Maeve imagined an exhilarating sensation of weightlessness as the cool water enveloped her and the sound becoming muffled as the sea crowded her ears. This was the experience she had had when the car fell in, water had slowly done this.
But now that she was just her, as soon as her toes hit the water, it suddenly dragged her down. Her body was engulfed in a heaviness as she became disoriented and began struggling to come back up. She hadn't expected that jumping I would do this to her, pull her so far in so fast.
She couldn't go up, she flailed her arms and only sank deeper. Then she filled with panic. The water smothered her face and salt overwhelmed her tongue as a little bit of it entered her mouth. She shut her mouth hard and held her breath but she had nowhere to go. The water was so vast she forgot which way was up and which way was down.
Then she did open her mouth, she tried screaming even if it meant she ran out of air, Lugh! Help me! She said inaudibly just making gurgling noises instead.
Perhaps he wasn't even close by. She hadn't checked to see before making her escape and now regretted it. Perhaps she would die here and never get to see him again.
Then suddenly a strong force struck against her, the body of a seal pushing her towards the surface fast. Her face broke the surface and she began coughing and crying in fear.
"Whatever compelled you to do such a thing!?" The seal yelled at her in alarm. She had her arms draped around his shoulders, hugging him tightly as she clung for dear life.
He swam her to the shore and helped her to sit on a rock. She sobbed there for a while thinking about how stupid she had been and how scared she had been.
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" She cried. "I just wanted to see how beautiful it would be to swim." She sobbed. "I didn't know the water would be so dangerous! I thought I could float like you do, it looks so easy. I haven't really been in the water before." She bawled.
As images of her trauma now overwhelmed her she added, "I'm sorry I didn't listen, I won't do it again, I didn't know the ocean was so scary."
As she turned to begin climbing the rocks, her wet clothing pressed tightly around her body, causing her to feel cold in the breeze. Lugh jolted his head back, his face becoming human as the coat converted into the hood of a coat which fell back off of his head. His human hand reached out to her and took her hand in his.
This made her pause and she turned around to look at his face. His beautiful handsome face was filled with concern.
"Maeve, you mustn't fear the water, it is beautiful. Please, if only you learned to swim, you could see its beauty."
"How could you know?" She asked "you can breathe under water."
"That is true." He said, "but not without my coat."
He took it off and gently guided Maeve back into the water, now clinging to his human frame. He then wrapped the coat around the both of them and she felt the magic warm her as the fur wrapped around them and suddenly she too was a seal. She gasped looking at her arms which were now fins.
Her eyes grew wide and she looked at Lugh's beautiful eyes in wonder and exclaimed that she loved him forever and always but only the sound of barking came out. "Ark ark ark!" She exclaimed.
She covered her mouth with her fin embarassed and he spoke to her with his mind, "feel your body move, kick your tail and move your arms in a big circle, back and forth and back and forth. Feel the rythem." He showed her what treading water looked like, including kicking his tail. She smiled, it wasn't so hard! She dunked her head beneath the water and it no longer smothered her. She took a breath cautiously and water filled her lungs as if it were air.
She let go of him and let herself sink this time, she didn't fight it, she drifted to the bottom and watched fish swimming around her.
This time she attempted to speak back to him with her mind and she said, "Lugh why would you ever take off your coat?! You should just stay here in the water forever!"
He smiled at this a bit surprised by her question. "Maeve, if only you could feel this way forever.
Yet, too often, you mortals surrender to the lure of power, seizing a selkie's coat to bind them to you, keeping them as though they were yours to cage. This is why love is a path I cannot walk, for I am the gatekeeper of the underworld. Beyond the storm lies the entrance and I must prevent anyone from wandering too close. It was my father's duty before me, and now it is mine."
"What happened to your father?" She asked.
"Eventually my mother took his coat. She grew tired of him going to the sea. He used to stay weeks at a time out in the water and she couldn't stand it. She took his coat and destroyed it and now he can never swim again."
"Lugh I would never take your coat!" She said as he brought her back to the surface and they converted back into humans." He wrapped the coat once again around his neck.
He smiled at her. Then looked at her intensely, "Maeve, may I ask you something?"
"Sure." She said, "what is it?"
"Maeve, if your heart could dwell with mine, I would bring you to my island, where safety would be yours and I would love you forever.
I can bring you with me on my journeys. However there are times I must travel to the gate and the path is perilous. At times, I may vanish for months and I would need you to promise that your faith in me remains steadfast, no matter the distance between us."
Maeve always wanted to melt with this guy. "Are you asking me out? To move in with you?!!!!!"
Lugh didn't know what this meant. He hadn't been around very many people. Sure, he spent a lot of time with fomoires and other selkies, but he lived alone on the island ever since his family left.
"What does asking you out mean? He asked.
"Like, you know, to be my boyfriend?"
Lugh considered this a bit, "sure. I'm asking you out." He said finally, not fully understanding what the term boyfriend meant either.
Maeve threw herself at him again, hugging him tightly, "oh yes! She exclaimed I would love to be your girlfriend!"
He swung her around in his arms with joy on his face. He attempted to share his coat with her again so she could swim to the island, completely forgetting about his boat he had.
"But I can't live on an island." She said, "at least not right now. Narfi and Vali would miss me." She said.
Lugh looked disappointed at her for a while and then he smiled, "very well then, I shall come to find you on the shore."
He put his lips to hers. Which she didn't expect at all and she kissed him back. He tasted so salty but it wasn't bad at all and she felt happy for once in that moment.
Here was a guy who loved her for her, no lies and no pretending. Not like Sirius who always wanted to eat her if she kissed him.
Then he walked her to the gate of the werewolf town. He stopped there at the gate and left go of her hand. "I cannot enter there; the wolves do not let selkies in.
Maeve nodded, "I'll see you tomorrow ok! I'll come back down to the water."
Lugh wrapped his arms around her once more and kissed her on the forehead.