Speak
Sure, they were all curious about her, but they handed uttered a word or phrase - that alone was odd. The interest was there yet no one spoke up, why? Daniel’s brows furrowed in confusion when she realized this, leaning back a little as one selkie started playing with her flowing hair. She hadn’t stopped to think of this till now; their prying selves weren’t verbally questioning her at all. How peculiar. Shifting a little as her tail swished back and forth, Daniel hesitated for a moment before she attempted to speak, testing her new voice; it was soft, a little muffled thanks to the fact that she was underwater, but still audible. Feminine but not too high pitched; a female’s voice to match her new selkie body.
Wait, I sound like a girl...oh, yeah. I kinda am one now. Eh..I guess I can get used to this. Daniel thought to herself, not quite minding. It was incredibly weird to know that was coming out of her, since she’d be accustomed to the masculine voice of a male all her life - but, Daniel got used to it pretty quickly. “Um...hello?” The soft-spoken selkie glanced around at the fellow ones who had surrounded her - by now, she had stopped swimming after that first selkie, and was focused entirely on the crowd of them. They had all stopped with their prying hands; the one touching her hair quickly withdrew, as though spooked by the voice, and hid her hands behind her back, almost embarrassed.
The other selkies glanced around at one another, blinking in what appeared to be confusion, before they focused their attention back on Daniel. She once again shifted nervously, not exactly feeling too comfortable with the abrupt silence; now all the attention was getting awkward, seeing as the selkies were no longer doing anything but...well, staring at her. As if this couldn’t get any weirder. Daniel thought to herself, biting her lip nervously; only to straighten up in surprise as she noticed a change in the other selkies.
A smile had spread on one selkie’s face; the one beside it then smiled, and so did another, and another, and another. Before long, all of them were grinning from ear to ear at Daniel - and in a matter of moments, a chorus of soft greetings reached the newcomer’s ears. It wasn’t roaring and loud like Daniel expected it to be; no, it was soft and gentle on the ears, muddled by the water like Daniel’s voice had been. These selkies could speak just like her, but it had just taken a push of interaction Daniel’s part to get them to do so.
Written by monochromecheshire on 21 August 2017
