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Chapter Forty-Three: Forgotten Memories

Vernon opened his bleary eyes, blinking numbly as a soft chill ran through his fur. It was dark, the pale yellow glow of iridescent lighting barely illuminated the old oaken porch as the wolf's eyes adjusted. He wasn't sure exactly how long he had Dawn had been camped out on the porch, lost in a haze of the drowsy, sluggish feeling that now racked his frame. Surely he had nodded off, and judging by just how dark the meadow beyond the porch had grown, enough time had passed to obscure the moonlight from touching the area beyond the shadow of the porch. Perhaps it was simple clouds, or worse yet, the wolf's unintentional nap had allowed a majority of the night to drift by without him noticing. Hiding the glow of the moon far on the other end of the house, and leaving the area shrouded and dark.

Another chilly breeze ruffled through his fur, the scent of winter blustering in on its heel as the wolf shuddered. Subconsciously, the wolf tightened his grip around the ewe he had been holding against his body. But as what he thought was Dawn's frame completely collapsed into his grip, the wolf quickly snapped awake. Looking at his paws, the wolf found nothing more than one of his mother's old guest quilts, something he was certain had been passed to the family by a friendly caprid neighbor. The wide red and yellow stitching and fluffy woolen strands were only vaguely similar to his mates in appearance, and held some semblance of warmth. But lacked the plush, comforting heat that only Dawn seemed to carry when he held her close. The surprise swap had set the wolf's ears at attention. He couldn't quite remember when he had dragged out a quilt for the pair, but more pressingly, Dawn was no longer curled up next to him.

Tossing the blanket aside, the wolf scanned the porch swing for any trace of the ewe. But even in the dim lighting he could easily tell she was missing. Aside from the quilt, there wasn't a scrap of wool for as far as he could trace the lighting. From corner to corner the small boxed in porch was empty save for himself, which only only lead the wolf to surmise that for whatever reason Dawn had slipped back into the Hunter Ranch without him.

The wolf's legs felt like jelly as he tried to rise to his feet, most likely a result of the odd position he had dozed off in. They had grown so numb that the wolf stumbled as the swing moved under his weight, and if Vernon hadn't managed to catch one of the posts holding up the netted enclosure with a paw, he most likely would have collapsed directly onto his snout.

Vernon let out a tired snort, rubbing his eyes blearily as they fell on the meadow beyond the screen. Nothing but shapeless forms in the cold, dark night. The sound of dwindling crickets and the weak trickle of the nearby stream were all that seemed to lie beyond the pale. But as Vernon prepared to turn to the house and begin his search for the ewe indoors, his eyes caught a flicker of something in the dark. A shimmer of weak moonlight across something in the distance that grabbed the wolf's attention immediately. Vernon pressed his muzzle against the mesh screen of the porch as hard as he could, squinting his eyes as he struggled to discern the source of the glimmer from the vague shapes out in the dark. Holding a paw over his eyes in an effort to block out the remaining light in an effort to draw his slumbering night eyes to the surface after the light had chased them away. For a few moments, the meadow remained vague and formless, his mind filling in the gaps of where the river and hills were based on his memories of the sight in the day. But slowly he began to actually see the hint of the rocks and trees, the shimmering of the water as the stream broke among various stones on its trip by the property. The weak flickers were almost enough to allow the wolf to simply write off what he had seen as merely that. But as his eyes continued to adjust he saw yet another quick flash of that broad shine, the light dancing over the shape of a glasses lens as it stared back at him from the dark.

The form was small and dark, but unmistakable. Dawn was standing out there. Alone. In the dark. Simply staring back at him. She couldn't have been more than twenty feet or so away, just shy of the stream. And while he couldn't make out the ewe's features in the dark, he could only assume she must have been in distress. At the very least, the sight alone had put Vernon ill at ease.

"Dawn?" Vernon whispered softly in the dark. But the form remained unmoving, standing in place as it continued to stare back at him. She didn't reply, or even make a sound, leaving only the chirping of crickets and the trickling stream to fill the unnerving vacuum left in the absence.

Vernon wearily stumbled to the porch door, spreading it open quietly as the wolf leaned against the frame for support. His legs still felt somewhat numb, and the blood seemed to be taking its sweet time to run back into them.

"Honey Lamb?" The wolf barked into the dark. "What are you doin' out there?"

The ewe remained silent, her glasses lens simple shimmering slightly as the wolf adjusted his gaze in an attempt to better make out her face.

The wolf took a few shaky steps forward, nearly tripping down the short flight of stairs to the yard as he began to move in her direction. The night sky had grown darker since he had dozed off. Not only had the moon drifted out of sight, but even the stars appeared to be fewer in number as the wolf dumbly tromped into the moist grass of the meadow. There was an unnerving, unnatural feeling to it all, and Vernon felt his hackles slowly rising with each progressive step.

"Dawn, are you playin' some sorta ga-?" The wolf was unable to complete his sentence as the ewe suddenly turned toward the dark of the stream, her form shrinking as it began to move further into the darkness. The wolf heard her hooves splash through the stream as she crossed it, sprinting further away from the wolf.

In response the wolf picked up the pace. His staggering gait improving as he began to jog toward the stream. He wasn't exactly sure what Dawn was playing at. If it was a prank or something else, but it only managed to make the wolf more uncomfortable.

The water was chilling as Vernon waded into the calf deep stream. His toes curling as his sensitive paw pads felt as though they were suddenly icing over. But what made the sensation all the more unbearable was the sudden gust of wind that bristled over his fur as he entered the water. A decisively colder chill that had the wolf bracing his upper arms as it seeped into his bones.

"D-Dawn, t-this ain't fu-" Despite trudging out of the stream, the cold never seemed to leave the wolf. The unnatural chill that somehow cut through the defenses of his plush, thick fur. The air shouldn't have been this cold for fall, even this late at night. It was faintly familiar to the wolf somehow, but he did his best to push through the feeling as he continued to pursue the dark shape of Dawn Bellwether that had once again grown still on the hilly banks ahead.

At least until he got close again. Because as soon as Vernon was within ten feet of her, she took of sprinting once more, further into the dark toward the mountains beyond.

"Da-!" Another chilling, frosty gust, this time accompanied with a faint, rising fog that chilled the wolf deep down in the core of his being. The wolf grit his teeth sharply, biting the air as he began to grow frustrated.

"Dawn this ain't funny!" The wolf began a brisk jog toward her, and in turn the ewe continued to sprint away. Deeper into the dark, into the fog as the wolf struggled to keep up with her. He couldn't remember the ewe begin so fast before, then again smaller mammals tended to be pretty good at running circles around larger ones. It was a strange concept to consider, after all, his mate had never seemed to be the athletic type. "We're gonna get lost out here!"

More running, more fog, more darkness. The wolf's eyesight was failing him now. He had lost sight of his mate, and was only running based on the sounds her hoof falls made. It was only when the fog had become so thick that it became impossible to see a few feet beyond his snout did the wolf pause to pace himself. Placing his paws on his knees, the wolf panted softly as he tried to catch his breath.

"Mam' I'm outta shape..." Vernon muttered. "Maybe I should have been a police officer after all..." The wolf whined, running a paw through his damp head fur. "Least I'd be fit enough to chase-."

"BaaAhahah!" A bleat? It sounded like one. The jarring call had Vernon's ears at attention once again, his ears tilting and twisting in an effort to discern where the sound had come from.

The fog was thick enough to cut with a knife. But within the smog, he could see that familiar glimmer. Vernon furrowed his brow in annoyance.

"Dawn!" Vernon whined as he began to trudge in her presumed direction. "Can ya stop alrea-!"

Vernon froze as his eyes adjusted to what he was seeing. It was a door. At least, it looked like one. A cold steel door with a glass pane at about the wolf's height. It filled the wolf with a sense of familiarity that made his stomach drop, yet he couldn't quite place it. And for some strange reason, the wolf found himself drawn to it. Vernon held out his paws as he grew closer and closer to the object in the fog, a million questions running through his mind as he struggled to figure out just where he had recognized the worn, reinforced door from. It seemed so familiar to him, as if it were etched into his brain, but it remained on the tip of his tongue. As cloudy in its nature as the fog that swirled around him. It was only when the wolf 's paws finally made contact with the glass that he heard it.

Screams. It was all Vernon could hear. That familiarly haunting shrieking that brought a flood of memories rushing back to him in an instant. The sound of shredding vocal chords called out from the savage beasts with only the faint droning of an alarm blaring in the distance as it echoed through the night. Some were the feral bleats of mammals that had lost their minds. But it was the painful, terrified squeals, those were the ones that truly shook the wolf. The sound of the unaffected mammals desperately trying to flee only to be met by the brute force of their night howler stricken comrades. The shrill screams pierced his mind as they echoed through the night, sending shivers down his spine as the baleful sounds rooted themselves within him, unwilling to be shaken out. It was a horrific din Vernon would never be able to forget, the sound permanently burned into his memory from that dreadful dark night in Tundratown. That unforgettable, traumatic evening spent trapped in the frigid abandoned slaughtering ground that was the old abandoned Woolery Wine Bottling Plant, the night when hell had come to Zootopia.

