Disclaimer: I tried to steal Jack away from the Disney lawyers, but they stole him back…damn it.
AN: Here is my newest Pirates fic! Sorry, no love scenes in this story, just PG or PG-13, depending on how violent I want it to get. I hope you enjoy it, because I'm going to enjoy writing it. Also, this is not a feminist story of any sort (though it can be if you want it to, in your mind). It's for fun and for the sake of a good (made up) storyline, but that's it! Now sit back and enjoy the fic!
Chapter 1: A History of the Sirens of the Sea:
Almost everyone who hears about the creatures known as the Sirens assumes that they are only a myth, a tale of female beings that sing sailors to their deaths. Some believe that they lure men amid deadly rocky shores for the sake of their own pleasure, or as ordered upon them by the Gods of old forgotten days. However, nearly all of these tales have been twisted and changed by the lips of men, who are known for making things far more extraordinary and very different from what they truly are.
In truth, the Sirens are not mystical creatures with human heads and animal bodies, or sporting demon horns upon their heads. Instead, they are full-blooded women with the voices of angels, voices which sing out a warning to whomever and whatever ship they happen to meet…for the Sirens of the Sea are not ordinary women, but are in fact a vast fleet of female pirates. Targeting unsuspecting ships, the Sirens always let a ship know when they are coming to raid, plunder, or seek revenge, just so the captains of said ships know who it is they are fighting against.
In a world ruled by men, it is no wonder that many have not heard of them as the great pirates they are. Throughout time men have long tried to suppress the myths about these magnificent women, and the fact that many male captains had been defeated by a band of formidable female fighters puts the men to shame. So, to save face in history, men have changed the image of the Sirens of the Sea into a terrifying, yet somewhat unbelievable, myth.
But not all things about the Sirens are spun from thin air. It is true that their voices, while beautiful and wonderful to listen to, bring the possibility of death, but it is only to those who deserve it; so are the beliefs of the Sirens, stemming back thousands of years ago to their founding.
Long ago, in the time of the ancient civilizations of the Greeks, a lone woman called Althea was born into a wealthy Greek merchant house full of uncles, brothers, and male cousins. For as long as she could remember, she had lived by the blue waters and longed to sail the seas as her kinsmen did. While her relatives drank wine and feasted at night, she quietly snuck away to the shores to watch the sailors at their tasks, singing quietly to herself as she studied their movements and their tasks. Her songs had no words, but they spoke of her feelings, and as she watched the sailors at the docks, her songs were always ones full of longing.
One night, as she watched and sang, a hand reached out and grabbed her by the throat, causing her to loose her breath and faint. She next awoke in a cage, surrounded by other captive women who had also been taken unawares. Angry and unable to free herself from the cage and chains imprisoning her, Althea sang songs of revenge to herself and to her fellow slaves, who eagerly took up the songs and used them as a form of comfort to themselves. One day, as they were being shipped to a foreign slave market, Althea managed to sneak a thin strip of metal into her ragged clothes to be used during just the right moment of their voyage.
When they had been at sea for several days, Althea revealed the strip of metal to the others, and the women secretly freed themselves from their bonds, quietly waiting for nightfall to make their escape. Many held grudges against their present masters for the torment they had been put through, and were intent on revenge. After night had fallen and the men had drifted into sleep, the women slipped out of their cage and moved through the ship, and quietly killing the men who had so brutally harmed them, leaving few survivors. The only men who had been spared were those who the women believed knew the most about fighting, trading, and sailing, and it was with these men that the women used to obtain the skills to survive the harshness of the sea.
At first, the ship full of women sailors had no name, but all agreed that Althea would be their leader, as she had been the success and hope behind their new freedom. Accepting the leadership, she gave the women under her command the bravery it took to never submit to another, no matter the circumstance. Her beautiful voice could be heard singing from all points of the ship, bringing joy to her crew as their captured male sailors taught them to fight, sail, trade, and even how to loot other ships. Life had become good for them, and they had no desire to return home and be ruled by any others than themselves. They were free to do as they pleased, and they lived the lives that had been denied to them.
As time passed, the women felt the need to pass on this sense of freedom to others, and went in search of women they felt worthy of their cause. One night, Althea captained the ship into a small Greek port, careful to avoid confrontations with the men of other ships, and the few men onboard her ship were sent off with a female companion to search for more crewmembers. However, one of the men had dared to attempt his freedom from the 'witches' who had captured him, and had killed her without a second thought, escaping into the night. One of her 'sisters' found her before dawn and ran to tell the others about what had happened the night before.
