Kumiho sat in the dream like an observer at a theatre. The show was actually very good, though the third act was quite over the top. From her mantle upon the shoulders of Guan Ah Dan, there was only a slight risk of actual danger to herself but that was enough to keep it exciting. Though, if Kumiho needed to, she could simply sever the connection she had formed with Guan Ah Dan and flit from Guan Fa Lian’s with ease.

She didn’t want to do that. Doing that would be short-sighted, considering the growth she had been able to cultivate in Ah Dan. She wouldn’t take all of the credit, of course. A lot of the boy’s cultivation was a result of the good teachers he had before, and the good fortune to be born without any prerequisites on his soul. All in all, Kumiho considered him precious.

“Jump and hide in the tree. Stay quiet, little one.”

Ah dan did as he was told and leapt into the branches of a hanging camphor tree, precariously leaning over a shallow ravine. Kumiho praised the boy for doing so well but he simply shivered and watched, unblinking, as Fa Lian stalked the ground below him.

“WheeRe AarE yoU ,Daann?” Both a whisper, a shout and a growl, Fa Lian was hunting for Ah Dan. Fa Lian was no longer herself. The nighttime terrors of mortals are no simple thing and they were always getting lost in them.

The girl had become a facsimile of herself. Stretched limbs, joints which creaked and bent at the incorrect angle. A frenetic energy to her movement that spoke, to Kumiho, of an anxious rage. The poor girl probably stalked these rotten hallways in her mind most nights. Whatever terrors she may have normally faced here, Fa Lian was the only monster here now. Her black outfit had become like oil, dripping from her now clawed fingers and leaving trails of inky sludge.

She had lost herself to the lucidity of her dream. She was carrying a common trait in humans, if an ugly one. Power corrupts and there is hardly a more powerful feeling than realising you are in complete control of the world.

It was a trait she shared with Kumiho herself.

Regardless, the ancient fox was far more wily than Fa Lian. She had danced through the minds of dreamers for more centuries than she would care to divulge and this was not the first nightmare she had been captured in, nor was it close to the most dangerous. That line of thinking took Kumiho back to the night she was sealed, so she focused on Ah Dan instead. “You can move now.” She said.

That was true, and would have continued to be the right thing to do had Ah Dan not landed directly on a twig. His mind was elsewhere, a misstep like that was nearly impossible when the boy was focused. No matter how much Kimiho could tell Ah Dan this, there would be no point. Until he could separate himself from her control, he would be the mouse and Fa Lian would be the cat.

For a time, Kumiho was content enough just to watch the goings on and try to understand Fa Lian more. Her control of the nightmare was passable, but all change was done by instinct, not planning. Without planning, Kumiho could easily keep Dan a step ahead and out of reach and she did. With a whisper here, a guiding suggestion there, the prey was kept from the predator.

Eventually, as with anything, Kumiho grew bored of waiting for Ah Dan to come to the answer on his own. “Will you run forever?” The boy’s feet were dragging, and had been dragging for what must have felt like hours to him at this point. Time would do what it did in the “real world”, but it would not be nearly as long as it seemed to Ah Dan.

“What else do I do?” Ah Dan’s whisper was no more than a croak.

Poor thing, Kumiho thought lovingly. She was somewhat charmed by the pleasant boy. He seemed to be so caught up in helping others that he had no true goal of his own. Kumiho had spent nights amongst the chaos within Ah Dan, however. She knew that he had more to him than just service to others. “Take control of the nightmare. Supplant it with a dream of your own”

Ah Dan was silent for a while as Fa Lian scoured the area looking for him. Kumiho thought she recognised this place from the memories she had scoured within Ah Dan. The wooden walls and floors were similar, though the wood was rotten in the nightmare and likely pristine in actuality. The Jiaoduo of the Guan had seen better days in this nightmare, however.

A tattered sheet draped over the side of an abandoned bed, obscuring the shivering Ah Dan from view as he stayed as silent as possible. The material fluttered as Fa Lian burst into the room, her disjointed and erratic movement making her seem incredibly fast and then statuesque right after.

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The nightmare wouldn’t change until Kumiho did something. Ah Dan was fixated on remaining hidden and without trying to do anything else, he would be trapped in the cycle. From the spooky cackle which Fa Lian let loose every now and then, which echoed throughout the entire dream, she was not looking to change things either. “Fine.” Kumiho huffed, annoyed that she had to be the one to say it and that she likely wouldn’t get credit from the nasty old lizard. “Ryong Aang is still here somewhere, we can feel it, can’t we? The reason this nightmare cannot end is because Ryong Aang has not been dealt with. He still burns Fa Lian from within.”

That was as much of a prompt as Kumiho was willing to give but luckily it was also all Ah Dan needed to start moving. His breathing settled somewhat and Kumiho felt something close to confidence swell within the boy. Pride bloomed with her as bravery settled onto the laurels of the boy. His situation was tenuous but just like being advised not to look down when climbing heights, Kumiho saw no need to angle Dan’s vision towards the abyss he was precariously hanging over.

