A Redtail's Dream

By Minna Sundberg

It is quite dreamy from the start, showing a meeting of foxes quibbling over whether they have enough snacks for their meeting this time, as well as whether said snacks are gluten free. Bear gets invited and eats the basket, but one of the foxes was smart to get a charm so they had extra snacks, due to the moose asked to bake, did so by making a month's worth of goods, so they were way safe. Bear was curious where they youngest member was, if he was filling his seat, he learning the group'd given him aurora watching duty, so they didn't have to hear him whine from boredom. They then digress to the possibility of how simple Puppy's job was, so he shouldn't have issue not messing up.

Then a segue to the human cities which were aware how bright the auroras would be and urging people to take advantage of the easiness for viewing. Meanwhile to kids left in charge of their pop's baking project for the evening festivities, keep taking breaks and get distracted with having to retrieve another of their member when they realize something inside is burning, which they better fix quick or else papa would be pissed. Then they had the task of saving a table which some young kids had occupied temporarily with their loud music and mouths until threats of not being served snacks was made, a member of the baking group standing atop it until a group more suitable turned up. As everyone watches the auroras getting into full swing, Puppy is seen from afar fixing breaks in the borealis, and not happily, it seems.

Next, a young man, Hannu wakes up next to his talking dog, he deciding he must be dreaming because of this and hoping if they'd find food or shelter soon, the dog wondering if he was the one dreaming, but he normally dreamed of food. The 2 are then met by Puppy, who takes responsibility for what's happened to them and the town, the spark he'd attempted to reconnect, bringing the 2 into the auroras, along with the town. The only issue now was, the "birds" of the Milky Way had taken the rest of the townspeople and moved them on, Puppy now having to retrieve them and get everyone back into their original reality. The only other hiccup was, Puppy wouldn't be able to get them himself, since the birds new him and had banned him for a different transgression a hundred years ago, but he could get the 2 of them thru so they could save everyone.

The 2 decide they aren't going to believe this dumb fox and go for a walk instead, hopefully the surroundings becoming normal as they went, Puppy not being upset, since they had time to dawdle. They soon realizing why when they go through a fog and they see Puppy ahead, he greeting them, and explaining how it was only their town which'd gotten taken into the auroras. Hannu doesn't wish to fulfill Puppy's request, but Ville wanting to go, for the food and to save the people, so Hannu agrees reluctantly. So, when Puppy calls the Bird's Path, the 2 fall and change, the dog turning into a squirrel, and after a little while a box falls near them as the Puppy had predicted, they having to find the "head" of the town, they having his name and addy.

They check the first house they see (beautifully colored and drawn, I'm still googly over it), and notice many of the towns kids sitting inside like it's a classroom, but it does give Hannu the idea of who they can give the squirrel necklace. He's told he must wait til the school day ends, only a half hour away, so he waits amongst the kids, until he realizes the time won't change, so he uses Ville as a distraction to get into the proper room, and gets revenge on a boy who was mean to him. Then, they find the lady they needed to put the charm on, but she was distracted by getting the same looking letter on the wall, so the completed alphabet hung uniformly, even though there were other versions of the same letter which could work, but this woman was o.c.d., apparently. Hannu begins optimistically, but then as time passes loses hope they'll find the correct page, esp, since the headmistress also was having trubs remembering where she left off, the papers piling high and many stacks laying around.

When Hannu reminds the headmistress of the package he had for her, she finally consents to looking at it, finding the letter, and so then puts the charm on, their surroundings change, and Ville's body changing with it. Ville isn't pleased with his snaky form, even though he does have stubby legs, still, and as they're on their way, it begins to rain, they fortunately finding farmhouse. They only find a cow there, but Ville noticing light across the field, they discovering people there, but also having to deal with running thru vipers, they welcomed upon arrival. As they're chatting with everyone around a campfire, though, Hannu considers, who should get the charm.

The man they decide upon refuses to do anything or take the charm until the snakes left, so Hannu decides to try and wack afew into the massive rest made the choice to leave, as well. What ends up changing Hannu's mind is Ville offerring to attempt to ask how long the snake's planned to stay, they learning the snakes had an odd idea of getting hit by lightning, they saying it in a dreamier, culty way. Hannu offers to make a lightning rod for the crazy goofs, they quite pleased, so not biting him in return. His plan ultimately succeeds, he gets a lightning bolt and is thrown off hitting the ground pretty hard, then wakes up, the snakes gone, and Kuitunen receiving the charm and promising to speak with a wiser animal to help them out of this if Puppy failed.

