HOME | DD

Description
Silence rang thick and heavy between the pair. Yocury was still getting used to the Treat...ling’s? existence. He hovered along through the forest of spear-like pines, and… he wasn’t alone. Youji glided along beside him, and looked around the pines with a new wonder that Yocury couldn’t understand. This forest was a prison, not a playground, but the other didn’t seem aware. Or if he was, he was cruelly ignoring it. They’d been together for what felt like months now, learning about each other now that Youji could hold onto thoughts for more than a few minutes, and could speak. It was… surreal in a way that felt unnatural to the Nightmare.
It was surreal and confusing and he kind of hated it.
“Was there always a mansion out here?” Youji asked suddenly. His voice in his humanoid form--all pinks and whites and sharp golden claws and red hair--wasn’t as squeaky, was less harsh on Yocury’s ear. So he turned to look, and found Youji hovering a good five meters back, staring out through the trees. There, not twenty meters from them, off to the left but masked by the curving rows of trees that speared up through the snow, was in fact a mansion. It seemed… out of place, and Yocury was certain it hadn’t existed just days ago when he came by this way to be away from The Master and The Child.
“No, it wasn’t.” he lowered himself to the earth, the snow engulfed his hooves. “We should avoid it--”
“What if it’s an invading Nightmare? Won’t your Kingdom be in danger?” Youji looked to him, as if Yocury had ever cared about the safety of his Kingdom. If his Kingdom fell, a new one would form--eventually. Or he’d be swallowed by another Branch, either way he didn’t care, he’d be free of this one. Youji looked… concerned at Yocury’s lack of worry. “We… should at least check it out.”
“You go ahead.” Yocury sighed, though… the mansion did feel odd. Like a tumor in his domain. It was irritating now that he was aware of it. “I don’t have any interest in--”
And in a burst of intense cinnamon scent that left Yocury choking on the frigid air of his Kingdom, Youji was rocketting between the trees, magic around his hands. “...I hate you.” he stated dryly, knowing full well the Treatling wouldn’t hear him.
That was fine. He’d just… wait here for Youji to come back. That was fine. Everything was absolutely peachy. He watched the vivid flash of crimson vanish between the pines, into the mansion… and vanish entire.
That. Wasn’t right. He lifted his ears, and stood taller, craning himself to see. The mansion sat there, and there was… nothing. No movement. Silence. “Youji?” he called. Silence.
Nervousness tingled at his hooves and he found himself moving. Hovering over the snow once more, weaving carefully around the leaning trees, he floated towards the mansion. It was dark and imposing, three stories of towering windows filled with tattered curtains. There was no Youji in sight. “Youji?” Yocury called again. There was a stone fence around the mansion, topped with wrought iron.
There was no gate. He could clear the fence with ease, but there was nothing. Had the Treatling… left? Hopped out of Yocury’s Kingdom? No, he was too direct. He’d have said as much. So then… the mansion.
He hopped the fence.
Immediately he was greeted with a panicked cry of “Yocury!”. He perked, straining his ear for the sharp, boyish voice. Youji flew over to his side from further along the fence. “I can’t get back over the fence, something’s blocking me! Like a barrier or--” He was okay. Yocury checked him over--no injuries, no mysterious cracks to his body or strange coloration… Yocury breathed a sigh of relief, and startled Youji to silence.
“You vanished.” he noted. Youji clearly knew this, but it needed reiterating.
Youji nodded, and looked out over the… suddenly much larger space they were in. “I don’t think this is part of your Nightmare.” he noted. Yocury opted not to comment, and turned from Youji and the fence to investigate the… forest? that had risen up around them. It was an entire forest. Dark and twisting and reminding him horridly of Memento Mori’s Kingdom. It was almost pitch dark, with towering trees that blocked out the sun--not his pines, no. Oaks the color of tar with leaves the color of midnight. Maples that oozed a crimson sap and had branches like iron cages. He gulped. Youji rested a clawed hand on his shoulder. “I don’t like this place…” the Treatling whined. “But there doesn’t seem to be a way back…”
“You’re the one who wanted to come here.” Yocury noted dryly, though he tucked his tails and pressed himself closer to the Treatling. Youji pouted, ears flat against his skull. His long tail lashed and twitched around them, and he tucked his wings close to his back. Yocury tried not to pay that any mind, and squinted between the oaks, their branches like talons, some wrapped in veins of glowing lichen. Somewhere, an owl screeched. Or at least, he hoped it was an owl. What he first noticed was… there was no sign of the mansion. None. The moment he’d crossed the fence the building had vanished, instead replaced with a dark forest that seemed to span what felt like hundreds of kilometers. “So we can’t just hop the fence again?” he asked. Youji shook his head, brows furrowed and ears drooping.
Of course the Treatling had led them straight into some sort of trap. Exhaustion clung at Yocury and he sighed. The way out was probably through the mansion proper. Best to find it and figure out how to get out through it.
Youji fluttered ahead, once more taking to the air. “So… what’s our plan?”
“Find the mansion.” Yocury answered. “Get in, find the exit. Get out.”
“How?” Youji flicked his tail, and lifted his ears, his rounded features twisting into a frustrated scowl. “It’s vanished!”
“You’re the one with wings and two eyes, you tell me.” Yocury countered and bore his teeth and lashing his own tails. He swept his eye over the forest. The undergrowth of the forest was full of brambles, and earth the color of death. Youji made an undignified squawk of a noise.
“I’m pretty sure those trees are going to reach out and grab me, you dick!”
