selkies

Semen is a powerful seal-lure. Sometimes, a seal may eat it and become pregnant with a human child. The child outgrows its mother, crawling through her insides, killing her in the process; its mother’s skin becomes its own.

A selkie can shed its skin to walk upon the land. They keep their skin close always, for a selkie always longs to slip back inside it and return to the sea no matter how far they wander. Steal a selkie’s skin, and there is nothing it will not do to get it back.

They go hunting for their father, to drown him. We all look like him in their eyes.

clams

Watch for holes on the beach. Any wider than your pinky hides a clam that can swallow you whole.

finfolk

Cut off your legs, and cast yourself on the sea’s mercy. A repentant heart receives her forgiveness: a tail, fins, and scales.

Even the depth and breadth of life’s first home will not be enough to soothe your yearning, for the home you gave away, and all the things you loved inside it.