The 2 next drop to a new spot and Ville turns into a seal-like creature, and the 2 argue if he happens to be fatter than the normal seal, then a pelican or something lands on Hannu's head after Puppy isn't helpful at all, other than letting them know they weren't spell-protected. After Hannu gets the coughed up charm, they consider how Ville will travel to where they need to go. Eventually, Hannu is just dragging Ville along, resorting to using his jacket under him when his belly was getting scratched, they then reaching town and Ville brings 2 locals attention to them, which Hannu wasn't interested in doing, hiding the both of them before they could see who had called. They're found out, though, but the 2 only help them, so Hannu can't complain too much, since he'd already complained a little.

They get Ville to their little boat and row to the island where Ville can get fish and Hannu can speak to Asa. Asa is with a seal, as mentioned by her niece and nephew, she not certain they could help her with the problem she was attempting to fix. Hannu believes he can get this bigass fish they're attempting to kill, stealing a net, and borrowing the 2 sibs boat, Ville finally using his bod as intended. He discovers where the bigass fish would be staying and even has to swim off from it, and by the time he reaches Hannu again, Asa is able to kill-shot it.

Hannu returns the charm to Asa and asks for a 20 second head start before she puts it on, getting back to Ville in the boat and hoping they didn't end up in the lake when the environment switch happened, Ville now a moose. They must carefully reach shore due to Ville's form again, almost capsizing them because of his unfortunate weight gain. They reach shore without incident other than another bird giving the charm, but doesn't communicate well, and Puppy hadn't turned up, yet. So, as Ville attempts to offer a ride on his back now he was more comfy in his form, but not truly showing it when he gets his horns stuck between some trees, they continue walking through the forest, hoping Puppy hadn't left them to die.

Puppy meanwhile, is hoping the squirrel knocking loudly on the door to the fox meeting place, won't out his mistake to everyone, so he preemptively takes a shortcut to the meeting place, to beat squirrel to the punch. He creates a different door so the foxes don't hear squirrel yelling for their attention from behind the magic door. When Puppy fox starts losing his shit, though, he was in the process of leaving the rest of the townspeople in deathly peril when he's interrupted by one of the more powerful among the birds, this eagle confronting the pup with what he was about to do to them, and stating his position on blabbing on Puppy if he messed up his mess up any worse. This does the trick to keep him in line, Hannu's head hurting from the shifting dream world, Ville being forced to stop licking his face, as a moose, it being nasty.

They reach a road and decide to follow what Ville believes to be the North star, by an imaginary smell, but it does lead to a fence with a symbol mirroring the one on Hannu's cap, so they seemed to find the right spot, this time Hannu getting his wish of going in quietly without talking to everyone, Ville reserving the right to approach if they looked chatty. Well, it doesn't take long for Ville to take over after hearing Hannu's boring plan to ask boring old man, Pekka, Hannu getting dragged along for trying to stop Ville from saying howdy to some peeps at a bench table. Ville starts whining about food and being t(w)ired, so he sits with the group as Hannu gets buns. They almost get stuck their until Ville convinces them he's quick enough to carry Hannu on his back and get to their father's shop down the road, real quick, the 2 meeting "the monster" of the wood, it a wooden looking moose with red eyes and apparently ready to kill, so Ville takes off away from it, but it catching up when they attempt to climb a steep incline.

They're saved by another moose, he helping them to store, and would explain more when they were safer. When they reach the pop's shop, he states what he needed from them didn't involve supplies, but to kill the spirit of the forest moose, Hannu not quite interested in taking up the reigns. A boss of a business, who was the 2 sibs pops, couldn't rely on his workers, so he again turns to Hannu for his help. So, he sets him up with a cross-bow and Ville and he are back into the forest to kill the wooden creature moose.

