A baby seal how what millions of miles from the ocean. I know that 10000 years ago this was all under the ocean. A baby, you could easily survive in the middle of the desert if there is water under the surface. It’s a dream like an illusion what hunger in this does your body? I could eat it, and as I try to eat it, it is a bit like vapour yet it was real. I could feel it. It’s a sign of water

How can it be In the desert you see A baby seal for me Let’s take to the sea

A sign of sorts To the water of quartz A gallon and quart Bumps and warts

“#%+*$&..”

The long legged creature upon her shoulder continuously produced chittering sounds, dispersing certain spaces between with signals of clicks. Her attention was fully absorbed in those clicks, for they directed her through the endless stream of the desert. If she missed a chirp, she would be sent off the path, doomed to wander aimlessly as a ghost, but there were other ways it directed her. Its rhythmic chitters eased her, plucking a wheedling string in her brain, like how the noise of rain battering against thin metal soothes and reminds her of home. Home, where rain pours spontaneously, singing a harmony of thunk, thunk, thunks against the roofs of the houses, coating the green scene in a misty blue..

“$:?#}- •• ••• • •• ••••”

She peels her mind away from the memory, listening to the clicks, the certain series of such corresponding east, west, what not that she had to face. Her body stilled to hone all of her attention upon the relayed information, absorbing it fully. That’s how she knew it was off. The creature on her shoulder pointed her in the direction of which she came, when she should’ve gone somewhere forward. There was no way the oasis could suddenly reappear behind her, which meant the creature was tracing something else. Somebody else? She didn’t see anybody on her way here, not since the reststop. She wrings her neck to try and look over the dunes, to find what had alerted the creature so. Surprisingly, there was something there: a grey, blobby shape agaisnt the yellow, seemingly crawling its way out the sand.

“Hah..?” As the creature returned to its chittering she began to approach, trudging through sand to grt to the something. In better view, the thing that was wriggling and writhing looked pitifully unequipped for the desert; it had no bottom legs, instead fleshy flaps for locomotivon, and its arms were much of the same. Those wouldn’t help with burrowing, and its grey hue struck out greatly against the sand: a prime snack for any predators, especially concerning its size, too. It took her a moment to connect that the beast on the sand was a baby seal, but when she did, she snapped alert. There was no way a seal could get here naturally, and there were many, terrible avenues that could explain this fact. Either there could be an undiscovered animal, one strong enough to fly its way from ocean to desert just to drop off a seal, or there was a magics wielder nearby. Looking about once more though, and once again it was only her, the creature on her shoulder, and the seal. The seal had managed to slip out of the sands at this point, and already seemed to be beaten by the heat with its small, yet heavy breaths. Pitying it, she lifted the seal and nestled it close to her, draping an arm over it to cover it in shadow. By the time she was finished arranging the seal, the creature paused, then begun to reintroduce the clicks, this time in what supposedly is the correct direction.

“Continuing on, then,” she whispered to the seal, heaving it up as she took a stride outwards, back towards the oasis.

It never really stops hurting does it It’s especially hard when you have to keep fighting When you want to be done with it all But you have to keep fighting

It’s exhausting And when you stop Well now here’s the real you And I don’t like the real me I don’t like the fake me either

It never goes away You’re never truly free That pain and hurt That feeling of fear and emptiness It haunts you

It always hurts It never leaves you Until you finally return home

You’re with God You’re in that promises place Heaven welcomes you and you’re home It’s perfect And that pain It leaves

You’re free God sets you free

So keep fighting Fight for God It will be worth it in the end And he will reward you for your fighting And that reward lasts eternity This pain only last 60 or so years Eternity is a lot longer

Fight And you will be freed

I knew I wasn’t crazy. Well I suppose I am crazy, just not that bad. We had named the seal Myra. Now we just needed to find her home. I knew I had sensed a water source. The others hadn’t believed me, but I could feel it. My powers knew. We had to find the Oasis. And if we were right, then this could be a major find. The was be the source of my magic, Desert Wave’s, magic.

With unruly ginger hair, clothes that were so big they dragged along the ground whenever she walked, and never wearing shoes, she not only appeared, but was, slightly off her rocker.

This made it no surprise when nobody near the desert camping site came to help her after she claimed she found a baby seal. In fact, it seemed there was no one even in the dessert with her. So she sat near the baby seal and reached out to slowly pet the top of its head.

“Seal,” Kizzy began as she now rubbed its belly, “you and me are so very similar.” Kizzy sighed and looked up to meet the baby seal’s eyes. “Trapped in this desert, alone and far from home, but knowing that we have no home and will mabye always be alone.”

To Kizzy, this was true, she had a house though it never felt like home, and she was always alone watching the world from a distance as everyone blocked her out.

