The Seal Skin

She is a beautiful female Sea Lion. One night she and her sisters shed their seal skins and dance upon a rock in the moonlight near the ocean. He sees the women and is entranced by their naked beauty. He is lonely and wants a wife, so he steals a seal skin. All of her sisters return to their skins and return to the ocean...but she cannot find her skin. He tells her that he wants her to be his wife and that he will return her skin to her in 5 years. So, she is stolen from the sea and becomes his wife. She bears a son and she lives contentedly during her 5 years. When the 5 years is over she demands her skin back and he refuses to give it to her. He goes away with the skin and she does not know where it is. Her body, now begins to wither and shrink. Her human skin becomes pale and flakes off, her bones begin to show through...she is fading away to death. Her son is young, about 4 years old, yet he feels his mother slipping away. He cries, day and night, knowing that he is losing her...one way or another. One night child takes off hearing his name called by the ocean. He climbs among the rocks in the moonlight and discovers the seal skin hidden among them. He takes the skin to his mother. He cries as she puts on the skin and begs her to please not leave him. She puts on her skin, takes his hand and dives into the ocean with him. There they are greeted by her father and her sisters. The child is loved by his grandfather and shown all the ways of the ocean. But the child must return to his home on earth. The mother, in time, takes him up to the shore and weeps as she leaves him where he belongs as she returns to her home. The child grows to become a great poet and a great prophet. So much to say about this story...I will comment another time :)