RP:Sweet Dreams

Part of the Do You Believe In Magic? Arc

Summary: Dominic has quite an exciting night in dreamland thanks to Lydia. It gets super weird. o.o

Frostmaw Tavern

It was strange, coming back to the Frostmaw tavern alone. All this time and yet nothing appeared to have changed. If not for people like Hildegarde and the scattered letters that still adorned the board, he’d doubt anyone had even cared at all that all those mages had been missing. He reserved a room -- the same he and Khitti had spent so many nights in -- and perhaps that was the only thing that had changed. It felt drab somehow, drained of its spirit without the vampiress there to help fill it. These few hours that had passed since his escape had been spent searching for answers, trying to orchestrate a way back into the cave for one final rescue (if there was anyone -to- rescue anymore) -- but it couldn’t change how empty every motion of the day felt when he lay there alone, staring up at the ceiling, questioning it all until a fitful sleep finally took him. Through clouds he was falling, a chill air whistling in his ears. The dreamscape extended out to the limits of his vision in every direction. He could see mountains at one end of the world’s curve, an ocean at another, stars above and nothing but trees below and for miles ahead. Here and there lights winked through the leaves -- someone’s home, perhaps, or scattered villages. Dominic had no sense of worry as the ground raced up to meet him, as those lights grew and finer details became visible where the boughs parted… only a strange calm. If this was how he met his end, he couldn’t seem to muster up any… -anything- about it.

Dominic would keep falling further and further down into the trees, somehow managing to miss all the branches on the way down. Just as it seems like his death is imminent, the vampire-less male crashes onto a soft bed of carrot cake, cream cheese frosting and all, with a soft 'splat'. It was sticky like a spider's web and should he eat it, it'd be that right amount of sweet that wasn't too overpowering. The cake was perfect in every way. If he managed to pry his way out of the icing and looked around, he'd come to find that those were no ordinary trees that he fell through. The trunks of the trees were made of chocolate chip cookies and the leaves some sort of gummy substance in the shape of spearmint leaves that were covered in sugar crystals. The grass was even edible for it was of a similar type of candy as the leaves on the trees, but these looks like thin straws and had a sour smell to the sugar that coated them. Looks like Dom's gone to Caaaandy Mouuuuntain, Chaaarrrlieee. Or...something. If he manages to leave, let's hope he leaves with his kidneys intact.

Dominic rolled off the end of the cake, a fistful of gooey carrot goodness in each hand. He nommed on it absentmindedly as he observed his surroundings, starry eyes tracing in a wide arc. Several paces away and at the end of a path, a cave opening jutted out amongst the trees, an inviting yawn of black licorice twists. Dominic took a few stumbling steps towards it before a firm hand on one shoulder arrested his movement. “What in the seven hells do you think you’re doing?” asked a familiar voice from behind him, before Dominic was given a shake and spun around to face the other. Brand, of course, though for once he was flesh and blood in front of his younger headmate and not an illusion. The blonde-haired man scowled at the forest around him before fixing his scowl back on Dominic. “Even in the best-case scenario, this is just -asking- to get your teeth rottin’ outta your mouth.”

"Shhhhhuuuuunnnn. Shhhhuunnn the dessert hater." came a strange, ethereal voice from the cave, the voice haunting and yet so very much inviting. "Dooommminic. Come here, Dominic." Wait. That voice...was it...Khitti? No. It couldn't have been. Flowers made of pulled taffy began to grow as tall as Brand and then taller still, hiding the cake from sight and boxing them in, leaving only the cave as a way out of sorts. The faceless voice still called to the younger of the two; it was so sweet, so gentle, so mesmerizing. Soon, it'd start to call to Brand as well, both urged to enter the questionably safe cave.

“Kid, don’t --” Brand scolded, but soon enough he was ambling forward right alongside Dominic as the taffy continued to crowd them in. The older man sure didn’t look at all happy about it, though. After the taffy proved impervious to fireballs, he continued to glare up at the walls around them right up until the moment the last light of the outside vanished and it was just Dominic and Brand, breathing in the darkness. Dominic, Brand… and the owner of the voice that had invited them in, if they were still there.

A gleeful cry came from the depths of the rather large cave as two candy cane cages come crashing down from the ceiling onto each one of the males. From out of the darkness skips Khitti happily, bare feet prancing across the dirt floor. Her hair was a right mess, littered with rats' nests. That familiar blue dress of hers was tattered and torn, and she was clearly crazed. "Two! I got two of zhem! Wunderbar!" She claps excitedly like some sort of child, humming to herself as she continues to skip about, going in a figure eight pattern around and between the cages. "I vonder vhat zheir ~red~ tastes like." The vampiress, who was still a vampiress in this dream, grabbed the candy cane bars of Dom's cage, eyeing him with special scrutiny. "You...look like...you might be sweet. Like chocolate. But also maybe a hint of strawberry?" She moves onto Brand next, studying him with the same intensity, "You look pretty sour. Your red probably tastes like lemons and raspberries." Letting go of Brand's cage, she spins about and wanders off to find a cookbook that strangely enough had no writing in it. "Hm. Vhat to bake? Vhat...to...bake." Even more strange was the fact that there was no sort of magic entity about her. She was, as much as she could be with her undead-ness, very much normal and sans Amarrah.

