Selkies, Gaelic Songs, and Highlander Mythology: Short Stories

The Moors

The moors are fresh with dew, and as I walk, the moon is like a bright giant ball of light in the darkness of night. My white dress glows in the moonlight. My long black hair hangs down to my breasts. I'm carrying a bouquet of white lilies. I hear someone is coming. No, perhaps just the wind. No, actually someone is coming! I can hear the hooves of the horse as it clops along the dew-condensed grass.

I see a hooded figure in black. He extends out his glove-covered hand and invites me to "Get on". I do what he says; "Hold tight."

Okay! Okay! I don't know you. I think to myself. But whoever you are, I must know you. Maybe I have seen you before in my dreams. We ride off into the dark, never looking back. All that remains are the white lilies laying scattered on the dew-laden moors.

I hold tight to the hooded man's muscular firm torso. My hands are trembling with the cold. My knuckles turn pink. For a brief moment the horse stops. He lets go of the reigns. He says, "Are you ok at the back there?" I don't know what to say. I call out in apprehension to the hooded rider. "I'm fine... ok, but I must admit, it's a bit uncomfortable. There's no side-saddle, so I have to squat in my dress, and my legs are hugging the sides of the horse, and my feet are green from the grass, and I don't know you!"

"You think that I don't know you, but I know you, I love you, you stubborn fair maiden. I could call you a friend or someone who calls me a lover." He grabs the reins and the horse gallops faster and faster. He casts me a look with sapphire-coloured eyes hidden behind wispy blond hair tucked under his dark hood. He stares at me waiting for me to say his name.

"I don't know you."

"How can you not know me?" he says.

"I don't know! You don't carry a sword on you. You're all dressed in black, in a black hood, but you smell nice though, and you're attractive, and you're on a horse, and you're taking me to somewhere I don't know... probably to be sacrificed to your Lord."

He bursts out laughing. He pulls out a stick from his boot.

"Oh, you're a wizard! Okay! I didn't see that coming. Ok, maybe I'm stuck with you now wizard. What is your name?"

"Do you really not remember my name?"

"If I did, then I probably would be a bit heavier, because I would be pregnant with your child, and I'm not pregnant, nor in need or want of any lover or relationships," I say.

"But your hands are still around my waist."

"Yes, because I don't want to fall off this horse, and ruin my dress in the damp grass, and walk many fields back to my castle" I murmur.

"It doesn't matter what my name is," he said. "I'm taking you somewhere safe."

"So somewhere like an inn or maybe a scary castle? Wizard!"

"You'll find out soon enough, we are getting close, so let us ride a bit more", said the young wizard to the fair maiden, as he hastened the horse into a racing gallop.

"So, you are taking me somewhere safe? Why can't you use your magic on me, and teleport us to a safe place?"

"I'm only in training," said the young wizard, "and I don't know that spell. I could change people into animals, but that's another story, and I wouldn't do that to you fair maiden."

"Why not? I would go willingly. I am happy to be changed into a swan or something like that. No, more like a white tiger," she said. "It's your choice, I'm just laying out a couple of options for you. Do your worst, when we get to the safe place."

"No! I wouldn't do that to you. I would miss the company, but you are giving me ideas. What I could do when I finish my training, I could be completely evil and powerful, but that would be too much of an effort, don't you think fair maiden?"

"You evil non-threatening wizard. How pathetic."

"We might as well fall in love with each other, like night and day, or light and dark, black and white," said the young wizard.

"Not in a million years," countered the fair maiden. "I barely even know you. How can I express my feelings if I don't even know you? I only know you as a young wizard in training-." Her sentence is cut off. "We are here. Just as I suspected, an abandoned inn. Oh great," I retort as I jump off the horse.

This place seems so familiar, I think to myself as I look at the inn. The porch is overgrown with poison ivy and creeper vines. The doors and windows are smashed. The doors move with the wind, creaking quietly. "It's very eerie," I murmured to myself. The wizard walks down to the stable and removes the saddle from the horse's back and gives him hay. He comes back to the fair maiden and removes his hooded cloak. His choppy blond mullet of hair slips out from the back. He stares into my eyes and I say his name as a murmur, "Robbie, oh my love!" Tears roll down my face as I stand in front of him and then kneel down and kiss his feet. "Everything is coming back to me," I say "All the memories! It's like I am coming out of a trance! Anyway... please forgive me! I don't know what came over me! My father would not allow us to be wed so I drank a concoction of Dogwood Flowers and Day Lillies."

He kneels down and picks me up by the shoulders. We embrace.

"My dear Ava, I miss you."

I stare up at him. He leans down and kisses me. We lock eyes and say again, "I don't want this moment to end. I don't want -" he cuts off and kisses me. My lips are swollen but I don't care! He stares into my green eyes.

The inn is where we first consummate our love. The shattered glass windows, the creaky wooden floorboards, the dingy lighting, the wooden furniture, the cream bedsheets, the burnt-out fireplace, the big armchairs with stuffing hanging out couldn't keep us away from each other. We didn't even notice the light of dawn coming through the shattered glass windows.

As we woke up I didn't know what to say. I said, "Good morning Robbie," and kissed him. As I got out of the bed I wrapped the bedsheets around me as a makeshift dress. He stared at me from the bed with a cheeky grin and a gleam in his eyes.

"What?"

"Nothing," he said.

"What? You can tell me."

"Come back to bed, darling. I could never get tired of you."

I can hear his footsteps as he comes up behind me and embraces me. He slowly kisses my neck and begs me to come back to bed.

"But I'm hungry!" I say.

"But Ava I miss you!"

"I miss you too Robbie."

"My hunger can wait, I'm hungry for you!" I cry out as we crash tackle into bed laughing and giggling.

The end.