Dipper thought he was getting the hang of this whole ice skating thing. He'd only fallen down a couple times — and the one that made Mabel laugh didn't count. She looked so funny falling down that he just had to laugh, and it messed up his balance. So, obviously, it was Mabel's fault.

He skated around the lake, falling down every once in a while but not wanting to slow down. He had places to be! Well, not really — but what was the fun in taking it slow? Ford skated by himself like he was lost in thought, and Melody hovered over Mabel to make sure she didn't hurt herself. It was Dipper against the world on this cold, hard ice.

He fell again, and he couldn't help but laugh. This was so awesome.

Hey, what was that?

As he got up, he could see from a new angle. He caught a strange bit of motion in the corner of his eye. It looked like. . . like something was under the ice.

Dipper skated over, trying to be fast without falling down. It didn't work, and he ended up spinning on his butt until he was right above the object. He peered through the ice. A dark shape moved through the water. It was coming closer — it was coming right for him! He scrambled back as the shape bumped against the ice, making it shake beneath his feet. Was it trying to break the ice? Was it trying to drown him?

He decided to call for backup. "Melody!"

It only took a moment for Melody to skate over. "What is it, Dip?" she asked.

"There's something under the ice!"

Melody crouched down. "Careful, it's trying to break it!" said Dipper.

"Break it?" Melody asked. "Maybe it's trapped!"

Dipper crouched down next to her. The shape was getting farther away, probably so it could rush at the ice again. "What is it?" he asked.

"I don't know," Melody said. "Maybe if it got closer. . ."

It started for the ice again.

Dipper instinctively grabbed onto Melody's shoulder, bracing himself for the hit. The shape crashed against the ice, and Melody gasped. "It's a seal!"

"A seal?"

"Dipper, we have to break the ice!"

Dipper nearly protested, but the look on Melody's face said that this was serious. She pulled one of her skates off, not even bothering to untie the laces. Kneeling on the ice, she started banging the ice skate into the frozen lake, trying to help the seal break it. "C'mon, Dipper, help me out!"

"We're not gonna fall in, are we?" Dipper asked.

"No, we'll be fine, but that seal will freeze to death!"

Dipper wasn't sure if the creature under the ice was a seal, but it didn't deserve to die either way. He pulled his skate off and joined Melody in hitting the ice.

The seal hit its nose against the underside again. This time, it cracked. "Melody, what if we break the whole lake?" Dipper was trying not to show how worried he was, but he did not want to fall into the water under there.

"We won't; that isn't how this works. We'll just help the seal make a hole so that it can break out." Melody slammed her ice skate blade-first into the surface, and the cracks grew larger. "All right, I think that's enough." She grabbed Dipper's arm and pulled him back, getting out of reach of the cracks.

The seal started for the surface again. Dipper gripped Melody's arm tightly.

The ice shattered with a deafening crack, like a deadly mixture of a gunshot and breaking glass. Dipper covered his ringing ears. The seal burst from the water and landed on the ice on the opposite side of the hole. Its shiny fur glistened with water droplets and shards of ice.

Melody hurried over to the seal, using her hands and legs to scoot around the hole. "Dipper, come and see this!"

Dipper pulled his skate back on, stood up carefully, and made his way to Melody and the seal. Melody knelt over the seal; its glossy fur went up and down as it breathed heavily.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Melody asked, almost reverently. Her hand rested gently on the seal's chest, and it didn't seem to mind.

"How do you know it's a he?"

"I don't." Melody looked up at Dipper, eyes shining. "We saved his life, Dip."

Dipper smiled back. "Yeah, we did!"

"What is going on over here?"

Dipper looked up to see Ford and Mabel skating over. They had looks of alarm on their faces; that bang from earlier probably startled them.

"There was a seal under the ice," Melody explained, "and we helped him break through. Do you think he's going to be okay?"

Ford skated around the hole in the ice, Mabel in his wake, and knelt by the seal across from Melody. "He looks fine, just cold. How did he get under the ice?"

"I don't know. We just found him," said Melody.

The seal started heaving, like it was about to throw up. Ford's eyes widened; he moved back, putting his arm out to push Mabel back as well. Melody looked confused, but she followed suit. The seal kept heaving.

Then it fell still.

Melody gasped and reached for it, but Ford shook his head urgently.