Leave it to Dominic to ask the obvious, with a trembling lip and fearful eyes. “K-Khitti? What happened to you?” Brand rolled his eyes, backing away from the stalking vampiress with a look of contempt. “Isn’t it obvious? She’s gorram lost the last of her marbles. Not that she had that many to begin with.” And Dominic countered with his own disgusted look, though this one was directed at the older male: “I know you don’t like her, but do you always have to be so outright hateful?” A skinny forearm reached out through the bars. “Whatever happened to her, she’s still my Khitti, somewhere beneath all that. Khitti…”

Khitti let out an 'aha' as she finds the perfect, invisible recipes for each of them. She spins about to face them both, shutting the book abruptly and tossing it behind her. "I've got it!" She takes a few steps towards Brand, grinning innocently, "You'll be a lemon meringue pie." Then, to Dominic she goes, taking his arm and hand in her own hands tenderly, eyeing his appendage up and down. "And you, my lovely sweet zhing, vill be a chocolate cake vith strawberry filling." Without warning, she parts her lips and sinks chipped and blackened fangs into his forearm. The vampiress drinks deeply of Dominic's blood, but not for long as she soon retracts her teeth from him and lets his arm drop where it may. "Oh my. Zhat's zhe best strawberry filling I've ever tasted. I might make frosting out of it as vell." Despite the fact that this was a dream, that link that always appeared between them after she fed from Dominic was magically there. Moving back to her table where she 'baked' things, she picks up a large cleaver and adds it to a pile of other various weapons for torture and maiming. That also wasn't 'strawberry filling' all over the stone slab that she'd turned into a makeshift kitchen.

Dominic screamed, only to realize midway through that the bite didn’t actually hurt in the slightest, despite the, er, lack of delicacy with which Khitti had bitten him. Strange. She was usually so much gentler. “Khitti,” Dominic repeated, trying to reach her mind once more, through both voice and their link. “Khitti, listen to me. I’m not food. I’m Dominic… your Dominic… don’t you recognize me?” In the other cage, Brand merely facepalmed, muttering from the corner of his mouth, “You’ve got about ten more seconds to try this your way before we try it mine.”

Khitti picked up on that irritated tone coming from Brand finally, grabbed her cleaver from the table and moved to his cage. "HEY, SOURPUSS. Don't speak like zhat to my strawberry boy." She haphazardly swung at the bars to Brand's cage, like some lunatic that clearly needed to be locked up. "Just for zhat, you're going to be baked first!" She beat at the bars at bit more with the large knife for good measure.

Brand shrugged, not perturbed by Khitti in the slightest. Dominic looked at him helplessly, worry for themselves and for the vampiress written on his face. That worry only magnified as a thundering sounded overhead, and crackles of lightning splintered down from the cave ceiling. A stone of ice descended and stood between Khitti and the cages -- a large slab with an impossible flame flickering in its center. “Y’know what that is, dontcha, peach?” Brand was smirking as if he’d summoned the damn thing himself. Maybe he had. “Just let us outta here and there won’t be any trouble. We’ll go and leave you be.” A halo of flame was spiraling out from the crown of the ice slab, five or six individual flames that hovered ominously overhead.

"P-peach...?" Khitti's demeanor changed entirely. All crazed emotion drains from Khitti's features that single word seems to resonate in her mind, a brief flash of memory. It's gone in an instant as she hisses at the flames as they grow brighter and hotter, threatening to turn her to dust. "Raiez! Raiez help me! Please..." The waterworks start up as she backs against the wall of the cave. The Blue didn't show up. Nor did any sort of help come for her. This wasn't the first time though. "Raiez, please, you vere zhe only one zhat cared. Your pet needs you." Still nothing, leaving Khitti to huddle away from the flames in tears.

As the confrontation between Khitti and Brand took place, neither were paying any attention to Dominic, who’d taken the opportunity to gnaw into the candy cane bars of his cage. With deft chompers no human in the waking world could realistically possess, he chewed himself an opening and climbed out, closing the gap with his beloved vampiress and snuffing out the nearest of the flames with the aggravated wave of a hand. A glare was sent Brand’s way before he took the woman’s lithe arms in his, reaching down to the knife and carefully disarming her. “Khitti. I care. And I’m right here.” The rest of the flames continued hovering above them, pulling strange shadows out of the stone around them, but the growth and the accompanying threat had stopped, paused, lingering still poised to defend either of the two against the crazed woman.

Khitti cringed as Dominic took her into his arms, "N-no! You'll leave! YOU'LL LEAVE!" She clawed her way out of his grasp, moving closer towards the flames and Brand's cage. "Zhey always leave." As the heat began to bite at her undead flesh from afar, she stared at the ground absently. "Peach? Peach. Peaaaaach." Then something clicked, and while the tears began anew, they came from rage instead of sadness. "You. IT VAS YOU." She pointed in Brand's direction, "Y-you left me zhere! You left me! You crushed my heart and stole away zhe only person zhat cared about me! You..." She turns back to the flames, staring at them. "Vhy couldn't you have just killed me? Before Amarrah left me too..." There's a pause as a hand reaches out towards the fire, "Why...?"