Kizzy continued to pet and comfort the little seal for minutes, which turned to hours, which turned to days. She’d just lay there, in the hot desert sand comforting a pile of sand that through her eyes, was a baby seal— or mabye a friend who didn’t judge or question her, a friend who understood— and the only friend who seemed willing to try and understand Kizzy was just an illusion.

“Uhh,” Mark starts, looking confused as he picked at his birthday cake. “Why is there a baby seal… in my cake…?”

"What the fuck is that?" Cal's voice was hoarse and dry, in desperate need of water...just like the rest of us.

"That's a baby seal," Aria replied. She inched forward, shoes cutting through the soft sand, hands poised upward in defense. However, the baby seal didn't seem to pose a threat. It didn't seem to see the desert as a threat as we did. It blinked its eyelashes at the three of us, then rubbed its face with its fin. (Is that what they're called...fins? Or is it flippers?)

"I see that it's a baby seal, what the fuck is it doing out here in the desert? In the middle of nowhere, I might add. We've been trekking through this desert for hours without another life form in sight, and now we see a seal of all things."

"It doesn't appear to be in any danger. If anything, it seems better off than the three of us combined," Aria said. She kneeled before it and cautiously rubbed her palms across its head. The baby seal didn't retort, not in the slightest; in fact, it purred.

Aria wasn't wrong. The three of us had been navigating through this desert for hours without food or water. Yet, here was a baby seal in fine form, smiling, purring, inviting to the three decrepit strangers that stumbled upon him...or her.

"If you guys didn't see the baby seal, I'd say it was a mirage. Or, we've all lost our minds," Cal muttered. Moments ago, he seemed to barely grasp at the straws of life, but now he seemed on edge.

“I am no threat,” the baby seal said, still enamored by Aria’s touch,the baby seal said. Its eyes scanned from right to left as though reading our response.

You can talk?” I asked.

"That I can," said the baby seal. Its voice was somewhat pleasant. "And I can get you folks out of this abyss."

Aria removed her hand and stood up. "What's the catch?"

"No catch," said the baby seal as it rubbed its face again, like it was shooing away an itch.

"That's absolute horse shit," Cal spat. "Besides, how the hell are you going to get us out of here?"

"By you folks climbing on my back. I can fly,"

Cal's mouth fell open as though he'd lost the functionality of his lower jaw, hands shooting forward as though they could possess words. He finally said, "We can't climb onto your back; we're three adults, and you’re a baby seal."

"I think we should try it," Aria interjected. She moved forward and sat on the seal's back without hesitation. Her eyes shifted between us, waiting for one of us to move before landing on myself. "It's a way out, Grog. Do you see another way out?"

She wasn't wrong. I looked at Cal and gave a shrug before hopping onto the baby seal's back. He seemed to laugh or emit some sound that sounded like laughter. I had no idea that seals could laugh, but then again, this one could apparently fly, so what the hell did I know?

"Cal. Are you coming?" Aria asked.

Cal shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Mumbling under his breath. His eyes narrowed, then widened as his thoughts piled up on one another. "Fine," he said with a huff. He hopped on, nervously wrapping his arms around my waist.

“Alright, fellas. Hold on tight. We'll be out of here in no time."

And we were. The baby seal spun its flipper-fins around, kicking up sand and spirals of dust, and then we were off. Soaring through the desert sky and then into outer space.

For days he trekked through the endless snow. His frostbitten toes holding on for dear life within his worn boots.

All hope was lost. He always knew Antarctica could be a hellish place, but he told himself it was worth it.

The first man to walk the length of the Antarctica continent. What a feat that would be.

But halfway all he wanted to do was give up. He barely remembered life before the snow. Even the penguins he encountered miles back were becoming a distant memory.

There was nothing to keep him going.

That was until he saw it, an ickle bundle of joy poking its head up from a small crack in the ice.

A baby seal.

The sight alone warmed his heart just enough to make him think, “I can do this” and so after a moment of quiet content he continued on.

Oh no, Charlotte thought. Not the desert again. I hate this dream.

But she couldn’t wake herself up so she’d have to endure it.

A few yards in front of her feet—she was still lying down as if in bed, with the covers and pillow in the sand instead of a mattress—a movement in the sand.

A head popped out, then a body. It was gray and had “Clearview High” stitched on the side of it. The body wriggled toward her.

“Sammy?”

A pair of sewn dots looked up at her. Its mouth opened and sand poured out of the mouth as the stuffed seal spoke.

“It’s me, Charlotte.”

Sammy, her best friend from childhood! It was a gift dad had given her, purchased at the high school holiday craft bazaar. A stuffed seal. She had carried it around with her everywhere. Talked to it. Told it her problems.

The seal was soon in her arms and she hugged it. “Oh Sammy, I’m so lost…my parents are dead, I got fired from my job, my husband dumped me, I’ve inherited this old house in a strange town right at the start of the holiday season… I don’t know who I am or what will become of me!”

Charlotte dissolved to tears, as did her beloved Sammy, the desert, and the dream.