TM Challenge 217
Words: 770
Picture.
They're there. I do know they're there. It was the sea I was after when I used to go down, wading in to my waist in the bitter cold, and getting pushed back and forth against the rocks under the water I couldn't even see; it was that I wanted, not them. But they're there, and I know, and their eyes are black and sleek as wet stones, and sometimes I dreamed--
I don't think about my dreams.
Gawain, he smiled at me with something akin to relief when I started slipping into the village for tokens a girl would want, and Gareth pestered. "What's her name? Is she pretty?" and Agravain said no girl who chose me would be pretty, or sweet-tempered, or very clever, and very possibly she'd be blind.
Only Mordred was quiet and watching when I went down to the shore. Mordred, I think, likely knew, but he keeps all kinds of secrets that nobody knows, and he never said anything.
When I went by the sea, I found the tidepools, and I left roses from the briar in the scrub past the castle, and combs, and some of my pocket money when it was shiny, and once I bought a gold chain that all but disappeared when you let it slip through your hand, and I left all those things. They always disappeared. I never saw anyone, but my gifts were taken. And at first I thought--maybe just the sea washes them out and they get buried in the sand--but I didn't care if that was what happened, my blood felt like there were tides moving in my arms, and I loved the sea. I thought, maybe it's the sea I leave them for.
And then I had the ring made.
Truly, I didn't know what I was doing until I was down in the sand at midnight, and the sea was coming up around me and I had the damned ring in my hand, and I just stood there, waiting. Nearly an hour I waited, and then a hand took hold of my hand, and I looked across and she was there, as deep in as I was, and her eyes like stones.
I wasn't one for talking. Half the time I didn't know what to say to begin. But I started speaking to her in our proper language, and I touched her hair and she let me, and I know I smiled at her. She had a comb in her hair that was shining ivory, and her hair was silver-grey like a seal's back, and it was my comb, I'd bought it--I remembered. I think I said O, Christ. "Oh, Holy Christ," I said, half a moment before she kissed me, and, swear to God, I kissed her back, and the water was like to go over our heads.
I put the ring on her hand. I did. And then she was gone back into the sea, and I was soaked through, but I sat out all night all the same, looking after her. Around dawn, Mordred came down and took my arm and led me back to the castle. We said nothing to each other.
After that I went down every night and waited in the sea for her, and nearly every night she came. I brought other gifts, a hundred gifts, the most stupid things that I thought perhaps she'd like, anything she might want. I went back of my own accord; after the first night Mordred never came after me. Gawain said I looked better those days, and he ruffled up my hair.
Then it happened that my brothers had all left home and gone to Camelot, and it was past my turn, and my mother was awearied with keeping me in the castle. I missed them, especially I missed Mordred, and I went. I left my selkie a love letter, badly spelled and pathetically in earnest, and that was all I left, because she wasn't my wife and she lived nowhere I could send anything to her. I couldn't own her, God knows. I couldn't own her.
I married in Camelot, my beautiful Lynet, but when I went back to Orkney and my mother was killed, I came down to the sea again and waited for her and her stone eyes and her seal-back hair, but found, received, nothing.
Except just before my brothers came, I found the ring, in the sand, and I shut it in a book in my old room. I did that.
Then I went away from the sea.
Picture.
They're there. I do know they're there. It was the sea I was after when I used to go down, wading in to my waist in the bitter cold, and getting pushed back and forth against the rocks under the water I couldn't even see; it was that I wanted, not them. But they're there, and I know, and their eyes are black and sleek as wet stones, and sometimes I dreamed--
I don't think about my dreams.
Gawain, he smiled at me with something akin to relief when I started slipping into the village for tokens a girl would want, and Gareth pestered. "What's her name? Is she pretty?" and Agravain said no girl who chose me would be pretty, or sweet-tempered, or very clever, and very possibly she'd be blind.
Only Mordred was quiet and watching when I went down to the shore. Mordred, I think, likely knew, but he keeps all kinds of secrets that nobody knows, and he never said anything.
When I went by the sea, I found the tidepools, and I left roses from the briar in the scrub past the castle, and combs, and some of my pocket money when it was shiny, and once I bought a gold chain that all but disappeared when you let it slip through your hand, and I left all those things. They always disappeared. I never saw anyone, but my gifts were taken. And at first I thought--maybe just the sea washes them out and they get buried in the sand--but I didn't care if that was what happened, my blood felt like there were tides moving in my arms, and I loved the sea. I thought, maybe it's the sea I leave them for.
And then I had the ring made.
Truly, I didn't know what I was doing until I was down in the sand at midnight, and the sea was coming up around me and I had the damned ring in my hand, and I just stood there, waiting. Nearly an hour I waited, and then a hand took hold of my hand, and I looked across and she was there, as deep in as I was, and her eyes like stones.
I wasn't one for talking. Half the time I didn't know what to say to begin. But I started speaking to her in our proper language, and I touched her hair and she let me, and I know I smiled at her. She had a comb in her hair that was shining ivory, and her hair was silver-grey like a seal's back, and it was my comb, I'd bought it--I remembered. I think I said O, Christ. "Oh, Holy Christ," I said, half a moment before she kissed me, and, swear to God, I kissed her back, and the water was like to go over our heads.
I put the ring on her hand. I did. And then she was gone back into the sea, and I was soaked through, but I sat out all night all the same, looking after her. Around dawn, Mordred came down and took my arm and led me back to the castle. We said nothing to each other.
After that I went down every night and waited in the sea for her, and nearly every night she came. I brought other gifts, a hundred gifts, the most stupid things that I thought perhaps she'd like, anything she might want. I went back of my own accord; after the first night Mordred never came after me. Gawain said I looked better those days, and he ruffled up my hair.
Then it happened that my brothers had all left home and gone to Camelot, and it was past my turn, and my mother was awearied with keeping me in the castle. I missed them, especially I missed Mordred, and I went. I left my selkie a love letter, badly spelled and pathetically in earnest, and that was all I left, because she wasn't my wife and she lived nowhere I could send anything to her. I couldn't own her, God knows. I couldn't own her.
I married in Camelot, my beautiful Lynet, but when I went back to Orkney and my mother was killed, I came down to the sea again and waited for her and her stone eyes and her seal-back hair, but found, received, nothing.
Except just before my brothers came, I found the ring, in the sand, and I shut it in a book in my old room. I did that.
Then I went away from the sea.