The sea was so rough and agitated that for a moment, Neil was certain that they would never reach the shore again.

His small fishing boat seemed to be flying just above the furious water's surface, skipping from one frothy wave as tall as a hill to another, like a walnut shell, unable to resist the power of the surging wind. Only by some miracle, the vessel did not get submerged and dragged to the bottom of the gelid sea.

The strong gale made the water roar so loudly that it was impossible to shout orders to the three men who were on board with him, he could only hope that while he tried to steer the boat towards the shore they would remember what to do. They knew the weather would be bad, they had seen the forecast of course, but not even their modern technology could prepare them for such a perfect storm.

But, after hours of struggling against the waves and the destiny who seemed to have made up her mind to claim their lives tonight, they did it, and they made it back to the shore.

Bathed in their own sweat as much as in the freezing sea water, they didn't mind the cold rain washing over them as they secured the vessel in the dock and set their feet on the firm ground.

Instead of going home, as one the four men headed for the village and its pub, to celebrate their miraculous survival.

"Look, there are the selkies again, watching us with those black eyes... They give me creeps, I'm telling you!"

Neil glanced at the rocks scattered at the bottom of a long beach, at the foot of tall cliffs-- each time when the fishermen got back from the sea, a large group of seals lay there huddled next to each other, as if they were awaiting their arrival. He smiled and was just about to tease and scold the old man who had spoken for his belief in local legends when his look was attracted by... a flash of something bright, well visible even through the rain and the thickening mist of the approaching night. Neil was sure that in the midst of the seals' black, wet, silky bodies, he caught a glimpse of... human flesh.

Curious, he took a step away from his mates but one of them, exhilarated by their lucky escape, overjoyed to be walking on the ground one more time, put his arm over his shoulders and pulled him back into their small group, distracting him.

When Neil turned around and looked back towards the cliffs one more time all seemed perfectly normal again-- the seals were dozing on their rocks under the beating rain, some of them pursuing the fishermen with their eyes indifferently.

He shook his head and followed his friends towards the village. He needed a drink.

Later, when he made his way to his cottage standing on the beach not far from the seals' rocks alone, the animals were still there. Neil felt sorry for them; they seemed to fear the angry sea as much as humans and stayed trapped on the shore tonight, incapable of reaching the small island situated a few hundred meters off the shore, where the large pod lived, because of the tall waves.

By the following morning, the sea calmed down greatly, allowing Neil to go for his usual swim-- from the beach to the Seal Island. He shivered as he stepped into the cold. The sun had only just risen, and the beach was shrouded in a thick veil of autumnal fog.

The seals were still there, he noticed, surprised, as he shed his clothes not far from them. As if encouraged by his brave example, they stirred, groaning and calling to each other, some moving towards him curiously, their large bodies slapping against the wet rocks, others slipping noiselessly into the water. It seemed that he would have company this morning... He smiled, looking back towards the rocks to see if all the pod was gone.

Then, his smile froze on his lips. A woman was standing on the dark rocks where the seals had been, her bare, alabaster white skin only covered by her long black hair.

He gasped, then approached her carefully, not knowing what to do.

She must have been washed ashore by last night's storm, and the seals most likely saved her from dying of hypothermia... Noticing how her legs started to give way from cold and fatigue, he rushed towards her, barely managing to catch her in his arms before she would collapse.

Without thinking, he carried her home. The woman regained her senses the moment he laid her on his bed before he could run to the village for help.

"Don't leave me alone, please," she begged, shivering under his thin blanket, as she saw him heading back towards the door. "I'm cold..."

Neil nodded, too stunned to speak. There was something unusual about her. She was... very attractive, and otherworldly beautiful.

He took several more blankets out of the large chest standing at the foot of the bed and passed them to her while he dialled the number of the closest town's doctor on his mobile phone. Of course, there was no reception...

He cursed under his breath; he would have to go to fetch him personally, leaving her on her own. Neil loved this place, but sometimes he missed the commodities of the city where he had lived before... Before he began to feel drawn to the northern shores dotted with ancient white villages, where legends were still part of their inhabitants' everyday lives.

"Are you alright? I need to find you a doctor," he told the strange, mesmerising creature lying in his bed.

"I'm not ill. I don't need anyone... but you," she murmured, making his heart stumble. "I've known you for many months... I... love you... and as long as you'll love me too, I'll stay with you."

Neil stared at her, speechless, unbelieving... He liked her, there was no doubt about that, but... love? He has just found her, naked, among the seals... The legends about selkies heard tens of times from his mates on board of his ship, and from their wives in the pub flared in his mind, igniting his imagination. Was it possible that...