Althea was furious by the news, but had not the means to track down the murderer of her beloved crewmate, and decided to name their group after their departed sister, Serena. After that, they became the Sirens, their hearts full of anger with the unjust acts done upon them and their companion. Once they left the port, Althea taught the crewwomen aboard a wordless song that spoke of sadness and loss, and as they sailed away, their song echoed across the sea and into the harbor. Those who heard the song became both frightened and moved, and believed the song to be made by unhappy spirits of the night. For years afterwards, few dared to leave their homes at night, for fear of encountering the source of the song.
Only one man dared to stay out that night, and when the last note of song had faded from the harbor, the escaped sailor ran to the nearest public place and blurted out his tale. People laughed and claimed he was ill, as they believed that no woman would ever be strong enough to defeat a man and capture a ship. The sailor spent the remainder of his life pleading for other to listen to him and to save the other men aboard the vessel, but none listened until his final days, when the Sirens began to turn away from living off the sea and had turned towards pillaging other ships for their needs. The few men who lived to tell the tales about their destroyed ships were all deemed mad, especially when they said that a ship crewed by women with the voices of goddesses had sang them to their destruction.
These tales were greatly changed and exaggerated over time, and men either listened to the stories or pushed them aside as myth. However, quite a number of sailors could be found telling stories about their encounters with the Sirens who had robbed and possibly destroyed their ships. Of course, not wanting to admit that they had actually been beaten by women, they told fantastic tales of creatures with human heads and bird or animal bodies to cover their hurt prides. Upon hearing these tales, some adventurers searched for the Sirens as a means of entertainment, and many returned empty-handed. Others, those who had succeeded in finding what they sought, became eternal prisoners onboard the Siren ship.
In her last years of life, Althea realized that one ship was not enough for the needs of her growing crew, some of which had begun to create families with the male prisoners they had taken. She then ordered for her crew to take ships whole and not to destroy them as they had previously done. All too soon, Althea was captain of a small fleet of ships that obeyed her every command, rule, and condition. When she died, her fleet was ten ships strong, and growing.
After the death of their legendary leader, the Siren fleet agreed to uphold the beliefs that Althea had held and had engraved onto their hearts: no man ruled them, and the freedom of the sea was theirs. Their voices were impressive and struck fear into men, and whether they believed it or not, they were more powerful then they seemed. After Althea's funeral, a council consisting of the captains from each ship agreed that the fleet would be far too great to keep together, and decided that they would explore the world on their own, seeking out new experiences and helping women they felt deserved it.
However, the Siren captains also agreed that they needed a place to officially call "home," a place to hold in their hearts and to return to whenever they felt the need to reunite with friends, or even blood-sisters, that had desired to travel upon different ships. So, it is said that they dwell on an island from which no male sailor, whether he arrives as captive or shipwreck, leaves alive or without the consent of the Sirens themselves. Aria, the Island of the Sirens, founded thousands of years in the past as a home for those women who desired freedom, a safe haven from the world of men for fear of discovery and death.
It is said Aria is an island not located on any map, and is protected by large rocky barrier reefs, keeping the island from ever being touched by the hands of men. The island itself is in the shape of a crescent moon, and several miles long. Surrounding the entire island are the reefs that naturally formed over the eons, providing natural protection against invasion. By pure luck and the extremely good skills of a female captain, the Sirens somehow managed to sail safely through the reefs, and can easily come and go from the isle as they please with little difficulty. Lush plants and wildlife abound everywhere, and exotic flowers provide herbs for food and medicines. Although no one knows how the Sirens located the island, it is said they were thoroughly pleased with their finding, and the captains of the Siren fleet brought wood from destroyed ships and built their first town.
There are no names for the towns on the island, except for the first founding site, which rests in the center of the crescent moon-shaped bay, which the Sirens called Althea, after their first leader. Upon building the first homes of Althea, the captains attempted to decide whom to leave behind to guard and protect the island, deciding to leave behind primarily those who could be spared and those who wished to remain there. Mostly it consisted of young women who wished to raise their children (especially girl-children) on land until they were old enough to learn how to sail. The Elders, those women who were too old to earn their keep on the ships, were given places to live and were well-provided for, as their wisdom was valuable, and were asked to be the ruling council on Aria.
