Jared ran as fast as his two stubby legs could carry him towards the package. He snatched it out of the sand with the bottom paper rendered see-through from the water and having grains glued to it. It was big and cumbersome in his short arms, but he managed to lug it over to the nearby treeline where he would have some privacy from any wandering humans. A week of dodging trainers eager to catch him had instilled an instinct for finding the best hiding place. The pond was good for diving, but with this package in tow it was best to retreat into the woods where he could keep it dry. 

Deep in the company of trees he found a spot to sit cross legged with the neatly wrapped package in front of him. It came undone slowly and carefully so as not to make too much noise lest he attract the attention of a passing trainer. Though he took his time, Jared’s imagination went wild guessing what he’d find. A new Pokémon? Some other fictional creature? A regular one? Anything was possible with the recent track record of bizarre beings and places Jared had been put in. The only thing he expected was the unexpected.

 The string and paper blossomed out from beneath the box without so much a tear before Jared lifted the cardboard lid and laid eyes on the suit within. What greeted him was the mottled, smooth underbelly of a creature covered in fine, miraculously fine fur. A velvet sheen glistened in the dim forest light, waving when Jared ran his hand across its exquisite softness. A closed zipper ran down the center from the collar which he took a moment to run his finger across. What is it? He grabbed the suit by its shoulders and lifted it out of the box, allowing the arms to swing out to the sides. Opposite of the underbelly it was a much darker graphite, though the dappled pattern remained. He still couldn’t piece together what it was, so he stood up with the suit hanging full length from his fists.

That’s when he noticed something strange with the legs, that being there weren’t any. Where there should have been two bottom sleeves for his legs to fit there was only a convergence in the suit, forming something like a sleeping bag. It tapered inwards to a point that had two deflated flaps of skin dangling. Jared pulled the suit further up for a closer look. Upon inspection he recognized a pair of dainty seal flippers complete with webbed fingers. “A seal,” he said out loud to himself. He thumbed the flippers and their bony digits. “Really continuing with the aquatic theme, I see.”

What kind of world would this bring him to? A seal civilization? A sealvilization? Maybe it took place entirely on the shores, or underwater. It couldn’t be on land, not without any legs to walk on. Then again, it might not be a civilization at all. Where I’m at right now definitely isn’t any vaporeon planet. He worried about living in the wild like he did here, having to dodge sharks, orcas, and more humans. The Pokémon world carried the threat of being captured. This world carried the threat of being killed.

But he didn’t know that. It was just his cautious side warning him of what could happen. The past week had been hard on him, drilling him into a permanent state of caution. Around every corner could be a threat, as well as a whole slew of them waiting within the confines of this onesie. Or am I just being paranoid? As always, there was only one way to find out for real. He’d grown tired of all the running, swimming, and fighting for his freedom. I can make it a week as a seal, right? How hard can it be? If he’d been told he would be opting to leave the world where he lived as a Pokémon he would’ve slapped someone. Now here he was pulling the zipper down and bringing the suit down to his knees so that he could step inside.

It was awkward given the lack of legs which forced him to get on his butt and pull the onesie up his body like a sleeping bag. His stubby vaporeon legs couldn’t make it to the bottom, but the tip of his tail did. Nor could he reach all the way through the sleeves without scrunching them up. Jared was left lying there on his back awkwardly, unable to stand up or go anywhere. Fortunately he didn’t have to wait long for the transformation to begin. He looked down at his chest and saw that the zipper had disappeared. On cue, the seal skin sank into his body like shrink wrap. Here we go, he thought per tradition.

His legs and tail were crushed together by the gripping skin. The wrinkles in the sleeves flattened out along his arms and the spines and fins that grew from his head were smushed flat under the hood. His jaw clenched out of discomfort, this being a slightly different process from what he was used to. The onesie made a slow crawl down his paws, covering the smooth blue scales with that dappled velvet. He tried wriggling his legs, only to realize the sensation and mobility had been robbed from them. Trying to move his tail just made the flippers attached to the onesie twitch. A mixture of numbness and pressure ebbed and tugged at his lower body, bringing a grimace across his face which was quickly absorbed by the shrinking hood.

