermaid, her captors talked of a sorceror who paid well for live mermaids and mermen. They themselves were bewitched to obey his command. She would have been taken to this sorceror if not for Dorado and his crew raiding the ship she was on, though it was Davy who convinced the crew to free her and take her aboard.
"Is it the same sorcerer?" asks Davy. "Remember we've chased some false leads before this."
"I'm sure of it. I can feel the echo of his power. It's the strongest I've felt." Celeste stares at the mirrored ceiling of the sea. "What treasure have you found?"
"Pieces of eight. Not too many. We're close to the coast so they must have spent most of it at port." Davy floats her a coin to inspect.
"That's fine. We emptied the last two ships, so the men are more than satisfied." Celeste pinches the piece of eight tightly between her fingers. "You fancy us visiting port as well? I could do with the men emptying their pockets. The sound of them full of themselves is damn well annoying."
"Their pockets?"
"No." Celeste tosses the piece of eight back.
"What have you been doing lately at port, Captain? You never take your share of the treasure, so what could you afford to do?"
"I go to the inns and just to listen to the gossip."
"What sort of gossip do you pick up on, then?"
"Ship movements, which navy is in the area, where I can get supplies for the ship, and, of course, any information on the elusive sorcerer bewitching ships into trespassing through our waters."
"What does Dorado do then?"
"He does the same, out of habit, I suppose. He's the one really in charge, I should remind you. Speaking of which, we should be getting back before Dorado claps us both in irons for the night."
Davy ties the couple bags of Spanish silver and gold about his waist with rope and holds the rest in his hands while Celeste approaches him from behind. She grabs him under the arms and holds him snugly against her form. A grin forms on his face at the feeling of the stiff, coral tips of her plush bosom upon his back. Not only that, he can feel her heat against his back.
"You're making the sea saltier, Davy."
"They're just tears of joy, Captain."
Dorado and the rest of the crew welcome the return of Celeste and Davy, but especially the pieces of eight they have added to their staggering collection. As usual, Celeste hands over the lot to Dorado to distribute to everyone else.
"Hey, Dorado. What do you think of stopping at the nearest port?"
Dorado looks over at the men with a twinkle in his eye. "I find no problem with that. The deck is salty enough as it is and we've all stored up cargo below deck that needs unloading."
Celeste smirks at him. "Port Royal, it is then. I'm sure Ray will appreciate the news."
Before she can depart for her cabin, they all receive an alarm from the crow's nest. "Man overboard!"
The crew look around at each other, realizing that they are all accounted for, and glance over the railings. A man struggles in the water not too far from the starboard side.
