Author's Note: Hello everyone! I bring you a semi-retelling of the selkie myth. It's been one of my favorite folktales since I was a teenager and I think it's a damn shame that selkies in general are used so infrequently in popular culture. The title comes from a sea shanty called "South Australia." Did I read several academic articles to make sure that seal!Ben acts like a seal and not like a dog? Am I taking several creative liberties anyway? Maybe. I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1: St. Drogo

"Rey!" Rose burst in through the door, her hair slicked down from the heavy rainstorm outside.

"Yes?" Rey sat at their beat up foldable card table with her cup of black tea and a book. She had just poured in bit of milk from the mini-fridge to cool the scalding hot beverage and took an experimental sip to check for temperature. Perfect.

"You'll never believe it. Guess what old Klaud O'Sullivan saw during his morning bike ride on the coastal road near Kilmurvey Beach."

"Late pups at the colony?!"

"No. Even better," Rose shrugged out of her lime green rain jacket and inner coat. She hung them from the hook on the back of the door to their room.

Rey rested her chin in her hand. "What's better than grey seal pups?"

"Two words: red balloon."

"No," Rey gasped. "Impossible."

Rose waggled her eyebrows. "A Cystophora cristata hunk is in the neighborhood."

"Really?!"

"Yep. Klaud said it was the largest male hooded seal he's ever seen, bigger than the ones he saw when he was a fisherman on the open sea."

"No way! Inishmore isn't even in their normal range, is it?"

"How should I know? My knowledge ends at the Latin name. You're the pinniped expert!" Rose grimaced as she kicked off her leather work boots and peeled off her damp woolen socks.

Rey squealed into the china blue teacup in her hands. As embarrassing as it was to admit, it was an open secret between them that Rey spent most of her spare time observing and fangirling over the island's thriving grey seal colony. Behind manatees, seals were Rey's favorite animals since childhood. They looked like the dogs of the sea with their big expressive eyes, intelligent brains, squat bodies, and squishy faces. She certainly had inundated Rose with enough seal facts over the years to the point where it became a running joke between the two.

If you were to ask studious sophomore Rey Johnson three years ago what she'd be doing after her last year of college, she wouldn't have told you that she would be spending the subsequent June through January after graduation stranded on the continually wet and rainy island of Inishmore, the largest of the Aran Islands in Ireland. She'd agreed to work under the table as a maid at the Cilronan Hostel in exchange for a room, meals, and a meager stipend for the duration of the stay.

Why did Rey do such a crazy thing? She wasn't quite sure, to be honest. After all, she was a mechanical engineering major with a high GPA and strong references. She spent every single summer of her college career at the same firm as a well-liked intern. Rey had secured a job with them back in the US. It wasn't like she was worried about her future prospects. Yet, Rey still told them she wished to start early next year, a move they were surprisingly okay with.

You're not ready to start adulting, are you? Rey's traitorous brain whispered. She pushed the thought into her mental trash bin.

Rey's decision had more to do, she reasoned, with Rose's job. Her long term roommate Rose, despite her initial promise as a fantastic fellow mechanical engineer, switched to follow her passions as a classical archaeology major halfway into her first year. Despite her academic focus being primarily on Iron Age Greece, Rose had deep enthusiasm for prehistoric Ireland. As a result, she scored her dream but financially unsustainable temp job: a postgrad internship at Dún Aonghasa, the most famous prehistoric fort on the island. She helped out a Trinity College professor on a dig there this summer, and now she was working front desk offseason while preparing a research article on a bronze object they had found at the fort to submit to a journal. "Thank goodness for my research grants," Rose grumbled to Rey when she saw how much the gig paid. Rey still marveled at how overqualified archaeologists were for the pay scale they received. Rose the polyglot could read and write in English, Vietnamese, Latin, Greek, French, Gaelic, and Castilian Spanish. Rey knew, well, English.

In Rey's mind, the real question was: Why not accompany your bosom buddy to the mysterious and melancholy lands of Ireland? Rey's decision to take on an informal gig at the hostel cut down on living costs for both of them to fulfill some of their broke girl fantasies.

"So. Do you want to go see if we can scout out Mr. Balloon Nose together tomorrow morning before my shift starts?" Rose, now only in her underwear, threw a beautifully knitted Aran sweater over herself, grabbed two Jaffa Cakes from their sacred snack drawer, and pulled up the other chair to sit across from Rey and their space heater at the table. She stretched her toes in front of it and sighed.

"I was thinking of going today before sundown."

Rose made a face. "The forecast predicts heavy rain until two in the morning. And it's really, really fucking cold out there."

"I know, but…Mr. Balloon Nose might not be there tomorrow morning. Heck, he might not be there tonight. Sunset is at…19:32? It's, what, a three mile bike ride over there? That's easy. I'll leave in a bit and be there and back within an hour and a half."

"Aaalllllright," Rose said over a mouthful of snack food.

"Do you want some tea?"

"Yes, please."

