The captain of the airship waits patiently at her desk, awaiting your next question.

You ask her about the falling of the islands

The captain stares at you in amazement for a few moments. "You want to know why the islands are falling?" she asks. "Are you serious? Do you mean to tell me that you really don't know what's happening on the surface below?" She pauses, then shrugs as if it doesn't really matter. "That's probably no surprise. None of you Unworthy ones take the time to explore your surroundings. You're so satisfied with little things instead."

Standing up from her desk, she strides over to the door of the room and beckons to you with a single talon. "Mother Ghared. Unworthy. Both of you, follow me. We're going up to the balcony so that I can educate this girl a little on the world around her."

Curious about what she has in mind, you start to follow the captain out of the cabin. Mother Ghared is just a step behind you. "Why are we going up to the balcony?" you ask. "What's this got to do with the - "

"You wanted to know why the islands are all falling, didn't you?" she interrupts. "Well, I'm not going to tell you. it would take too much time to explain and I can't remember all the fancy words that you Unworthy ones use. No, I'm going to show you instead."

You follow her up to the balcony

You follow the captain back onto the upper deck, onto a raised platform protected by a thick metal railing. Up here, you can see that a mystical crystalline device has been installed into the top of the airship. It seems to be made out of hundreds of tiny pieces of metal, interwoven together in a blend of silver and black. You cannot guess at its purpose, but the whole thing is humming with energy. Surely it must power the ship in some way.

"The lens here will magnify any singular point on the surface, within a set range," the captain explains. Behind you, Mother Ghared scrambles up next to her. "Right now, it's focused on one of the human-inhabited regions far below us. Think of it as a giant magnifying glass, except that this one takes about two hours to realign the location. Not very practical, in theory. Usually, we just use it to pinpoint any turbulent weather conditions coming our way, but we don't have a lot of contact with the people on the surface anyway." She stands back, allowing you to take your place in front of the device. "Step up to the lens, Unworthy. Take a look for yourself at what's happening on the surface!"

Warily, you move forward as she requests and peer into the giant lens.

The first thing you notice is just how much detail the instrument is showing you. You can see houses down below. People. Trees. In fact, if you look in the right location, then you can see exactly what people are doing. To be honest, it makes you feel a little uncomfortable to be using a device that could technically be used to spy on people. You adjust the lens using the controls on the side, coming out of focus in order to try and look at something else in the same region.

A black spot shows up on the lens.

As you focus in on the spot, you realise with alarm that you are looking at the ruins of a whole cluster of buildings. No, not just buildings. That's…that's an entire town. Big enough to be a city, even. It's just a burned-out hole in the ground. More black spots appear on the lens now, hundreds and hundreds of them, like termites crawling through the earth...

That isn't all. Some of the black spots are surrounded by a sea of red. You move into sharper focus now, going a bit further up, and see that a red river is flowing from a…a mountain? No. it can't be. That's a volcano. That means…

Your heart skips a beat as you swiftly scan the rest of the surrounding region, looking for any signs of life down there. There are still people there. They're alive, but they're not living. The earth has cracked all the way down the middle, right across the centre of the entire continent. It's a crack which extends far and wide, beyond what the lens can see at this position.

The patch of red is accompanied by orange…and then blue. Are those flood waters? Just what is going on here? There's so much going on at the surface that you can't make head or tails about what you're really looking at, let alone grasp the bigger picture. Is it just a constant stream of natural disasters? All at once?

"If you are looking for a specific, detailed explanation on what has happened," the captain says, "then you are all out of luck. Nobody can tell you what happened at the source. If you were close enough to know for sure, then you would already be dead. What you can see before you is what's going on right now." She gestures to the crack running down the middle. "That's not the result of a normal earthquake. Nor do we believe that a number of volcanoes erupted all at once, purely by accident. Mother Ghared has offered her views on this."

