Selkie Power Talks IV
“Okay,” you eventually say. “I think I want to try to see about the hydrokinesis ability first. I figure, or at least I hope, that since I can kind of do it already…” You shrug. “I guess I want to think that means I can do more than just propel myself around, too.”
Moirine chuckles. “A fair enough response, pup. Very well then. Do you want to remain in human form while you experiment, or would you like to return to your selkie body?”
“Oh,” you say. “I guess selkie? Since I can shift between them now, right?”
She nods.
“And is the way I become a selkie again… the same as how I turned back into a person?” you gesture to yourself. “Just in reverse, I mean, for obvious reasons.”
“Yes, pup,” Moirine says. “You must envision yourself as a selkie for the transformation to take effect. Now, it may be more difficult for you, since you are a human by nature, and so, you see and think and feel with a human’s experience. So, try to visualize in your head the sensations you recall from being a selkie. Remember the way the ocean felt, and if you can, recall the way your body was. It will work, regardless, mind you.”
You nod to her and close your eyes.
You concentrate on thinking about how it felt to be a selkie – you remember how your hands and feet had become flippers, how your body was different in shape. It takes a moment for you to really entrench yourself in the mindset you had, since your first time as a selkie was a shock and not at all what you’d wanted or considered. However, you quickly slip back into that mental state as those feelings come flowing back to you.
You remember how oddly comfortable you were underwater in your selkie form, how the currents didn’t feel crushing, and how your senses worked – you remember speaking with your thoughts, rather than through your throat and voice, and how you were naked, but, not bothered by this fact. You recall not having fingers and toes, yet also not feeling an overt need to have them. And as you think all these, that sudden surge blasts in you.
It fills your body like a wild current of energy, and, within mere moments, when it’s over, you feel that you’re no longer standing. In fact, you feel the cool stone and the moisture of the ocean mist is more evident on your belly and chest. The wind feels different, less cold now, and the wetness also feels rather pleasant on your now-exposed body, too.
You reopen your eyes and glance down.
You’re a selkie again, naked save for the fur covering you, and you glance about. Your arms and hands have become flippers, the same with your legs and feet, and you wiggle your nose, the smells of the sea still quite strong as they filter into your nostrils.
‘Huh,’ you think to yourself. ‘It was a lot easier to switch between forms than I thought.’
You look toward Moirine and find she’s already become a selkie again. She grins.
‘Nicely done, pup,’ she says, and her voice echoes inside your head once again. ‘And you’re right, it IS a lot easier than it seems. Becoming a selkie and becoming a human… the shifting is rather simplistic in how it works. Some have struggled with it, if only because they have a hard time visualizing what they must, or recalling the correct sensations and experiences. But, be that as it may. Let us return to the water, yes?’
You blink. ‘We only came up here for me to learn how to turn into a person again?’
‘Well, yes,’ Moirine replies. She chortles internally and nods to the side. ‘I doubt you would want to become human while floating in the ocean, pup. You’d be soaked to the bone, and humans don’t tend to like that when they’re fully clothed, now do they? Besides, it gave me an excuse to turn into a human. I rather enjoy it, truth be told.’
You suppose you can’t fault that sentiment, so, you merely shrug in response.
‘Alright, fair,’ you say.
You turn your body sideways – and you admit, you have to readjust to moving as a selkie, which isn’t as easy as walking on two legs – and then, you hop your way toward, then dive into, the ocean. Once your body hits the water, you acclimate instantly to how it feels to swim freely. Your selkie form feels much more at home underwater, for sure.
Moirine joins you briskly after. ‘Now then, pup, to begin in our experiments…’
‘That sounds so ominous, you know,’ you remark.
She snorts. ‘True, but, what other wording would I use?’ She rolls her eyes. ‘Let’s focus, shall we, though?’ Her expression becomes one of mirthfulness. ‘The sooner we see what you’re capable of or not, the sooner we can continue on. There’s always quite a bit more to do for a selkie than you imagine… depending on whom you ask, that is.’
‘Okay,’ you say. ‘How do I try to see?’
‘Remember: it’s based on the mind, pup,’ Moirine says. ‘You must dig deep within your thoughts and concentrate – only through feeling will you know if you can control the element of water. It will feel as though it’s an extension of yourself, plain and simple.’
You nod at this, because it makes sense, given everything else.
‘Focus and see if I can feel it,’ you tell yourself. ‘Alright then…’
You close your eyes and do so, concentrating on trying to ‘feel’ the water around your body as though it were an extension of yourself. Part of you wonders how this is any different from what you did before when you used the water around to propel yourself or lift yourself, but you push this thought aside, and dig deeper than that. It’s not something you’re used to doing, having to really delve into your own headspace like this.
Yet, you do your best, and, as you do, you begin to feel something.
It’s similar to the sensations you felt earlier, when you first envisioned (and felt) how the water and you were separate things entirely, but instead, the sensation of those two things being part of the same whole. Only this time, it’s stronger, and it runs even further than just feeling like the water and you are one in the same – you feel it inside you, you feel it at the tips of your flippers, you feel it in your chest, your stomach, your head.
You open your eyes and decide to latch onto this, and as you do, you start to envision your mind as though it’s your human hands, from which you start to move the water.
But, it isn’t just swishing the waves around, nor is it merely you making the water push you up or down or to the side – you feel a more powerful connection to the waves, and suddenly, it’s like your body and mind have grown in size to a level you cannot even begin to put words to. You can move the waves further ahead, beneath, behind, and above you all at once, and you do so by simply thinking. It’s an incredible feeling.
‘Whoa…’
You bend the waves, creating ripples of varying sizes, until you concentrate and bring the waves to where your body is – you easily push yourself upward toward the surface, only it’s faster and with a great deal more force than the last time you tried; you effectively launch your body up, so fast and so hard, you shoot out from the ocean.
But the sensation of feeling larger, the ‘extension’ you have with the water, doesn’t leave you, and you easily push up the surface of the ocean. A portion of the ocean extends upward and catches your body, then you use it to easily lower you back down to where you just were. Moirine hasn’t budged, yet she is smiling at you now.
‘It seems that you do indeed have this power, pup,’ she remarks.
You are stunned into silence as you stare at her. Your mind is racing, and you blink several times, waiting for the lingering sensation to dwindle or go away. But, it doesn’t.
‘This is… different than anything I’ve ever felt before,’ you say to Moirine.
‘It is, most certainly,’ Moirine replies.
You tap into this mental extension, and you find you can mold the water surrounding you to the point where you can form shapes in the water – including arms, which look solidified despite being underwater (and made from water!). You smile wide, giddy at how you have discovered you of all people are not only able to become a selkie…
But you also possess hydrokinesis, too!
‘I feel superhuman,’ you think to yourself. It’s incredible.
‘Now, do you want to see about the other abilities?’ Moirine asks. ‘Or no?’
You pause, blinking again, because you’d honestly forgotten how selkies have more than just this as a potential power. Instead, you furrow your brow and ponder… do you want to test to see? Or do you find you don’t care now that you KNOW you can do this?
Written by Hollowpage on 02 May 2021