Instead of a warning Ah Dan didn’t need, Kumiho simply began to guide him as well as she could. Before Ah Dan could move, he waited. No longer the shaking leaf in a storm, he focused. Guiding the boy started first with calming him. Kumiho helped Ah Dan find his frantic mana and bring it under control. Tension left his body as he once again found himself in command of himself. “Thank you Kumiho.” Ah Dan’s voice was no longer a whisper.

The bed above Ah Dan’s still prone body disappeared and he stood, dusting himself off. He stretched, rolling his neck and extending his back, seemingly without a care in the world. The change in demeanour would have seemed a facade to anyone else. Except Kumiho knew that courage and determination were Ah Dan’s more natural state. “This suits you better.” Kumiho purred, referencing the immediate shift in confidence and aura from Ah Dan.

“It is my pleasure, Guan Ah Dan. Can you sense Fa Lian?” Kumiho knew that Ah Dan’s power would work as he expected it to in this place. Through their connection, she could see as he did. Even so, tracking the consciousness of the dreamer was not a simple thing.

“She is… oh.” Ah Dan had her position for a moment before she vanished. Kumiho chimed a small ping and he found her again. Fa Lian had dropped through the floor a few halls over and now she was crawling upon the ceiling in the other direction.

“Indeed. There will be avoiding her completely, the dream doesn’t work like that.”

“Okay.” Ah Dan’s voice did fall down to a whisper again now as he began to move to the door and poked his head out. He crossed to another room before quietly jumping from the window. “Crossing that bridge when we come to it, we need to find Ryong Aang. I can sense him, you’re right, but he seems… everywhere?”

“It.” Kumiho corrected Ah Dan’s use of the word ‘he’.

“I’m sorry?”

“Don’t worry, Ryong Aang probably wouldn’t mind. Especially when you save its life.”

“Which can only happen when I find it.” Dan answered. As they spoke, Dan crossed the open space before him. As he left the confines of the Jiaoduo’s walls, he landed into a swampy approximation of its grounds. Kumiho was sure that the Guan kept their lawns much more pristine than this but Fa Lian’s view of them was mired in her own issues. Keeping to the shadows, cast forth from a huge full moon’s light hitting gnarled trees, Dan crossed the swamp.

The sound of explosive movement interrupted Ah Dan’s sticky walk. “I told you there was no avoiding her.” Though she had relinquished control to the nightmare, Fa Lian still held the power here. Each step that Ah Dan took was a stroke of luck and that luck had run out. On that note… “You should run.”

Ah Dan had needed her advice, his legs frozen in the mud for a moment. Before the malaise of the nightmare could push him into the role of the victim once more, Ah Dan began to move with purpose. Using the vision his technique afforded him, he was able to dodge the incoming Fa Lian.

“iiI NEvvER ASkeD foR yooUr HELp! YyYou RUiNeD eEvVeryTHInG!”

Guan Fa Lian tore the world apart as she chased Ah Dan through the dark quagmire. The roots of trees became reaching snakes as she threw them from her path. Ah Dan, to his credit, was able to keep out of reach only because he did not let fear grasp him. If he had, the swamp would have claimed his energy as surely as if it were real. Instead, his bravery gave him speed and power enough to keep out of her reach.

“We’re going to find the dragon!” Kumiho shouted. Before Ah Dan could voice frustration, she added to him alone. “If she thinks of Ryong Aang, she will chase you right to him.” Instead of anger, Ah Dan was quickly grateful, although it meant that the chase only intensified behind him.

The temperature began to rise. The swamp got louder, a sound separate from Fa Lian’s screeching tears upon the world began roaring through the dream. Fa Lian’s dreamscape crumbled at the edge of the bog. Mud boiled and melted before falling away into empty space below. There was a sound where it did drop, but neither Ah Dan, Kumiho, or Ah Dan’s mana could see where it landed.

The sudden drop off caused Ah Dan to stop running, the world turning to empty blackness before him. He turned, readying himself for Fa Lian’s assault. He could not have been more prepared, nor could his preparation be less effective. Like the arrow she had seemed when she attacked Ryong Aang, she speared into Dan with full force, pouncing like a wild animal.

Together, they tumbled over the edge of Fa Lian’s consciousness. As they fell, she raked Dan with vicious, serrated claws and tried to bite his throat. The best Ah Dan could manage was to push her away from him with his feet. The pair collided with the hard floor below as the fall came to an abrupt end. Ah Dan was just glad that there was hard ground below himself and not the endless drop that he had been fearing.

While Ah Dan caught his breath on the floor, Kumiho looked around. Fa Lian was a heap on the floor, the impact knocking her out. Falling in dreams is often hard on the dreamer, Ah Dan was simply a special case due to his own recurrent tumbles when he sleeps. This was good.

They had found their goal, the last dragon, Ryong Aang.

Dan took a moment to inspect the glistening red glory of the final great wyrm in existence. Kumiho fell from his shoulders and took on her human form. He looked to Fa Lian on the ground, her form a drippy mass of oil, before turning back to Kumiho herself. “How will healing it help? Won’t they just battle again?”

“The dragon was beaten. Even Ryong Aang will accept that.” Kumiho traced her hand on Ryong Aang’s ragged and shredded shoulder. “What comes next for them will be up to them but… you will have helped.”

“You too,” Ah Dan said, “I couldn’t have done any of this without you.”

“Oh,” Kumiho giggled, “you have no idea how right you are.”