“Then fly faster.” Yocury answered simply. Yocury’s protests filled their section of forest, but Yocury paid them no mind, just opened his eyes and stepped forward. The mansion was probably at the center of the fence, they just had to keep going forward. He heard Youji called for him to wait up, and then the Treatling was whizzing by his shoulder, a fire in his hands to cast a light.
Dark, creeping shapes immediately scattered away from their path, hissing and snarling. Yocury froze and Youji’s eyes went dark. The Treatling materialized his staff and pressed the fire to it and suddenly there was an entire ring of fire around them. Yocury’s throat swelled shut and he gulped. He tried to tell himself that it was just the overwhelming scent of cinnamon, but the heat of the flames pressed against his thick fur. Youji flew over his back, to his right side. Settled there. Guarding?
“I don’t think we should split up.” Youji said simply, watching his fire illuminate shadowy shapes.
“Wasn’t going to suggest it.” Yocury hoped the tightness of his throat didn’t strain his voice. Youji nodded.
“I cast my fire around you. It won’t hurt me, and won’t touch you. You lead, it’ll follow you.” The Treatling explained calmly. His long tail swayed, dancing, over Yocury’s shoulder and into his field of vision. Outside the ring of fire, something that looked like the horrific spawn of a deer and a dog, with draconic horns and too many ears, crossed their path, demonic eyes staring back at them, reflecting the fire. It reached out, and the flames roared to life. The forest was lit with crimson light--climbing up the twisted, arching oaks were shadowed, skittering things. Some like spiders, some like squirrels, some like centipedes and others that simply Should Not Be. The blood-like sap of the maples gleamed in the light, crimson and red as the fire itself. More shadowy, misshapen deer scattered from the fire. Hissing. Shrieking. Whispers reached the pair through the flames.
Intruders. Threats. Food.
“Friendly, aren’t they?” Youji’s boyish voice cooed, and he gripped his wand more tightly. Yocury just folded his ears and kept walking. True to Youji’s word, the fire followed him, and Youji walked alongside him, tapping his wand against his palm.

The shadows avoided the fire. The occasional screech split the air, and Yocury was growing used to scurrying shadows. He couldn’t feel his own Kingdom anymore, they were too deep into this one. Whatever this one was. Youji walked calmly beside him. For all of his display of nerves and regret earlier, the boyish Treatling had taken a new level in showing lack of fear. Yocury supposed that came with the strength to defy the Queen that Youji had told him about. He couldn’t imagine it.
Unfortunately, the boy was still on Yocury’s blind side. He couldn’t see his face. He imagined that his golden eyes were brimming with determination. But he couldn’t confirm. Was afraid to be wrong. So instead he looked elsewhere. To the glowing mushrooms at the bases of cage-like aspens. To the willows in shallow pools that reflected Youji’s crimson fire such that they looked like blood, and the willow’s swaying fronds looked like thousands of knives. The fence was long gone. Every once in a while They heard more whispers. Intruders. Strangers. Friend? Food?
Once, Yocury felt something swoop between him and Youji, feathers brushing the tip of his ear, talons on his scarred face. A love tap. A warning. Youji hadn’t reacted at all, as if whatever it had been was purely a product of Yocury’s imagination. Another time, something had swooped down and collided with Youji’s back with enough force that he’d slammed into the dark earth. Yocury hadn’t seen that, either, but remembered the horrid, high-pitched laugh that had filled the forest for what felt like weeks after.
How long had they been walking? He didn’t know. Time had gone screwy in they way it usually did outside his own Nightmare. Minutes could have been days, years could have been seconds. He had no gauge, no control.
Youji, a product of far more pleasant dreams, dreams of heroism and brotherhood and loyalty, could only say that it felt like he’d been within that forest for ‘too long’.
They’d lapsed into a cautious silence since they started moving. The only breaks being when something swooped in on them, or when Youji proposed an alternate path around something Yocury fully intended to just walk through, no matter how much the darkness swallowed the light of their flames. There was nothing to talk about until they reached the mansion, and who knew how long that would take? Best not waste energy on their breath.
It was Youji who spotted the structure of wood and stone. With an excited cry of “There!”, he hopped over Yocury’s back to point, with his wand, between two towering oaks. Yocury squinted but… there was the edge of a stone-laced structure there.
Without warning he broke into a run, stotting between the trees. His companion flew beside him, grinning a fanged grin. They could get home through the mansion, both were certain. So they ran for it, charged through the shadows and pools of bloodwater and ichor and the stench of death, until they were in a massive clearing that wrapped around the mansion. Moonlight spilled down against it, illuminating the towering windows that Yocury had spotted earlier. The mansion itself was laced with stone and otherwise a dark oak. The grounds themselves were divided into clear sections. A garden spread out before them, of twisted saplings, and shaped hedges in the forms of the shadowy monstrosities that they’d seen on the way here. Fly trap looking plants reached towards them, salivating. In the two surrounding sections were statues and fountains. The fountains spewed forth a thick black ichor that reeked of decay and temptation. Youji visibly gagged, pulling his flight to an abrupt stop and bringing his free hand up to cover his nose and mouth, his already pale skin going the same color as Yocury’s fur. The statues were nonsensical. Shape and color in horrific masses, or else depictions of such wonderful beings as incubi, or Lovecraftian nightmares.
This was decidedly not Yocury’s Kingdom. If that hadn’t been clear enough… Youji spoke, breaking Yocury out of his thoughts; “This stuff would make even The Master quake in his boots.”
Yocury chose not to comment on that, only grunted and turned to circle the building, watching for an entrance. Ivy climbed the mansion, great veins of living death crawling red against the dark wood. There should be a door, right? Get in the door, and they could worry about whatever came next. Youji remained where he was, reeking of fear. The same fear that clawed at Yocury’s own belly. Neither of them wanted to be here. I shouldn’t have followed him. Yocury thought to himself, with a glance back at Youji. The Treatling was looking up at the third story, his tail twitching and swaying, golden wings fluttering with his nerves. Curious, Yocury lifted his head, and followed Youji’s gaze.