Dominic simply stood there as Khitti removed herself from his embrace, his hands still held in midair. “Do you want to tell her, or are you going to make me do it?” The words were directed at Brand, of course, but his line of sight remained on Khitti. His Khitti. They never should have left her. “Of course I didn’t wanna gorram leave you,” said Brand, spitting at the ground in frustration and reeling in the flames to remain beyond the vampiress’ reach. “Neither of us did. Weren’t exactly left with much of a choice, though, were we?” The flames blinked into nothingness individually, until only the one in the ice remained. Dominic cast another withering expression Brand’s way but said nothing, not yet. He was too busy trying to coax Khitti back into his arms, trying to prove to her with pleading hands that he wanted nothing more than to stay by her.

Oh, she knew who Dominic was now as well, but her sadness of losing him paled in comparison to her rage towards Brand. "How are you two even alive? Completely unchanged? You're clearly not any sort of undead nor are either of you a ghost." As the fire dies away, she retracts her hand and stares at the floor. "It's been almost two hundred years since you left me..." Two...hundred? Well, that explains why the world looks so weird now. Some sort of apocalypse maybe? Her fingers twitch idly at her sides, the vampiress wishing she'd have touched those flames before Brand snuffed them out. Soon after moments of contemplation, she moves to the other side of the cave, flicking an odd sort of switch, and suddenly the cages raise back up to the ceiling and Brand's allowed to go free. Khitti sends a brief, sidelong glances towards Dominic, but her gaze doesn't hold on him for long before returning to the dirt-covered floor of the cave.

Two hundred? Two… hundred. How was that possible? It wasn’t, was it? Dominic looked to Brand for answers, but of course he had none. The older man had taken to inspecting the layout of the cave, now that he’d been released. That left Dominic to try to pry more information from the poor beleaguered vampiress. He tried again to draw her close, this time cautiously taking one of her hands in his, checking her body language before pulling her in any further. If she looked like she’d accept it, he’d place both her hands in his, rubbing slow circles over the backs of them with his thumbs. “Khitti… I don’t know what’s happened, but I’m here now. I’m here for you.” A concerned glance was sent over Khitti’s shoulder; Brand had moved on to scrutinizing the myriad of weapons and cooking supplies the woman had in her arsenal.

Khitti allowed herself to be held, the cringing not as strong this time, but she also didn't flee from him again. "Zhis is a dream. None of zhis is real. You're not real...you can't be." A pause. "Maybe I'm really, truly dead and zhis is my hell. Cursed vith loneliness and taunted vith visions of zhe two people I cared most about. Maybe zhe electric elf killed me. It's not like it vould've been hard after she took Amarrah from me." She stared absently at the other side of the cave, not able to focus on any one thing properly. "She knew exactly vhat to do vith zhat power. She killed Raiez...I've never seen Amarrah's magic do such unspeakable zhings." Reddish brows furrow as she tries to remember, failing utterly, "Maybe she did kill me. If I'm dead, zhen vhere's my Lydia? Vhere's anyone? Vhy am I doomed to zhis?" The tears flow again, but they don't last long as she almost immediately calms soon after, her emotions fluctuating. "Not long now and you'll leave me too." Finally she looked to Dominic, taking his face in her hands as she stared at him with those crazed emerald eyes of hers, "I hope you found someone. Someone beautiful and smart. Someone powerful zhat can protect you. Someone zhat listens. Someone zhat vas living and could settle down vith you and give you a family. You deserved so much and I had so little to give, and even less vhen my heart became torn in two. I deserve zhis purgatory. I deserve it..." The vampiress lets him go, moving to where she'd left her cleaver. "You should go now. Before something bad happens." And then something bad -did- happen. With the knife in hand, she lunges at Brand while he had his back turned, aiming to rend him to pieces.

The blaze that consumed Khitti came with no warning and no mercy, and the searing heat sent Dominic instinctively stumbling backwards. It was only when the sickening scent of charred flesh hit his nostrils that his brain caught up to the action and he realized what had come to pass. Brand stood panting with adrenaline, his angles harsh in the fading flames that still extended from one palm. He looked as shocked as Dominic did, frankly, and at least half as horrified before the emotions were swallowed and replaced with an unreadable canvas. Brand began to speak -- an explanation, maybe, a justification or an apology -- but Dominic didn’t wait to hear what it might have been, instead tearing his way out of the cave to the woods beyond and sprinting to nowhere. Just… away. Not here. The limbs and roots of trees grabbed at him and the canopy overhead grew more and more dense and ominous until Dominic finally found his way well and thoroughly blocked. These parts looked like the forest of Vailkrin now, apart from the brambles that clawed out of the ground and clamored for the sky. He reached a hand out only to find it sticky, with a sap that tasted of cookie batter. How curious.

As Khitti's body quickly went up in flames, she stared at Brand, merely smiling. So that had been her plan all along. She wasn't -really- going to hurt him. Before the fire takes it's toll, she manages a "I love you both so much" and with that, she was gone. The charred remains of the vampiress hit the ground, smoldering and eventually turning to nothing more than a smoking pile of ash, leaving Brand to dwell on things as Dominic rushed off. Dominic probably should've stayed in the cave with Brand. Not long after he made it into that oddly familiar, yet still foreign forest, he's greeted with the sounds of skittering. Five black licorice spiders quickly surround him, their black fangs dripping green absinthe as strangely shaped legs twitch in anticipation.

