Angel with the Heart Shaped Birthmark

The cold water whipped past her whiskers and sleek silvery skin as she dove deeper into the salty waters of Canada’s North Arctic. Above her was a shiny white, icy ceiling; below her a deep black abyss. She was in her element. She wasn’t a fish, and couldn’t

stay underwater indefinitely. But she was as comfortable in these waters as no other land animal could be. She was a harp seal, and she moved through water with casual ease, like a cat on the prowl.

Sometimes it felt like she had wings, large, white and feathered. But the thought was fleeting, and she never remembered having had it before, forgotten by her animal mind. She was special somehow, but as soon as she thought of it, it was gone, and she was just an animal again.

Her children were hungry and needed food. Herring had been passing under the ice in massive schools for over a week now. It made life easy. An easy life was difficult to attain in the cold, icy arctic. Food was scarce, and the competition fierce. She was lucky to have found this hole in the ice. So far, she was the only harp seal using it. And she had not sighted a polar bear for weeks.

There they were. More herring than she had ever seen. She doubled her speed, flippers working hard, and covered the distance quickly. She still had a few minutes of air in her lungs. She let out a little air from her lungs out through her nose, the bubbles tickling her. She could smell her pups in that air. Her three adorable, fluffy balls of white fur. Three pups were very rare and a blessing indeed. That was what it was all about; life. She lived only for them now. Only some short time ago, all she could think of was the masculine smell of the male harp seals that

competed for her attention. She could barely remember which seal had satisfied her need to mate. It was all about the pups now. He was gone.

“Gwendellyn”.

She had heard that name before, not knowing what it was. She always soon forgot it. But part of her remembered. She didn’t know how to make the sound. She didn’t think she could. Such a silly thing. Her own pups had no names. Why should she have one? She knew them by sound and smell. She knew them by feel.

She knew they were hungry.

All that nonsense about names disappeared from her thoughts once again, as she focused on the task at hand. There was a plump herring lagging behind. It was hers. It couldn’t get away now. She was determined. Her mouth opened just before she reached the fish, and slammed shut around it. The sweet taste of blood made her realize that she was hungry as well. Her prize catch held tightly in her mouth, she headed back. Her children would be excited when they’d see the fat fish.

She saw the hole in the ice up ahead. She let out a little more breath in anticipation. Then something caught her eye. She didn’t know how to describe it. She had only seen a few colors in her lifetime. The snow was white, and the sky was blue. Blood was red. Through the ice she could see a new color. It was nothing she had ever seen before.

Or was it? She had once seen creatures with strange colors walking on the ice, upright, not sliding on their bellies. Her adrenal glands pumped adrenalin through her body as she realized there could be danger. Her pups were up there. She swam faster, the herring falling from her mouth, forgotten now.

She practically flew out of the water and onto the ice. One of those upright walking creatures was just atop her, towering over her body. Something covered their skin, but it didn’t look like hair. The only hair she saw was on its head. This unknown substance covering these creatures had a colour that was similar to the red of blood, but it was more like the sun’s bright stare. It was like nothing she had ever seen. One thing was for sure: these creatures were not friendly. Large, square white teeth made her think that they were predators, and that she and her pups were now prey.

Instinctively, she bit. The human screeched in pain and surprise. She tasted blood. She knew she had hurt him. Her grip was strong, and she wiggled to tear the flesh.

There were other such creatures around her, tall and lanky. They held long, thick, smooth branches. Her cubs were right there between their long legs, yelping in fear, surrounded. Trapped. A club came down and a pup was silenced permanently. His snout shattered. Blood flowed out onto the snow. This couldn’t be happening.

The other men laughed at their companion’s bad luck. A seal gripping his leg with her jaw was funny to them. Gwendellyn had to reach her children. She had to save them.

BANG.

It was the loudest thing she had ever heard. Something felt strange. She couldn’t feel her body. She couldn’t move. With a yelp, a baseball bat smashed another cub snout.

What was baseball? Somehow she knew what these weapons were. Somehow she knew she had a name and it was Gwendellyn. Somehow she knew that these clubs, these weapons, were also used in a game.

The third cub was hit, and as she tried to draw breath, she felt a sharp stinging pain. Tears streamed down her grey cheeks.

Emotions overwhelmed her. She had never felt such emotions. Her life had been very simple. The need to eat. The need to mate. The need to teach her lovely, fluffy pups how to survive on their own. New emotions that she couldn’t understand came into play. Despair. Dread. Hatred.

The men produced large, sharp knives. They slid silently through the pure white fur of her cubs. The men started to skin her children as she watched. In her mind she screamed, “Please no! They’re not even dead yet! You can’t do that!”

Words. She had not known words before. They were alien to her. What was going on? She couldn’t make any sounds, as her lungs filled with her blood. The world became dark at the peripheral, like looking down a tunnel.

“Please! My babies! You can’t do that! They’re still alive!”

Her silent plea echoed in her mind, but she had no way to make the sounds. The tunnel-vision became darker and narrower. The mouth of the tunnel showed nothing but red snow. Snow that had soaked up the blood of her children.

Then all went black, and she felt like she was speeding backwards as she lost consciousness.