Her words made him realise that she really knew at least a handful of things about him. 

"Who are you?" He asked, sitting at the edge of the bed.

He was expecting her to shrink away from him, but instead, she sat up and drew closer, resting her head on his shoulder.

"I'm a daughter of the sea. I know that you don't love me now, and maybe you never will... then I'll simply return to the deep waters where I come from, and you won't see me ever again. But should you fall in love with me, the moment it happens you'll find my cloak, my seal skin... And if you'll wish me to stay with you, you will have to hide it, and never give it to me, not even if I beg... Because such is my nature-- although I love you with all my heart, I'll always love the sea as well, and, sooner or later, I'll be tempted to go back. Should I lay my hand on my cloak, I'd return home and never come back."

Neil nodded, remembering again all the selkie legends the people of the village recounted to him over the years since he moved to this island.

"What is your name?" He asked, running his hand through her long black hair unconsciously, dropping it into his lap the moment he realised what he was doing. This woman was... a perfect stranger... and then again she wasn't... she felt so... close...

He shook his head to clear it even as she took his hand in hers, brought it to her cheek briefly, then placed it back where it had been on her hair.

"Amaris," she whispered.

"What do we do now, Amaris?" Neil whispered back, sighing, unable to wrap his mind around the situation.

"We get to know each other better," she giggled.

And so they did. Neil showed Amaris around his cottage, explaining to her how things she had never seen before worked, then found some clothes for her and let her take a shower while he cooked lunch.

They talked the whole afternoon and most of the night, and the following day, instead of going fishing again, Neil drove Amaris to the town, to buy her some more appropriate clothes and other things she would need.

When they walked into the crowded pub in the evening, hand in hand, all the voices died down the instant the men and women present noticed Amaris. Even dressed according to the local fashion, she looked different. They all stared, some even gaped at the couple for a few moments before their loud conversations resumed gradually, letting the two know that they knew... But, no one ever said anything to Neil directly, they accepted Amaris into their midst without questions or pointed fingers.

It didn't take long before Neil, lost in happy thoughts of Amaris waiting for him at home as usual, fished a seal skin from the churning, freezing winter sea.

"You better hide that well, boy. Should your pretty lady find it, she would be gone before you manage to say goodbye." The oldest fisherman on board warned him.

Neil nodded, resolved to do just that.

For months the young couple lived in perfect happiness. However, as the long, lush spring morphed into a brief, warm summer, then again into a rainy, misty autumn, Neil started to notice the change taking place inside of Amaris too.

Her black eyes, normally sparkling with humour, joy and love, became dull, her brilliant smile begun to lack lustre.

Neil knew that it wasn't because she loved him less than before, but because she suffered without her sea. Because of him...

Amaris never complained to Neil about anything. She never begged for her cloak, but whenever he found her waiting for him sitting on the rocks among the seals, under the cold, beating rain instead of inside their warm house when he got back home from the sea, his heart would fracture a little, with love, pity and sorrow.

The crack grew with time, becoming so profound and painful that he could not bear it any longer.

One night, when she crept out of their bed as was her habit of late, and Neil found her staring at the sea through the window yet again, he did the only thing he could.

"Amaris," he spoke her name softly, making her turn around. "I want you to take this back. It belongs to you, like you belong to the sea..." he trailed off, unable to say anymore.

"You... don't love me anymore...?" She asked, stunned, unbelieving... hurt.

His eyes filled with tears as he drew her into an embrace. "I love you so much that seeing you like this, broken, pining away, breaks my heart. I want you to be happy..."

"I... thank you, Neil." She said, disentangling herself from his arms, her longing for the sea growing irresistible now that she had her cloak in her hands. "I will always love you." She cupped his face and kissed him before she bolted from the house.

Amaris shed her human clothes as she ran across the moonlit beach and, from a distance, Neil saw her white skin vanish under her seal cloak the instant her toes touched the water's surface.

He cried himself to sleep the night when she left him, and somehow, pulled through the first bleak, endless days and weeks without Amaris. In the village no one ever asked him about her and he was grateful to them all for it.

However, Neil and Amaris' love was so deep, and their suffering by their separation was so great, that the sea took pity on them. 

One night, nearly a month after her flight, Amaris appeared at Neil's door, as happy as she had been when he first found her. Since then, she kept returning to her beloved on each night of the full moon.

With time, their love grew as fathomless and infinite as the clement sea that endowed their unusual love story with its own sort of a happy ending.