The fisherman leaned against the wall by my door and grumbled, “All seals are thieves and soul stealers.” He glared a challenge at me with those piercing black eyes of his, daring me to dispute his words.

Outside waves pounded against the rocks along the shore. Tree branches heavy with rain scraped against the rough, plank walls of my home. Trying to be polite, I said nothing, waiting. He shifted uncomfortably, pulled the mountain goat blanket tighter about his shoulders and took a large swallow of his steaming tea.

The older of the two women sitting by my fire, a heavy woman with a lumpy face and arm muscles like a man’s, glared at both me and him for the interruption. “As I was saying, we think my granddaughter may have been molested by one of the Seal People.”

“Was she injured?”

“No, not physically,” the younger woman said. “That’s why—” She broke off unable to finish her thought in words.

This woman was a younger version of her mother. She sipped at her tea and glanced nervously about the room. Her eyes glided over the bundles of herbs drying in the rafters, my rawhide and pole bed with the bright wool blanket in the corner, and the carved cedar-wood boxes along one wall. “How can you stand to live out here alone? Aren’t you afraid of them?”

The Dina’Rhon, the magical seal people, were hated and feared by all the fisherman up and down the coast. The older woman glared at her daughter, and the younger stammered a hasty apology. I took a sip of my tea to hide my smile.

The women exchanged looks, then the old mother set her cup down and boldly said, “Some say that you are kin to the Seal people, and that is why you have chosen to live on out here after your children left and your husband died. If the story is true—then you are the one who can discover the truth of my granddaughter’s strange malady.

#

The room was dark, lit only by the ruddy glow of the fire. Outside another winter storm sent rain hurling down upon the cedar bark roof. I sat on a bench against the wall, a feather comforter draped about my shoulders to keep off the drafts. My sixteen-year-old patient, Shashil, sat on the floor between my knees, listless but compliant. Her oval face with its dark eyes and full lips was shadowed from my view by her fall of long black hair, but I had seen the blankness of her expression earlier. On the other side of the room the grandmother and mother sat huddled in their shawls.

My apprentice sprinkled a mixture of dried cedar leaves and other herbs over the fire and brushed us with a raven wing fan. I inhaled the fragrant smoke, placed my hands gently on the girl’s temples and closed my eyes.

As I sank down into my dream, I heard my apprentice drum and sing her medicine song. Swimming through the void, my spirit at last saw a rocky beach at dawn, gray mist still cloaking the green water in feathery tendrils of luminescence.

Alone during her spirit quest and the three months of her initiation into womanhood, Shashil, naked but for a loincloth about her hips, walked upon the shore. Her black hair loose down her back swayed with the movement of her long brown legs. She had a willow basket on one arm and held a heavy digger like a walking stick in the other hand.

Unlike the tearful, dreamy vagueness I’d observed in the home of her relatives, this vision-woman was so alive and filled with moon blood ecstasy. She raised her arms and sang to the morning. She laughed at the antics of young otters playing tag up the beach, heard gulls arguing, and sensed the swimming schools of minnows, feeding in the shallows.

Continuing her foraging, she checked her fish traps, dug wild onion in a sunny meadow and collected tender seaweed when she returned once more to the shore. As Shashil headed toward the moon hut she had woven for herself out of willow saplings, cedar boughs and debris, she paused uncertainly. The hair on the back of her neck prickled in alarm.

Up ahead a small creek flowed out of the trees onto the beach. While the rest of the shore was bright with sunlight, in this spot, the morning mists still clung thick and heavy along the water where an old log snag lay half buried. Setting down her basket, Shashil turned in a circle, scenting the air, like a bear. Should she retrace her steps, take the long way back to her camp? No. She had survived more than one moon here alone; what was to fear from a fog?

She entered the fog with her heavy digging stick held before her like a club. Blood scent was strong—very near—but not her own. She climbed the half-buried logs of the snag, then nearly stumbled into the water when she saw the bloody corpse of a seal, lying among the branches and seaweed of the snag. It hadn’t been there when she had passed that way last evening.