As the spiders circled in, the closest released a steady hissing noise and came to a halt inches from Dominic’s legs. One after the next stopped in a similar fashion, the chorus growing louder until -- pop! -- steam came pouring out from the first creature and its head separated from its body, floating up like a balloon in slow motion until it stilled at Dominic’s eye level. The other spiders followed suit, each head lethargically bumping into the next. They didn’t seem particularly bothered by their decapitation, even as gruesome as it was. One spider head spat out a wad of paper into the man’s hand; “Spider Bake Sale,” it read, in a delicate cursive. “All proceeds go to real spiders.” A map in the corner indicated the sale’s location. Dominic rubbed at his eyes, but the oddity of the floating spider heads persisted. Dominic shrugged and headed off in the direction of the promised delicious goods.

Spiders galore hung from the treetops and skittered across the ground as they helped doing various jobs for the bake sale. And they were...whistling while they worked? What the heck. Wasn't that supposed to be dwarves? Regardless, each had a job and each worked tirelessly to assist what seemed to be an ancient looking woman that was at the center of the clearing, hovering over a strangely familiar magic oven. Perhaps it had been plundered from Raiez's cave and sold off or maybe it was one of many. A bell rings out of nowhere, letting her know that she's got a customer once Dominic's stepped across the enchantment circling the area, settling the bell off. "Remmi! Go take care of them! I'm busy!" A rather large black wolf spider leaps over to take care of Dominic, stopping just in front of him. A thick cajun accent spilled from the terrifying mouth between it's mandibles, though the look on it's face and in it's eight eyes were ones of warmth and care, "'Ow can I 'elp you, mon cher? 'Ere's quite ah sale goin' on right now. Anythin' strike yer fancy?"

As Dominic perused the menu, Brand entered the scene, shirtless. Why shirtless? Pfft, like it matters. Not like anyone’s gonna complain about that. Well, except maybe Dominic. He was alerted to the older man’s presence by a prickling of the hairs on the back of his neck; Dominic wheeled around to speak in anger, but all venom in his expression drained once they were face to face. Brand’s eyes were red and his face pale; new cuts and scrapes danced amongst the old scars across his skin. Dominic settled for a snarky, “Well. Don’t you look dashing today,” and turned his attention to the wolf spider. Two scones, a muffin, and a cup of tea, if you’d be so kind. “Graaaaains,” added Brand, gutturally. “And some toast for the zombified jerkface,” Dominic added with a sigh -- wait. Zombie?

You know, it's probably for the better that Khitti died. Despite the fact that this spider had quite possibly one of the hottest accents ever, it was...a spider. Thaaaaat's kinda weird. Like, creepy weird. Probably something that the 'Queen o' Spiders' wouldn't really know how to react to and would likely be further driven insane. Yep. Definitely. Anyway, moving on. The wolf spider takes his order while eyeing Brand warily. A grain-eating zombie? That didn't bode well for a bake sale. Khitti would also likely make some comment about ZomBrand being better than real Brand because he doesn't talk so much or act like a jerk. She could even feed him various types of breads forever! What a good zombie pet he'd be. A shirtless ZomBrand that somehow was still pretty attractive because when you look like Michael Fassbender, how can you not be? The downside is the rotting. Yeah. That's gross. Should've been a vampire, Brand. Remmi returns and ushers DomiBrand off to the dining area, balancing the tray on two of it's legs. "O'er 'ere, mon cher. Sit yerself right 'ere an' we'll get ya sorted, yeah?" The spider gives another look towards Brand, "Might I suggest ah leash fer tha' one? Might make it easier ta keep 'im nearby."

Dominic nodded his assent to the spider before taking a seat and biting into one of his scones. ZomBrand elected to stand, gnawing clumsily on his toast and staring vacantly at Dominic. “What happened to you?” the younger asked as the spider scuttled away. He canted his head and studied Brand, but that didn’t give him any answers. Nor did Brand himself -- the husk of a man simply echoed Dominic’s movements, peering at him sideways and drooling a bit. Dominic had a vague feeling that he should be concerned by this, that Brand being out of commission spelled trouble for them both, but… well… he seemed pretty passive and vegetarian for a zombie, and not having the blonde man’s usual sass in his head was proving to be quite a relief.

The old woman that had been baking finally finishes her task and spins about to glance over at her newest pair of customers. ZomBrand is eyed momentarily, then Dominic, then Brand again. The woman edged closer to them, moving towards their table as she addresses the blonde, drooling one, "You're back so soon, hm? Didn't think you liked my sweets that much with all that lip you were giving me. S'pose you'll be ready to go soon, won't you dearie?" Despite being in such a creepy place, the woman seemed awfully sweet, like the old lady on Looney Tunes that owns Sylvester and Tweety. She looks back to Dominic, tilting her head to watch him munch on the scones. "Guess my cupcakes bring all the boys to the yard." The white hair, scrawny female cackles a bit like she made some impressive joke, then motions at Dominic's food with a thin hand, "Eat up, youngin'. I'll be makin' something special out of you once you're good and ripe." Well, that doesn't sound healthy.

