#flashfiction

Teresa Amehana Garcia or LadyRainStarDrago

Set within the Selkies' Skin Continuity some summer between 1995 and 1997, most likely between 96 and 97. This is after Kirsty earns her sealskin and no longer has to rely on the past to take her seal form but before graduation and most definitely before becoming Caer Carrick's first Merstudies professor.

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She emerged from the surf with her sealskin wrapped carefully, merging the forms of seal and young woman in such a way to allow herself to drag the net carrying her harvest of shellfish, kelps, and hunted fish. Behind her trawled the little shark that had adopted her – or more accurately her boyfriend during that summer visit. Kirsty turned and fumbled a fish out of her net, then tossed it to Lemon.

Why Lemon? She had no idea why that was the shark’s name. It just was. Lemon leaped and caught it like a puppy, doing a ridiculous tail dance backward and out to sea before falling back under the water. Kirsty shook her head in bemusement.

“Silly toofer.” She mumbled to herself, then hit her knees in the sand when a furry blubber ball launched itself into the back of them. Her not as padded toucas impacted the little head, and both she and he yelped.

“Banu! Get back here!” The kelpie pounded across the sand and yanked the little white and brown specked seal pup up and out with his teeth.

Kirsty retrieved her net bag before the sea could reclaim it, then cast a bewildered eye on the coastal chaos. “I only went fishing. I do this every morn I’m home.”

“But you were gone so long!” Banu bawled, dangling and crossing his flippers across his chest at her. Another human gesture picked up from spending more and more time out of his skin and in a human shape.

Kirsty made a mental note to speak to Mani about her son again, when she wasn’t so worn from the weaving she had undertaken so the lad would have proper coverings when in human shape. His mother still had mistrust of anything obtained from human markets, Cowan or Mystic. “There was a dolphin that needed some help birthing. Odd time for it.”

“Don’t they have their own folk for that?” Banu pressed.

Byron set him down and huffed, shaking his head disapprovingly.

“Mara’s touch was needed, and I was there.” Kirsty said sadly, gently. Her eyes drifted out to sea. “I have a role to fill, you know. While I still live here, I fill mother’s while she can’t. Then later I’ll have my own.”

“I don’t like it. Mum says what a Priestess does is dangerous.”

“It can be, yes. But still needed.” She ruffled his head before pulling the hood of her skin back, allowing her face to take the form she was born with. “That’s just life, little cousin. Are you going to help me carry this now that you’ve made my knees throb?”

“Sorry. I was just so glad to see you back on shore. You know Mum doesn’t let me in without an adult.” The child wriggled, then clawed at the seam of his skin before it split open.

She gave Byron an amused look, shifting her attention to give the boy his privacy. “Hide and seek?”

“Yes.”

“Anything I ought to be warned about before getting up to the house?”

“Your other cousins are out on the boat. Your father is still at work and not home, you’ve not been gone as long as small ones think. Your mother is still seeing the Light Keeper’s daughter.”

Banu tugged on her arm lightly, then the weight in her net lightened as he lifted part. Kirsty smiled and looked down at the dark haired boy, grinning up at her proudly with how he’d learned to wrap his skin so it would stay put and still have him properly covered. “Ok, I’m dressed now.” His eyes had not settled on a color yet and still shifted, just as his coat was only just beginning to start getting the brown specks that would likely eventually fully take over, judging by his mother’s coat.

“Good job, you’re getting faster.”

“I still don’t like clothes, though.”

“Judging by some of the stories I’ve heard about younger siblings at school, I don’t think most small children do.”

“Did you at my age?”

Kirsty gave Byron a shake of her head, curtailing the memory he was likely going to ‘helpfully’ regale the boy with. “No, but I also didn’t have my skin yet, so I had to wear them anyway from very, very, very small. You’re so lucky you were born with one. Come on, let’s get this up to the cottage and see if your mum needs any help before I start the day’s brew job.”

“Ok. Can we have that fishy pie thing again for dinner, do you think?”

“We’ll see, I think your mum wanted to do the dinner tonight.”

“Aw, that means no human food tonight then...”