There, on the third floor, one of the smaller windows was open, the curtain blowing gently in a breeze that didn’t exist. “I can’t get up there.” he said. “I can’t hover more than about a meter off the ground.”
“I can fly us up.” Youji sounded entirely too cavalier. “I’m strong enough--especially if you’re willing to become a styx for a minute.”
One minute was about a thousand hours too long to ever be in that form, Yocury thought. He flicked his tails, considered his options. Was he willing to not only willingly take on the Treat-like form, but suffer the indignity of being carried in it? Youji didn’t wait for a response, already flying towards the window. “It might be a trap.” Yocury pointed out.
“Who would trap the third floor window?” Youji scowled at him. “Are you Nightmares so paranoid that you expect danger from a place most of you can’t reach?”
“Considering your kind has wings…” Yocury turned back, and walked towards his… friend. “Yes.”
“That’s depressing.” Youji sighed. “But I suppose it can’t be helped. The Queen hasn’t even made any moves yet…” Yocury ignored his friend, focusing on the window. There was almost certainly a door somewhere, and he’d rather sneak through that… but. Youji was right. Chances were, there were no traps. But if the window was open someone might be inside.And where was that breeze coming from? Tension coiled up his spine as he watched. He couldn’t handle being a ‘styx’ again, but… there was another way up, wasn’t there? The ivy on the walls was thick, and could probably support the weight of a Nightmare.
Youji yelped at the sudden -pop- of bones snapping and reshaping themselves. Yocury closed his eye and focused, shifting and changing, fur pulling back into his skin. Muzzle shortening. Tails merging, lengthening. Until what stood beside Youji was another ‘human’. Yocury stood, his own fluffy tail twitching and coiling around his legs. Youji stared, golden eyes bright with awe. How many centuries had it been since Youji saw this form?
“Hands are useful.” was all Yocury could say in response to the silence. Youji nodded mutely. “I’ll climb. I’m not much of a fan of being carried.” He cautiously approached the mansion wall. The ivy was a purple-crimson, this close, and as thick as his forearm. Cautiously, he poked it with a claw and it remained blissfully unresponsive, if entirely too warm.
A small shadow passed over his head, and he looked up to see Youji--a Treat once more, smart--fluttering his way up to the window, perching on the sill and peering inside. He flicked his tail twice, beckoning Yocury. The fox-like Stygian nodded, reached up to grip the ivy, and hauled himself off the ground.

Yocury perched on the windowsill and stared into the room. The room was in disarray. It reminded him of the second floor back home. There was no bed, just broken cabinets and mirrors, and the floor was strewn with glass and broken ceramic shards. Youji fluttered about inside, a tiny little Treat to fill the room. Was the entire mansion like this? Empty and hollow? The ivy had started climbing into this room, spreading through it like veins.
Best not to think about that. Yocury slipped forward, his body melting into his more natural form instead of viciously popping this time. He landed, hovering scant centimeters over the broken things, and followed Youji towards the door. There was no source for the breeze that stirred the curtain inside, either, and nerves were clawing at his gut again. Youji hovered at the door, massive ear pressed against it like a radar dish, tiny white-and-pink face scrunched with concentration. After a cautious moment, he tried the handle. The door swung open, out into the hall, as silently as an owl’s wing. Darkness greeted them, inky black and swallowing even the glow of their eyes. Youji slipped outside, and Yocury pressed himself to the inner wall, waiting for a signal. Youji peered left and right, squinting into the darkness, then looked back and nodded to Yocury.
The fox-like Stygian stepped into the hall. Off the the left of course, was an endless hallway of doors on either side. Some marked with numbers, some unmarked, no rhyme or reason to any of it. To the right, when Yocury craned his head to look, was a foyer area. Tall, imposing. And at the other side of the foyer balcony, more doors. No turns. Only doors. He huffed a sigh, and floated towards the foyer, peering down the stairs to the floors below. There was the front door, just barely visible through the inky black. Cracked open, letting the faintest bit of false moonlight through. The windows at either side were empty of their panes. False moonlight gleamed through spider webs and broken glass to settle on suits of armor that lay discarded and empty.
There was a flare of light and cinnamon scent, and Youji was a Treatling again. “What’s our plan?” his whisper a low hiss, unlikely to draw attention. Yocury didn’t want to know where the Treatling had learned how to sneak around.
“Find the master bedroom, I think. That seems the most likely place to have the way out.” he answered. “I would guess… first or second story, most likely second, on a corner--if those exist.”
Youji’s face scrunched with indignation. “And if we find it and it’s not the exit? This place feels… endless.”
“Then you should use your fancy Dream Magic to slip out of this reality and go get help.” Yocury answered. “Try… I think they called themself ‘Memento Mori’. They’re… a friend. Approach them as a Stygian, or they won’t trust you--they were in Treatropolis when the world exploded.” he hoped the carnivorous stygian would listen, should it come to that. Youji remained unconvinced, and Yocury watched him bite his tongue to keep silent.
A moment later, Youji had darted silently down the stairs. Yocury frowned, but followed, cautious now of his friend’s skill.