Rey went to their kitchenette and poured hot water from their steaming kettle into Rose's designated mug with "Archaeologists Don't Dig Up Dinosaurs" emblazoned in green text against a white background on the front. "Green or Earl Grey?"

"Earl Grey," Rey plopped the right satchel in the mug.

"What have you been doing since this morning?"

Now that the summer crowd was gone, Rey had little to do besides general upkeep and laundry at the hostel. She was usually done in three or four hours. "Nothing, really. Reading mostly."

"This?"

Rose turned over the book to read the blurb on the back.

"Yeah…only thing on the book exchange shelf that interested me."

"Still looking for your Beast to come and sweep you off your feet?" Rose launched a sneak attack behind Rey and tickled her sides.

With a shriek of laughter, Rey crumpled to the floor and rolled up into a fetal position with her hands protectively wrapped around her middle to fruitlessly ward off future attacks as Rose kept prodding her. "How old do you think I am?! Of course not, but the fantasy's pretty fun, isn't it?"

"I think one of us has been reading too many YA fairytale retellings," Rose laughed. "If enchantments and fairies existed, I'd plate my house in iron and never leave it. Steal my firstborn and replace it with a goblin child? Misspeak with a fairy and get turned into a rabbit? No thanks. Their rules are completely messed up." Rose ceased her tickle attack and grabbed her mug from the counter, removing the tea bag to prevent further steeping.

"Well I think it would be rather romantic. Imagine outwitting a Leanan sídhe and having a fairy lover who enables you to write amazing poetry."

"And live only five years more? Even if fae understood humans, they wouldn't run on our morality. Again, no thank you. I enjoy being mortal and human," Rose shuddered.

"Fair enough." Rey agreed with Rose but enjoyed playing devil's advocate with her. Rey stood and went towards the window, drew back the curtain, and peered out. The rain was ebbing just the tiniest bit. I bet this'll be my only chance to get out today. Rey moved towards their closet and began putting on her outerwear.

"You leaving so soon?"

"Yup, the rain's letting up a bit."

"You'll let me know when you get to the beach? Your phone's charged?"

"Of course, worrywart." Rey smiled.

"Not a worrywart, just a cautious old lady on the inside." Rose corrected. She dipped her Jaffa Cake into her tea.

"I know."

Rey finished lacing up her boots and wound her favorite woolen scarf around her neck.

"How do I look? Ready to meet the new seal?"

Rose swallowed, then spoke. "I guess?"

"See you in a bit."

"See you!"

Despite having resided on Inishmore for four months now, Rey kept underestimating how nasty the island's showers were to ride a bike in. Wind whipped about, pulling pieces of her hair out from under her helmet. The cool blustery air slipped up under her scarf. In pleasant weather, this was her favorite road to travel on. She often stopped to admire the picturesque scenery of lush green fields on one side and dark sea on the other when the sun was out. Now, she focused ahead to get to the lookout point where the grey seals of the colony beached themselves.

"Okay," Rey said to herself, trying to district her mind away from the water leaching into her improperly tucked socks, "Remember, you dumbass: if you can't cover the seal with your thumb, you're too close." Not that she would try to get closer: she'd read repeatedly that the hooded seal was an aggressive, solitary, and generally angry seal species in her many late night internet searches.

When she arrived at the lookout point, Rey was half-blind by the amount of hair that the rain plastered on her face. She stopped right beside the low fence and straddled her bicycle. The lookout point overlooked a large pebbly beach that formed a small bay, rocky outcrops surrounding it, and the stormy blue-grey sea with its foamy white wave caps.

Rey pulled off her helmet, hopped off her bike, and put down the kickstand. As expected, the other seals were out to sea while the storm passed. Shielding her eyes, she scanned the view for signs of life on the empty beach. After about ten minutes of trying to differentiate bobbing clumps of kelp and waves from animals in the water, Rey gave up. She sighed as she put her helmet back on. Maybe Rose still wants to look for him in the morning and we can try again.

She mounted her bike and was about to push off when Rey heard the characteristic loud nasal snort behind her. She turned the bike around and peered through the rainy haze to where the beach met the water.

There he was, crawling out the water on his short front flippers like a determined caterpillar, about sixty yards away from where Rey stood. Rey suppressed a shriek of excited laughter. The hooded seal was easy to differentiate from the other seals who usually resided on Inishmore. He was a thick boy with a black furred mask around his mouth and eyes. Even in the late afternoon sun and misty rain, his pelt was a beautiful dark silver with black dapples. And, true to their name, the seal's deflated elastic nasal cavity, or "hood" gave it a larger and broader snout than most seals.

She dismounted as quietly as she could, put down the kickstand, and went back to the low fence to watch the new arrival. Rey marveled at his length of probably somewhere around nine feet long (or a bit more than two and a half meters) and a corresponding weight of easily 850 pounds (approximately 61 stone).

