The Selkie of San Francisco

by Todd Calgi Gallicano

  Vantana eyed the spear and noticed that it was gold in color. Great, he thought. He had hoped that the message in the Tower of Atlas was more story than warning, especially about the golden wolf. Unfortunately, it wasn’t, and that meant things just got mighty complicated…and dangerous. So much for a quick getaway.

  “Let’s talk this out, Millalobo,” the doctor announced, to no response.

  “Who’s Millalobo?” Sam asked. Vantana waved for him to be quiet. He tried again, this time with a slight modification.

  “King Millalobo, please grant us an audience.” Vance wasn’t one for honorifics, but Millalobo was a king of a royal family of mythical creatures from the Chilote mythology. Sure enough, the title did the trick and the waters began to stir. The creature emerged slowly.

  His lower half was sea lion, and his upper was human. However, the creature’s face sported long whiskers, black beady eyes, and silvery-gray skin. The rest of his body was covered in short golden-tinged hair, hence his name—Millalobo, or “golden wolf.” He considered himself a master of the seas and protector of sea creatures. But unlike Cernunnos, Millalobo was not motivated by his own sense of self-importance or arrogance. He was royalty and, as such, believed he had a responsibility to protect his realm.

  “Ranger Vantana.” The creature spoke in a voice that sounded as though he were partially gargling. He also held the last syllable of his words a touch too long. “It is a pleasure.”

  “A pleasure?” Vance replied. “It didn’t seem like a pleasure a second ago when you were chuckin’ a spear at me.”

  “I do not wish to harm you, Ranger,” Millalobo said. “You, the boy, and the Guardian are free to leave this place.”

  “You forgot Iaira,” Vance informed him. “She’s coming with us too.”

  “No,” Millalobo said matter-of-factly. “She is a traitor to her people and must be punished.” Vance instinctively positioned himself between Iaira and the golden wolf, while Tashi and Sam moved to do the same.

  “She was lost…forgot who she was,” Sam told the king. “We’re trying to get her home.”

  “She abandoned her kingdom and does not deserve to return.”

  “Now, wait a second,” Vance interjected. “She didn’t abandon anyone. This is all just a great big misunderstanding.”

  “Maybe it isn’t,” a voice spoke up from behind him. It was Iaira.

  “What do you mean?” Sam whispered.

  “I mean, I think Millalobo is right. I remember…swimming away.” Iaira appeared confused and contemplative. “I abandoned them.”

  “She left her city in chaos when they needed her most,” Millalobo declared. “Justice must be done.”

  “Not like this,” Vance told him. “We’re on a mission for—”

  “The gryphon. Yes, I know,” the creature replied. “But he does not have jurisdiction here. I do, and I find you, Iaira, guilty on all counts. High treason against your kind, high treason against your city, high treason against your queen, the breaking of a royal oath—”

  As Millalobo listed Iaira’s crimes, Vance realized they were not getting out of this cave without a fight—and it was a fight they likely wouldn’t win. But he had an idea. He still had the Atlantean crystal hidden in his pocket. Ever so slowly he slipped it out and positioned it close to Tashi. The Guardian noticed and quickly caught on to the plan, switching her shekchen to her other hand, the one closer to the crystal. Iaira had stepped forward by this point, and Millalobo was busily reciting a laundry list of all the many species of creatures the princess had betrayed. Fortunately, he was too distracted to notice the energy of Gaia entering the shekchen and feeding the crystal. The golden wolf was just finishing up when the crystal reached capacity.

  “For your crimes, Iaira of Ta Cathair, you are stripped of your title and sentenced to death!” the creature bellowed, raising his spear.

  “I think we’re going to appeal,” Vance said, aiming the crystal toward Millalobo. The king had no time to react. The energy blasted out of the crystal and slammed into Millalobo. He flew backward, careening hard into the iron wall, then plunged into the water and disappeared beneath the surface. The crystal itself shrunk as it released the energy, until it disappeared completely. So much for that, Vance thought. “Come on!” he yelled. Sam and Tashi were moving up the stairs, but Iaira lingered. Vance grabbed her hand. “Let’s move, Princess!”

