Freyja stopped and sniffed at a downward-facing slope. There was the sound of running water, like a creek somewhere close by, and a sudden nippiness in the air, as though they were high in a mountain near snow caps. Cuppy saw a plume of thick fog hanging over the land. It shrouded a honeycomb web of hot springs set in slabs of gray stone crisscrossing each other like a tiered floor. Stray trickling streams that branched out from the inset tubs ran down-slope of them, cascading as tiny waterfalls over sudden breaks in elevation, where the slabs became short cliffs. The steamy arena was framed by imposing mountains, and snowflakes drizzled down from an aurora dancing like a plasmid plesiosaurus afloat in the sky.

"How the shit did we get here?" Richie asked, clutching at his bare arms as the ambient cold made the flesh break out in goosebumps.

He pulled his scarf more snugly around his neck and face.

"Is that more ether fog?" Cuppy asked, pointing to the halo of vapor mixing with the steam rolling off the spring nearest them.

They drew nearer, feet wetted by a thin layer of puddle coating the stony ground, and peered through the curtain of steam.

A curvy woman with a fall of vibrant blue hair hanging past her shoulders was sitting at the edge of the spring, her legs hanging in the warm pool, her back to the trio. The moisture in the air plastered her hair to her back, and the tips had a purple look from the humidity. One arm was outstretched, elbow resting on her thigh, holding a long ornate pipe billowing a cloud of minty smoke - the cloud Cuppy had taken for another fog leak. The sound of footsteps at her back made the woman turn around slightly, revealing half her face - and chest - to the trio.

Richie made a small squeak and turned around, clamping his hands over his eyes, netting a trolling snicker from Freyja, who snorted slightly in her laughter on account of her wolf nose.

"Oh? I have visitors." the woman said, smiling faintly.

"Hi!" Cuppy chirped, waving in a neighborly fashion.

"Hello, small puppet thing." the woman said.

"You can sense me?" Cuppy asked.

"Of course. You are in my sphere of influence, after all." the woman said, taking a puff.

"Then, we're in the Backyards right now?" Freyja asked, standing up in bipedal mode again. "We didn't even notice the transition. When?"

"It's best not to overthink it." the woman said, kicking a leg out a bit and playing with the water. She stood, rung her hair out, and cracked out her neck, turning to face them.

Richie's dragons sniffed out the location of the woman's clothes, neatly folded in a square and with a black katana laying over them, a bit off to the side of the spring.

Richie, they said into his mind, we sense a rival.

Screw the rival! Richie thought back, get her dressed!

That is your problem, not ours. they said.

Richie started strangling his runes again. "THE HELL IT'S NOT! YOU FUCKERS DON'T PAY RENT!"

The woman blinked, head tilted a bit. "Is your friend alright?" she asked.

"He's fine." Cuppy and Freyja answered in unison.

"So, what did you mean we shouldn't overthink it?" Cuppy asked.

"If you notice yourself daydreaming, you become conscious of it, and the dream slips away. A relaxed mind is the compass to this place. As you can see, it can even influence the shape this space takes." the woman said.

Cuppy looked up at the neon-lit sky.

"I like what you've done with the place." he said.

"Thank you, I try." the woman nodded. "I am Chikita. And who are my guests?"

"Freyja." Freyja said. "Cuppy is the string boy, and the pile of hormone-riddled angst over there is Richie."

"Please put some clothes on." Richie whined.

Chikita put her hands on her hips, pouting. "It's my hot spring, why can't I be naked in it if I want to?"

Richie made unintelligible noises.

Chikita sighed. "You know what? I haven't had company for a while, I'll humor you." she began unfolding her clothes and dressing herself.

"We aren't imposing?" Freyja asked. "I just wanted to find out what was giving off that strange aura I sniffed out, we didn't mean to disturb you."

"It's no trouble, I'm rather bored." Chikita said, now fully-dressed. She conjured up a tea table with a steaming kettle of it front and center. "You won't derive any nutrition from conjured refreshments, but the flavor is nice." she said, pouring four cups.

