“You're...”

Unable to control herself, Sunny jumped forwards, bowling over humans and dogs with her excitement. They greeted her with equal enthusiasm.

“What the hell's going on...? Oh...”

“We met before, didn't we? At the auction.” Sou Yuet bowed to the dog-people. “I'm glad to see you made it home.”

“Thank you.”

“Thanks.”

“Thank you...”

“Is that...?” The necromancer's eyes were drawn back to the funeral pyre.

“Yes.”

“Mother...”

“It's Mother...”

Embers from the fire spiralled away into the sky.

“Is that a shroud that ye're burning there?”

“Sh-shroud?”

“For wrapping... Ye put it round the body.”

“Ah, yes. Yes.”

“Please, will you join us?”

“Yes, join!”

“You gave back Mother's teeth. We're thankful.”

“Thank you.”

“Thank you...”

The lands around the village were dry and in poor condition. The village itself, known as Samant, was sparse, with few possessions within the mud brick walls of the villagers' homes. The dog-people themselves looked strained and thin, perhaps worse than when the monk and the necromancer had seen the small group at the auction. The body of their mother was collapsing to ash behind them.

As they looked at the two people who had retrieved their mother's teeth, the gratitude in their eyes was somewhat overwhelming.

“He was the one that found her teeth,” Sou Yuet announced cheerfully, pointing to the necromancer. “I just brought them to you.”

“Hey!”

“Please join us,” one of the dog-people said again. A lanky, middle-aged man, he seemed to have the best grasp of the Common Tongue. “When fire goes, we wash Mother's bones and bury. Please be there.”

“Wash the bones...” the necromancer mused.

“We would be honoured.” Sou Yuet bowed again.

The dog-person who spoke the most was called Bir. As he led the travellers to a place where they could wash and be dressed in white clothing, he did his best to explain the circumstances in Common Tongue.

Their people had been somewhat nomadic for as far as could be remembered, shifting from place to place but unable to find permanent homes. Many peoples already controlled the most fertile lands, and were unwilling to share with others, especially half-humans. The dog-people eked out a living where they could, and left when they couldn't.

“Then the... I don't know... tuyu appeared.”

“Tuyu?”

“Big tail. Big ears. He said... Like us, change from animal to human to animal.”

“Oh... the guy. The man... fox... whatever that took yer mam's teeth.”

For the first time, Bir's gentle face creased with anger. His lips drew back and his face contorted until he looked less human and more like a snarling wild dog. “Liar... He changed to tuyu then to human. Said he was our brother. Said, look! We have the same skin as humans. We are sharp-toothed hunters. We are brothers.

“He took Aya... took Mother's teeth. Pulled them out!”

“He killed her?”

“No, no. Aya was dead. He went to her at night and took her teeth.”

“The fecking creep,” the necromancer growled, accepting the white clothes that Bir handed him. “What kind of absolute nutcase pulls the teeth from the dead body of a sweet old lady and sells them?”

“You met Aya?” Bir looked confused. “She was gentle... You know her?”

“Uh... I...” The necromancer looked helplessly at Sou Yuet.

The monk smiled at Bir. “Could you give me robes that cover most of my body, please?”

“Ah? Oh! I... Sorry! I thought you... Here, these.”

“Thank you. My friend here can speak to the dead. He greeted the spirit of your mother just now.”

“Monk! What the hell!”

Bir stared. The necromancer jerked back in surprise as the dog-person seized his hands, large dark eyes filling with tears. “You can talk to Aya? Is she good? Can you... Please! Tell her...”

“Okay, okay! I can help you talk to her.”

“Thank you! Thank you!” Bir raced away back to the pyre to tell the rest of the villagers, leaving the two travellers feeling somewhat windswept.

“How did we end up here, again?” the necromancer asked.

Stolen story; please report.

“You're very soft when people appeal to you.”

“Is that why ye threw me in the fire like that? Ye sneaky bast-”

“You wash first.”