Shashil was elated. Such a windfall would last her nearly all the remaining time of her isolation, if she butchered and dried the meat. Cautiously, she studied the ground for sign of the predator that had done this, but she saw no tracks but her own. That meant the seal had been attacked while still in the water. It had managed to escape only to expire on the beach. Shashil went closer. She would have to be quick before a bear or wolf pack discovered her treasure and disputed her ownership of the prize.

Wading into the shallow water, she touched the oily fur. When the seal made no sound or aggressive move, she concluded it was indeed dead. Flinging her stick to the shore, Shashil picked up the seal’s back flippers and began dragging it onto the beach. The seal was heavy, but the thought of its rich tasty meat roasting over her fire leant her strength.

At last the seal lay on a patch of grass away from the water. Shashil flopped down beside it panting. The day was hot; she was sticky with blood and sweat from her exertions. Tiny biting insects buzzed around her naked shoulders in an annoying cloud. She was hungry. If she made a fire right here, the smoke would discourage the bugs, and she could cut off some of the fat meat to roast, before starting the tedious chore of butchering the carcass to carry to her hut.

She rolled the seal onto its back and drew her knife, but what was this! The seal’s heart pounded beneath her hand. Startled, she froze with knife upraised as the seal’s dark eyes opened and ensnared her. A voice spoke into her mind. <<Please, pretty human, don’t kill me. I am no seal offering myself for your cook fire. Help me; receive my blessing in return.>>

She dropped the knife. Was he truly one of the magical sea people?  To test him, she said, “You look like any old seal to me. How do I know you are one of the Dina’Rhon?”

He bared his teeth and made a phlegmy bark of laughter like a seal. <<You are a very clever young woman. My wounds ... I haven’t the strength to change. Can you wait until I am stronger, pretty human? At such a time, I will reward your faith in me with sweet kisses.>>

“Don’t do that!” Shashil gasped at the tingling warmth growing between her thighs and  struck the seal hard upon the chest. He let out a painful grunt and blinked up at her. “I’ve heard the stories. You treat me with respect or I will leave you on this beach for the wolves.”

<<I apologize.>> His eyes moist with tears, he studied her for a long moment, then said, <<In truth it is a new experience for me being so vulnerable. Your knife is sharp, I can see—made of the new traders’ steel, yes? I only thought to please you so that you wouldn’t kill and eat me—>>

“I won’t kill and eat you—as long as you behave yourself.”

<<I will behave. For as long as you wish me to—and no longer.>> When she glared at him, he showed his teeth in the way of seals, but his grin was curiously human and beguiling.

It took some doing, but at last Shashil managed to get him back to her moon hut and put him in her bed of cedar boughs. She washed his wounds and covered them with a healing paste of yarrow and tree gum. Then she fed him raw fish from her basket and he slept.

When she awoke next morning a man, not a seal, lay beside her. A man square of frame and well-muscled. A man  with long, brindle hair, sharp cheek bones and lips that looked as if they knew how to kiss a woman breathless. Banishing such thoughts from her mind, she through a blanket over his nakedness and rose. This was the time of her spirit quest. According to her elders, she was to spend it alone—praying—what was she going to do with him? She couldn’t just abandon him, but if the women came to check on her...

#

Shashil brought him seaweed and fish soup as his wounds healed. Each time their fingers touched as she held out a morsel to him, a fiery torrent surged through her blood. Each time he looked into her eyes and smiled, she felt a spasm knot in her gut and a new wetness trickle down between her legs. She knew he was stronger than he let on, but continued to indulge him.  She knew it wasn’t Dina’Rhon magic ensnaring her heart, but her own body betraying her. The musky scent of her moon-blood permeated the air of the tiny dwelling, heightening awareness and working its female magic on both of them. In the summer moonlight when they lay side by side, never quite touching, she couldn’t sleep for thought of him. Yet she resisted her body’s desire, and he kept his word and never used his power to force her to couple with him.

To take her mind off her body’s betraying impulses on those sleepless nights, she quenched her feelings in talk, telling him all about herself and her relatives and the people in her village. He asked questions about the strangers who had come in their big boats to the coast. Unfortunately much of what he wanted to know she couldn’t answer. And though she persisted in asking, he never told her much about himself or how he had come to be wounded and alone on the beach near her hut. His evasions frustrated her, but he would only laugh and change the subject.—which made her furious.