The seal found a wide, flat rock to rest upon and crawled up on it. He rested his head on the stone and closed his eyes, seemingly oblivious to the weather and rest of the world. Rey stifled giggles as the seal took a series of deep breaths that partially inflated his hood. Just such a dorky looking animal. She adored this seal already and almost didn't mind standing here in the rain to watch him.

And then her phone rang. Because of her ability to sleep like a goddamn rock, Rey had a particularly loud and obnoxious ringtone that warbled and screeched to make sure she didn't miss a call from Mas McKinley, her boss and the woman who ran the hostel. She grabbed her phone from her inner jacket pocket, checked the ID, and answered.

Rey lowered her voice. "Hey Rose! I'm sorry I forgot to call you."

"It's okay! Just checking in. Did you find him?"

"He pulled up as soon as I was about to leave! I'm going to watch him for a couple more minutes and then head back."

"Got it. See you in a bit."

"Bye."

The seal had heard the ringtone. His head was elevated and he swiveled it around, trying to locate the source of the noise. Rey swore under her breath, a little upset as a still newbie wildlife watcher to have alerted him to her presence. Is he stressed out? Well…probably not. He had higher alert posture, but he didn't inflate his hood or make any obvious antagonizing vocalizations. Instead, he looked alert but relaxed and made no sound. He yawned, grunted, and whipped his head around one more time. That's when he saw Rey.

Rey didn't want to anthropomorphize the seal's subsequent behavior, but she had no other explanation for what happened next. He looked straight at her and began determinedly inching towards her. He wasn't the fastest animal, but he was steadily closing in between them.

Is this what being charged down by a hooded seal bull on land looks like? Rey thought in a mildly amused panic. Fifty yards. Forty yards. He kept moving. Rey decided to scram. She put her helmet back on. Her trembling fingers fumbled with the chin strap buckle. Thirty yards. Twenty-five. Rey put up the kickstand and was about to take off when she heard a series of soft cheeping sounds, almost like that of a baby chick. Pup sounds. Rey paused, looked back and saw the seal was about fifteen yards away from her, looking up at her from the beach about eight feet below where she stood. Is he trying to make eye contact with me?

He bounced forward several more yards, let out an airy exhalation, and rolled over onto his back. Rey's jaw dropped. With his giant spotted belly now exposed to Rey, he let out more pup vocalizations: cute, higher-pitched whines akin to those of the fuzzy yellow harp seal pups.

"Hey bud," Rey shivered from the rain, but stayed put. This behavior was too interesting to ignore. "You're a noisy fellow, aren't you?"

The seal made a series of metallic "blaat" sounds and a low, pulsing bark, still not moving from his back.

"Shouldn't you be out diving right now? The rain is pretty gross this evening. Why are you on this beach?"

He scratched his stomach with his little flippers but otherwise didn't move.

"Did you catch a lot of fish today?"

No response. He laid there like he was dead.

"You can look at me, you silly goose." Rey said a bit sarcastically, feeling dumb asking questions to an oversized seal belly.

He flipped back over as if he was instructed. He looked Rey again with as forlorn an expression as a seal could muster. He looked like he hadn't slept for days with how notably red the sclera in his eyes were, despite the distance. Rey stood there in minor shock. There's no way he just understood me, right?

"Bob your head twice if you understand me."

The seal looked at her for thirty seconds as if translating what she just said then and bobbed his head twice, his meager neck disappearing into the rest of his body fat.

I didn't put anything in my tea, did I?

"Make a noise if you like…squid."

A pause, then a loud wheeze.

"Make a noise if you hate squid."

Silence.

"Make a noise if you like eating…plastic bags."

Silence again.

"Make a noise if you don't like eating plastic bags."

A pause, then a cough and retching noise.

Was he raised or rehabilitated by humans? Being this close, she could tell he didn't have a tag on his flippers, but she supposed that a tracking implant was a possibility.

Did I just find the most intelligent seal in the world?

As if the seal detected the silence between them, the seal made a series of soft bubbling sounds in the back of his throat and lips. "Mmmmghhh…rrrrrghhhhffffh…tttfffffffppppbbbh…"

"Will you be sticking around these parts for a while?"

He cocked his head and appeared to think for a solid minute before repeating the loud wheezing sound.

"I'll take that as a yes?"

The seal bobbed his head once.

"Well, if you're going to be staying a while, don't I need a name to call you? I like watching the seal colony so I come by often."

Another head bob.

Rey wracked her brain for simple masculine names.

"Alex?"

No response.

"George?"

Silence.

"Caleb?"

He blinked but made no sounds.

"Ben?"

The seal looked up at Rey and bobbed his head vigorously. He made a series of low trilling sounds, again partially inflating his hood.

"Alright! 'Ben' it is, then. Well, Ben, I got to go. I told Rose I'd be back already and I don't have your blubber to keep me warm. What if I come back and visit you tomorrow morning just after sunrise? Would you like that?"

Ben the hooded seal bobbed his head again.

Rey grinned. "See you tomorrow, then."