Dominic slowly set his scone down and nonchalantly reached for his tea. Having “something special” made out of him didn’t exactly sound pleasant, but letting the woman see how alarmed he was wasn’t likely to help matters, either. “They’re really quite good,” Dominic admitted, trying to make idle conversation while nudging Brand under the table. He was trying to silently alert him to potential trouble, and doing so through their shared mind didn’t seem to be working right now. There was nothing but groans and muttering about whole wheat toast in there. “We will definitely have to come back sometime and have more. M-maybe get the recipe. I could, uh, help you cook, perhaps. More goods means more money for the spiders, right?” Dominic was shifting out of his seat now, having quickly drained his tea. “But for now, I’m afraid I must be off. I’ll have to take this lot to go.”

"Now now, dearie. This ain't a takeaway restaurant." She puts a hand on his shoulder, putting a lot of pressure on it, fingers digging into it with a bit more force than a woman her age should have. "You sit there and finish that scone and Remmi'll get you some more tea." She sends a nod to the cajun, eight-legged beast who runs off to get the aforementioned drink. Well, it was more leaping like the terrifying spider he is, actually. It was creep-tacular. All the while, the old woman's free hand was spinning a web of sorts around Dominic's legs. She'd back away from him and let him finish his meal, moving back over to Brand, "Hm. What should we make of you? Something hearty. Nine grain bread, perhaps?" What the heck was with this place and wanting to cook them?

The woman never did get to figure out the kind of bread ZomBrand was best suited for. From the web-ridden canopy above, a litter of ice shards hurtled down, piercing into her flesh. No scream released itself from her lungs, only a sharp sigh before she poofed into a cloud of spider silk and dust. Brand shambled away, eyes wide and mouth full of toast, an instant before a cloaked figure crashed upon the table. Not much of one for subtlety, whoever they were. Dominic earned a fleeting glare -- blue eyes shrouded under a dark olive hood, a face ringed in golden curls -- before they wheeled and hurled a dagger straight for the zombie’s back. A second shadow dropped and Dominic’s bonds vanished with a burst of frostfire; it cut through the threads with haste and then was gone. This one placed a firm hand on Dominic’s shoulder before shooting flame from their free palm and charring what was left of Brand to ash. Without a word the first figure slipped back amongst the trees, leaving Dominic and the second person -- a rescuer, deus ex machina? Someone with their own plans to turn the poor kid into sweets? -- alone to greet Remmi upon his return. Already, the spider was bounding back into view. “Keep silent,” whispered the person under the hood, still pressing Dominic into his chair. “Remmi and I have history. I’ll talk you out of this.”

Poor Remmi. His mistress was gone for now, and he'd be the one to take the repercussions because she was likely in a right fine mood. (That's sarcasm, by the way.) Trying to push this from his poor arachnid mind, Remmi attends to Dominic, and whomever the newcomer might be. "I should ask yah if you'd like more tah eat or drink, but I'm goin' tah assume tha' is prob'ly not tha case." The spider sighed heavily, looking towards the hooded figure, "Anythin' fer yah, then?"

The figure threw back their hood and stepped forward, and for the first time Dominic saw his maybe-rescuer’s visage. He was some horrific amalgam of man and spider, with extra sets of eyes that glinted merrily the wolf spider’s way. “Remmi, my good sir. I’m afraid I have some business with this young fellow here. I can’t seem to find your mistress to beg her leave. If you see her, could you tell her where we’ve gone? I’ll have him back before she can even miss him, I’m sure.”

Yep. Definitely a good thing Khitti's not here, even if it is just dream Khitti. She'd not like all these spiders, and certainly not this...spider...man. Wait, no. There she is. She's at the kitchen area order ten carrot cakes for herself. What the heck, Khitti. Just ignore her. Ugh. Meanwhile, Remmi just blinks at the arachnid-human hybrid, tilting it's head somewhat, "Wait...don't I know yah? Ain't like there's a hundred people lookin' like yah wanderin' 'round 'ere." The spider squints all of its eyes at the newcomer, trying to figure out who he was. "Tha mistress ain't gonna be pleased, yah know. Yah know who gets tah deal wit' tha'? Me."

“I have faith in you, Remmi. If anyone can handle it, you can.” said the spidery man, winking several of his eyes. Tilting his head toward the front counter, he added, “Might want to see to the lady first, though. Got a bit of a sweet tooth, that one.” Dominic followed the man’s gaze, blinking over in confusion at Khitti, but before he could react the strange man had spun him around in his chair and pulled him to his feet. “Come now. You need to leave.” Without giving Dominic any say in the matter, the man pulled him swiftly into the trees and beyond hope of finding that strange bake sale again. Dominic was racing to keep up, only barely able to keep from stumbling over his own feet. It was only at the edge of a precipice that the man came to a halt, pivoting on a heel to face Dominic -- with Dominic’s face. Gone was the spider visage; if Dominic didn’t know better he’d swear he was looking in a mirror. He stammered out questions -- how? Was he a shapeshifter too? Who was he, really? -- but the man only smirked, winked again and vanished, leaving words of caution on the air. Don’t turn back, keep pressing forward. But how was he supposed to do that? There was easily a few hundred feet between him and the bottom of this cliff he’d just been abandoned on.

