The first thing that came to mind was that it was cold. Being a seal, Laney was well equipped to deal with freezing temperatures. However, it did seem as though there was something off. She opened her large black eyes and finally realized what was missing. Her mother. The young seal froze before wiggling about on the ice and looking around her. There was a depression in the ice, another depression in the ice, a snowbank, another snowbank farther off, a hole in the ice with something bubbling, and another snowbank that seemed to drift off into nothingness. No sign of mother. The little creature doubled her efforts. She barked. She whined. She made noises a seal could only make in utter despair! Still, no sign of mother. Wriggling over to a hole in the ice that her mother might have gone through she shoved her muzzle into the just icy water and made a gurgling noise. It sounded vaguely like a cat being drowned.
Something crunched in the snow not too far off. It was a large and vaguely man-shaped with a sort of lumber to it's movements. It seemed to lurch slightly to the left- opposite where one of it's appendages was a good deal longer, larger, and blunter than the other. The little seal pulled her muzzle out of the water and stared up at the approaching figure that turned out to be a rather ugly, grizzled man in dire need of a bath. The little creature wriggled towards him. Mother? The tiny face lit up with an almost human excitement as it moved even closer to the man with the club.
This is too easy, the man thought to himself and waited for the little ball of fluff to come closer. He could almost taste dried seal meat as he licked his chapped lips. Laney was still under the impression that the man with the club could possibly be her mother. After all, Mother could pull off her seal skin and become one of these creatures with two legs. Maybe this was Mother trying out a new disguise. She made a happy little noise and wriggled even closer.
BAM! the club hit the snow with a dull thud that rattled the bones in the man's body and sent the seal pup wriggling and crying back down the slope. The snowbanks stared in frosty silence- indifferent as always. The hunter pursued his prey as it rolled down the bank and towards the little black hole in the middle. The little seal righted herself (still screaming bloody murder) and paused by the edge of the hole in the ice. Mother had told her she should stay on land because it was safer. There were unknown terrors in the deep that could swallow a little seal pup whole and her downy fur wasn't exactly going to help her in this circumstance. However, when one is staring death in the face, or rather, a man with a club in the face and when a clubbing is compared to something that may or may not actually be lurking the waters below the smart creature would always stick with chance. The little creature stuck her nose into the water and dived with the streamlined grace of every pinniped.
The water was warmer than the air. However, it was dark save for the little beams of light coming from the holes in the ice, like the one above her. A shadow fell over her and she looked up to see the dark form of the man thing with the hitting stick and as quickly as she could shot off swimming away from the hole.
Seals are marvelous swimmers and have the ability to hold their breath for extended periods of time. Their large eyes take in any light they can get and their tickling whiskers help them sense where their eyes are useless. Laney knew all this by instinct, being a seal, and so she easily maneuvered beneath the ice. What instinct didn't tell her, however, is what she ought to avoid. After all, not all predators are quite so obvious, and she hadn't known the club-man was going to attack until he did so. And so when she caught sight of an adult, spotted seal she headed over for it excitedly. An adult! Maybe it would know where her mother was.
The leopard seal saw something coming towards it in the darkness. Only stupid things came anywhere close to this top predator. Unless of course it was a whale in disguise, but the spotted seal had never seen a whale looking like that. Well, whatever it was, it was small and it was edible. The leopard seal swung around and made a beeline for the smaller seal, jaws opening expectantly.
The little seal realized not a moment too late that it wasn't a big welcoming smile the other seal was giving her. Veering off quickly, the small creature swam as fast as she could away from the other seal. It, of course, followed in pursuit. It wasn't long before they left the protection of the sea ice. The water instantly brightened causing the seal pup to become a tiny white beacon in the water, followed by a barely discernible spotted shape. The tiny white creature wasn't large enough to take the group's interest, however, the larger seal was certainly large enough. The leader of the whale pod, a massive, streamlined creature with white eyepatches moved in pursuit.
The little white seal pup didn't realize that there was nothing chasing her until a while later when she made her way back to the sea ice and popped up onto it for a breath of air. Her little heart beat quick and light as a bird's and her breathing was fast. She'd been given the scare of her life. Her life had been mundanely boring before today. Nothing ever happened on her little ice flow. Now she had to get back to it.
Slipping back into the water the little creature swam along the coast. She had gone pretty far and wasn't entirely sure where she was. And then something caught her interest. It was a strangely shaped floating thing. The little seal pup went over to investigate, curiously nosing the side of it. A thin man with spectacles peered over the edge and then fell backwards. Then a smaller man, a man-pup, came and peered over the edge at her. He barked something and pointed at her.
The little creature didn't know what that meant. And then the net fell overtop of her and she knew exactly what it meant. The seal struggled, but only managed to ensnare herself further as the net was hauled onboard. She was whining, snarling, and making generally unhappy seal noises as they pulled her out of the net. She managed to bite somebody's finger, she was pretty sure she tasted blood. And then she was shoved into a small box.
The rest of her time spent on the not-ice-flow was rather uneventful. Every so often they gave her some fish, which she snapped up greedily, and even more often then that the little man-pup poked at her in her little box. She didn't like being poked at, but she'd found that biting him only made him feel like hurting her.
And then they were getting off of the not-ice-flow. She felt her box being lifted with the stomach-dropping sensation of an airplane lifting off. The ride wasn't bouncy. No, it was jarring and the little creature scrambled for purchase in her box. She was not enjoying this at all. When she got out she'd show that man-pup a thing or two!
She was finally let out of the box in the mid-afternoon sunshine. The place she had been unceremoniously plopped had a pool of water in it and a small rock overhang she could sit under or over depending on her mood. She surveyed the perimeter. It was as enclosed as the box had been, but for the blueness of the sky above. Then she realized she wasn't alone. The creature staring at her appeared to be some sort of land herbivore who was perfectly content to chew on something and stare vacantly at her. Unnerved, the little creature looked further around.
It appeared that she was surrounded by fellow creatures in little cages. Many of them looked just as unhappy about it as she was, but there were a few who had that vacant, starry look in their eyes that marked a sort of growing insanity. Laney would have none of this. As soon as the man people had left the little seal copied what her mother had taught her. It was a slow and painful process because she was so new at it, but where the seal had once lain now sat a little girl curled up into a little ball.
The child rolled into a sitting position and stretched her limbs, marveling at what her flippers had become. Shakily the girl got up to her feet and picked up her discarded seal skin, draping the fluffy skin across her new human shoulders. The skin was the only clothing she had on, but then again, the child had no concept of nakedness. She made her way to the gate she'd been taken through and pulled on it, marveling at what a wonder these opposable thumbs were. The gate did not move. Something was holding it closed. She fiddled with the lock until it came undone, not entirely sure how she'd managed it. Then she set to work on the other cages.
There was a great amount of screaming coming from the noble's yards, the menagerie in particular. Screaming, roaring, animal noises, magic. It all seemed to come together and blossom over the manor like a mushroom cloud. It appeared to be a greenish-purple color.
Creatures ran back and forth. Humans ran back and forth. Something disturbing and magically created slunk through the chaos. The little selkie was intent not only on getting out, but on getting her revenge on the man-pup. She was going to bite his fingers. It really seemed like a good idea at the time, but now that she was on his level- as much as a human who thinks like a seal can be on the level of a human thinker- she wasn't so sure. And then he ran past. The little girl pounced on the boy who fell to the ground with an "AUUUGH!" and the two rolled about on the ground, one biting, the other shoving and both adding to the general noise.