The fog the wolf had left behind had seemingly vanished, and it its place a room had formed around the wolf, boxing him in and separating him from the world beyond. A familiar room, at least in some aspects, to the one the wolf had found himself trapped in that very night. However, it's appearance made it look as though it had aged significantly since the last time he was there.

The dilapidated. Rusted steel walls bent and warped unevenly as they rose to meet the ceiling, causing the condemned chamber to appear to differ in height greatly from corner to corner. Where there once had been reinforced, unbreakable windows, there was now nothing but a wall of creeping ice. A thick frost that had squeezed in through the seams in the old, weakened plating, and spread over it as the perpetual winter from Tundratown forced its way inside. It had layered itself so thick that the original wall was barely visible through the opaque sheen of the frost, and icicles, some as tall as the wolf and deadly sharp now dangled from the top most edges of the icy wall. The massive dangling daggers taking an unnaturally deep azure color in the poorly lit observation chamber.

In the rooms center, the remnants of broken chairs lay partially frozen to the floor along with strips of icy, frayed rope. Broken shards of seating the wolf recognized as the ones he and his companions had been strapped to, as well as the shreds of frozen rope splayed across the floor after they had made their escape. The only thing that had seemed to retain any semblance of how it appeared as the wolf had first seen it was the reinforced steel door with the view port that now separated him from the once gray fog he had been rushing toward while chasing his mate. A fog that had swelled into an angry, deep blue hue that had enveloped the rest of the factory within its icy embrace. A smog so thick that it made the area beyond the door appear to be little more than a featureless void, save for nothing but the ghostly shapes of drifting smoke and the overwhelming, oppressive deep blue hue that saturated the world outside.

Vernon was here again. Back in that terrible place, and in his mind, back in that terrible moment. The night he had nearly lost Dawn. The general motions of the event seeming to repeat themselves right down to the wolf finding himself pressed against the door, his paws clutching against the glass as if he were attempting to escape the relative safety of the sealed chamber. To rescue to his mate, his Dawn. The ewe who was now left to the mercy of the feral and savage rams almost double her size, and out for blood. And there was nothing he could do about it.

'Even if I could break through this door, what good would it do?' The wolf thought. Once he ventured beyond the door, he was sure to succumb to the effects of the night howler toxin that had consumed the outer factory. He knew better. He knew what night howler was capable of, and what it would do to his mind should he venture into the cloud. If he even found Dawn within the blinding plume, he would surely be at more risk of harming her in a savage state. After all, Nick had told him as much in...

It was that thought that broke the wolf out of sequence. Bringing a halt to the flow of the scene currently replaying itself as his paws dropped listlessly from the door. Vernon had gotten out, they all had. Hadn't they? The wolf's memories were foggy and muddled beyond the scene that laid before him, and try as he might to recall just what had happened, his head burned and throbbed in response. It didn't make any sense to the wolf. How had they gotten back to this place?

Another bleat sounded, echoing through the deep blue fog beyond the door. This one, a more familiar guttural call that made Vernon's stomach drop as in rang out over the chaos outside the door. The feral call that had, more so than anything else that night, truly left the wolf scarred. Because he knew who it had come from, and the painful sight his mind associated with it. The wolf froze, tears beginning to well in his eyes as he tried to muster the courage to turn back to the door. To look out that window and see what Aster's terrible weapon had done to his Honey Lamb. To be faced once again with the twisted and agonizing sight, and not be able to do anything more than watch. The wolf gulped, the tears steadily streaming from his eyes as he slowly began to turn himself toward the door.

There, crawling out of the blue haze, was the familiar form of Dawn Bellwether. The ewe stalking toward the door on all fours. Her gait seemed to waiver as she stepped, her hooves shaky and uneven. Although whether that was due to the effects of the night howler overwhelming her nervous system, or that she had already taken a hit or two from some of the crazed rams lost in the fog was uncertain. The clothes she had been wearing that day were tattered, damaged as though she had already been in a scuffle or two before making her way toward the wolf. Her glasses retained the damage they had taken from the trip over the falls, one of the lenses being fractured into a spider web of shards. And behind them lay those unnaturally blue eyes, smoldering with rage as she stared back at the wolf with a familiar, fearful glare. The ewe raised a hoof, backing up slightly as Vernon placed a paw on the pane of glass.

"D-Dawn..." Vernon choked. The wolf wasn't fully sure what was happening, but never the less it hurt all the same just to see the ewe like this again. It felt as though a blade had been twisted directly into his chest, deep into his heart as he braced against the door. Each beat sending a renewed agonizing jolt of pain as he appraised his poor Dawn.

From there it played out just as he remembered, or at least he thought he did. He watched the ewe's eyes soften, a vague look of recognition overtaking them as she cautiously continued her approach to the door. It seemed as if a part of her remembered something. A fleeting fragment, some image, a vague impulse. Now that Vernon was watching her a second time, studying the ewe's features even more intensely, he was damn certain of it.

"Dawn! " Vernon barked, his paw sliding down the door as the ewe froze again. "Floofs!" The wolf sniffled sharply, pawing at his eyes in an effort to wipe away the tears as he continued. " I'm here Darlin'. Its me..." The wolf whimpered.

The ewe took another meek step, her tightly grit teeth, clearly braced from the strain relaxing into a soft frown.

"It's Puppy Love!" Vernon whined. "You know me! I know you do!"

Vernon watched as the ewe slowly sat down, but unlike what he remembered of that cold June night, she remained facing him. The feral lamb tilting her head curiously at the wolf behind the glass.

"I don't know what's going on Floofs." Vernon panted. "But I'm gonna get you out this time! I swear it!"

Dawn's eyes began to shimmer, and the wolf watched as a single tear slipped down the corner of one of her seemingly iridescent eyes. She did remember him. Even in that state, her night howler addled mind managed to see past the wolf's pelt. Through some miracle, Dawn seemed to be overpowering the drug. It was proof that Nick had been wrong.

"Daaaawnnniieeee..." A raspy, hideous growling voice emanated from the fog, the coldness and tenor of it causing both the wolf and lamb to jump. It was familiar, disturbingly so despite how mangled it sounded. In the distance, Vernon could make out a slumping silhouette against the fog. At first, he couldn't make out anything, other than the dull blue glow of what he initially thought was some sort of penlight. But as the hunched, limping figure dragged itself out of the shadow, Vernon found himself recoiling in sheer terror.

The wolf recognized the creature shuffling its way out of the fog as Aster Bellwether, at least to some degree. The wretched old ram who had been the mastermind behind the scheme to tear Zootopia apart with the same toxin that now consumed him. The miserable drunk who had abused Dawn and her mother for decades, and set Dawn on her initial path of self-destruction. A ram Vernon hated to the point that even uttering his name forced bile up into his throat. And if given the chance Vernon would have paid to be locked in a room with the mammal for even just five minutes to make him pay for everything he had done to his own wife and child.

But the familiar hateful churning in his gut found itself completely replaced by overwhelming fear. A paralyzing terror that had the wolf glued to the spot he now stood, his mouth hanging agape as he desperately tried to figure out just what he was truly looking at.

What Vernon was staring back at was nothing short of a demon. He was like something out of a nightmare, and as Vernon stared at what remained of Aster he could only shudder. The ram was more skeletal than mammal. His once crisp brown suit so badly burnt beyond recognition it simply clung to him in gristly tatters, and his now deeply blackened color wool was wildly unkempt, at least in the places where it remained. The rams features were dark and ashen, the wrinkles on his skin forming deep cracks as if he were made of crumbling obsidian stone.

Vernon's eyes traced his remaining horn. The exaggerated, fractured spiral almost as large as the rest of his body. And his once flattened, skewed teeth now pointed and bestial, his maw oozing with night howler solution as he clamped down on his stub of a cigar. But the most horrific feature of all was the ram's eyes. Both were just as hateful as Vernon remembered, but only one of them was truly intact. His left eye was simply a socket, a hole which burned with a smoldering blue pupil in the center. Vernon felt a violent shudder travel down his form as the burning dot fell directly on him. It filled him with a cold, empty chill that nearly stopped his heart. An icy feeling so all-encompassing, that it would make a blizzard in Tundratown feel like a heat wave in Sahara Square.

The ghostly ram's muzzle twisted into a sinister grin as he glared over the two huddled on opposite sides for the door. Aster clasped at the cigar in his jaw, his chest expanding slowly as he took a prolonged drag. The startlingly blue ember ignited as his chest swelled, a deep blue smoke billowing from some of the holes in his suit as he breathed in deeply. Vernon clasped a paw over his muzzle, trying desperately to suppress the sudden urge to retch at the horrific sight.