"VHAT DO YOU MEAN TEN CARROT CAKES ARE GOING TO COST ME TWO HUNDRED GOLD?! VHAT KIND OF JOINT ARE YOU RUNNING HERE, YOU DISGUSTING EIGHT-LEGGED CREEPY BASTARD?!" is heard from the redhead as Dominic's lead away from the bake sale. Welp, that's probably not gonna end well. A Xena-esque battle cry comes from the bake sale and violent chopping sounds. Uh. Probably a good idea Dominic left. Had she seen him though? Maybe? No, probably not. It was entirely coincidence that she just so happened to be dragging a really big burlap sack filled with sweets. She saw Dominic from behind, a hand raised to try to get his attention, "H-hey! HEY YOU! C-can you help me? Zhis bag is super heavy and I've got to find my boyfriend. Ve're supposed to meet here for our vacation. You've not seen him, have you?" Wait...was Khitti not...a vampire? Couldn't she smell that it was Dominic? Or what if -he- wasn't her boyfriend? And if that was the case, who was?

Dominic turned slowly and only just enough to see her in his peripheral, skepticism written on his face. “Vacation? Boyfriend?” This wasn’t Khitti. Well, it was, but it wasn’t. Khitti was dead, Khitti was gone, Khitti was trapped in a cave somewhere under the guard of a terrible dragon. Dominic turned away again, contemplating the cliff’s edge. Had that man meant for him to jump? Where was he supposed to go from here?

The redheaded human stared at the bag as she lugged it along, tired grunting accompanying her movements. "Damn it, how is a bunch of sweets so damned heavy?" She grumbles to herself. "Yeah, ve're supposed to go to see zhe mermaids. He promised me ve could." She blinks as she finally looks up at Dominic, "Oh, you're here. You're just gonna let me keep talking to you like you're a stranger? Sheesh. Are you ready to go?" Khitti tilts her head, "I've got enough sweets for our trip. Come on!" And then, much like that nameless shapeshifter, she pushes the hopefully waterproof sack over the cliff and then dives over he side after it. Welp. This is weird.

“Um,” said Dominic eloquently, watching Khitti grow smaller and smaller as she fell. What on earth had even just happened? He turned back toward the woods one more time, contemplating a return, but… no, that spidery shapeshifting stranger had told him not to. And he should probably go make sure Khitti was okay, shouldn’t he? She had, after all, talked nonsense and then jumped off a cliff. That was a bit concerning. Maybe he could find a way down that didn’t involve taking the plummet and praying the whole way down? Dominic paced along the edge, but he’d hardly gone more than a few steps before -something- pushed him. After a terrible lurching he managed to grab onto a rocky outcropping a few feet further down; he could have sworn he heard “long live the king” on the wind as his grip peeled away from the stone and he began to tumble the rest of the way.

Suddenly from down below in the water, a few tendrils reach up and grab at Dominic's legs. He's given a tug as an attempt to bring him down below, but it wouldn't drag him, instead disappearing moments after the tug. He'd hear faint yelling coming from below, but it's indecipherable because of the distance in between. If he did decide to fall, however, he'd find Khitti floating along carefully on top of that bag of sweets, the thing seemingly capable of not sinking.

Dominic swam over to the sweets bag. The water was frigid, and even after only a moment in it he feared he might shiver himself to death. With great effort he pulled himself onto the top of the thing and began to cling to Khitti for warmth -- and strangely, she -was- warm. Hot, even -- warmer than she’d ever felt even right after feeding. Boiling, nearly. Perhaps he should be concerned, but it was too much of a relief to get away from that freezing ocean water.

Khitti clung to Dominic in return after he pulled himself aboard their odd boat, "I forgot I can't swim. Why are we doing this again?" She leaned forward and kissed him, but something felt wrong. While her lips were typically pretty soft, this was different. It was almost like she were made of putty, indentations left on her body where his body had put pressure on hers during their embrace. As she sat there, her skin seemed to slowly separate and melt away, like a bit of cake left in ice cream for too long.

Dominic fell backwards in surprise, back into the ice water. He sputtered, trying to call out to Khitti, trying to understand what was wrong, and instead swallowed ocean -- wait, was that tea? Dominic took another careful sip, letting it swish around in his mouth for a moment. Yeah, definitely tea. With lemon and honey, no less. And Khitti was cake, apparently. Somehow, he wasn’t even phased by it anymore. He -had- suspected that wasn’t the real Khitti, after all. As the cake-Khitti continued to melt onto the sweets bag, Dominic drank in more and more of the ocean until, with a sound like the gurgling of a drain, the sea level dramatically fell away until he was alone on wet sand with the remains of the sweets and a few scattered shells.

The vampiress was gone again, though this time it wasn't Brand's fault. All that remained of her on top of that bag of sweets was that blue dress of hers and the bracelet he'd given her. Was he -ever- going to find the real Khitti? For now, that didn't seem to be the case. What -did- happen, however, is that a ginger tabby cat tumbled out of Khitti's sweets bag. A few slow blinks are given to orange feline's surroundings before settling on Dominic. It sidles its way to guy that just drank an entire ocean of tea, carefully climbed it's way up his left pantleg, then his shirt, and settled on his shoulder. Ever so loudly, it meowed in his ear, yellow-ish green eyes focused on him, staring intently, almost into his very soul.

