The Maiden and the Dewgong
This is inspired by the song The Maiden and the Selkie. Just a random thing that I feel compelled to write. I don't own that music, which belongs to Heather Dale, but I do enjoy listening to it. Please read and enjoy folks.
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Along the shores of the Unova, one nights as calm as the smooth ocean or as rough as its storms, families gather around the fireplace to tell tales of old. Of the mysterious Pokémon that inhabit the ocean waters and of the various occurrences over the centuries, but one tale is always told next to the flickering fires. That of the Maiden and the Dewgong.
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There was once a fair maiden, raised by a fisherman and his wife. She was tall and graceful, with brown hair and blue eyes darker than the deepest depths of the ocean. She had always dwelt along the shores, skipping stones across the glassy of the surface of the water, always staring into at the frisking Water-types, her heart longing to join them.
At this same time was a Dewgong, lord of all others in the ocean. He always inhabited the waters by the woman's home and, from the moment he had set on the fair young woman, had fallen in love with her. And she, with those ocean blue eyes that locked in on his pure black, had fallen in love with him.
One early morning, the woman was at the shore, staring into the waters, searching for her Dewgong when he arrived at the shore. Slowly, as he forced himself onto land, he turned in a young man, strong and handsome, and made his way to her. They embraced and held each other for a while before he began to speak.
"I have come in from the ocean, I have come in from the sea," he told her, taking her hand, "And I'll not go back to the waves, love, lest you come along with me."
The woman stared at him, her eyes wide as she smiled.
"Lord, long I have loved you as I watched you surf the foam. I would gladly go and wed you and be the lady of your home."
Then she turned sad and released his hand and turned to the sea, her eyes filling with tears.
"But I cannot go into the ocean, I cannot go into the seas. For I would surely drown beneath the waves, love, if I went along with thee."
Indeed, the maiden knew that if she would join her lover, it would mean her death, dying a watery death deep in the ocean. And he could not spend forever on land with her, for the magic of Pokémon could only last 'till the stroke of midnight before the spell would die, and with it, him.
He stared at her, his black eyes understanding. He knelt before her and said, "Lady, long have a loved you. I would take you for my wife. I will stay upon your shore-land, though it robs me of my life." He gripped he hand tightly as he continued, "I will stay one night beside you, and never go back to the sea. I will stay and be your husband, though it'd be the death of me."
The maiden shook her head fiercely. She would not have him die for a single night of happiness between them both. But she had an idea, a person they could perhaps turn to in their moment of distress.
"Lord, I cannot go and wed thee, all to watch my lover die. Since I'll not be left a widow, I have a plan for us to try."
He looked at her, curious for a way for the two of them to live together.
"Let us speak with my grandmother, who's spent her life forever by the sea. Perhaps she knows some trick or treasure so I can wed my fair Dewgong."
He smiled at her and the two lovers eagerly went forward, to the small cottage made of sea stone that rested near a small cove, that belonging to the maiden's grandmother. She was known around as one of the oldest person, she had been living there long before the first settlers had arrived. The grandmother imminently knew that the man besides her granddaughter was one of the Pokémon of the sea and that they loved each other, despite the deep void that separated them. She admitted them inside and listened to their tale before she began to speak.
"You're right, child that by going into his watery kingdom, it would surely take your breath, but for him to stay on land past midnight, it would surely be his death."
The two anxiously watched the old woman as she frowned and paced around, thinking of a way for her granddaughter to wed her lover without one or the other dying. She sighed and turned to face them.
"Lord, I know not how to aid you. You will never live on shore, for your kind to live 'til the dawn, has never been seen before…"
The two felt despair creeping in on them as he took her hand when the grandmother began to speak again.
"But my mother had a Spheal-cloak, which she buried beneath a tree, and she told me that its wearer, would become a fair Dewgong."
She looked at her granddaughter as the maiden's head jerked up to gaze at her lover. This was their way to be together, for not only would it allow her to travel to his kingdom, then the two could walk the shores together as well.
The two soon fled the house, to search for the elfin oak that the cloak was buried under, a shovel in their hands as they ran forward up the rocky hills. As the day stretched on and they farther inland, the Dewgong grew weak as they drew farther away from shore when the maiden found the oak. She began to dig in a frenzy, determined to find the cloak as the full moon rose.
Soon, she had unearthed the fabled treasure that her grandmother had told her of. She folded it into her arms and took her lover's hand as they journeyed back to the sea.
Just before the stroke of midnight, they stood together on the shore, the cloak donned around the maiden's body as they both stepped into the waters. Their forms melted to become a pair of Dewgongs, the maiden still as lovely as ever in her new form. Joining fins together, they ducked under the waves, their tails splashing about behind them as the grandmother, who would see this scene many times over in her exceedingly long life as she had once before, watched from her cottage window as her granddaughter became a fair Dewgong bride for her lover.
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And so the fair maiden was never seen again, save for one person for a single time, forever with her lover, walking on land with him by day and swimming the waters at night at his side. She bore him many children that swam and walked with them as well, only one child had been born purely human. And so, the maiden morphed into her human form, still clad in her Spheal-cloak as she waded back to shore, her child in her hands. She delivered the baby girl safety to her grandmother, who in turn trusted the child with a family as she had down once before, before returning to the seas.
That girl, soon a young woman herself, stood on the shores, watching the ocean froth and foam as it clashed against the land, her eyes trained on a young male Dewgong as the cycle began once more, the tale of the first two lovers repeated over and over by their descendants as one, always a girl born human, returned back to her true home of the sea, joined with her Water-type lover.
And so ends, or should one say continues, the story of the Maiden and the Dewgong.
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Yeah, just came to me as I was listening to a song. Please review!