A young-looking robed man with wavy white hair and golden eyes walked into the library. He wore a feathered white cloak over his shoulders, and two more feathers stuck out of his hair. "Is anybody here?" He asked. The man then turned his gaze towards the couch in the center of the room, startling at the sight before him. "Lucian?"

"Yes Noi?" Lucian asked between mouthfuls of potato chips. The other spirit lay on his stomach, propping himself with his elbows while his feet swung in the air, sprawled over a book, some tissues, and a storm of snack wrappers. He had a head full of flame-colored hair, a freckled face, a pair of forest-green eyes, and a red cloth tied around his neck, but his most striking aspects were not any of these things, but rather his dragon-like features which distinguished him from normal human beings. In addition to his two scarred wings too big for his body, Lucian had a spiny tail and a pair of horns protruding out of his head. One of his horns had a crack through it.

Noi sighed. "Please clean up after yourself. I don't think the humans would want you trashing their library."

Lucian rolled over onto his back, his left wing drooping on the floor. He placed his feet on the armrests. "Do I look like I care what some humans think?"

Noi chuckled. "Classic Lucian," he remarked. "Anyway, pick up your garbage. I have something to tell you."

Lucian gathered his stray wrappers along with his empty chip bag and disposed of them after closing his book. He then brushed his crumbs off the sofa and plopped himself on the couch, landing in a somewhat more sightly position than the one he was in before. "What?"

"It's about the last child," Noi replied. "According to my visions, she should be arriving at Avriya today."

Lucian tilted his head. "She?"

"Yes, she." Noi confirmed. "The last living reincarnation of Polaris is a girl."

***

Skye walked into Silver Run's courtyard wearing Newham's school uniform, consisting of a blazer, a tie, and a skirt with leggings. Ivan wore a similar outfit, but the skirt and leggings were replaced by a pair of pants. "What did you do today?" Ivan asked Skye. "Learned anything cool with your aura?"

"I learned how to breathe!" Skye announced, laughing awkwardly while Ivan gave her a blank stare. "I know, I know, it doesn't sound like much, but according to Hyacinth, controlling your breathing is necessary for controlling your aura."

Ivan facepalmed. "See, this is why the beginner's group sucks. They don't actually teach you anything. It's just breathing exercises, facts, and memorization. All theory and no practice, and the theory part isn't even that interesting."

"Oh." Skye's face fell. "Just as I thought I was being productive."

Ivan sat on the fountain's edge and checked his smartphone. "We have another hour until the ferry leaves for Winterbay. Wanna walk down Main Street?"

"Sure," Skye agreed. "Also, I'm hungry. Can we stop somewhere?"

***

Skye and Ivan sat at their table in Cafe Sepia, a cozy place with reddish-brown floors and potted plants by the shop window. Skye was doodling away in her notebook with her earphones plugged in, and Ivan sat with his elbow on the table, his chin resting on his hand. Skye's turkey sandwich, which just got served to her, lay untouched on her plate beside her notebook.

Suddenly a robed stranger approached Skye and Ivan's table, and Skye removed her earphones. The stranger had golden eyes and wavy shoulder-length hair with two feathers sticking out of it. "Excuse me miss," he said to Skye, "may I have your sandwich?"

Skye turned to Ivan. "So there's this pretty lady asking for my sandwich and I don't know if I should say yes or no because I am hungry but at the same time I don't want to hurt her feelings. What should I do?!" She whisper-shouted at her brother.

The stranger laughed. "I'm actually a guy," he corrected. "But anyway, may I have your sandwich?"

Before Skye or Ivan could respond, a redheaded boy with two horns and the wings of a dragon jumped out of his chair. He joined the robed stranger at Skye's table. "You can't just ask for food like that from the Last Child of Polaris!" He shouted at the robed man.

At the name Polaris, Skye's attention piqued. Hey, wasn't that the name of my imaginary "friend?" Or my ideal self, or whatever it's called?

The robed man gave the boy a smug grin. "You said you didn't care what humans thought about us, but now you seem to have changed your mind," he remarked before bowing his head at Skye. "I'm sorry, I forgot to say please while asking for your sandwich. I apologize for my bad manners."