"It is possible that there was a split in the energy flow between the human nations," Mother Ghared ventures. "Everything feeds off energy. Input and output; produce, waste and conservation. Energy is what keeps your islands suspended in the sky. It's what breathes new life into you. When there's too much of it in one place, and too little in another…" She shakes her head sadly. "The Gahl'vuhr Sehn call it a "temporal discharge", although that kind of phrase is largely inaccurate. It's a measure of great force which saps an enormous amount of resources from the planet itself. The planet, of course, reacts accordingly." She shrugs. "That's my theory, but there are others. War could be the trigger. Mass deprivation of world resources. It was always going to happen one day. All we know is that there are no outside forces at work. Everything's that happened…is something that we did nothing to avoid.

"Needless to say, the effects upon the sky islands have been disastrous. The tremendous energy drain has disrupted the gravitational pull to an extreme, causing many of the islands to fall out of the sky. Countless airships have been leeched of their power, stranding them in open sky."

"Not on my watch," the captain growls. "I make my own preparations. When our energy cells were depleted, I immediately had the helmsmen switch to our back-up source and keep us airborne. We should survive until we reach the next island. I don't care what those humans did on the surface, but they're not going to bring an Auvahr ship down."

Mother Ghared's words swim through your head, but you are still staring at the scenes before you in a state of utter shock. Is this what's happened to the world? Why? What could be worth this? But at the same time, you remember the experiences you had just days before the island started falling. Changes in the wind. Abstract extremes of temperature and air pressure. Unexplainable disturbances in the atmosphere which were thought to return to normal within the year.

You don't know what to make of this. You don't know what to make of any of this. How can you survive in a world like this, so chaotic and constantly at war with itself? Will you really be safe up here in the sky? The only plan you can think of is to find a new island to settle on, somewhere that you can start again. That would be nice. Wouldn't it? Wouldn't it be nice?

Where do you go from here?

You proceed

Abruptly, the captain switches off the lens completely. The vision before your eyes turns to a sea of black, disorientating you momentarily.

"Now that I've answered your questions, Unworthy," she says testily, "I expect you to answer mine. Who are you, and where do you come from?"

You don't see any reason to lie. "We do not name each other," you say truthfully.

"Excuse me?" The captain frowns distastefully. "You don't have a name?"

"Nobody is born with a name," you answer. "Among humans, the parents name a child at birth regardless of whether they ask for it or not. It is not customary to use names among my people. Giving yourself a name only makes it easier for someone to gain power over you. Bearing in mind the kind of lives we lead with each other, it's unnecessary."

She swears under her breath, clearly put out by your words. "What am I supposed to call you, then? Pigeon Girl? You Unworthy ones are a strange lot. I'll be damned if I let one on board my ship ever again if I have to put up with this nonsense! Now, tell me which island you came from!"

"We don't name our islands either," you say, confused at the question. "For the same reason."

The captain gives you a long-suffering look which suggests she is coming to the end of her patience.

"I'm sure it doesn't matter which island she came from, captain," Mother Ghared reassures her. "You saw what happened. Her island must be at the bottom of the sea by now. Very few survived the fall."

"All right, all right. Maybe you'd just like to say that when I tell my superiors that I took in an Unworthy on board my ship. Gender? Female. Name? Non-applicable. Place of birth? Some island that fell out of the sky." She stares at you angrily. "Listen, girl, you're not making it easy for me to fill out the required paperwork. I'm not even going to ask how old you are, because you'd probably tell me that you only count backwards using the constellations at a certain time of the year. Can I at least get an iota of cooperation from you, Unworthy?!"

As she talks, your gaze is drawn to a strange sight upon the horizon. You hadn't seen it before, but it looks as if it's coming this way. Slowly, you step forward to peer at the foreign object approaching the airship.

You take a closer look at the sight on the horizon

You see what appears to be a mass of black clouds on the horizon, lit up by a blaze of yellow and white flashes. The atmosphere around the airship is becoming increasingly turbulent, and you feel the vessel shake beneath your feet, making it difficult to keep your balance.

