under a pale blue sky

I love mermaids. I love everything about mermaids, although today mermaids are often called sirens. Nowadays, we don't much care about the difference, and I'm not one to argue semantics. Other creatures similar include undines and nereids, but nowadays I'm inclined to think them all synonyms, for the most part.

There's something romantic and dangerous about belonging to the sea, and the first story of a mermaid reflects that. A goddess fell in love with a mortal, and killed him without intent. Ashamed and heartbroken, she threw herself into the sea, but her beauty was so divine that the water could not hold it, and thereafter she was woman from the waist up and fish from the waist down.

Mermaids belong to no one but the sea. Ariel didn't know how good she had it.