Having been born and raised on a ship forever sailing west, Asherah knew no other life than the one she has spent at sea. She loved the adventure of sailing, and learned of the legends of the creatures who lived below. The older she grew, however, the more she began to doubt the horror stories told by her parents of bloodthirsty creatures living underwater. There couldn’t possibly be nautical monsters wishing to prey on humans. She refused to believe it, until she saw one of those monsters for herself. After weighing anchor on a small rocky island, Ash discovers a strange creature washed up on the shore. With the upper half of a boy and the lower half of a shark, Ash recognized the thing as a triton, one of the male sirens of legend who would use songs to lull their prey to sleep before devouring them. Ash didn’t find this one to be a threat, however, and stowed him away aboard her ship to help nurture him back to health. The two were automatically drawn to each other as they spent their days in secret, teaching each other about their two worlds. The young triton Kaimana learns that he was just as misguided about humans as Ash was about Kaimana’s people. He teaches her that he was the youngest triton of his group, and has never drawn human blood. For tritons, not having killed a human was a dishonorable trait and subject to exile. Just as Ash finally decides to reveal to her family that she’s befriended a stowaway sea creature, their ship falls under the attack of a small army of tritons, who have come to reclaim the lost member of their family - even though Kaimana had assured her that his people would not want him back. As she witnesses the only home she ever knew being destroyed, Ash is whisked away by Kaimana and taken to the safety of a distant alcove. She is in fear of his sudden change in appearance, and demands to know the truth. Seconds away from revealing his true feelings for her, Kaimana is interrupted by an angry Ash, who questions the triton’s motives. Had Kaimana been dishonest with her? Will he ever be able to admit his true feelings for her, and can Ash feel the same way about him after his people were led here to destroy her home? Had he just whisked her away in order to kill her?