  “Why did I swim away?” she asked Vance, distraught over the latest unlocked memory.

  “I don’t know, but you’re not going to find out dead.” She nodded slowly, then followed him up the steps.

  As they made their way to the station’s exit, Vance could hear Millalobo emerging from the waters below. He let out an angry yell, and what was troubling wasn’t so much the tenor of his voice as what he said.

  “Ningen!” he howled, the noise echoing throughout the cave like the ringing of a bell.

  The monsters emerging from the frozen lake beneath Blood Falls were among the creepiest Sam London had ever encountered. As Sam and the others climbed onto the glacier and made a slippery beeline for the aircraft, he caught a fleeting glimpse of the mythical Ningen. They were pure white with black eyes, no mouth, long legs, and arms with thin clawlike fingers. The creatures poured out of the ice surrounding the falls by the dozen and scampered up onto the glacier.

  “Start the engines!” Vance hollered toward Antinanco, who was still waiting in the plane, as promised. Sam could see the propellers begin to spin.

  The Ningen were already gaining, leaping and sliding on the ice as they hungrily pursued their prey. Tashi shot several jolts from her shekchen back at the beasts, but the hits barely slowed them down. One of the creatures broke away and managed to get alongside Iaira. It was about to pounce, when Tashi lunged and smacked it away with a blast from her staff. The monster got blown back into the horde, causing a pileup of bodies. But the creatures quickly regrouped and continued to give chase. Vance reached the plane and pulled open the cabin door.

  “Go! Go! Go!” he yelled to Antinanco.

  Antinanco pushed forward on the stick. Sam barely got his hand on the cabin door, and Vance pushed him inside. Iaira tumbled in next, followed swiftly by Tashi. Vantana was still hanging on to the plane when it lifted off the ground. But the Ningen had increased their speed, and at the last second one of the monsters leapt toward the aircraft. The doctor yelped as it grabbed ahold of his foot. He tried kicking it away, but its mouthless face suddenly cracked open to reveal razor-sharp teeth, which it used to bite into Vance’s boot, hard.

  Sam reached out and grabbed one of the boot’s laces. He hurriedly worked to untie one half of the shoe until the boot was loose enough to slip off Vance’s foot. Dr. Vantana shook his leg with all his might, and the Ningen plummeted back to earth with a snow boot lodged in its mouth.

  “Thanks, kid,” the doctor told Sam between breaths.

  “You’re welcome,” he replied proudly.

  Antinanco pointed the Dragon to the closest dvergen subway station, which was located in Fiordland National Park in New Zealand. Once they had all collected themselves and the earth was spinning below them, Vance explained the myth behind the Salmon of Knowledge.

  “Like I said before, the salmon got his smarts from the hazelnuts,” Vance told them. “But that’s not the most famous part of the story. A warrior by the name of Fionn mac Cumhaill managed to help catch the salmon. Now, the myth claims he cooked the fish and ate it to gain the creature’s knowledge.”

  “But that’s not what happened?” Sam asked. Vance shook his head, and the plane began to descend.

  “In reality, the salmon bargained for his life in exchange for sharing all his wisdom with Fionn. It still bristles Sal’s scales to no end that not only is he not the sole know-it-all in the world, but he has to share that distinction with a human.”

  Upon landing i
n New Zealand, the foursome thanked Antinanco for his help and hopped a dvergen subway to Killarney National Park in Ireland, which was where the salmon supposedly made his home. After exiting the station behind the Torc Waterfall, they hiked along a stream until they reached a large lake, which Vance identified as Muckross Lake. Sam was exhausted by the time they reached the lakeshore, and plopped down on a rock.

  “Now what?” he asked. “How do we find this salmon?”

  “Well, that depends,” Vance replied. “Iaira, can you tell me the percentage of oxygen in the Martian atmosphere?” Sam glanced up at him, confused.

  “Excuse me?” she said, equally confounded.