“You tease me and call me your Star. I have given you my true name as a sign of my trust, but why won’t you tell me your name or anything about you in return?”

“Tell you my name? Ah, pretty human, we never do that. Haven’t you heard the stories?”

Yes, she had heard the stories; she knew what she was asking of him. He would be risking much to confide in her. But she was taking chances too. Surely she had the right to know something of him and his life under the sea. Who was he; what was his name? Why was he here; how had he been wounded? So many questions needing answers.

Unwanted tears stinging her eyes, she wiped them away angrily and said, “I know you fear I would have too much power over you if I knew your true name, but I would never do anything to hurt you—surely you know that by now.”

Sensing her distress, he sobered immediately. He took her hand, his eyes soft and luminous. “I know that, my Star. With all my heart I believe you. I am honored that you have shared such a precious gift as your name with me, but it is for your own protection that I tell you so little. You have been so kind; I want no harm to come to you because of me.”

Did he know how her people felt about the Dina’Rhon? Probably. “No harm will come to me because of you,” she assured him blithely, ignoring the knot in her stomach. “My elders will be angry with me—if they find out about you being here, but they will not banish or harm me. You can tell me about yourself and your people, truly.”

He laughed softly and took her hand. “I wouldn’t wish to anger your elders, but it was my enemy of which i was speaking.” As she opened her mouth to protest, he touched a hand to her lips, silencing her. “Yes, my enemies may come looking for me even here—and I don’t want you hurt. They are fearsome creatures with powerful magic, unlike anything known to your people. If they were to find you—that would be terrible, trust me... . Against your will they might force you to tell them about me. Try to understand, my Star; I can’t take that chance—for both our sakes.”

“I’m not afraid—”

“I’m sure of that, my beautiful Star. Don’t pout or be cross with me. When my enemies found me and nearly killed me, it was the power of your moon-blood magic that lured me here out of the chaos. If it wasn’t for you, I would have died, because I was lost in their conjured fog.”

Shashil believed him and was secretly proud, marveling at this wondrous power that was her emerging womanhood. She had given another back his life with her womb magic, and someday, her womb would nurture and bring forth a child into this world with that same power

#

Singing her medicine song to the gray dawn, Shashil left her lodge to forage along the beach. Her flow was heavy; her second moon cycle in the moon hut had begun in earnest. She would have liked to stay in her hut and offer up her prayers then return to her bed for the day. She smiled to herself as she walked. No, that would never do; there was a hungry Dina’Rhon to feed sleeping in her bed.

She wanted to surprise him with something special, so she took her net and fish spear to the mouth of Plenty Fish Creek. Maybe if the fish were kind and came to her call  today, she could rest tomorrow.

The salmon in the creek were indeed kind and soon her basket was full. Still singing, she  started back to her hut as the sun burned away the morning mists..

Near where she had discovered the Dina’Rhon, an unnatural fog cloaked the snag and the water beyond. Her steps slowed; a feeling of danger once again made the hair on the back of her neck rise. Three shadowy figures walked slowly towards the beach. They were man-like in form, but their heads and bodies were covered in what seemed to Shashil to be a hide of silver metal. Smooth, black shell-like objects  covered the place where their eyes should be. A long ridged tube obscured their noses and mouths. It hung down over their chests and made loud snuffing sounds, like a dog trying to catch the scent of a rabbit.

My enemies have powerful magic unlike anything known to your people. I fear for you should they find you. The Dina’Rhon’s words echoed in her mind, filling her heart with dread. Shashil took a deep breath, willing herself to stop trembling. He was right about his enemies being fearsome creatures, terrible to look upon. They smelled of darkness and burnt metal. Alive, but not alive—alien, it took all her strength of will to not run screaming into the forest.

They had come out of the mists from another world to kill her Dina’Rhon—she was sure of it. Well, they couldn’t have him. He belonged to her. Feeling suddenly as fierce and protective as a mother bear, Shashil set down her basket and faced them with spear in hand. Her movement had caught their interest, and they turned as one to face her.