The captain turns to see what you're looking at and swears out loud. "Just our luck," she mutters. "Damn lightning storm could put us all out of commission." Without hesitation, she starts to shout orders down to the crew below, reverting back to Common Tongue as she does so. "Bll hflmsmfn pn thf blfrt! Thfrf's b ljghtnjng stprm bpprpbchjng thf shjp. Bfgjn fvbsjvf mbnpfvvrfs jmmfdjbtfly, pr wf wpn't lbst fjvf mjnvtfs!"

You see the crew members scramble to their positions quickly, working amongst themselves to turn the ship around before it makes contact with the imminent storm. The captain turns to you. "We're going to try and steer around the storm, Unworthy. It's a big one, and with such short notice we might not be able to make it. But I'm confident I can get my ship through this. It's rare for a lightning storm of this size to appear without any warning, but..."

"Is this to do with what's happening on the surface?" you ask worriedly. There was no sign of any such storm until now. The change in pressure was simply so drastic for this to happen naturally.

The look in the captain's eyes tells you the answer to that. "Unworthy, you'd better get yourself below deck where it's safer," she says grimly. "Just stay out of trouble. That way I won't have to worry about protecting your neck."

With that she rushes down the steps, still shouting orders as the storm draws closer. You hold onto the railing tightly as the ship starts to change course, but at this distance you have a feeling that it might be too late. A crackle of white-blue lightning flashes not too far from the vessel, and the wind is getting stronger.

You stay on the upper deck, ready to help

You decide to remain on deck and see what help you can lend to the crew members. Mother Ghared disappears down below, and from here you watch as the helmsmen frantically try to turn the airship around as quickly as possible. Before long, the ship is so close to the storm that pieces of wood are being shredded away from the outside of the hull. You grip the railing tightly, fearing the worst…

"Brbcf ypvrsflf!" the captain yells.

There is a horrendous tearing of wood and metal as the storm makes impact. Fearfully, you throw yourself clear from the balcony – and just in time, too. A bolt of lightning flashes down onto the crystal lens where you were standing, shattering it into a million pieces. The crewmen cry out as a violent gust of wind slams into the ship, powerful enough to tear the railings apart. Rain and sleet pours down to accompany it.

Desperately, you search for somewhere to take cover from the storm. This was a bad idea. You shouldn't have stayed up on deck in this kind of climate. There's nothing you can do here –

Another bolt of lightning flashes down and rips straight through the mast.

You turn to see the entire weight of the mast fall towards the deck. To your horror, you see that the captain is right in its path, just seconds away from being crushed. None of the mercenaries are close enough to help her. No one is close enough to help…but you.

Even if you did help her, it's unlikely that you would be able to get out of the way in time.

You push the captain out of the way

With your heart in your mouth, you race forward and shove the captain out of the way in the nick of time. You see her eyes go wide at her near escape. Then you look upwards and see wit horror that the mast is continuing to fall – right on top of you.

Frantically, you start to move to avoid it, but you are already out of time. You have sacrificed what precious seconds you had to save the captain. Your legs are moving too slowly, far too slowly to avoid the heavy lump of wood which will crush you asunder. Everything seems to move in slow motion as the mast careens towards your helpless body –

"Fprcf!"

A shrill cry erupts from the other end of the airship. The mast shudders as an invisible force slams to it, snapping it further at an awkward angle. You can barely breathe as the fractured beam crashes through the deck barely a metre away from you. You're alive. You can't believe it.

You raise your head to see Mother Ghared frozen in position, her hands outstretched towards the fallen mast. Your knowledge of her abilities is still limited, but you understand that this is the second time she has saved your life. The captain is already on her feet, struggling to defend herself from another group of mutants.

