So I went out to hunt for a while. Since I am not a real Selkie just yet, I still have to go out to the lunar dance. But after that, I will learn how to use a sea stick or an eel tail. The strange thing about eel tails is that they still sting after the animal is gone. Maybe it has something to do with us being sea creatures. I once saw a non-legged pick one up by the tail and it didn’t affect him. We use the eel tails by going up to a creature and zapping them. The thing only works as a stun, but we then destroy and use every part. So we can use a lion fishes’ spikes as poisoned darts and we can tie seaweed together to make a net. The rest of the fish have different uses, but most of it is used for food. A sharp-tooth (shark) can feed a family of 6! There is just one rule about what we eat and hunt; we can’t kill flippers. It doesn’t matter if we are not land or in the water, we can’t do anything to hurt what the non-finned called dolphins. They are a symbol of peace and gracefulness to the Selkie people. To kill one would make us monsters. We must live with the sea, not destroy all of the creatures. I did once see a bad Selkie who had been banned from his tribe because they thought he destroyed a dolphin. They claimed they didn’t do it and asked if they could stay. Our tribe is mean for not letting him stay with us. They said destroying a dolphin is a horrible crime and he should go and fine some other tribe that wouldn’t care if someone had murdered a peace maker. They suggested the Sharks, a bunch of Selkie men who thought they shouldn’t have to live with woman rules. They did everything bad, including cursing, wasting, destroying, underage walking, and taking in other wrongdoers. They were only boys, and they took in other people who were tough enough or just got kicked out. They weren’t very kind to girls, so we never go there. Our tribe is called Oceanus. In a certain place, where our ancestors came from, Oceanus is a father god. Of the ocean. Of all the water. He was powerful, and overlooked. That is what we consider ourselves. The old ruler had mysteriously disappeared and he had no little Selkies. The people of his town went from place to place to find another person worthy of being king. Our father could have got it, but he lacked confidence. Since they needed an adviser for the new ruler, he got that job. That is why he isn’t living with us. He is part of the Flipper tribe, too. That is where he is going to work until every moon dance; he comes home to see my sisters off and to take care of Pearl and me when Diamond and Ruby were not there. This year he would only take care of Pearl. I felt sad that I couldn’t see dad more often, and now he would get 24 times less to talk to me. But I really wanted to go to the dance. As my mom would say if she was here, don’t let something you don’t really want to do that much slows you down. I wanted to talk to dad, but the dance was more important now. I went out the next nights and looked for big leaves or anything else that could make a good dress. I found a few big leaves I could use. I definitely didn’t want to use my old everyday leaves for a dance as important as that. I also found some seaweed I could use to tie it together. I also looked for some glow fish. These fish could glow different colors in and out of water, although they could only last outside water for a few hours. I got all dressed up. Star said I looked so pretty and the green leaves made my blue eyes to stand out like the moon on a cloudy night. So that night I got ready. Papa came over just as we were about to leave. He wished us good luck, and congratulated me on being one of the earliest testers. We swam to the center of our home area. There was a big oyster that breathed air bubbles, and kids would swim around and play in them. We waited for the rest of the Selkies to come. It seemed only a few this month. Maybe it’s because the last month, Jay was taken by some non-legged ones to be a life slave. Poor girl, she had only been to 12 meetings of Luna. Nobody knows what they did to her, because she never made it back yet. So we all swam up towards surface. We all swam up to shore, then took off our skins. Around me, every single seal I knew turned into a non-finned one. I have no clue if we were ugly or pretty by the non-finned ones, but we were pretty ugly compared to the seals we were before. We all left our skin in a pile. I felt it. It felt like leather, and I saw two holes were the eyes should have been. I tried looking for my sisters.

“Diamond! Ruby! Where are you?” I called out. Two girls suddenly appeared at my side. The one who looked about 22 years old must have been Diamond. Like before, her eyes were light purple. She had perfectly straight brown hair and tan skin. She looked like she must have spent all day on the beach. Ruby, it turned out, was an albino, so she had red eyes, and pale, almost white skin. Her hair was almost weird looking against her skin. She had pure black hair that was wavy, almost curly. They both wore necklaces of glow fish that matched their eyes. I had only made blue bracelets, so they offered me a homemade necklace in congratulations for my first lunar dance.

About the air, it felt weird. It was like I could move freely, without water pushing me. I almost fell over at first. My sisters dragged me up. It was much harder then those underwater lessons I had had on how to walk. My sisters taught me some hints and I got the hang of it immediately. The trick is to balance your weight. Not too far forward, backward, or to the side. I had also had lessons on some of the dances they did. The first one was always called Luna Light. We say thanks to Luna for letting us dance that night. Being mean once a month to the moon will not only get you cursed, it will reflect the way you are in life and you might be kicked out of a tribe. You would have to go to Sharp-tooth tribe. That is the girl version of the Shark tribe. The next dances we did were for thanking other things, like the separation between water and land. The next dances were for fun. We would just be ourselves and do popular dances. The final dances were to again thank Luna for the wonderful night with another song, a lullaby. Then we would head back to shore before a non-legged one woke up. Then we would rest, because most of the time, we don’t spend all night dancing. But we don’t sleep. We can’t. So we all got ready and started the first dance. All of the sudden, a foghorn blew in the distance. A few girls let out whimpers, but most just continued dancing, thinking it wasn’t a threat. A few minuets later, we were just starting the second song to thank the sky for the moon and the way to see, when a big, blinding light appeared. I couldn’t see and shielded my eyes with my arms. I felt something go over me. All around me, people were screaming.