“Ah…” The seal skin fell about his snout and jaw, covering all of what had been a vaporeon. The spines and fins flattened and dissipated into his body underneath the all-encompassing grey. It was especially tight around his arms which he felt were being sucked into his body. With the suit having absorbed all his features it began tugging at the flesh with its usual curtness. More grunts and wheezes escaped through Jared’s clenched teeth as his legs and tail melded into one elongated torso. So too did his arms begin to visibly retract into his shoulders like the reverse timelapse of a sapling.

He tried calming himself through the ordeal. OK. OK. No big deal. This isn’t your first rodeo. Not by a longshot. Trying to lift his feet succeeded in making his new flippers bounce into the air. What had been his toes, now a set of long spines which segmented the webbing, pointed up at the forest canopy in a lazy fan. There was no tail to move anymore, it having been devoured by the length of body that had become his trunk. His arms fared no better, having sunk up to the mid forearm by this point with his hands having become limp and useless too. They stopped at the wrist which was now the base wrung around by a fold of soft blubber. Moving them around created nothing but a hilarious flapping motion which clapped his debilitated fingers against his chest.

Jared was glad he didn’t have a reflection to look at this time. He had to look ridiculous. He certainly felt that way without any agency in the middle of the forest, flipping and flopping like a fish. The final humiliation came when his torso began to bloat like a balloon, his added layer of blubber growing thicker and thicker until he was but a furry meat sausage with a puppy head attached to it. Then the transformation stopped, and Jared was a seal. It left him on the forest floor, on his back with his neck fat folded up as he looked down at his bloated, tubby body. He flapped his flippers around, patting them against his skin while going nowhere. With the pond several yards away, it was going to be a while before he could make any significant locomotion.

Well, this is a pickle. That’s what Jared meant to say out loud, but what came instead was an animalistic grunt that blew out his lips. What the hell? Jared flexed his mouth, flaring the gummy inner pink and sharp rows of teeth in his mouth. Can I not talk with this mouth? Another attempt came with him trying to recite his ABC’s. The results were similar, each consonant rumbling his lips while the vowels were nothing but grunts. Jared laid there flustered and confused. Did the suit turn me into a full animal this time? I guess I should have seen that coming with how the suit was shaped. 

But his lack of speech was the least of his problems. His portly seal body was worthless and vulnerable on the forest floor. If he wanted any hope of escaping danger, he was going to have to make it back to the pond, and fast. I doubt there are any pokemon trainers still out there, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a human walking around with a harpoon or a club. Jared rolled over onto his stomach, the prepatory move to push himself to his feet. Of course, he had no arms to push with nor any feet to stand on. Shit! How do seals move? He focused on ol’ reliable: muscle memory. Push yourself forward. This body knows what to do. It did, but it still wasn’t easy. Jared’s upper body would jerk upwards into the air, dragging the rest of him forward before his belly and chest came flopping back down onto the dirt. Whumpf! It took some big effort, but each lift would only drag him forward a foot at most. After just a few flops his core muscles ached. Jesus, it’s like doing the worm. 

But he wasn’t about to stop, not until he was at the safety of the pond. Looking forward he saw it through the trees and heard its gentle sloshes against the shore. Something was off, however. The expanse beyond the woods where the pond should have been looked brighter and more open like the clearing had been expanded tenfold. Huffing through his nose, Jared picked up a new scent. The air was thick with the saline smell of the ocean. I’m not at the pond anymore, he realized. Of course not. Seals don’t live in ponds. In the distance there came the high pitched squawk of seagulls. As he got closer to the shore he realized that the lap of water was not a gentle trickling sound like it had been at the pond, but crashing waves that rumbled and roared.