After deciding which women to leave behind, there was a debate about the men, both captured and willing. Willing men were those taken aboard as slaves but had fallen in love with one Siren and wedded her without a second thought, pledging his life to the rules and ways of the Sirens. These men were given the choice of following their wives, whether it be on their sea voyages or raising their children on land until they were of sea-faring age. Captured men were just that: slaves who would as soon kill a Siren rather than bond with them, often cursing their captors and threatening the those who had taken them prisoner.
It was the captured men that posed the most difficult problems for the Sirens when considering the safety of Aria. They were fortunate that these men were few, and it was decided that the unwilling men who knew nothing about the secret Island of the Sirens were to be set free in small isolated towns, as far away from Aria as possible. Those who knew too much, however, were to be kept in the central town of Althea, forbidden from ever leaving. If they accepted their fate and chose to marry a Siren, they could do so, but should they prove difficult, then they would be kept separate from the other men so as not to implant the thought of rebellion among those faithful to the Sirens.
As the centuries passed, those men who dwelled on the Island and were against the Sirens died off, leaving behind only those who truly cared about the women who had captured them body and soul through their song. Eventually, those men who wished to see more of the world (but were unattached) were set free, though they were forbidden to ever speak about the Sirens or their Island. They were given no bearings for the location of the Island, and if they desired to return, they would have to seek out the Sirens for permission to return. The only condition for returning was to stay on the island forever.
Few men left, but they in turn became sources for information on the goings on in the world. Also, to prove themselves useful and faithful to the Sirens, they became useful for other resources, usually through their chosen trades. Those who were blacksmiths provided swords and weapons, merchants sold them food and cloths (at low prices, of course), and traders traded for all manner of things a small lone island could not provide for itself. The descendants of these men loyal to the Sirens soon became as good a group of informants as any royal spymaster, but were far more faithful and clever. They also encouraged the idea that the Sirens were nothing more than a myth made up by drunken sailors, enabling the Sirens to plunder without fear of being hunted down since no one believed they existed.
Time pressed forward once more, and the Sirens became far more clever at getting what they wanted. Treasures were one thing, but that sort of thing they held in abundance from raids. No, they desired more knowledge of the world and how it worked, and wanted to expand their minds in different ways then the ones they presently knew and learned from. So they pressed eastwards, away from the European continent they already knew so well and into India and Asia, where they found some of the more unique ways of fighting, trading, and wisdom.
China was a particular favorite, mostly for their fighting skills and the women that were so miserable with their lives in the Empire. Many women eagerly left the homes where they were considered useless and joined the Sirens, happy to show them the sword fighting and hand-to-hand combat that they had seen their men use in war and at home. The Chinese women were also happy to teach the stories of their culture, mainly the ones that were performed in song and dance. The Sirens of the West were enchanted by this, and immediately taught these new things to any of the sister-ships that passed by. The piercing, heart-rending songs of the East were soon used as a means of mourning the dead or announcing death upon a ship that the Sirens deemed worthy of such punishment.
Once again, centuries passed, and as the powers of kings grew, so did the Sirens' desire for power. Those who disliked the sea (and there were such women) were chosen and sent to places where their marriage to men would do some good for the Sirens' benefit. Some were 'rescued' from 'dangerous situations' by male captains, while others managed to work their way up into the Royal Courts of kings and emperors. None actually married into royalty (as it would attract unwanted attention to the Sirens), but stayed mainly in all other levels of society. These Sirens within society were able to sneak information and warnings to their sisters, and often formed alliances with wealthy and influential merchant companies, as well as individual ships, strengthening the Sirens' unique and secret hold on the seafarers.
And so continues the exciting livelihood of the Sirens of the Sea. For thousands of years these women have secretly ruled the waves, frightening those who believe in their myth and petrifying sailors who hear their voices in the night. Now, as the seventeenth century rolls onwards, one particular Siren will have the encounter of a lifetime, and a pirate of the ocean will discover things he never dreamed existed in the realm of reality.
AN: Kind of a short chapter, but a lot of important stuff going on. Please let me know what you think of the chapter and the plot…even though you don't really know where I'm going with this yet (laughs evilly). Please review!