Aster exhaled sharply, smoke pouring not only from his muzzle, but the nearly empty socket, and the hole in his skull where one of his horns used to be. The deep azure smoke mingled with the toxic fog briefly before becoming completely indistinguishable from it.

"It's time to come home Dawnie dear." Aster hissed. "To join the rest of us where you belong..." The beast snarled. The ewe let out a startled bleat, backing closer to Vernon as she eyed the creature with fright. Of course, Vernon wasn't doing much better. The fear that had overtaken the wolf had left him frozen in place, his body trembling as he struggled to make sense of the sight that stood across from him and his mate.

"A-Aster..." Vernon muttered dumbly, his throat tightening as he struggled to swallow.

The ram let out a low, throaty chuckle that made Vernon's stomach churn.

"Well, well, well..." The monster's blue ember of an eye fixed back to Vernon, sending another shiver through him. "The mutt's here too?"

The crumbling, charred form took a step closer, tilting his head curiously.

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised..." Small wisps of blue smoke emanated from the holes in his face as he shook his head. "Still tryin' desperately to hold on to somethin' that doesn't belong to you?"

"Belong?' Vernon muttered, his confusion managing to dissipate some of the fear that had crept into his bones. The wolf pressed his paws against the glass on the door, glancing out at the specter in the distance.

"She belongs to me." Aster replied, his hideously fanged smile returning. " I spent my whole life training that girl, investing so much of my time to make sure she grew up to be something I could be proud of." The ram took another drag of his cigar, the blue smog swirling around him as he exhaled. "I reared her to be just like me. To ensure my legacy is secured one way or another."

Vernon felt that familiar surge of hate building inside his gut, fueling a rage that was quickly overcoming the wolf's fears.

"You don't own Dawn. No one does." Vernon began to growl softly. "She's a mammal, she ain't property!"

Aster let out a chilling, pitying laugh. A raspy chuckle that came off as belittling to the wolf's words. which only served to stoke Vernon's ire that much further.

"And what legacy?" Vernon spat. "You have no legacy! Dawn is nothing like you, and she ain't never gonna be!" The wolf snarled.

Aster chuckled, taking the stump of a cigar out of his dribbling maw and eyeing it thoughtfully for a moment. The ram's mismatched eyes followed the smoke trail as it mingled with the surrounding fog.

"You really think so boy?" Aster asked.

"She turned on you! She stopped you when she had every chance not to!" Vernon growled. "She's not going to finish what you started, she never will!"

"Heh heh heh." The laugh was different, something of a mixture between amusement and a growl. It was enough to send another frigid chill into the wolf's core.

"Oh, did you think I meant to take over the city?" The withered ram shook his head dismissively. "Oh no, we're past that now as you can already tell by my rather unique condition."

The ram extended his frail, darkened arms as portions of his tattered suit jacket fell to dust, the fragments turning into the wisps of the same blue fog the filled the room.

"I'm simply here to collect." The ram muttered, allowing his arms to drift back to his sides lamely. A few more ribbons of his jacket dissipating as he did.

"C-collect?' Vernon quirked a curious eyebrow.

"She lived as I did for so long, it is only fair that she perish along with the rest of us." Aster tutted. "To be spared the same retribution well..." The ram trailed off, placing the cigar back into his muzzle and taking another drag. "It's not really fair is it?"

Vernon glanced down at the feral ewe back up against the door. Her wild eyes glancing back up at his with a fearful gaze.

"I've come to take her to where she belongs." Aster continued. "To keep our name from being any further sullied by your unnatural union." The ram sneered. "To leave some semblance of a legacy for those few who shared the dream that my father and I were striving towards bringing to life. To inspire others to continue with what we started instead of leaving it branded as the name associated with a filthy crosser!"

"Y-you!" Vernon struggled, dragging a paw down the glass as he desperately tried to think of something he could do. He had to get to Dawn. The possible effects of the night howler be damned. "You can't have her!"

"And what are you gonna do?" Aster muttered, taking another step forward. "You gonna stop me?" The ram let out a chuckle.

Vernon slammed his arms against the door in a burst of frustration, but it refused to budge. This only made Aster bust into a full blown cackle, the sound of which made Vernon sick to his stomach.

"I will!" Vernon growled, slamming against the door again. Still it remained fixed in the frame.

Aster shook his head dismissively, letting out a pleasant sigh before raising one of his twisted hooves and snapping his fingers.

In that instant, the sounds of the factory died away. The echoing snap traveling through the vacuum before falling silent amidst the howler fog. Aster took another drag from his cigar, puffing out more of the night howler gas.

"Now, now my boy." Aster's smile made Vernon want to retch. "Dawn has no place with a mammal like you..." The ram trailed, letting out a slight wheeze. "She doesn't belong here. And the existence of your deluded attempt at forging a 'relationship' which runs contrary to the natural order of things is merely just more proof of that." The ram emphasized the word by shifting to a mocking tone.

"But we have a place for her." Aster uttered, his smile returning.

Vernon stopped short of slamming his fists against the glass when he caught a glimmer of movement from the fog. A larger shape was shuffling out of the mist at a considerably slower pace than Aster had entered with, and its form was unrecognizable until it grew close enough to actually see.

Vernon's jaw dropped once again as he struggled to process the disgusting mass of mammals he was staring at. It had clearly once been multiple rams, if the limbs and horns could tell him anything. The jagged horns all pointed at the top of the converged creature as if they were the twisted branches of tree limbs clawing up to the sky. Its multiple withered and stubby legs dragged the bulk of the creature forward, drawing it closer to Dawn as many sets of glowing blue eyes darted in various directions at a frenzied pace. Each movement was punctuated with what sounded like dull, painful bleating groans, as if the simple movements caused the beast a great degree of pain. However, the most distinctive forms in the mass were what appeared to be two large heads. They shared similarly gnarled, exaggerated teeth and hooves much like Aster's, each having their own large, muscular arm to each side of the heads. The only difference between them was the head on the left had a third eye between the primary two, the socket hollow save for a similar blue glowing pupil like the one Aster had.

The eyes on both heads, as well as the various other ones that stippled the surface of their form continued to dart spastically in multiple directions, seemingly scanning the surrounding area with a laser like precision. But as it slid alongside Aster, the mass of glowing eyes ceased all movement before all at once falling on Vernon. As they focused on the wolf, even more eyes began to open along the pale blue skin of the mass of rams. Eyes the wolf was sure it didn't have before, all staring into him with a chilling, cold intensity. For a moment, Vernon found himself locked under the horrific, infinitely judgmental gaze that had beset him, the wolf feeling almost two inches tall.

A wave of renewed terror rushed through Vernon, making his fur stand on end as the wolf stumbled back from the door. He was overwhelmed by the desperate urge to run, to flee from the monstrosities gathering within that cold tomb. And if not for the fact that his Honey Lamb was still trapped within the factory, the wolf might not have been able to stop himself from doing just that. But a fearful bleat from the ewe had the wolf back up against the door in seconds. The fear for Dawn's safety overtaking the fear of the creatures within.

"Yes Miss Bellwether." The voice of the three eyed head spoke. It was the same withered, hateful voice as the ram who had been the warden of the prison Dawn had been incarcerated in. The ram who tried to walk away from Aster's plan, only to be met with the cold barrel of a gun. The ram known as Gavin Mouflon.

"There's a special little cell that was made just for you." The other head spoke, which Vernon recognized as Arthur Wooligan, the other warden in Aster's little plot. "Its been lying vacant since the night you were meant to arrive." Arthur added as they continued their slow march forward.

"It's time you share our punishment Miss Bellwether." Mouflon hissed. "You've evaded it long enough."

Both heads seemed to grit their teeth in unison, their deformed muzzles curling into twin sneers.

"Thanks to the meddling of that mongrel!" Both heads snapped, the hateful eyes returning to Vernon's own as the mass let out a serious of lamenting wails from unseen mouths. The strains of tortured rams echoing through the fog as the cluster of rams squirmed in pain.

"She would have went along with the plan if that wolf ha-!"

Wooligan was unable to finish his sentence as Mofloun snapped at him, his gnarled jagged teeth causing Wooligan to draw back just shy of being bitten. In response the other head snapped back, the two seemingly arguing as if they were nothing more than simple wild beasts.

Despite the fear and revulsion staring back at the multi-headed beast stirred in the wolf, Vernon managed to muster enough of his former courage to reply in defiance.

"You got what you deserved!" Vernon hissed back. "What's that thing speciest prey mammals like y'all always say? 'Lay down with dogs, and wake up with fleas?'"

Mouflon and Wooligan let out a sharp, hate filled hiss in unison as they regarded Vernon's words, the many eyes among them now glaring at the wolf behind the glass.