After what had felt like a mile of struggling, Jared made it to the treeline where the sea greeted him. Between it was a rocky shore strewn with boulders and layered with moist, darkened sand. The steely, blue-green waves burst against the rocks into a white froth, boiling across the sand before receding. Above it all was an overcast sky, broiling gray rippled through by the enigmatically positioned sun. The seagulls Jared had heard earlier hovered over the water in the distance, towards another shore opposite where he was. 

His attention was drawn there. It wasn’t far, maybe half a mile away, featuring a sandy shore in front of a long horizon of grass flat for as far as the eye could travel. To his right the land jutted into a narrow peninsula strewn with boulders. Flocks of seagulls were landing and taking off there. That wasn’t all there was. Among the rocks he saw figures mulling about, either walking or lazing on the sand. Seals? His eyes could not focus to tell for sure, but many of the prostrate figures he saw moving definitely resembled the portly sausage body of his own. But that didn’t explain those which walked upright and maneuvered through the rocks. That certainly wasn’t something a seal was capable of, nor did their colors resemble anything of the sort. Jared thought he saw the pale flesh color of human skin, but he wasn’t sure. In spite of all the mystery, there was something oddly familiar about the location and its apparent denizens. There wasn’t any concrete memory of the place, but while looking at it there came an odd sense of familiarity, like he’d seen it a million times, like home.

With nowhere else to go and not wanting to remain exposed on the beach, Jared sought to go over there. Maybe I’ll make some seal friends. It’s been a while since I’ve seen someone of my own kind, and that was a sphinx. He worm-waddled his way into the surf where the breaking waves splashed and fizzed against his belly. The confidence of swimming as a vaporeon for over a week meant he did not hesitate or worry about being underwater, but he knew it would be different. Remember, muscle memory. If I had a nickel for every time I thought of that term. It’s starting to lose all meaning. 

He went deeper into the water, and the waves started crashing into his chest and face. His nostrils would shut automatically but his eyes remained open. The first chance he had he dove his face straight into the water, drowning out the sound and greeting himself with the sloping sand bank which gave way into a long oceanic darkness before him. He surrendered himself to neutral buoyancy and droned ahead like a torpedo. All four flippers propelled him forward, and with a much better grace than what he had on land he zoomed through the open ocean, towards that peninsula and its colony of unknowns.

He'd grown used to being underwater during his week as a vaporeon, but the ocean was a whole new treasure trove of wonders. However deep and dark it was, he could look in nigh every direction and see what looked like the infinite. Above him was the toil of the ocean surface. He gazed through it with his belly upturned, gliding effortlessly with his spotted torpedo body. No longer some blubbery meat sausage, he was a hyper efficient swimming machine within its element. The freedom he felt when first swimming as a vaporeon was reinvigorated here, and though his seal form was devoid of almost all human expression, something like a goofy smile rode his face as he knifed forward so quickly. 

He resurfaced for a brief moment to take his first breath. In one loud snort he jettisoned a dual spray of seawater from his nostrils before inhaling quickly and diving back down. On the third breath he noticed he was close enough to see who or what was on the peninsula. With his head poked above the surface and bobbing amongst the waves he recognized what were in fact a bunch of seals on the beach and some humans sitting around or walking, doing whatever. The queer thing was that they all appeared to be nude with extra long hair that reached all the way down to their buttocks. It looked wavy and frizzed, perhaps a byproduct of the seawater. They didn’t seem bothered by the seals, nor vice versa. The only ones looking out of place were the seagulls who continuously flew around and landed like flies on rotten fruit. Jared saw one human shoo one away.

So… is this some kind of mutually beneficial colony or something? I’m not going to get clubbed or mauled if I show up on that beach, right? Nothing sparked any evasive instincts, and that familiar feeling remained. This is where I live, isn’t it? One way to find out. Jared dove back underwater and resumed his swim to the shore. The sand bank jutted up from the ocean floor, and Jared resurfaced one last time through the waves to finally crawl onto the beach, out of the froth.

