Charlie knows what he has to do.

This....memory, he has to fix it. He has to.......

The skies are already dark as a light rain begins to pour out. At the gate to the village, a village he remembers, is the guard. He's looking right at him as he approaches.

Gunner starts walking into the village, Col at his side as he guides him along, looking to Once. What things happened here... And why did he want to come back to them? Charlie follows alongside Gunner, fiddling with the end of his tail as he leaves the Hohun behind.
There was many paths through this village, but there was no need to ponder them all.

Charlie knows which path he's taking.

Eyes look at the group from the window, but none of them exit the houses as they both walk. Whispers and chatter can be heard, though slow in their wording.

Gunnar is not quite sure what he means by that, but...
This place didn't exactly feel safe. A warning was welcome.

They both get closer to the farm on the edge of town. The tower behind it looms over, as if attempting to stare them both down.

In the nearby greenhouse, Charlie hear an awful sound of nails on glass.

He thought it died, but here it is again.
The green house doors are barred intentionally to keep it in.
Charlie eyes the beast from inside the greenhouse, swallowing nervously..

Gunner shifts his gaze to the beast, then quickly away. He didn't want to think about it. Not in the slightest.
They both reach the farmhouse. The sound of chopping growing louder and louder as they approach. At his stall, is the farmer who raises his head to smile.

The butcher holds up Once's chopped off horn and laughs.

The butcher opens the door and exits, ringing the bell on his way out. When he comes back, he holds up the horn of someone that Once knew, that he remembered, yet......

CRAZY TODD summons a chainsaw to commit SOME DAMAGE!
The butcher raises a finger, as if to correct Charlie.

The butcher is taking a deep breath.....

Charlie attacks! Quickly before he can breathe out!
Gunner attacks, directing Col to ram himself into the butcher!

Once swings his chainsaw at the Butcher, but it only grazes him!

Gunner outright misses, instead hitting the wall!

It nicks Charlie's horn just a bit, but he is able to get away. He watches the Butcher melt into the smoke, but knows he has to keep fighting if he wants that horn back!
But where.....does he even aim....

Gunner mounts Col, and starts running around the area real fast in an attempt to whip away some of the smoke and help Charlie find his mark!

Gunner tries to whip up the smoke but it's too hard. He can't see anything and Col stumbles over objects that stop him from whipping away the smoke!
Charlie can't stop to think too hard about this- He aims for the stand itself to try to bring it down on Hart!

Charlie cuts through the stand, and it falls on the Butcher. He can't attack....but he can hear him breathe in once more.

Charlie gasps as the stand comes down.. He attempts to snatch the horn away from Hart while he's down!

Once grabs the horn, but the Butcher grabs him as well, dragging Once into the rubble with him. All he can see is the Butcher's face.

Gunner tries to grab his hoof and pull! He's free!.....wait....that's a large broken piece of the stand.

The Butcher breaths smoke on Once. Once is so close, that he can't take a breath without taking in the horrible fumes. He feels drunk, and unstable. Even as he's let go, he trips over his own feet.

Once cannot move for the next turn!

The rest of the smoke gets into the minds of the pets. They start seeing things they're not supposed to. They can't tell who is their owner, and who is a foe.

Col is too Loyal to be affected!

Crazy Toddy grabs the chainsaw!!!!!

He takes aim at his owner!

And begins to slice into his arm! He's sure this is the bad guy! This is the right choice! This thing he's attacking is a monster like the others in the village.

Col grabs Once and flees! He throws himself down stairs and up the hill away from the farm!

Gunner shoots at the Butcher, seeing the hole in his arm, but he doesn't scream in pain, merely rising up from the rubble and attacking with his large knife.

Blood is coming out of Gunner, gushing out of him too quickly. He is not dead, but he is not sure how long he'll be able to survive without much blood.

Col is gone. He did his job. But Gunner is stuck here, wondering if he should have ran as well.

Gunner hears a chainsaw behind him.

Crazy Toddy, a tailmic that has always sliced through deals.......has just sliced his latest one.
Gunner.
Gunner has been slain.

But Charlie pays him no mind. Down a small hill, he finds it.

A grave, to someone....who once existed. Burn.

....Was it worth it? He warned him, and now he had one more person's blood on his hands. Charlie didn't want to think about it too hard, he had come too far for this, even if he never got the chance to really stick it to Hart like he wanted... Finally, he was granted a little closure..

....Charlie shakes his head, feeling silly for talking to an animal that won't understand him much. His attention is brought back to the grave site, and the horn in his hand that he clutches so tightly.

Charlie lays the contractor horn down on the dirt, next to the weeds and wildflowers that had sprung up since the last time he was here.

As Charlie lays the horn down, he feels he can't raise his hand.

As if he couldn't let go.

And then something squeezed that hand.

Kneeling next to him at his own grave was Burn. Like the others in the village, something was wrong with him. He had been removed, and yet with every second he seemed to solidify just a bit more.

He had been brought something that was taken from him so long ago.

Burn squeezes tighter.

Charlie leans into it, sucking in the air through his teeth. His tail joins with his company's tail, something so familiar to him that he had almost forgotten. It wasn't worth the death and grief. But at that moment, nothing mattered except for this.

.....

Slowly, his grip would loosen, eyes shut tight as though if he opened them, he really wouldn't leave. But.. he would have to, eventually.

...His tail uncoils around the mass that had been beside him, and stands back up again. Burn was gone.

Charlie calls to the thornhead, giving one more glances towards the forgotten village before the two head back to base, looking back once or twice but eventually disappearing past the hills and forests...