Over the next three days Nom was sullen. Mikansia and Nomi would spar as they walked, but over those three days Nomi got more and more aggressive. On the third day a spark from a block almost got into Nomi's eye. Nomi fell to the ground, cursing Mikansia out, calling her a cold-hearted bitch.
"Excuse me?? It was an accident! During training!" Mikansia was confused.
"You just left her! Your mother spent seventy years of pure torture for you, you cold-hearted bitch! She fought for you your entire life and you just leave her there??"
Mikansia rolled her eyes. "I didn't leave her, she left me! And fucked her own brother to make me! What a mother. She made no choice to help me, but there was no agency on her part deciding I should be around. She's no hero. Not like your mother, Olivia the Thunderer! And speaking of her, don't talk to me about betrayal. You betrayed everything that genuine hero ever stood for. So don't you go judging me."
A bitter laugh proceeded forth from Nomi. "Oh, Olivia the Thunderer? The great hero of Kotae Mah? Oh, she was a wonderful mother. When I first skinned my knee she rubbed dirt in my wound, hard, and told me to stand up and get circulation in there, fast. The first time one of my friends mocked me? I did what the great Olivia told me to and punched her as hard as I could. I lost a friend that day. There was no comfort, only war and training and death and the mission. I was never defended or nurtured. And that put me down the path of my life. How could I betray what my mother had taught me? But Makirta? She fought for you. She shouldn't have survived. Something about that had to be on purpose" Nomi's hard lines softened. "You need to... be gentler. She went through a lot."
Mikansia chuckled. "Be gentle? Since when did you care about that? I thought soft was for fucking generals."
"That was for BUSINESS, not... not... not about you..."
Mikansia was confused. "I don't know what this is really about, but we're here for the mission. We're good at that."
Nomi's face went purple as she opened her mouth. She climbed back up onto Fish, gave Mikansia an injured look, and snuggled into the dragon's neck. That was fine by Mikansia. The less talking the better.
The next day they happened upon a few squads of undead. Those weren't a challenge. But one of the zombies began to cry and talk. Mikansia stopped and knelt next to the crying corpse. "Please.. please kill me. They killed me and I came back... into this corpse. They asked me to join the horde. I said no, and they laughed! Laughed! They said The Hound would come for me."
"The Hound?" Mikansia asked, horror and pity in her gaze.
"...the size of a house... others..." the corpse trailed off. "There's others. Put into The Hound, too. They fall off. Sometimes... like me. Free me. I'll keep blinking until I'm... I'm gone." He didn't stop blinking until Mikansia cut his head in half. Mikansia, Nomi, and Fish found more of these corpses along with the wreckage of forests and farms. And each one begged for an end they could get on their own. And Mikansia gave it to each one of them, with pity.
After a few days Mikansia and Nomi heard it: the screams that were so hoarse they shouldn't have been able to keep going. But yet. They persisted. Most of them were wordless, but some begged. And begged. And begged. They needed an end. Had to have it. But could not. Over the next hillock Mikansia, Nomi, and Fish saw it: an enormous canine frame... that was always shifting. Even when The Hound stood still its form shifted, as the humans grafted into it were never completely still. Well, the newer corpses anyway. The older ones hung there, flopping side to side, glazed but operative eyes open and uncaring. But the ones who were newer tore at each other, screaming and begging each other for release. Blood and gore followed in The Hound's wake; but no release from their torment could be found.
Nomi's hand slipped into Mikansia's trembling. Mikansia started, surprised, and found herself looking into Nomi's wide eyes "That... that happens you kill me. Promise me. Swear it!"
Mikansia put her other hand on Nomi's shoulder. "I got you. I promise."
They snuck up behind the canine monstrosity. Mikansia charged, sword cutting a hole into Dream under The Hound; Fish, directed by Nomi, slammed The Hound all the way into Dream. Mikansia appeared under The Hound as it fell, Sydanelma slitting through the begging corpses, into something cold and dark. "You're in Dream now, you're free to go to The Gate!" Mikansia shouted to the hundreds who didn't know they were free. And some vanished in beautiful rainbows. But The Hound was not stopped; one kick from it sent Mikansia skipping acrost the ground of Dream. The Hound's shadowy claws had dug into Mikansia's side, ignoring the draconic armor that Mikansia wore. Mikansia picked herself up. Nomi and Fish formed up beside her. The two groups stared at each other a moment. And then charged. The Hound's footfalls felled Dreams around it. It leaned in for a bite of Mikansia.
Mikansia slit The Hound open; shadow poured out of the enormous canine frame. Nomi and Fish bowled into The Hound, knocking it over. Picking itself up, The Hound tried to withdraw, but Mikansia had let one too many monsters in Dream go before. She leapt onto the huge horror's back, stabbing the back of its head. It vanished in a hurricane of screams, catching Miksansia up in a twirling mass of horrors and screams and escaping souls before dissipating into the bright lands of Dream.
When Mikansia cut back out of Dream to where they had been, she saw a horde of undead waiting, with two more Hounds. Chuckling drily, Mikansia closed that portal, staying in
Dream.
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