They took a left first, and Yocury kept his right side close to the wall. Youji moved around in front of him, tail flicking and ears pricked for any sound. And then he settled in front of a door that was marked ‘2465’ and cracked it open. Immediately Yocury smelled a bakery. Unsettled, he darted after his friend. The Treatling crouched into the doorway, sniffing the air, eyes wide. If Yocury didn’t know better he’d think Youji was drooling. Peering around the door as best he could, Yocury understood why. His friend’s chosen door looked like a tiny piece of Treatropolis. Before Youji could move, he bit the Treatling’s cape and hauled him back from the door. “No, don’t trust it.” he hissed, and dragged him along down the hall.
To his credit, Youji did listen this time.

They continued down the hall. There were more vines of ivy here, and the mansion seemed to groan and pulse under the strain of it. It felt alive. Yocury didn’t like it. Youji seemed to like it less. He’d gone unnaturally quiet since opening the door to the section of Treatropolis. Yocury didn’t want to think about that.
He didn’t want to think about anything, really. The walls felt tight and close. The foyer was long gone. The wooden floors under them seemed slick with a liquid he didn’t want to name, and he worried that stepping on them would alert every bad omen in a thousand kilometer radius, despite Youji darting across them without a sound.
They’d agreed to try unmarked doors, but so far neither had found the courage to open any that they’d passed.
It was the smell of ice that lured Yocury to one, though. He floated across the floor, and ignored Youji’s hissed question, to settle at a perfectly plain, unmarked door that smelled of mountain tops and snow and ice. It wasn’t likely to be their target, but if he strained he could just barely hear music coming out of it. Cautious, he shifted into his human form, wincing with every popped bone and the noise they made, and gripped the handle. Youji’s presence settled next to him, ready to assist if he needed it.
This door swung inward on freshly oiled hinges, and a rush of cold slammed into them, along with a blast of obnoxious pop-musical symphonic flare. They both slammed the door shut, panting with fright, hearts in their throats, and shared terrified looks. “Not that one.” Youji stated. “Too Disney.”
“What the fuck is a Disney?” Yocury was still trying to process what he’d just seen.
“Nevermind. Not that door. Keep moving.” and Youji was fluttering off. Somewhere in the distance, Yocury heard bats. So he followed. His steps didn’t make the floor creak, but it was definitely slick and wet under his bare feet. Hesitant, he brushed his tail over it, and squinted at the color against the white.
Ichor. That was the only way he could describe it. He flicked his tail to remove the grime, but it clung to him as surely as his shackle. Wonderful. He’d need to clean that out before The Master saw him again… No, don’t think about that now. He glanced back behind them, but the inky darkness left no indication if they were being followed. He darted after Youji, who had pulled another door open up ahead on the right. Sunlight streamed through it and the Treatling stood, covering his eyes against the harsh light after gods only knew how long of darkness, and Yocury had to squint just to see him against the light. A warm breeze wafted through the room, smelling of roses in a way that made Yocury heartsick. He approached cautiously, and sniffed the air. Youji slowly lowered his arms, eyes wide with shock as he took in what lay beyond the door. “It’s… beautiful…” he breathed, and stepped inside. Yocury, voiceless and uncertain, followed.
The room was wide and deep. The floor was a deep, rich earth that made their animal hearts sing. Yocury turned slowly as he walked in, taking in everything. A garden of sunlight and flowers rose around them. Arches wrapped in ivy and morning glories of all the colors of the rainbow were settled firmly along the path of packed dirt--the greenery blocked off by a line of small rocks on either side of the ‘path’, that kept grass and weeds and flora at bay. The distant walls seemed meaningless and a false sun beat down on the pair. Youji made a soft sound of praise and glee, and a moment later he was a Treat again, and dove into a bush of roses the exact colors of his fur.
There in the far corner was a little tea table. Warm wrapped around the pair like a blanket, and Yocury breathed in the smell of the roses. In the far corner there was a fragrant maple--not unlike the ones outside--drooling sap from its trunk. It was surrounded by pansies and cosmos. Closer to the door were lillies and more roses. Youji stumbled out of the first rose patch, laughing in drunk-sounding squeals while he plucked thorns from his fur. Yocury turned to the right of the door, his eye wide and tail twitching, as he drank in a koi pond. Cattails, reeds, water-lilies and duckweed were disturbed only by a trio of calico koi that swam amongst each other in a hypnotizing pattern.
“It’s beautiful…” Youji squeaked. His warm weight, familiar after the centuries, settled onto Yocury’s shoulder. “It… reminds me of… something. I feel like there should be more of us.
Yocury nodded mutely. A tantalizing scent hung in the air, the echoes of kin. “I feel like I’m going to remember something.” Another mute nod of agreement, and Yocury turned from the pond to investigate the arch. The ivy was thin and spidery, but the morning glory, when he reached for it, felt of wax. There was a vine of something that looked like honeysuckle, too. He longed to reach up and pluck at it, and toss it into his mouth, longing for the faint sweetness of the bloom. He started to, touching the waxy petals, but drew his hand back. No, he shouldn’t. He really shouldn’t.
“We… we should get back to the search. We need to get home.” he breathed. His feet remained planted though, and he flicked his tail with frustration. He didn’t want to leave this scent, the colors all around him. There were Roses here.
Youji settled himself onto Yocury’s shoulder and a contented noise. “We… should.” he agreed, his voice tired. “Maybe we should nap first? We’ve been searching for hours. Maybe longer…”
Napping… sounded good. And this place was good. Safe. They could tuck themselves in under the Rose Bush and they’d be safe and smell of Roses and--

There was a sudden SLAM that thundered through the room and made them both jump out of their skin. Youji popped back into his Treatling form, and both he and Yocury turned to face the door. It was closed, and when Youji ran to test it, the handle didn’t budge.
The door was locked.
There were no windows, only sunlight and flora.
Yocury’s heart thundered in his chest, Youji paled.
The door was closed. They’d been Trapped.

