#gmanortask

                                Scarlett Tanglos family tree

TASK 1 ; FAMILY TREE

To be honest, Fionn doesn’t have a family. In a biological sense, yes, but not in a practical sense. Any parents or siblings he has were left behind when he stepped out of the water onto the cold and sodden Irish shore so many years ago. He left behind his seal form and his family, adopting a human name and learning the languages of the area -- Gaelic and English. If any of his family has left the ocean like he has, Fionn doesn’t know and he likely wouldn’t recognize them if he ever came across them.

It doesn’t sadden Fionn that he doesn’t have a family. It’s a part of life, yes? Leaving behind the nest and striking out on your own. Rather than swim away from the section of the sea though, Fionn took to land with wonder-filled eyes and wobbling legs. The wonder has dimmed some and his stance is steady; sometimes he thinks of returning to the sea, away from the chaos and politics of the surface but it’s never because he wants to return to his family.

For the age old adage -- “the blood of the covenant runs thicker than the water of the womb” -- Fionn also wouldn’t put anyone down. Admittedly, that’s just one of the selkie’s own quirks; he’ll hardly call someone a friend let alone family. There were the fisherman who saw him standing naked on the beach that first day, the ones that threw a towel around his shoulders and urged him towards shelter, placing cups of bitter coffee if in his pale and skinny fingers. There were the villagers that helped him learn to be a person and not a seal, the ones the stared at him oddly when then though he wasn’t looking but who helped him with his maths and his letters nonetheless. He’s not sure he’d called them family though -- they’re just people that helped, right? It’s not there’s there’s no one he appreciates, it’s just how he is. He never quite graps the concepts of human love and family; he’s a seal at heart but walking in the skin of a man.