“Achh!” I splashed water at the thing. The head dove under.
“What?” Marina asked.
“There’s something following us!” I yelled.
The head popped up again on my side of the board. It was so close I could see long nose slits. They opened wide, then closed. Its wet breathing sounded like a big, hissing snake.
“Harbor seal,” Marina said. She smiled weakly and adjusted her grip so she could turn over and look at it.
“It’s coming to watch over us. That makes sense,” she said. “Our boat’s called the Selkie. That’s a half seal, half person. It’s a myth, like a unicorn. People in Scotland used to call them selkies.”
The seal dove under.
Marina rolled back to her stomach. “Now we have our own protective selkie.”
It didn’t seem like it was protecting us.
It popped up again in front of us. The head was a sleek black with light gray specks and white whiskers. They were long and coarse, sticking straight out like the whiskers of a cat. Some poked up like eyebrows too.
I followed the whiskers down to meet the seal’s gaze. Her big dark eyes were soft and sort of sad-looking. I felt like the seal was sorry this had happened to us. She was looking right into my eyes.
“She’s not so bad.” I hoped she would stay with us now. She made me feel better somehow. Like we weren’t alone out here. I wished she could tow us to shore.
I looked around for the line of cliffs that marked the shore, but couldn’t see it anymore. I couldn’t see much of anything except a cloud. It had crept along the water and wrapped us up. It seemed like we were in our own world, and it had gotten a lot smaller.
“Fog. That’s bad,” Marina said. “Hard for Coast Guard to find us.” Her lips had a blue tinge to them.
I flexed my fingers. They felt fat and awkward with cold. How long had we been out here bobbing on the waves? It felt like days.
“Got to get warm,” Marina was saying.
She only had on the life vest over her coat, but I was wearing a thick, insulated suit with wide cuffs and a zipper up to the chin. “Do you want to wear this?” I said.
She shook her head. “Both of us drown. Keep it. Too hard to take off in water.”
Her face was pale and she shivered violently. She wasn’t looking good.
My heart started to pound again. How could I help her out here? When were the rescuers going to get here? Could they come in the fog? What was I supposed to do? Why was this happening to me?
The seal popped up next to me. She spun like a top and peeked at me, as if to check whether I was watching.
“Hi, seal. I’m watching. Stay with me.”
She swam a little ahead, then came back to stare, then swam again out in front of me.
“You want me to chase you?” I kicked. My feet were so numb I could hardly feel them. “Wait up! I’m not as fast as you.”
The seal swam ahead and I kicked to follow. She twisted, spun, and dove. She popped up next to me as if this were all a giant game. She made me smile. Gave me something to look at besides the dense fog and the endless waves. Made me forget to be scared.
The fog made the waves seem bigger. They pounded me into the board, shoved us violently. Then I heard something ahead of us. Crashing like waves on a shore.
I kicked harder. Suddenly, tall trees appeared out of the fog like King Kong looming over us.
“Marina! There’s the shore!”
“Rip current,” she said quietly.
I kicked desperately toward it, but a strong current pushed us back. I used the last of my energy, pulling with one arm while gripping the board with the other. It looked like a river of foam between us and the shore. My arms and legs flailed madly. Still we were no closer. The current was too strong.
“Marina, help me kick!” My voice sounded faint behind the pounding in my ears.
There was no way I could get us in. My whole body vibrated with exhaustion. I gripped the board and leaned against Marina, taking in big gulps of air. We were going to drown twenty feet from shore.
Suddenly, Selkie popped up next to us again. I stopped fighting the current and drifted toward her. Her gaze drilled into me. She seemed to be telling me to find the strength to follow her again.
I let the current push me out, and then along the shoreline, following Selkie. I managed to kick a little as the waves battered us from the side. We crept farther along the shore, past the thick foam into a floating patch of kelp. Finally, the current stopped pushing us out. Selkie barked at me and then disappeared.
I struggled toward shore. We were going to make it!
Powerful waves picked us up and sucked us backward. I clutched the board and yelled. Then we were shoved forward, hurtling down the face of a wave. As we approached the shore, I stretched my feet toward bottom, but they didn’t quite touch. Another wave sucked us back, then spit us closer. My feet dragged on gravel but I couldn’t hold. We shot backward again and then forward, slamming hard onto the rocks. Marina cried out.
I clutched, scraped, clawed to get out of the water. It pulled, tried to yank us, but I fought it.
Marina struggled to get up. I grabbed her and pulled her with me. She still held the board as if she was frozen to it, or didn’t want to give it up.
My legs shook so bad, I could hardly stand. In my desperation to get out of the water, I stumbled and fell. Waves and kelp pulled at my legs, my arms. The air felt warmer but the wind chilled my icy skin.
Had to stay onshore! No more cold ocean!
I dragged Marina and the board, tripping and flopping until we collapsed in a heap on top of a bunch of slimy, thick seaweed.
“We made it, Marina! We’re saved.”
I lifted my head and looked around for houses or cars or people. There were no houses or roads or docks. All I could see were rocks and trees.
“Help!” I screamed.
The only sound back was the roar of the surf.