It's not a phase, DAD

A bark interrupted Keith's troubled thoughts, and his bath along. In fact, he wasn't dirtying the water that girl was drinking, she was drinking his shower water... Which wasn't remotely strange to Keith. It happened all the time.

The girl who'd barked was all the other way across the pond, but her figure was clearly visible above the water. She was young, and very beautiful, and she seemed to be accompanied by a blackbird, which did strike Keith as strange. The wolf eyed the bird with curiosity and then turned to the girl.

"Oh, hey!" he barked absentmindedly across the pond before taking one more dip with his head to clean his face. Then, the Arctic man paddled across the water to get a closer look at the girl. He hadn't noticed it before, but one of her eyes was damaged, and he wondered whether she could see anything through it. He decided not to ask out of respect, but he did want to know. Somehow, Keith felt like there was something in his mind, like a memory, that told him that he knew this girl, but it was so surreal that Keith just shoved it aside and smiled at the stranger.

"Are you from around here?" he asked, knowing not that whatever came out of a conversation with the girl had the power to turn his life upside down