"We ain't here to argue boy..." Mouflon glowered at his companion breifly, causing Wooligan to shirk into the mass meekly. "None of that matters anymore." The ram continued. "We were simply sent back to collect what's ours."

"I won't let you take her." Vernon hissed, pounding against the glass again.

"Death does not take kindly to being cheated boy." Wooligan snorted.

"Yes..." Arthur sneered. "A price must be paid."

"But we will make it right." Wooligan hissed, his muzzle twisting into a gleefully evil smile that stretched into the mass itself. "The way it was meant to be."

From the shadows, two more forms appeared alongside the mass. Both relatively small, but one moving considerably faster than the other.

The smallest, more impish was the first to come into view. Right away Vernon could tell it was Doug Ramses, Dawn's old flame, and Aster's right hoof mammal. But much like the others he was disfigured and distorted. His overall size, as well as the fact he was hunching made him look as though he was half Dawn's size. His withered arms and legs tapering to pointed ends, almost like the legs of an insect as he rubbed his little arm stumps together. Unlike Aster, Doug's wool had apparently been stained by the gas, taking on a deep indigo hue against the fog. His glowing blue eyes darted from side to side nervously for a moment before he set his sights on the couple.

But it was the larger of the two figures that left the wolf bewildered as it stalked out of the fog. The figure that Vernon quickly recognized as the rabbit cop that had recently rekindled her fractured friendship with Dawn. The same rabbit that had been responsible for turning her in all those years ago. Lieutenant Judy Hopps.

The rabbit looked much as he remembered her. Aside from the hateful, night howler infected glare she leveled at the wolf, and the startlingly pointed teeth she seemed to bare. Her once violet eyes now the same piercing blue that told the wolf she was just as infected as Dawn was. Yet there she stood, allied with the ranks of the army of damned rams that were now closing in on the ewe pressed against the door. Dawn began to desperately claw against the metal barrier, her hooves audibly scraping the metal as she let out a series of terrified bleats.

"Un-natural is right." Doug muttered. "I can't believe I ever wanted to get back together with a disgusting pred-baiter like you!"

"Justice needs to be served." Judy uttered, gritting her oddly pointed incisors as she continued to move forward. "She's worse than a criminal..."

"Judy?" Vernon muttered in disbelief.

"She is a monster!" Judy added, not even acknowledging that Vernon had spoken to her.

With that, the wolf was back against the door, beating against it in his struggle to get it open. The horde of hideously mangled mammals seemed to be growing by the minute, all of them closing in on the little ewe pressed against the other side of the cold steel door. He had to get out there, he was running out of time.

"A debt must be paid." Mouflon groaned, a gurgle escaping his throat as his arm dragged the mass ever closer.

"She belongs with us." Wooligan added, his own arm matching Mouflon's motions as it clambered forward.

Among the moans coming from various other parts of the mass that made up Wooligan and Mouflon, Vernon began to hear the rabble of a building crowd. A garble of noise and protests occasionally punctuated with phrases like 'pred-baiter' or 'prey-chaser'. The collective consciousness of the mob trapped within vocalizing its disgust along with the other night howler addled monsters.

Dawn let out another terrified bleat as Vernon continued to hammer away at the door. He beat his paws on the glass, the seams, the lock plate, probing for any weakness, any sign of a give. But the door remained firm.

"A wolf and a sheep?" Doug hissed. "Better dead than with a pred!"

The phrase was swiftly picked up by the churning mass, the groaning voices now chanting in unison.

"Better dead than with a pred!" The ambiguous throng of voices cheered. "Better dead than with a pred!"

They were only a few feet from the ewe now, Aster leading the ranks as he grinned up at Vernon evilly.

"Face it boy. " Aster said coldly. "The last place my little Dawnie belongs is anywhere else but with you."

"Ver-er-er-non?"

The wolf froze, stopping his fruitless barrage of blows against the reinforced door at the sound of his own name. It was a startlingly familiar voice, one he knew all too well despite the staggered, bleating like quality in the way it was delivered. Glancing through the glass view-port, the wolf peered down at his tiny mate. For all intents and purposes, she still appeared as feral as before. But there was a new found softness to her eyes. The smoldering blue tint that had overtaken her irises had seemed to fade slightly, allowing some of the more familiar lime green to seep back into her irises. Dawn's expression was one of a confused sadness, her head tilting slightly as she slowed her frantic pawing at the metal door.

She did remember him. Somehow, despite the odds, despite what Nick had told him, the ewe had managed to remember exactly who he was. Whether she had managed to power through the toxin through sheer force of will, or the nature of the toxin itself couldn't overcome the memories she had of the wolf. But either way, it was enough to send a renewed surge of energy and determination through the wolf. He was going to get out there. He was going to save his Honey Lamb, and nothing was going to stand in his way.

The wolf reeled back, bracing his shoulder with an arm before ramming into the frame as hard as he could. But all it managed to do was make the door tremble slightly within its frame as the vibration of the impact traveled through it. It simply wasn't enough force.

Aster and his minions drew closer to the ewe, mere feet away from her now as she returned to her desperate scraping against the door.

"Ver-er-er-non!" The call was still feral, but more pleading now. She called again and again over the desperate sound of her own scraping hooves.

"Now, now boy. It's better this way." Aster grinned, adjusting the hem of his tattered coat with a gnarled hoof. The bulk of the charred material fell away as he did so. "After all, don't we both have family names to preserve?"

Vernon ignored the ram as he slammed into the door again, this time from further back into the room. Again the door remained fixed within its frame, shuddering, but defiant under the impact of his arm.

"An order to preserve." Mouflon hissed.

"Law to uphold." Judy growled.

Vernon slammed into the door again and again, starting his charge from further away each time. But despite his best efforts the door refused to budge.

"Ve-er-er-er-non! He-ee-ee-lp!" The ewe cried. Her bleating practically shrill now as the mob began to descend on her. Vernon could see the monstrous paws of the creatures all clutching at her, the ewe writhing and swatting at the mass of mammals in a desperate attempt to avoid their grasp.

But it was a short lived fight. The ewe was both too small, and simply far too outnumbered to hold her own against the creatures in the fog, and soon enough they had a firm grip on the feral sheep. Each of the mammals holding her still with a paw as they began to drag her away from the door.

"VERNON!"

The feral nature of her tone had completely slipped away now, replaced by the pure, unaltered call of his mate. Dawn writhed in their claws, trying desperately to pull free as she reached back toward Vernon with an outstretched hoof. Her eyes were green now, pure and untainted by the howler that still filled the room around her.

Vernon froze, but only for a moment as Dawn's call resonated within him. The wave of realization quickly giving way to an even more intense burning determination. It felt as though fire was now coursing through his veins as he made his way to the far end of the room. Now against the adjourning wall, the wolf readied himself for another charge, bracing his arm as he lowered his hateful glare on the mammals now dragging Dawn away from him. The wolf took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he tried to channel as much energy as possible within himself in preparation for his charge. He could feel every muscle in his body tightening in anticipation as he held his breath, his entire body tensing like a coiled spring as he prepared to throw every ounce of strength and will he could muster at the seemingly impenetrable barrier.

Vernon's nostrils flared as he exhaled sharply, his eyes flying open as he let out a roaring snarl. He was charging with reckless abandon, his eyes fixed on the door that was rapidly approaching, and the mammals that were drawing farther and farther away behind it. He was almost on it now, and the wolf closed his eyes as he braced for another sharp impact. He wasn't sure exactly how much the impact would hurt, but as long as it knocked the door loose, the wolf was more than willing to endure it.

But the sudden, sharp impact the wolf had been expecting never came. Instead, Vernon was met with what felt like little more than plywood that quickly gave way under his charge. His eyes flew open in surprise as he lurched through the frame, revealing the door to be bending and warping unnaturally under the weight of his body as they both toppled to the floor.

Vernon hit the ground with a thud, the impact sending a dull shock through the wolf's braced arms that resonated through his entire frame like a tuning fork. It was painful, but Vernon had barely registered the pulse of pain as his attention was now fixed on the formerly reinforced door that had shattered like glass beneath his body. The shards were quickly withering away from under him. The once thick, impenetrable barrier curling and charring as if it were nothing more than a scrap of paper being burnt away by some phantom flame. The remaining ashes quickly swirling up into the same blue smoke that filled the rest of the chamber. The wolf was bewildered for a moment, running a paw though his mane of fur as he glanced back at the room he had left behind in disbelief.

Much like the door, it too was disintegrating away. The night howler that surrounded the chamber and created the void the wolf now found himself seemingly thrashing against what remained of the room like the ocean tide against the shore. Each pulse of the fumes causing what remained of the room to crumble and wither in the same way the door had. Its lingering, powdery remnants adding to the billowing blue haze that had consumed the rest of the world.

