“Oh.”
There was no accusation in Callik’s tone, but she felt the niggling sensation that she was letting him down anyway.
Of course, she hadn’t wanted to leave with her father that day, he’d tried to kill her, and, when that hadn’t worked, he’d tried to demand she go home with him. Violently. She’d known in her heart that he would have tried again the moment they were back in the ocean.
Or the shaman would cast her out upon their return, and her father would reap the benefits of her dying an ‘honorable’ death. While she either slowly starved to death – less likely since she was a proficient hunter in her own right – or falling prey to a pod of vicious orca.
The worst of all were the stories of selkies going mad without access to the community, their loneliness driving them insane.
