Bulletin #7 - A Song in the Surf - NoQu 2025

NoQu 2025

Day 20

Total Words: 33,333 Words

Chapter 7: A Song in the Surf

"In flowery meads the sportive Sirens play,

Touch the soft lyre, and tune the vocal lay;

Me, me alone, with fetters firmly bound,

The gods allow to hear the dangerous sound."

—Homer, The Odyssey Book XII, translated by Alexander Pope

When you awake, the sheep are gone, and the smell of salt has soaked into the sheep fleece you slept on. You carefully roll it and walk on down the slopes to the rocky beach below.

The coastline here bows into a sheltered cove, tall cliffs rising on one side and rolling hills guarding the other, the entrance split in two by a wooded island that you can barely see through the ocean spray.

You kneel to splash the water, and rock back on your heels to soak in the sounds of gently lapping water and hollow breeze. There's something strange about the sounds, though; they seem almost… musical. You're sure of it, now. There's a voice in the sea foam.

You can't help yourself. You have to get closer to the otherworldly song.

Prompt: Use music to inspire your character to do something out of the ordinary.

The deeper you get in the water, you begin to see dark silhouettes beneath the surf, swirling about. The gentle waves lap about your knees before one of them breaches the surface for a moment: a woman with long hair and an even longer fish tail.

The music is haunting. The cool water clings to your thighs when you see the singing woman again. This time, she's here to stay. Her harmony to the song pauses.

"Welcome to Siren Cove, Bringer of Light. We have needed you here for some days."

The spoken words slowly break you out of your stupor. "Oh! Of course," you say at last.

Ambiance: Siren's Song

She gives you a generous smile and color begins to come back to her blue features. Her teeth are sharp. "We have your most thrilling task yet, I assure you."

Oh good, you think to yourself. Anything is more thrilling than last time. A shiver spreads across your back— excitement? Or just the water? "Go on, lady Siren."

She sang:

Take strange fire to the root of land

Breathe in song; descend beneath the waves

Find the comb lost by our webb-ed hands

That our monstrous consequence be waived.

By the time your face dips beneath the ocean, you aren't quite sure why you agreed to this. Other than, of course, the fact that if you don't, you'll never get home. The water is cold and heavy. Sing! You think urgently to yourself. Don't breathe! Screams your mind at the water around you.

But if instincts win, you die.

Dare: Choose three songs that remind you of your project. For the first, write as fast as you can. For the second, include words from the song in what you write. For the third, write normally.

So you listen to the music around you and join in, breathing as easily as you could at home.

The piece of map glows in your hand and envelopes you as you swim deeper into the depths of the cove. Everything is a dark blue at this point, but you don't feel the cold water anymore.

At last, you see it— a white and gold comb, nestled between some rocks. You grasp it and swim triumphantly to the surface.

The sirens celebrate by taking turns with the come, bringing luster back to their hair and shedding scales (which they give to you as a reward). Before your eyes, the monstrous features vanish and are replaced by beautiful mermaids: still singing, but now joyful. Before you head to leave, you ignite the torches for them so that the next time the comb falls, they can retrieve it themselves.

You won't get far on foot once you leave.

Question: What makes your story sing— what makes you need to write it?

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