Once upon a time, there was a young girl named Astrid. Astrid was special, she was a bender. But when she was still a baby, she was taken from her home, and locked up in a tower in the middle of the largest village in all of the Ko'Kwan Region. The King and the Lord of Astrid's village and Region, both shared concerns for the young one's power, and soon began to fear her. Which is why she spends her days locked away in the tower, with but one book, and one friend, and one instrument .Unaware of her powers, as they grew every day. She has never seen dirt, for it was kept away from her, and out of sight, but as she grew older, she could lean out her only window, and see, just barely, a glimpse of dirt at the Village gate where her only friend Nathen, was on duty that day. The day of her 14'th birthday.
Geoff and Naomi are dead, and they're depressed, but when Geoff's cat Bernie dies as well, they embark on a wild journey to find it in the underworld.
*****
When Geoff dies, alongside his girlfriend Naomi, they end up sharing an apartment in the Underworld as skeletons. But after a few years, Geoff starts suffering a mid-death crisis. What's the purpose of going through the motions as a skeleton if you can't really live? Then he gets word that his cat, Bernie, just died and he can collect him and bring him home! Geoff and Naomi hurry to get Bernie only to discover that, due to a clerical error, their cat has been lost. With the hunt for Bernie giving new purpose to Geoff's un-life, he and Naomi begin a quest to get back their cat. Battling skeleton pirates, climbing the sky ladder and facing off against the villain who took Bernie, Geoff is determined to find his purpose - or die a second time trying!
[[2018 Wattys Winner - The Originals]]
[[word count: 30,000-40,000 words]]