To the Waters and the Wild

The Selkie Boy

Image from: http://beatinglikeamothswings.tumblr.com/page/1

"Who are you?" she asked boldly, cheeks flushed and burning. 

"I'm many things, both beast and boy, but most of all I'm lost. Terribly lost." 

"And how did it feel?" she asked him. 

"How did what feel?" he answered, heart fluttering inside his chest. She looked to his eyes, large and brown like a seal's, and whispered:

"Becoming human." 

He looked away for a moment, eyes upon the horizon; or where he thought it might be. The mist had cloaked everything in vagueness, everything but her. He knew her face by heart now, he could never forget. Especially those eyes that stood out like orbs of light in the fog. 

"Like dancing." he said.  "Like dancing and drowning. Like dying and being born" 

There was silence for some time as the two listened intently to the lapping waves on the dock before he spoke again.

"It was strange. At first I was suffocating, tossed about in the churning waves- foreign in my body and then, after my first breath, I became Free." 

"Why did you do it? Why did you leave?" her shaky voice questioned him "You should have stayed, you should have never left." 

He closed his eyes and visions flashed before him. There were great battles, flames flying and submarines blown to bits. There were sunken souls and bloodied striped shirts with brass buttons, and those crippling moments when majestic ships decended to their watery graves. There was gold and treasures and rusted swords and there was her. 

"I should have stayed, I would have, if not for those eyes."  He said faintly. "I thought they were fallen stars at first, sad stars that were searching for something almost as fervently as I was. I had always loved the sky, it held maps that guided sea creatures to hidden places and sailors home. It intrigued me that such things could feel lost too. But they were not stars at all. They belonged to a girl." he paused. 

"Until then I had never known."

"Never known what?"

"That there are two seas. One of the land and one of the sky. It's strange, but I often wonder if the sky is a reflection of the sea, or if the sea is a reflection of the sky. They both hold fish you know, only some are gilled and others stardust." 

"Whats the sea like?"

"It's a world of fins and flippers, sharp teeth and marble eyes. It's a cold, dark world full of secrets. It's a churning pit, unpredictable and wild. It's lonely "

Then he whispered: 

"What's the sky like?" 

To which she responded:

"Like looking at the sea."