"VERNON!" Dawn's call drew Vernon's attention back on the mob that was moving through the fog. The mass of mammals that held his writhing mate had gained so much distance that they had began to fade back into silhouettes as they dragged her deeper into the fog. Growing increasingly darker and more formless while Dawn's outstretched hoof continued to claw desperately toward Vernon.

"DA-" Vernon had barely opened his mouth to reply before night howler smog quickly washed in to fill the empty space. It had flooded into his open muzzle almost as soon as he had opened it, the toxic fumes carried by his breath down his throat and filling his lungs as he began to gag. The wolf let out a ragged series of coughs as he tried to stumble to his feet. His chest felt as though it was filled with fire, with each shallow breath he managed to take in almost as abruptly expelled in a painful, hoarse coughing fit. It made it hard to fully rise to his feet, and that much more difficult to begin his trudge through the swirling haze between him and Dawn as he reached for her desperate hoof.

A part of Vernon was terrified. The toxin was in him now, and he continued to breathe in dose after dose as he struggled to adjust his labored breathing to something he could tolerate. For the time being his mind still seemed clear, at least enough to keep his focus on the trapped ewe that he was rapidly catching up to. But in the back of his mind, a growing sense of paranoia was starting to take hold of his rational mind. A rising fear, jumping irrationally at every unusual sensation or impulse as the wolf nervously awaited the effects of the drug to begin to show. To take control of his mind and reduce him to little more than a savage mongrel, leaving him unable to save Dawn while lost in the haze of the howler.

But the effects never seemed to come, at least in the way he had expected. Vernon's senses only seemed to grow sharper as he adjusted to his surroundings. His lungs had started to adapt to the foul air, and while the toxin still tingled as it entered his lungs, it had ceased to slow the wolf's progress toward Dawn. He was quickly closing the gap between himself and the mob, and only seemed to gain speed as his balance and senses managed to stabilize. His vision was growing increasingly tight as it remained fixed on the ewe, blocking out the surroundings as he slipped into a sort of tunnel vision. As long as he could hold his focus on the lamb, he was certain he could overcome whatever the toxin could do to him.

"VER-!"

The wolf dove at the ewe, wrapping as much her body as he could in his arms before pulling back with all his might. But the grip on the ewe held by the group of monstrosities was far more powerful than Vernon had anticipated. Despite the rather decayed state of most of the beings, Aster and his horde were considerably stronger than they should have been. And Vernon's underestimation quickly found the wolf slipping backward onto the floor from the sudden halting jerk. His back slammed against the foggy ground, sending a gust of the mist out from under his body as well as free from the wolf's lungs as he let out another painful cough. But despite getting the wind knocked out of him, the wolf maintained his grip on the ewe in his arms.

As Vernon tried to take a breath of the soiled, yet desperately needed air, Aster's minions finally turned their attention to the wolf who was now interfering with their task. The sea of smoldering blue irises that had long taken to ignoring the wolf's presence quickly turned to fix their collectively cold gazes upon him.

"What do you think you're doing boy!?" Aster chuckled, the ram seemingly bemused by Vernon's performance.

"Vernon! Vernon!" The wolf felt Dawn's arms wrap around his neck as she desperately clung to him for safety, and the wolf strengthened his grip in-turn.

Vernon fired off a wild kick at the mob of mammals, managing to strike Mouflon's head hard enough to knock it into Wooligan's with a startlingly loud 'thok'. Immediately the pair withdrew their burly, mangled appendages from gripping at the ewe in Vernon's arms. The two deformed heads quickly turned on one another as they had before, Mouflon snapping his crooked, jagged teeth at Wooligan as the other ram hissed and withdrew. They began to strike at one another with twisted, mangled hooves, A violent slap fight ensuing between the mammals as the mass of eyes on their back began to scramble in all directions in a frenzied panic.

With the largest of the creatures no longer grappling his mate, Vernon managed to pull himself onto his feet, allowing the wolf to take a better stance in this game of tug-of-war he suddenly found himself in.

"You are wasting your time mutt." Aster chided, the ram freeing up one of his arms to adjust his cigar for a moment. "You are only delaying the inevitable."

Vernon snarled at the dark, ashy looking ram, baring his teeth and chomping at the tainted air as he spoke.

"You don't know anythin' you grizzled old ghost!" Vernon hissed, raising a paw and swatting at Aster's charred frame. The wolf swung wildly at the hoof still gripped to Dawn's waist, slapping at it with open claws. The first two swats did little to free Dawn from Aster's grip, but the third was hard enough to cause Aster's arm to fracture away at the shoulder, the startled old ram stumbling back as his crumbling arm hung limply off the ewe's coat.

Vernon blinked at the severed arm in shock for a moment, his eyes fluttering rapidly as he tried to process what he was seeing. But as quickly as it had broken away from Aster, it began to dissipate in the same way his tattered coat had. The ruined limb cracking into clumps and falling away before turning into more of the fog that surrounded them. In mere seconds Aster's arm was completely gone, nothing more than ashes added to the toxic blue void. With another one of the monster's grips successfully torn away from Dawn, Vernon was starting to drag the remaining mammals back with him as he struggled to pull the ewe free. He was gaining ground, and with a few good tugs, the wolf was certain he could yank Dawn free of Judy and Doug's considerably weaker paws.

Aster narrowed his gaze at his remaining stump of a shoulder that had formerly connected to his arm. Wisps of blue smoke emanated from the wound as if it were the end of his cigar as he began to move the open joint. Excess ashes falling away as he made a few small circles with what was left of his shoulder before letting out an irritated sigh.

"No matter how you try to go about it, it ain't gonna work boy." Aster snarled as his smoldering blue iris fell back on the wolf. "Y'all ain't meant to be together."

Vernon's sneer fell slightly, and while he had maintained a firm grip on his Honey Lamb, Aster's words carried a strange familiarity that gave the wolf pause. His cadence and pitch had changed slightly. It was Aster's voice in some sense, but it had lost some of the gravelly, otherworldly tone he had been speaking in throughout the night, instead taking on more of a rural twang.

"W-What do-?"

"Vernon!" Dawn cried.

The wolf glanced down to find Dawn had buried her face into his pelt, the ewe swabbing it back and forth as she clutched desperately to his chest. Looking back up toward the other mammals, Doug and Judy were still pawing at Dawn in an effort to pull her away as Aster continued to stare at him. The older ram shifted the cigar stub in his muzzle from one side of his mouth to the other as he glared deep into Vernon's eyes, sending another sharp chill down the wolf's spine.

"After what she did to yer brother?" Aster spat. "To yer family?" The ram grinned evilly, his uneven teeth twisting into an impossibly wide smile. Aster's voice had continued to fade, giving way to what sounded like two voices speaking through him, one overlapping the other as they struggled for dominance.

"Why should you always get yer way Vermin?" Aster hissed.

Vernon opened his muzzle in surprise. He tried to speak, but at first he could only make wordless mouth movements as his mind struggled to understand just what he had heard Aster say. After all, there was only one mammal who had ever called him 'Vermin', and Aster wasn't him.

"V-Vermin?" Vernon asked. Furrowing his brow as he struggled to stammer out his follow-up question. "Y-y-?"

"Don't like that name?" Aster asked, his normal cadence returning as he chuckled. "I find it rather fitting, although it might not be my place to say it."

With that, Aster placed his remaining hoof on his cigar, playfully tapping his digits along its slimy surface as he eyed the wolf with a smug sneer.

"But I do know of some mammals who it may sound more...natural coming from." Aster laughed. "Why don't we see what they have to say?"

With that, the cold, blue ember on Aster's cigar began to ignite as he drew deeply of the toxic smog. Vernon could see wisps of night howler leaking from what remained of his suit as he inhaled deeply.

"You miserable little mongrel!" A voice cried as a gnarled hoof suddenly grasped at Dawn's skirt. Mouflon and Wooligan had apparently concluded their little spat while Vernon had been distracted, and were keen to return to the task at hoof. Luckily, the wolf had managed to pull Dawn just out of reach of the handicapped ram's wild grasp. But the sudden lunge by the mutated Mouflon had taken Vernon's attention off Aster, and as Vernon turned back to face the old, decayed looking ram once more he was met with a face full of pungent, blue cigar smoke.

Vernon hacked and gagged as the fresh wave of rancid toxin surrounded him in a blinding blue cloud. It was thick enough to obscure Aster and his cronies, but thankfully he could still see Dawn, and only resolved to grip her more tightly as a result of the sudden partial blindness.

"Vernon! Please-!" Dawn cried.

"Whatever yer tryin'-!" Vernon hacked, knocking what he thought was Judy's paw finally free from its death grip around Dawn's ankle. "It ain't gonna-!"

