Selkie's Sweet Sixteen

Another old one drawn by mikakitty mikakitty

You wouldn't think 'seal girl' would be this cute, but Mika pulled it off nicely. : D

Deirdre McKenzie woke up, a ready smile springing to her freckled face. Today was the day. Today was her day! She stretched luxuriously. Any other girl might have celebrated her sixteenth birthday by sleeping in a bit, but not Deirdre. She was a year older, but she wasn’t going to take it lying down.

All but vaulting out of bed, the lithe young McKenzie daughter started her daily routine. Deirdre grinned at the tomboyish sprite in the mirror as she combed her hair. With Erin and her other friends coming over later for a pool party, this was pretty much going to be the best day ever.

For once, Deirdre had set her clothes aside the day before. A cute lavender bikini and some cutoff jean shorts wouldn’t show off much, admittedly. As a late bloomer, Deirdre didn’t really have much to show in the first place. Still, the birthday girl was more than willing to make the attempt.

As a sop to her mother, Deirdre made sure to slather on copious amounts of sunblock cream. If only Mom had let her go tanning beforehand, she wouldn’t have to be doing this now. It wasn’t right for such a tomboy to look like a ghost. Even if she’d been a valley girl wannabe like that bimbo Laurie, a tan would be nice. Deirdre mentally – and of course sarcastically—thanked her parents for the gift of an ever-so-wonderful pale Irish complexion.

When Deirdre nearly bounced down the stairs, her mother looked up with an expression caught somewhere between happy greeting and complete disapproval. Her voice held not just undertones, but also overtones of warning. In fact, the whole tone was a warning. “Deirdre, sweetie, is that what you’re going to wear to your party?”

Snagging a raggedy baseball cap off the hat stand and ramming it down over her well-groomed hair, Deirdre shrugged. What was wrong with her clothes? “It’s a pool party, why wouldn’t I?”

Today was apparently not only Deirdre’s birthday, but Moms-Criticize-Their-Daughters Day as well. Her mother’s expression made the leap to complete disapproval. “Dee, I don’t think this is a good idea. You know, your father has been meaning to have the pool cleaned, but he hasn’t yet. Who knows what you could catch in there.”

For a couple of homeowners that had gone to the expense of getting a large in-ground pool in their back yard, Mr. and Mrs. McKenzie sure didn’t use it. Deirdre couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen her parents swim. They’d been happy enough to see her swimming. Up until now anyway. “Mom. We’ve been swimming in Bluegill Lake, for goodness’ sake. If we didn’t catch anything from that I think we’ll be fine. I promise we’ll shower off afterwards.”

What Deirdre didn’t say was, ‘hopefully with Jesse Newstein. What a hunk,’ because she wanted not to have her party cancelled out from under her and if anything was going to do it, it would be that.

With suspicious agility, her mother turned on a dime. Good ol’ Mom went from concerned motherly authority figure to wheedling and put upon mother in a flash. “Well okay then, sweetie. If you’re sure. But could you promise at least to stay out of the pool for now? Do it for me.”

“Sure Mom, I promise…” To go dive right in right now. If Deirdre wanted to swim circles around the others, she needed a warm-up. Well honestly, she didn’t—but any excuse to get in the water. It was a constant thorn in the side of Coach Khane that Deirdre seemed entirely uninterested in the girl’s swimming team.

Slipping outside, Deirdre checked to make sure nobody was looking and slid off her cutoff jeans. They wouldn’t make any difference to someone of her swimming caliber, but they wouldn’t dry as fast as her two-piece swimsuit—more plausible deniability for later with Mom.

Lowering herself quietly into the water, Deirdre grinned. Oh, she wasn’t avoiding joining the girl’s swimming team because she disliked swimming. Far from it. Deirdre was an absolute fish in the water. But all that swimming up and down, lap after lap? Boooo-riiiiing. The water was for having fun, not for the aquatic version of running on a mouse wheel.

Deirdre let her arms and legs push languidly through the eight-foot-deep water that made up the ‘deep end’ of the family pool. She tread water just quickly enough to keep her head above the surface. Quickly losing interest in such mundane tricks, the young woman dove, relishing the cool liquid as it rippled past her face. Though still underwater, she grinned—and then surfaced suddenly in surprise. Something was wrong.

Treading water again, Deirdre raised one hand cautiously to her tingling ear. Curious fingers brushed against the long, sensitive appendage jutting out the side of her head. It tickled, and Deirdre felt her ear twitch again.

Surging up a bit with a quick kick, the swimmer tried to catch a glimpse of her reflection in the pool’s rippling surface. It was impossible. A flurry of movement propelled Deirdre over to the pool wall. Getting out seemed like a really, really good idea right at the moment.

When Deirdre’s hand grasped the warm tile of the walkway, she gasped in horror. No longer really a hand, her limb’s melded fingers made it more of a fleshy mitt—or a flipper. Her clumsy new appendages scrabbled at the side of the pool as she tried to climb out.

If the shocked swimmer couldn’t pull her way out, she had other ways. Deirdre gathered her long, powerful legs for a kick that would get her most of the way out of the water. But a tingling numbness had crept up from her toes. Her lower body moved uncertainly to the girl’s insistent commands.