When they're on their way into the woods, Ville attempts the silent treatment, because of what Hannu had confessed about having killed small animals for fun, among shooting non-living things to practice cross-bow when he was younger, Ville upset he'd kill without reason, Hannu reminding him this was long ago and he didn't do this anymore. Hannu was dozing when Ville unceremoniously wakes him, Hannu annoyed to the point of turning around so Ville wouldn't be paranoid of being sneaked up on, Hannu getting lucky and spotting the wooden beast, Ville's instinct to run being whispered quietly in return to hold still so Hannu could get the shot, hoping the beast would take a step and make it perfect. Hannu takes a shot, but Ville can't hold it together and dashes off with Hannu still pointed in the wrong direction, he refusing to slow down or stop, Hannu gets knocked off, hard, and as he's insulting Ville's back, wooden moose approaches. The spirit moose goes off, as well, Hannu hating he now having to catch up to both, Ville not noticing Hannu's absence until attempting to cross a frozen lake, he berating his bad doggieness as he runs back, directly at Hiisi the moose, getting himself chased around in the open.

Hannu catches up, makes a shot, gets noticed, then falls through a soft break in the ice, going under, making it to the surface, only to go back under and get caught by Hiisi. Ville taking the opportunity to charge at his booty, Hiisi redirects his chase to Ville and they cross the lake, Ville even attempting to lose him by swimming through another area, but Hiisi catching up by running over the water! Hannu catches up, though, and takes another shot, leading to a fucking great panel! Needless, Ville comes up from underneath the water, where Hiisi had been holding his head under.

Hannu sits with him on shore and when Ville shakes off his water, Hannu gets soaked, Ville then quickly getting him back to his boss, where he finally put on the charm, and hardcore, makes Hannu aware of his every intent on making him work the day they all came back to the real world from this, Hannu ofc, understandably protesting. This marks where the dream changes again, and Ville is now a bear, Puppy finally returning whilst Hannu complained of the snowfall. After Hannu threatens to murder Puppy for nearly killing them, he leaves and the bird with the charm comes over, looking simple, the 2 walking toward an area empty of trees and the 2 bickering as usual on multiple subjects. They meet unhelpful dickhead bird, then Hannu loses time after falling on his face AFTER falling asleep.

Ville makes them a den for him to rest a bit, to follow, one of the best cuddle buddy scenes with a bear. After Ville has a nap and is waken by smoke smells, he wakes a whippy-armed Hannu and they follow Ville's smell sensing, hopefully it being more reliable than his direction. Hannu gives Ville another chance not to buck him off his back, since Ville believes he can get them to where his nose was pointing hella quick. This ofc, leads to Hannu getting fallen on after he warns Ville to watch where he steps with stumps sticking out all over.

The 2 walk the rest of the way, the big bon the towns was making having Hannu wonder what they were doing. Instead of learning this, Hannu asks a fella if he'd seen a bear and where, Ville getting caught up in making a bitch notice how he much larger he was than her, now, which has the owner send them off. Hannu clarifies to Ville of not worrying about how "cool" the bitch was, she'd be dead and he'll be alive long after, so he should chill. Ville wondered how Hannu got along being around people he was jealous of then, Hannu clarifying he didn't get jels-balls because if peeps didn't get in his way he didn't care what they did (Agreed, wholeheartedly).

When they finally locate who they need, she turns them away, saying they had a problem, but they didn't require their help, Hannu and Ville being stopped by the other bear, saying they truly did need them to do something about their issue, it being the problem of stopping the snow from falling, Hannu straight up saying they couldn't do anything about this one. The other bear shares the plan of getting the attention of Kokko, the great eagle, to help the snow stop, since she had some magical skills. So, the request was to have Hannu and Ville go to a manifestation of Kokko's first tree and collect something which would get the attention of Kokko, making a "stronger connection". Fear was the reason the other bear wanted them to do this, Hannu annoyed, but then indifferent, leaving after giving Anu the charm, accepting because it was mentioned she must do anything with it.

Fun part with the gang of crows which scared Kokko, and when they reach the nest, it's a bit tricky to reach, then it's difficult to keep the pieces of wood Hannu drops to the forest floor to pick up upon returning down, but they succeed in getting it to the fire and Kokko appears. She does as requested and they finally change to another dream spot. Hannu awaking to see Ville as a bunny! Ville is not amused by this degrading new form, Hannu absolutely tickled by his puppy size.

When they get on their way, Ville riding on Hannu's shoulders, he hears something in the distance. They reach the boy, Tuomi, seeing all his friends dead asleep, they learning the kid had no intention of returning home. Hannu threatens him, Ville attempts empathy for his and many other wishing to return home, the boy getting ornery because he didn't like how he was treated by his ma and sis, he deciding to return when he's 20, but Hannu takes over when the boy turns away Ville. Hannu blows the loud ass horn and tells the kids how Tuomi was keeping the way home to himself, he getting annoyed and finally allowing everyone to get home, but not before his bunny friend wishes for their death.