Before you can move, you see Mother Ghared slump to the ground. She seems exhausted by the effort of stopping the heavy mast, and the energy drain is too much for her. You start to force yourself to your feet, knowing that if you spend too long dawdling then you won't have long to celebrate. She needs help, and fast.

That's when you hear the violent splintering sound below you.

Fearing the worst, you see that the heavy mast has in fact torn straight through the centre of the airship. It is in no condition to fly. The vessel has already been damaged by the attacks of the mutants, and you can only watch in horror as more and more cracks appear, joining together as one…

The airship breaks apart down the middle.

You see the mutants react with surprise as they start to plummet along with their half of the ship. Surprisingly enough, they can no longer fly. You're not quite sure why, but you have a feeling that their wings from before were only temporary. In addition...part of the airship somehow remains airborne. You're not in a position to question the laws of aerodynamics right now, but you need to act fast.

Your half of the airship is currently airborne and in no danger of falling – or so you hope. The captain is next to you, slumped in a heap. The other half of the ship is about to plummet downwards, and you realise that Mother Ghared is still on that side. She's unconscious and has no idea of what has happened.

You have a split second to decide whether to cross over the gap to Mother Ghared, or stay here with the captain. You have no idea what condition either person is in.

You stay on this part of the ship with the captain

You can do nothing but watch as Mother Ghared is lost with the remaining half of the ship, falling away out of sight. With the last of the mutants gone with her, the bloody battle has ended. The upper deck is covered with the bodies of the dead, both mercenaries and mutants alike, and you find no survivors at all. It's sad, really. The chaos on the surface has worked its way up here, even though you like to think of yourself as disconnected from the surface as possible…

Right now, there is nothing powering the airship anymore. You are at the mercy of the wind, which blows the vessel this way and that, stranding you here in the middle of the open skies. You have no knowledge of how airships work, and feel you shouldn't try to mess with the controls at all. You count yourself lucky that you stand upon a ship which is still airborne at all.

For now, all you can do is wait for the airship to drift; here, alone, among the mass of dead bodies on board. There are some supplies to keep you going, but they won't last you very long. All of the food was stored in the lower deck, and that was the part of the ship which went down.

The captain is lying slumped in the middle of the deck, bleeding profusely from several wounds. She's alive, but only just. A quick examination of her reveals that she hasn't got long to live. Only her resilience has allowed her to last this long.

You proceed

For the rest of the day, the damaged airship drifts upon the wind with no clear or definite destination. You face a lonely vigil here, one of the only survivors among numerous corpses. Whilst you're here, you try to salvage whatever supplies you can, realising that you may be here for a long time if you are not fortunate enough to reach another island. There a few food packages in the captain's room, and you are careful to consume only a small amount. These might be your only supplies for a long time…

The captain has not regained consciousness, at least not fully. She mumbles incoherently when you try to rouse her, but you know she is need of nutrition and medical attention. Unfortunately, there are no medical supplies in this part of the ship. Those were lost with Mother Ghared. Unable to wake her, you force some water through the captain's cracked lips. She coughs and splutters but manages to get it down.

As you continue to drift, you see numerous other airships passing by. However…they give you no cause to celebrate. They, too, are drifting. The crew members on board are all dead, as you discover upon your first encounter; some have been attacked by mutants or aggressive races as happened with you, but in fact you find that the majority of them have been the victim of violent storms or run out of food and supplies completely. In more than a few cases, you find that there is a literal skeleton crew on board, as evidence by the remaining bones that greet you.

The world is falling apart around you, and you can do nothing to stop it. You are the only one out here who remains alive. The chaos on the surface must be affecting the skies, too, since many of the doomed ships here have been drifting for some time. How long has it been since your island fell? How long has the world been like this?

Hours pass, and you begin to feel that you will not survive. Your supplies will not last forever.

It is almost nightfall when you are confronted by a single ray of hope. At first, you think that your eyes are playing tricks on you. An island can be seen passing close to the airship.