Description
Silence rang thick and heavy between the pair. Yocury was still getting used to the Treat...ling’s? existence. He hovered along through the forest of spear-like pines, and… he wasn’t alone. Youji glided along beside him, and looked around the pines with a new wonder that Yocury couldn’t understand. This forest was a prison, not a playground, but the other didn’t seem aware. Or if he was, he was cruelly ignoring it. They’d been together for what felt like months now, learning about each other now that Youji could hold onto thoughts for more than a few minutes, and could speak. It was… surreal in a way that felt unnatural to the Nightmare.
It was surreal and confusing and he kind of hated it.
“Was there always a mansion out here?” Youji asked suddenly. His voice in his humanoid form--all pinks and whites and sharp golden claws and red hair--wasn’t as squeaky, was less harsh on Yocury’s ear. So he turned to look, and found Youji hovering a good five meters back, staring out through the trees. There, not twenty meters from them, off to the left but masked by the curving rows of trees that speared up through the snow, was in fact a mansion. It seemed… out of place, and Yocury was certain it hadn’t existed just days ago when he came by this way to be away from The Master and The Child.
“No, it wasn’t.” he lowered himself to the earth, the snow engulfed his hooves. “We should avoid it--”
“What if it’s an invading Nightmare? Won’t your Kingdom be in danger?” Youji looked to him, as if Yocury had ever cared about the safety of his Kingdom. If his Kingdom fell, a new one would form--eventually. Or he’d be swallowed by another Branch, either way he didn’t care, he’d be free of this one. Youji looked… concerned at Yocury’s lack of worry. “We… should at least check it out.”
“You go ahead.” Yocury sighed, though… the mansion did feel odd. Like a tumor in his domain. It was irritating now that he was aware of it. “I don’t have any interest in--”
And in a burst of intense cinnamon scent that left Yocury choking on the frigid air of his Kingdom, Youji was rocketting between the trees, magic around his hands. “...I hate you.” he stated dryly, knowing full well the Treatling wouldn’t hear him.
That was fine. He’d just… wait here for Youji to come back. That was fine. Everything was absolutely peachy. He watched the vivid flash of crimson vanish between the pines, into the mansion… and vanish entire.
That. Wasn’t right. He lifted his ears, and stood taller, craning himself to see. The mansion sat there, and there was… nothing. No movement. Silence. “Youji?” he called. Silence.
Nervousness tingled at his hooves and he found himself moving. Hovering over the snow once more, weaving carefully around the leaning trees, he floated towards the mansion. It was dark and imposing, three stories of towering windows filled with tattered curtains. There was no Youji in sight. “Youji?” Yocury called again. There was a stone fence around the mansion, topped with wrought iron.
There was no gate. He could clear the fence with ease, but there was nothing. Had the Treatling… left? Hopped out of Yocury’s Kingdom? No, he was too direct. He’d have said as much. So then… the mansion.
He hopped the fence.
Immediately he was greeted with a panicked cry of “Yocury!”. He perked, straining his ear for the sharp, boyish voice. Youji flew over to his side from further along the fence. “I can’t get back over the fence, something’s blocking me! Like a barrier or--” He was okay. Yocury checked him over--no injuries, no mysterious cracks to his body or strange coloration… Yocury breathed a sigh of relief, and startled Youji to silence.
“You vanished.” he noted. Youji clearly knew this, but it needed reiterating.
Youji nodded, and looked out over the… suddenly much larger space they were in. “I don’t think this is part of your Nightmare.” he noted. Yocury opted not to comment, and turned from Youji and the fence to investigate the… forest? that had risen up around them. It was an entire forest. Dark and twisting and reminding him horridly of Memento Mori’s Kingdom. It was almost pitch dark, with towering trees that blocked out the sun--not his pines, no. Oaks the color of tar with leaves the color of midnight. Maples that oozed a crimson sap and had branches like iron cages. He gulped. Youji rested a clawed hand on his shoulder. “I don’t like this place…” the Treatling whined. “But there doesn’t seem to be a way back…”
“You’re the one who wanted to come here.” Yocury noted dryly, though he tucked his tails and pressed himself closer to the Treatling. Youji pouted, ears flat against his skull. His long tail lashed and twitched around them, and he tucked his wings close to his back. Yocury tried not to pay that any mind, and squinted between the oaks, their branches like talons, some wrapped in veins of glowing lichen. Somewhere, an owl screeched. Or at least, he hoped it was an owl. What he first noticed was… there was no sign of the mansion. None. The moment he’d crossed the fence the building had vanished, instead replaced with a dark forest that seemed to span what felt like hundreds of kilometers. “So we can’t just hop the fence again?” he asked. Youji shook his head, brows furrowed and ears drooping.
Of course the Treatling had led them straight into some sort of trap. Exhaustion clung at Yocury and he sighed. The way out was probably through the mansion proper. Best to find it and figure out how to get out through it.
Youji fluttered ahead, once more taking to the air. “So… what’s our plan?”
“Find the mansion.” Yocury answered. “Get in, find the exit. Get out.”
“How?” Youji flicked his tail, and lifted his ears, his rounded features twisting into a frustrated scowl. “It’s vanished!”
“You’re the one with wings and two eyes, you tell me.” Yocury countered and bore his teeth and lashing his own tails. He swept his eye over the forest. The undergrowth of the forest was full of brambles, and earth the color of death. Youji made an undignified squawk of a noise.
“I’m pretty sure those trees are going to reach out and grab me, you dick!”