The sudden feeling of a weighted grip coming to rest on both of Vernon's shoulders sent a frigid chill down the wolf's spine. Despite Aster's smoke screen clouding the wolf's vision to no wider than a few inches from his snout, he could easily make out the gnarled paws that now rested on his shoulders. One with patchy white fur and gnarled claws that jutted from each finger, and the other a moist, slimy black furred paw with similarly mangled claws. The wolf knew as soon as saw the phantom limbs just who they were attached too, but it didn't make it any easier to come to terms with as the smoke faded away to reveal the towering wolves now standing behind him.

Dorian, or at least what Vernon could only assume used to be his father was the owner of the patchy white paw. The mangy white wolf was clad in his familiar, yet tattered sheriff's uniform. It clung to his patchy fur in tattered ribbons, which only served to amplify his warped and spindly features. It was as if his normally more solid build had collapsed into the wolf, sharply increasing his height while withering his hardened features. The towering white mammal stood out against the deep blue fog like an ethereal form, a haggard and twisted old ghost with burning blue judgmental eyes. Smoldering, night howler infected irises that were fixed on the ewe in Vernon's arms.

As for the black, oily paw, it belonged to what Vernon could only assume was his brother Yuri. The jet black wolf's form creating what seemed like a void in the deep blue fog. His wet, slick fur clung to his equally exaggerated and spindly frame like beached seaweed withering on the blistering sands of Sahara Shores. The darkness of his fur made his wild and unruly teeth stand out against the blackness, his fangs curling almost as wildly as the horns of a ram as he gnashed them in Vernon's direction. Unlike Dorian, his smoldering eyes were fixed directly on Vernon.

"Yer gonna give up yer name for that waste of wool!?" Dorian hissed, tugging Vernon's shoulder with a jerk. A congealed night howler color foam dribbled from his maw as he spoke, a substance that seemed that much similar to Aster's own beastly drool.

"Yer better off tithing a sweater Vermin!" Yuri chuckled, clacking his twisted teeth together as he gave the wolf a tug of his own. "At least a sweater doesn't come with the criminal record!"

"I-I don't care what you got to say!" Vernon tried to swat the wolves paws away, only for the pair to grip down that much harder. Yuri dug his mangled claws into Vernon's shoulder, drawing a sharp whine out of the wolf as he struggled to maintain his grip on Dawn.

"Vernon! Puppy, please!" Dawn uttered. Her previously panicked voice seemingly more laced with concern rather than fear. But Vernon barely had a chance to register the ewe's change in tone before Dorian pulled at him again.

"You are a HUNTER!" Dorian hissed. "A name you should be proud of!" The white wolf grabbed at Vernon with his other arm, starting to pull the wolf more aggressively. "Attaching it to a Bellwether is just gonna taint it!"

"I ain't no Hunter! Not anymore!" Vernon cried. He could feel his grip on the ewe in his arms slipping as he struggled to fight back against his father's pull. "Now leave us be!"

"Cry all you want mutt, nobody cares!" Yuri cackled, his laugh twisting into a deep, bellowing, monstrous sound as it echoed through the fog. The slimy black wolf gripped his other paw on Vernon's arm, digging a fresh set of claws into his elbow and forcing another whine out of Vernon as he struggled against the pair. "Accept what you are and fall in line!!"

"You think you deserve to be an exception to the rule?" Yuri hissed, yanking the wolf so hard it nearly broke Vernon's grip on the ewe squirming in his arms. "Ma and Pa have bent over backwards for you more than enough times!"

"It's my life!" Vernon spat, Trying desperately to wriggle free of the pairs grip. "It ain't fer you neither of you to decide for me! Us bein' together doesn't concern-!"

"Enough of this Vernon!" Dorian chided. "Let the lamb go!"

"She belongs with us!" Aster hissed, gripping at Dawn with his free arm.

"You will ruin this family's reputation!" Dorian continued. "With or without the name! I can't let you do that!"

"She's a psychopath!" Yuri growled.

"She tried to kill yer brother!" Dorian growled. "How can you even-?"

"She's a criminal!" Judy snarled.

"A relationship like yours won't survive in the real world!" Doug laughed.

"She should have died that night." Mouflon hissed.

The rising din of comments began to overlap one another, growing louder and louder to the point where they had become completely incomprehensible to the wolf. All the while both groups of beastly mammals continued trying to pull Dawn and Vernon apart. It was taking every last ounce of Vernon's strength to keep Dawn in his arms, to keep her from slipping into Asters hellish hooves as Dorian and Yuri pulled him away.

Vernon grit his teeth tightly, each pull causing the wolf to let out another painful whine as his body felt as though it was on the verge of being torn apart under the pressure. But Vernon refused to let go like he had before. He was willing to die before leaving Dawn to suffer under Aster again. The wolf had made a promise, to Dawn and himself, and he was going to keep it.

"Vernon! Wake up!"

The entire world of blue smog and demonic beasts suddenly flickered out of existence, causing the wolf to let out a startled yelp as his eyes flew wide open in fear and surprise. While his vision was bleary and clouded, his new found surroundings filled the wolf with an immediate sense of relief. He was no longer in that night howler fueled hellscape, no longer trapped in an even more twisted version of the most horrible night of his life. Instead, he found himself in the warmth and safety of a darkened, rural-looking bedroom. And while it was clearly not his own, any place seemed more accommodating than the place he had just come back from.

"Vernon!?" As the rest of his mind began to stir from the haze of his experience, the wolf became acutely aware of the warm, plush body that was tightly gripped to his chest, as well as the hoof that was grasping at his chin in an attempt to draw his attention. Glancing down at the ewe in is arms, he found Dawn pushing back against his chest with a hoof, her lime green eyes laced with concern as she glanced up at the wolf with traces of tears in her eyes.

"Puppy, are you okay!?" Dawn whimpered, her voice quavering as she spoke. The ewe's tone was clearly a mixture of fear and worry. The sound alone was enough to sober the wolf's muddled thoughts as his mind finally woke up. The reunion, the fights, everything came rushing back all at once as Vernon ran a paw through his sweat-soaked head fur. They were at the family ranch, sleeping in one of the guest rooms, and in the morning they would be returning to Zootopia. Far from his judgmental father, and his hateful brother. He was no longer a Hunter, but he still had Dawn. The ewe he loved so dearly was still safely tucked in his arms.

"So it was a dream." Vernon muttered wearily.

The wolf abruptly strengthened his grip against the ewe, hugging her as tightly as he could muster as he buried his muzzle into her head wool.

"Yeah Darlin'." The wolf said, his voice cracking as he murmured into her wool. "I'm fine..." Vernon whined softly. "I'm gonna be fine..."

Dawn returned the hug, albeit with a much softer, more reluctant grip that Vernon's.

"Puppy, you aren't fine." Dawn mumbled through the fur. "You were whimpering and crying while you were sleeping." The ewe gingerly began to rub the wolf's back with her hooves. "And you had me pressed against your chest so tightly you were practically asphyxiating me!"

With the ewe's admission, Vernon quickly drew back from the hug. Glancing down and away from his mate guiltily, the wolf scratched the back of his head in discomfort.

"I-I'm sorry Mutton Chop, I shouldn't have..."

He felt Dawn's hoof grip his chin before gingerly dragging the wolf's line of sight back into her own.

"Wolfy, it's okay..." Dawn cooed, scratching his chin daintily as she stared into his eyes. "I was more concerned about what was happening to you than how hard you were squeezing me." The ewe began to gently caress Vernon's cheek, frowning softly as she did so. "I mean, I've never seen you like that. You gave me quite a scare."

Vernon winced softly, his ears drooping as his irises broke away from Dawn's. The wolf let out a soft whine.

"Floof's, I..." Vernon muttered. He really didn't want to talk about what he had just been through. Not for the lack of being transparent with his mate, especially after they had just been over that whole topic earlier that night, but more so the fact that he didn't even want to revisit the terrifying dream at all. "It was nothin', just a nightmare is all..."

"Yeah, I figured that." Dawn's eyelids drooped dully as she eyed the wolf. "But what was it abou-?"

"What time is it?" Vernon quickly tried to change the subject as he pulled out of the ewe's grip. The wolf leaned up and away from the mattress and glanced around the darkened bedroom. His eyes scanning the windows for the faintest trace of morning light as he prayed the ewe would move away from the rather uncomfortable line of questioning.

He heard the lamb let out a soft sigh, followed by the sound of her hooves quietly rummaging around the nearby nightstand.

"Let's see..." Dawn yawned softly as she slid her tortoise shell frames back on. Out of the corner of Vernon's eye he could see her phone light up, casting a faint light across Dawn's face as she squinted through her lenses.

"Three-fourteen in the morning." Dawn murmured tiredly as she placed her phone back on the table with a dull clatter.

The wolf sighed, running a paw through his head fur again.