"It's fine," Skye reassured the man while Ivan stared at the two strangers dumbfoundedly.

"You don't realize that it's weird to go up to random people and ask for their food, right?" Ivan asked them. "Maybe where you're from it isn't, but it is here."

The robed man looked taken aback at Ivan's comment. "Oh. I didn't know. I'm sorry."

Skye smiled. "Don't worry about it!" she reassured him. "If you want, you can still have a piece of my sandwich. Also," she added, turning to the dragon-winged boy, "what was that you said about Polaris?"

"I know it's a really long story and you're not gonna believe me when I tell you this, but—" the boy started, but the man cut him off.

"Not now, Lucian. It's too early for her to know."

"What do you mean it's too early?! We've got to tell Skye that she's the last child of Polaris so she can fulfill the North Star Prophecy!" Lucian protested.

Noi shook his head. "Bad idea. The last child is only fifteen. There's no way she can go up against an all-powerful goddess at her current age—"

"Are you talking about me?" Skye interrupted, a startled look on her face. "How did you know my name, my age, and the name of my imaginary alter-ego? Also, what's this "last child" and "North Star Prophecy" business?"

Before Lucian could answer, the androgynous cloaked man grabbed onto the boy's arm and ran out of the cafe with him. "You'll find out later!" Noi shouted across the room while Lucian struggled against him. Skye took a glance at the strangers, ever the more unnerved. How did these weirdos know my personal information?

After the strangers left, Ivan and Skye stared at each other with bewildered expressions. "That was something," Ivan commented. "I wish I could say it was a harmless prank, but I really don't like how they know your name and age."

Skye sat up straight, eyes wide with apprehension. "They could be stalking us."

***

Outside the cafe, Noi and Lucian walked down the street together. It was a cloudy day and the sky was overcast. Shops with canopies lined up on one side of the street, and on the other side stood a row of apartment complexes. Birch trees grew from evenly-spaced soil plots on the pavement, and every so often a car would zip by on the road. "Nice job, Noi," Lucian jabbed at him. "You made us look bad in front of the Last Child of Polaris. At this rate Blanche’s never gonna get blasted to bits by the North Star or whatever the hell is supposed to happen in the prophecy."

"I don't think anyone should be trying to blast the Mother of All Spirits to bits, let alone Skye," Noi responded. "Eliminating Blanche would have disastrous effects on the spirit realm. Also, Skye is fifteen for Blanche’s sake."

"Isn't that the age of every "chosen one" protagonist?" Lucian countered. Noi gave the dragon-spirit a strange look.

"I know, I know, you're upset at Blanche because of what she's done to you, and now you want revenge as soon as possible. But this is real life, not some YA fiction. We have to be reasonable here," Noi told Lucian. "Expecting the Last Child to fulfill the prophecy when she has her own life to attend to is unrealistic. Also, we probably shouldn't be trying to fulfill the North Star prophecy in the first place."

Lucian huffed. "So you're just gonna let Blanche get away with everything she's done?!"

Noi shook his head. "It's not like that. I simply believe there's a better way to end the problems she's caused than making a human kill her, that's all."

Lucian kicked a rock down the pavement, which landed on the side of the road. "How do you know that Skye can't or doesn't want to kill Blanche?" He asked. "Once she learns what the Mother of Spirits has done, she'll be on my side for sure."

Noi shrugged. "Whatever you say, Lucian."

***

Later that day, after she arrived at home, Skye stood in the shower, shutting her eyes as she rubbed a blob of shampoo into her hair. Like many people who have showered at some point in their lives, she had a recurring yet relatively minor fear of not being alone while washing herself. Even if she was sometimes afraid of reopening her eyes to find a ghost or a monster or some other undesirable being staring her down, she was still able to shampoo her hair without much issue. An incident like that has never happened to her before, so her fear of shower cryptids wasn't too great.

But this time around, Skye could feel a presence. It was a strong presence, much too strong to ignore or write off as a product of her overactive imagination. No, this time it was most certainly real, so real she was almost too afraid to open her eyes to check what was behind it. But she opened her eyes anyway.