There were about a dozen other seals lazing about the beach in both directions ahead of him. The humans were further up shore, doing what they had been when he first spotted them. Looks good so far. He jerked his way up the beach and onto the sand which stuck to his belly. An annoyed snort blew through his nose. There’s gotta be a better way to move than this. If only I had some legs to walk on. 

Halfway up the beach he was spotted by one of the other seals. It let out a hoot, getting the attention of the others as well as the humans nearby. All at once the seals and the humans lifted their heads and saw Jared making his tenuous crawl. Then, to his surprise, they lifted their hands/flippers and gave him a wave. From the seals came a chorus of loud moos, and from the humans a collective, “Hey!”

Jared heard one of them say clearly, “Jasmine’s back!”

He came to a halt. Jasmine? I’m Jasmine again? It never occurred to her to check the suit’s gender. How was she supposed to know the difference between a guy and girl seal? Whatever. I’m used to whatever gender gets thrown at me by this point. Nor did she have to worry about a hostile welcome, these clearly being people she knew. Maybe I’m a pet? Shit, I hope they don’t treat me like cattle. Jasmine continued a slow trek through the sand on her belly. It was starting to get exhausting. Jesus. The moment I’m up the beach I’m laying my ass down and falling asleep. 

But as she was making the climb he noticed something. Across the humans were a bunch of strange looks like she was doing something wrong. Jasmine came to a stop. Am I doing something wrong? One of the humans approached, her terrific length of black hair draped down her shoulders to her hips. “So, are you gonna take that off or are you going to stay like that?”

Her voice hit Jasmine hard. Maria? Jasmine hadn’t spoken to her sister since the skunk universe. She just now recognized her face, though she could be forgiven with how much was hidden behind those extraordinarily long bangs. Has she been carrying over with me to the other places this entire time? Jasmine couldn’t dwell on it long with Maria’s question requiring an answer. Take this off? Take what off? Jasmine gave an uncertain ruff sound, seal talk for “I don’t know.”

“Well, you’re more than welcome to keep it on,” Maria said. “It’d just be a lot easier to walk on your human legs than crawling all the way up here.” She turned around to head back to the rocks. “Whatever. You do you.”

Jasmine laid there perplexed. I have human legs? Where? She did a half roll and looked down at her belly. There were no legs to speak of. Nothing but tubby seal skin. She said take “that” off, but all I have is my skin. Is that..? If Jasmine had anything to take off, whether it was her skin or something else, this body had to have had the muscle memory to do it as always. Don’t think about it. Just do it. Maybe think about taking a shirt off. What came to mind was squirming out of her seal body like coming out of a zipped-up sleeping bag. She was just about to think about how it didn’t make any sense before she started trying. Like a snake shedding its skin, she thought as an inner body began to squirm forth towards the snout, splitting its jaws and crowning it around the hairy top of a human’s head.

Just like that, Jasmine felt the control come back to her human form. She was no longer lying nude on the beach, but inside a tightly wound sack of warm, soft skin. Her vision faded from the seal’s eyes and into the blossoming image of the inner mouth and the sea shore surrounding her. The seal head, now deflated and lifeless, stretched around her head until it was free. Jasmine the human poke out with bugging eyes and long, wild brown hair. “Woah,” was all she had to say as she looked out, not entirely sure what to do next. Realizing there were people watching her, she resumed a casual exit from the seal skin from its mouth. More of her bare body and its pale skin came to light. She came out onto the sand on her belly, those extravagantly long locks of seawater-strained hair coming spilling about her skin until her buttocks were free. Finally, her bare feet came out, and Jasmine was no longer a seal.

Jasmine flipped onto her back and looked at the deflated seal skin laying flat on the beach like an empty balloon. The eye sockets were empty. Hilariously, the tounge was blepped from the lips like a tired dog, but Jasmine wasn’t laughing. “What the fuck is going on?” she said to herself. It took some effort standing up given how long they’d gone without being used. (God, I feel like the Little Mermaid.) She picked the skin up and wondered why it wasn’t like the onesie she had put on as Jared less than an hour ago. How am I supposed to get back into this? Why am I able to get out as a human? Just what the hell am I? 

