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She laughed, instinctively reaching up to rub the slobber off her skin, only to realize there was none there. “I missed you too, Singer,” she whispered. “I missed you so much.” If crying were possible here, she would have wept with joy.
Hollow quiet returned the moment the echo of her words faded away, reminding her just how alone she was. She had Singer now, but…
She rose to her feet.
She had to get out of here. There was a fresh sense of urgency in her soul—something that told her she didn’t have time to waste. She had to leave.
Singer sat down in the black grass and looked up at her, as if expecting treats, tail swishing back and forth.
“Do you know where we are?” she whispered.
The dog merely canted his head to one side, ears pricking.
She sighed. “Me neither.”
She started walking, toward the edge of the dome of light surrounding the tree, Singer keeping pace beside her as they neared the thickening darkness. She was grateful that her emotions, like touch, were dulled here; had they been at full strength, she wasn’t sure she would have had the courage to keep walking.
When she reached the very edge of the bubble of light, she stopped, staring at her surroundings that looked very much like outer space—a galaxy that stretched on forever.
She drew a deep breath. “Here goes nothing.”
And then she took her first step into the dark.
Water splashed underfoot, but it was shallow, and it didn’t glow—not like the pool at her back.
A second step. A third. By the fifth, she was no longer uncertain.
This was the way—she could feel it.
Together, girl and dog walked below galaxies, on and on into the dark, until that blue tree was so far behind her that it no longer provided a source of light. It was just her, Singer, and the stars.
Several paces later, she heard ticking. She moved toward the sound, eventually stumbling upon the great gears of a clock embedded in the pitch-black earth, groaning and ticking with the passing of time.
An ancient, female voice floated through the fog of her thoughts. You will find your answers in time.
In time, as in eventually?
Or in Time, as in a place?
She took another step, her bare toes deathly close to the gears. There were more stars down below—she could see them in the tiny slivers of space between the rotating gears.
Suddenly, the world shook, and gravity shifted, nearly throwing her on her ass.
She flung her arms wide, attempting to balance herself, but the world tilted too sharply and swiftly for her to stand a chance at fighting it. The ground became sky—but, somehow, her feet were still rooted in place. She hung upside down, water dripping from the ground—the ground that was now sky—like rain.
Sunlight flooded the darkness, blinding her. She threw a hand up to block it, squinting her eyes shut tight.
Her feet lost purchase, and she and Singer fell, down and down and down.
They landed on a lush green hill.
“Oof!” She rolled several times, Singer doing the same beside her, until, eventually, they stilled.
She looked up at the sky, watching as the gears, the stars, and the darkness faded away, leaving a canvas of sunlit blue in its place.
She took a moment to catch her breath, and then she turned to Singer, who looked at her with curiosity, ears standing up.
“You okay?” she whispered.
