Things progressed in this way for quite some time. During the day, I would either laze around in my bed or in Lady Louise's lap while my Master would either train in the shed or study in her room. Occasionally, the Lady would have guests that consisted of either more witches or know-nothings in business suits. I was always kept hidden in a separate room during those visits, so I still knew next to nothing about what it was she did for work, besides the whole thing with Mr. Copper's bullets.

Sleeping was, sadly, not much more enlightening. I had yet to meet with Mary again in my dreams as Ash more than helpfully explained she was on a different sleep schedule than me. Asleep during the day and working during the night. Ash also, not so helpfully, told me she knew little else besides that it had to do with the free witches.

Ash herself turned out to be a nice enough woman, if not still incredibly eerie. She also wasn't much for conversations. Our time together in my dreams was usually spent sitting around a room from my past with not a word spoken between the two of us. Thankfully, only what felt like an hour of the awkward silence equated to how long I normally slept in the waking world.

Day after day, night after night, things dragged on and I began to grow accustomed to the routine the longer Hornroot and Mary stayed gone. All in all, it's wasn't completely terrible. I could keep moving forward with the thought that my Master would eventually warm up to me.

...

"So, what did Fawn have you do today?" Kat asked me between bites of her apple.

I had an apple of my own, but had not eaten much of it. "This and that. More hunting, mostly."

"I see."

The sun was setting off in the distance as Kat and I shared our solitary moment on the hill behind the asylum. It had been mere coincidence when I walked out and found Kat alone behind the asylum the first time. Though we had never talked about making it a regular thing, she never questioned my coming out every evening since then.

"Aren't you going to ask how my day was?"

Kat did not meet my eyes when I looked over at her. Her gaze remained far off in the distance, somewhere amidst the forest of apple trees or the looming mountains.

"H-How was your day?"

I winced at my own stutter, but it could not be helped. This was the first time Kat had ever asked such a thing. Normally, only a few words would be shared between us before we spent the rest of the sunset in silence.

"Not good." She surprised me again when she turned her head to meet my look. "I didn't get to see much of you."

I had messed up. Kat was beautiful every hour of the day, but when the light from the setting sun touched her face. Her lips. Her eyes. It was too much for words.

"You're hilarious," I said, somehow managing to find the words as I turned away from her.

"I'm serious."

A hand found its way to my shoulder. Gentle, cautious. As if it was testing to see how far it could go. Unconsciously, I bit down on my lip as the hand trailed down my arm.

I only had the presence of mind to say something when I felt her touch leave me entirely. "Kat—"

"You've been dreaming about her a lot, lately."

Sometimes this would happen. I wouldn't realize I was in a dream until Ash turned up and basically announced as much. Other times, I would slowly come to the realization on my own and Ash would then appear as though she had always been there.

I much preferred the latter. Turning back around, expecting to see Kat, and instead coming face to face with the strange woman with bulging blue eyes and skin pale enough to see the veins was like something out of a nightmare. Also, without realizing, my body was once again that of a fox.

The scene around us did not change, but it was like someone had pushed the pause button. The trees did not stir, the grass did not rustle, the air itself had frozen around us. All was deathly silent.

"Your dreams are much less interesting when they revolve around her," Ash went on, looking over to the sun that was now stuck in its half-sunk position. "Single-minded."

"Sorry to disappoint, but that's what happens when you miss someone. You can't stop thinking about them."

I had stopped caring much about what I said around Ash. She was little more than a stranger, maybe even more like a piece of background. Whatever I said had little effect on her, and I was more than sure she chose to forget most of it.

With an uninterested grunt, Ash stood up from where Kat had been sitting and took a few steps out onto the hill. When she turned back to face the asylum, she held up her hands and formed a rectangle with a few fingers, as if she was trying to line up the building for the perfect picture.

"It's the asylum again. You dream of it often as well."

I sat back and leaned my arms against the floor of the porch. Might as well get comfortable for the next hour. "Well, it was my home for two years. I don't remember much about the places I've been to before it."

"There was the strip mall you visited with your friends. A high-school you went to. There was also a park, a cabin, and the train station—"

"Right, yes, there was those places too." I raised a brow in Ash's direction. This was more than she usually talked in one sitting. "Is there something wrong with me dreaming about this place all the time?"

Ash nodded vigorously. "Yes. It shows that you are too narrow-minded. You are focusing your time and energy on too few of things. Also, I am growing bored with seeing the same things when you dream."

I cracked a smile, a rarity during solo times with Ash, and was about to say something when I was hit with a reminder that struck me like lightning.

It was funny how memory worked between dreams and the waking word. Well, I say funny when I really mean incredibly annoying. The things I learned in the dreams were separated from the waking world by a thick veil of forgetfulness, and it worked both ways. If I learned of something important, or if something happened in one world, I wouldn't retain the experience in the other unless something happened to trigger me to recall it.

Such was the case when talking about Kat suddenly caught my dream self up to speed with everything involving her in the waking world.

"You know, Ash, you could maybe help me with clearing my head a bit."

Ash lowered her hands before turning back to me and giving me one of her trademark head tilts. "Oh? I can?"

