"The sea?" Irene asked skeptically. "What do you mean the sea? Like from an island or something?"

Lia shook her head slightly, looking at Nikki.

"No, I think she means... Actually from the ocean. Like in the water." Lia said, looking at Nikki. Nikki looked down and nodded slightly.

"Are you a mermaid? Maybe a siren! Maybe you want to steal all the boys in the town for yourself!" Irene said with excitement but also with a slight mocking tone.

"N-no!" Nikki said, with slight indignation.

"Your brother, he said he caught a human seal right?" Lia asked, turning to Irene.

"Yeah, but that's total BS. There are no human seals." Irene said, while rolling her eyes.

"You just suggested that she's a mermaid and a siren. You think those exist but that seal girls don't?" Lia asked, raising her eyebrow.

"Mermaids and sirens, everyone knows about them. Maybe they do exist. I mean, they're so famous, it just makes sense there has to be some reason behind the legends." Irene said, like it was obvious.

"Yeah, but the legend of Selkies exist too." Lia retorted.

"Selkies? What the heck is a selkie?" Irene said. Throughout this conversation Nikki had been watching the two friends, her eyes moving from one to the other as they spoke, but only now did she stare at Lia with a new intensity, and a curiosity that Lia had not seen in her before when she had been so nervous.

"Selkies, they're like seal people, you know? We studied about them when we did that class on myths and legends from around the world. Remember?" Lia said.

Irene walked over to an armchair and sat down heavily and flung her legs in front of her onto the footrest with a sigh.

"You know I never pay attention in class. Especially history or legend stuff. It's so boring. I just sleep or text my friends under the desk. Everyone knows that." Irene said, rolling her eyes. Lia sighed and shook her head slightly in mild annoyance.

"According to legend, Selkies are kinda like Mermaids, but instead of being half fish -half human, they are either human or a seal depending on where they are. If a selkie is in the water, it wears it's seal skin, and is a seal, but it can also come on land and shed it's skin to become human. Apparently, it can go from the sea or the land at will, unless a human takes it's seal skin. Then it is trapped in the human world and it forced to marry the human who stole it's skin. Often the relationship is abusive, and also, if it does get it's skin back, it is forced to go back to the sea, and cannot come back to land, even if it wants to stay or visit land." Lia said, watching Nikki as she spoke, even though her words were directed at Irene.

"That's crazy. Why couldn't they just run away and get another skin or something?" Irene said.

"Why don't you just get another face!" Nikki snapped suddenly, becoming exceedingly irritated with this human girl. Her face was too smug and the colors of it were unnatural even for humans. Not to mention that she didn't seem to care about anyone except herself.

Both Lia and Irene stared at Nikki, shocked slightly by her words, and the volume at which she said them. Most of the time, her words were quiet.

"S-so... does that mean you are one of those seal thingies??" Irene asked, though she still sounded disbelieving.

Nikki gave her a disapproving look of anger and annoyance, and turned sulkily onto her side, ignoring her.

"Let's go talk in the kitchen..." Lia suggested quietly to Irene as they left the room, leaving Nikki lying on the couch where she wouldn't be disturbed by their conversation.

Once inside the kitchen, Lia closed the door and Irene sat down at one of the stools at the counter, then got up, went to the freezer and pulled out a tub of ice cream and a bowl, then put a very large serving of vanilla ice cream topped with banana and strawberry slices into the bowl. Lia paced the floor, deep in thought. After several minutes, she turned to Irene, watching as she began eating the huge bowl ice cream.

"It makes sense now... if she really is a selkie.... everything makes sense." Lia said, as she continued pacing again.

"Um, no. It doesn't make sense. Nothing about this makes sense. For starters, Selkies don't exist. They're made up. And also, even if they did, why would she be here." Irene said, watching Lia's pacing.

"She has cuts from a fishing net on her arms and legs, you saw them Irene, they're all over her body too. And she shows up here, right after your step-brother says he caught a seal girl. That would explain why she's still here. Also, when we gave her food last night, she basically only ate the salmon. She ate potato also, but she would mostly only eat fish. She didn't know how to use a shower, or what clothes were, she didn't use silverware, she just lay down and ate from the plate, she didn't know how to use a glass to drink, she was found by the water's edge with seaweed around her, she can't walk well and she was injured... it looked like there was a cut all the way down the front of her body. That's probably where your step-brother took her skin. It probably hurt her since she didn't decide to shed her skin. He probably cut it off or something." Lia said.

"Ew! I'm eating here!" Irene said, wrinkling her nose. "That's disgusting, who knew you were so into gore!" She exclaimed, quite dramatically.

"You're like a five-year-old, Irene." Lia said, shaking her head and sitting in a chair at the dining room table.

"Do you really believe she's a selkie?" Irene asked, finally getting a more serious look.

Lia thought back to Nikki's outburst. Obviously talking about the horrible things that happened to selkies had set her off. She had taken it very personally, and most likely, she had rightly done so. "Yes I do. I think she as good as told us."

I hope you all like the chapter and will continue to read, support and give feedback to this story. Thank you for those readers who encourage me and motivate me, and cared about this story enough for an update. To those people especially, I'm sorry it took so long, but I hope you liked it!