Chapter Text
Having six older sisters was difficult, they had all gone to the surface many times to prey on humans and she envied them.
Ariel was part of a pod of sirens, as youth, a siren can sustain itself with the human flesh caught by others in the pod; but reaching a certain age, around sixteen, things would change and you could go out and lure your own humans.
She had counted it –ten days till she could go onto the surface– she could hardly wait. There was so much curiosity about that place up there, but also, hunger for meat.
She was worried her song would not be alluring enough, or that sailors would be put off by her bright red hair, but she tried not to think too much of it, as it would upset her appetite.
Attina, the eldest, had just returned from another few days on the surface. King Triton, their father, was almost worried she had been caught, but luckily this was not the case.
Ariel watched as she came back, a golden necklace around her slender neck and a pearl bracelet that were surely given to her by someone on the surface.
“Whvat took you so long?” said Alana, the second eldest as she swam towards her. Her dark hair and blue eyes were unique and particularly attractive to sailors, though she was timid and usually felt a bit sad at having to eat them and so did not form a strong attachment to her prey.
Alana and Attina, being the first and second eldest, were closest to each other. Her sister shook her head and stayed silent.
“A hard catch? Perhaps a cute boy?” smirked Adella, a siren with a high ponytail and soft features. “I do like to play with my prey sometimes too, y'know, it's exciting.” She was the third eldest and most infamous when it came to her prey, often gathering their heads to show her other sisters how handsome they had been.
She was also the one who hunted the most young wealthy men in private boats who gave her lots of presents. King Triton warned her against this as if too many of those kinds of humans disappeared to sea, their people may come after them. Adela was still stubborn and would only catch men who were, at the very least handsome; she refused to lure anything else.
Adela was currently tidying her hair, putting small flowers that her sister Alana had picked into it, for she had a seabed to grow plants to eat to avoid the consumption of human as much as she could (though of course, a siren had to eat human flesh even to a small part; it was the first decree of the fallen angel of theirs).
“There was nothing,” sighed Attina, looking forward with an unreadable expression. “I'm going to report to my father.”
“What! You can't be like that!” whined Adrina, following after her until she was pulled back by her tail by Adella. She went up and pulled her hair, which led to a fight as both hissed at each other, bearing their sharp teeth. The timid Alana tried to break it up, but was having trouble doing as they grabbed at each other's hair and pulled and scratched at each other.
“Oh shut up you guys!” shouted Aquata while they were tussling, which didn't do a thing. Aquata was mostly sad she wasn’t in the fight herself, she was the most boyish of the sisters–her idea of capturing men was to show them how good she was at swimming– she did backflips and jumps and turns to entertain her prisoners.
“You both are much too young to be fighting like this,” said Alana, in the background, shaking her head.
Ariel wondered about Attina's strange behaviour, perhaps she's seen something disturbing up near the land. Why did she have to be the youngest! She'd quite like to already be up on the surface like the others.
As it turned out, she had gone to visit the seawitch, an old friend of the family who King Triton had fallen out with. Their father, a stern man who was muscular, with grey hair was not too pleased to hear of what she had done; that very same seawitch had tried to sleep with him practically right after his wife's death.
But before that, she was a very good family friend and bought all sorts of gifts for the seven sisters: she was so very interested in the siren culture. Attina supposed that the feud had gone on too long and that seawitch should be pardoned and be allowed to visit the pod, on account of her utility at the very least.
Ariel was very young when this had all happened and so only vaguely knew of the seawitch, Ursula.
Later, the reaction of the father was easy to predict, Ariel was at their small underwater cave when she heard their exchange. “ATTINA! You cannot do such things without my input!” roared her father. “You know I disapprove of that woman and do not want any of you near her!”
She got close to her father and tried to take his hand, which he refused. “Father, it is time to forget about the past, wasn't she once a great ally to our pod? And her magic could prove useful to us.”
“If you decide to go on and do these sorts of things again you will be jeopardising you and your sisters’ freedom to travel up on the surface. My daughters have been endowed with the beauty of the seven seas, they don't require a sea witch's magic to do anything!” he spat. “Do not insult your mother’s memory any longer!”
“Father, I was only suggesting we become more cordial with her-” she began.
“You must remember Ariel has not been yet, do not jeopardize your sister’s chance at the surface,” he said finally, which made her keep quiet, she knew her father did not exaggerate with threats.
After ten long, excruciating days, the day of the hunt had finally come– she was thrilled.
Attina put her hands on her shoulders. “You will be fine, just sing your song and someone is bound to come.” Alana nodded in agreement.
“Thanks,” she said, looking nervously into the mirror. It was strange– as the youngest, she was usually overlooked as the inexperienced, less mature one, but today was her day and all her sister's attention was on her. They circled her and made her feel nervous in front of the mirror, covered in sea moss and purple flowers.
“Don't snatch all the hot ones!” joked Adela, swinging an arm around her, before coming closer to her ear. “I heard red heads are all the rage,” she added at last with a wink.
Aquata swam up to her next, looking a little uncomfortable. “Here's my pearl necklace with a sapphire in the middle of it,” she said quietly, scratching the back of her head. The other five sisters looked on in shock and then towards each other to check they had heard things right-
Aquata usually never shared her things! She opened the flask and swam behind her to secure it to her neck. “Don't lose it or you're dead meat.”
“Hey you never got me anything when I was goin’ up!” complained Arista, the fourth eldest who went just after Aquata and had bleached white blonde hair that covered half of her face.
“Younger sister's privilege," said Aquata, rolling her eyes and looking back at Ariel. Their eyes met and the moment seemed meaningful, she took her hand gently. “Make a killing out there sis.”
She looked into the mirror and tried to convince herself she could.