"Yes." I sat up, but tried to remain casual. "I actually found out, not too long ago, that Kat is staying at a hospital. Your hospital, to be exact."

Despite my calm demeanor, a warning flag or two seemed to wave inside Ash's mind as she gave me a rare, suspicious leering of her eyes. "You want me to help you find her?"

"I know Mary more than likely told you to keep her hidden from me, but since I found out myself there's no problem now, right?"

Ash's eyes widened back to their normal dazed look as she seemed to ponder what I was saying. "I suppose..."

"Right, right. And, here's the thing, if you help me reunite with her, not only will seeing her make me stop thinking about her so much, but I could also give her one of your pills."

"The plan." The pale woman piqued at that as much as she was able.

"Yes, you remember!" I was standing up now, no longer concerned with scaring her off. We were back on the same page. "I happened to run into a few of Son's goons who were making off with a crate full of your pills. I now have a full bottle of them and all I need is to find Kat and then you can have another familiar with dreams to wander in."

"That sounds..." Ash's mild perkiness quickly dialed back down to suspicion. "Does she just dream about you?"

"No—Well, I don't think so. I doubt it."

Come to think of it, I wasn't really sure what there was between us right now. There was something there, something different than friends, but I wouldn't call it love. She teased me, I kissed her, but it didn't...It wasn't...

"The discomfort on your face gives me hope," Ash spoke up, snapping me back. "I will continue to help you."

For the second time, a smile unconsciously spread across my face. "That's great. Now, here's what—"

A gentle hand stroked across one of my ears, and I was in the waking world again. Lady Louise was kneeling beside me, wrapped up tight in a grey blanket with whiter than normal skin and dark bags under her eyes.

Over the past month, I noticed she would get sick a lot. More than a normal person should. A lot more than I assumed a witch should. Sometimes it was so bad that she remained in her bedroom for days with my Master having to fetch her food and water. By her appearance, this looked like one of those days.

So, why was she here?

I sat up as the question in my mind helped to wake me up. In response, Lady Louise smiled softly before clasping her hand into a fist against her chest, near her heart, and then pointed towards the kitchen and, I knew, beyond that, the backyard.

Lady Louise and I had been practicing our own form of sign language while we waited for my Master to lighten up. It was slow going, but I knew this one well. She wanted me to check on her daughter.

With an exaggerated yawn, I stepped out from the little dog bed and stretched out my legs. "Still don't know what you expect me to do if something were to happen," I thought out-loud, knowing very well I was basically talking to myself. "Rosetta takes better care of herself then I ever could."

Lady Louise only continued her soft smile as she put an open palm to her chest before bowing her head to me. A thank you.

When I finished stretching my legs, I returned the nod with a tiny tilt of my head. "Guess we both don't have much choice here."

While I was enjoying the long Hornroot hiatus, I could clearly see his absence was having a gradually increasing impact on Lady Louise and my Master. The former was a stressed out ball of nerves while the latter grew more and more distanced from us, spending almost all of her time during the day in that cramped shed. I knew my Master still snuck out some nights and usually did not return for several hours. After what happened last time, I decided not to follow her any longer.

I was still on the edge of waking up when I stepped outside and saw the dog. Some little hairy thing damp from a recent rainstorm. Its back was to me as it crouched low to the ground and stalked in the direction of the shed.

Without being entirely sure what I intended on doing, I mimicked its stealth as I followed it through the frosted grass. When the dog reached the point where the grass met the humble wooden porch that led to the shed, it stopped. It remained low to the ground, like a lion stalking its prey—its body pointed towards the door of the shed.

I stopped about a few meters behind it. We could both clearly hear the sounds of my Master punching and kicking something within the building. Her cries of fury and frustration that accompanied the blows made the small dog visibly flinch every time. I could tell by its raised haunches that it wasn't fear that made it tense—it was anticipation.

The predator had finally found its prey.

I could try to kill it. One, firm, clamp on the back of its neck would do more than finish the job. But it would have to be perfect, precise. I wasn't trained much in fighting, and that was with my human body. This weak form was made for stealth and surprise. If I missed, there was a good chance the dog would overpower me and kill me.

And I wasn't ready to die for that brat.

So, I waited. The dog waited. It took less time than I thought for my Master to finish her training. 

As she stepped out from the shed, wiping sweat from her face, I told myself that she would be fine. That she could handle one dog that was not much bigger than me.

Those thoughts went out the window when the dog suddenly grew three times its size and leapt the distance between it and my Master in one single bound. To my Master's credit, her reflexes were sharp enough to put up an arm against the massive jaws of the creature. It was the only thing that kept her from being killed outright.

...

*Author's Note*

Is this the cruelest cliffhanger I have created yet? Yes, yes I think it might be. However, if any of you long time readers can think of another, crueler cliffhanger I've made in the past I would be interested to see how this one stacks up. I always like to try to one-up my past self, that guy usually has it coming.

So, what do you all think this new encounter has in store for the fox and his Master? Will they overcome it together, or be torn further apart? Whatever your thoughts, I would love to hear 'em!