Nothing.

Maybe it's outside the shower? Skye pondered. Yeah, it must be. She turned off the shower, opened the stall's curtains, and checked the bathroom, catching sight of a ghostly figure staring at her from the window with its wide yellow eyes. It was white and gray and appeared to be floating above the ground. A familiar shiver crawled down Skye's spine as she felt her ice aura return to her limbs, ready to shoot out again. Ugh, not the ice…

A layer of ice slid from under Skye's left foot, knocking her off balance. She screamed. Then she put her hand on the wall to stabilize herself, only to cover it with another layer of ice. Her hand slid, and she fell to the floor at what felt like a hundred miles per hour. Breathless and dizzy, she sat on the floor of her now ice-covered shower.

For a long moment, Skye struggled to get up before stepping onto the bathroom floor. She grabbed a towel from the rack, wrapped it around herself, and walked towards the window to take a closer look at the ghostly figure. She heaved a sigh of relief. Upon closer inspection, the "ghost" was revealed to actually have feathers, a beak, and a round pale face. The bird hooted, and Skye laughed. Oh, so it was a snowy owl, she thought. I'm an idiot. Wait… do snowy owls live around here?

The owl grabbed a familiar-looking spiral notebook with its beak and dropped it at Skye's feet, which she picked up. Skye gasped. Oh. My. God. She thought. Did an owl just return my notebook? I could've sworn I left it at the cafe by accident...

Skye thanked the friendly owl and placed her notebook on the sink countertop before taking a tentative step back into her ice-covered shower. She reached for the handle, and the water failed to turn on because the handle was frozen in place. "Ugh!" She shouted. "How long do I have to wait for the shower to unfreeze? I'm cold just standing in here!"

Suddenly a fluffy blanket flew through the window and landed on the bathroom floor. Skye left the shower again to pick up the blanket and examined it. The blanket was revealed to be completely clean upon closer examination, so it didn't look like something that could harm her. I wonder who this belongs to, Skye thought. Did Mom, or Dad, or perhaps Ivan buy it for me before throwing it through the window? It's a strange coincidence that as soon as I said I was cold, this thing dropped in here.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Skye touched the blanket. It was pale gray with dark spots, warm and soft and luxurious. Then she hugged it and wrapped it around herself like a caterpillar in a cocoon. "So… fluffy…" she murmured before falling asleep on the icy cold shower floor. She closed her eyes, and the world faded to black.

***

Skye woke up. She didn't know where she was, let alone how much time had passed. All she knew was that she fell asleep inside her shower stall and woke up on the shore of a beach. The waves lapped at her feet, which for some reason were stuck together. She felt heavier as well, so moving was difficult for her. Skye lifted each of her arms to inspect them, only to realize they were missing. In place of her arms were two almost-white flippers with gray spots.

"Where am I? What am I?" Skye yelled to nobody in particular, but her voice came out as a series of barks. Great, now I can't speak normally, she thought.

Skye rolled over and flopped on her back. She looked at the sky above her, which was colored in various shades of blues and pinks and purples. It didn't resemble anything she had seen before— no, this sky looked like galaxies and cotton candy and etherealness, like it was plucked from another world. It was the most beautiful sky she had ever seen.

Am I dead? Skye wondered. Before I woke up I was inside a shower. Then I found a blanket and fell asleep in it. Maybe I died during my nap and went to heaven. Or maybe I went to the underworld, I don't know. That could explain why I'm here, and in the body of a beached seal out of all things… Although, she thought, falling asleep inside a shower is a really embarrassing way to end it all. And of course it had to happen as soon as I started learning magic!

A long and mournful wail came out of the seal's mouth. I guess this is what I get for not appreciating my time on Earth while it lasted, she lamented. All those times I've wished for death, and now that I'm here, I wish for nothing more than another chance. I wish I had a chance to accomplish more in my short and pathetic life. I wish I could have seen more and done more. I know I'm being selfish for wanting this, especially if I consider how much oxygen and space I've wasted over the years, but please, I'm desperate… I know that I don't deserve it, but couldn't I have had somewhat of a more dignified death at the very least?! Anything but freezing in the shower?!