“Then fly faster.” Yocury answered simply. Yocury’s protests filled their section of forest, but Yocury paid them no mind, just opened his eyes and stepped forward. The mansion was probably at the center of the fence, they just had to keep going forward. He heard Youji called for him to wait up, and then the Treatling was whizzing by his shoulder, a fire in his hands to cast a light.
Dark, creeping shapes immediately scattered away from their path, hissing and snarling. Yocury froze and Youji’s eyes went dark. The Treatling materialized his staff and pressed the fire to it and suddenly there was an entire ring of fire around them. Yocury’s throat swelled shut and he gulped. He tried to tell himself that it was just the overwhelming scent of cinnamon, but the heat of the flames pressed against his thick fur. Youji flew over his back, to his right side. Settled there. Guarding?
“I don’t think we should split up.” Youji said simply, watching his fire illuminate shadowy shapes.
“Wasn’t going to suggest it.” Yocury hoped the tightness of his throat didn’t strain his voice. Youji nodded.
“I cast my fire around you. It won’t hurt me, and won’t touch you. You lead, it’ll follow you.” The Treatling explained calmly. His long tail swayed, dancing, over Yocury’s shoulder and into his field of vision. Outside the ring of fire, something that looked like the horrific spawn of a deer and a dog, with draconic horns and too many ears, crossed their path, demonic eyes staring back at them, reflecting the fire. It reached out, and the flames roared to life. The forest was lit with crimson light--climbing up the twisted, arching oaks were shadowed, skittering things. Some like spiders, some like squirrels, some like centipedes and others that simply Should Not Be. The blood-like sap of the maples gleamed in the light, crimson and red as the fire itself. More shadowy, misshapen deer scattered from the fire. Hissing. Shrieking. Whispers reached the pair through the flames.
Intruders. Threats. Food.
“Friendly, aren’t they?” Youji’s boyish voice cooed, and he gripped his wand more tightly. Yocury just folded his ears and kept walking. True to Youji’s word, the fire followed him, and Youji walked alongside him, tapping his wand against his palm.

The shadows avoided the fire. The occasional screech split the air, and Yocury was growing used to scurrying shadows. He couldn’t feel his own Kingdom anymore, they were too deep into this one. Whatever this one was. Youji walked calmly beside him. For all of his display of nerves and regret earlier, the boyish Treatling had taken a new level in showing lack of fear. Yocury supposed that came with the strength to defy the Queen that Youji had told him about. He couldn’t imagine it.
Unfortunately, the boy was still on Yocury’s blind side. He couldn’t see his face. He imagined that his golden eyes were brimming with determination. But he couldn’t confirm. Was afraid to be wrong. So instead he looked elsewhere. To the glowing mushrooms at the bases of cage-like aspens. To the willows in shallow pools that reflected Youji’s crimson fire such that they looked like blood, and the willow’s swaying fronds looked like thousands of knives. The fence was long gone. Every once in a while They heard more whispers. Intruders. Strangers. Friend? Food?
Once, Yocury felt something swoop between him and Youji, feathers brushing the tip of his ear, talons on his scarred face. A love tap. A warning. Youji hadn’t reacted at all, as if whatever it had been was purely a product of Yocury’s imagination. Another time, something had swooped down and collided with Youji’s back with enough force that he’d slammed into the dark earth. Yocury hadn’t seen that, either, but remembered the horrid, high-pitched laugh that had filled the forest for what felt like weeks after.
How long had they been walking? He didn’t know. Time had gone screwy in they way it usually did outside his own Nightmare. Minutes could have been days, years could have been seconds. He had no gauge, no control.
Youji, a product of far more pleasant dreams, dreams of heroism and brotherhood and loyalty, could only say that it felt like he’d been within that forest for ‘too long’.
They’d lapsed into a cautious silence since they started moving. The only breaks being when something swooped in on them, or when Youji proposed an alternate path around something Yocury fully intended to just walk through, no matter how much the darkness swallowed the light of their flames. There was nothing to talk about until they reached the mansion, and who knew how long that would take? Best not waste energy on their breath.
It was Youji who spotted the structure of wood and stone. With an excited cry of “There!”, he hopped over Yocury’s back to point, with his wand, between two towering oaks. Yocury squinted but… there was the edge of a stone-laced structure there.
Without warning he broke into a run, stotting between the trees. His companion flew beside him, grinning a fanged grin. They could get home through the mansion, both were certain. So they ran for it, charged through the shadows and pools of bloodwater and ichor and the stench of death, until they were in a massive clearing that wrapped around the mansion. Moonlight spilled down against it, illuminating the towering windows that Yocury had spotted earlier. The mansion itself was laced with stone and otherwise a dark oak. The grounds themselves were divided into clear sections. A garden spread out before them, of twisted saplings, and shaped hedges in the forms of the shadowy monstrosities that they’d seen on the way here. Fly trap looking plants reached towards them, salivating. In the two surrounding sections were statues and fountains. The fountains spewed forth a thick black ichor that reeked of decay and temptation. Youji visibly gagged, pulling his flight to an abrupt stop and bringing his free hand up to cover his nose and mouth, his already pale skin going the same color as Yocury’s fur. The statues were nonsensical. Shape and color in horrific masses, or else depictions of such wonderful beings as incubi, or Lovecraftian nightmares.
This was decidedly not Yocury’s Kingdom. If that hadn’t been clear enough… Youji spoke, breaking Yocury out of his thoughts; “This stuff would make even The Master quake in his boots.”
Yocury chose not to comment on that, only grunted and turned to circle the building, watching for an entrance. Ivy climbed the mansion, great veins of living death crawling red against the dark wood. There should be a door, right? Get in the door, and they could worry about whatever came next. Youji remained where he was, reeking of fear. The same fear that clawed at Yocury’s own belly. Neither of them wanted to be here. I shouldn’t have followed him. Yocury thought to himself, with a glance back at Youji. The Treatling was looking up at the third story, his tail twitching and swaying, golden wings fluttering with his nerves. Curious, Yocury lifted his head, and followed Youji’s gaze.
