Stolen by the Fiery Selkie King

As soon as the next morning crept into the sky, Lugh woke up and placed his fishing nets around the normal spots and he headed back over to the submerged car to get the other two backpacks. 

He was curious to see what was inside of them now that he had found so many interesting things inside of Maeve's. But he was more excited to see Maeve.

He neatly folded and put everything except the book of flowers and the photo back into it. 

Then he gave his fish to Ronan and placed the dry backpack onto the shoreline.

Around mid afternoon, Maeve snuck away from the hotel they had checked into. They had been lucky to have some money inside their pockets and the boys had left to check out the werewolf town they were staying in. Narfi suggested that they look for jobs so they could get a more affordable place to stay. 

She stayed behind, claiming to be tired, but now she was running down to the shoreline to try to catch a glimpse of Lugh. 

She told herself that maybe she could ask him to help get her things, but when she approached the spot, she saw her backpack resting as if it had never gotten wet before.

Cautiously she came over to the bag and saw that on top of it was a bouquet of beautiful wildflowers.

 There was a folded piece of paper underneath the flowers that read: "Here are your belongings, I shall do my best to also restore your brother's belongings. I shall have them ready by the light of tomorrow's dawn.

Then he added "I must apologize for keeping your book of flowers and the picture of you, I found them to be very beautiful and could not resist. Instead, I have gathered these that you might make a new book."

Maeve wanted to melt all over again. "Oh he said I was beautiful and gave me flowers!" She held the note close to her and pressed it against her chest, hugging it. 

"I will be back tomorrow!" She cried into the mist. Thank you!" 

Maeve ran up the embankment back to the hotel smiling. She swiped her keycard and burst into the room expecting herself to be alone, but Vali and Narfi had already returned. 

Vali saw the backpack and scowled. "Where did you get that? I thought it was in the ocean." 

She sat down on her bed and began to take off her shoes. "Lugh got it for me. He left it on the shore." 

She smiled as she opened it up to pull out her clothing and put them in the closet. They smelled like ocean breeze as if he had washed them. Oh but if course he would have! They would have been sopping wet! She smelled the fabric, unaware that the boys were watching her. 

"Hey earth to Maeve." Vali said, "I thought I told you that boy was dangerous. What if he pulls you out to sea and we never see you again?" 

Narfi nodded at this, "please be careful Maeve, we don't know his intentions." 

"Oh yes I do, I know he's just lovely!" She said and then went and put her flowers in a vase. 

Vali looked at the flowers. "He gave you flowers?" 

He tried to take them away, "Maeve why on earth would he give you flowers the first time you meet? He's definitely up to no good!

"Haven't you heard about Sirens taking sailors to their watery grave! That's like the intent of them in every story!" 

"He's not a siren, he's a selkie." She hugged herself and smiled, "oh even the word selkie is so dreamy!" 

She thought about how he pronounced the word and it gave her goosebumps. 

"That's nice of him to bring you your bag, but seriously Maeve, you shouldn't talk to him anymore." Vali insisted.

"Oh why not!" She scolded him, "I deserve to meet a new boy now that I'm done with Sirius! I deserve to be happy too!" 

Vali looked a bit hurt when she said this, but eventually he just sighed. "We want you to be happy Maeve, it's just that man like hypnotized you yesterday or something." 

She brushed it off, "No I just thought that he was like Luan dark and I was caught off guard." 

Narfi snickered at this, "haha Maeve has a crush on him! That's so cute!" 

She ran up to him and gave him a hug, swinging him around, the two of them smiling. 

"Well you shouldn't keep the flowers, I mean what kind of a guy gives a woman flowers like that? They could be enchanted, sprayed with something so that when you smell them you pass out and then he will eat you!" Vali insisted. 

"No he said they were to replace my flower journal that got wet." She argued. 

"Then why did you put them in a vase?" 

"Well because I just thought I would enjoy them a bit. It's plant spirit stuff." 

————————-

The next morning, Maeve slipped out of the hotel room and ran down to the water just as the sun was lighting the sky. The pink, yellow, and purple hues lit up the mists and the shadowy water reflected it a little. 

Just as he had promised, Narfi and Vali's bags were dry as well and were sitting near the spot hers had been. She ran over to them and picked them up, slinging one over her shoulder and holding the other one by the handle. 

She looked out at the water to see if she could catch a glimpse of the person who had left them, but to her disappointment, she couldn't see him. She let out a sigh and turned to leave a bit sullen. 

"What troubles you?"'A voice said as she turned to leave. "are those not all of the belongings of your brothers?" The voice asked. 

Maeve turned around as fast as she could to see the boy in the water but she couldn't see him. 

"Where are you?" She asked. 

"I am here." He answered. 

She looked harder and saw a seal poking its head out of the waves and bobbing up and down with the current. 

"Yes that's all that they lost." She answered, "I just wanted to see you again." 

The seal came a bit closer curiously. 

"What has compelled you to seek my presence?" He asked. 

Maeve didn't know how to respond, how could she say it was because he was hot?

"I too felt the desire to meet you once more. There is a mysterious pull about you, and your connection with the earth fascinates me." The seal said. 

Maeve got closer to the edge of the cliff and dangled her legs off of it. 

"No Maeve! You can't swim!" Narfi suddenly yelled from behind her. The boys had woken up and noticed her gone and were now running down the pathway towards her. 

She looked at them startled and then turned back to Lugh but the seal had now vanished. 

She sighed and stood up. "I wasn't going to jump in!" She insisted. "I was just talking to Lugh." 

Vali looked over the cliff and didn't see anyone in the water. He pulled Maeve away from the edge. "You scared us! You need to tell us when you are leaving!" He said shaking her a bit. 

"I just came to get your backpacks. Lugh dried them off for you." 

She handed the bags to the boys and Vali searched inside of his frantically but found nothing was missing, especially his money so he sighed. "Maeve I'm serious, no more going to the water."

——-

Lugh watched them go and felt a bit disappointed he hadn't had the opportunity to ask her when she would come back. Now her brother was telling her not to. 

How can a girl her age not know how to swim? 

He pondered it a bit longer before he sunk back beneath the waves.