A/N: I'm glad to finally get this out! Thanks for reading!


Chapter 3


Now, you may be wondering how it was her wriggling day and anniversary of her death at the same time.

You see, inside this world, there is a strange form of time.

In the real world, today was her anniversary of death, making this the Sweep mark.

Inside her bubble, her mind had been subconsciously trying to find a way to cheer her, which resulted in it being her "wriggling day" on the same day as her death.

It's rather ironic, if you think about it.


She, however, hadn't found this ironic or funny. To her, it was more along the lines of terrifying.

As she realized this, her surroundings rippled. The scene around her morphed and changed before her eyes.

She watched in amazement, horror forgotten, as the place that she'd been trying to ignore while inside it changed.

The scene changed to a clearing.

As she watched, her cave melted away, grass seeming to spontaneously grow around her.

She stared at it, wondering at its bright green appearance. She looked up. The "roof" of the cave disintegrated, showing light, powder blue skies filled with light and light, cotton-like clouds.

She stared, reveling in the fact that she was out in – somewhere? – during daytime! On her planet, she would be blind from looking at the sky.

Now that she thought about it, her planet looked nothing like this beautiful, fresh-scented meadow.

Looking around, she noticed that the clearing went on for miles around.

She took a deep breath, the clean air helping to clear her still rather foggy mind. The scents around her reminded her of freshly cleaned clothes, pure air, the faint scent of flowers…

Who knew that her so-called "Hell" could create such a wonderful place?

By now, the pain she had been so used to feeling constantly was an ache, located in her chest.

Compared to what she had experienced before, she felt near bliss.

She began to wander.

Wading through the grass, she sniffed the air. Now that she had gotten over the initial shock of such a sudden change in ambiance, scents, surroundings, – Well, everything! – She noticed another faint scent. One that seemed achingly familiar, but she couldn't place her finger on it.

Following the scent for perhaps almost a mile, she noticed something in the distance.

Putting her hand above her eyes to shade them, she could make out something pure white right smack dab in the middle of the green of the grass.

Her eyes widened, filling with tears from the pain of letting so much light into her pupils, from what she was seeing, from the memories that suddenly came and left just as quickly.

Dropping her hand, she ran towards the white shape in the distance.

Not just ran, but ran. She ran as fast as she possibly could, closing in on it.

The white form lifted her furry head at the noise of Nepeta running in the grass.

She tackled Pounce.

Crying with tears of relief as she had been half expecting her deceased lusus to disappear when she had gotten to her, she hugged Pounce with all of the strength she could muster without hurting her.

Beneath her, the large, cotton-coloured, double-mouthed cat that had served as her mother through life purred.

For now, she would continue to cling to Pounce, petting her lusus' soft fur, and crying tears of joy at seeing her.

Deep inside of her, she felt the ache lessen.