Eldur. Fire. The Cloakless girl's voice cracked "like fire in the late fall air", the Elder would have said. Elspeth stopped with just her toes in the water. She could not risk getting her cloak. The water was so cold. She turned and looked back at the Cloakless. The girl had stopped, standing even with the bundle of cloth on the ground. She had put the wood thing down, and was holding a bright red thing in front of her.
"I just want to help," the Cloakless girl said again. "Please?" Elspeth took several hesitant steps toward the fire Cloakless.
"Help?" Elspeth asked in the language she knew. Although her face flickered to confusion, the fire Cloakless never wavered.
"Yes. Are you hungry?" The girl waved the red thing.
Elspeth dashed forward, snatched the red thing, then dashed back to where she had been before. Never looking away from the fire cloakless, Elspeth ate. The red thing was wet, and it was sweet.
"What... what is this?" She should not be talking to the Cloakless. Mother would have been furious.
"I... uh... That's a strawberry. Have you never had a strawberry before? Don't eat the leaves!"
Elspeth spit the little green leaves out on the sand. They were all that was left of the strawberry. The Cloakless girl kneeled and dug another out of her wood thing and held it out. Elspeth crept forward, grabbed it, and only stepped back a few steps.
Mother would have been furious.
YOU ARE READING
The Maid and The Selkie
Short StoryMacrae finds a strange child on the sand. Elspeth finds her preconceptions are not as true as fact. They find friends in each other, and want to keep that love forever. Cover made with www.canva.com