“That’s a lot better,” called Maria from behind her. Jasmine turned around to see Maria waving her over. “Come sit over here. We’re knitting and we could use your help.”

Knitting? Has Maria knitted anything in her entire life? Have I? So many questions. Oddly enough it was kind of exhilarating, being tossed into a life Jasmine knew absolutely nothing about. Not even the tigertaur realm nor the sphinx world offered this much mystery right off the bat. “OK, OK. I’m coming.” She made her way to the rocks where everyone was seated with the seal skin bundled up in her arm. Looking around Jasmine estimated there to be at least a hundred folks scattered around the peninsula, each one of them featuring long hair like her own. She was partly conscious of her nudity even though everyone else was just as bare as she was. 

Maria and two other women, named Valeria and Priscilla, were seated in a circle atop some rocks. Around them were big piles of what looked like seaweed or kelp. They where weaving the threads together into what looked like mattresses, blankets, and ropes. Jasmine stood just a few feet away, watching in silence before Maria noticed her. “Well don’t just stand there. Join us and help.”

Jasmine came back to reality with a jolt. “Oh yeah. Sorry.” With no boulders to sit on she sat down cross legged in the sand. In one thoughtless motion she brushed her hair aside so she wouldn’t sit on it. I bet I’m used to doing that in this world. 

“Grab as much as you need,” Maria said casually. “We’re just making whatever.” She wove together a long strand of green sea rope. Her fingers moved deftly and without error.

“Oh, alright.” Jasmine looked into the giant pile of twiny green strings that was piled on the sand between them. I have no idea what to do or what to make. “Um, if it’s alright. I’ll just chill with you guys. I, um, don’t have anything I need to make.”

Fortunately, Maria shrugged. “Suit yourself. We can just chat.”

Jasmine smiled with relief. “Yeah, cool.”

“So, did you find anything on that island?”

“The what?”

“The island. You said you were going to check it out and forage there. I noticed you didn’t come back with a sack. Did you lose it?”

Jasmine realized the island Maria referred to was the place where she’d swam from. But I don’t remember any sack. I’ll probably have to swim back for it. “Uh, no. I didn’t find anything, and I think I forgot my, uh, sack.”

Laughter from the other girls. “Well, you better go get it, or else you’ll want to make another one right now,” said one girl.

“Yeah,” said an embarrassed Jasmine. “You’re right.”

“You forgot your sack but you brought your skin all the way up here. You don’t want to put it by your cot?” Maria asked.

Jasmine had forgotten she was holding it. It was in her lap, all bundled up like a sweatshirt. “Oh, I guess I’m too lazy to go all the way over there.” I guess it’s like carrying around a jacket without wearing it. She pulled it off her lap and set it aside. I’m doing a lot of things wrong right now. I still don’t know what I am exactly or what’s in this world. It doesn’t look like me or anyone else has a phone to look it up either. What the hell am I supposed to say or ask that won’t make me look weird? 

She decided to sit there and remain quiet while the conversation between Maria and her two friends carried on. A few names Jasmine recognized were mentioned, them being friends of hers as well as family members. Nothing too revealing came up in conversation until one of the girls, Valerie, mentioned a fellow named Jamie. “She told me she was going to try and swim through the waters around the fishing wharf again. I told her she’d have to be insane to try that after getting herself caught in a net like last time. I don’t think it matters how many times we tell her that humans and selkies don’t mix. She’ll be reminded the next time a hunting party comes marching into camp.”

Jasmine perked up in her seat. Selkies? What are those? Is that what I am? It was different from a human, whatever it was. She had to probe further. “So, Valerie, remind me what happened with Jamie? Why don’t Selkies and humans mix?”

