two stones from the same shore
a letter from the burrow · 7 october 2026
real sea otters have a little pocket of loose skin under each front leg, and some keep a favourite rock in it. they use it to crack open shells, and they carry the same one around.
ollie and lou carry theirs for a different reason.
the round one and the flat one
ollie's is small, round and taupe. it was the only solid thing in reach the morning the current took him, and he still rubs it when his thoughts spin. it's round, so it rolls, which is why he is forever losing it: under the couch, into the kettle, down the drain.
lou's is flat and blue-grey, the kind of stone that sinks and stays. he has never lost it. sometimes, when ollie has misplaced his, lou presses the flat one into his paws as a loaner anchor, and goes right back to sleep.
“keep this. when you feel yourself floating off, hold it. and when the stone isn't enough… hold my paw.”
coming to the shore
we're making the two stones as a matched pair of worry-pebbles. one for you, one for your person, for the days you can't be together. they'll be in the shop when it opens.