The necromancer quietly did as he was told, somewhat to Sou Yuet's surprise. When he emerged, cleaned and wearing the white lower body wraparound, he found the monk staring absently in the direction of the fire.

“Knock knock.” He gently tapped the side of the monk's head with his knuckles.

“Eh? Oh... Pang Yau... My apologies, I'm...”

“Is it because I said something hypocritical?”

“When?”

The necromancer leaned over and tapped Sou Yuet's sleeve where the monk was stowing the clairín búirthe. “There I was making all kinds of noise about a creep stealing teeth off a corpse. And what did I do?”

Sou Yuet looked away. “That's different. She wanted to come with us to see her mother be rescued. Lí forcibly took something from someone who was not willing and could not resist.”

“Why are ye looking away?”

“I... was just thinking I should go and wash too.”

“Ye sure ye're not avoiding an awkward conversation?”

“Who's avoiding-! No, it's nothing to do with that. Sincerely. I'm... thinking about other things. I'll go and wash.”

Sou Yuet disappeared into the bathing hut. The necromancer was scratching his head, staring after the monk, when something wet and cold brushed his other hand.

“GAH! WHA- Oh... Bir?”

A skinny dog with large brown eyes wagged its tail at him. Sunny was right behind, towering over the smaller canine. She rubbed against the necromancer, looking for pats.

“She wanted to see you,” Bir said, a remarkably human voice emanating from his dog throat. “I'm sorry, I made mistake with your wife.”

“My wife?”

“Inside there.” Bir gestured with his muzzle towards the bathing hut. “She is your wife, no?”

“Where the hell did ye get that idea?”

It was impressive how much human expression Bir could show. “You were... close. She looked shy.”

“Shy? That shameless monk?”

“Who's a shameless monk?” Sou Yuet emerged, clean and neatly wrapped in the white robes. The colour suited their skin tone well.

The necromancer's words dissolved into grumbles and he chose to stomp away. “We'll miss everything if we don't go now.”

Bir and Sunny watched the two humans walking away. Sunny rolled her eyes. Bir nodded understandingly.

“You've got a hard job, sister.”

Sunny coughed in agreement and followed after her two stupid masters.

----------------------------------------

The necromancer had seen a lot of death. Decaying bodies in some forgotten place. The moment when life leaves, sometimes under his own hands. The regretful melancholy of old graves.

He had never seen a funeral.

The person who was holding the scroll and singing to the audience had changed. A woman now commanded their attention, and the previous man sat with the rest, sipping milk to soothe his sore throat.

“We wash and wear white,” Bir whispered. “Then we build the fire and laid Aya on top. While she burns, we sing our stories. When fire is gone, we wash Aya's bones in milk, and bury her with flowers. Then, she has no name and becomes bonga.”

He was not able to explain in Common Tongue what this word meant.

“What was your Aya like, when she was alive?” Sou Yuet asked, scratching Sunny behind the ears. She lay beside him, taking up a significant amount of space, but also providing a comfortable place for the village children, in human and puppy form alike, to lie down.

“Our Aya... to everyone. For everyone. She fed us. She showed us where to go. She brought us from the east to find safety. Truly, there is not one of us who shares her blood. She could not have pups. But she is Aya to us, still.”

“You don't need blood ties to be family,” Sou Yuet said. As they looked about more carefully, they noticed that some of the people in the seated crowd did not appear to be dog-people. “She was well-loved by many, it seems.”

The monk's eyes met those of a woman seated nearby. Her skin was an inhuman shade of dark red, and she only wore the white wraparound garment on her lower body, completely unconcerned that her upper body and breasts were exposed, other than strings of necklaces draped over them. Gold piercings glittered at her ears and nose.

Her narrow light brown eyes fixed on the monk for a moment longer than a simple passing glance, and then she looked away.

“Who is that?”

“I don't know,” Bir replied. “She smells familiar, but I don't know. We have many visitors. Some are missing.”

