I should have known better than to trust the compass.

It had lied to me once before.

One moment, I was in the Enchanted Forest, watching the needle spin wildly, faster than I’d ever seen before.

Was it pointing home? Was it guiding me back to my parents?

Or was this another trap, a world unknown? 

The glow intensified, bright enough to swallow the trees, bright enough to make me hope, and then, without warning...

The world vanished.

Ice cold.

It hit me like a stone fist to the chest. The rush of freezing water stole my breath, and suddenly, I was sinking. Fast! Too fast! The light above twisting, warping, disappearing.

I kicked. Clawed. Reached for the surface...

But there was no surface.

Only depth.

The deeper I went, the darker it became. My lungs burned. My vision blurred. My thoughts tangled like seaweed.

Is this it?

Would I drown here, in a world I never knew existed?

Then, music.

A melody curled around me, soft as a whisper, steady as a heartbeat. It wrapped around my chest, filling my lungs, and...

I breathed.

Not water. Not air.

Something else entirely.

I gasped, my body suddenly weightless, my fur shimmering, shifting...changing.

I looked down. My legs were gone.

In their place, a long, glimmering tail moved gently with the current.

A shadow drifted toward me, slow, graceful, ancient.

A mermaid.

She was unlike anything I had ever seen. Her tail shimmered like the night sky, her hair rippled like sea foam. But it was her eyes, deep, unreadable, knowing, that held me in place.

She tilted her head. "You don't belong here."

Her voice sent ripples through the water, brushing against my fur like a memory half-forgotten.

I opened my mouth to argue, but she raised a hand, and the currents stilled.

"You say you want to go home," she murmured, watching me closely. "But do you even know what ‘home’ is?"

I flinched. The question hit harder than I wanted to admit.

"My parents..." I started, but my voice cracked.

She studied me for a long moment, then spoke.

“You are in the Ocean of Echoes,” she said. “A place where every drop of water holds a memory, every wave carries a feeling.”

She extended a hand. The water around us shimmered, and suddenly, I felt it.

This ocean wasn’t water.

It was emotions.

Every wave that crashed was a feeling.

A swell of joy. A whisper of sorrow. A storm of rage.

The moment I understood, the current changed. The waves surged, pressing against me. I felt everything at once. Exhilaration, terror, loneliness, warmth. So overwhelming I couldn’t separate my own thoughts from the sea.

I was drowning in my emotions.

I gasped, pushing against the currents. “I...I don’t belong here.”

Seraphina tilted her head. “You are exactly where you are meant to be.”

Those words weren’t comforting.

A wave rolled through me. Not just emotions, but something deeper, something unspoken. Like the ocean itself had been waiting for me to understand.

I needed to get out. Now.

I turned sharply, swimming as hard as I could. But the moment fear hit me, the waves, they knew.

They latched onto my panic.

The water pulled me downward, spiraling into the void. My heartbeat pounded like a drum.

I was drowning again.

Seraphina watched, silent.

“Help me!” I choked.

Seraphina reached for my paw, but this time, she didn't pull me up.

“You are doing this to yourself.”

Her voice was calm, but I could barely hear it through the rush of my own terror.

“I can’t!” I gasped.

She shook her head. “You can. Feelings are like waves, Nova. If you fight them, they pull you under. If you move with them…”

She let go of my hand, opened her arms, floating effortlessly.

“...you rise.”

I flailed at first, instinct screaming at me to fight. But then, I tried something else.

I let go.

I let the waves move me, let my body drift.

And suddenly, I wasn’t sinking anymore.

I was floating.

Days passed. Or maybe only moments. It was hard to tell time under the sea. 

Seraphina guided me through tides of emotion.

She taught me how to float when sadness weighed me down.

To breathe deeply when fear threatened to pull me under.

To pause when anger surged, instead of letting it control me.

And when joy came, she told me to embrace it.

"Feel it fully," she said. "Because even joy, like the other waves, will pass."

I thought I was getting the hang of it.

Until the ocean changed.

The water stirred.

And suddenly, I saw them.

The forest. My home. My parents.

They were just beyond the surface, their eyes wide with worry, calling my name.

My heart leaped. I reached for them.

And the moment I did...

The memory shattered like glass.

The ocean roared, dragging me back into the present.

I was alone in the deep again.

I curled up in the coral, my body shaking. The weight of the ocean pressed against me, but it was nothing compared to the weight in my chest.

"It’s not fair," I whispered. My voice barely carried through the water, thin and fragile.

Seraphina settled beside me, silent. Not rushing me. Not offering empty words. Just waiting.

I swallowed hard. “They were right there,” I choked out. “I saw them. My parents. Just beyond the surface. I almost...” My voice cracked, my claws gripping the sand. “I reached for them, and they were gone.”

Seraphina's golden eyes softened. "Memories can be cruel. The ones we want to hold onto the most slip through our fingers like sand."

I squeezed my eyes shut. “I just want to go home.” 

Seraphina’s voice softened, like the pull of the tide. “No matter how far they travel, no matter how long they are lost, every wave finds its way back to the shore."

Tears blurred my vision. “But what if I don’t?”

Seraphina was quiet for a long time. Then, she smiled...not a promise, not a certainty, but something warmer.

“Then I will believe for you, until you can.”

A lump formed in my throat. I wanted to thank her, but my voice was gone.

For the first time in a long time I let myself believe.

That night, as the ocean hummed with dreams, my compass began to glow again.

Seraphina sighed. “It’s time, isn’t it?”

I nodded.

She placed something in my paw—a tiny seashell, glowing softly with magic.

“A piece of this place,” she said. “So it will always be with you.”

My throat tightened.

I pressed my paw into the sand and left my SticKit behind.

Magic shimmered around it, anchoring me to this world. A piece of me would stay, even as I left.

The current shifted. The glow of the compass grew stronger.

I turned to Seraphina one last time. “Will I see you again?”

Her smile was sad, but knowing. “The ocean always finds its way home.”

A wave of sadness crashed over me.

The ocean blurred.

And then, I was gone.

I don’t know if the next world will bring me closer to home.

I don’t know if the next world will pull me further away.

But I do know this...

I won’t give up trying.

If you’re reading this, grab your SticKit. Find a moment of stillness. Feel the waves around you.

And wherever you are, take a moment to just breathe.

Stay creative,

Nova Star