Daughter of the Witcher Ch. 03

He sat back and thought of being absent so that Moppy could say what she felt. Cuilén knew that looking at him would have a dampening effect on her so he wished to minimize his presence while remaining there in a way. Besides, he thought, someone loved him and he loved her. That in itself required thought, he reasoned – if not absolute amazement as he felt the way that Louhi held onto his hand.

"And, ... "Moppy looked around as though she thought that she might catch sight of someone or something in the room or the hall, "Selkies."

"Ye might laugh a little here and now in a place a little far away, but where Ah'm from, when a girl is tae get intae a boht for a journey – even if it's just from one island tae another and close by, well that girl's mother gets sore afraid. No mother, if she loves her girl will let her daughter go without painting crosses on the girl's tits tae protect her from Selkies. Once you're on the water, you're just over their realm and they see ye as bein' fair game."

"They drown people?" Louhi asked.

"They can," Moppy said, "and they sometimes do. But the water is just the edge of where they live. They can take one down below for a wife if it's what they want wi' ye.

Selkies are like seals, but they're no seals at all, though they can live with 'em," she said, "And they can take off their skins if they've the want of it. A Selkie's a fine thing tae look at; no matter if they're a boy or a girl one, and many, many girls have had their hearts stolen by a sweet-looking Selkie man, I can tell ye. Either one, man or woman, they swim tae the shore and if the mood's on them, they take off their seally skins and stay on the land for a time and – "

She whispered, "There's nae person, man nor woman, who can look at them and know that they're not human.

Ye have tae have enough of yer wits about ye tae see past the dark round eyes and the tender looks that they gi' ye. But there's few folk who can do that then, seein' what looks like the kindest providence there before 'em, I can tell ye that as well.

It's said that sometimes a Selkie man comes ashore to seek for a human girl. Selkie-folk have always had a want of humans and I would lie if I were to say that it didna go both ways. It seems that they hold us to be beyond fair and lovely and that is the way that they are to us most often.

Sometimes their men come to seek for a bit of fun, and sometimes they come to take a girl to wife for them."

She looked around at them, "It's true. The ones who only want a little joy with a girl often seek out the ones who have had no luck in their seeking for a husband. In that place, what is there for a girl?

There is even less choice than there is here because there's less people. A girl could stay at home and grow old and unmarried under the roof of her elders.

Or a girl could find a man, wed him and begin her own life. Those are the only two choices for a lot of girls, though if they were of the right sort of family and had a little power, they might seek to become a Spae-wife; a witch of the islands who seeks for a man or not upon her whim.

A girl who cannot see a chance for herself might find herself in a fair bit of longing to know of a man and his touch."

And just as often," Moppy said, her voice dipping in volume as she looked around the table, "A wife who lies unloved and longing for it can be just as much of a treasure to a Selkie man who hunts for such a one and some do. The young wife of a farmer just as young who finds himself with too much land and cattle from what was left to them over a relative's passing might feel her longing bitterly while her man works himself intae the ground for her from before the dawn to long after dusk. He drags his tired body home and then sleeps like the dead while his bride has to take what comfort she can in only lying next to him as she stirs herself and remembers a time when she didn't need to have the thought of it because she was in his arms.

It can make a woman remember her choice with a touch of bitterness, to be sure.

Perhaps the ones in the greatest danger are the fishwives," Moppy said, "for their men sometimes must stay out being blown far from land, or, they work themselves too hard because one has to take what one can when the fish run and then clean every single fish and salt it while other men sleep.

Those wives often feel their want of a man much more keenly, because sometimes when one sort of fish stops running, another kind only begins. While he works himself to exhaustion, few enough fishermen give thought to their wives at home. They might be good lovers and known to keep their women happy at any other time, but there are far too many lonely women sitting alone in the dark of night when the fish are running in the sea."

Moppy looked up then, "And then, if one hears a polite tap at the door in the night when she's alone and opens it to find a handsome man there, wearing nought but a soft smile, looking cold and hungry, but not for a bite of food, well, ... I would say that it would be a hard choice to turn one like that away if it has been a long while for some girls.

