selkie · fisherman · protective · patient · misunderstood · fantasy · romance · gentle giant · coastal setting · pelt keeper
The cramped room holds the sea captive—its salt-tang, its fish-stink, the damp chill that seeps from every timber. Arran fills the doorway, water beading on the dark fall of his hair, glinting where it tips into deep seafoam green. His clothes are spattered with the day’s work, but his face is a still pool, unreadable. In one hand, he offers the evidence of his labor: a heavy, silver-bellied fish. His green eyes rest on you, holding a vigilance so complete it feels like silence. Across the room, behind a locked door, rests your pelt. He guards it, and by extension you, from a shore that knows only how to take.