So Close, And So They Begin, (An Excerpt)

He heard the sound, the loud, pained moan. He stopped scraping the tree bark he was collecting. "Hello?" He called. "S-someone there?" He heard another soft groan. He started walking in the direction. As he got closer, the groans turned to whimpers. They came into clear view of each other. He tucked his book into his pocket, and crouched down, meeting the wounded deer in the bear trap at eye level. "Looks like you got yourself into a bit of a pickle." He scooted himself a little closer. The doe didn't move. "That looks like it hurts pretty badly." She let out a little whimper. "I can help you with that." He inched a little closer, reaching into his other pocket, pulling out a vial. He broke the wax around the cork. The doe remained still. He crept closer and closer.

The man was in his forties, maybe, peppery hair, trimmed beard, quite tall when standing, even crouching he was broad - but not intimidating. He wore a grey tabbard and matching hat covered in symbols. He knew hunters and he knew healers - this was a job for a healer. He popped the cork off the vial with his thumb and let a couple drops fall onto her leg where the trap broke her skin. Her flesh closed itself around the teeth, but the iron teeth were still in her flesh and bone and tore her skin again. She cried out and kicked as her flesh seared all over again. The man jumped back, looking as scared as her. "Shh, shh, shh. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He took a deep breath as she kept her eyes fixed on him, re-corking the vial. "Let's try something different."

He began to approach her again; he reached a hand out towards her face, low and slow. He spoke, "Easy girl. Easy. You want to keep your hoof? I am going to help. Easy." He placed his hand palm down in front of her nose. She sniffed him, and gave the back of his hand a slow, shallow lick. She kept her eyes on his hand as he moved closer to her, kneeling. "When I hoped to be up to my knees in 'doe,' this was not what I had in mind." He smiled at his own joke and gave her pelt a stroke with the back of his fingers.

"You're going to be alright. Unless you're a lefty, then you may need to relearn how to use a quill." The doe let out a sound that was less like a groan and more like a pleased hum. His smile grew a little more. "Um, yes! This is working. My name is Nestor. As in I could sleep in a nest or no other option." The doe kept her eyes on his face, feeling his hand pet the side of her neck and the top of her back. The doe extended her neck and took another bite of wild greens. "How does that taste? Pretty good?" He took his hand off her, picked a few bits of the greens and chewed them. The bitter look on his face was clear and she let out a sound that was almost a laugh to him. "Oh, you think that's funny?" She took the rest of the sprouts out of his hand and ate them. She chewed and let out a snort onto his pants. "Oh, that was polite. Really nice. I don't know how to conjure out deer snot stains, do you?" The doe breathed a calm hum; he was still smiling. "You didn't mean to do that, I think. But this - this I meant to do." The bear trap clicked. Nestor had disabled the trap using a small tool with his free hand while he spoke and distracted her. The clamp of the trap fell open, he swiftly poured much of the vial over her wound, healing and closing it. The doe's bones and muscles fused together and the healing liquid caused her leg to convulse and she pushed herself away from him, skittering into a standing position.

Nestor looked just as startled as the doe did. He began to stand again and the doe turned and began to run. "So long deer!" He called. "I wish you could tell me how that happened to you!"

Nestor was dusting off his knees with his hands then picking up the trap when he heard her voice, "I was walking, then hopping. The bear trap was under some leaves, I didn't see it."

Nestor looked around in disbelief that a deer, was talking to him. "I wish for all the platinum I could carry?" He said to her optimistically. Wishing stag? Magical hart?

The doe shook her head. "That's not what happened. I am not some ivory stag that grants wishes."

He still looked confused, "Then why did you come back and tell me?"

"I-I don't know. I physically couldn't help it. Why did you help me?"

The pair kept their distance between each other as they spoke. "Because it was the right thing to do. This trap wasn't meant for you. By the looks of it, whoever placed it should have picked it up months ago. It's rusted a bit. I'm amazed nothing tripped it sooner." He placed the trap into his bag. "But It still doesn't explain why you can talk to me now."

"Oh, that." She shyly looked around, and padded the ground. "I understood you and could talk this whole time."

Nestor stared shocked at her, "What? Why didn't you tell me you wanted help?"

"Because being a selkie is dangerous. Human men aren't to be trusted."

Nestor rubbed his eyes under his glasses momentarily. "You're a selkie?"

"Yes."

"Prove it."

She flipped her head back and began to shed her living deer pelt from her body to reveal her human woman form underneath: pale skin and curly reddish hair the same shade as her pelt. She held her pelt in her hand. "See? Happy? You asked me to prove it. Why are you covering your eyes?"

As she had transformed, Nestor covered his face and turned around. "Nope. I'm not looking. I'm a gentleman. I'm not looking at you naked."

"You humans are such prudes." She put her pelt back on and transformed back into her deer-self. "I'm decent, by your standards." He turned and peaked through his fingers. Seeing she was a deer again; he took a deep breath and relaxed. "I don't see any difference, I'm just as naked like this, you know." Her ears twitched.

"There's a difference."

"I didn't want to do that, you know, show you my human form. The last thing I need is to make my pelt accessible to a man."

"If it makes you feel any better, I don't want you or your pelt. But if you didn't want to do it, why did you?"

"I told you, I don't know. It's like something in me, from the depths of my gut made me."

Nestor took a couple of steps back, "Oh no, no, no. I don't need this. Nope. No way! Not happening. I release you."

"Release me from what?"

He sighed and rubbed his eyes under his glasses again. "Take two steps forward." The doe stepped forward twice. "What's your name?"

"Tinka."

Nestor laughed. "Seriously? What kind of name is that?"

"Buck off. One my Momma chose," Tinka said sternly.

"Did you want to tell me your name?"

"Not really."

"But you did anyways." He stepped a little closer towards her. "Because you are now life-debted to me."

"No bucking way."

"You thought you were going to die in that trap. You were absolutely sure of it, weren't you?"

"I was."

"Then that did it. You thought you were going to die, and I helped you. We made a life debt contract whether we like it or not."

Tinka had a little panic in her voice, "Is there away to get out of it? Because I don't want to be bound to you. It sounds like you don't want to be bound to me either."

"It's not personal. We just met. And clearly the binding it did, was more intimate than either one of us realized."

"So what do we do?"

He paced back and forth a few times stroking his bearded chin. "I'm an alchemist, at least I'm trying to be. If I can find the right book in my studies, I might be able to figure out how to release the life debt. Until then, I'll try not to ask you for anything. I truly don't believe you owe me anything."

"Life debts really are a curse, aren't they?"

"They're certainly not rainbows, unicorns, and dragons," Nestor replied.

Tinka laughed. "For an alchemist, you have a lot to learn."