“Missing?”

“They cannot come, although they want to. But, their prayers and wishes will reach Aya, wherever they are. And you are here. That is important.”

“Me?”

“You brought back her teeth. You and your husband. We could not bury her like that, without her teeth. We're thankful.”

If the necromancer heard what Bir said, he did not make any indication. Except perhaps a slight creeping pinkness appearing on his cheeks.

It could have been sunburn.

The singing woman sat down, and another took her place. The fire was beginning to die down now, white bones nestled amongst the remaining flames. The necromancer stared at the bones.

“How is she?” Sou Yuet asked.

“She's meditating, I think. I didn't really want to disturb her none. She's happy, though. I think she's glad to see her family one last time.”

The fire sank to embers as the night began to fall. A person with the body of a man and the head of a crow sifted through the smouldering debris and carefully picked out every last one of the bones with his hands and beak, passing them to the dog-people who placed them in a large basket. Singing softly, they washed the bones with milk as the visitors watched.

The necromancer lifted his head suddenly. “Oh. Hi.”

Bir paused his washing and watched eagerly. One by one, others began to notice, and they fell silent.

“That's... Yeah...” The necromancer found Bir. “She wants to know yer decision. I'm not sure what she's referring to.”

Bir closed his eyes, pressed his hands together and spoke rapidly in his native language. The necromancer had no idea what he was saying, but-

“Yer mam's real happy. She says she has no regrets now.”

The dog-people clasped their hands and bowed to the bones, or lay down respectfully in their dog forms. As they returned to the washing, the necromancer leaned down and whispered in Sou Yuet's ear.

“She wants to thank ye. And... 'The right way and the easy way are often not the same.'” He patted Sou Yuet's shoulder. “She said it'll hurt. But that just goes to show yer a good person. Ye should worry when it stops hurting.”

“You're just making this up now, aren't you?” Sou Yuet laughed. “You can't even speak the same language, you're just saying what you want to say.”

“What? No! It's different with the dead I know what they're sayi- Ha, I thought so. Sneaky bastards.”

“What?”

“She said, 'Give my regards to Lord Hadyahosh.'”

“Ah.”

The dog-people carried the washed bones out of the village, proceeding across the barren farmlands to where the foothills began. There, they dug a hole and buried the bones with garlands of flowers.

Everyone bowed to the bones.

“She's gone,” the necromancer said.

“What will you do now?” Sou Yuet asked Bir.

“Go east. We cannot live here any more. The land is dying. And we cannot farm. We are good at guarding. We have work guarding travellers on the road of jade. Our families will have better lives.”

“So that was the decision your Aya was asking about. I see.”

“Where will you go?”

“West. We will keep looking for where legendary creatures have been harmed. One day, when Lí is caught – the fox, the tuyu, I mean – we'll need to know what he has done so that those he hurt can be recognised. By the way, are you not worried that he will come back to dig up your Aya's bones?”

“That won't happen, little monk.” A new voice, smooth as silk, lapped around Sou Yuet's ears. The woman with the red skin curled her long fingers around the monk's shoulder with a smile of sharp teeth. She turned the grin to the necromancer, clearly amused by the way he was bristling. “Don't worry about this place. You've got something more important to deal with.”

“And who the feck are you?”

“Oh, just a friend of the person who lies here now.” The light brown eyes drifted over the fresh pile of soil, heaped with flowers. “Now then...” She took Sou Yuet's chin in her hand and planted a deep kiss on the monk's lips.

“HEY! WHAT THE-”

“You too.”

Sou Yuet rubbed their mouth with mild surprise, watching as the woman pressed her lips against the necromancer's too. She winked at them both.

“A little gift for you both. Take care!”

With a sudden whirl of cloth and a jingle of her jewellery, the woman leapt into the air and vanished, leaving the necromancer gaping wordlessly.

“What a strange person,” Sou Yuet mused. “Oh well. Shall we go?”