<<Where is he?>> a  flat, colorless voice said into her mind. The sound sent chills down her spine, as they no doubt planned that it would. Shashil bared her teeth like a wolf and raised her spear. “You don’t belong in my world. Go back through the doorway. You have no right to be here. Go!”

A harsh laugh, then, <<We seek our enemy. That is all the right we need. The scent of living blood has drawn us. We will search until we find him. Get out of the way, puny creature.>> They took a step closer, water dripping from the metal joints of their legs as they neared the shore.

Shashil laughed, the power of her moon-blood singing a war song in her veins. In her mind she heard the words of the old grandmother who had given her the teachings before her relatives brought her here. The gifts of creation and destruction are the blessings of a woman’s womb. Use your magic wisely, child. 

“Blood? Is that what you foul creatures smell? Then, unless I am now the enemy you have come so far to seek, your search is in vain. It is my blood you smell on the beach this morning and no other.”

They stopped. <<We do smell living blood upon your body, but you do not appear to be injured. Therefore, we conclude that the blood scent is not yours but belongs to our enemy instead. You will take us to him immediately.>>

Shashil offered them her toothy smile again. “No, I am not injured, but I do bleed. It is the magic blood of women. Have you never heard of it?”

They paused again. <<No puny magic of yours can match our power. What is this new magic you speak of?>>

“Ah, but I am more powerful than you, for mine is a magic that can create life—as well as destroy it. Would you like to see?”

Without giving them time to reply, she withdrew a clump of moss from between her legs. “Come, enemy, know my magic,” she shouted and threw her spear and the bloody moss with all her strength at the one in the middle.

The spear bounced harmlessly off its silver skin, but the bloody moss hit the monster n the chest. The moon blood burst into a shower of crimson sparks. The monster shrieked, exploding into a ball of golden fire in the next moment. Shashil hurled another missile. Once more, it found a target, and another of the creatures burst into flame and disappeared. But before she could gather more moss, the third of her opponents faded back into the mists.

Amazed at her own bravado, her body trembling with the aftershock of the encounter, Shashil picked up her basket and hurried up the beach away from her hut. At the next creek she came to, she walked upstream in the icy water till her feet were numb. Then she climbed out on a bridge of rocks and headed off through the forest. She had decided to disguise her trail and take the long way back to her hut. If the third alien creature chose to reappear and follow her, she wouldn’t be leading it back to her seal man.

Dusty and exhausted, it was late morning by the time Shashil reached her moon hut. All was quiet, but she approached cautiously nonetheless. To her surprise, the blanket covering the entrance was closed tight, just as she’d left it in the early dawn. Normally by this time of day, he would have risen, and pulled it aside to let in the cool breezes off the ocean.  She paused by the entrance, listening for sounds of life from within. She heard nothing, and that frightened her worse than confronting the enemy on the beach. Had they known all along where he was hiding? Had the third one come for him while she was wandering about making false trails?

Stifling a sob, she dropped her basket and spear by the entrance and  blundered into the pungent heat of the hut’s dim interior. Then Shashil let out a frightened cry as strong arms enfolded her. When she recognized who held her, she flung her arms about him, resting her face against his smooth chest. Leaning down to kiss her, he rested his cheek against her hair. He held her tightly, rocking from side to side, crooning softly in a wordless language of relief.

“Oh, my foolish, brave woman-child. I sensed my enemy searching for me when I woke. I prayed you would stay away—and then when you didn’t return, I was so frightened for you. I was coming to look for you when I heard your footsteps.” Releasing her, he knelt and kissed the mound of her sex. “You are a wonder to me. The power you were able to focus behind  the intent of your woman’s medicine power was most impressive. I honor you above all beings.”

She stepped away; he was making her uncomfortable with his praise. “Stop that.” Returning to the outside, Shashil retrieved her basket and went down to the water to clean her catch. The Dina’Rhon was a wonder to her too. Unlike so many men, he seemed to revel in her woman’s secret mysteries. But even so, she had never guessed her blood magic was powerful enough to kill an enemy.

