Four

Placng it a hound wasn't quite right, since it got three heads.

It was easily the height of a building, it looked normal on the waist down, IF you could place the term normal on an oversized dog with razor talons, but things get wierd on the waist up, with its neck hastily dividing into three parts like a tree branch. Its six eyes gleamed the colour of rubies except darker, more violent, its nostrils spewing columns of fire that did not remind me of the dog in the pet zoo. The whole scene had remarkable resemblance to my drawings when I was in elementary, scrawling illegible lines onto school worksheets.

Normally under such circumstaces, I would've passed out, but my brain, now on overload mode, banned the "shut off" button just for me to enjoy the fate of being a doggie buscuit. Thanks, brain.

The leftmost head growled in my direction, which did a very good job in sharing its halitosis, its drool trying its best to make contact with the pavement.

I pinched myself.

"Ow."

Nnnope, I thought as I tried my best to drag my paralyzed legs upright. It's a dream. Something this wierd only appears in dreams.

Hey, my dreams aren't this wierd. A voice in my head protested.

Shut up. I told the voice.

I gazed up at the eyes of the hound and realized I could form words. "Nice doggie, excellent doggie."

The hound did not seemd impressed.

Its three heads did a really good job in coordinating it four legs as it started barreling towards where I was crumpled to the ground, closing in at an alarming speed. Its middle mouth opened wide, and chomped off a portion of the pavement as I scrambled to safety, avoiding the dog, the dog, now with a mouthful of cement in his middle bazoo, doesn't seem as cheerful as it previously was.

I glanced around the empty streets. There wasn't much, a closed-up seven eleven, some grocery shops, and a bunch of hollow buildings that looks like they're being abandoned since prehistoric times judging from the weed occupying its interior. My instincts told me to fled the farthest possible, and my limbs did a series of movements that look suspiciously like breakdancing in response to disconnect my rump and the cement declorated with jarring stones.

Then I felt coldness sliding down my hair, dripping on my shoulders.

I looked up to intersept a facefull of hound drool.

Why would someone ever being seaked up on by a three-story-high hound?

It opened its clenched jaws, wider to swallow a mideum-sized tower truck.

Oh no.

I didn't welcome near-death experiences, nor did it welcome me as it spewed stench onto my face. There were plenty of things I didn't accomplish in my 15 year lifetime, I didn't endure the agonizing dezire to finish playing Zelda, Cyber punk, Devil May Cry, Death stranding and so on, just to get killed in the middle of nowhere by a dog the height of a three Adam Smashers. even death by truck would be better, (at least you got the chance to get resarrected, or reincarnated, whatever, to otherworlds) But there's nothing I could do as I gawked at the wide-opened mouth of the hound as it wrapped around my head, devouring me whole.

It chomped my head off. Nearly.

I'm not going to be poetic for this one, or should I say, strange things happen too much in one day is much more tiring than you think. Just when I was about to close my eyes to give up hope with monsterous stench wafting from above, the mouth with glistening teeth lurched backwards in a start, its jaws clenched shut just missing my scalp by an inch.

An arrow sprout from between the hound's eyes in its second head, which must have caught it by surprise as it stumbled backwards, doing its best to regain its footing.

I touched my neck. Everything about me seemd intact, which wasn't bad, if my legs weren't wabbling like jelly at the moment. And now I've got time to prepair for my death note. Horray.

The hound finally seemd to wake up from its daze, it let out a guttural growl, shook its head(s) as the arrow vanished, only to be followed closely by two others striking right where the first arrow has left a hole.

A statue. That's what all I felt like as I stood there paralyzed.

Someone emerged from the top of the Seven-eleven behind, doing a sumersalt mid-air, nimble and soundless.

"Oh and now you go nuts." her voice was more than familiar, but something about that familiarity seemd partially out of place.

I've never met her before, but somehow I knew it was the usual dressup she's wearing. A black and grey school uniform with a maching T-shirt beneath an oversized hoodied jacket. She should be carrying a bow, judging from the previous arrows shot, but it miraculously disappeared, but I didn't bother caring about it much. Nothing changed much about her aura, soothing but intense, but still cute in both ways.

