Sea Song Teaser

“I should start at the beginning…what do you know about selkies?” Colm asked.

“Only what I’ve read in mythology books and what Maggie told me – and that’s not that much,” Aine said, shivering a bit when a breeze pushed through the folds of her pelt.

“Ignore all of the stuff you’ve read,” he said with a wave of a hand, “besides the part where we can change into seals: that is the only thing the books have right.”

“What’s the truth? What’s the real story, Colm? How did we start?” she asked, leaning towards him eagerly.

He grinned at her before starting. Spreading his arms wide, he said, “Long, long, long ago, a man and his kin were cursed. The reason has long since been lost, but the curse has not. They were cursed to live in the sea as seals. At first, they didn’t have the ability to become human – they were trapped as seals. For centuries, they lived as animals, but they never forgot their human lives. After several centuries, a raging storm came upon their island, and a woman was stranded there, her ship lying far below the sea and the crew lying with it. She was a sorceress, and she recognized the humans beneath the shape of the seal. Using her magick, she transformed them back into humans – but they didn’t want to give up their seal selves either. So they bargained with the sorceress. If she would give them the ability to become seal or human as they wished, they would fill her coffers with whatever treasures lie beneath the surface of the ocean. Sorceresses are greedy, and she took their deal with one exception – they would no longer be immortal. They could have long lives, but the immortality was against the sorceresses beliefs.”

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