Cuppy helped himself to the tray of sugar cubes, dropping five of them into his tea.

"I'd wager you were a hummingbird in a past life." Chikita said.

"Cuppy is Cuppy." Cuppy said.

"We were actually just le-" Richie turned toward Chikita, now that he could look without his retinas being burned out by the solar flare of exposed breasts.

His mouth fell open, and he felt as though he were dunked into a lake of ice water. It was her. He saw her before. She was the swordswoman who fought and killed the red oni in the storage area. She was half of the reason the concrete walkway was in rubble, and the area had been sectioned off under false pretenses. She was there when the ether fog birthed the hulking ogre into Station Bay's reality. She commanded the power of the ice and cold to bring the monster down. She was a power holder, like them.

"You…" Richie said. "I saw you in a dream…"

Chikita blinked a few times. Then, she blushed heavily, held a hand to her face, and made wine eyes at Richie. "Ara ara~"

Richie, realizing that came out as a pick-up line, turned around and started looking for the exit.

"Aight, ima head out." he said flatly.

"He meant he had a dream of you having a fight with a big red guy." Cuppy clarified.

"Oh." Chikita pouted, looking like a sullen child for a moment. "So I didn't just imagine that third presence, it seems."

"So his dream was real, then? That's cool." Cuppy said.

"But I wonder why?" Chikita said, putting her pipe in her mouth and letting it hang there. "I've been very careful to cover my tracks. Well, before now, anyway. Tell me, what business brings you to the Backyards?"

"Adventure." Cuppy smiled.

Freyja punched the top of his head again.

"No, Cuppy." she chidded, then turned back to Chikita. "None, initially. All three of us discovered them by accident, more or less. We were investigating what they were, and why they were. We want to know how they're connected to what's happening in the city, and why monsters are popping up. But, we weren't the only ones to find the Backyards. Some asshole in pajamas has it out for us."

"Luchesi-kun, I take it." Chikita chuckled.

"You know him?" Cuppy asked.

"You could say that. The little brat likes to play games, like a child burning ants." Chikita said.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

"Can you tell us how he uses the Backyards to warp? How you do it?" Freyja asked.

"What's in it for me?" Chikita asked.

"You can borrow Richie." Cuppy offered.

Richie appeared from out of frame to dropkick Cuppy into a rock. "I LEAVE FOR TWO MINUTES AND YOU TRY TO PIMP ME OUT?!?"

"Couldn't find the exit?" Freyja asked conversationally.

"No! This place just loops, like video game wrap-around physics!" Richie said.

"That's cause I closed the exits." Chikita said.

"Why?!" Richie barked.

Chikita closed her eyes and took a contemplative draw from her pipe. "You're quite loud." she said. "Lesson 1 - the master of a given domain within the Backyards holds sway over its shape and nature. The uninitiated have zero chance of beating a territory holder on their own field. They become little more than bit roles woven into the narrative of that person's dreamscape. First prerequisite to challenge a territory holder is to break away from that control. Weak wills perish." she exhaled into Richie's face.

He frantically waved around his head, trying to shoo the heavy smoke. "Why are you sharing that information?"

Chikita gripped her sword and drew it from the sheath, steel gleaming. "Because you won't leave alive."

She flashed forward with Yukihana, and Richie's scale-coated arm rose to meet the blade, cleanly blocking it. But then, the blade glowed deep blue, and subzero cold shot through the scales and bit deep into Richie's arm. He cried out in pain and stumbled backward, swaying dizzily. He fell on his ass, coughing and his eyes watering. The smoke stream pouring out of Chikita's pipe folded itself into the shape of a fox's face, locking one keen eye on Richie.

"Your runes have good reflexes. Their strength saved you. Without them, your unreleased astral presence would never bloom. You'd be dead. If you mean to challenge that harlequin, you'd be going in naked as you are right now. It's lucky for you you haven't figured out how to enter the Backyards at will yet." Chikita said.

