The Nameless Room

...

There was no ornate door into the next room, unlike the others in this labyrinth of a cavern. Nor was there even a proper doorway; it was impossible to place where the room began and the hall ended. It had just widened, and the soft grey stone tunnel opened up gradually until the space between the walls was enormous.

After walking into the gigantic space in front of her, Moth realised she was standing on a thick layer of cool, fine white sand. She couldn't tell when she had switched from the stone floor of the cave into this, soft and fluffy and entirely different. And then she looked ahead.

All around her, spaced only a few centimetres apart, were thousands and thousands of feathers, floating in the air. They spun in their individual directions, and each one span at a different speed, a different angle. The feathers, apart from gently rotating on some invisible axis, were otherwise completely still.

Cautiously, Moth took a step forward. She glided easily on the fine sand, and reached out to carefully touch one of the feathers. She could touch it; there didn't seem to be a trap, they felt like real feathers. But she couldn't move it from its place.

It was a strange enchantment, Moth decided. When she had tried to remove the feather, it hadn't resisted, or even stopped spinning. It was just at the last second when Moth had to pull back her hand; for whatever reason, she didn't want to disturb it, and an overpowering sense of unease accompanied each curious or stubborn thought.

Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the feathers. She could feel hundreds of white, fluffy feathers brushing against her arms and face, soft and smooth and peaceful. Each time a feather brushed her, she felt a kind of noise in the back of her head; crackling and humming. The noise sounded familiar, nostalgic, but it was meaningless. She couldn't distinguish the noises, and they echoed, distorted, around her head. Everything got louder, louder, louder, louder...

She closed her eyes.

She felt the soft brush of the feather in her face, her hands, tugging gently at her hair.

She felt the sand on her feet, and heard nothing.

She saw moon shining on a hastily made bird's nest, a beacon amongst the pillars of smoke surrounding her eggs.

She saw the friendly people who gave up their food for him giving up the little child's red scarf, hanging it swinging in the wind on the lowest branch of the lookout tree.

She saw the glittering stars above the dark-red ocean, beautiful, and visible long after she'd closed her eyes, and let everything else fade...

She saw a noisy girl making her way through the nameless room, undoubtedly on her way to the vast treasure horde he had acquired over the years. He went to call out a warning, but there was a flash of heat and light from Map Room and he couldn't see her anymore...

She opened her eyes.