Upon that second question she got a trio of bizarre looks like she’d asked where the sun went at night. “Because they’re dangerous,” Maria said bluntly. “Don’t tell me we have to remind you too.”

Shit. I really pushed the wrong button on that one. “No, no, no. I know that. I just wonder why Jamie has to be reminded that. Why’d she think it was OK to go to the fishing wharf?”

Valerie scoffs and shook her head. “Because of all the fish there, but the humans have a monopoly on it with all their boats and nets. One of them got their eyes on her and nearly stuck her with a harpoon. She’s lucky to have gotten out of there alive. Worse, she might’ve led them right to us. That’s why we sent you to scout that island, remember?”

No. “Oh yeah, duh.”

Maria shook her head. “If we have to move places again, I’m going to be sick. All these humans nowadays. They spread like the plague. Won’t be long until there’s nowhere else to go.”

Dread made Jasmine’s stomach turn. “Can’t we just turn into seals and swim away?”

“I mean, sure, but for how long? We can’t swim forever. They’ll find us on the beach and either club us or tear us right out of our skins and make us their wives.” Maria sucked her teeth. Her weaving turned more aggressive. “Damn fishermen. Can’t breed with their own kind, so they grab us. It’s not our fault we’re prettier than their own women.”

Jasmine couldn’t parse the mechanics of everything Maria said, but it wasn’t good. This must be what animals feel like in real life. What about them finding our skins and marrying us? Is that some kind of rule? “How far away are the humans from here?”

“Not far enough,” Valerie said bitterly.

“About two days’ swim,” Maria answered. She scowled at Jasmine. “Don’t you go to the wharf with Jamie, you hear? It was dangerous enough sending you to that island alone.”

Jasmine shook her head. “No. Absolutely not.” That she swore, and yet she already wondered what she would find at the wharf. Humans, she thought. It’s been a while since I’ve seen those.

Jasmine spent the rest of the day sitting with Maria and her friends, watching them weave items out of the vegetation. At one point she got up to find the cot Maria had mentioned. It was among a clearing in the grass behind the rocks were dozens of other cots woven out of grass were hidden. Atop almost every cot was an empty seal skin like what Jasmine carried, all of varying colors and sizes. After determining which cot was hers based on a sense of familiarity, she laid her skin down on it and returned to the colony.

There she found cliques of people she knew hanging around, chatting, laughing, enjoying the calm and balmy weather. A few folk came up from the beach carrying their skins. They were the ones Jasmine had seen laying on the beach as seals earlier, probably resting after a long day of catching fish in the ocean. I guess I’m going to do some of that tomorrow or someday. I hope it’s not too hard. 

As the day waned into night and the overcast sky became a uniformed black the colony began retiring to their cots. Jasmine had spent the last few hours catching up with friends, those she’d known for years but also just met. That felt like ages ago, when reality as she knew it did not fracture itself so regularly into a barely recognizable mirror of similar yet different fractal images. She could ease her mind with the company of her friends and family, feeling like she was hanging out with them on some special occasion, even though this appeared to happen regularly. It came to an end eventually, and the colony went together at once to retire for the night. 

But before Jasmine went to bed, she sought out Jamie to ask her a few questions.

* * *

Everyone woke up to the rising sun and marched towards the shore with their seal skins in tow. Jasmine, not sure what was going on, followed suit and gathered with everyone at the beach. There they opened the jaws of their skins and stepped inside to pull it over their bodies and assume their seal forms. They made it look so normal, like putting on clothes in the morning. Jasmine did the same, feeling odd as she sat in the sand and pulled the empty husk up her legs and body. It came all the way up to her head, pitting her in darkness until she opened her seal eyes to see the land in front of her. Back to being a seal.

Most of the colony bounced their way into the water for the morning hunt, leaving a few behind to guard the peninsula. Jasmine joined what looked like an armada of hungry seals off to catch breakfast. Communication was mostly visual while underwater, utilizing what Jasmine titled flipper signs. For the most part she just followed Maria who swam in a jet-black seal body. The thought of munching on a fat mackerel fueled her forward. Never had to work for breakfast before. I hope we don’t have to travel too far. 