The seal started to move again, but not. . . naturally. It still wasn't breathing, but its head started moving, like. . . like there was something inside. The seal's head split apart and unfolded, limp as a fur rug. Dipper could only watch in awed silence as the seal split open down to the chest.

Inside lay a human girl, about Dipper's age. Only her neck and head were visible; the rest of her body was surrounded by the fur that had once been a seal. Her eyes were closed, her breathing shallow.

Ford immediately took action. He moved forward and lifted the girl's head, kneeling above her. "Can you hear me? Are you okay?" he asked clearly.

The girl's eyes fluttered open, and she looked up at Ford.

Ford breathed a small sigh of relief. "You're safe now," he told the girl with a gentleness in his voice that Dipper had never heard before.

The girl's eyes welled up with tears, and she rested her head on Ford's arm, crying softly. The small crowd around them watched in silence. The girl cried until she fell asleep, her breathing deep but steady. Ford eased his hand out from under her head and left it resting on the seal fur.

Dipper watched with wide eyes, just to make sure he didn't miss anything. It looked like a seal was resting on the ice if you looked at its tail; but once you got up to its chest, it split apart, revealing the girl cocooned inside. It looked almost like the girl was in a seal-shaped sleeping bag.

"Okay, I'll ask the question I know everyone wants to," Dipper said, his eyes flicking up to Ford and then back to the girl. "What the heck is going on?"

~~~~~

Gideon opened his eyes. They felt heavy and gunky, and the eyelashes stuck together whenever he blinked. He felt small and weak, and there was a big weight on his head, like someone had asked him to balance an anvil up there.

He tried to look around, but his eyelashes got in his way. They framed the corners of his vision like thick black curtains. He was still in Harbinger Hollow; he could tell that much. The Cipher Wheel was on the wall to his right. He could see the symbols in the purple glow of his amulet.

Wait.

Purple?

There was a moan. Gideon looked over, remembering that Pacifica was with him. That was certainly Pacifica's moan, but. . .

That was not Pacifica.

Gideon's eyes widened as he gazed on himself, propping up on his elbow and opening his eyes slowly. What. . . what was going on?

A small part of his mind — the only one that wasn't freaking out — had to admit that he did look quite fabulous from this perspective.

He shook the thought from his mind as his disconnected body started talking. "Oh. . . why do I feel so. . . different?"

Gideon decided that he was officially freaked out. That was definitely his body; that was definitely his face, illuminated by the soft blue light of the amulet; but that was not his voice. It was Pacifica's.

"Gideon, what. . . ?" Pacifica's voice trailed off as Gideon's body saw him and started staring.

"Wh-what?" Gideon asked. His voice sounded the same as it always did. "What do I. . . ?"

The end of his sentence was lost as he looked down at himself.

Pacifica's purple skirt was on him. The full- and half-moons on the front winked up at him. Not only did he have the skirt on, but he had Pacifica's heels, too. He looked down at his chest to find the purple amulet fastening a black shrug around his neck.

Oh no. Oh no. His hands patted at his head, feeling the weight placed on top of it. It wasn't an anvil. It was hair.

A few feet away, Pacifica looked herself up and down as well. She and Gideon locked eyes, both of them in a complete panic. Then they let out a simultaneous, high-pitched shriek.

Pacifica scrambled to her feet, pointing at Gideon. "You're in my body! I'm in your body! Ew! Get me out!"

Gideon kicked off Pacifica's heels before he even tried to get to his feet. "This can't be happening. This can't be happening. I can't be — I'm a girl!"

Gideon and Pacifica stumbled around the cave and bumped into each other as they tried to keep their balance in their new bodies. They screamed all the while: sometimes intelligibly, sometimes unintelligibly. This went on for a few minutes until Gideon fell against a cave wall and found himself at eye level with a white prophecy, which glowed faintly.

"Pacifica!"

She stumbled over, her shrieks petering out at she followed Gideon's gaze. "Wh-what is that?"

"A prophecy. Or a curse. Or something. We must have activated it, and — gah! How do you manage with this mountain on your head? It hurts!"

"How are you not light-headed all the time?" Pacifica shot back. She felt at her — or, Gideon's — head. "Your hair is so short!" she wailed. "How do we reverse this?!"

"I don't know! The prophecy is in another language!"

"Haven't you ever used your amulet to translate languages?"

"No!"

"Well, my amulet can, which you have, so do it!"

