#kae confirmed actual golden retriever puppy of the sea

[raiswanson]

The Loving Seal shorts #2: Mean (Nyvina PoV)

([soft gasp] Okay so I guess a few of you liked the first one of these huh? I am humbled and ShookTM and I love you all ❤️❤️❤️ You guys really like your selkies don’t you? :3)

This is short two of six that I wrote in March to warm up for Camp NaNo! Set shortly after the events of Song! Again, taking place long, long before the events of The Loving Seal proper...

(This short is roughly 3k words long, in full beneath the cut!)

“Do I have to?” Kaelan’s miserable whimper set my feet even more forcefully in the sand as I stood between him and my mother, glaring her down for being so unreasonable.

“If he doesn’t want to leave the cove yet you shouldn’t make him, Mother. It isn’t fair,” I protested.

Mother closed her eyes and set her hand to her hip, matching my posture exactly—I couldn’t tell who was imitating who anymore. “Pup, it’s been a week. I know Kaelan has had a difficult experience but he must go out. I cannot continue fishing for him, and we cannot expect the others to offer their catches in my place—”

“I’ll give him—”

“No, pup. He must join the pod properly. You can’t keep him here all to yourself,” she said softly, making me narrow my eyes in anger only to jump when I felt a timid hand close around my finger. I turned to see Kaelan had stepped closer and was peeking at my mother over my head, shaky hand gripping mine as he swallowed.

“I’ll go,” he said softly, lulling voice still trembling but not as much as he had before, “If Vina goes with me. I don’t want to be alone again.”

Mother sighed and crouched down to look at him around me, smiling. “No one is asking you to go alone, pup. I’m trying to make you not be alone. Nyvina can’t stay here with you forever you know. If you don’t want to be lonely you need to meet everyone else for when she has something to do,” she said.

Kaelan considered this, squeezing my fingers, then flinched when I pulled his arm.

“I’ll go with you. It’s okay. I’ll show you where all the other pups play,” I said, pit sinking in my stomach at the thought. I didn’t want him to meet the others. “I’m not going to keep him like he’s a pet,” I added with a sniff of challenge toward my mother, who watched with a knowing expression.

Shaking her head, she stood to look down at the two pups before her. “I’m glad to hear that. Go have fun with the others. Make friends,” she said, looking to me especially as I felt myself shrink.

“Yes, Miss Nadia,” Kaelan mumbled, and with a grunt I pulled his arm again to lead him out of the rocks to the cove.

We made it to the open beach before Kaelan froze up, yanking me backward as I kept moving and found my arm nearly ripped off my shoulder. I turned to scowl at him but cooled when I saw his eyes had gone round and terrified, full of tears once more. He moved as if to step back toward the shelter of the rocks again, and whimpered when I planted my feet and held my ground.

“Come on, Kaelan, we have to,” I said, leaning my face into view. The closeup startled him and he jerked backward, gasping, then set his eyes to mine and stared at me. “It’s okay. I’m here. I won’t let anything hurt you,” I promised, pleased when his face brightened to a tiny smile.

“Okay,” he whispered, letting me pull him past the rocks. He still flinched as if expecting attack, and when all that happened was more pulling he opened his clenched eyes and let me haul him to the water.

He skittered backward when the waves lapped his ankles, but I held his hand firm, already accustomed to what I had to do. When I didn’t yield he shuffled closer to me and loomed over my shoulder looking out at the water.

“Come on Kaelan, let’s go find the others,” I pressed, pulling his skin over his head and stepping backward into the sea. I heard him gasping as I dropped to the wet sand in seal form, and a moment later a larger seal was thumping to the ground beside me, half his face covered in freshly-closed slashes.

I offered him a friendly, meaningless bark and scooted deeper, slipping under the waves to enjoy being submerged as I’d so scarcely been able to since Kaelan’s arrival. I’d been with him almost the whole week, leaving to splash and catch a few fish whenever he fell asleep, but this was the first in days I’d gotten to swim for fun.

Kaelan followed at a slower pace, hesitant to leave the depths he could stand up in. I flipped and spun ahead of him, signaling a call for play and fun with my fins waving encouragement. He watched me dart through the water a while, then pushed forward to meet me.

“You swim well,” he said in a mystified voice once we floated nose to nose. I blew air bubbles and flipped my tail. Brightening, he blew some back and did a few experimental spins before paddling a slow circle around me. “Are you sure we can’t go back?”

“Don’t you want to make friends?” I asked, silently hoping he’d say no. I didn’t want to go to the others—I already knew how that would go. The cove was a nice, safe place I could hide with Kaelan. Kaelan was nice. He didn’t get mad at me.

He thought about it, floating upside down to watch some kelp go by, then bobbled his head uncertainly. “I like friends,” he said, then nudged his head into my side. “I wanna be friends with anyone you’re friends with too.”

I winced and avoided his round eyes. “They’re not really...I mean, I don’t not like any of them, but...” My fumbling explanation was halted by motion in the seaweed beyond, and I braced myself for something terrible when I saw a pup head poke out and see us.

