The Heavenly Meadows

Flint offered out the feather to Misty. “My name is Dove.” The glow that radiated out from it became somehow even brighter once it came into contact with their hand. Snowflakes began to dance and twirl in spirals around the trio, and the clearing as a whole The grey cloak covering the white haired doll's shoulders came loose, and they tossed it away from them, the fabric landing in the snow behind them. A glow radiated from a hoop of some kind above their head, that had not been there previously. “And I think I know why I'm here.” 

The white flakes around them began to loop in closer, and the intensity of the lights continued to increase. His vision began to blur from a mixture of the painful light, and the snow getting caught up in front of him. He extended his arm out towards Jackal’s direction, hoping to at least be able to keep two of them together in this flurry, but his grasping hands caught hold of nothing but air and snow. Misty's voice rang out, clear as a bell, throughout the cavern. “Ive finally learned the truth, Melangel!”

The glow continued to become brighter, and then the world began to spin around him. Not just the snow, but the entirety of the cave seemed to be rapidly turning, and continuing to accelerate. The wind picked up, causing him to lose his footing, and he was swept off his feet. He expected to come crashing into the solid ground of the clearing, but the impact never came, and the air still rushing past his body for what was way longer than it should have been. Was he still falling? No, he couldn't be. The sensation felt similar, as he tumbled through the air, but the flow was in the wrong direction. As if the movement was upwards. He looked around, trying to locate the others. Jackal and “Misty” were nowhere to be found, just pure, solid white. The intensity of the light began to burn through his eyes, causing pain in both his eyes and his head. He pulled his arm up to attempt to shield his face. He began to call out “Jackal? Misty? Are you there?” His voice ringed through the space, echoing. No response from either of the two, only silence. Fear began to set in. He was alone, being tossed through a never ending void. Was this it?

After what felt like an eternity, the soles of his sneakers made contact with solid ground, and relief washed over him. He still couldn't see, but took a step forward. Almost immediately, he collapsed forward, and landed into the dirt.

Something felt deeply, deeply, wrong, though he couldn't exactly tell what. There was something, off about wherever he had landed. Though the light had dimmed slightly, the brightness around him was still blinding, tearing through his closed eyelids, almost like looking directly into a powerful lamp. The ground below him felt similar to a bun’s fur, soft, warm and delicate. With every ounce of his strength, he tried to push himself upwards, but only managed to get onto all fours before he could no longer. It was too draining. His eyes stung, his stomach churning, his head still spinning. Weakly, he tried to call, but the noise from his throat was little more than a whisper.

“Jackal…? Misty…?”

He attempted to open his eyes, but the brightness of the light was too much for him to tolerate. Flint struggled to pull his hood down further over his face, in the hopes the shadow cast by the heavy red material would at least somewhat spare his sight. Once he managed to get just a squint, he was able to take in his surroundings.

The ground underneath was covered by a blanket of fresh, green grass, spotted with beautiful, delicate flowers of all colours and variants. To his left, he could make out the vague, dark shape of Jackal, also keeled over on the bed of greenery, seeming to be in a similar level of struggling to pull herself up as he was. 

Dove stood upright, unaffected by this strange environment. Without their cloak masking their body, he could now make out their strange features. Instead of their tail being long, with a spaded end, as his own, it instead more closely resembled that of a rabebe, more akin to a soft, fluffy cotton wool ball. Their ears had a strange shape to them, loosely resembling the feathered wings of the birds that had been described in the Church’s library books. Atop their head, which had been lacking any horns or growth earlier, sat a shimmering, glowing ring. They walked over to Jackal, and gently helped her to her feet, careful to make sure she was stable before coming over to do the same with him. Once he was up, he was fully able to take in this strange, new sight around him. 

The sky above them seemed to stretch on for an eternity. Whereas the caverns of Burrowgatory had their limit, where you could see the ceilings, this didn't seem to have said cap. This continued to expand for as far as the eye could see. It was unsettling, how open it was. Its brilliant blue had clouds of all shapes and sizes, some resembling soft and puffy, with flat bases and more rounded on top, that glided low through the air, some like wisps of smoke way above, leaving long lasting lines in the space. The source of all this blinding glow, a giant white orb, sat in the blue above them. Beams radiated from it in every direction. It made his eyes burn, but Flint was completely entranced by it, until the pain became too unbearable, and he diverted his vision, once again pulling the fabric down, casting his face back into the comforting dark shadows. 

“Avoid looking too much at the sun Mr Flint,” Dove’s voice chimed. “It makes me dizzy, but since you're not used to it, I'm not sure how it'll affect you.”

“You don't say…” he muttered gruffly under his breath, rubbing his eyes with his hoodie sleeve. Once the black spots of blur vanished, he removed his hand, and turned to the horizon. Where the green seemed to end, up stretched hills and mountains of white, fluffy matter, similar to that in the sky. A homely cottage sat upon one of them, with a garden enclosed by short “walls” of well maintained bushes, each flowering large, baby pink roses. An opening in the shrubbery revealed a wooden gate, with two feathered wings carved into it. A cobbled pathway trailed through a garden of all manner of trees, flowers and plants, each kept to perfection, without a leaf out of place, to the front entrance of the building itself. Vines of some sort of plant grew along the wooden support beams, sprouting purple fruits and flowers. The walls were a soft, cream colour, and the roof thatched. A chimney sprouted from the far corner, with wisps of white smoke trailing upwards out of it. The sights were absolutely beautiful, but tainted, as every fibre of his body was telling him something was incredibly wrong. He did not belong in this place. It was sapping his energy, as if the land was trying its best to force him to leave. He dragged himself over to Jackal, who, for what he could tell, was in a similar level of fatigue, struggling to stay on her feet. “Sorry about this, mate.” He wrapped one arm around her shoulder, in an attempt to get them both stabilised by each other's support. “OI!” At first she resisted, but upon realisation of what he was attempting to achieve, stopped and let him, and they used each other's help to keep on standing. Dove had their eyes fixed on the quaint, little cottage ahead of them, and was taking some steps towards it. Their graceful steps seemed to leave not but a trace on the grace below their feet, and not a sound could be heard from them. Unlike both Flint and Jackal, who's heavy foot fall left deep imprints of their sneakers and boots respectively, and each step sounded like a crash of thunder in comparison to the silence of the meadows surrounding them, as they together trailed after them.

The noise seemed to somewhat startle Dove. When they turned, a look of shock took over their expression, as they became greatly concerned for their companions’ wellbeing. “My- are you two alright?” Their crystal blue eyes were wide, and a sense of worry filled their voice. They dashed back towards them , once again leaving no trace of their presence in the foliage. They cupped their hands around either side of Jackal's face. “Yeah… I'm good,” she replied weakly, forcing a smile to try and quell the white buns nerves. Flint gave a small nod in agreement, and raised one hand into a thumbs up. The angelic bun didn't seem overly convinced, but there was not much they could do. “Hey… so, Mist- I mean, Dove. What is this place?”

“This is the Heavenly Meadows.” They sighed. “This is where I

came from.”