After some hours, Alistair managed to regain his wits and managed to swim back to the shore. Too tired to do much but crawl on land, he dropped into the soft sand between two large rocks and closed his eyes. He didn’t even bother to pull out of the skin.

  But soon his ears picked up hushed, almost feverish voices and hasty steps. Too tired to do anything, he remained as he was. A part of him wanted to hide back in the ocean, but another part of him just suggested remaining where he was. Maybe he was just mistaken for a normal sleeping seal or, even better, if he remained as still as possible, whoever was coming would consider him to be a rock.

  “… stay back! I swear, I’ll give you so much of the concoction that you’ll sleep for a decade!”, a man shouted — someone familiar.

  “Seven-times blood on the new moon!”, another man replied with almost feverish fervor. “Wash your skin clean with blood! Eat the hearts! Eat the hearts!”

  “Will you stop!?”

  Someone was thrown to the ground. Slow, Alistair turned his head, cracked one eye open and was immediately wide awake. Perhaps some fifty yards away, he could make out Father Iain and Father Hamish. They fought like some drunken ruffians on the ground. Throwing blows and tumbling over each other. It was utterly ridiculous watching them, but at the same time Alistair couldn’t help but feel his doom creep closer to him.

  Suddenly, they came to a halt. Hamish was on top of Iain and closed his hands around his brother's neck.

  “How about I kill you next?”, asked Hamish calm and cold as ice. “You’re a Selkie, too, brother. Your heart will suffice as seventh.”

  “For you to revel in this…”, Iain replied, laughing. “One could think you want us to fail!”

  “Shut up!”

  “And who’s going to help you keep our bargain? This bargain involves both of us.”

  “You enjoy it, too!”, he remarked, trembling in furry. “But those knights! Especially their blond leader… he knows what we both are! One look was all he had needed!”

  “Who knows from what witches womb he spawned, but he has no real evidence. And tomorrow night is a new moon. I don’t care for whom you choose in your beastly state. I’ll wait as usual. But might I suggest you drag out Sedna herself?”

  At this, Hamish let out a malicious chuckle.

  “You know she toys with me, brother”, he said. “I, personally, hope I can dig my teeth into that Selkie-girl. Her blood tasted so sweet. So sweet…”

  Hamish suddenly slumped down and seemed about to fall asleep on top of him.

  “Does the concoction finally work?”, asked Iain with a hint of nervousness. “Hamish?”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Right”, Hamish murmured and fell down beside him. “Sorry… I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  “I forgive you and remember tomorrow will be the last day and, with a little luck, you’ll be free”, Iain told him as he pulled him back up.

  Could this be real? Could he be certain that what he just witnessed had, in fact, truly happened? Alistair’s heart beat up to his chest. He needed to get up and tell the knights! He had to tell Rosomil! The priests… it…

  He couldn’t.

  His contract with Sedna made it impossible for him to tell anyone anything about what he just saw. Perhaps this was even her intention. A method not just to push him along, but also one to show him how inevitable his situation was. Perhaps she had toyed with him. Played both him and the priests.

  Sluggish, Alistair moved forward, but his whole body still ached. He managed a few feet and collapsed again, as much as a seal could collapse on land. Moving around on land as a seal was a challenge and after the freedom of the sea, being now on land felt like a prison itself. Yet, what harm could it do him to rest a few moments longer? Just a few moments…

  —

  “Alistair?”

  Not again…

  “Alistair?”

  Not the nightmare…

  Slow, Alistair opened his eyes and let out a pained sound. The sun shone bright into his face and the rush of the ocean was loud and immediate. This wasn’t right.

  But all thought was pushed aside when he felt Aila warp her arms around him.

  “It’s you!”, she shouted, vibrating with happiness. “It worked! It really worked!”

  He wanted to ask what was going on, but all he could do was a garbled yelp.

  “I see, I see”, Aila said, still laughing and hugging him. “One moment, it’s quite difficult to talk in this form.”

  Gently, she slipped her hand into his mouth and pulled it from his face. Once his human head was free, he took an involuntary breath and looked around.

  “What happened?”, he asked shocked while the realization set in, that she now knew.

  “I’m so sorry”, Aila replied and hugged him close. “I should’ve warned you. Oh, but who would’ve thought that Sedna would listen to me?”

  “Sedna?”

  “Yes! Since I told you about her Shrine, I couldn’t sleep well, knowing you might still feel forced to ask her yourself for a sealskin. So, I prayed to Sedna and offered her a ton of fish and small trinkets, so she would actually gift you a sealskin, and now she has just done that! I can’t believe it! It’s a sign!”

  This isn’t true. I need to kill Hamish and Iain. The skin is to be paid in blood.

  Alistair wanted to tell her.

  He needed to tell her.

  He couldn’t tell her.

  Like a fish out of water, he opened and closed his mouth.

  “Oh, I forgot”, she said and brought him back into the present. “You must feel quite confused. I didn’t tell you that you need to learn to live with your seal nature once you get your skin, or you’ll be little more than a normal seal.”

  “I lose my mind?”, he asked, shocked.

  “No, no! You won’t lose your mind, you’ll just need a few swims in your skin to learn to control yourself. It’s more akin to learning how to walk again, rather than having your mind taken over by some feral seal mind.”

  “That’s… nice to hear.”

  “Alistair?”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m sorry, I should’ve told you that I prayed to Sedna!”

  “Don’t cry, love. It’s alright…”

  He didn’t really know wether she cried because of relief or because of happiness. It was all the same to him. He couldn’t tell her the truth. He just couldn’t. The only thing left for him was to hold her tight and ran his hand through her hair.

  “Tonight, let us get married”, Aila sudden suggested, leaning against him.

  “Tonight?”, he asked, shocked.

  “Yes!”, she replied eager and looked at him longingly. “Since you now have a sealskin, we can marry following the old Selkie custom. It’s said to bring good luck to marry during a new moon in winter. Sedna has truly blessed us!”

  To him, this wasn’t a blessing but a mere misunderstanding. One drawing in the laughter of an old woman, only he seemed able to hear. This was all her doing and she enjoyed it.