When Hannu looks at their new surroundings, Ville has become a winged swan-like creature, they getting the swan charm, and Hannu walking as Ville floated, since he couldn't fly. Soon, the ground stops, so Hannu gets a ride and soon they are met by a swan, as a rabbit finds a fox hole to the group discussion, he readying to tell the other animals who wanted to know, but they distracted, so the bunny biffs off. Meanwhile the swan isn't happy of their presence and demanding they go home, but does confirm of more people being nearby who shouldn't be there, so when Hannu decides they must continue on, against the bird's wishes, they learn where all the blood came from they'd seen earlier on the land they'd been transported. Ville saves him and is worried of how badly Hannu is hurt, he saying he's much better than he looked, bleeding a little.

When they finally get to where the other people are, they are blissfully alive, Hannu recognizing them as church goers, the leader being the priest, currently sobbing in a corner, the peeps waiting for the swan to do with them what it will, when it was ready, being bizzy bizzy bee. They then learn the priest wasn't the true leader, they spotting the 2nd swan, the woman they approach recognizing Hannu as a grave vandal, but he only stepping on flowers clumsily. After being reprimanded by the swan to be quiet due to recuperating from the injuries he'd sustained, Hannu quietly asks if she'd return home if they knew how. When she finally decides to help everyone get back, Hannu unexpectedly shows his gratefulness, her turn being indifferent.

Hannu and Ville watch the misty departure, and are confused, Puppy returning and misting Ville, Hannu having to stay due to a snafu. On Ville's side, he returns next to Hannu, and Puppy shows up seeming uncaring to help Ville, and then gives the excuse of Hannu's body being "broke", so as he's about to let down his last stasis spell, Ville gets aggressive in order to make him stop. When it fails to help, Kokko returns to show she'd been viewing the whole scene and gave Puppy as many chances as possible to be selfless. Puppy still attempts to close the stasis, but he cannot, and next Ville awakes with cat ears after being taken off by Kokko.

When Hannu wakes and sees the state of Ville, he's quite surprised, understandably, since he was his twin minus the ears, but then Kokko turns up to say all they'd have to do is put on the charms and wish to return home, Hannu unfortunately wanting to kill something more, this being when Puppy catches up. As he's getting into a heated argument with Hannu, who threatens to kill him and he's in the middle of responding of stranding them there, his mama turns up, looking frothy pissed. She begins with disappointment and upon hearing what the human had in mind for him, the collective of foxes debated, sure go ahead, but also didn't believe Puppy would learn from it (Lol, agreed). Puppy's mama, shoves him down to Hannu and Ville's holding space, and takes away his powers, the playing field, more even.

Puppy biffs off quick, the 2 giving chase, tracking him to a tree knot-hole. They attempt to smoke him out with the foxes help, but this only gives Puppy a chance to bite one of them again and blast off out of the tree. He almost gets stuck after following a path into the lake, but swims beyond, eventually the 2 shooting an arrow and making the hit, even though knowing he wouldn't truly die, they are able to mist out of there, now. When they awake though, Ville is still human, tripping Hannu out and q'ing the swan, who confirms their truly being awake, and wouldn't help them, so the 2 go back to town.

Ville is nervous due to his human form, and when they are noticed by townsppl, Hannu plays it cool and states Ville's identity. When one guy asks more about Ville, Hannu staves it off, since he'd already come up with a couple bullshit stories for them to swallow, they making their way home so Hannu can finally sleep, but not before getting yelled at about when he was expected to work the next day. When they're readying for sleep after a light meal, Ville's puppy dreams show Puppy doing chores for other animal spirits as part of his punishment. Weeks pass and Hannu is working as Ville hangs out, the sibs offerring to speak to their pops about giving him a job, since he's staying for awhile, Ville liking the idea.

Later on, when Hannu's parents visit, he admits Ville had died, since he wouldn't stop getting pestered, his parents having him stay with him, and Paju declares Hannu needed therapy for his sadistic nature. As they're readying to leave, his parents offer him a replacement pet, but the Ville decides he wants a turtle, which Hannu relents to considering. So, fricking fun! I truly enjoyed the comedy and myth story created, here, and will be continuing her other stories as they come.