The meow was answered in kind, a number of times and from varying directions and distances, the cries reminiscent of the call and response of warhorns on the battlefield. A thousand thundering hooves could be heard closing in -- wait, no. Not hooves. This was the sound of hundreds of fuzzy kittens the size of horses, stumbling over one another as they neared Dominic, circling, clamoring for his attention. One rose a foot above the rest, an odd, coral colored cat with a mane not unlike that of a lion. This one roared until the others fell still, sobered by the sound. One by one, each oversized kitten crouched onto its forward paws, bowing before Dominic. The cat perched on Dominic's shoulder leapt away, reappearing a moment later as it scrambled to sit atop the pink feline's head.

N'cho let out the most fearsome roar a cat of her size could possibly muster, which...in all honesty...turned out to be a very forced 'mrowr'. Just pretend it was terrifying. She's self-conscious of her meows. The Orange lifts a paw, motioning in Dominic's direction, letting out a series of mews, purring, and a bit of chattering. From what Dominic could determine, it seems to be in a positive way. Well, at least he can hope that's the case. The coral one's given an affectionate nuzzle, then goes back to staring at the poor human that just lost his girlfriend for the hundredth time.

“Um,” said Dominic, of course more than a bit confounded by recent events. “C-can I help you?” He didn’t speak cat, of course, but maybe the cats spoke Common. “I… don’t really know what all this is about, but…” His gaze wandered from feline to feline, eventually falling to the bag of sweets that Khitti had left behind. Kneeling down, he rummaged in the bag before fishing out a large, swirling orb of candy. “Are these what you want?”

The Orange tilts her head as Dominic speaks, casts a side glance at the rather large, pink lion as if looking for permission for something. She gets it, of course, because who can say no to that face. "You've lost someone." The small cat hops back over onto Dominic's shoulder, balances her way down his arm and stops on his wrist, eyeing the candy. "You can find her, you know. The stars demand that you two be together." N'cho takes a lick of the candy, considering its flavor thoughtfully, "Or is it...you three?" Another lick. "You're purrrfectly bewildering. Your scent is so odd. It's freaking meowt and making my fur stand on end. We've only seen one other like you. They even look like you, but then sometimes they don't. They're quite impawsible." Another few licks. "But you don't belong here, do you? The Great One says it is so." She gives a nod of her head towards the coral-colored beast. "You've got to go back. Back into the darkness. Back into the storm. You know she's not gone yet." Welp. This is probably weird. But then again, what isn't weird about this place? Having licked enough of the candy down to carry it in her mouth, she leaps from Dominic's arm down to the ground next to the lion. Laying down, she resumes her slow devouring of the candy, looking entirely pleased with herself for her little speech that was really more like a lot of rambling. Clearly she's a cat that likes to hear herself talk.

“It’s just us two,” declared Dominic, anxiously shifting from one foot to the next. “You… you said you met someone like me before?” If there were answers as to what he and Brand really were, Dominic wanted to know them. Well, maybe. There was always the chance the truth was even more alarming than all the possibilities that had floated through his head over the years. “What do you mean, they look like me sometimes? And -- and Khitti. Do you mean to say she’s alive?”

"Two...? Three...? If you say so." N'cho flicked her tail in typical irritated cat fashion, though she didn't really seem to be irritated at all. "Looks like you. Smells like you. But much much older. Ancient even." She sits down in that elegant cat-like way that all house cats do and begins licking her paw to clean her face. "The Great One knows she's alive. She's a cat too, in a way, and all cats have nine lives. You really think her defeated so easily?" The dainty paw licking continues. "You must not have much faith in her survival if you think that. The Great One can sense her becoming feral now. Soon, she'll be like us and roam the lands freely instead of being tied down by your mortal thoughts and feelings. Her mind is almost no more." The Orange peers up at Dominic, ears twitching, yellow eyes intent on seeing his reaction. "How does that make you feel?"

“What do you mean, ‘ancient’? Who are you talking about?” Dominic was full of questions, and the tumbled out of him one after the next with hardly a breath between. “What do you mean, Khitti is going feral? How is that possible? What did Raiez do to her? A-and, what am I supposed to do about it?” A sigh. “I feel so hopeless. I don’t know how we’re supposed to get back to her. That dragon is going to be waiting for us to attempt a rescue. I don’t want Khitti to get hurt because I tried to save her and went about it wrong. I’ve already failed once.”

"You've about as much faith in yourself as you do in her. Tsk, tsk. And so many questions too. Can you not think for yourself? Or is that what the other one does for you?" N'cho, now that her bath was done, hops back up onto the coral colored lion, resting atop its head, nuzzling into its mane. "I suppose I can speak plainly if I must, though I do so enjoy the riddles." Her tail flick, flick, flicks about. "He is you, but not you. Another you. An alternate you." That's...not really all that plain, to be honest. "The Khat you know is losing her mind, much like the one you met here. While this one here went crazy, the one you know will be shifting towards a darker plane of things. She'll be a bit more..." A 'hm' escaped the cat's mouth, "...bitey. Do you really think you'll fail again? Do you care about her so little? If that is the case, you should let her change and you become our personal slave. We'll feed you and take care of you. The Great One might even let you ride on his back." It was an enticing offer indeed.