Some time later Skye felt a claw touch her right flipper. She rolled to her left to avoid crushing whoever had approached her, and now that she could lift her head, Skye took a glance at the stranger. He looked exactly like one of the people— or creatures— who was in the cafe with her the other day. Oddly enough, he seemed to resemble the owl on her windowsill. The man smiled. He had silvery-white hair that fell below his shoulders, skin a shade of tawny-brown, and eyes the color of marigold petals. He wore two feathers in his hair and a feathered cape over his shirt, and when one of his sleeves rolled up his arm, Skye caught sight of the man's hand, or what would have been his hand if there weren't talons in place of his fingers.

image [https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/x8ruqkui6euf9zklscbw5/Untitled48.png?rlkey=sgdihd0c3wnengv6ux2phmnsw&st=ogvyeh1i&raw=1]

The taloned man sat himself on the sand, meeting the seal at eye level. "There's no need to worry," he assured Skye. "This is all temporary. I guarantee you'll get your human form back and return to the mortal realm in no time. But for now, while you're here, let me tell you the truth about your existence. You're the Last Child of Polaris. No other Polaris reincarnations will appear after you."

Skye stared at the man with a stupefied expression. "The last— what? How can I be the child or the reincarnation or the whatever of a person who lives only in my mind?"

The man laughed. "I see you already have some buried memories from your past life. That's a start," he observed. "You just don't know they're from your past life yet. And for your information, your past life's name was Polaris. You were a selkie and a spirit of ice."

Skye curiously looked at the man with her black beady eyes. "Tell me more," she requested. "What was Polaris like?"

The man sighed. "Polaris was a spirit of exceptional character," he answered, running his claws through the sand. "Loyal, brave, kind— everything you'd want in a person, or a spirit that is. It's a shame his life ended through no fault of his own."

Skye tilted her head. "What happened?"

"The North Star happened." A somber expression crossed the man's face. "And then Blanche— you see, Polaris never wanted to harm Blanche, but much of the language in the prophecy pointed to him killing her. We all thought our Creator was immortal, but everything comes to an end, I assume. Blanche was so terrified of the prospect of her own death that she ripped Polaris's core out of his body, dismantled it, and dismembered the ice-spirit to protect herself. Or perhaps it was a conscious form of revenge, something to warn us spirits about what happens when we oppose her, I don't know. I may not know her true motives, but after Blanche did that to Polaris, she announced to the rest of the spirit realm that he deserved it because he was a traitor, unfit for life or servitude."

"Blanche did that?" Skye asked incredulously. The robed spirit nodded his head.

"I was shocked too," the spirit admitted. "I've always looked up to Blanche, so seeing her act in such a brutal way towards one of her own creations was horrifying. However, there was one thing that happened after Polaris's death which our Creator did not predict. Polaris came back, but not as himself. The dismantling of his core made him respawn in your world as multiple aura-bearing humans with ice powers. Each of these reincarnations, or the Children of Polaris as we call them, had a piece of the spirit within them, including yourself. Now they're long gone, but you, Skye? You're the last one alive, and according to prophecy, you are destined to end Blanche because you are technically Polaris. So while the North Star exists, let me warn you, stay away from Blanche. Do not play the hero and try to slay her because some prophecy said you would. She is extremely strong, and I would hate it if a fate worse than death came upon you. The Creator has the power to do that, so please, protect yourself."

Skye nodded, the bizarreness of the message hitting her like a load of bricks. "What makes you think I'd try to kill a goddess in the first place?" She asked. "First of all, that sounds dangerous, second of all, I'm too lazy for that, and third of all, I hate violence."

"Good. Keep it that way," The spirit replied. "Enjoy life while you can, but stay cautious, because Blanche may not take it well once she finds that Polaris lives on in you."

