Magnus Fin and the Selkie Secret

Magnus Fin and the Selkie Secret by Janis Mackay Read Free Book Online Page A

Book: Magnus Fin and the Selkie Secret by Janis Mackay Read Free Book Online
Authors: Janis Mackay
but long enough, he hoped, to see his cousin, Magnus Fin, or his younger sister Aquella. Ronan knew enough about Magnus Fin to know he would be at the beach in the early morning hunting for finds washed ashore by the tide. After the recent storm, much had been flung from the angry mouth of the sea. Ronan plugged his nose. There was a stench of rotting fish that even for a selkie was terrible.
    Ronan was desperate to see Magnus Fin and Aquella. He had news for them – good and bad. The sea hardly felt safe any more. Either it was a churning whirlpool or a stagnant grave. Magnus Fin had helped the selkiesbefore. Ronan had taken it upon himself to ask for his help again. And, of course, there was the good news. He was bursting with it.
    But where were Fin and Aquella? The fact that it was six o’clock in the morning, and both Magnus Fin and Aquella were sound asleep in their beds, meant nothing to a selkie. Many times, from the safety of the sea, Ronan had lifted his seal’s head from the water and watched the little cottage on the shore, hoping to see Magnus Fin and Aquella. And sometimes he did see Aquella at the window, or Magnus Fin kicking a ball in the garden. Now here he was, on the land. Ronan had risked taking off his seal skin. It was morning, wasn’t it? So where were they?
    Ronan ventured along the beach, sometimes ducking behind stones in case anyone might spot him. But there was still no sign of them. Ronan was growing impatient. He couldn’t risk straying far from his seal coat. And he’d never risk going up to the house. That was too close to the village. Too close to humans.
    By this time the sun had well and truly risen. Ronan heard a barking noise. He glanced along the coast and could make out, in the distance, a woman with a dog. In her hand she held a long sharp stick, and she was heading his way. He had to go. He ran across the beach, found his seal skin and lay down. Like a boy slipping into a warm bathrobe, Ronan slipped into his seal skin. Down on his belly now, using his flippers to haul forward, he bounced and slithered over the stones, nosed silently into the flat sea, flicked back his tail fins and vanished under the water.
    His news would have to wait.

Chapter 10
    When Magnus Fin woke that Tuesday morning the first thing he did was look at his hand. What a relief. He wanted to laugh out loud. He wanted to cheer. His hand was normal! He stretched and wiggled his fingers, then bounded out of bed. He couldn’t wait to go to school. He couldn’t wait to see his 22 pals. He’d be as normal as…
    He couldn’t think. Everyone in his class was different in their own way. He pictured Robbie Cairns, who sat at the front, always handed his homework in on time and always answered questions correctly. Maybe he was normal? Fin decided Robbie Cairns was probably the most normal boy in the class, so he would model himself on him.
    Robbie was a good reader. Fin rummaged in his rucksack, pulled out his reading book, bounced back on his boat-like bed, and tried to remember where he had got to. One of the pages was bent back. Probably there, he reckoned. So he read, slowly, stumbling over big words like “considered” and “mercifully”. It was a story about a boy who had to pull a sword out of a stone, but then he went blind. Fin liked it, and decided he must read more often. After two pages he stopped, marked his place and put the book back, then jumped up and brushed his hair. Robbie Cairns always had well-brushed hair.
    Fin decided he wouldn’t go beachcombing today. Normal boys didn’t do things like that – at least not before going to school. Robbie Cairns didn’t. And anyway, he had plenty, didn’t he? He looked around admiringly at his treasures. Bits of driftwood he’d made into mobiles swung slowly. On a shelf sat his whole collection of shells, fossils and bones. On another shelf he had arranged his special treasures, like the rusty ship’s bell, the anchor, the broken plates, painted

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