Why do you make me leave you each morning? I'd prefer to stay here, but I can't, because you haven't proposed. You love me and I love you equally but you have to propose - it's our lore. You have to take my selkie coat so I can stay like you, as a human forever. Why haven't you proposed to me? I'm in limbo. I come back to you every night when I take my human form, hoping that you will propose but you don't. Every morning that I am still not married to you, I stare towards the horizon with a deep sense of melancholy. As the sun comes up, I get ready to put on my selkie coat and return to my seal form. As long as I remain unmarried, the ocean is calling me and I hate it. It's hard being a selkie. I don't need you to make it even harder but I do need you to make it easier.
When will you marry me? God dammit! I don't get angry too often but you make me very angry because you say that you are going to propose and now you just want to love me without marriage. You can't have it both ways. I'm always miserable in the ocean but you're starting to make me miserable on land as well. I've been more comfortable on land with you. I've become accustomed to your face and your strong arms and body. As a seal, I'm always cold and alone with water surrounding me, but with you, I know that I'm safe and well-loved and taken care of. With you, I could be whole. Not half a human and half a seal, but a fully formed human.
I need to be with you god dammit! I need love and if you can't give me that love then I'll let any fisherman steal my selkie coat, cutting my tormenting ties to the sea because I love myself more on land than I love being in love.
The end.
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Selkies, Gaelic Songs, and Higherlander Mythology: Short Stories
FantasyHighlanders myths, and the songs by the people of Scotland and Ireland that they sing in Gaelic have inspired these short stories. I always use selkies as a way of speaking my truth. Selkies are humanoid creatures who can shapeshift between human a...
