The Modern Fae's Guide to Surviving Humanity by Joshua Palmatier & Patricia Bray

Author:Joshua Palmatier & Patricia Bray [Palmatier, Joshua]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101577264
Publisher: DAW
Published: 2012-03-06T05:00:00+00:00

HOW MUCH SALT

April Steenburgh

The world had gotten smaller, and no one had seen fit to tell him.

Dylan peered out at the gaggle of humans picking at carefully arranged bits of food balanced on plates that seemed fated to spill. His favorite summer basking spot was taken up by a young dandy and a woman he appeared to be failing to woo. Her eyes were on the gulls, dipping and whirling overhead while calling out their aggravation at the intruders.

The humans made pretty pictures, true, but when had they started to appear scattered through his favorite haunts? The dry calls of irritated seals mixed in with the eternal shouting of the surf, most likely lost on the humans. Dylan’s gaze was pulled back to the ill-fated couple on his rock, the indelicate way in which the man was pressuring her, the resignation twined with unhappiness in her expression. It made his blood run hot, urging him to haul out of the surf and lay his head in her lap, to slip his skin and kiss the salty tears from her eyes.

The sight of a selkie male would ruin that woman forever; no human man would be able to measure up in her eyes after. Why then did they all hover in the surf, glaring at the interlopers?

It was the unexpected aspect of the situation. Humans were supposed to skulk around the same fishing and washing spots they had always appeared in. There was no precedent for finding them wallowing around on selkie beaches.

Dylan added a confused, angry huff to the mutterings of the colony of selkies scattered through the waves around him. This was his territory, and this … invasion would not be tolerated.

A bull seal charging up onto the rocks was not intimidating enough, no matter how he barked and called, posturing and puffing in aggression. The humans were startled, but instead of sublimating into satisfying fear, they seemed to settle into … doting. Nature was quaint, if one went by their inane chatter. Dylan suffered their cooing and cajoling with ill grace, settling on his preferred spot with something very close to a sullen air. He closed his eyes, taking comfort in the way food had slithered and slipped from plates at his disruption.

His family was slower to respond, slipping onto the shore only as the humans grew apparently bored with his inactivity, and started gathering the scattered evidence of their intrusion as the sun slipped towards evening.

He heard her before he saw her as she settled beside him, slipping out of her sealskin with a sigh that begged elaboration. He glanced over at her where she sat, expression inviting. “Where did they all come from?” Aine was the splendor of the young sunset rolled into a casually human form, red gold hair whipping around her head in the evening wind. Her dark eyes were wide in a face just a little too lean and perfect to belong to the girl she posed as. Clutching her seal skin she sniffed daintily, catching the smoke and sweat smells that the humans had left behind them.

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