Later, over a meal of fish and wild strawberries, she described to him her encounter on the beach. When she finished, she asked, “I know you said before that you didn’t want to tell me about your enemies. Well, that seems a poor excuse now. I want to know—in fact, I feel I have a right to know after what has happened.”

He threw the last of the fish bones into the fire and sighed. “Yes, I agree, you have earned that right. Though I fear for your safety should they find me with you, I will tell you what I can. Have your elders spoken to you about the mirroring of the worlds?”

“Mirroring of the worlds?” When he nodded, she shook her head.

“I’m sure your village wise ones would know; most shamans do. You can ask one of them for more details later. Very simply, what happens in your world is mirrored in other realities—other worlds.”

“I don’t see—”

He placed a hand over hers, stopping her words. “So impatient, my bright, crimson Star; let me finish. Your land has been invaded by strangers with iron weapons wanting to destroy your way of life, yes?” She nodded. “And because many worlds are linked, so has the world from which I came and others been invaded by the ailien creatures you saw today. They too wish to destroy  and replace the old magic with their new technology.”

“But I thought the Dina’Rhon came from the bottom of the sea. Isn’t that just another part of our world?”

“There are convenient portals to other worlds below the water’s surface which we use, but my kind don’t live at the bottom of the sea as many of your people believe. But our worlds are linked by the portals, and because of this link, what happens to one happens to the many. Oh, maybe not right away—the time lines are never the same, but events have a strange way of repeating themselves from one reality to the next.”

“Are you telling me that if the enemy in this other world wins control, the strangers from across the ocean will do the same in my land?”

“It is possible. The destruction has already begun, my Star, has it not? Even in your own short life time, haven’t you been aware of the changes”

Yes, she had. The priests with their foreign religion, the soldiers with their guns, the traders bringing whisky and sickness—yes, there were too many changes. There was no need of words; she was sure he could see the answer in her eyes.

“Yes, my dear one, and that is why the Dina’Rhon fight so fiercely.” Holding her hand he rose to his feet, bringing her to stand along with him. “We battle for the survival of your world as well as others—never forget that, my Star.”  He kissed her hand, his lips a feathery touch upon her skin. “I grow weary and must rest; come lie down beside me. You must be tired too.”

#

The chill of the summer twilight was in the hut when she was roused by his movement. He had closed the blanket and now was sitting tensely on the side of the bed, staring as if he could see through the blanket’s brown woolen fibers like a window. Unnatural tendrils of a damp fog snaked through the evergreen boughs of the walls and roof  to fill the air about them.

“What is it?”

At the sound of her voice he turned. One look at his face told her the answer she dreaded. He smiled to try and reassure her, but she could see the desperation and panic pooling in the depths of his eyes. The sight tore at her heart.

As if to himself, he said, “Damn, I am not ready. I needed only a little more time”

Shashil put a hand between her legs. A warm musky wetness flowed over her fingers. “I will go out and scare it off.”

She tried to rise, but he pulled her roughly down beside him. “No. You took them by surprise last time, but such a ploy may not work again. I don’t want to risk you like that.”

“But we can’t just hide in here and do nothing,” she whispered in exasperation. “You just said your magic is still too weak to confront it.; I have to do something to protect you.”

“Protect me.” His hand caressed her cheek. “Ah, my fierce one, never fear, we will do something—if you can trust me.”

 “Of course I trust you. But what can we do but fight?”

He smiled, showing the sharp tips of his canines. “Let us do the unexpected,; perhaps the only hope of our survival.” He lay back upon the bed of cedar boughs. When she still looked confused, he said, “Think, my Star, how else can you use your woman’s magic?”

With the bloody hand he still held, he traced symbols of power upon his face with her blood.Shashil recognized the symbols as those a shaman would use to confuse and ward off an enemy’s magical attack. The Dina’Rhon smiled at her expression of dawning comprehension. Then the fear returned to his eyes as a heavy foot came down on a branch with a loud crack.

Shashil trembled, fumbling the belt loose from around her waist and eased the bloody loin cloth from between her legs. They hadn’t much time. She would use the scent and power of her moon blood’s magic to conceal him. When the hand she placed between her legs darkened with blood, she wiped it across his neck and shoulders.

