Back to the suit
In just a very short amount of time, her curiosity had been satiated and she had to get out of there. At the first chance she turned around and headed down the road she came at a brisk pace, praying to whoever would listen that her skin would be in the place she’d left it. This was a bad idea. These aren’t my people anymore. Valerie was right. Humans and selkies don’t mix. Her walk out of town felt longer than her swim from the island, but at last she came upon the tuft of grass where she’d hidden her skin. With great anticipation she made a quick dash towards it and parted the blades. There, folded neatly exactly like she’d left it, was her dappled seal skin.
A relieved sigh blew out of her. “Oh, thank God.” Jasmine bent over and picked the suit up. Now to get out of this stupid-
“Now!”
It was a man’s voice behind her, one that struck terror into her bones and heralded a storm of boots rushing after her. Jasmine spun just in time to see a squad of men bursting from the grass, wielding ropes, harpoons, nets and crooked gazes looking wild. Jasmine let out a scream. She turned hard for the water, holding the skin to her bosom as if it would protect her. She did not make it far before the view of the ocean was draped over by a net. She came down like a sack of rocks, squirming and screaming inside her restraints. The men hooted and hollered with glee. They all surrounded her with half-toothed smiles.
“We got her!” said one.
“I knew she was one of them with all that hair!”
“Damn, ain’t she pretty?”
“Yer a lucky man, Sid!”
“Shut up and get her skin! That’s all that matters!”
At once they bent over to pull the net off her, and Jasmine screamed. She could not make it anywhere once it was off before the man named Sid, a gray-haired fellow with deep etches in his grizzled mien, ripped the skin from her hands. He looked at it like some long lost treasure, a life achievement glowing before his eyes. “I got me a selkie!” he cheered. “A selkie’s gonna be my wife!”
His pals joined him in his celebration with the terrified Jasmine left to curl into a ball and whimper by their feet. Suddenly she was pulled up and made to stand with one man on both sides of her, holding her arms. She was marched back into town, weeping, forced to watch Sid carry her freedom on his back like some slaughtered game. The group and their captive were met with a roaring welcome back in town. Jasmine, the fool, was the first selkie captured in decades. Per some contract unwritten but hardwired in this universe, she would become her hunter’s wife
Written by TheGreatJaceyGee on 22 October 2024
The end (for now)