Tears for the Sea - Chapter Three -
Tears for the Sea Chapter Three (c) Cederwyn Whitefurr 2nd February, 2012 All Rights Reserved
Declain come too some time later, first his hearing; which heard the quiet crackling of something, then the scent of burning driftwood, before his eyes slowly opened and he blinked, moaning incoherently. Kelana sat nearby, idly prodding the small fire with a stick, before she turned her kelp-green eyes on Declain and sighed, hanging her head.
"My love - " Kelana began, then tried to speak past the lump that grew in her throat.
"Who...what...what the hell are you?" Declain whimpered, as he sat upright, then edged away from Kelana. "You're not the one I loved...."
"I owe you an explanation - " Kelana sniffed, as tears began to form in her eyes. "First things first - "
Kelana swallowed, then shivered and her voice changed, gaining a distinctive Irish accent, before she clasped her webbed paws together and rested them on her furred thighs.
"I am, as you now know - not the Sea Otter I pretended to be - for this deception, there was a very valid reason - please...please do not be angry with me...."
"Angry?" Declain sobbed, before he stared at this stranger who sat opposite him. "I loved you - do you hear me? I loved you - you were my mate for..."
"Seven years - " Kelana whispered, then looked down at her trembling paws. "Please, do not make this any harder than it already is. I loved you too Declain - more than anything I have ever loved in the past. I am a Selkie - one of the Seldarine...a race who has long lived amongst humanity and your kind - for hundreds of years, yet we kept ourselves hidden - we know what falsehoods and legends have sprung up about our kind...we preferred to be thought of as a myth, for few are we - and there are those who would hunt us and kill us, if they but knew who were were."
"How...you..." Declain moaned, his eyes widening. "Selkie...but...but you're a myth - you're not real - "
Kelana stood, then slowly approached, before kneeling down before the terrified Declain and gently placing her webbed paws on his cheeks, staring into his eyes.
"I am real my love - what we shared - can never be replaced, or forgotten. I chose you, out of thousands I had watched for the past decade - I chose you - to be the one. It is not an honour a Selkie bestows lightly. Our love is not easily given, or trust, even harder. I come to love you my beloved - for you were everything I imagined you to be. You were kind, gentle and compassionate - a dedicated lover - you never strayed or even glanced at another..."
"Then why didn't you tell me?" Declain wailed, before he clutched her tight, burying his muzzle against her furred breasts and sobbing heart-brokenly. "Why did you just leave - do you have any idea what you done to me - "
"My love," Kelana whispered, biting back her own bitter tears as she began gently rocking him. "I wanted to tell you - honestly, I did - but how can I tell you my greatest of secrets? How could I ask you to live with the guilt of knowing that which I am - the danger it would place you under, should others who hunt my kind - come to know? I could not stay - I had only seven years to live with you my love, seven years is all a Selkie is allowed, before we must return to the sea and part from those we love. It is not to save us, it is to save those souls who come to love and trust us - it is all to save them, from a life of unimaginable pain and suffering. Too many times, in ages distant - had a Selkie given his or her heart to another - only to be hunted down and murdered - their mates forced to watch...I could never think of anything worse for you my love."
"Then why - " Declain sobbed, clinging to Kelana with a painful grasp, his tears sliding down his muzzle. "Why did you not at least tell me you had to leave? Why did you just leave me a note - and then vanish from my life - as suddenly as you appeared, all those years ago? I thought - what we had was real - I worshipped you, gave you my heart and my soul - shared my innermost fears and dreams..."
Kelana continued stroking him, knowing he had to release this fear and anger - or it would destroy him. Her own tears dripped off her muzzle and onto his back, where they ran in small trickles down his spine.
"I gave to you my love," Kelana whispered, as she gently stroked his small ears. "A gift beyond recompense. I was a maiden when I chose you, to be the one - in doing so, I broke countless rules of my kind, for it was not my decision to make! I did it out of love, nothing more - and when the others find out what I have done, their anger will know few bounds. Would I do it again, with you, if I had the choice again? With all my heart, my sweet, compassionate lover - I would do so in a heartbeat. I will be punished for my crimes - and I accept that, but all I ask of you my beloved - is you accept me for what I am. I am...exactly the same, as what you first fell in love with - I am the same personality, the likes, dislikes and emotions as when we first met. Why should me, being a Selkie - change what we shared?"
"You...on the beach - " Declain moaned, then rubbed his wet cheeks against her furred breasts.
"I..." Kelana swallowed, then hung her head and trembled. "That was wrong of me my love - I am sorry if I frightened you - but it had been a secret desire of my own - for many years. I had known you, physically, mentally and spiritually - in the form you see me as, and I can not deny the pleasures we mutually shared...yet a part of me, it needed to know - to just...see...if you would be...."
"How can I trust you?" Declain cried, then pushed her away, forcing Kelana onto her back. "You've lied to me before - how do I know, you're not lying to me again? How can you prove, you truly love me and that - "
Kelana, stung by his words, felt her anger rise, but she forced it back down and trembled, before speaking calmly to the upset, confused and angry Declain.