Deirdre stopped treading water for a moment, ducking her head under the water to see what had become of her legs. An unladylike expletive was carried away in a bubbling torrent as she stared. Her feet, already flipper-like, had joined at the heels. Swollen and mottled gray, they slowly grew together from the ankles upward.

Not waiting to watch her lower half’s transition into some sort of freakish fat mermaid, Deirdre surfaced again. Salty tears mingled with the saline water as she struggle against the side. Below the water, her flesh pinched off the cute little bikini bottom and swelled further at the hips. The fabric floated free as Deirdre’s oar-like tail churned the water. Deirdre did the only thing she could. “M… Mom! Moooooom! Dad! Daaaad! Help! Help-ORNK! Help-ORNK!”

Deirdre clapped her flipper-hands over her stretching mouth in shock. Blue eyes crossed to stare at the growing, freckled muzzle. In seconds, the anguished girl’s face was almost unrecognizable as she cried out for her parents, trying to bite off each odd animal bark.

The transforming girl’s spirits rose as her mother rushed out of the house and to the pool’s edge. She was going to help! Somehow, Deirdre would get out of this. Her mother—her mother was holding a video camera. Deirdre stopped swimming for a moment in shock. Her body and spirits sank as one. It was like she’d swum her way into an episode of The Twilight Zone.

Deirdre’s mother seemed almost beside herself—with joy. “Ooooh, my little girl is all grown up!”

The tearless eye of the camera focused on Deirdre as she hugged against the wall, trying to hide her freakish body from sight. As if to increase her embarrassment, Deirdre felt the final changes sweeping down her frame. Her hips, already swelled by the addition of a blubbery tail, widened further. But that wasn’t all.

Deirdre’s very modest bust changed as well. As if jealous of the added fat below, it ballooned out. Deirdre moaned as her breasts expanded, pushing insistently against her purple bikini top until it gave up and snapped off. Deirdre did the best she could with the wall and one of her arms, but her massive globes rolled in the water like ships under heavy seas, sliding free of her concealing grasp with each movement of her body.

“Mom! MOM! Quit it! Help me!” the girl wailed. Looking guilty, Deirdre’s mother put down the camera. Without warning, she dove into the water. Deirdre’s spirits rose. Finally, a rescue.

What surfaced didn’t look like a rescue at all. Barking with happiness, a seal-creature with hints of her mother in its eyes swam towards Deirdre. The seal hugged her daughter close, kissing her on the muzzle and cooing comfortingly—an effect somewhat spoiled by the punctuating barks.

“Deirdre. Deirdre, honey. I’m sorry. We should have told you about this earlier…” Listening to her mother’s voice coming from the seal-woman’s muzzle, Deirdre nearly lost her grip on the wall again. This was insane. She was dreaming. She needed to pinch herself and—wait. No pinching, not with hands like that…

The seal who had been Mrs. McKenzie rested her flipper-hands on her hips in irritation, staying afloat with powerful strokes of her mottled gray tail. Her voice was like a slap to Deirdre’s face. “Deirdre Alexis McKenzie! Listen to your mother.”

“Er- yes Mom. Sorry Mom.” Deirdre looked down contritely.

“You—you’re a selkie, Deirdre. So am I. Once we reach a certain age, when we get in sea water—“ one flipper broke the surface to gesture at the pool—“or any other body of water, we change. Transform. You’re old enough now, so your father and I decided to tell you…”

Deirdre felt anger rising up in competition with her horror, but clamped down on it for the moment. Her mind spun as she tried to remember what she’d heard about selkies in the fairy tales her mother used to read to her. That didn’t seem so quaint now, somehow. “We’re – is Dad too?”

Deirdre’s mother barked in amusement. “Oh, no. No. Quite human.”

“Th-then… wait! Aren’t selkies supposed to be, uh… trapped by men, and can’t get back to the sea? Didn’t you and Dad go on a cruise just last spring? How—“

Mom beamed as a proud smile stole across her muzzle. “You remembered the stories! Well, you can’t believe everything in the old tales. Your father and I, well…”

Deirdre let her mother trail off in happy memories as the older selkie’s flippers made languid circles in the pool water. Ew. She didn’t want to know about that.

Somehow, talking about it was removing some of the gut-twisting horror from Deirdre’s situation. She pressed her mother further. “So what about—“

The question slipped Deirdre’s mind as she heard the gate to the side yard being unlatched. “OhmyGod, it’s Jesse! I invited him over early…”

Deirdre’s mother didn’t seem to have a ready answer. “Oh. Oh dear.”

The two selkies exchanged glances of resignation as the suddenly unwanted early guest sauntered into view. He was carrying a beach ball, and halted in his tracks the moment he saw the seal-like creatures, one totally nude, treading water in the pool.

Deirdre raised one flipper to wave an awkward hello. “Eh, h-hi, Jesse. Ornk”

The beach ball bounced enticingly as it rolled from Jesse’s shocked grasp. Well, Deirdre mused as she felt a blush rising to her cheeks, at least he’d brought a good gift for a seal-girl…

Once again drawn by Mika; paid for by me.