She was the sleekest, darkest seal I had ever seen splashing along my little fishing boat, dark as coffee speckled with ash from the fire.  I chugged into the bay and she swam along my starboard gunnel.
     “I got no orts or porridge for ya, lassie”, I called out to her.  But she swam up to the rocks and flopped up into the sunset and shook the salty ocean off her whiskers.
     “Where’s your friends today, angel-eyes”, I called?
She barked to me as if to tell me to hurry my boat to the mooring.  I roped up to the dock and tied down the nets.  I walked my pack and gear to the rocks and set them down.  The seal barked at me again.
     “What are ya wanting, darlin’?”
She rolled over like a playful pup and gave out a cry.

     Have ya ever looked into the melancholy eyes of an ocean creature?  You can only follow and get as close as she’ll allow.  That’s all you can do and that’s what I did.  I stepped gingerly towards her and she bobbed her head and shook her flipper.  She plopped around and disappeared behind the rock and I thought I had scared her away.  But a long cry filled the mist and the twilight glowed orange against the slick stones.

I climbed the rock to see if the little animal was hurt and as I came to the crest of the boulder a woman rose from the ground.  A woman like no other.  Thick rusty brown hair, wet from the ocean, and her deep sad eyes glimmered at me as a compass does in the candlelight.  Her fine thin body, slick with salty water leaned toward me.  Her tummy was flat and smooth while her skin ran pale in the glow of the evening.

    She reached her long arms up to me and her full breasts rose with the motion.  At her feet was the pelt of a seal and I knew I was stumbling towards a bit of magic.  I could not, to save my holy soul, keep from sliding down the rock and into her arms.  Her fingertips slid around the back of my neck and into the thick curls of my locks.  She was mute as a church-window and her eyes as dark as treacle.
     “A little Selke ya are then?”
She put her lips to my rough mouth.  I was afraid I would break her so I held her gentle as an infant.  We peeled off the wool and canvas of my kit until I was as naked I the air as she.  I touched her ribs and the small of her back.  She uttered a fragile moan as she put a hand upon my heart.
She spoke:

     “I cannot stop from kissing you.”
     “Well that is a grand thing to say, angel eyes, for I cannot quit from kissing you back.”
We came to our knees in the sand and the darkness of the Irish stars filled our mouths.  With my back against the rock she straddled and took my harpoon and moved it to her rosebud.  She put me inside her with a push from her hips and our tender kisses never ceased.

     Our gentle rocking like the lapping of the water’s edge swelled like the tides and it wasn’t until the moon showed over the shore that we trembled together and finished.  She curled onto my chest as a sleepy child and my eyes fell upon the pelt in the sand.

     You know the stories as well as I.  If you keep the skin of a Selke she can never leave your side.  The temptation brought a sticky hardness to my throat.  My hands were holding her tight so I couldn’t move the tear in my eye until it fell on to her cheek.

     It’s only freedom, I thought to myself, why couldn’t I make her my own one?

     She put her finger on her cheek and scooped up my fallen tears.  She put the salty drops on her tongue and raised her tender face to mine.  Her wee lips brushed against mine and then she smiled.

     I am a rough sort of fellow but my voice was weak:
     “Go on with you lass.  Before I come to my senses and trap you among the mortals.”
She put her hands on my face and whispered to me as a wave crashed in the distance.
     “I am the ocean beside you.”

And she moved through the night and disappeared in the deep to leave me alone beside the water.

      Love,        
Jockeypants