Daughter of the Waves

Eilish's Tale Of Love

Brendan blinked, once, twice, in astonishment, before spluttering "But I thought that could not be! That you and I, a human and a selkie, could not.." He trailed off in astonishment.

"It's rare, but it has been known to happen. There are several families on the shores of Ireland with Selkie blood... Oh, Brendan, please tell me you are happy about this!" 

Brendan shook himself, as if awakening from a dream, and realising how he must appeared, grabbed Aalith and declared: "Happy, I am overjoyed!"

Then he got down on one knee and, heart beating faster than a bodhran at a ceiledh, To his suprise and dismay, before he could even begin to speak, Aalith blurted "Brendan, no!"

His confusion quickly turned to indgination, and he demanded to know why Aalith would not want to marry the father of her child.

Patiently, and slowly as if explaining something to a child, Aalith began to speak. "Brendan, it is not that I don't WANT to marry you, but we cannot. Who would marry us, the priest? And my own family do not look kindly on relationships between Selkie and Human. Plus, you saw how Gedren was. He would move heaven and earth to prevent our being married, even if the rest of my people approved.

He had to admit she had a point. He was downcast, and not a little ashamed. He had been brought up to believe that a man and a woman should be wed before they brought a child into the world. His views had changed considerably since before he met Aalith, but on this point he was firm. She must marry him. Aalith sighed, and finally agreed, declaring that she would happily marry him - IF they could find someone to perform the ceremony.

That evening, they sat down before Eilish's fire to eat their supper and give her the good news about Aalith being with child. Then Brendan told her of their quandary regarding marriage, and expressed his disappointment.

"Did you never want to get married, Eilish?" Asked Brendan. Eilish was silent for a few moments before replying, clearly choosing her words carefully, the flames from the fire casting deep shadows over her aged face. "Of course I wanted to get married. In fact I DID get married!" She suddenly declared. This surprised my father very much. "I never heard that you were wed, Eilish." He responded delicately, sensing there was a story here that might be difficult for the old woman to tell. "It was not your normal wedding, I'll grant you that." Said Eilish softly, the memories flooding back.

Hesitantly, Eilish began her story. "The summer I turned 17, and was near the end of my apprenticeship with the village healer at the time, a new family moved into the village. They had many children, and the mother was with child again and near her time. I went with the healer to see to the mother. It was then that I met the oldest daughter of the family. "Aoife truly lived up to her name. She was beautiful and radiant indeed, with lovely green eyes and a mane of deep red hair, and a singing voice that was the loveliest I ever heard." Eilish stopped briefly to glare at my father as he tried to cover a small noise of surprise with a coughing fit. "We soon started finding reasons to meet and spend time together in our free time. It was not long before it became clear that we were more than just friends. We had a brief period of happiness before our feelings were discovered by her parents and mine. They did everything they could to keep us apart, but they did not entirely succeed. We managed to smuggle notes to one another, planning to run away together. Where we would run or how our love could survive the prejudice that surrounded us on every side we never discussed."

Finally the day came, and we left the village in the dead of night. We were soon lost, of course, but fear of being found and separated again drove our feet forward swiftly, and as dawn broke we knew we were in a place neither of us had ever seen before. Finally feeling safe, we lay down in a little hollow beneath a standing stone. That's when the faery folk found us."

Not a sound was heard in the little cottage, bar the homely crackling of the fire, as Eilish continued her story.

"They woke us, and offered to take us to safety in their place under a hill a little while away. We agreed, and stood amazed as the side of the hill melted away to allow us to enter. Once in their hall we were ushered to a place near the fire, because we were chilled to the bone, and introduced to the Lady of that place. To our amazement, she already knew who we were. All the fey folk hold healers and singers in high regard, and so they had kept an eye on us both. They also have scant regard for human prejudices - at this Aalith smiled and nodded - and were very understanding when we told them why we came to be at the foot of their hill, miles from our own home. The lady offered to handfast us, in the fashion of the fey folk of the hills. And so we came to be bound, in a beautiful ceremony conducted by the Lady herself, in their hidden hall under the hill. We stayed with them several days, and ate and rested until we were ready to go on again. We left the fey folk with heavy hearts, as they had become our friends, and bent our feet towards Dublin, thinking to find work and place to live in a city, where we might be more inconspicuous than our village."

"We had not been there long, and were so happy together, when Aoife caught the smallpox. She suffered terribly before she died, and there was nothing I could do to save her. My knowledge was not great enough even to ease her suffering. She died in my arms, and soon after I returned to the village. I have never loved another."

Aalith reached out and took the old woman's hand and squeezed it in silence, for there was nothing that could be said.. After a moment, my father did the same.

A moment later, Brendan brightened, and said "I think I know the place, I passed it on may way to play at a remote village but two weeks ago." He reached over and took Aalith's hand, and said "I think we have found the answer to our little problem."