There, on the third floor, one of the smaller windows was open, the curtain blowing gently in a breeze that didn’t exist. “I can’t get up there.” he said. “I can’t hover more than about a meter off the ground.”
“I can fly us up.” Youji sounded entirely too cavalier. “I’m strong enough--especially if you’re willing to become a styx for a minute.”
One minute was about a thousand hours too long to ever be in that form, Yocury thought. He flicked his tails, considered his options. Was he willing to not only willingly take on the Treat-like form, but suffer the indignity of being carried in it? Youji didn’t wait for a response, already flying towards the window. “It might be a trap.” Yocury pointed out.
“Who would trap the third floor window?” Youji scowled at him. “Are you Nightmares so paranoid that you expect danger from a place most of you can’t reach?”
“Considering your kind has wings…” Yocury turned back, and walked towards his… friend. “Yes.”
“That’s depressing.” Youji sighed. “But I suppose it can’t be helped. The Queen hasn’t even made any moves yet…” Yocury ignored his friend, focusing on the window. There was almost certainly a door somewhere, and he’d rather sneak through that… but. Youji was right. Chances were, there were no traps. But if the window was open someone might be inside.And where was that breeze coming from? Tension coiled up his spine as he watched. He couldn’t handle being a ‘styx’ again, but… there was another way up, wasn’t there? The ivy on the walls was thick, and could probably support the weight of a Nightmare.
Youji yelped at the sudden -pop- of bones snapping and reshaping themselves. Yocury closed his eye and focused, shifting and changing, fur pulling back into his skin. Muzzle shortening. Tails merging, lengthening. Until what stood beside Youji was another ‘human’. Yocury stood, his own fluffy tail twitching and coiling around his legs. Youji stared, golden eyes bright with awe. How many centuries had it been since Youji saw this form?
“Hands are useful.” was all Yocury could say in response to the silence. Youji nodded mutely. “I’ll climb. I’m not much of a fan of being carried.” He cautiously approached the mansion wall. The ivy was a purple-crimson, this close, and as thick as his forearm. Cautiously, he poked it with a claw and it remained blissfully unresponsive, if entirely too warm.
A small shadow passed over his head, and he looked up to see Youji--a Treat once more, smart--fluttering his way up to the window, perching on the sill and peering inside. He flicked his tail twice, beckoning Yocury. The fox-like Stygian nodded, reached up to grip the ivy, and hauled himself off the ground.

Yocury perched on the windowsill and stared into the room. The room was in disarray. It reminded him of the second floor back home. There was no bed, just broken cabinets and mirrors, and the floor was strewn with glass and broken ceramic shards. Youji fluttered about inside, a tiny little Treat to fill the room. Was the entire mansion like this? Empty and hollow? The ivy had started climbing into this room, spreading through it like veins.
Best not to think about that. Yocury slipped forward, his body melting into his more natural form instead of viciously popping this time. He landed, hovering scant centimeters over the broken things, and followed Youji towards the door. There was no source for the breeze that stirred the curtain inside, either, and nerves were clawing at his gut again. Youji hovered at the door, massive ear pressed against it like a radar dish, tiny white-and-pink face scrunched with concentration. After a cautious moment, he tried the handle. The door swung open, out into the hall, as silently as an owl’s wing. Darkness greeted them, inky black and swallowing even the glow of their eyes. Youji slipped outside, and Yocury pressed himself to the inner wall, waiting for a signal. Youji peered left and right, squinting into the darkness, then looked back and nodded to Yocury.
The fox-like Stygian stepped into the hall. Off the the left of course, was an endless hallway of doors on either side. Some marked with numbers, some unmarked, no rhyme or reason to any of it. To the right, when Yocury craned his head to look, was a foyer area. Tall, imposing. And at the other side of the foyer balcony, more doors. No turns. Only doors. He huffed a sigh, and floated towards the foyer, peering down the stairs to the floors below. There was the front door, just barely visible through the inky black. Cracked open, letting the faintest bit of false moonlight through. The windows at either side were empty of their panes. False moonlight gleamed through spider webs and broken glass to settle on suits of armor that lay discarded and empty.
There was a flare of light and cinnamon scent, and Youji was a Treatling again. “What’s our plan?” his whisper a low hiss, unlikely to draw attention. Yocury didn’t want to know where the Treatling had learned how to sneak around.
“Find the master bedroom, I think. That seems the most likely place to have the way out.” he answered. “I would guess… first or second story, most likely second, on a corner--if those exist.”
Youji’s face scrunched with indignation. “And if we find it and it’s not the exit? This place feels… endless.”
“Then you should use your fancy Dream Magic to slip out of this reality and go get help.” Yocury answered. “Try… I think they called themself ‘Memento Mori’. They’re… a friend. Approach them as a Stygian, or they won’t trust you--they were in Treatropolis when the world exploded.” he hoped the carnivorous stygian would listen, should it come to that. Youji remained unconvinced, and Yocury watched him bite his tongue to keep silent.
A moment later, Youji had darted silently down the stairs. Yocury frowned, but followed, cautious now of his friend’s skill.