He would deny it, and I see nothing wrong if he did – and I have heard it from him, mark you – but that is what happened to Leif's woman.

It seemed like a godsend to them at the time, but he was a young and strong fisherman, who could also smith when there was the need and it kept them fed and more for the first year. But then, her uncle passed and they two both had farmers as well in their families. Leif tried, but no man can be in two and more places at once – on shore and at sea. They were young and they had no money to hire anyone to work for them, though it was their plan, and there was no one in their families who would stand forward and say that he'd take on the extra work. Most of 'em was right angry to find that they werena given the land themselves.

Getting through the first year was what they wanted, but they had to get through the first year of it alone and it almost killed Leif to work so hard and long. His bride did her best, but well, we all have the need, both man and woman, after all.

She didna seek for it, but she found her Selkie lover and after the first time, it grew easier for her to tell herself that just once more in those fine arms and she'd have enough of it, is what I think.

But it was never enough for the way that he made her sing out her joy in her passion for that is what Selkie boys do.

One day, Leif didna go to sea, thinking to do some needed work on the lands that he held, and at the end of the day, he thought to go home to his wife and do the things that he had missed with her for so long. He came to his home but there was no one there and the hearth was cold. Thinking that he might not have told her that he would stay ashore that day, he ran to where his boat was kept.

He saw his wife in the sea with a man who turned into a seal before his eyes and she waved to him as she sank below the waves.

He never saw her again on the land, but he spent a lot of time on the shore in the evenings, caring little for the land or fishing anymore. He told me that he saw her a few times, another seal out on the foam of the waves. It was cold comfort to him that she waved her flipper, or whatever they have. I asked tae be sure and he said tae me that he'd know that face anywhere, even as a seal and fer a moment, he saw her hair and then she was gone."

There was silence then around the table and the only sounds were from the hearth and the moaning wind outside.

"You didn't say how you came to be here, Moppy," Louhi said.

The woman laughed in her jolly way for a moment, "It wasna something that either one of us had the thought of. We come from the same island, and it's a place where you know almost every other person. But I didna know Leif and I only knew why after. He kept ta hisself after losing his wife and almost never spoke to a soul in his shame. After a time, he sold everything and left."

She sighed, "I came down this far looking for a life fer maself. There was nothing for me back home. My brother was ta get the land and I had no man. It was a daft thing ta ever do; a woman traveling with people that she didna know well. You may have noticed that there's a few outlaws hereabouts."

They nodded and encouraged her to continue, "Well, I was left behind one day is all. Afore I knew what was what, I was looking at a fair whack of them, and they wasna looking at me like I was much more than a thing tae sell after they'd used me fer a bit of fun.

Leif came around the bend and he sent them off right quick after the first of them fell with Leif's hatchet in the middle of his face, and I've been wi' him ever since."

She looked around the table, seeing Cuilén again and wondering why it had been that she'd seemed to forget about him for a time.

"Ah see that I sit with folk who know. Ah know what ye are as it's plain te me. If ye havna seen it afore now, then I'll tell ye that my Leif's half-troll. His father is one of the large kind and his mother is a human. The large ones are the shy ones and don't seek te cause anyone trouble, living in their caves most of the time. It's the small ones what work mischief and eat children when they can get 'em.

The other reason why we're here is that there's a cave fer him down below. That's where I sleep wi' him and he loves his moppy girl. He tries te be more of a man than a troll, but the nature is there in him all the same. He doesna think he's much te look at, but te me, well he's more than I could ever want.

As she spoke, she began to shift a little before their eyes. Cuilén saw it as the effect of an enchantment on her and he knew then that Leif had ability of his own. Moppy's skin turned an even woodtone in color with the exception of a white patch on her breast, and he had a thought that it was large and extended far down past the bit that her dress left uncovered. The soft fur was visible a second later and the hand which held her cog of mead grew to be much more paw-like while still being a hand. She still had her mop of dark brown hair, but there were ears now which hung back and far down. She still smiled, though the reason for the toothy smile became much more apparent.

"Leif gave me this," she said, nodding, "He saw that I'm a woman and yet even so, there's always been a touch of moppy to me. He likes that. And he likes that even though I'm no big, ah can take all that he has fer me.