Here it came. At least I’d gotten a week.

Kaelan floated closer to me as a mini pod of pups poured from the growth and swarmed toward us. He looked mystified by the attentive stares and rapid chatter as they rushed him, and seemed too stunned to respond when they began to crowd him.

I found myself muscled out of the way as the bustling pups all spoke to Kaelan at once, demanding to know who he was and where he’d come from, and his opinion on crabs, and how long he could hold his breath. Usual pup talk—I assumed.

But even from outside the cluster I could see Kaelan getting overwhelmed, shrinking in on himself as he tried to keep up with each speaker with his eyes darting around as if searching for something.

Even as unwelcome as I was, I refused to stand by and not hold true to my promise. Shouting as loud as I could, I charged forward and barreled through the other pups, shouldering them aside to give Kaelan space. “Leave him alone! You’re scaring him! Stop it!”

The response went about as well as I expected it to. There was a moment of surprised silence, and an immediate backlash as everyone realized I’d been there as well as the newcomer, and suddenly I was the center of attention as I was bumped and prodded back out of Kaelan’s space by a hostile flurry of furry bodies.

“Ohhh, why’s she here? What’s she bothering the new guy for?”

“Her mama found him right? Maybe she’s been bullying him since he has to be grateful.”

“I bet that’s it. Look at his face, too! You think she did it?”

A chorus of bubbles followed the final statement, and I miserably backpaddled to get clear as they all turned to examine Kaelan’s healing injuries with horror.

“Oh no, I bet she did!”

“You poor thing, Nyvina was being mean to you all week!”

“Do you think Miss Nadia knows?”

“We should tell her! Look what she did to him!”

“I’m sorry new pup! We won’t let her bully you anymore!”

Each voice sent me further back, and I wanted to whirl around and swim back to my mother as fast as I could when Kaelan stopped looking around and stared at me instead with his eyes wide. He didn’t look scared anymore, just confused, and the way the pups worked it probably wouldn’t be much longer before they’d somehow convinced him I had been the one to hurt him. Or at least that I would have if I’d been able.

To my shock, when he spoke up it wasn’t to condemn me, but a simple question.

“Why do you think Vina is mean?”

He received another round of squeaking cries in answer:

“She never lets anyone win at games! She’s a bully!”

“Every time we used to wrestle I’d get hurt. She’s mean.”

“She’s always making faces and talking like we annoy her, how can you not think she’s mean?”

“Have you been around her at all? She’s been mean to you since you got here, right? She has!”

“Don’t even worry about it. Come play! You look like you’d be fun to play tag with!”

I didn’t try to defend myself. It’d never worked. Arguing with the mini pod was like shouting back at gulls. You could yell and call all you wanted, promise them treats and treasures, but if you poked your head too far they’d always—always—peck at your head anyway. It wasn’t worth fighting them. And soon they’d pull Kaelan into their pecking flock, like they had all the others.

“You’re wrong! Vina is very nice! She’s kind and gentle and been very good to me! Don’t be mean to her!” Kaelan cried over the continuing chatter, bringing a stunned silence to the water. No one answered as the mini pod seemed to try and process the direct confrontation toward their running mantra, and each spotted head looked toward me with heavy skepticism.

For my part I was equally speechless. I gaped at Kaelan in awe, amazed to have heard the same outraged confidence he’d shown when I’d doubted his mother’s words, bobbing dumbly in place where I’d retreated from the group.

“Vina! Come back here so you can play!” he said sternly, extending himself to show how much bigger than the other pups he really was. The group mumbled in reply as a weak protest stuck in my mouth, wriggling as a group when Kaelan gave them all a hard look. “What? You invited me to play with you right? Vina should join in too.”

“We don’t let her play with us anymore. She’s too mean,” one pup finally answered after a long pause, squeaking when Kaelan rounded on them to shove his mangled face right into theirs.

“Then I don’t want to play with you,” he said, and without waiting for an answer shot around the mini pod to join me, bumping my shoulder with his nose. “Let’s go. There’s other places to go, right?” he asked, nudging me again when I stared at him.

I looked to the others, alarmed to see them watching us with eerie attention. “Kaelan, you don’t have to—”

“No! You’re my friend and if they aren’t your friends too then I don’t want to be with them. Let’s just swim by ourselves, Vina,” he insisted, and pushed me with his head to go back toward the cove. “Show me the rest of the territory. This water is different.”

Finally done with the event, I took his lead and bolted, shooting through the water to leave it all behind as fast as possible. Kaelan soon called for me to slow down, and once he’d caught up I began pointing out my favorite places in a shaky voice.

He listened attentively as I spoke until the trembling evened, and soon enough I’d almost forgotten the experience at all under all his enthusiastic focus. He was happy to ask me questions about each spot, asking what made them special to me and if there were any tasty treats hiding nearby, or where the softest places to lay were. The genuine interest—now that he’d been given another option—caught me off guard, and I swam about in a state of bewilderment until after a while Kaelan began looking behind us with irritated blasts of bubbles.