Skye and the spirit sat for a while, staring through each other in silence. While the breeze and the ocean spray combined to send chills down Skye's fur, the tide ebbed in and out, repeatedly swallowing her tail and back-end only to pull away before it could swallow her whole. The tide was gentle yet persistent, soothing yet steady, forming a sort of constant rhythm. In the distance sprang up mountains, black and purple mountains, that jutted out of the horizon and poked through the clouds.

When Skye saw the beach around her fade, she panicked. "Wait! Don't go yet! You never told me your name!" She begged the spirit. "Who are you?"

The spirit gave the seal a sympathetic look. "My name is Noi," he said to Skye as everything faded to black. "If you need anything, I'll be waiting for you at Avriya. Also, do some research on selkies once you wake up. Polaris was and still is part seal, so reading about the seal-people will help you learn more about yourself…"

"Will do!" Skye assured Noi, whom she could no longer see as he was now enshrouded in darkness.

***

Skye opened her eyes, removing the blanket wrapped around her body while painstakingly forcing herself to her feet. That was a weird dream, she thought. Yet it was oddly realistic. She quickly left the shower stall, hung her blanket on the bathroom rack, and reentered the stall again, wincing at its ice cold temperature. In addition, her newly formed aches and pains that she earned from taking a nap on the shower floor weren't making things easier. Skye rotated the shower's handle, and now that some of the ice had melted, she was able to turn the water back on. She turned up the temperature much more than she would have on a normal day, washing herself off in steaming hot water to counteract her chills. I'm definitely catching a cold from this, Skye thought.

Once Skye left the shower, she reached for the furry blanket on the rack, which now doubled as a towel, and began drying herself with it. But as soon as the blanket touched her, she felt an odd sensation. It began at her arms and legs and gradually spread to the rest of her body, making her lose control of her limbs, flop to the ground, and become much bigger and heavier than she was before. The bathroom became smaller and smaller, and soon it was struggling to contain her…

Skye looked in the mirror and screamed, but the scream came out a squeal. She yelled, but it escaped her as a bark. Her reflection did not show herself, but a pale gray seal with dark gray spots, whiskers and flippers and all.

Shortly after looking in the mirror, Skye heard a knocking on the bathroom door, and she panicked. "You've been in there for like, an hour already!" Ivan yelled from the other side of the door. "What happened?"

"Please wait for me, I'll come out soon!" Skye yelled, only for her voice to exit her mouth as unintelligible seal noises.

"Skye, are you in there? I could've sworn I heard a seal," Ivan answered.

Skye grunted. You know what, forget hiding the seal from Ivan, she thought. Maybe he'll be able to help me turn back to normal. And so, Skye clumsily waddled to the door, found its handle, and pawed it open with her flipper. Once she opened the door, she caught sight of Ivan standing in the doorway, his jaw hanging open at the sight of the pinniped standing in front of him, on the floor of the family bathroom.

"Pardon my French," he remarked, "but what the PHOQUE is going on?!"

***

"Let me get this straight: a blanket flew at you from out of nowhere?" Ivan queried after Skye returned to her human form around five or so minutes later.

"Yes." Skye replied, straight-faced.

"And then you fell asleep in the shower, met your spirit guide, learned you were the "chosen one" or some crap, woke up, turned into a seal, and now you want to conduct research on selkies?"

Skye nodded. "Yes."

"Sounds ridiculous, I'm in!" Ivan remarked. He fished his phone out of his pocket and began typing "selkies" into his browser’s search bar. A moment later he turned up with a Wikipedia article. "In Celtic and Norse mythology, selkies or selkie folk meaning 'seal folk' are mythological beings capable of therianthropy, changing from seal to human form by shedding their skin. They are found in folktales and mythology originating from the Northern Isles of Scotland," he read. "So that's you, I guess. Sounds cool. Don't know how you managed to fall asleep in the shower though."

"Neither do I," Skye agreed. "That blanket must have some powerful stuff in it— wait, did you say that selkies can change from seal to human by shedding their skin?"

"If that's what the article says…"

Skye curiously eyed the furry gray blanket on the towel rack.

