It’s #BookQW and Salm must act ‘quick’ to avoid trouble–for the future!
More from Chapter 1:
Salm landed next to the covered lobster crate before either sister could block him. “Aye, I suppose. We’re busy this time of year and need the catch numbers to make a decision,” he said politely, not daring to look down at the crate. “I can wait while you fill in the form. Just need through yesterday.”
Pauly eyed him, then turned for the deckhouse. “Hold on.”
Quickly, Salm lifted the cover off the lobster crate. All were dorsal side up, and he didn’t want to start an argument by flipping and looking for eggs on spinnerets if he was wrong. “One or two look borderline small,” he said and felt in his slicker pocket for his gauge.
“See here,” Pauly said. “We do our sorting after. Makes the hauling go faster. Right, Maeve?”
Then Maeve was there, gripping his arm and leaning into him.
“Fine.” Salm brushed off her hand. “But let’s have a look, part of our checks. It’s in the fishing agreement you signed.”
Pauly stormed up. “Did you lay a hand on my sister?”
“What? No!” Blessed Orb. The accusation flustered him, but only for a moment. “I’m here to do my job. You can either let me inspect this catch here, or we’ll head in and do it on the dock in Tern Bay.”
“I—uh…” Pauly met Maeve’s gaze—unmistakably thought-speaking with her—and a flash of light erupted.
Their magic hurled Salm over the gunwales and into the sea. The cold water stunned him. Then the life jacket he wore under his slicker tugged him upward, and a familiar prodding hit his shoulder.
Help? See-low asked.
Bilge-sucking catfish. Salm surfaced, spitting salt water. Blimey, he’d been caught unaware.
Splat. Splat. Lobsters were raining down.
Retrieve! Retrieve! he ordered the dolphins, and the water churned, excited squeaks filling Salm’s head.
~~~
Soar into magic along the rugged coast of Scotland with Keepers of the Sea Cliffs. Download this sweet cozy fantasy everywhere ebooks are sold.
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On a personal note:
In Keepers of the Sea Coast, Salm works to protect their future fisheries. We had our own natural resource experience this week–and our ‘catch’ was also on the small size.
For nearly three decades, we’ve visited Westmoreland State Park and happily looked for fossilized shark teeth. The teeth and other fossil remains wash up on the sand beaches along the tidal Potomac River from the adjacent cliffs. It’s fun to look for them and try to identify your finds.
However, searching for fossilized treasure has become a popular activity and this time the finds were rather scarce. I found one small tooth, shown here against a dish of past fossilized finds.
We’ve talked about releasing our many smaller teeth back ‘into the wild’. While it’s fun to hold on to an accumulating collection, in truth, most only gather dust in their plastic bags from each trip. As I grow older–and the space in the house smaller–it’s become a kind of moral dilemma. The same with holding on to seashells.
I ran across an Instagram site called Make the Switch For Nature (MTS4N). It’s run by Shawn Miller with the goal of getting seashell collectors to return shells because they are used by hermit crabs as homes. The crabs are desperately using any small container they can find–mainly trash. Take a look at @maketheswitch4nature posts or Shawn’s Okinawa Nature Photography website where he explains his mission to help hermit crabs.
Let me know what you think about restoring our collections to the wild.
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