It was a much longer trip than what Jasmine had travelled between the island and the peninsula, but eventually she and the others happened upon a school of mackerel. They dashed into the silvery school from all directions. The mackerel would flee and remain untouched almost every attempt, but Jasmine and her fellow huntresses did not quit. Jasmine caught her first fish. The crunch of bone and scale between her teeth was the most sumptuous reward which she gobbled down whole in just three chomps. Invigorated, she set upon the mackerel with even more vigor, depleting their ranks until her stomach was full and she could hardly swim anymore.

Maria and the others could tell she was full and motioned for her to return to the colony. A portly Jasmine left the scene, but not for the peninsula. She came to the island from yesterday where the sack Maria mentioned was waiting for her not far from where she’d put the suit on. It held just a few berries she’d foraged apparently, though she could find no other bushes to pluck from. Giving up on the island, she strapped the sack to her seal skin, got back inside, and headed back to base. Damn, this is starting to be really fun. 

But the real excitement awaited her in the next few days. Hidden in the grasses on the peninsula was a human dress Jamie had found washed up on the beach one day, presumably from a nearby shipwreck. “This is what humans wear!” Jamie had said proudly that night while holding up the simple white dress. “At least the women do.” Jamie had been in the waters around the humans settlement looking for a way to sneak in and put the dress on. That the wharf had more fish was just an excuse. “You promise not to tell anyone, right Jasmine?”

Jasmine promised, though it meant breaking the one she’d made to her sister. Jamie’s inexperience with humans meant she wouldn’t ever be able to blend in with the humans, but Jasmine had no such weakness. I’ll just visit and see what it’s like. In and out, no problem. Jasmine would wait until the next day after the morning hunt and say she was going to scout the island again for anything she’d missed. Maria volunteered to go with her, but Jasmine dismissed her. “It’s no big deal. I just want to make sure there’s nothing I missed. I might be a while, but I’ll come back safe.”

“You better,” warned Maria.

Jasmine swam from the peninsula in the direction of the island, but only for a few hundred yards before cutting westward like Jamie told her to do. She’d rolled a cot of weed and tied it to herself for the night or two she would spend during her travel. Bundled with it inside a watertight was the dress Jamie had found. It was wet every time Jasmine stopped to rest and required drying for the next leg of the journey. On the first night she knew she was headed in the right direction when she saw the long arm of a lighthouse’s beam sweeping the horizon and blinking at her every few seconds.

Jasmine got a clearer look at it the next day when the human settlement came into view. Massive ships and trawlers pulled in and out. Standing tall among a clot of wooden houses was a white, octagonal lighthouse currently dormant within the seaside light. Jasmine crawled onto land about a mile out to take off her skin and let the dress dry. It wouldn’t lose all its moisture, but she could at least wander into town once it was damp. A road leading down the shore held no traveling humans for as long as she hid in the grasses flanking it. That was good as it meant no one would find her skin while she left it here. Once the dress was finally dry enough, she located a dense clump of grass and placed her folded seal skin inside it. After that she wandered onto the road and began her walk into town, feeling slightly uncomfortable in clothes after being nude for so long. 

What discomfort awaited her in the town was much worse, however, and her fears of looking unacceptable in a wet dress were squashed by what she saw what conditions the humans were living in. Through every street was a quagmire of mud and folk struggling but somehow surviving amidst the squalor. Jasmine earned every eye she passed by in her comparatively exquisite attire, that which was as wet as everyone else’s. The way the men seemed to appraise her when she walked past generated no small level of unease. Without the muck and grime the towns poverty had painted each citizen with, she was positively darling.