An island. It seems like a miracle. There could be people there, people who could help you and give the captain the medical attention she so desperately needs. However, the airship isn't headed directly for it – you will have to literally jump down onto the island, making use of the few tools still available to you.

As you draw closer, you realise that you do not recognise this island at all. You don't know if the inhabitants there will be friendly or hostile to you: there might not even be any people living there at all. It could be filled with wild animals. If you choose to disembark, you will not be able to return to the ship, which will drift away and leave you stranded upon this isle.

Furthermore, the angle at which you are approaching the island makes it impossible for you take anyone with you. You can jump down onto the surface yourself with some difficulty. This will mean that you will have to leave the wounded captain behind, ultimately sealing her fate.

You disembark onto this new island, leaving the captain behind

You take one last look at the captain, who is lying on the bed in her cabin where you brought her up to rest. In the circumstances, she almost looks like she is sleeping peacefully. You shake your head and walk away from her, stepping over the corpses littering the deck. You can't let this affect you. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices in order to survive.

The island below is coming up fast. If you don't jump now, then you're going ot miss your chance. Crossing your fingers, you grab hold of one of the mooring lines running down the length of the airship, and brace yourself. The wind rushes past you as you swing from the rope and jump from the vessel, feeling as if you're putting your whole life at stake here. A single misstep could send you hurtling into the void…

Soft vegetation cushions your fall as you land upon the island, winded but unhurt. You're dangerously close to the edge but you're safe, and that's what matters. The entirety of the island stretches around you. It is as yet unexplored territory.

Breathing a sigh of relief, you look up to see the airship drift away and out of sight. There's no going back now.

You proceed

You begin to explore the island you're on, and soon find that it is rich in vegetation, full of nutritious fruits which grow upon the numerous trees populating the land, and carries a generous stockpile of resources. It's a perfect haven for the weary traveller lacking in supplies. At once, you set to work gathering as much food as you can. The majority of the island is open grassland, though you find a small jungle in the southeast, so it's easy enough to traverse the space here. The wildlife here is not hostile to your presence, but from what you can see, you can easily live off the land here for many long decades of your life.

Further exploration reveals that there are no people inhabiting this island. None at all. That seems a little strange to you, that absolutely nobody has happened upon this place before. Any settler or explorer would immediately seize upon this haven of food and resources. It makes you wonder what secrets must lie here.

The amount of land here is vast, enough to build several towns a fair distance apart! For the next few weeks, you set out intending to explore the entire island. No passing airships or vessels are sighted anywhere near, and you realise with a heavy heart that you are probably stranded here. After all, you are in the middle of nowhere. The lack of people just makes it feel a bit…isolated.

At the end of the second week, you discover footprints. The footprints of people. Someone has been here before, although the marks are extremely faint and some part of you feels that you might have made them yourself. It's hard to be sure.

It's really very lonely here. How long are you willing to stay here, after all? How long will it take before you succumb to the ever-present loneliness? It's been weeks. Maybe you could get used to it, but you can't say for sure…

You decide to follow the footprints you saw. Despite yourself, you're intrigued about where they came from. You follow them all the way north, around the corner of the island, where they lead into the waters of a vast, beautiful lake. The sunlight paints its reflection upon the shimmering surface, and you shield your eyes from the glare. It's really a mystery as to what happened to these people. Perhaps you don't really want to find out.

Aside from the lake and the footprints, you've seen pretty much everything there is to see on this island. You also have no way of leaving. It's not bad, really. There's plenty of food to feed you for the rest of your days, and enough wood from the trees to construct your own shelter from the raging elements. The wildlife isn't particularly hostile, so you would be quite safe from danger.

You could settle here – you really could. It's just that…you're the only one here, and it's likely to remain that way. You've explored the island for nearly a month now, and there isn't another living soul to be seen. Well, apart from the animals, but they don't bother you. You could do anything here. You could run naked through the jungle and nobody would care, because there's nobody here but you. You could dig a hole underground and lose yourself inside there, bury yourself alive, and scream as loud as you can. Nobody would care, because there's nobody here but you. You could try to climb a tree, and then fall from a great height. You could break your legs from the fall and nobody would help you, because there's nobody here but you...

