Selkie

Chapter 2

Seven tears. Exactly seven tears are needed to summon a pod member from the warmness of the sea. To serve the woman who so desperately needs their services.

The other males give off barks of encouragement to the youngest. He is embarrassed as it is his first breach of the surface for the Human World... Also because everyone in the Pod has been looking forward to this moment. When the youngest and newest generation would breach the Human Surface. A special occasion for the pod, even if he doesn't want to go through with it entirely.

Although, he's had many doubts about their hopes for him. One; he's the youngest and he's pretty much treated like a pup anyway. Two; he's inexperienced. Three; He's weak. Four; The Older Males in his pod would be way better for this.

The Females, although, kept distracting him of his doubts every time he would bring them up. With no other younger pups chosen for this, they pretty much only raised him with that much care. The Females aren't that bad, aside from them always stopping him from hunting fish, playing rough with the other pups, visiting the Elder's Treasury, exploring the rocks – basically anything away from the nest. Granted, the food they serve is delicious, but still, He'd rather not have multiple mothers.

The Males, since he was the youngest, he is the lowest on the Dominant scale, this meant a lot of work. Whenever the Females weren't caring for him, the Older Males would sometime take him out of the nest and teach him some self-defence; biting, twisting, tail whacks, anything in the water. They would never really take him to the surface to teach human self-defence though since he was still so young. As he grew though, some of the pups in his pod would notice his abnormal spots and exclude him from teachings from outside the nest – a liability. It was understandable.

The Last calls were heard as he swims the currents to the Human world.

He breaches the surface to survey the area, eager to please the one who summoned him.

No one.

No. No, he was sure this was where she was. The tears came from here! Where is she?

Is she hiding? Why would she do that? Is he meant to look for her? Is that how these things work? Well if it is...

He swims to the shore and waddles a fair way on the beach.

He shifts his coat to hand only on his back, feeling the wind on his newly exposed skin. Weird. He has spare clothing, did the older ones intend for this? He always thought they said they come without these extra layers. Oh well, this is better than literally nothing, it is a bit nippy.

These extra layers of strange fur-like... things are lined up strange. He notices while pushing on his elbows to look down... Strange. He remembers an older female saying these small circles are... buttons? They're attached to the layers. Is this what humans wear?

He suddenly leans slightly to his left and he looks down.

Curious eyes explore the sands. They reach out their palm and scoop a bit of the mystifying dry sand. So soft, like a new algae bed. He plays with it a bit before noticing his hands, a little slow to notice, he knows, but still a bizarre thing, human hands. He stretches them out, then relaxed, then stretched again, then flexing each of his fingers. Still strange things, human hands.

He spots the castle of to his left when he goes to play with the other hand. How humans create such tremendous artworks on land without the wind tipping it over is astonishing. How do they shape rocks like that? Is it made of rocks? Grey wood? What is its purpose?