"We should probably get back to bed..." Vernon grumbled softly. "We've only got a little less than three hours worth of shut-eye before we gotta head ou-"

"Vernon." Dawn's tone remained caring, but there was a sternness to it that demanded the wolf's attention. He wanted to resist, to keep from looking back at his tiny mate. He could feel her eyes on him, her stare penetrating the very core of him despite not being able to see them, and Vernon knew that if he turned around there would be no getting out talking about his horrible dream. Slowly the wolf turned to meet his mate's gaze, the little ewe's brow furrowed as she eyed the wolf with a pouting lip. He was done for.

"It wasn't that bad. Honest." The wolf muttered, trying his damnedest to get through this conversation with as little admissions as possible.

"Vernon, we may not have been together all that long in the grand scheme of things, but I'd like to think I can tell what kind of sounds you would make when you are scared." Dawn crossed her arms, quirking a brow at the wolf. "That was the frightened Puppy I heard, and you aren't going to convince me otherwise."

Vernon let out a mournful groan, but it did little to deter Dawn's apparent resolve.

"Dr. Gnu says talking about these things help." The ewe added, raising a finger knowingly.

Vernon let out a terse sigh, glancing up at the ceiling momentarily as he silently pleaded to the gods for enough strength to get through reliving his nightmare so soon.

"I was back..." Vernon murmured, placing a paw on the back of his neck uncomfortably. "Back in that factory in Tundratown..." Vernon grumbled. "That night when you...I mean..." The wolf averted his gaze from Dawn's once more. It was hard enough to get through it without staring back into those soft, glimmering eyes of hers. After all, he was picking at a painful scab just mentioning that night at the bottling plant. A wound that both of them shared, and he was certain would make the lamb just as uncomfortable as he was. "The night I almost lost-"

Vernon stopped as he felt the ewe's hoof come to rest on his leg, his irises darting back to meet Dawn's own as they quivered behind her frames.

"Oh Puppy..." Dawn cooed, her voice soft and sweet as she began to pet his leg gently. "I-I'm so sorry." The ewe sighed, sidling closer to her mate as she slid across the mattress. " I understand. I still have nightmares about that night sometimes too."

The wolf frowned softly, bringing a paw to Dawn's cheek and caressing it gently. The ewe leaned into his palm, reaching up with a hoof to clutch his paw closer to her face as she let out a warm sigh.

"It was worse than before though Dawn..." Vernon whimpered. "So much worse."

The ewe squeezed Vernon's paw as she pulled it away from her face, wrapping her other hoof around it as she stared back up at the wolf in concern.

"Worse?" Dawn asked with a frown. "H-how so?"

Vernon closed his eyes, letting out a long, exhausted exhale as he tried to muster the courage to continue.

"Aster was there." Vernon muttered. "And Mouflon, and Wooligan, and Doug."

Vernon squeezed Dawn's hoof back as he pressed onward.

"My father too." Vernon whimpered.

"Dorian?" Dawn asked, quirking a brow in confusion.

"And Yuri and Judy." Vernon continued, leaning his head into his other paw.

"Judy?" Dawn asked in surprise, quirking a curious eyebrow.

The wolf sighed, placing a paw over his eyes before drawing it back over his scalp.

"I don't know Darlin'." Vernon murmured. "It was a nightmare, and she was...I mean back then..." Vernon shook his head. "She had it out fer ya. And I'm guessin' that's why she was there."

The ewe gave a meek nod.

"They were all tryin' to drag you away from me, pullin' you off into that blue fog." The wolf whimpered. "Tellin' me how you and me don't belong together. That it'll never work."

"Oh Vernon..." Dawn murmured softly. Now the ewe had reached up to caress the wolf's cheek, her hoof gingerly stroking through the wolf's fur.

"I got a hold of ya, but then Pa and Yuri grappled me." The wolf whimpered. "They were tryin' to rip us apart again."

Vernon glanced up at the ceiling. He could feel tears starting to well in the corners of his eyes, and he lamely swabbed at them with a paw in an effort to push them back.

"They were all twisted and warped..." Vernon murmured. "Like demons that climbed out of the depths of hades itself." The wolf wiped at his eyes again, but the tears were flowing now.

"It all felt so real..." The wolf trailed off slightly. "So vivid..." The wolf whimpered.

Vernon's attention snapped back to the concerned looking ewe now snuggled up tightly against his side, her own tear filled eyes glancing back up at him in concern.

"And you...you were..." Vernon closed his eyes, trying to suck back the tears as images of the nightmare flickered through his mind like a slideshow. Aster's gnarled and tattered features, the merged mass of mammals that made up Mouflon and Wooligan, his father's mangy, hulkish form, and Yuri's slimy features, all of them drifting through his mind's eye like ghosts haunting his very soul. But the worst of the images burned into his mind was that of his poor little Honey Lamb on all fours, consumed by the night howler's toxin and struggling to overcome it. Fighting to recognize Vernon despite what he could only assume was the overwhelming desire to flee from her natural enemy. It hurt that much more not only because he had been forced to watch the ewe suffer, but it was an accurate reflection of what she actually looked like that night. There was no smoke and mirrors, no wild and twisted reflections of Dawn like Aster and the other creatures in the dream. No, Dawn's feral state was exactly as he witnessed it on that terrible night in Tundratown, or at least it had started out that way.

"You were sufferin' from the night howler again..." Vernon whimpered, shaking his head in dismissal. "On all fours and lookin' to run..."

"Oh Puppy..." Dawn cooed, sidling into the wolf's lap as she reached up to wrap her arms around his neck, pulling him into a hug. Vernon gave the ewe a gentle squeeze of his own as he sniffled sharply, trying and failing to supress the now steady stream of tears that were flowing from his eyes. "I'm so sorry you had to see me like that again..."

"Pft...see ya?" Vernon coughed as he tried to stifle his cries. "You had it worse than I did, you had to suffer through-."

Dawn pulled back from the hug, placing a finger to the wolf's lips and stopping him mid-sentence.

"We both suffered that night Vernon." Dawn said somberly. "The amount of trauma we both experienced isn't exactly something worthy of trying to compete over, and it isn't really going to help either of us get over it."

Vernon let out a soft whine.

"It's been a really rough couple of days Puppy." Dawn offered the wolf a soft, pleading smile. "All that stress that built up was bound to come out somewhere."

"I-I guess..." Vernon sighed, shrugging uneasily.

"At least it was just a dream." Dawn continued, wrapping her arms around the wolf's neck again. "My father is gone, and I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

Vernon flashed the ewe a weak smile. "Y-y'all mean it?" The wolf asked, his eyes glimmering as he felt a fresh wave of tears welling up within them. He knew it was silly to ask such at thing, but he wasn't ashamed to admit he needed the reassurance.

The ewe wrapped her hooves around Vernon's neck again, but this time the wolf could feel her actively trying to pull him down to the bedding. Of course, the ewe wasn't strong enough to manage that without the wolf playing along, and so Vernon allowed the ewe to pull him back down to his pillow.

As the wolf came to rest his head against his pillow once more, Dawn brought her lips up to his, stopping just short of actual contact as she stared into his eyes affectionately. They stayed like that for a few moments, simply watching each other in the dark as Dawn gingerly stroked the back of his neck. Her shimmering lime green orbs staring back into his with nothing but pure adoration and affection. Vernon was satisfied with simply basking in the warm glow of Dawn's love, but soon enough the ewe moved in to complete the connection, kissing the wolf deeply as she continued to stroke his fur playfully. Vernon was quick to give in to the passionate gesture, pressing back against her delicate lips with equal measure as his heart fluttered warmly within his chest. The wolf savored the soft, pleading breaths that passed from Dawn's muzzle into his, lingering for as long as he could in Dawn's warmth before the ewe gingerly broke the kiss.

The ewe flashed the wolf a broad smile as she continued to idly play with his fur with her hoof.

"Is that enough proof for you Puppy Love?" Dawn replied with a soft smirk.

Vernon grinned playfully. "I might need a little more convincin'..." The wolf chuckled. "But I suppose it'll have to wait till we get home."

Dawn rolled her eyes, letting out a soft chuckle of her own as she continued to play with Vernon's fur. Her hoof idly twisting the larger strands of hair that made up the wolf's peculiar cowlick. But despite the warmth, welcoming change in conversation, a nagging errant thought had continued to tug at the back of Vernon's mind. One that kept dragging him back to that terrible dream, to that awful night trapped in Tundratown. The wolf could feel his smile faltering, and almost as soon as it had Dawn's expression changed to match it.

"Vernon?" Dawn quirked an eyebrow.

"Darlin'...?" The wolf winced slightly. He didn't want to drag the conversation back to the dismal topic. But the dream had brought him back to that lingering question. The one that had troubled his thoughts in the immediate aftermath of that night spent in the factory. Something he had been wanting to ask the ewe, but had forgotten about for some time. The pressing issue lost the moment his Honey Lamb's eyes flew open in the hospital, and the wolf's dismal world came back to life.