She smiled at him, making his heart skip a beat again. "I believe I can guess what you are thinking, Fisherman Neil."

Her words made him realise that she really knew at least a handful of things about him.

"Who are you?" he asked, sitting at the edge of the bed.

He was expecting her to shrink away from him, but instead, she sat up and drew closer, resting her head on his shoulder.

"I'm a daughter of the sea. I know that you don't love me now, and maybe you never will... then I'll simply return to the deep waters where I come from, and you won't see me ever again. But should you fall in love with me, the moment it happens, you'll find my cloak, my seal skin... And if you'll wish me to stay with you, you will have to hide it, and never give it to me, not even if I beg... Because such is my nature-- although I love you with all my heart, I'll always love the sea as well, and, sooner or later, I'll be tempted to go back. Should I lay my hand on my cloak, I'd return home and never come back."

Neil nodded, remembering again all the selkie legends the people of the village recounted to him over the years since he moved to this island.

"What is your name?" he asked, running his hand through her long black hair unconsciously, dropping it into his lap the moment he realised what he was doing. This woman was... a perfect stranger... and then again, she wasn't... she felt so... close...

He shook his head to clear it even as she took his hand in hers, brought it to her cheek briefly, then placed it back where it had been on her hair.

"Amaris," she whispered.

"What do we do now, Amaris?" Neil whispered back, sighing, unable to wrap his mind around the situation.

"We get to know each other better." She giggled.

And so they did. Neil showed Amaris around his cottage, explaining to her how things she had never seen before worked, then found some clothes for her and let her take a shower while he cooked lunch.

They talked the whole afternoon and most of the night, and the following day, instead of going fishing again, Neil drove Amaris to the town, to buy her some more appropriate clothes and other things she would need.

When they walked into the crowded pub in the evening, hand in hand, all the voices died down the instant the men and women present noticed Amaris. Even dressed according to the local fashion, she looked different. They all stared. Some even gaped at the couple for a few moments before their loud conversations resumed gradually, letting the two know that they knew... But, no one ever said anything to Neil directly. They accepted Amaris into their midst without questions or pointed fingers.

It didn't take long before Neil, lost in happy thoughts of Amaris waiting for him at home as usual, fished a seal skin from the churning, freezing winter sea.

"You better hide that well, boy. Should your pretty lady find it, she would be gone before you manage to say goodbye." The oldest fisherman on board warned him.

Neil nodded, resolved to do just that.

For months, the young couple lived in perfect happiness. However, as the long, lush spring morphed into a brief, warm summer, then again into a rainy, misty autumn, Neil started to notice the change taking place inside of Amaris, too.

Her black eyes, normally sparkling with humour, joy, and love, became dull, her brilliant smile begun to lack lustre.

Neil knew that it wasn't because she loved him less than before, but because she suffered without her sea. Because of him.

Amaris never complained to Neil about anything. She never begged for her cloak, but whenever he found her waiting for him sitting on the rocks among the seals, under the cold, beating rain instead of inside their warm house when he got back home from the sea, his heart would fracture a little, with love, pity and sorrow.

The crack grew with time, becoming so profound and painful that he could not bear it any longer.

One night, when she crept out of their bed as was her habit of late, and Neil found her staring at the sea through the window, yet again, he did the only thing he could.

"Amaris," he spoke her name softly, making her turn around. "I want you to take this back. It belongs to you, like you belong to the sea..." he trailed off, unable to say anymore.

"You... don't love me anymore...?" she asked, stunned, unbelieving... hurt.

His eyes filled with tears as he drew her into an embrace. "I love you so much that seeing you like this, broken, pining away, breaks my heart. I want you to be happy..."

"I... thank you, Neil." She said, disentangling herself from his arms, her longing for the sea growing irresistible now that she had her cloak in her hands. "I will always love you." She cupped his face and kissed him before she bolted from the house.

Amaris shed her human clothes as she ran across the moonlit beach, and, from a distance, Neil saw her white skin vanish under her seal cloak the instant her toes touched the water's surface.

He cried himself to sleep the night when she left him and somehow pulled through the first bleak, endless days and weeks without Amaris. In the village no one ever asked him about her and he was grateful to them all for it.

However, Neil and Amaris' love was so deep, and their suffering by their separation was so great that the sea took pity on them.

One night, nearly a month after her flight, Amaris appeared at Neil's door, as happy as she had been when he first found her. Since then, she kept returning to her beloved on each night of the full moon.

With time, their love grew as fathomless and infinite as the clement sea that endowed their unusual love story with its own sort of a happy ending.