‘Non-legged ones have spotted us! Flee to the sea! Flee to the sea!” someone shouted. Everyone was everywhere. I heard splashes as some dove into the shallow water, swimming out to sea. I knew that they must have been trying to get away, but they must have forgotten me. I tried to see what was happening, if anyone was coming for me, but I felt like dull needles were making many diamonds across my skin. Where was my skin? Everything suddenly became clearer and I made a lunge at my skin, but the needles pulled me back. I soon realized that they must have an extremely itchy net made out of hay or something. I watched as some mysterious shadow went over to the piles of skins, or what was left. Mine was the only one. The light turned off, and I lost consciousness.

What I think was 5 hours later, I woke up. Sunlight seemed to come from every direction. Something felt absolutely wrong. I closed my eyes, and when I thought I could see, I opened them. I was tied upside-down. A bunch of non-legged ones walked around me. I didn’t see the point for two holes where the tail fins were, but then I remembered that they weren’t finned-ones. How could I even think for a second that they were finned-ones? I looked at myself in the water. Compared to these men, I looked pretty besides the fact that there was seaweed in my hair, I was hanging upside-down, and there were marks on me where the net had been pressed again. I had wavy black hair, bright, shining blue eyes, and skin almost as tan as my sisters. I did look 16 years old, maybe younger. I admired my hair again. It made my eyes stand out even more than they already did. All of the sudden, someone came up to me with the sharpest thing I had ever seen. I knew it could cut me horribly. I wiggled, hoping to drive the man off, but he still came closer. He didn’t bring the slicer close to me, but he brought them to my feet, and cut the rope holding me upside-down. He caught me before I hit the ground, and then placed me gently on the ground. I was still tied up, but it helped my blood to stop going to my head. I looked around again and saw I was on a ship, almost like what non-finned children call (pirate ships). It was at a pier and a bunch of people were there with flashing boxes and pieces of white leaves that didn’t break apart that easily. On a big white sign in black letters it said something I couldn’t understand. The thing was I didn’t need to understand because one non-finned one was shouting out about things. I listened. The hard thing is understanding other things, and I hadn’t had much practice with their language. But it soon became clear what he was saying.

“Teenage Selkie! Caught her last night. It’s official: they party only at the full moon! Going to be an auction at Howling Harbor! Anyone want to have a pretty little wife? Head on over to Howling Harbor!”

I wiggled a bit, and he tied the net to a pole coming out of the ship. It wasn’t a very good knot and I soon wiggled the net off the pole. He grabbed the net and dragged me off to a weird looking thing. First was the animal. It looked like a gigantic seahorse without the fins and ridges. It was covered with a soft skin and hair across its neck. Next was the thing connected to it. Two poles were coming out of the creature’s sides. It was a big wooden bench with the skin of a big white seal floating over the top. He tied me to the side of the bench and he had a bag with something in the other. It was blue and had symbols on it I couldn’t understand. It had the patterns of the waves across it. I instantly knew that inside it was my seal skin. I hoped he would fall asleep, then I could jump up and get it, but he kept a close watch on me. I sighed. I was getting very nervous. Getting free would be much harder then I thought. He pulled me off the bench an hour later and I couldn’t even see the sea. But I did see water. A lake! I remembered the non-finned ones had said that we were going to Howling Harbor. I guess this was it. I was going to become a life slave. We went to a building that shone nicely. Probably made out of marble. He dragged me inside, and then tied me to a pole on the stage. I thought about untying it if I got the chance, but he put a metal thing on the rope that told me that I wouldn’t be able to get free, even if I tried. A bunch of people came in a while later.

“Let the auction begin!” the man who brought me here cried out. A man from the audience with weird, see through things on his eyes called out, “$10!” Another man from the audience with bright red hair called out, “$12!” The original man called out again, “$15!” Another man who looked about 60 years old called out, “$30!” Nobody else spoke. Apparently, what ever $30 was equal to was probably a lot of sand dollars.

“Sold, to the man in the green shirt! That’s all for today folks!” Everyone slowly exited the building, except for the man in the green shirt. He stayed behind.

“Here’s your loot,” the guy who had sold me muttered. I wondered what was going to happen now. The guy who had just sold me tossed the guy a brown blanket I soon realized was my skin. The guy turned around and spoke.

“If you want your skin back, follow me.”

His house wasn’t far away, and I had a pretty good view of the beach. He showed me to my room and then left me in there for some time. I knew I couldn’t leave because I had heard him lock the door me behind me. I wondered where he had hidden my skin. The next day, he noticed me and said, “You really need to change into something sensible.” I figured he meant that I couldn’t go around this place wearing leaves forever. So I changed into a pretty gown and had some lunch. It tasted horrible. After that, we started going around town so I could meet everyone. It didn’t get interesting until we went to the school house. All the kids were outside for recess. I went inside the school. There was a familiar face cleaning up some white leaves and picking up the pollution.