Cuppy's blades, combined into a single pair of scissors, were positioned around Chikita's bare neck, and Freyja was holding a static fireball outstretched in her paw, aimed at Chikita's face.

"At ease, boys and girls, just a little reaction time test. If I wanted to kill you," she said. Her eyes turned coldly psychotic. " - you'd quite simply already be dead."

Cuppy nodded. "Ok!" he said cheerfully, withdrawing his weapon and sitting on a rock.

Freyja glanced at Cuppy, looking back and forth between him and Chikita. "Are… are you serious? Just like that?"

"It's ok, I trust her." Cuppy nodded.

Freyja shrugged, dispersing the fireball. "So - why can't we remember everything?"

"That depends on whether you've passed through neutral ground, or someone's claim." Chikita said. "If you aren't having a lucid dream, then it's by necessity a normal dream - meaning you're just along for the ride. Dreams have their own logic, quite divorced from the rules of the waking world - so does this place."

Richie wiped his eyes out, glaring up from where he sat. "But I can remember my dreams, usually. Why can't I remember what happened in the Backyards outside of bits and pieces?"

Chikita gave him a wry look. "Probably because most of what you've experienced inside isn't worth remembering. You've had a difficult life, yes?"

Richie looked away. "What do you know?"

Chikita looked at Freyja. "And you as well."

Richie and Freyja shared a confused stare as Chikita drew on her pipe.

"Sometimes it's better to forget. I know reluctant survivors when I see them." Chikita said. "Too guilty to live, too stubborn to die."

"Are you saying…" Freyja steadied herself. "That we let go of memories inside the Backyards? On purpose?"

"You said you can remember bits and pieces. What were they?" Chikita asked.

"...happy." Richie said tonelessly.

"And peaceful." Freyja said, clutching her back. "We were playing together, like little kids."

"And that was a memory worth keeping." Chikita nodded with a knowing smile.

Richie reverse-engineered the logic. The man in the cloak had destroyed a barricade in his memory - the mental block hiding his own trauma from him. But along with that forgotten nightmare, the memory of his mother's unconditional love had been locked in the darkness as well. How could he have let himself forget her? He hadn't been in another bizarre dimension when that happened. He pushed the memory down all by himself. Because it was too painful.

Richie looked at Cuppy, blissfully unaware of the gravity of their conversation, fishing in Chikita's hot spring and humming to himself.

Cuppy remembered nothing at all before Station Bay, aside from his own identity. Richie found himself wondering if he had seen the most horror of them all.

Freyja, by contrast, was folding her ears, letting out a low whine. Richie saw in her golden banded eyes that she remembered something. She remembered enough.

I'll protect them. Richie heard himself think, and wondered where it came from.

He stood, stretching out his joints and rotating his torso. He felt stiff and fatigued, that damn minty smoke residue still irritating the back of his throat.

"What do you want?" he asked Chikita.

Chikita's stomach growled, and she clasped her hands in an imploring gesture. "Lunch, please!" she chirped.

"...huh?" Richie and Freyja tilted their heads in unison.

"Like I said, I can't actually survive on the food I think up in here, and I'm not familiar with your currency." she said, scratching the back of her head awkwardly.

"We're broke." Richie said.

Chikita nodded at her pipe, and the smoke formed into a small fox that jumped into Richie's pocket and retrieved a stack of wallets.

"Oh, where did those come from?" Richie averted his eyes, sweating.

"Did you pickpocket all of those in the time it took us to find you outside the parlor?" Freyja whistled.

"I want a lawyer." Richie said.

"Well you aren't getting one. Feed me." Chikita chuckled.

"Starve." Richie flipped her off, and started sulking off; if he just kept going, he'd find a way out eventually, right?

…

Chikita was laying on her side on a beach chair she had conjured up, smoking yet another pipe and keeping her amused eyes on the slope. "3, 2, 1,"

Richie breasted the rise again, panting and covered in sweat, then dropped to the ground, exhausted.