Dominic was falling again. Falling, and this time there’d be no cushiony cake to soften his landing. All was the void until an acrid smoke coated his tongue and filled his lungs, and still he was falling. A roaring blaze surrounded him and its heat lapped at his skin until he was swathed in sweat, but he saw nothing. Falling, falling, falling still, tumbling for what must have been an eternity with the fires growing ever louder around him until they hissed and screamed their tantrums into his ears. And then Dominic opened his eyes and discovered that he wasn’t falling at all, that he was in fact quite still, hunched over and cradling a charred corpse long since made unidentifiable. Who was this? Why was he here? He knew he needed to leave before he joined them in their fate, but the flames climbed ever higher and he couldn’t seem to move. He was paralyzed under the weight of this body, a weight he felt more keenly in his soul than in his muscles. He couldn’t move. Surely he was going to die here, but he couldn’t seem to drum up any kind of emotion about that fact. The void had taken up home in his heart and was swallowing him up from the inside out. Maybe he -should- die here. But no. He’d made a promise to someone, hadn’t he? A promise to live? The memory danced on the edges of his thoughts, never getting close enough to fully retrieve, only enough to leave stinging tears in his eyes. Or maybe that was the smoke, too. Either way, even that wasn’t enough to stir him into motion. He only wanted to stay here with her -- wait. Her?

What was likely the remains of Khitti continued to smolder in Dominic's arms and soon began to move. The charred body reaches a hand up to his cheek, caressing it softly as the sockets where the vampiress' eyes once sat glowed a brilliant green. Ash flaked off of Khitti's arm and hand, leaving remnants of blackness on Dominic's face as cracked and burning lips parted as if to speak. Nothing but smoke left her mouth as she stared up at him, the green orbs that was once her eyes darting here and there, watching him as she continued to burn like logs in a fireplace.

This wasn’t Khitti. This wasn’t anyone he knew. No. He needed to go. Where even was this? How had he found his way here? It all began to fall apart in more than one sense as he questioned it, growing dim and blurry even as bits of wooden foundation began to fall all around him. In a moment’s time Dominic was returned to the blackness, booted back out into the void from which he’d only just escaped. And then… and then he found himself running, sprinting as fast as he could go through a forest lit through the fog of early morning. He didn’t need to look back to know he was being chased, to know that his captors were pursuing him on horseback and would soon be dragging him back to their camp. And there would surely be hell to pay for his pursuit of freedom.

As Dominic ran through the forest, and his captors edged ever closer, a hand reached out to grab his arm and pull him behind a tree. "Pssssst! Over here, " a voice called out from the darkness of the tree line.

Dominic achieved quite the injured shoulder from the force with which he was whipped to the backside of the tree. In his terror, he focused around the curve of the trunk, eyeing his pursuit; only mere seconds later did the hoofbeats crash around them and then ebb away again. The man breathed a sigh of relief that hung in the frigid air and only then turned to discover the identity of his rescuer.

This figure, much unlike the others that Dominic's come across in this series of dreams, was cloaked in white. Nothing could be seen of her beneath the hood that was pulled up over her head, her entire body encased in a long flowing cloak. "Shh." is all that's said once he's pulled entirely behind the tree, waiting to make sure that his pursuers were gone. The figure then turns to him, "You shouldn't be here. Why haven't you left yet? Are you just going to keep running forever? Are you really that scared?" The female's tone was irritated, impatient, but attempting to be as kind as possible. She was thoroughly frustrated though, that much was obvious. "What's going on with you?"

“What? What do you mean?” Dominic was breathless and doubled over, hands bracing him against his knees and sweat dripping off his brow and the ends of his bangs. He’d already forgotten again that he was only dreaming. “I had to run. I had to, because… uh, because...” Hmm. He couldn’t remember. Who were those people hunting him? Why was he so terrified to be caught? Dominic shook his head to clear the fog, without success. “Thanks for saving me, but … who are you?”

The shrouded female took a few hesitant steps back as Dominic asked who she was. "I-It doesn't matter who I am. You need to go, Dominic. Y-you have to." As she backed away, a bit of red hair fell from the inside of her hood. She lets out a gasp, then shoves it back in as quickly as can be. "You need to go. You need to find Brand and you need to leave."

Dominic stepped forward as the figure moved away, not letting the distance increase. He had the look of someone trying to place where they’d seen a familiar face. The red hair didn’t exactly help the stranger’s case. “...K-Khitti? ...Where’s Brand? Where are we going? You’re coming with us, right?” Strange that he would ask where Brand was. Like he wasn’t present in his head.

The figure would continue moving backwards until she were pinned against a tree. "No. Not Khitti." Who knows why she seemed so afraid to let him see her, but she merely shook her head. "You know where Brand is. You always know. You two need to work together. She needs you. Y-you have to wake up, Dominic. It's so very important that you do."

Wake up? Wake… up? The colors swirled and then faded, and Dominic found himself back in his bed at the tavern. Alone. It wasn’t even day out yet, or at least no light had managed to make its way through the windows. He couldn’t help but feel like it was a metaphor, a bad omen for what he’d find when he one day returned to Raiez’s cave.