You don't cope well with loneliness.

One thing you can say about this island is that you've never seen anything like it before. It's not going to fall, not like the other islands fell. You don't know why you think that, because there's no chain or energy flow keeping it aloft...but it's just your gut feeling. It's not going to perish like the others. You would be safe. If you settle here, then nobody will ever bother you again.

You approach the lake

You walk up to the edge of the lake, searching for any sign of the people who came before you. Strangely enough, the footprints disappear into the water itself. After a moment's hesitation, you wade into the lake a short distance, curious to find out what really happened here. The water is cool and fresh against your skin, as if keen to make you feel at ease.

To your surprise, you can hear the faint sound of beautiful singing coming from up ahead. You've never heard anything quite like it before. The words are difficult to make out, but you are captivated nevertheless by the atmosphere that it creates around you. Intrigued, you push further into the lake towards the source of the singing.  

You can make out the words a little clearer now. The water comes up to your waist.


 

"Welcome, welcome, O traveller of the skies,

Drink from the water, and burn out your life;

Our singing shall ease all your worries and fears,

Come closer, young traveller, for all you hold dear…


 

The voices fade away, and you are immediately struck by the impact of the silence all around you. Desiring to break the silence, you wade deeper into the lake's waters. You haven't heard the voice of another soul on this isle for nearly a month. As much as you hate to admit it, the loneliness is starting to get to you. It would be cruel to deprive you of such company.

You push further into the lake, not caring that your clothes are now drenched. From afar, you can hear the singing voices again. The water level comes up to your chest.


 

"Rejoice, rejoice, O traveller of the skies,

No need for emotions, to laugh or to cry;

Sing with us here in the depths of the lake,

Naught but your soul and your spirit shall we take…


 

A strange feeling passes over you, and the singing cuts out. The water level comes up to your neck, turning into a murky green.

Despite yourself, you do not feel that you are in any real danger. A low hum echoes from all around you, almost seeming to resonate from the waters of the lake itself. You can no longer see the edge of the lake anymore. You swim forward impatiently, still searching for the source of the voices…

"What are you doing here?"

The face of a young woman emerges from the water in front of you. She appears to be vaguely human-like in appearance, but when she speaks, it sounds as if you are hearing her voice from underwater. Green hair flows down her back, and you see scales dotting her cheeks. An aquatic lifeform of some kind, perhaps. You didn't know there were such people living in these waters.

"You're not one of us," she says, a surprised look on her face. "Why are you alive? How can you possibly survive here?"

Her questions baffle you. Before you can answer her, a second woman appears from the water, rising up to surface besides her companion.

"Look, sister," she whispers, pointing towards you. "It's not a male this time. The men usually drown themselves trying to hear the song, but she…" She smiles faintly at you, pulling back a lock of matted grey hair to one side. You see the hint of fangs protruding from inside her mouth. "We haven't had a female come here before. Maybe she could join us. Our song has more effect with greater numbers…"

"Another sister?" the green-haired woman sounds dubious. "But we've never done that before. Is she…safe?"

"Maybe not, but we can easily change her." The other woman looks at you curiously. "Traveller of the skies, we are the inhabitants of this isle. Everything you see before you is our property and ours alone. Those who visit our land are drawn into the dark waters and consumed by our sisters and children, giving us new life. We share the energy among us and channel it into the land itself, replenishing it. We do not die. We do not perish. Settlers sometimes come here and seek to drain the resources from the island, but no man cannot resist our song. We take from them what they seek to take from us."

She holds out a slim hand towards you. "Would you like to join us, traveller? Another female would be a welcome addition to our circle. If you become one of our sisters, you too will enjoy the privileges afforded to us all. However, I will not force you. Should you refuse, we will do you no harm, but please think very carefully before you answer."