I'm no big at all, just a peedie thing what loves te tease him until he's hard and then he sits me on his lap until I move a bit an sit down on the fat knob that he has fer me.

We can stay like that fer a long time, me just moving a little and him playing with my tits and sucking on my ear. He loves me so and I love him back just as much. Just a furry moppy in love, is what I am. We grew tae love each other and I'd do anything fer him. We came tae be here because of the way that the road is and we're close enough tae the town and far enough away as well. He hides what he is most often and I just stay the woman that I was born until we're alone.

But he doesna like it here because it's too close to the sea."

She pointed off to her left, "There's some small cliffs and a wee walk down, but it's easy enough tae get there. We're on the wrong side of the country, and we're far down as well, but he thinks that he has something to be a-feared of that I'd run off and take up wi' the Selkies one night.

I can't tell him often enough that I'd never do that and that I love him so and he keeps me very pleased indeed, but, ... well it's on his mind a fair bit anyway."

She shrugged, "I'd never have the want of it. I've never told him – and don't ye say anything tae him, but there's at least one Selkie here in that bay down there some nights. I've seen him wi' me own eyes, I have. That doesna mean that I'm wantin' anything wi' a Selkie."

The silence fell over them again and the crackle of the fire sounded even louder for a time. Louhi sipped her mead, knowing that it was only a matter of seconds more and -

"You say that there's one of them here?" Annikki asked and Moppy groaned, "Aye, and I want no part of him. Ah've only seen him from far off. Just enough tae know what I was lookin' at. Maybe four times now."

There was a little more silence then. Louhi knew there was more in Moppy, but she wondered if it would be allowed to come out at all. But then Moppy's next statement caused her to almost drop her cog.

"I've had my fill of Selkies too," Moppy said.

After a time, she looked at them, "I've always been small. It's why my Da always called me his peedie Moppy. I grew a little now and then, but I was always behind in my size for my age. I never minded it much, I guess, well, ... until it got to the time when most girls start tae thinking about getting wed tae somebody. Lief says that I'm the girl that he's always wanted and he has more fun wi' his moppy-girl because I'm a little round and not big and I can't say that he's not a wonderful man for how he loves me and he fucks so well and all.

I think it must be the same for Hjaltland girls," she said to Cuilén, seeing him again only because she had the thought. "There's auld things and customs; little things that girls do tae try to see about the boy they'll marry one day.

If you see a crow and ye can scare it off, you look tae see which way it flies as that'll tell you the way to where your true love lives. More times than not, when I tried, it was always near the kirk, and that's the way that the crow flew. It meant that I was bound tae not have anybody fer me, so I stopped doing it.

The problem wi' ma name was that as I got old enough fer it, I guess that I had the same want as a moppy-girl does, the real ones. I thought that I'd go mad in my need and despair. I mean I wanted to know the touch of a good man so much and I couldna get the thought of it from my mind a lot of the time. I was friggin' maself every night two and three times afore I could get any sleep.

I was talking with my friend one day when we was hangin' clothes out on the line. She told me about the Selkies. I never said a word about my troubles and all, just kept it tae maself.

She told me that if a girl goes tae the edge of the sea, and she weeps seven tears inta the water, then a Selkie man would come tae love her.

I was about done wi' my cryin and friggin' maself sore so I listened. Well, it has tae be done at high tide. She didna tell me that the first time. I felt lonely and sad and all, but it's a bit hard tae weep seven tears in a row just like that.

Even worse to find that it had tae be then after I'd spent half a day at it fer nothing."

Louhi smiled at Moppy and got up to get her another cog of mead this time. What she was seeing and hearing interested her and she hoped to hear more of it.

"Anyway, when I had it straight and all, I went down ta try it again. And I had a hard time at it. I mean, I wanted it and all, but I felt a bit daft. The next time, Silla brought a few scallions and she left before I went. But I didna need the scallions anymore when I got there. I was starting to think that I couldna even do this right and then I started to cry because I felt so alone and I, ...

