This story does have a supernatural bent, as it involves a female seal-shifter, or selkie, specifically shifting into a harbor seal. I am still doing research into local indigenous stories and legends that involve skin-shifters, particularly of the pinnaped variety, but am willing to entertain changes in that vein if necessary.
There's no title on this piece yet, as I'm still waiting on that information from the story itself.
Two months,
three weeks, four days, eighteen hours, five minutes, and thirty-one
seconds. Thirty-two seconds. Thirty-three seconds.
Kat O'Malley stares at the second hand of her
grandfather's pocket watch, willing herself to time her breathing with the passing
of time. All joking of hypnotism aside,
it's one of the easiest triggers for her meditations.
But not today.
There's a restlessness that she just can't quite shake. Not that it necessarily surprises her. It's barely been three months since she
numbly fled the OR in the wake of that terrible tragedy that ultimately brought
her halfway across the country. Not that
she's regretted a single minute she's been in Washington. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Sadie's plaintive mewling grabs Kat's attention and she gladly abandons the idea of meditation.
With a long, luxurious stretch, she unwinds from her lotus position and
reaches for the fluffy tuxedo cat she'd rescued four years earlier. Sadie only struggles briefly at first before
going boneless in that uniquely feline way in her human's light grip.
"You're such an attention slut, Sadie
girl," Kat muses, rubbing at the
exposed belly. "What would I do
without you?" At the answering
meow, she stands and heads into the kitchen.
Sadie sits perfectly still next to her mat until the dish of wet food is set down and Kat takes a step back.
Without thought, the redhead turns effortlessly on her heel and heads into the bedroom to change into warmer sweats and her running shoes before tossing her beach shoes and a towel into her little backpack. The comfortable fleece sweatshirt is slipped
on as she heads out of her rental home.
The not so light rain falling down on her barely registers as she makes
her way down the road to the public beach.
Thankfully the rain has stopped pretty much everyone from visiting the lighthouse there and Kat practically has the beach to herself. She pauses next to the lighthouse for a
moment, gazing out at the waters of Puget Sound before making her way down to
the driftwood-strewn beach.
Taking off at an easy pace, she carefully tests
the sand's solidity. Once satisfied it's
not too soupy, she increases her speed and continues to head south on the beach
for the half mile to the large rock that usually signals her turnaround
point. Today, she continues on around to
the far point, another mile and a half down the way, relishing the solitude of
this beach she's come to adore. Once
there, she turns back to study the way she's come and takes a few slow deep
breaths before bending over to stretch a bit more.
The gulls and crows chatter aimlessly around her,
a sound she's grown quite accustomed to already. Straightening again, Kat is just about to start back toward her starting point when the birds suddenly go silent and a sleek head with soulfully dark eyes pops up out of the water. Kat stills instantly, mesmerized by the
harbor seal watching her from perhaps only thirty feet away. She barely breathes for fear of scaring the
animal away, fingers itching to glide across what has to be soft fur in the
most beautiful pewter grey color. The
seal is so close, she can see its nostrils flaring, its eyes blinking languidly
at her.
"Hello there," she whispers softly. "Such a beauty you are. Are you hunting today? Catching anything good?" And then the seal's head slips back under the
surface. "No, no! Don't go!
Come back!"
Kat waits another couple of moments, scanning the
water for signs of the seal surfacing again, but to no avail. With a heavy sigh, she heads back up the
shore toward the lighthouse again. As
she runs, the cadence of her footfalls becomes her sole focus, to the exclusion
of practically everything else. Which is
why she doesn't see the seal pacing just slightly ahead of her, but at that
same distance from their first meeting, as if drawn to her.
Once Kat reaches the rock again, she pauses a
moment to study the water again before walking toward her point of origin. Turning the corner, she heads down along the
more publicly accessed area of the beach, intending to rest for a short while
on her favorite driftwood log. The rain
isn't even bothering her at this point, so what would a little more water on
her already soaked body be? The sight of
someone sitting at the water's edge in front of that same log brings Kat to a
dead stop.
The woman has long dark hair, currently plastered
to her head from the rain, and Kat can't help but wonder if that hair curls at
all when it's dry. Moving closer, Kat
notices that the woman's hair appears to go to her waist and seems to have
strands of seaweed woven into it. The woman's low chanting makes its way to Kat's ears, but none of the words make any sense to her.
Movement to her right draws Kat's eyes further out
into the water where she can see half a dozen
harbor seals no more than twenty-five feet away from the mystery
woman. Every single one of them is
staring intently at the brunette with the faintly dusky skin.
Until Kat gasps at the sight. As one, the seals turn to look at her and
disappear under the water as if they've never been there. And before she can fully register they're
gone, she hears another splash and the mystery woman is gone.
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