Selki are a half-legendary, half-prehistorical terror of the oceans. They are rarely seen, but there are tales of them aplenty among travelling merchants, smugglers, pirates, and other people who make a living on the high seas. There is always someone who returns from sailing with a missing hand or leg who swears it was bitten off by a Selki during a violent storm. There are always stories of Selki kidnappings – some say the human victims drown to death, others say they become one of the Selki themselves. One or two ghost ships have come into port with no crew members on them and no sign of bodies, not even a struggle.
They may be seldom seen because they are an endangered species. Or perhaps they are good at hiding, as they hunt prey through ambush.
They resemble the large, grey seals of Earth’s oceans, except their coats are covered in splotches of some type of underwater moss, and their snouts are elongated and filled with ridged, serrated teeth. Their mouths, ears, and eyes are surrounded by sensitive, delicate whiskers like a catfish’s feelers, the largest of which measures as long as a man’s arm, the smallest the size of a baby’s finger. The whiskers have bone inside them – they grow straight from the Selki skull, an extension of its skeleton. The Selki use these whiskers as a cat would, for slipping through narrow crevices on the Ocean floor and for balance. They also use them to hear or feel vibrations in the water, enabling them to detect prey before it has the chance to see them.
The Selki are mentioned in “A Dark Heritage: The Nighthunter” when Noran’s Uncle Edwyn gives him a Selki skull as a birthday gift, when Noran turns six:
“Noran turned six the following year, and Uncle Edwyn brought him a Selki-skull. It was the size of a nymrafys-cat’s head, brown, with huge eye sockets and a narrow jaw. Bony spines sprayed from its brow and nasal cavity, the teeth tiny but serrated.
“I caught it on my way home aboard a ship,” Uncle Edwyn said, grinning, his teeth crooked with large gaps at the sides which only revealed themselves during laughter or a broad smile. “Normally, they travel and hunt in shoals, but this one was alone. Fatally injured, too. An arrow was sticking out of its back. They can be fierce. I know someone who almost had his hand taken off by one when he hauled up a net of fish. The Selki was trapped inside, and when he freed it… Well.”
Noran held the skull for a few moments, then passed it back.
“Keep it,” his Uncle said. “I’ve no need for it.”
Noran held the skull to his chest, unable to find the words to say thank you…”
There are more disturbing myths, too, about human men from Ossyan taking a Selki for a wife, or having children with one. These stories may have been invented by the Emperor of Dal-Rhiatah to humiliate the Ossyans whilst Dal-Rhiatah was conquering their island. Usually, the men living with a Selki in the tales end up being eaten by their children or drowned during a romantic, moonlit stroll on the beach by their wives.
Nightwalks 