Bay's Wish [ONC 2024]

04 - Earthside

As cruel as it felt, I did not have time to watch Bay cry on a park bench. I had to get to the trainee house, and fast.

I sprinted out of the Earth Observatory, my legs moving at an unprecedented pace. The morning sun had reached its full brightness, casting long, hard shadows as my paws galloped across the soft ground—a strong contrast to the storm clouds over Bay's head. The puppies' formal training would start soon, and I had to sneak my puppy away before it went inside. I could always wait until they were done for the day but with Bay in the state she was in, the thought of making her wait a minute longer made my stomach clench.

I arrived at the short picket fence in record time, thankful that Dog Heaven left me with rejuvenated limbs. Geronimo stood at the front door, her back to me as she ushered some of the more rowdy puppies inside. She could usually detect a feather drop from across the park, but any noise I made was drowned out by the horde of puppies yipping in her ears.

A quick scan of the grassy front yard showed my black-and-white-furred puppy pouncing at a loose clump of dirt just a few feet away from me.

"Hey, kid," I called in a hushed whisper. The puppy paused with its tail in the air, its head snapping in my direction. When it caught sight of me, it bounced over to the edge of the fence. Its shrill yap forced me to the ground for cover. "Shut it!"

I quickly glanced at Geronimo, who was too busy herding another set of puppies to notice my intrusion. With her back turned, I clamped my teeth around the scruff of the puppy's neck, dragged it over the fence, and dumped it at my paws. That thing was getting heavy.

"Are you ready to meet Bay?" I asked. The puppy's tail wagged at lightning speed. Of course it was excited. I had trained it for this exact moment.

Turning towards Dog Heaven's front gate, I nudged the puppy forward as quickly as possible, using my body as a buffer between it and Geronimo in case she turned around.

To my surprise, we made it to the front gate undetected. It opened for us with ease under the weight of my paws.

The vastness opened up before us. The same white open space and foggy grass-like ground sprawled on forever, as the afterlife tended to do. A few new arrivals padded around as they gained their bearings and adjusted to the idea of dying.

While the puppy panted at my paws, I scanned the open space in front of me for the doors. The way into Dog Heaven was strange. I never quite understood it, and I probably never would.

There was no time to waste on the mechanics of it all. We had a crucial task at hand. Skimming the eternal void, I saw a tall figure in the distance.

A human.

I urged the puppy towards where the human was reuniting with their canine companion. Slowly, to avoid unnecessary attention, we padded forward. The closer we got, a white door came into view.

Our tails swished in unison. Upon approach, the human and their dog walked through the doorway to Human Heaven.

We may have found a door, but it was not the one we needed. I had no idea where the door to Earth could be. It had to be around here somewhere. If they did not want anyone going through it except for emergencies, it could be hidden. I circled the area, leaving the puppy to frolic as it pleased while I searched. All I found, though, was space.

The door had to be close, if it even existed at all. Geronimo had no reason to lie about an Earth door. In fact, she did not even have a reason to tell me the truth. She did because she trusted me, even though that wouldn't last much longer once she found out what I'd done.

In one last desperate attempt, I circled the free-standing white door, this time stopping on the other side. When I saw the faded brown wood, my jaw fell open and my tongue slipped out. I found it, and it had been right in front of me the whole time.