She lay quite naked on the harsh rocks, her pale skin in sharp contrast to the glistening dark of the sea-wet granite. Covering her with his coat, he had taken her back to the cottage on the cliff. He gave her clothing, then found that he had to show her how it was worn. Everything was fresh to her, unknown. The smallest everyday things were wonders. She had no understanding of language, but sometimes she would softly sing strange, haunting melodies with impossible harmonics. They knew each other’s thoughts. He knew that she had come from the sea and that now she wanted to be with him. She knew that he found her strange and mysterious.
When it was time for him to return to the city, she chose to be with him, asshe found him fascinating. They lived in his apartment, and she quicklylearned the surrounding area, becoming familiar to the neighbours, this odd,mute girl with her long coils of glossy, dark grey brindled hair, and eyes deep shining as horse chestnuts. Animals recognised her for what she was. Dogs would back away, or roll submissively. Cats arched, hissed and spat. Her sense of wonder at this strange world never left her. The ingenuity of humans continually amazed her; so many solutions to so many unnecessary problems which they had created themselves in the first place.
So the two of them lived in a simple harmony all summer, fitting together like a jigsaw. Then with the coming of autumn the brightness of their affection began slowly to tarnish. There could be no secrets between them. She knew when he began to miss the company of human women, and he knew when she began to resent her life. Her shape was wrong, this human body was awkward, all strange angles and becoming monkey ugly to her eyes. Longing again for the sleek, smooth elegance of her natural form, she was coming to hate the imprisonment of this pedestrian two dimensioned life.
The pure joy of soaring and diving, twisting weightless through water like a bird in the air was what she missed most. The atmosphere felt dry on her skin, and she was hungry for the feel of the cool sea supporting her. The wearing of clothes felt constricting and ridiculous. There was something wrong, something unnatural about this simian body, designed to live amongst the trees of the rain forests, now constrained, trapped, living in barren, concrete cities. It was little wonder that these humans did not understand themselves, that they were not content, always frustrated, always seeking. They could never be truly happy when so far away from their natural home. The time came when it could no longer be borne - she would have to return to her ocean. There was an instinct, an urgent call demanding that she be in her other life. The man would help her back to the place where they had met. For mile after mile they headed south west until at dusk they reached the cottage.
The first of the autumn storms roared furiously in from the Atlantic, full of energy and rage, exploding against the land. She parted from the man, sharing more happy memories than sad ones. Pausing at the cliff top she turned to face the land, the wind whipping her hair around her face. Throwing back her head she screamed, a haunting cry of farewell into the gale. She turned to the ocean as the sinking sun shone a golden track for her to the horizon. Overhead, the rags of cloud scudded, torn to shreds by the winds. She was back. Ripping off her clothing she ran free down the cliff path to the beach. As the foaming water swirled around her legs, she knew the truth of it, the prism shifted, her eyesight changed, her shape blurred, altered, now sloughing off skin in endless skeins. Quivering in ecstasy, she revealed her glossy grey fur, shining like blued steel, falling forward into the pounding surf, an exaltation of pure joy, her heart lifted to the waves. She was home.