Swords and fire

The lighthouse

It hadn't been long after Stoic's death. Hiccup felt utterly alone in the world, and he decided to take his solitude to a next step. He packed his things from his college dorm and move into the lighthouse. It didn't come with any of the responsibilities. There was a new, automatized lighthouse, ten meters offshore in a new pier. His was only an old building, tower shaped, with windows on the top, but no light to shine. He liked it, and he considered that, at 19, owning his very own abandoned lighthouse was quite the achievement.

A few nights in, he started noticing strange things happening in the old stone pier. It was deserted, for the same reason than the lighthouse itself, but night after night, he could see from his windows some strange shadows dancing in the bottom of the stairs, that met the ocean. One night, as the full moon shone, his curiosity got the best of him, and he ventured down the old stone stairs wearing a raincoat and rubber boots.

Sat in the edge of the stairs was a young lady, no older than himself, with wet hair as red as fire, and skin as white as the moon, stained with freckles all over. Her bare back glistened under the moonlight, and as Hiccup approached, he noticed she was wearing nothing but a seal pelt over her legs. He gasped, and the woman, startled, dove into the water. Hiccup ran as fast as he could toward the edge, and saw how, instead of the redheaded girl, was a gray seal with little spots on its pelf that mimicked the girl's freckles.

"What in the world..." he begun, but was promptly interrupted by a sight so outstanding, almost grotesque.

Out of the seal's fore flippers popped a set of hands, as if it was a pair of sleeves being pushed back. Those hands, delicate and freckled, reached towards the underneath of the seal's nuzzle and, as if the seal itself had only been a hood, it pushed back its head to reveal the young lady he'd seen before, leaving the seal face behind her own as if it had only been a hood covering her head.

"Sorry, you scared me" said the seal-person, floating near the edge where Hiccup was standing.

Truthfully, he was far more scared than she had been, but decided not to say that. He carefully sat on one of the stone stairs, closer to the seal-person

"Who are you?" he finally asked once his initial shock had worn down. He actually wanted to ask what was she, but then again, he didn't mean to sound rude.

"I'm Merida" said the redhead. She leaned against the pier structure, her arms and head poking out the water, but the rest of her body, that was till under the seal pelt, was submerged under the dark waters. "And you? Are you the lighthouse keeper?"

Hiccup shook his head, unable to take his sight from the lady. Her human face was remarkably beautiful, and her red, wet hair framed her pale, round face to perfection.

"No, this lighthouse is no longer functional," he explained, "I just live here now. My name is Hiccup"

Merida's eyes brightened up. She liked this human, he didn't seem to be bothered by her seal form, and he seemed to enjoy her conversation. Perhaps it was too early to tell, she thought.

"May I ask," he said, after a short silence, "what are you?"

This surprised Merida, but she didn't take offense in it. Back in the ocean, fearful tales would be told about the treacherous humans, but she wished to see what they were like , despite the many warnings against it. She supposed the humans would've heard about her species, but it didn't turn out to be the case.

"I'm a selkie" she finally said, but that didn't seem to suffice, "I'm a sea creature with a magic seal pelt that allows me to change into a human every full moon, lest I fall in love."

He seemed amazed by her explanation, and once his curiosity was enticed, he only wished to know more about the so called Selkies.

"What do you mean lest you fall in love?" he asked. He had many questions, but that seemed to be the one that stood out to him the most.

"If a selkie falls in love with a human, they are to renounce the ocean and embrace mortality," she explained, "They would grow old at the same rate of their mortal companion"

That seemed so utterly romantic to Hiccup. To renounce your very nature for the sake of love. He wished he could leave this life, so monotonous, so lonely, and join Merida in the vast ocean of her birth. He wished things could be reversed. But they weren't, and so, they continued talking, each about their realms, until sunrise. Merida returned to the sea, but promised to visit him the next full moon, and maybe, he could show her his world.

As promised, Merida came back the next full moon, and Hiccup had prepared a set of clothes for her. He took her to town and they danced and explored and talked. Since then, she would come back every full moon after that, until she couldn't return to the sea.

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