Hide Tied

Though you grew up as a normal boy you never felt like you belonged on that small island like everyone else. You felt detached from the world around you, from your siblings, your mother and from the father you rarely saw. It had always felt like you were meant to be somewhere else. A child so young wasn’t meant to have feelings like that, he was meant to feel safe in his home, he was meant to grow up without a single worry. But you were far from a normal child, you didn’t know it when you were that young but you had always belonged to the sea.

So when the endless oceans finally called for you, beckoned you, you answered its sweet voice.

On that day you were to turn 7 years old.

Instead of a small celebration to mark the day of your birth, there was a panic in your household for when you felt the call of the sea in the nigh hours of the morning you left the house. You ventured to the point closest to the sea and jumped from the rocky cliff into the black ocean far below. As you hit the ice cold water you finally felt like you found where you belonged, that’s when you shifted for the first time.

The first change was painful but it was almost welcome because despite the burning in your bones and the ache in your muscles and skin, you came out the other side something new. You came out reborn. That was the first time you shifted into the form of a grey seal.

It was 8 years into you new life that you met the man, the only one that truly terrified you, the man that smelt of death.

It was the first time in almost a year you set foot on land, in a city far away from the tiny island you once called home long ago. The scent found you long before you saw him, the rank smell of rotting flesh hanging heavily in the air. No one around you seemed to notice it. Maybe this rank smell was normal in this big city or just maybe, you thought, maybe you had better senses now you were no longer human. This had never come up in the past. You considered investigating the source scent but before you had a chance, the owner of the vile smell found you.

A large hand grabbed a hold of your upper arm, you looked back and found yourself faced with the sight of the man. He was tall, dark hair, pale skin, too pale; it was as if someone or something had drained all the blood from his body. His eyes were light blue, the colour of ice and bore right through you and into the soul. Your hand twitched, almost coming up to cover your nose, he reeked of death. He didn’t smell like someone that had been around death, no, he smelt like his body was rotting around him.

A violent shiver shot through your entire body. This man terrified you.

He tightened his grip on your arm and you flinched, eyes wide you held tightly to the bag at your side. The man’s presence was so imposing, so terrifying that you could hardly breathe. It felt like a physical weight pressing down on you. He leant down and spoke in a low voice, as if he didn’t want to be heard by anyone walking past.

“What are you boy?”

Your eyes widened even further and the pressure on your chest becomes almost unbearable. He knew you were not a human, he knew you were a strange beast from leagues away. He knew you were different and he would try to exploit it like others had before him.

“I-.” A stammer escapes you. You were unable to find the words you would need to get away from him. The man’s eyes were locked on you, staring straight into your soul, searching for the answer he was seeking but unable to find it in your dark eyes. Someone walking by bumped into the man, giving him a jolt. He lost his grip out of surprise and you took the opportunity that was handed to you by the heavens.

With a tight grip on bag you ran into the closest back alley.

You ran as fast as you could towards the crashing waves of the sea, though you couldn’t see the deep blue safety your instincts told you exactly where to run and run you did. Whether the man was following you or not you had no idea but you weren’t willing to risk a glance back to see. Only a few yards away, you could see it, your home, your sanctuary. As you ran you reached into your bag and retrieved the perfectly cured grey seal pelt, your most treasured possession. Your own pelt. Without hesitation you held it close to your chest and dove into the water. The pelt, as if of its own will, wrapped around you and your body changed as you cut smoothly through the icy water.

You were safe.

You swam a ways out before you risked peaking above the surface of the water. It didn’t take long for him to appear, the man that smelt of death. He came from the same alleyway you had, he stopped for a moment and looked around before he started down another road, looking for you presumably. You thought you were home clear until he stopped and looked directly at you.

He knew it was you, you could feel it. He knew exactly what you were. He knew you were a child of the sea itself, he knew you were a selkie.

You left the island that day and didn’t plan on ever coming back, not if there was a chance you could be found by the dead man again. That island far behind, you found a new place to explore, a small island in the Scottish isles but not once did you forgot about that strange man. He was always in the back of your mind, you always thought of him whenever you smelt death on the air.

The dead man that could walk and talk like a normal human, the man that scared you more than anything else in the world.