"You still wanna be a hound supper?" she gestured for me to come. the dog which seemd to taste faliure for the first time, houled in outrage as I followed the girl into a shop nearby.

Rain started pouring down the sky, with droplets the size of beans. The hound outside sniffed the ground continuously, which indicates that hell hounds don't do eyesights, maybe due to their stay in dim areas.

We crouched behind the cashier as footsteps stomped past, creating miniature craters in its path.

"Not good, Johnon." the girl stopped fiddling the coin in her hand when I finished narrating whatever I've been through."A Kerberos isn't something normally observed on undulating worlds."

"A what?"

"Forget it, It's just a hell hound which combined with your friend."

Which I could never forget from this moment on.

"Is your friend like... " she reconsidered her words. "Is he big? Like, in size?"

"Yes?"

"That pretty much explains it."

"Explains what?"

She blinked. "Nevermind."

"No, I'm defenately minding it now." My voice was on the edge of fustration." My best friend just disappeared and you told me now he's that freaking dog sniffing the pavement. What is this, a dream? An illution? Just send me back where..."

"There's no way back now, Johnson, "The girl rose, her ebony hair fell around her sholders, sending off the smell of jasmine shampoo. "Only time cannot be traced backwards."

"Wait, you're going out there alone? can't we just call the police?"

"For both questions, yes, we cannot leave a homeless pup roam around this city state and cause time defliction beyond repair, and no, there are things the police can't manage. you kow that more than anyone else." She flashed me a smile."It's not me who's gonna got all the attention. After all, You're coming with me. Need a link here, IF you still want Tim back."

And that left me no choice. My remaining sanity told me that she's my best chance for returning Tim, if there's any of my crumbled sanity left.

"Here." She tossed me an orb the size of one of the prophet's foretelling crystal balls. It shone a gentle green "Put this in your pocket, do something. Scream, shout, whatever. Try his name, he'll be sensitive on that one. Just keep it occupied or we're all gonna die. Ready?"

Not.

I might have said no, since she sounded like offering alternatives, but the rain hell and the howling wind made it hard to distinguish. Nor did she wait for my reply. She stood and snapped her fingers.

As I watched, what was once a jacket started to shimmer blue, pale lines snaked up from the bottom of the oversized jacket, It started to shrink as the piece of cloth, now divided, slowly reformed, clicking into place and formed an outskirt of a hoodied cape. A gust of wind wooshed inwards into the Seven-eleven with its door flung open and its windows shattered, creating a miniature explotion of shreads.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

The hound had spotted us.

To my knowledge's extent, No girl in history would ever allow herself, impetuously, to independently approach danger, so she did the exact thing I'd suspected.

"Yo you piece of screwed meatball, here's your treat!"

She dashed off faster than any other students I'd seen near the canteen opening period, leaving me alone in the empty street, with a hungry dog.

Not funny.

It hesitated, seemd not to be sure if treating on me might be a better idea than the girl, but it then seemed to made up its mind to devour us all and let out a trio-howl loud enough to rip open the ground to connect us to its motherland.

I gathered up my nerves. After all I could still negotiate.

"Umm, Tim, is that you?"

The growl in its throat grew louder.

Apparently not. Not sensitive at all.

"O great kerberos, pet of the lord of the underworld or whatever, can you spare me?" My voice squeaked on the last word.

It apparently didn't relish that idea.

Why would someone ever think up ideas to negotiate with dogs?

Its brain might as well be working in full drive overload as it haunched its back, and bursted forward with incredible speed.

"More like a dolt than ever, Johnson." The girl had somehow made herself to the hound's rear. I should't be able to hear her voice over such long distances, but it boomed in my head, louder than ever, verberating in my brain. Maybe the orb, now dangling loose in my trouser pocket like an obtrusive tumor, is doing its whatever magical telepathic job." Oh no. This is gonna take a while."

I didn't like the sound of that. At all.

The hound was closing in at an alarming speed as dirt flew in its trail, rocks piled into a aimless churning tornado as it was kicked up by the dog. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the girl working on something as her hands flailed across the hologram displaying complex digits in front of her.

"Just a few more moments... Please... Eighty, Eighty two..."

And I made my decision. life first priority.

I did the normal thing.

I turned and fled.

And things didn't turn out well, same as I p

redicted.