I don't know why, I just looked up and there he was; the finest-looking man I'd ever seen, right there. He was sitting on a rock not two yards from me and he was pulling his seally skin off in front of me and then he asked me, ... "

Moppy threw her head back and laughed a little as she remembered it, "Me; peedie Moppy, the peedie round girl who couldna get a man tae look at me if I shot him wi' a bow. He looked at me with those big round eyes and he asked me if he was good enough tae make me want tae love wi' him."

She looked down and shook her head with a soft smile.

"What happened?" Annikk gasped, "Did you say yes, Moppy?"

I almost drownded maself," she laughed, "I jumped at him before he could change his mind, that's what I did, Annikki. I jumped straight at him and I knocked him clean off the rock and we both sailed inta the sea.

I couldna swim much and I was still wearing ma dress. The next thing I knew, he had me on the beach."

"Was he trying to get you there to save you?" Louhi asked and Moppy nodded, "Oh aye, he was, and he did and he had me on the beach as I said. I pulled up my dress and he took my maidenhead and I was the only girl that I ever knew who was made intae a woman by a fine Selkie boy. Silla couldna say that fer she fucked wi' all the boys when she could afore that summer."

She sighed deeply again, "Ma very first fuck and it was a grand one, I can tell ye that fer nothin'.

The next time that I saw Silla she asked me about it all and I was a bit careful not to tell too much of it, but after a time. I said what happened.

Silla laughed at me and said that she often did the same as me and went down tae the small cove there fer tae fuck wi' a Selkie boy.

The Selkies like tae go there and play after they haul out onta the flat stones warmed in the sun. We went together often after that, Silla and me. You just had tae be a little careful walkin' over the stones is all. Some of them Selkie girls dinna like tae see a girl play wi' them they consider as theirs fer themselves. It did feel a little strange; te be walkin' past so many boys and girls lyin' on the rocks fucking like that, but it was something that always excited me, to be sure.

In the warmer times of the year, that little place gets warm from the sun and there's nae much wind on a good day, ye see. So it's a fine place fer it all and it doesna take much tae get a fine Selkie tae take off his skin fer a girl what's needin' him a bit.

Ye need tae think about your time of the month a bit more, because well, Selkies'll no listen when ye tell 'em that you can't play the whole tune, if ye see what I mean.

Well Silla was game a lot more than me at first, but then it got a bit much fer her. I think that it was the sound of the kirk bells if it were onna Sunday that bothered her at first but I didna know why that was. I wasna bothered a bit over that, but she was and she came there less and less while I had my fun when I could. I used tae get maybe three and four te play, and once, I had seven before it got cold in the afternoon."

Louhi's jaw fell open. She looked around the table and the others were looked to be just as incredulous. "Seven," she said to make sure that she'd heard it correctly.

Moppy laughed, "It was ma finest day. I looked around and there were seven fine Selkie boys lookin' back at me. Some was strokin' their things fer me and that was it fer Moppy.

I took them any way that I could, one after the other and it felt so good te be there on the warm flat rocks in the sun being loved like that. When one was done, I was there waiting fer the next.

I even had four of em' at the one time; one in my cunny and one in me arse. One in my mouth and even one between ma tits, all at the one time," she laughed. "Oh I was a right mess when it was time te go home. That's when I learned that Selkies have great hearts te their girls. They took me inte the water wi' em and they held me up while they washed me. I came again just from that, Louhi."

She looked around and Cuilén could see that she'd more or less forgotten about him again as she moved forward a little more and spoke even lower, "I learned a few things, I can tell ye. I didna know different at the time, but I know now that a Selkie, when he's lovin' like a man, well he can and does the same things as a man would do – the better of them anyhow, not the drunkards or the young priggers who don't know more than tae stick it in and out a few times until they're happy and ne'er mind the girl in it.

But I also learned that a Selkie can fuck so nice if he doesna take off the skin too, and as long as he doesna roll onte ye, and just stays on his side, or even better, he lets ye ride on him, well that's one of the nicest ways fer tae get fucked good that I know of – and sometimes it's better than being wi' a man. That's one of the ways that Selkies do it wi' their own kind, ye see and their skin is so good te feel against ye.