Reverting to the mind speech so as not to be overheard, he said, <<Yes, my Star, you understand. Cover me with your magic blood, my bright woman of power. Drown me in the musky scent of you.>> He brought her hand to his lips licking the last traces of red from her fingers one by one.  <<Let me savor the rich taste of you, my Star.>> Raising his red mouth he allowed his tongue to slide across her dark nipples teasing them to erectness. Shashil’s body trembled, his caresses were igniting her with desire. <<Do you like that, my Star? Yes, I can see; you do like that—and maybe this? <<

Outside a loud snuffling began, then more footsteps by the fire pit. Shashil trembled, then mastering her fear, she dipped her hand and painted more of her blood in magical symbols across his legs and  belly. On his chest, she rubbed her bloody fingers across his nipples in an imitation of his arousing caress. He smiled; his body quivering with eagerness. <<I am yours—always. You have won the heart of Cuan’Sleagh; my pretty human.>>

Shashil laughed deep in her throat. Straddling him, she lowered herself upon the shaft of his now erect male organ. “So, you name yourself the Sea Mother’s spear; I would test the hardness of your blade.”

More sniffing and another footfall crunched in the trees behind the hut. The Seal uttered a soft moan, a new urgency to his movements as he thrust his hips upward. <<Swallow me up, my pretty human, yes, oh yes. Let your magic blood flow over me. Suck my essence up inside you with my seed,  so there is nothing left of me in this world for an enemy to find.>>

Sweat and blood glistening on her naked torso, Shashil threw back her head and moved her hips in rhythm with his thrusts.

“Yes, oh yes, my love. I take you inside me.

“I will keep you safe inside me—forever inside me.

“All about us is woman’s power, flowing hot—to cover us.

“All about us is woman’s power, down-soft and engulfing—protecting us.

“ No enemy will find us. No enemy can harm us.

“Bright moon magic protects us forever.”

All through the night, the enemy prowled about the hut, but the alien  was confused and never attacked. Throughout that terrible, and yet wondrous, night, Shashil and the Dina’Rhon who called himself the Sea’s Spear camouflaged themselves with her blood magic and made passionate love.

Weakened and alone, with the sun, the enemy left off its search and went back through the portal to wait for a return of the night and the mists. Still entangled in each other’s embrace, the exhausted couple sensed its departure and slept.

When the sun was heating the hut uncomfortably, Shashil awakened as Cuan’Sleagh opened the door flap. Turning, he saw her watching him. “Get up, my love, we have to wash ourselves, pack your things, and get out of here while we still can.”

Shashil sat up, rubbing her eyes. She felt sluggish, her brain stuffed with cattail down. “Leave this place? Why?”

His lips touched her mouth, then his teeth nibbled playfully at her lower lip. “Because we need to travel somewhere away from the seashore. Somewhere on higher ground, where the enemy’s conjured mists can’t follow us. And we need to do this before twilight comes again.”

She threw her arms around his neck, trying to draw him down beside her. “I am supposed to stay here till my relatives come for me. And besides, surely we will be safe enough from its magic. We were last night. Come back to bed.”

His laugh was soft and musical, but he resisted her attempts to distract him with her body. “I would like nothing better, my pretty human, but later. Truly, we must go. It will not be safe for us here much longer. Can you not feel it?”

“Feel what? I don’t know what you are talking about.”

Standing over her now, Cuan’Sleagh looked down at her sternly. “Yes, you do know, if you shake the sleep from your brain and pay attention to your body. Your blood is waning. Another day, two at the most and the flow and your woman’s magic will cease for this moon cycle. By that time you need to be safe in your village and I need to be gone.”

Gone? Her heart shuddered at the thought. After what they had shared, how could she bear to let him leave her? No, it was impossible, too cruel to imagine.