I looked back. Sure enough, a few of the others were following us from a noticeable distance.

Once they realized they’d been caught they inched closer, calling from afar, “Can we play with you?”

Before I could even respond Kaelan had darted in front of me with his chest swelled up, whiskers shaking. “Is Vina invited to play too?” he asked, blowing bubbles as if daring them to say no.

The handful of pups looked between one another for a moment, then bobbled their heads.

“Of course she is.” That was all it took to brighten Kaelan up, and he whirled to me with his fins flapping excitedly.

“Vina! Vina, we can play! Come on!” he cried, doing a tight spin before wheeling off to barrel into the nearest pup with a delighted cry. The others were wary as I approached more carefully, but they kept their thoughts to themselves and sure enough, once we’d decided to play tag they allowed me into the game.

Once I realized I was not asleep on the beach with my mother, and was really zipping through the water with pups like myself, my heart swelled with too much excitement to contain. I hadn’t gotten to play with the others in so long! I’d forgotten how much fun it was to chase actual selkie pups and not shrimp or fish that didn’t understand I wasn’t going to eat them!

I threw myself into the game with everything I had, trying to cram the last few years of isolation backward through time with my current effort, and before long I remembered the root of why I’d been ostracized in the first place.

I was too good.

“Nyvina is being mean again!” a pup cried after I tagged her the sixth time in a row. She was a slow swimmer, and always took her time ducking out of sight when I was ‘it’.

I’d opened my mouth to apologize when another voice rang out with, “Yeah! She swam into me too hard, too!” and when the others drew close to see the ruckus—and begin to join in—I felt the sea whirling around me with shameful unease. I’d blown it. So soon after everyone had let me be with them.

And then Kaelan was in front of me again, gaze snapping to each pup until they stopped piling accusations on me. “She isn’t mean! She’s just really really good! It isn’t her fault she’s so fast and good at swimming! It’s very impressive! You should tell her she’s amazing, not mean!” he cried, earning a wall of startled stares.

They each looked to one another as if wondering if he was serious, and jerked to alertness when Kaelan glided toward them with his voice low and more full of barbs than Gran when her nap was interrupted.

“Tell her,” he hissed, emptying my lungs in a burst as the meaningful words sent a sharp tingle up my spine. They sounded dangerous, but pleasant. It was a puzzling sensation that burrowed deep in my ears and left me stunned.

The others glanced around, then looked to me with sulky faces as Kaelan stared them down.

“It is pretty cool that you’re that fast. And good at chasing.” I stared back at the confession, mind blank.

“I’m a little jealous. I always liked watching you play hide and seek.” More staring was all I could muster.

The last one came forward looking sulkier than the rest. “When...when we played, I think you only bit me when I bit you first...I’m sorry...” This brought on a chorus of similar realizations, and I floated flat as the small group slowly arrived at the conclusion that they’d made a fuss over a mixture of misunderstanding and misplaced envy.

It felt impossible. All those times I’d tried to explain it to them myself and been ignored, but now they changed their minds. Because one selkie had stood up to them for me. Because he’d been determined to change their minds. Had it been real siren magic? Or was it just...him?

I looked to Kaelan to see him watching with vibrant, contagious glee, happily flapping his fins and flaring his whiskers at me.

He looked ridiculous.

And I was pretty sure I loved it more than I’d ever loved anything else in my short life.

That night Mother coaxed Kaelan to sleep on the shore with the rest of the pod, and I lay awake under the stars nestled against her large side beside him. Even hours later I almost didn’t believe the day had really happened. With their anger forced out of them the others had been overjoyed to have me around, even if they still seemed grumpy that I was better at all the games than most of them. The only one I lost was shell hunting, which Kaelan had won ten times over and feasted upon all the spoils as a reward.

He’d shared most of it with me for dinner.

I rolled to bump against Kaelan’s side, nuzzling his neck until he stirred and blinked at me in sleepy confusion.

“Thank you,” I blurted, making him blink more and yawn.

“For what?”

“For making the others be nice to me,” I said with an indignant squeak. Did he really not realize how much he’d done?

“I didn’t make them do anything. I just showed them how great you are,” he answered with a sigh, closing his eyes in a dopey smile as he began to nod off again.

“Thanks anyway,” I insisted, earning a noisy huff of exasperation.

“You deserve it. You’re welcome,” he said, then yawned wide and wiggled over to thump his head across my back. “Can I go back to sleep now?”

“Yes. Sorry,” I said quickly, chirping in surprise when he rubbed his chin against me and hummed.

“It’s okay. I’ll wake up to make you feel better anytime. I like when you’re happy,” he replied.

I froze in silent amazement as he took my stillness as a sign that he could sleep now and snuggled closer until his warmth covered the half of me not pressed against my mother. His flipper fell to rest over one of mine, and once he’d managed to squish his head under my neck he loosed a loudly contented sigh and began to snore.