"That night...in Tundratown-"

"Oh Puppy, we do-."

Vernon held a finger a to Dawn's lips, stopping her just short of finishing her sentence. He needed to get it out, he needed to know.

The wolf let out a tired sigh. "Do you remember anything?" The wolf asked, his voice trembling slightly. "Anything at all after you got dosed with the...you know?"

Dawn's muzzle scrunched in confusion for a moment before dipping into a soft frown.

"You mean when I was..." The ewe bit her lip. "Infected?"

Vernon nodded somberly, an awkward silence filling the void as he awaited a response. A mixture of expressions came over Dawn's features. Sadness, pain, discomfort, a myriad of negative emotions washed over her as she seemed to be trying to recall the night in question.

"It's just that..." Vernon muttered, breaking eye contact with his mate as he tried to think of how best to phrase what he was trying to say. "I mean...I...when I saw you..." The wolf scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably. "It looked like...I mean I thought you might have...recognized me."

The ewe blinked at him in slight surprise.

"Recognized you?" Dawn murmured.

The wolf let out an uncomfortable grumble.

"I thought you...recognized me somehow." The wolf struggled to continue. "You came closer to me, and you laid down by the door." Vernon winced. "I mean, you should have been afraid of me."

Dawn simply looked on as the wolf pushed through his best attempt at an accurate recollection of the events from that night, her expression a mixture of worry, confusion, and a hint of perplexion. As if she was struggling to drudge up anything that corresponded with the wolf's account.

"But I asked Nick about it in the hospital, and he assured me that there was no way you could have." Vernon whined. "He told me that night howler blocks yer higher brain functions and suppresses yer memories." The wolf mumbled. "It ends up blottin' everythin' out except for base urges."

Vernon reached out, caressing the ewe's cheek softly as he looked into her shimmering green orbs.

"You don't remember anythin'...?" Vernon asked, his ears rising slightly as he eyed the ewe in a mixture of sadness and hopeful curiosity. "Anythin' at all?"

Dawn looked down for a moment, the ewe scratching her head as she seemed to be lost in thought. Vernon could tell it hurt the lamb to even think about it, the slight pain visible in her expression making the wolf regret even bringing it up almost immediately. But just as he was about to let her off the hook, to tell her to forget the fact that he had even brought it up, she spoke.

"I remember..." Dawn muttered, the ewe nervously twiddling her hooves as she began to speak. "I remember the fog swallowing me and my father..." The ewe frowned. "And the pain I felt as the gas started to change me..."

Dawn glanced up at the wolf, her eyes shimmering with the start of tears as she struggled to continue. "I-I never realized how painful it was..." Dawn murmured. "That change." The ewe sniffled softly.

Vernon swabbed a stray tear with his thumb as he continued to stroke the ewe's cheek. Dawn let out a quiet shudder as she struggled to continue.

"The last thought I can recall with any sort of clarity was ripping open Nick's fox spray and frantically dumping it all over myself." Dawn murmured. "I was just hoping, praying that it would protect me from the wild rams. That maybe..." Dawn whimpered. "That maybe I'd survive somehow, even though I was prepared to-"

"Hey." Vernon stopped the ewe, running his paw down her cheek as he began to gingerly stroke the side of her face. "I'm sorry I brought it up."The wolf continued. "We don't have to-."

"No." Dawn protested, pulling the wolf's paw off of her face and clasping it with both her hooves. "I w-want to Vernon." Dawn murmured softly. "I need to."

Vernon fell silent, his eyes fixed on the somber ewe that was clasping his paw so tightly. He wanted to protest now, the pain on Dawn's face too much for him to bear, yet he found himself nodding softly. He may have began to tug at the bandage related to that painful memory, but now Dawn was adamant to pull it off.

"It's all sort of a haze. Just flickers of raw emotion flashing through my mind." Dawn said, the lamb shuddering slightly as she spoke. "Fear, rage, all of it enveloping me at once as I stumbled through this...hellish world of blue."

Dawn pushed her frames up slightly with a hoof, swabbing at her eye in order to stem the rising tears the wolf could make out glimmering in the weak moonlight. "It's all sort of jumbled. Feelings and images and everything, it makes my head hurt just trying to think about it."

"I'm sorry Darlin'." Vernon whined softly. "It's no-."

"But now that I'm really trying to remember, I can...I can recall something." Dawn scratched her chin, her brow furrowing as she seemed to be deep in thought.

"I remember sensing something..." Dawn murmured. "A shape, or form, or something in the distance." The ewe scratched her head. "When I came upon the shape I remember feeling a deep terror. But, something kept me there..."

Dawn winced slightly, massaging her temple with a hoof.

"The hint of a familiar scent, something that made me feel...warm?" Dawn murmured. "It made the fear and rage....not go away...but die down. And I was filled with this overwhelming sense to protect it. Because I felt like it was mine."

Vernon smiled softly, clutching the ewe's hooves in his paws as he stared at her surprise. He could hear his tail flopping against the bed as he squeezed Dawn's hooves affectionately.

"D-Do you mean it?" Vernon choked, tears started to form in his eyes once more.

Dawn smiled warmly, snuggling up closer to the wolf by her side.

"I can't be one-hundred percent sure..." Dawn murmured softly. "But it feels right."

The wolf ran a paw over his eyes as he drew the ewe into a hug.

"Red's never gonna believe it." Vernon muttered.

"Does it really matter if he does?" Dawn asked, looking up from her spot nestled in the wolf's chest fluff.

"Not at all." Vernon smiled, nuzzling the ewe's woolly poof with his snout.

Dawn let out a warm sigh as she buried her muzzle back into the wolf's pelt.

"Do you want to know what I was dreaming about Puppy?" Dawn asked, nuzzling deeper into his chest fluff.

"What Darlin'?" Vernon asked in a low, throaty rumble.

"I was dreaming about our wedding." Dawn replied, letting out a soft yawn.

"Oh?" Vernon chuckled. Admittedly the ewe's statement had caught him off guard. With the general tone of everything they had been discussing, it had almost made him forget about happier prospects that lie ahead of them. "Y'all did?"

"Mhh-hmm..." Dawn cooed. "I dreamed were standing in a beautiful meadow." The ewe sighed, nestling deeper into the wolf's pelt. "It was blooming with all sorts of fall flowers, and I could see the patchy golden mountains way in the distance. Just like how I first saw them when we got off the train." Dawn mused. The ewe began to draw circles in the wolfs fur as she continued to recall her dream. "We were both standing at the altar, under an archway made of flowers and foliage." Vernon heard the ewe let out a soft yawn as she rubbed her muzzle against his fur. "And I was dressed in my Mother's gown, except it actually fit me. Unlike when I used to dress up in it and get pretend married when I was twelve." The ewe giggled softly.

Vernon chuckled softly, his eyelids starting to grow heavy as he listened to the warm, lovely picture his mate was painting for him. "And what about me?"

"You were dressed in the deep green tuxedo that was perfectly tailored to fit you." Dawn sighed warmly. "You looked so dashing."

"I'm sure you were lookin' mighty fine in that dress." Vernon mused. "I'm lookin' forward to seein' it."

"Gus was there too." Dawn murmured.

"Oh yeah?" Vernon replied. "How'd he do on officiatin' the ceremony?"

Dawn let out a soft yawn. "He gave a lovely service." The ewe murmured dreamily. "I can't remember any of the words, but he was very professional. Even Melanie was moved to tears."

"He brought Melly huh?" Vernon chuckled. "You sure she wasn't naggin' ol' Gus about when he was finally gonna get hitched to her already?"

Dawn giggled softly. "No, although she did catch the bouquet I think..." Dawn murmured quietly. "Either her or Ada."

Vernon let out a tired yawn. " Oh really now?" The wolf chuckled. "Ada was there too?"

"All of your sisters and brothers. Audrey too." Dawn replied. "Except for Yuri and Dorian, I don't know where they were."

"Maybe it's better that way." Vernon chuckled. The wolf closed his eyes, nestling deeper into Dawn's woolly mane.

"It was so beautiful." Dawn sighed. "Everything I could have ever wanted Puppy Love."

Vernon felt one of the ewe's hooves gently caress his cheek before drifting back down to his chest. "I can't wait for it."

"Me too Honey Lamb." Vernon murmured softly. "Me too..."

Those were the last words to leave the wolf's muzzle as he drifted back to sleep, his arms wrapped around the petite little ewe that had so thoroughly ensnared his heart. Her own dream setting the wolf that much more at ease as to where their future truly lie. Tomorrow they would be gone from this place, and there would be nothing to stand in the couples way. Not Aster, not Doug, not Dorian, not Yuri, not even all of Animalia. The pair would soon pledge their eternal love and devotion to one another, and nothing would be able to take that away from them. Vernon would never be separated from his Honey Lamb ever again.