  “Can you tell me the percentage of oxygen in the Martian atmosphere?” Vance repeated firmly. “Yes or no?”

  “No. But what does that—” she began, before being cut off by Vantana.

  “Tashi, what is the name of the horse that won the very first Kentucky Derby?” Tashi stared at him blankly.

  “The Kentucky what?” she asked.

  “You can’t expect her to know that,” Sam interjected. Vance waved him off.

  “Do you have an answer, Tashi?” He addressed the Guardian.

  “No, I do not,” she answered dryly.

  “And, Sam, do you have any idea what I’d call a group of platypuses?”

  “Uh…no,” he responded. Sam was growing irritated now. After everything they’d been through, the ranger was wasting their time with stupid questions.

  “Dr. Vantana, what is the point of asking us questions that we clearly—”

  Vance quickly pressed his finger to his lips, shushing Sam. The gesture further infuriated Sam, and he was just about to give the doctor a piece of his mind, when a creature popped out of the water just a few feet from the shore. It was a salmon, about three feet long, floating upright, with a silvery body.

  “Point one three percent, Aristides, and a paddle, though platypuses rarely travel in groups, so the use of the term is theoretical, at best,” the salmon said in a huffy tone. “Ignorance pains me.”

  “Hey, Sal, how are you?” Vantana asked, not missing a beat.

  “I should have known it was a human,” he replied with a huff.

  “Now, now, let’s not be bitter,” Vance said. “Just because Fionn tricked you—”

  “He didn’t trick me. He used me. There is a distinction.”

  “I’m not here to dredge up bad memories. I’ve come across some information that says you know where the third sacred point is on the path to Ta Cathair.”

  “Of course I know it,” the salmon replied haughtily. “I am it. I am the only creature who can direct you to the fourth sacred point.”

  “Great, let’s hear it,” the doctor said, relieved.

  “It is not that easy.”

  “It never is,” Vance remarked. “What’s the deal?”

  “You must ask me a question I cannot answer,” the salmon explained. “And it cannot be about the future.”

  “You mean we gotta play a game of stump the salmon?” Vantana asked.

  “To put it crudely and rudely, yes,” answered the fish. “Ask a question, and I have to answer. If I can’t, then you learn the location of the fourth sacred point.”

  Vance considered it a moment. “How many questions do we get?” he asked.

  “Until I’m bored. Which may be soon. I have a dinner to get to, and this is a futile exercise.”

  “All right. How many fried pickles did I eat at my tenth birthday party?” he asked quickly.

  “Thirty-seven—” the salmon said, and the doctor was just about to protest, when the fish added, “And a half. Gross.” Vantana deflated.

  “Who was the great Guardian warrior who defeated twenty-eight yeti single-handedly?” Tashi inquired.

  “Trickery does not suit a Guardian. It was Naljor the Holy and he defeated twenty-nine,” the salmon answered without hesitating. “This does not bode well for your success.”

  “You’re really not going to help us?” Vance pleaded.

  “There are rules, Dr. Vantana. Unfortunately for you, this is an insurmountable obstacle.”

  “But it has to be surmountable,” Sam said. “It makes no sense to lead us here, just to shut us down.”

  “Perhaps no one is meant to find Ta Cathair,” the salmon suggested. Sam considered that but didn’t believe it. There had to be a way. He thought about the hardest question he could ask, but before Sam could settle on it, Iaira spoke up.

  “Why did I leave? Why did I swim away from home?”

  The salmon turned his attention toward the princess. “Ah, an interesting query, but easily answered. You did not wish to accept your role in the future of the kingdom, especially in its hour of need. You were self-centered, arrogant, and headstrong. Not a pleasant combination in royalty, I must say.”

  “This role…was it my arranged marriage?” she asked.

  “That was a part of it,” the salmon replied, “a part you saw as regressive and unfair.”

  “It was and is,” she said.

  “Indeed, but it was decreed before you were born,” the salmon claimed, “and was intended to help keep the peace. Now the peace is as tenuous as ever since the great war.”

  “The great war?” Sam inquired.