"Why the hell are you ruing? Dogs like moving stuffs!"

And it will ingulf me any moment if I just stood there.

Shouldn't have trusted the girl in the first place. I could've slipped away when sh was occupied on other things so I wouldn't have to face this three faced freak. Too late to complain now.

The truth itself was unfair since I'd just started running while the dog already got a velocity of a sports car, and it's also unfair that I was currently carried on two legs while the hound had four.

Curse you fairess.

Short story ver.: Head got bitten off by hound LOL.

I recalled this the second time in a single day to enjoy hound ozostomia. Horrible rate. And I dreadfully found myself getting used to it as the hound's upper chin appeared in my sight.

Then things got a little wild. Only a little. not going to feel a thing about 'wild' in the near future.

Something shattered as my vision was shrouded in an intense dark blue. The hound lurched backwards like it hit a invisible forcefield.

"Oh yes! Oh... Ohno." the girl seemed to notice the miniature blast." Is that a breaking forcefireld I just heard?"

She didn't wait for my reply.

Her grunts were starting to sound more irritating than the hound's."Told tou to attract it, not to use any of my shields!" She then settled down a little." Anyway. It's my turn."

she let out a long exhale, her eyes half-closed, and flipped her 'five cents'. It flew upward and started to extend, slowly at first, then faster as gears whirled inside with tremendous speed until it expanded into a two foot long spear with marks emblazoned on its flank, its outline didn't match its engraved marks--at all--But its still nevertheless a spear, only with a bronze hue and a superior contraction skill. She caught it mid-air, whirling it at a ludicrous speed of helicopter blades. Lightning flashed, lashing out and illuminating the starless night sky as it danced with the spear, slowly lacing, blending together, participating her movements, twirling it into streaks of dazzelig light. Thunder boomed above, . She stopped whirling and went into aiming position. Her eyes flew wide open, glowing an intese blue. The spear tip started lengthening, coiling around the whole spear with clanging souds of metal, giving it a metallic glow.

Then she threw it like a javelin, Her movements hard to trace as the spear left her hand at the speed of light, its inexorable momentum high enough to slice through cement like butter, passing through the hound with no trouble as it punctured a hole right where its mid section should have been, piercing as lightning illuminatid the sky, making impact that incinerating nearby trees and turning the street ito a blazing inferno. The hound let out a death rattle and its knees hit the pavement, crumbling to the ground.

Like I've said, too much amazement in one day was surely tiring for my brain to interpret, so it remained neutral, forcing down any irresistable urge just for me not to freak out on the spot and miss anything hellish.

Thanks again, brain.

The rain was heavier now, soaking the girl as she stood there in the middle of the street, now with a condition only the Sahara could manage, facing a gargantuan shadow, slowly crumbling into dust with electricity sizzling in its chest Iron man style, its ash washed away by incoming raindrops.

The girl finally seemed to run out of super-whatever power as her body leaned backwards, but she managed to steady herself" I deactivated killig mode, Tim will return." Then she added, just to extinguish my full hope."Hopefully."

Then she leaned sideways and crumpled in puddles of raindrops. I rushed forward and steadied her by the sholder to avoid further crumpling. They were small, too tiny for someone to release that kind of tremendous power. Her dark cape again transformed, lengthening back into an oversized jacket.

"I'm alright." the girl, who was now apparently not alright, tried to wave me away and nearly disintegrated like the hound. "Yeah guess I'll take that back."

I tried to carry, half-dragged her out of the rain into the messy seven-eleven with her leaning her weight onto me, the raindrops smacking my face.

Her shivering rate approached car engine level, which I assume was not a good sign. I settled her down at the corner of the shop to provide her a backrest, grabbed some towels nearby, and started working on her soaked jacket. And I swear my actions are totally spiteless, no, dear readers, don't look at me like that, I swear.

She was soaked from head to toe, so eventually, I started with her jacket hood.

But just as I lifted the cover, something sprouted from the girl's head.

It was hidden under the jacket hood and made sense to me as only a kind of decoration.

But no.

"Oh, and by the way," The girl looked up with a smile, clearly to check on my startled reaction, which was now, indeed, very startled

Something like this was never real. Never.

They were cat ears.