You agree to join them

"Wonderful," she says with a smile. "Then let me welcome you in the tradition of our people. A kiss is necessary to seal the agreement of mutual acceptance."

Before you can do anything, the grey-haired woman moves swiftly through the water towards you and embraces you tightly. Her lips move onto yours in a surprisingly intimate fashion, and you can't quite keep the shock out of your eyes. You can feel your body changing as an effect of the kiss, as if your internal organs are slowly undergoing alterations of their own…

Scales appear upon your face, and the tone of your skin deepens to a pale blue. Your vision begins to go fuzzy, and a small measure of panic starts to take root in your mind. What's going on? What exactly have you agreed to do here? Before you, the woman mouths a single word before disappearing into the waters of the lake. You feel her grip your ankles tightly from under the surface...and pull you underwater with her.

You struggle to break her grip, but in moments you are forced under the surface. With a start, you realise that you can actually breathe underwater. What has happened to you? You feel as if you have gills in place, rather than lungs, and that your body has altered to that of an aquatic being. Fins and scales grow down your body, and any prior hunger or fatigue has lessened as a result. You don't know what significance this has, but…

The two women from before are swimming underwater with you and watching you closely. You see now that their bodies are just like yours, and that instead of legs they have a fish-like tail. Nothing of the sort has happened to you, however, so you are able to keep your legs for now.

"Come, sister," the green-haired woman says to you, much warmer to you now. She isn't a woman at all, you realise. A fish? A mermaid? "Come and meet the others. Let us share this land together, all of us."

You swim after her, deeper and deeper through the pleasant waters of the lake. More and more of these mermaids appear from around you, watching you with interest and chatting amongst themselves. You didn't know that so many of these creatures were living down here. You thought the entire island was empty of any intelligent life...

Right at the bottom of the lake, you discover a curious sight. A stone altar of some kind has been built into the lake bed, upon which a human body is tied. He seems to have been dead for some time. You watch as the mermaids surround him in a tight circle, singing in unison. It's almost as if they're singing to his corpse.

"Come," your companion whispers to you, beckoning you forward. "You should join in too."

Curious about this strange ritual, you stumble into the circle with her. The beautiful singing echoes all around you, and there is an addictiveness about the harmony of voices which is almost ethereal. You find yourself singing along, too, singing to the human corpse strapped upon the altar. It's mesmerising, hypnotic, and you soon lose yourself in the sound...

You don't know how long you've been singing for, but before long you start to feel a form of energy take place in your stomach. The feeling is not unpleasant. Euphoria washes over you as the energy grows and grows, giving rise to a greater volume of voices than before. Somehow, you and the other mermaids are leeching away the human's composition, converting it into something which will benefit everyone. The other mermaids are feeling it, too. You can see it in their faces. One of them smiles at you, understanding that you are with them, and you can't help but smile back.

The ceremony soon ends, and a new day starts anew. You spend all of your time with the community of mermaids around you, exploring the lake and occasionally going up to the surface when any new settlers think to land upon this island. Each time they do, you join in the singing with your sister mermaids, and watch as the men have no choice but to come deeper and deeper into the waters of the lake. They cannot resist the lure of your singing, and drown in the process.

Every week or so, you participate in another ceremony among one of the drowned men, devouring their body in order to give life back to the island. You feel that you are doing wonderful work here. The bodies of these humans can keep you living forever, really. This is a life that you can look back upon without feeling any regret.

You ultimately remain here with the other mermaids, here upon this seemingly deserted island, feeding upon any explorers foolish enough to try and settle here. The words of your sisters ring true. This is your land. You will not let anyone take it from you. This island belongs to you.

You live here in contentment, oblivious to the chaos going on in the surface. This island will not fall, not whilst you continue to sustain it with the bodies of fools.

After falling from a great height, you have found a new place in life.