She allowed him to raise her to her feet, but still she resisted even though she knew what he said was true about her moon blood. “No, you can’t go yet. You said last night that you aren’t magically strong enough to leave so soon.” Taking a deep breath  she ignored the queasy  feeling in the pit of her stomach and spoke the lie, determined to make it true. “If it isn’t safe for us here, then come back to my village. My mother will welcome you into our home as my husband. Stay here with me. You will be safe.”

He picked up a skin bag and began randomly stuffing her possessions into it. “Go back to your home? No, that is the last thing I will do. I will not draw those who track me into your people’s unprotected midst.”

In desperation, she cried, “But how will you manage then?”

Dropping the now filled bag, he came to her and took her in his arms. “I will manage somehow, my Star, because I have to,” he said and kissed her.

 “Let me help you.”

He studied her face, then nodded. “There is something you can do for me that would be most helpful.”

“What?”

“Go back to your village and bring me your father.”

“My father! He hates all seals—and the Dina’Rhon. Seals steal fish from his nets and he believes that the seal cries in the night can lure an unwary human soul to drown as the person longs to follow them into the indigo world of the  Dina’Rhon. My father is the last person who would want to help us.”

The Seal Man barked a laugh. “In this case, I think your father will forego his prejudice and be more than willing to help me.”

#

It took them three days to circle round to her village through the rougher country on the higher slopes. Each night they lay tangled in each other’s arms and made love.  Shashil wished their time together would never end. Though it was the wrong part of her woman’s cycle, she desperately wanted something of him to remain with her forever. So, with that in mind, she focused her will on making her body comply with her wish to conceive his child. And by the time they neared the village she was sure she carried his child tucked safely away in the warm darkness of her womb.

On that last day, Shashil put on her hide dress, hid her lover in the willow scrub along Hot Spring Creek and walked downstream looking for her father. He was often to be found by the creek in the late afternoon if he wasn’t away fishing. As she’d hoped, he was sitting on a log smoking his pipe. At her call, he looked round, startled to see her standing across the creek from him. He stood immediately and came down to the water, peering across at her.

“What is wrong, daughter? It isn’t your time to return; why are you here?”

“I need—someone needs your help. I won’t break taboo and cross the creek, but please come over to me.” When he hesitated, she said, “I am not on my moon-time. Please come. I—we need you.”

Without more argument he crossed the creek to her. “If there is trouble, I would come no matter what. Tell me what is wrong.”

For answer she led him deeper into the willows. Stepping into a small thicket the fisherman jerked to a stop, startled by the man, wearing only his daughter’s washed but -stained loincloth, who rose to greet them. The fisherman’s mouth thinned to a hard line when he recognized the dark eyes and brindled hair of a Dina’Rhon. And his temper flared even hotter when his daughter put her arm around the waist of the seal man and looked up at the creature with adoring eyes. “What are you doing here, soul stealer?”

“Father, please, he’s not like the Seal Folk in the old tales. He hasn’t tried to hurt me or steal anything. I found him on the shore wounded by monsters from another world. He needs your help to elude them.”

The Dina’Rhon stepped away from her and bowed to the fisherman. “I am very grateful to your daughter. But now that I am stronger, I must leave so the ones who trail me won’t bring trouble to your people. To throw them off my scent, I ask that you paddle me far out in your canoe before I dive down into the other world from which I came.”

His anger cooling somewhat, the fisherman grumbled, “I will help you, if only to have you gone before you cause more trouble. I will bring my canoe to the bottom of the creek. Be ready.”  Turning to his daughter, the fisherman said, “Your moon blood retreat is at end. You will come back with me to the village now. I will tell your grandmother what has happened.”

“No,” Shashil cried. Putting an arm about her lover, she faced her father defiantly. “I want to go with you and him in the boat. I want to help.”

Slipping out of her grasp, he took her hands in his. “No, my Star, your father is right. You must go back to your village.”

“I won’t go back. I want to go with you into that other world—”

“No!” both the Seal and the fisherman said in unison.

“But you said my woman’s power was strong—I saved you before. I can—”

He laughed, deep in his throat and hugged her to him. “Oh, yes, your woman’s power is strong, but it isn’t invincible. You could not survive where I must go.”

