"Ker-plunk" A hook landed in the water. The bobber stayed a float on the top of the water, gently rocking in the waves. The line was cast by a fairly young male around twenty. He was casting his line into the ocean in hopes of catching some extra dinner. This boy's name was Darren, Darren Donaghy, and he was soon to have his life changed forever.

A quiet sobbing could be heard, which made Darren look around for the source. He was very apprehensive to find out who it was, as he currently lived in what could be considered the middle of nowhere, which he was quite happy with actually. He was also anxious because of the recent law in Ireland allowing new species to live there freely as long as they were with a host family. However, this also meant that any sort of species could now freely roam the country, and just say that their host abandoned them.

The fact that this person was crying made Darren wary. It could be a trap. He heard of a species known as Sirens who lured men to them with their beautiful voices. "Wait." Darren thought to himself. "Sirens sing to lure people, whoever this is, is crying." Darren put two and two together and decided that he should at least check and see if the person or extra-species person was alright.

He listened carefully and discovered that the crying was coming from behind a large outcropping of rock, which made sense as to why he didn't see anyone who could have been crying. He crept closer to the outcropping, and peered around the side of it. What he saw shocked him. It appeared to be a mermaid, but she had her head in her hands and hadn't seen Darren appear next to her.

"Excuse me, are you ok?" Darren asked softly. The mermaid gasped and looked up, making eye contact with Darren. Out of shock or anger Darren assumed the mermaid's tail flipped up and whacked his face. Darren fell face first into the sand. "Ugh." He groaned "That hurt." He got up to look at the mermaid once more, who was now covering her chest and looking at him angrily.

"I'm sorry for scaring you." Darren said, sitting cross-legged and looking at her. The mermaid didn't respond. "You were crying so I wanted to make sure you were ok." Darren looked at the mermaid, taking in her appearance. She had bright red hair, green eyes, and her tail looked rather strange. It was a shade of grey, and looked almost furry. A switch clicked in Darren's head.

"I know what you are." Darren said curiously. The mermaid appeared worried. "You're a, a, se-, se, se, sel." Darren began clicking his fingers trying to remember. "It's on the tip of my tongue." He said, his tongue sticking out of mouth slightly, causing the "mermaid" to smile.

"Selkie." Darren clicked his fingers. "Right that." He smiled. Darren's eyes then shot open when he realised it was the Selkie who told him that. "You can speak?" The Selkie's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Yes we can speak, did you think we were just animals?" The Selkie asked angrily. Darren realised he struck a nerve.

"No it's nothing like that, it's just you weren't talking up until now, so I sort of figured." He trailed off, and noticed a blush on the Selkies cheeks after realising her mistake.

"I-I'm sorry," the Selkie said with her head hung low "I'm just sort of in a bad mood." The Selkie sniffled a little. Darren knew he was probably going to regret asking this but.

"What's wrong?" Darren asked, scooting closer to the Selkie. The Selkie still eyed him warily, but she sighed and figured she may as well tell him what happened.

"I was swimming up around the Causeway and a Sharkgirl tried to attack me." Darren assumed by Causeway she meant the Giant's Causeway, which was up in Antrim, and he was currently in Galway, so it was quite a distance. "I tried to swim away but it got my fur." The Selkie was outright crying at this point. "And now I'm so cold."

Instinct took over in Darren as he moved closer to the Selkie and wrapped his arms around her. The Selkie gasped but didn't say anything. "Sorry if this is making you uncomfortable, it's just a force of habit if someone says they're cold." Darren chuckled a little. The Selkie began hugging back, and he could feel her beginning to warm up. "It must have been quite a swim from Antrim to Galway."

The Selkie broke away from the hug. "I'm in Galway?!" she yelled, causing Darren's eardrums to regret coming close to this girl. "I need to get back." She span around and stood up on her tail. She crouched down, presumably to jump into the ocean, but then she doubled over in pain.

"W-What's wrong?" Darren said looking at the Selkie from head to, tail. Darren noticed a large cut running along her tail to her fin. "You're hurt." Darren stated, causing the Selkie to look back at the long cut.

"It must have been from that damned Sharkgirl." The Selkie growled. "I can't go anywhere like this." She was about to start crying again, when she felt herself being lifted up. She looked to see Darren picking her up. "What are you doing idiot!" She yelled, beating his chest.

"You're hurt, and you're cold, so I'm bringing you to my house to help you get better." The Selkie stopped beating on his chest, and instead wrapped her hands around his neck.

"Um, before you do, can you give me something that I can cover myself with?" Confused, Darren looked down.

"Cover yourself?" It was then he saw that the Selkie was wearing nothing on her torso. Darrens nose spurt blood as he gently lowered the Selkie to the ground. He then took off the hoodie he was wearing and gave it to the Selkie, keeping his eyes on a fixed point in the sky.

"Thank you." The Selkie said awkwardly. Darren murmured a 'no problem' at her. "Normally my fur would cover my top half, but, the Sharkgirl took it." She put on the hoodie, and found that it was a bit too big for her. She still liked it because it warmed her up nicely. Once seeing that the Selkie was decent, Darren picked her up again and headed to his house, which wasn't that far away, only around twenty metres away from where they were. "Are you sure you'll be ok in just a shirt?"

Darren chuckled "Nah, I don't feel the cold." As he was carrying her up the small beach he suddenly realised something. "Um, sorry but, what's your name." Darren smiled awkwardly.

The Selkie returned his smile with a more genuine one. "I'm Clodagh."

"Well Clodagh, I'm Darren, nice to meet you."