  “The war among the selkies, mer-people, and finfolk,” the salmon explained. “While the mer-people were a peaceful, matriarchal society, the selkies had a patriarchal, militaristic culture and had been at odds with the mer-people over control of Ta Cathair. The finfolk saw this conflict as an opportunity.”

  “The finfolk?” Sam clarified.

  “They’re a species of shape-shifting humanoid fish who use dark magic,” answered Vance.

  “Why did they care about the selkies or the mer-people?” Sam wondered.

  “Because their own home of Finfolkheem had been destroyed in a civil war. They saw Ta Cathair as a way to resurrect their once great kingdom,” the salmon said emotionless.

  “They invaded…,” Iaira said. “They invaded, and with our forces split, the city nearly fell. It’s coming back to me in pieces….”

  “The selkies and mer-people eventually joined forces to defeat the finfolk. The mer-people were allowed to continue their rule of Ta Cathair.”

  “Until now,” Iaira added.

  The salmon nodded. “Over the years, the tensions rose between the mer-people and the selkies. So an agreement was made to keep the peace,” the salmon explained.

  “I’m guessin’ the agreement involved you marrying Maris,” Vance concluded. Iaira nodded.

  “When I learned of my mother’s decision, I got angry and swam away,” she said. “I vowed never to return. I don’t remember much after that, except for waking up on Lief’s fishing boat.”

  “Now I know why Maris was so determined to get you home,” Sam noted.

  “Speaking of which, we need to get back to business. The clock is ticking,” Vance said. Sam hadn’t settled on a question just yet, but Iaira’s personal query had gotten him thinking. Whatever he asked, the fish had to answer.

  “If you really know everything—” Sam began to ask the salmon.

  “Which I do.”

  Sam pulled the souvenir photo frame out of his backpack and pointed to the model in the picture.

  “Is this my father?” he asked.

  “Sam, this is not the time—” Vance started.

  “No,” the salmon responded.

  “So my mother lied to me,” Sam concluded.

  “No,” the salmon answered, before adding, “A lie is intentional dishonesty.”

  “So she thought—”

  “We’re not here for this, Sam,” Vance reminded him. “There’s a war brewing. Shakin’ your family tree will have to wait.”

  “Who is my father?
” Sam asked the salmon, point-blank, ignoring the doctor’s request. Vantana sighed.

  “I am forbidden to answer that question,” the salmon said. Vance’s irritation at Sam’s diversion instantly vanished, and the doctor was suddenly very interested in what the salmon had just said.

  “Who forbade you?” the doctor asked.

  “I am forbidden to say who forbade me,” replied the salmon.

  “I think you don’t know the answer,” Sam told him. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about.” Vance caught Sam’s eye—he knew exactly what the kid was trying to do.

  “I know the answer,” the salmon said, annoyed.

  “Then go on and tell us,” Vantana said. “Come on, Sal. You’re the Salmon of Knowledge. It’s not that tough a question.”

  “I cannot answer.”

  “Hold on now. Are you saying that’s a question you can’t answer?” Vance confirmed.

  “Not because I don’t know it,” the salmon countered.

  “That doesn’t matter. There are rules, Sal,” Sam reminded him. The salmon exhaled, exasperated.

  “So be it. I value my existence more than my pride,” he conceded. “The fourth sacred point on the path to Ta Cathair is, ironically, with your father, Princess.”

  “My father?”

  “Metaphorically speaking,” the salmon clarified. “If he believes you worthy, he will show you the way home.” And with that, the Salmon of Knowledge ducked back into the water and disappeared.

  “Great job, Sam.” Vantana beamed at him. Sam appreciated the figurative pat on the back, but in this moment, he was still reeling from the salmon’s words. “I know, kid. You’ve got more questions than answers. I’ve never known old Sal to be so cagey. He’s a straight shooter. Pompous for sure, but honest. If he says he knows, he knows. And if he says he was forbidden, well—”

  “But who could forbid him from telling us something like that?” Sam asked.

  “There are few who’d intimidate him, I’ll tell you that much,” the doctor said.