***

Meanwhile, on a rooftop in Avriya, a snowy owl perched next to a dragon-spirit. In the west, the remaining sun bled its colors over the horizon, staining the blue sky with hues of pinks and yellows and oranges and violets, casting its lights over buildings and balconies and patios. A few townhouse windows emitted a soft yellow glow from them, and a few more darkened ones slowly blinked on. "Did you deliver the book and the sealskin?" Lucian asked the owl as it started to morph, feathers turning into cloak and cape and hair.

"Sure did," Noi confirmed once he finished his transformation. "But Skye appeared to be quite frightened once I arrived. In fact, she freaked out so much you would've thought she saw a ghost. I should apologize for scaring her next time she comes around."

Lucian laughed. "Can't blame her. Your species does look rather ghost-like."

Noi sat on the floor of the roof, mulling over his decisions while taking in the view of the sunset and the sidewalks and the cars and the pedestrians traveling along the streets of Cragmire County. Earlier, he had cast a sleeping-spell on Skye so he could speak to her, that way if Lucian tried to sway her to his side, she would know the consequences of going along with him. It's not that Noi was willing to defend Blanche, nor did he want to sabotage Lucian, but he figured it was better to move past this whole Polaris crisis in a civilized manner with as little damage as possible. And Lucian, who got all too easily carried away by his unreasonable plans of revenge against Blanche, much which were fueled by raw emotion and pure impulse, was obstructing the path to that outcome.

***

Two days after the shower incident, Skye reported symptoms of a cold, and was made to spend the following days at home until she recovered. So she stayed in bed, alternating between reading and drawing and playing video games and browsing the internet and taking sporadic naps throughout the day while her parents or Ivan would bring her food and medicine and sometimes talk to her. "Did your spirit guide appear again?" Ivan inquired Skye at every given opportunity. "Tell me if he did."

"No spirit guide yet," Skye would respond. "I did get some weird fever dreams though. Like, there was this one where I was battling to the death over… something? I forgot. Except the battleground was a run-down amusement park and my only weapon was a toaster."

"Did you win?"

"Nah. Even in the dream I couldn't kill anybody."

"Because you were unable to or because you didn't want to?"

Skye paused. "Both. I was scared." She admitted.

Ivan laughed. "Damn. I was gonna give you a bowl of chicken soup but now I realized that would be cannibalism."

Skye rolled in her bed and faced the wall. "Why can't you just give me the soup without reminding me that I'm a coward?" She mumbled.

Ivan disappeared from Skye's bedroom and moments later reappeared with a bowl of soup. He placed it on the miniature table next to Skye's bed. "You know you're the second sick person I had to care for this week, right?"

Skye pushed herself up and sat upright in her bed. "Who was the other one?"

"Cayto," Ivan responded. "Well, he wasn't sick so much as he was injured, but close enough, right?"

"I guess so."

Skye inched over to her armchair, which was behind her miniature table, and flopped onto it. While Ivan seated himself on her bed, Skye began eating her soup. Skye's room, with its periwinkle-blue walls and its off-white drywall ceiling, was quite warm and evoked a sense of lived-in familiarity. Posters and pictures were plastered on the walls, interrupting its blue shade with splashes of color. Skye's table and armchair sat at the foot of her bed, and her bookshelf and nightstand stood in the bottom-left corner. On the left wall opposite the bed were where her dresser-drawers sat, piles upon piles of folded clothing stacked atop the counter.

"You don't think I'm crazy, do you?" Skye asked Ivan hesitantly. "Y'know, with this whole selkie and spirit-guide stuff…"

"Of course I think you're crazy!" Ivan shot back. "Who would say no to a chance to fight God herself and claim all that glory, especially after hearing of your capability to defeat her? If I were you, I wouldn't care what my spirit-guide advises me, as soon as he tells me I'm destined to battle Blanche I would've jumped at the opportunity. Obviously I'd plan beforehand because I'm not going into a fight unprepared, but I think if I was part of some ancient prophecy, and if I also did enough strategizing, I could probably complete the task. But you've chosen to give up before you started because some owl-man told you to—"

"His name's Noi," Skye interrupted.

"This Noi guy sounds terribly boring."

Skye laughed. "Insult me all you want, but don't you dare say anything about my spirit guide."