((Sorry for the bad title, that one of my weak points >.>))
High tide was almost in, the waves mercilessly beating all in their path. They pounded against the rocks who dared sit too close to the shore. The sand let itself be submerged until that one second when they could kiss the air again. Anything thrown onto the beach was immediately fought over by gulls, who cawing was the only noise to be heard over the crash of the waves. In the horizon, a pair of dolphins danced oblivious to the chill in the water.
Upon the beach, where the waves finally began to calm, sat the young woman; despite her earlier swim, she stayed put and let the water lick her bare feet. Talamaris solemnly watched the ocean. Her water-logged clothes kept her skin from warming while her fiery damp locks whipped in the ocean breezing, begging to be submerged again so they wouldn't have to curl.
Home, this was her home... It's only been a couple years, nothing has changed, she thought, yet you've come back completely different. To be sitting right on the edge and not be able to escape back to safety was infuriating. Swimming was alright, especially in the familiar chilly waters of her birth...still it wasn't enough. Reminiscing wasn't enough.
She had always been homesick, but the overwhelming feeling had almost drowned her four years ago. The selkie had learned fast to control it. How she longed to be in her smaller lithe form, flying through the waters with her tribe... but would they really take her back now?
Since she lost her skin, they had shunned her like they had every human. If only she could remember their language. They didn't care that she smelled of the sea. They didn't care that her name was of their tribe. All they knew was that she couldn't change and they couldn't understand her... Now, selkies were completely different than their animal counterpart, but they refused to associate with non-selkies.
The loss of not being able to go home might have crippled Talamaris, but she had hope. She would find her skin, once it was in her waiting palms she would return to her people and be free of this cursed land of air and man; even if she searched all her life she refused to give in. Standing, Talamaris raised her head defiantly and stared toward her family's home, "I will be back. And then I'll never leave again."