Hell Hounds

Chapter 62: Into the Thick of It

Yolanda settled into the bunkhouse with the others going on the mission with her. The dragons went on

ahead of them just moments before. For safety, they would rest in a different location. If the Fae

located them within the Dream Realm, the Fae could shift realms and find their bodies. She found it

difficult to settle down to shift her consciousness into the Dream Realm because her mind kept going to

Ian and his safety.

Eventually, she faded into the Dream Realm with her team around her. It took them only a few minutes

to locate the location where they’d meet the Dragons to receive the device.

“Thank you, Gorm. We’ll take it from here.”

“I still don’t understand why they are complicating this so much. We are acting like cowards.”

“No, actually, you aren’t acting like cowards. You’re part of a team and you are, as the humans say, the

get out of jail free card. That means when we exhaust all avenues, you’ll come in and save us from

certain destruction. You don’t understand how much I appreciate you, and knowing I have you as my

back up eases my mind greatly.” This was the problem with the Dragons. They lived in an old world

mentality, where they only saw battle as the only honourable way. They saw survival as an after

thought. Yolanda believed this probably led to their small population. Times changed and they didn’t

change with it. They weren’t stupid. Just set in their ways.

“I don’t know about that. It feels underhanded and not honourable.”

“We’re combating the Fae. Very few can be considered honourable, and many of those honourable

ones have a list of rules that are flexible. You will not lose any honour in anyone’s eyes. My respect for

you and yours will never falter.”

Gorm looked choked up and only nodded to Yolanda before the three dragons moved off to find shelter.

They would stay far away from the radius of the bomb’s explosion. Yolanda and her team shifted into

their wolves. Then with the device’s harness in Yolanda’s mouth they made their way carefully through

the grey landscape. It’s colours muted and shadowy in the creepy lighting.

Yolanda could never get past the lack of a moon within the sky and the fact that it appeared to always

be a spooky night. The confusion of buildings from now and then appearing within the landscape threw

so many off that they avoided entering the Dream Realm unless there’s need for them there. Yolanda

was one of them. Graves, destroyed buildings, trees were that were chopped down decades ago still

dotted this landscape. That in and of itself made it difficult to maneuver through space. If one didn’t

know the local history that person could become lost.

They ran through the landscape toward the place the Fae congregated in. The need to avoid three

groups of roving nightmare creatures hunting for their next victim, added anxiety to the pressing nature

of the mission.

It began to get harder to move unseen into their midst. They must wait for the distraction to occur and

draw the Fae into the other realm. She wondered how long it would take the distraction to happen,

because the longer they were there the greater the chance they’d be spotted by a Fae or attacked by

one of the shadowy creatures of the Dream Realm.

* * *

Ian pondered the device while they moved the group and their gear to the spot where they would set

out from. Everyone could feel the static in the air from the anxiety everyone carried. He’d avoided

talking about his feelings about this mission to Yolanda. His fear of dying during this mission hung novelbin

around his neck like a noose. But this must happen, and everything revolved around them getting it

done in a timely manner. They at least would know when the attack would start to distract the Fae.

Everyone prayed it would go well and not end up in a slaughter. NARC possessed superior numbers

currently, but with active wild magic, the Fae out gunned them.

Even thought he dealt before in investigating supernatural or alien reports, he now walked into the

event itself with full knowledge this was real. These creatures were real and a threat to everyone who

encountered them.

With it being impossible to kill them, they needed to take away their advantages one-by-one. Then

NARC forces could return them brutally to the realm they came from. This was but one mission within a

multi-pronged attack. There’d be no great single battle. It’d be a long drawn out process, with many

skirmishes over a long time. The Fae acted like an aggressive infestation. However, that infestation

battled itself.

NARC had many people researching options, others actively hunted for clusters of Fae like this one,

and more hunted for the portals to lock them down. Some of the Mages took it upon themselves to find

out why the history commonly taught to them was riddled with lies. The dragons, vampires, and even

the Fianna offered up access to their historical records. Ian thought this last part was a moot point, and

a point that could wait. But it felt like water washing over Ian when they explained that Dragons or

Vampires may be old enough to be guilty of this lie, and expected to explain why they recorded it as

such. They’d technically be responsible for all the deaths that occurred from this war.

The portal closed behind them leaving them with their equipment and the portal guards. They now

faced the Fae in the distance gathered within an open wooded area. The group waited to hear the

horns the Fae used to summon their forces together for an attack. But right now the large group

frolicked about mindless of the pending danger waiting for the sign to attack.

The portal would active again closer to the time they would take it. This way if a Fae with the ability to

sense magic were nearby, they’d not sense the portal’s magic. Ian found out that where were some

Fae that devoured magic for pleasure. Since most Fae didn’t experience feelings like most other races,

to feel pleasure often elicited an addiction reaction. That pleasure became their drug of choice.

Devouring the magic often went overboard and the magical being would become injured or die.

Now they stood there watching and waiting for the elusive horns. Time felt drawn out and that electric

feeling vibrated through each group member. Finally, the horns began to sound.

Fae stopped what they were doing and then ran toward the sound of the horns. Others appeared out of

nowhere, these Fae came from the Dream Realm. It worked. Somehow, the Fae could summon their

own from the Dream Realm.

Finally, the mass of grotesque bodies slowed to nothing within the field, and the team could move

forward. Ian prayed that their luck would hold. Though God felt like the wrong god to him because of

the Fae before them. He blocked that train of thought from his mind. He needed his mind focused on

getting into that space and setting it up in the correct area.