There really was no need to be screaming at each other like this, but there was no way they were going to stop.

Gideon activated Pacifica's amulet, unsure how it worked. The prophecy was suddenly ringed with purple. He willed the words to translate themselves into English, simultaneously curious and skeptical. At his command, the letters started to glow bright purple, swirling around until they solidified into English letters and words.

"Well, what does it say?" demanded Pacifica.

"Is this some kind of sick joke?" was all Gideon could say as he squinted at the words through his gunky eyelashes. (How did Pacifica even see with all this make-up?)

"What does it say?"

Gideon didn't want to read it out loud. "Can't you do the language thingy with my amulet? In fact, switch me. I want mine back."

"Fine," Pacifica retorted. Oh, he hated seeing her facial expressions on his face.

They both took a moment to untie the amulets: Pacifica from Gideon's cape and Gideon from Pacifica's shawl. They switched amulets like one might conduct a ransom exchange, holding one amulet out carefully and grabbing the other as soon as it was in their reach. Gideon ran his too-slender fingers over the smooth surface of his blue amulet, grateful for some sort of familiarity in this whole mess.

Then the amulets stopped glowing, and the cave plunged into darkness.

"What happened?" came Pacifica's voice. In the darkness, it was easier to imagine her face along with her voice.

Gideon groaned. "This can't be happening."

"Why can't I use my amulet?!"

Wow, Pacifica was a whiner. "I guess our amulets only work for us," said Gideon, fighting to keep himself together.

"But I am me!" Pacifica retorted. "Just in your stupid body!"

"Well, the amulets don't know that, do they?"

"You did this on purpose, didn't you? To make me suffer!"

"No! You think I want to be in your body? I can barely move under all this hair!"

"Well, you're all stocky and sweaty and gross!"

The two continued to yell at each other, finding comfort in the sound of their voices without the accompanying image. Neither wanted to admit just how scared they actually were.

Eventually, their voices petered out. They sat next to each other in the darkness, trying to forget their situation. It was definitely easier without their sight, but they could still feel the oddities of being in a body that wasn't their own.

"Gideon?"

"Yeah?"

"What did the prophecy say?"

Gideon sighed. He had to say it, didn't he?

"It said, 'Let anyone who touches these words be placed under any curse that will lead them to improve. That means whatever curse you got, you deserved it. Figure out why you're cursed the way you are, admit that you were stupid, and you'll switch back.'"

There was silence in the dark cave.

"You're not messing with me, are you, Northwest?"

"Nope."

More silence.

"I thought it would be more. . . ominous. Like, rhymes and Old English and whatnot."

"Me too."

Gideon was leaving out part of the prophecy. Except, it wasn't really a part of it, as far as he could tell. It said, "Carla, I've always loved you, but I've never had the guts to say it." Whoever the ancients were that wrote these prophecies all over the wall, they certainly had a sense of humor. Or maybe that was just the English translation from Pacifica's amulet?

"Can I have your amulet back, if that's the only one I can use?" Pacifica asked.

"Yeah, I guess." He held it out in her general direction, and a hand gripped it and took it from him. The amulet lit up blue, and Gideon could see his face again, still wearing Pacifica's expression. He tried to ignore that as he used the blue glow to locate Pacifica's purple amulet.

The two got to their feet, dusting themselves off. Gideon hated this skirt.

"Let's get out of here, at least," Pacifica said.

"Yeah."

But neither of them made a move to leave.

Finally, Pacifica sighed and started back the way they came. "Come on, Gidica."

Gideon started after her, then froze as her words hit him. "What did you call me?"

Pacifica had a devious smile on her face. On his face. "Gidica. Gideon in Pacifica's body. That's your new and beautiful name."

On the one hand, it was a good sign that she was acting like herself again. On the other hand, just no. "Don't call me that."

"Why not?" Pacifica asked smugly.

"Get that look off my face, Pa. . . Pazeon."

Pacifica let out an offended gasp. "Yeah, you don't like that, do you?" Gideon taunted, putting his hands on his hips. He then realized how Pacifica-like that gesture was and dropped his hands immediately.

"Ugh, whatever. Let's just get out of here and figure out how to change back. Obviously the curse is all your fault, since I'm perfect. You'd better fess up to what you did."

"Oh, whatever, Pazeon. You were the one who went all crazy."

Pazeon let out a hmph! and turned to go. Gideon went to follow but was cut off by a shriek from his companion.

"Gidica! You left my shoes!"