Selkie - Scottish

The cool, salty water swirls around me like a silken blanket, and the voices of my brothers and sisters echo in the deep. My name is Mara, and I am at home here, but the bright world above the waves calls to me with its warm sun and rocky shores. I love to feel the soft sand between my toes and hear the seabirds call overhead. This story, the myth of the Selkie, tells of my people, the seal-folk of the Scottish isles, who can slip out of our soft, gray sealskins to walk on two feet. It is a secret we have kept for a very long time, but it is also a story of a great love and a difficult choice I once had to make.

One sunny afternoon, I left my sealskin lying carefully on a flat, gray stone so I could dance on a hidden beach. A young fisherman, who had been mending his nets nearby, heard my beautiful singing and came to see who it was. He saw my lovely sealskin shimmer in the sun and, without thinking, he took it and hid it away. When I went to get it, it was gone. My heart thumped like a drum inside my chest. Without my skin, I couldn't return to the sea. The fisherman was kind to me, and though my heart ached for the ocean, I stayed with him on the land. We married, and soon we had children with eyes as deep and gray as the sea. I loved my human family more than words could say, but every day I would gaze out at the waves, feeling the pull of my true home. I never stopped looking for my lost skin. I searched in the attic under dusty sheets, behind old barrels in the shed, and inside every cupboard, knowing it held the key to my other life.

Years passed, and on a stormy evening, one of my children was exploring an old sea chest we kept in the cottage. He found an old, soft bundle tucked away at the very bottom. 'Mother, what is this?' he asked, holding it out to me. It was my sealskin. My hands trembled as I took it. With tears of both sadness and joy in my eyes, I hugged my children goodbye, promising to always watch over them from the waves. I ran to the shore, slipped into my wonderful skin, and dove into the churning ocean. I was finally free and back where I belonged. The fisherman and my children would often see a beautiful seal swimming close to their shore, her eyes full of love. The story of the Selkie reminds us about belonging to two worlds at once and the unbreakable connection we have to our homes.