She leaned against him, drinking in the pungent scent of male and fish that always clung to him. “Then let it be true what the old stories say,” she whispered. “A Seal is a soul stealer. When you leave a part of me will go with you—be with you forever.”

He looked deep into her eyes and read the truth of her words there. “Oh, my Star, I am so sorry. Truly, I didn’t want this to happen.”

Once more she hugged him, looking up into his enigmatic, dark eyes, willing him to accept. “I know you don’t want, but you do need what only I can give you right now. As I told you before, I want to help you. If you won’t take me with you, then I freely give my life’s essence as gift. Take what you need of my power to make you strong enough to pass through the portal. For the sake of both our worlds, you must survive to war against our enemies.”

He let out a long sigh, then acquiesced. “All right. I don’t like it, but you are right; I do need your gift. I might not survive the journey otherwise.”

“So, Dina’Rhon, in spite of your lying protests to the contrary, you will be true to your foul nature and accept my ignorant, foolish daughter’s gift of herself after all.” The bitterness in the fisherman’s voice made them look round. They’d become so intent on each other, they’d forgotten that he hadn’t left yet.

His dark eyes pools of a secret knowing, the Seal said, “You are quick to judge me, before you understand all that is at stake here. But have no fear for her; I will be gentle and take from her only what I need to ensure I survive. And remember, in the months to come, I am not the only one who has taken something of value.”

Curling his hands into fists, the fisherman said, “And just what do you mean by that?”

The Dina’Rhon refused to say more, answering the fisherman’s glare with an enigmatic smile that showed his canines.

Shashil stepped between them, and hands on hips glared at her father. “He is no thief; stopped saying that! I am a woman grown now; I can decide for myself what to do with my life.”

The fisherman dropped his eyes in surrender. “I can see that the damage has already been done; he has stolen away a part of you, and there is no point in arguing with you further, my girl. Like the rest of the women in your lineage, you are too stubborn for your own good,” he grumbled. “I will get my canoe. The sooner he is gone the better.”

The dream images of my shaman’s trance faded as the lovers walked hand and hand down to the beach to meet shashil’s father in his canoe.

#

My throat dry, my body stiff and aching, I opened my eyes and looked around the dim room. It was late, nearly dawn. The storm had blown itself out during the night while I journeyed in the trance. On the ground at my feet, the girl slept wrapped in blankets, snoring softly. Several more women had come in during the night, keeping a silent vigil against the opposite wall.

I wanted nothing more than my bed at that moment, but first things first. I would have to tell them the sad news, I could do nothing for the girl. A part of her had left with the Seal and would always remain with him. Licking dry lips, I softly called my apprentice to bring me water and help me up.

Later that day as I sat in the fisherman’s canoe while he paddled me home, I looked out over the calm green ocean and said a silent prayer for the warrior who in some unknown world battled with others of his kind for our survival. I wished him  bright blessings.

Turning to the fisherman, I said conversationally, “You never told your wife and her mother about your part in all this—why?”

He nearly dropped his paddle into the water with his shock. “If you had told them about the Dina’Rhon, there would have been no reason to fetch me from my home and pay my fee.”

Not resuming his strokes, he placed his paddle across the gunwale to look at me. “You are right; I knew about the Seal, but I also hoped that someone with your reputation—and lineage—might have been able to cure her malady.”

I sighed, seeing the pain and the guilt deep in his eyes. “You did the right thing in helping him. I know that is no comfort for what you have lost. She was a vibrant, beautiful young woman. It grieves me as well to see her like she is. You love her deeply, I know.”

“I never could refuse her what she wanted.”

I reached out my hand and laid it on his strong arm for a moment. “Be at peace with yourself. The herbs I left with your wife will ease her torment, when the nights are long and the seal song calls to her. And after the child is born she may improve a great deal more.”

His head jerked up at that revelation. “But how can that be? I knew they had been lying together, but she was bleeding at the time.”

I let out a low ironic laugh. Men could be so naive at times. “You have unjustly called the Dina’Rhon a thief. But it was your daughter who used her woman’s power wrongly and is the true thief in this matter. Now she carries his child, a child who will suffer the torments and joys of such a mixed lineage. A child who will someday need my guidance.”