"Welcome back once again." Chikita said to Richie sweetly.

Cuppy was asleep, using Freyja, in her curled-up wolf form, as a pillow. Freyja's eyes were limp, and she was close to dozing off too.

"Richie, just give it up, don't be such a cheapskate." Freyja grumbled. "I wanna go home."

Richie rolled over on his back, still panting, and started tearing at his hair. "Goddammit, let me out!"

"If I starve, we all starve." Chikita said.

Richie growled. "I won't forget this." he glared at Chikita.

"Well, that would be an improvement over your current record, wouldn't it?" Chikita quipped.

"Fine, fuck it, fine! I'll buy you some food!" Richie said - his stomach was growling by now too.

"Yay." Chikita smiled.

…

The four of them sat on a green blanket draped over a grassy hill in the art park. A picnic basket stood aside, emptied and forgotten before a spread of dishes laid over the cloth - sandwiches, potato chips, macaroni salad, and a pitcher of sweet iced tea taking the spotlight. Richie was looking at Cuppy with a twitching eye as the boy stuffed his chipmunk cheeks with two sandwiches at a time.

"How come you sleep through the negotiations… and then wake up the second I say 'food'?" Richie asked.

Cuppet shoved a sandwich in Richie's mouth, half-choking him amidst the empty husks of his pilfered wallets.

Freyja was lapping water out of a dish, beside a bowl of raw ground hamburger, and Chikita helped herself to a spoonful of tapioca pudding.

"Mmm, yummy!" she squeaked, holding her cheeks and grinning.

Richie was trying to silently calculate the optimal angle to rush down the blue-haired bimbo, but every time he shifted at all, he got a chill down his spine screaming at him that he'd get stabbed. His dragons joined him in growling, apparently sharing his grudge.

Holly hid herself behind a tree, startled at happening upon Chikita so soon, and so close to home base. One moment the signal had vanished off the grid, the next, it popped out here. Despite her best efforts, she hadn't been able to simply follow the absorbed telescope dragonfly into the Backyards after Chikita. All she could do was divide her vision between her two remaining eyes. While her left eye went about its business, seeing the world as usual, the right eye had become a camera feed of the world through Chikita's eyes. Retrace those same steps though she tried, Holly couldn't find a way in like she had when the rabbit pen became a trapdoor into that realm. Now, all of a sudden, here was the assassin, openly munching at a picnic with the kids.

What even.

"Wait, isn't that," Holly said to herself.

Cuppet whispered to Cuppy, and he turned in Holly's direction. "Hi, Miss Yule!" he called out happily, waving at her.

Chikita's head jerked toward Holly, and grim recognition settled in her eyes. It was the unmistakable "that's the bitch who microwaved me, is she stalking me?" glare that Holly knew well.

Cuppy, you goldfish! Holly screamed internally.

She shivered as she felt the air grow colder.

"Why don't you join us?" Cuppy invited, patting a spot on the blanket.

"Friend of yours?" Freyja asked.

"My favorite teacher!" Cuppy nodded.

"No! No more girls!" Richie put his foot down. "Get out of here!"

"Uh, yes, I really should be go-" Holly fumbled.

Cuppy trotted up to her. If he had a dog tail like Freyja, it would be wagging. It was hard to believe he was one of the people who brought down a Class B Feral.

"I didn't realize you were so buddy buddy with the Institute." Chikita said, lighting her pipe.

"What's the Institute?" Richie asked.

"Those fascists who invited themselves into our turf and threatened us." Freyja glared, faint black hairs bristling, as she stood and started walking toward Holly.

"Uh, I think you're mistaken," Holly said, trying to think up an escape route and drawing blanks.

Bob the customized telescope dragonfly poked his head out of Holly's breast pocket, panning back and forth like a security camera and making little scanning noises.

"...get back in the pocket…" Holly said to Bob through gritted teeth.