Kirsty snorted. “Not all human food is that great, just remember this. Be grateful of what we have. Some places don’t have fish at all.”

“That’s horrible. They must be so sad.”

“Maybe.”

Trying to catch up on things that did not go up here. Here we return to the world of Selkies' Skins, sometime in Kirsty and David's adulthood while they teach their respective classes at Cair Carrick.

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FFM #20: A Dangerfruit Visits Potions Class

July 20 2026

Teresa Amehana Garcia or LadyRainStarDrago

“So what exactly IS dangerfruit?” He looked dubiously over his glasses at the small yellow thing his student held so victoriously far too close to his face. “It smells of lemon bubblegum.”

“You know what bubblegum is?” Every student gasped in their own minds but carefully and hastily stuffed the matching thoughts into the recesses of their minds. The potions instructor seemed to be able to somehow smell their thoughts.

“...Uh...” The student stammered, flailing mentally at the unexpected observation and the very unlikely image if the white-haired and ice-eyed professor mildly chewing gum while his far more flamboyant wife busilily blew the biggest bubble she could wherever they actually hid when not working. “A bit? I always thought it smelled more like cherry wonton tarts with whatever that powder is on the really sour candies.”

“Equally disturbing.” David took the odd thing in his gloved left hand, surmising it wasn’t actually dangerous to touch since his student still possessed her hand, all fingers, and had not started turning various colors or growing new appendages. The light played across the smooth skin as he rotated it, an opalescence revealing the tiny dimple that were originally hidden.

“Yeah, really confusing. I think it is a little different for everyone.”

“They taste like lemons to me. Yuck.” Another student added helpfully, then remembered the rule he’d broken and raised his hand. “Sir.”

“Hmm...” He nodded, acknowledging the interruption, though not as sternly as he normally might. “Thank you. I’ll inspect this… gift… For now we will begin class. In front of each of you, you will find a bag with your mystery item to identify. Once you have your possible identity you must identify uses for your substance. Preliminary work is due by the end of class.

He knew by the looks on several faces that this lesson while identify for him the ones with promise, who would need extra help just to be safe the required years ahead, and how much free time for his own further studies he was likely to have this school year.

It was going to be a long year.

With a quiet sigh to himself he settled at his desk with the dangerfruit and opened his notebook, the rather unorganized one he kept for times such as this to be transcribed later. As his students settled in, many with audible groans stifled between tightened lips, he began scratching out a detailed sketch of the item and his first impressions, doing the assignment along with his students since someone had surprised him with one of the newly discovered fruits seemingly taking over the pantries of his world.

David wondered if this was going to smell like fish to Kirsty, and made a note to find out.

The dangerfruit, meanwhile, grew increasingly uneasy as the potions master’s inspection grew more and more detail. Careful touches turned to curious proddings and sample scrapings. If it had been able to read the dangerfruit would have realized that it was not the one creating danger, but the one in danger.

Are y'all ready for #ThursThreads tomorrow? I'm the judge this time around and I'm hoping for lots of tales. Got a tale to tie on? See you tomorrow!

"Worse."

"What, then?"

In the quiet town of Eldridge, the sun refused to rise one morning. The sky remained a deep indigo, stars stubbornly clinging to their places as night refused to yield its hold. People gathered in the central square, murmuring about the missing dawn and its strange implications for all. Old Man Hargrove claimed it was the work of sky thieves, while children invented tales of a giant bird that swallowed the light whole.

I searched high and low, from the misty hills to the abandoned mill by the river. Nothing appeared at first. Then, in a dusty alley behind the shops, I found a torn flyer advertising vblink casino in Usa, promising fortunes under artificial lights that never dimmed. It seemed unrelated, yet the neon glow mocked the absent sun.

Days passed without light. Crops withered in the fields, and moods darkened across the entire valley. I traveled far, seeking answers in distant cities where the sun still shone brightly every day. There, in a backroom of a forgotten arcade, I discovered a machine labeled vblink777 in Usa. Its spinning reels held images of suns and moons. Pulling the lever, I won a golden token that radiated gentle warmth in my hand.