"What I done to you on the beach - do you think a normal seal would do that? Would it so willingly give a strange creature pleasure, of a very intimate nature? Search your mind Declain - you know I am telling you the truth - I acted out of fear, for how you would react if I just appeared to you...as I now appear. Would a normal fur seal willingly mate with a creature not even close to its own species? No! It would not - it...it is unnatural. I did what I did, I confess, out of a selfish longing of my own - to feel you within me, in my true form - not lying to you as I am now - in this...this form you see me now. I am a seal Declain - I always have been, this - this is just the appearance I take when I walk amongst your kind - or humans. I have the ability, as you saw before - too transform my appearance at will. Normally, it is quick and relatively painless - providing our seal coat is still wet with the water of the sea...."
"Then why did it - " Declain gasped, recoiling under the Selkie's angry words.
"Why? Because I took too long - my seal coat had nearly dried - and when it does dry completely, I would have been stuck in my true form for at least a day. If - I transform whilst wet, I can shed my seal coat and hiding it somewhere safe - I can stay in my other form...for as long as necessary... but sooner or later, I feel the urge to change back to my true self - the call of the sea runs powerfully in a Selkie's blood..."
"Your seal coat..." Declain whispered, glancing about.
"As much as I love you my beloved - I will never reveal the location of my hidden seal coat. For if one of my kind ever has their coat stolen - we can never change back - or return to the sea - and our people. For a Selkie, it is an unbearable agony - knowing we are so close - yet so far. There are those who as I said, prey upon my people - for our seal coats have...in your words...a magick to them - and a Selkie who has his or her coat stolen, will do anything to recover it...and many a Selkie was forced into terrible things - the threat of destruction to their seal coat making them submit. So, please my love, please do not beg me to reveal my seal coat - for I can not."
*
Declain sat, trembling with a mixture of cold and fear - listening to the Irish accent of his beloved, as she lay down the history and everything - of her kind. Their legends, their beliefs, all of it - she told him - holding nothing back, except for the location of her hidden seal coat. Her story took until nearly dawn, and he listened attentively, both fascinated and horrified at some of the stories Kelana told him, some she had witnessed first hand - others - fellow Selkie had either witnessed, or been told about, and in turn, told others of their kind, and so their knowledge was passed down through the generations...
*
As the first tinges of the eastern sky began to turn, Kelana cradled her lovers head in her lap, stroking his head tenderly, before she sniffled and began to weep - knowing her time with this shy, beloved mustelid, would soon end forever....
"Declain, my love - I have but one wish left - " Kelana whispered, as she gently lifted his head up and gazed adoringly into his eyes. "Please - make love to me - one last time..."
"You...but you can't leave - " Declain moaned, as he clutched at her possessively. "You can't!"
"My love, I know the stories you have been told - the legends, of how a Selkie finds true love - and forgoes their life in the sea - their people - everything...but I beg of you, please do not ask me to make that decision - you do not understand, what a Selkie must give up for...for it is a certain death sentence for a Selkie. Whilst we remain a Selkie, our lifespan is in the centuries - I myself - am over two hundred and twenty years old...."
"You - " Declain gasped, eyes growing wide.
Glancing at the rising sun, Kelana turned back to him, her eyes shimmering with tears.
"Please my beloved - I - as much as I love you with my heart and soul, to make this promise - I would surrender my life...we would have - at most - forty years together, before I sickened and died...and this is something I can not ever want you too experience. I love you, I always have - but I can not bring myself to put you through such suffering...not now, and not ever. Make love to me Declain - do it quickly, and with the gentleness and compassion I know lies within your heart - for when we part - I shall never return to you...but I promise, I will never forgive that which you have given me my love...."
Declain sniffled, the tears slowly trickling down his cheeks, as he swallowed his tears and tried to be brave for his beloved to honour her last wish - even though inside, his heart was breaking in two - and he knew that Kelana knew it....
*
As the sun broke over the distant horizon, there on the beach, they made love like they had never done before - an act of beautiful gentleness and compassion - neither holding anything back, and when they finally moved apart - both Selkie and Sea Otter were bathed in sweat, breathing hard and shivering with the incredible pleasure they had shared, as only two lovers - who truly trust and love each other - can understand.
Kelana kissed Declain's cheek, then slowly walked down to the waters edge, before she waded out a short distance - then dived beneath the waves - and as he watched and wept for his beloved - he saw her seal form break the surface of the sea, and twist about too look at him... Declain's resolve broke, and he plunged into the water, wading out to her, as she continued to gaze sorrowfully at him. He flung himself at her, then wrapped his webbed paws around her head and lifted it up out of the water, before he stared into her eyes - his tears running unimpeded down his furred cheeks, as her gaze transfixed him - her eyes, like pools of darkest night, those dark, soulful eyes that held his gaze as he stroked her wet cheek, feeling her whiskers ticking the palms of his hands as her eyes grew moist with the un-shed tears, and she gazed at him with a look of unendurable love and longing, before she kissed his cheek, then flicked herself out of his grasp, and disappeared beneath the waves...never to be seen again....
Kelana heard his anguished cries, and his paws as they slapped the surface of the water, as he cried for his mate - his lover...and her own bitter tears melted into the salty water, as she began swimming out to sea, her heart heavy with grief and suffering - yet in her heart that beat beneath her ebony fur, she knew that what they had shared - would remain with her forever....
END