They took a left first, and Yocury kept his right side close to the wall. Youji moved around in front of him, tail flicking and ears pricked for any sound. And then he settled in front of a door that was marked ‘2465’ and cracked it open. Immediately Yocury smelled a bakery. Unsettled, he darted after his friend. The Treatling crouched into the doorway, sniffing the air, eyes wide. If Yocury didn’t know better he’d think Youji was drooling. Peering around the door as best he could, Yocury understood why. His friend’s chosen door looked like a tiny piece of Treatropolis. Before Youji could move, he bit the Treatling’s cape and hauled him back from the door. “No, don’t trust it.” he hissed, and dragged him along down the hall.
To his credit, Youji did listen this time.

They continued down the hall. There were more vines of ivy here, and the mansion seemed to groan and pulse under the strain of it. It felt alive. Yocury didn’t like it. Youji seemed to like it less. He’d gone unnaturally quiet since opening the door to the section of Treatropolis. Yocury didn’t want to think about that.
He didn’t want to think about anything, really. The walls felt tight and close. The foyer was long gone. The wooden floors under them seemed slick with a liquid he didn’t want to name, and he worried that stepping on them would alert every bad omen in a thousand kilometer radius, despite Youji darting across them without a sound.
They’d agreed to try unmarked doors, but so far neither had found the courage to open any that they’d passed.
It was the smell of ice that lured Yocury to one, though. He floated across the floor, and ignored Youji’s hissed question, to settle at a perfectly plain, unmarked door that smelled of mountain tops and snow and ice. It wasn’t likely to be their target, but if he strained he could just barely hear music coming out of it. Cautious, he shifted into his human form, wincing with every popped bone and the noise they made, and gripped the handle. Youji’s presence settled next to him, ready to assist if he needed it.
This door swung inward on freshly oiled hinges, and a rush of cold slammed into them, along with a blast of obnoxious pop-musical symphonic flare. They both slammed the door shut, panting with fright, hearts in their throats, and shared terrified looks. “Not that one.” Youji stated. “Too Disney.”
“What the fuck is a Disney?” Yocury was still trying to process what he’d just seen.
“Nevermind. Not that door. Keep moving.” and Youji was fluttering off. Somewhere in the distance, Yocury heard bats. So he followed. His steps didn’t make the floor creak, but it was definitely slick and wet under his bare feet. Hesitant, he brushed his tail over it, and squinted at the color against the white.
Ichor. That was the only way he could describe it. He flicked his tail to remove the grime, but it clung to him as surely as his shackle. Wonderful. He’d need to clean that out before The Master saw him again… No, don’t think about that now. He glanced back behind them, but the inky darkness left no indication if they were being followed. He darted after Youji, who had pulled another door open up ahead on the right. Sunlight streamed through it and the Treatling stood, covering his eyes against the harsh light after gods only knew how long of darkness, and Yocury had to squint just to see him against the light. A warm breeze wafted through the room, smelling of roses in a way that made Yocury heartsick. He approached cautiously, and sniffed the air. Youji slowly lowered his arms, eyes wide with shock as he took in what lay beyond the door. “It’s… beautiful…” he breathed, and stepped inside. Yocury, voiceless and uncertain, followed.
The room was wide and deep. The floor was a deep, rich earth that made their animal hearts sing. Yocury turned slowly as he walked in, taking in everything. A garden of sunlight and flowers rose around them. Arches wrapped in ivy and morning glories of all the colors of the rainbow were settled firmly along the path of packed dirt--the greenery blocked off by a line of small rocks on either side of the ‘path’, that kept grass and weeds and flora at bay. The distant walls seemed meaningless and a false sun beat down on the pair. Youji made a soft sound of praise and glee, and a moment later he was a Treat again, and dove into a bush of roses the exact colors of his fur.
There in the far corner was a little tea table. Warm wrapped around the pair like a blanket, and Yocury breathed in the smell of the roses. In the far corner there was a fragrant maple--not unlike the ones outside--drooling sap from its trunk. It was surrounded by pansies and cosmos. Closer to the door were lillies and more roses. Youji stumbled out of the first rose patch, laughing in drunk-sounding squeals while he plucked thorns from his fur. Yocury turned to the right of the door, his eye wide and tail twitching, as he drank in a koi pond. Cattails, reeds, water-lilies and duckweed were disturbed only by a trio of calico koi that swam amongst each other in a hypnotizing pattern.
“It’s beautiful…” Youji squeaked. His warm weight, familiar after the centuries, settled onto Yocury’s shoulder. “It… reminds me of… something. I feel like there should be more of us.
Yocury nodded mutely. A tantalizing scent hung in the air, the echoes of kin. “I feel like I’m going to remember something.” Another mute nod of agreement, and Yocury turned from the pond to investigate the arch. The ivy was thin and spidery, but the morning glory, when he reached for it, felt of wax. There was a vine of something that looked like honeysuckle, too. He longed to reach up and pluck at it, and toss it into his mouth, longing for the faint sweetness of the bloom. He started to, touching the waxy petals, but drew his hand back. No, he shouldn’t. He really shouldn’t.
“We… we should get back to the search. We need to get home.” he breathed. His feet remained planted though, and he flicked his tail with frustration. He didn’t want to leave this scent, the colors all around him. There were Roses here.
Youji settled himself onto Yocury’s shoulder and a contented noise. “We… should.” he agreed, his voice tired. “Maybe we should nap first? We’ve been searching for hours. Maybe longer…”
Napping… sounded good. And this place was good. Safe. They could tuck themselves in under the Rose Bush and they’d be safe and smell of Roses and--

There was a sudden SLAM that thundered through the room and made them both jump out of their skin. Youji popped back into his Treatling form, and both he and Yocury turned to face the door. It was closed, and when Youji ran to test it, the handle didn’t budge.
The door was locked.
There were no windows, only sunlight and flora.
Yocury’s heart thundered in his chest, Youji paled.
The door was closed. They’d been Trapped.