Meet the Selkies: seals by day, humans by night. Or, in the case of Tora Urchadainn: seal by day, thief by night.
And Tora is just about to learn that even the best thieves sometimes get caught.
Inspired by Scottish mythology about the Selkies, Th...
"I best be off, ma'am," Tora murmured into the woman's ear. "I don't want to hold you any longer."
Even as the woman pulled away, though, Tora couldn't bring herself to move.
She had promised herself last night that she would hunt a Lavellan.
And instead, she had stolen it.
One glance at the wrinkles and folds on the old woman's face nearly made Tora throw the Lavellan back onto the table.
Maybe this woman had a horrible husband – a real horrible husband. Maybe she lived in a home with smashed windows that couldn't protect her from the nightly blizzards. Maybe she was selling Lavellan so that she could buy herself a new home with proper windows, or even get herself a new fur coat to keep her warm when the snow and ice forced its way into her hut.
Tora felt her heart clench.
Emil Blacach could call her whatever he wanted. She was not going to steal a rat to impress him.
Tora reached for her belt. She already had it all planned – she was going to pull the Lavellan out, distract the woman once more, and leave the Lavellan back on the table. Exactly where she had found it.
But, as Tora's light fingers brushed against her belt, she couldn't help but choke on her breath.
The Lavellan was gone.
All that remained was a bundle of thick rope – the one that the Lavellan had been bound in. Tora moved her hands around her waist, searching and searching, desperately hoping that the Lavellan was still somewhere along the rim of her belt-
Nothing.
It had escaped.
"Everything alright, dear?" the woman was asking. "You look as if you've seen a ghost."
Tora ignored her.
Lavellan were poisonous to the humans. If one of them were to escape and start biting all the humans that came in its path-
Oh, no. Oh, no.
She had to find that rat. She had to find it now.
Just as Tora was about to drop to her knees and claw her way through the snow, she felt two pairs of paws march its way down her arm like tiny feet of frost imps. She felt a tail slither down behind the feet, felt tufts of fur tickle at her skin.
Then, she felt a stab of pain on her finger.
Tora didn't move. She didn't even blink.
She only lowered her gaze down to her hand, where the Lavellan's teeth were buried deeply into her skin, where a drop of blood was slipping down towards her wrist.
Every muscle in her body screamed for her to run, but she couldn't bring herself to move. She could only stare at the trail of red along her arm, her heart pounding, her head spinning, her skin burning-
"Dearie? Are you-"
From the corner of her eye, Tora saw the woman's gaze dart from the table to the Lavellan in Tora's hand. Counting. Recounting.
Then, the woman's eyes widened.
"Thief!"
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