Fitting in....

A Starlight Cove Guardian legend....

The fog rolled thick across Starlight Cove on that August night, the Lion's Gate Portal. It engulfed the island.

Maple emerged from the kelp forests, her massive form moved gracefully through the shallows. Part Sasquatch, part mermaid, she belonged to neither land nor sea—yet understood both ancient wisdoms. A child of love, yet feeling lost in each world.

Her webbed fingers, strong as cedar roots, pulled her onto the rocky shore. She noticed the lighthouse beam had grown weak these past few moons. It flickered like a dying star.

In the mist, pale blue spirits materialized ~ Forest fae with moth wings, Selkies with seal-dark eyes, and Cedar Dryads with bark-skin that gleamed silver. They gathered around Maple's towering form. Their voices were wind through old growth trees and waves on stone.

"The keeper is gone," they whispered. "The bridge grows dim. We cannot reach our kin on the other side."

"The key," sang the selkies. "Find the mystical key before the light dies forever."

Maple's keen nose caught the scent of salt, rust, and magic. She followed it to the lighthouse base, where weathered bones lay scattered in the grass. Among them, green with age, glinted a brass key on a kelp rope.

As her massive hands closed around it, the spirits pressed closer. "Will you be our guardian? Will you tend the bridge that lets us cross between the realms?"

Maple understood. For too long she had wandered between worlds, never belonging. Now she could become the keeper of the sacred threshold.

She turned the key. The lighthouse blazed with otherworldly light, not just a beacon for ships, but a bridge spanning dimensions. The spirits danced through the radiance. Freely traveling between forest and sea, earth and dream.

Above, the moon blessed the new guardian as she took her place between worlds. For this is exactly where she had always belonged.

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For my turtles 🐢

Edward.Marlo.Ruiz

Rachel Tribble

T.P. Kaaos