In just a very short amount of time, her curiosity had been satiated and she had to get out of there. At the first chance she turned around and headed down the road she came at a brisk pace, praying to whoever would listen that her skin would be in the place she’d left it. This was a bad idea. These aren’t my people anymore. Valerie was right. Humans and selkies don’t mix. Her walk out of town felt longer than her swim from the island, but at last she came upon the tuft of grass where she’d hidden her skin. With great anticipation she made a quick dash towards it and parted the blades. There, folded neatly exactly like she’d left it, was her dappled seal skin.

A relieved sigh blew out of her. “Oh, thank God.” Jasmine bent over and picked the suit up. Now to get out of this stupid-

“Now!”

It was a man’s voice behind her, one that struck terror into her bones and heralded a storm of boots rushing after her. Jasmine spun just in time to see a squad of men bursting from the grass, wielding ropes, harpoons, nets and crooked gazes looking wild. Jasmine let out a scream. She turned hard for the water, holding the skin to her bosom as if it would protect her. She did not make it far before the view of the ocean was draped over by a net. She came down like a sack of rocks, squirming and screaming inside her restraints. The men hooted and hollered with glee. They all surrounded her with half-toothed smiles. 

“We got her!” said one.

“I knew she was one of them with all that hair!”

“Damn, ain’t she pretty?”

“Yer a lucky man, Sid!”

“Shut up and get her skin! That’s all that matters!” 

At once they bent over to pull the net off her, and Jasmine screamed. She could not make it anywhere once it was off before the man named Sid, a gray-haired fellow with deep etches in his grizzled mien, ripped the skin from her hands. He looked at it like some long lost treasure, a life achievement glowing before his eyes. “I got me a selkie!” he cheered. “A selkie’s gonna be my wife!”

His pals joined him in his celebration with the terrified Jasmine left to curl into a ball and whimper by their feet. Suddenly she was pulled up and made to stand with one man on both sides of her, holding her arms. She was marched back into town, weeping, forced to watch Sid carry her freedom on his back like some slaughtered game. The group and their captive were met with a roaring welcome back in town. Jasmine, the fool, was the first selkie captured in decades. Per some contract unwritten but hardwired in this universe, she would become her hunter’s wife.

The next few days she would remain locked in Sid’s house, forced to suffer the preparations of the coming wedding. A brighter, more proper dress was fitted on her for the occasion. Bridesmaids selected for her came one day and tried trimming the great excess of hair she had, but found not even the sharpest of shears able to cut through those locks. Worst of all were Sid’s promises to make her a happy wife. “Just like you’ll make me a happy husband with all the pretty babies yer gonna make me,” he would say with that hole-ridden grin of his that would make Jasmine want to puke.

Jasmine went to sleep each night wishing she wasn’t so stupid, regretting not listening to her sister, and for not accepting her new life as a selkie better. Valerie’s statement about the dangers of mingling rang in her head on repeat. There was nothing Jasmine would’ve done just to dive back into the open ocean, to make her way back to the colony where she belonged, where her friends and family must have worried sick about her. Those few nights of captivity she would cry herself to sleep, thinking that she would never see Maria’s face again.

It was the morning of the wedding when Jasmine woke up to see a package waiting for her on the window sill next to her bed. She rocketed upright at the sight of it and almost knocked it out into the street when she grabbed it. Even more shocking was the letter attached to it. So the son of a bitch remembered me after all. She tore the envelope opened and read through some very familiar handwriting.

Dear Jasmine,

My sincerest apologies for my absence these past few weeks. You see, you’re not the only soul I have wandering the mulitiverse. Since your arrival in the sphinx world, I thought you’d found your perfect home, a place where you could fly and truly be free. That was until I saw the state of ennui you’d assumed. I tried something new with the Pokemon universe but came back to find you fearful and paranoid. I thought perhaps a life at sea with your family would be better, but now I see how terribly wrong I was. You’ve gone and gotten yourself locked in some godawful contract which I forgot existed with the selkies. Please do not blame yourself, for I did not assume you’d interact with the humans. You were just being curious Please forgive me and take this new outfit as recompense. . I promise it will be free of any humans.

Sincerely,

Leland