Part Three: The storm!
The
thief had only been driving for a couple of minutes when the weather abruptly
changed. One moment the sky had been filled with sunlight and the scent of
flowers. The next, rain rattled down on the windscreen of the van, and a
howling wind began battering at its side. By the time the thief got home the
sky was filled with massive black clouds, and thunder and lightning blasted all
along Galway Bay. The storm grew stronger and angrier, and so determined was
the thief to get into the warmth and security of his home that he forgot about
the sealskin coat hanging over the passenger seat. He pushed and pushed at the
van door – which the wind kept trying to slam back shut on his finger - finally
got it open and leapt out.
To
his horror the wind grabbed him and wheeched him way up into the tearing,
battering, bashing, and lightning flashing storm clouds. Higher and higher he
flew. Dazed and terrified the thief shouted out, ‘This is crazy! What happened
to the beautiful summer day? Where did this insane thunderstorm appear from?’
In
fact the thief himself was responsible for the storm. When he had ran along the
beach with the stolen sealskin jacket, all the Selkie men, women and children
had chased after him. Selkies, though, are not used to running on dry land, and
the Queen of the Selkies tripped and cut her knees and feet very badly. If she
had been human the wounds would have eventually healed themselves, but a Selkie
can only be healed by the magic of its own sealskin coat.
In
shock and fear, the other Selkies had thrown on their coats, picked up their
wounded Queen and dove backed into the water. They swam as fast as they could
to the Selkie Palace, which – as everybody knows – is found deep beneath the
waters half way between the Salthill and Kinvara. There they hoped the Selkie
physicians and wizards would be able to help cure the Queen of her awful
wounds.
The
blood spilling from the Queen’s terrible gashes mixed with the saltwater to
create the most ferocious storm ever recorded along the Atlantic coast. It was
this very same storm that now threw the thief higher and higher into the air,
and then – when he was a good ten miles up – threw him head first down into the
wildly tossing, foam flecked waters of Galway Bay.
The
waves rose twenty feet above the thief’s head. Freezing spray filled his mouth
and nose. The air was filled with lightning that flashed as bright and sudden
as dragon sneezes. All around thunder rolled and roared as if enormous giants
were using mountains for marbles. Then the sea gulped the thief down. So sure
was he that he was about to drown that he gave up a prayer to God asking for
all his many sins to be forgiven. Then deeper and deeper the thief sank; down
into blackness and silence.
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