The Wayfarer Way Station

Nokomis was walking home from work when she heard a whimpering sound. Frowning, she followed the sound until she came across a medium sized black dog with a bleeding paw. She held her hand out to the injured animal and waited until it licked her hand to take a closer inspection. The dog's paw was caught in a trap a hunter had placed down. Nokomis scowled at the contraption and carefully pulled the jaws of the trap open until the dog removed its paw. She let it snap shut and turned away from it.
"You are alright now." Nokomis gently whispered. "Come, I will help you." Taking the scruff of the dogs neck firmly, she guided the animal to her house. "Mother, father we have a guest." She called as she let the dog go.
"We do?" Amaris called as she walked into the kitchen. "Oh my, we do. And who are you?" The dog bared sparkling white teeth. "I see you do not like me. Where did you find the poor thing?"
"He was caught in a trap about three minutes west of here." Nokomis replied as she finished gathering the necessary ingrediants to clean and bind the wound. "It was a human trap for bears."
Dmitri rolled his eyes as he entered, "Humans are so bru-" He cut himself off as he drew his attention to the dog.
"What is wrong dear?" Amaris asked alarmed.
"He feels strange. He is not an earth creature."
"How can that be? He is surely at least a wolf crossbreed."
"I do not know, but I am not connected to him."
"So he is not an earth based animal? Could he be connected to another element?" Nokomis asked as she knelt before the strange dog and carefully washed his wound.
"Perhaps, but I know not what animal is not connected to earth besides winged creatures." Dmitri replied.
"Do you not have a hard time sensing domesticated animals? Perhaps he is one of them." She offered.
Dmitri shook his head, "No, he is definitely wild." He bend down to look the animal in its gold eyes. "He may even say intelligent. I don't mean wild animal intelligent, but a higher understanding."
"Well he is not of the water, I cannot sense him." Amaris observed.
"You sir, are an anomaly." Nokomis whispered to the dog, scratching its ear. He groaned in pleasure as he closed his eyes and thumped his long tail. After a moment the young woman covered the wound in a salve and wrapped it. "What shall we do with him? We cannot release him back into the wild until he is better."
Amaris and Dmitri looked at each other, silently debating what to do. Finally, Dmitri said, "He may stay here for the night, but tomorrow he is to stay outside until he is better."
"Okay. I shall start dinner now. What should I feed him?"
"He may have some of our raw meat, but not too much please.
"Yes father." Nokomis's parents retired to their study while she began dinner. She quickly made a plate for the dog and placed it down. He quickly devoured it and then sat and watched as the woman moved about the kitchen. The dog fell asleep that night in her room listening to her sing.
The dog stayed with the Ash family for a week, never straying farther than 100 yards from the young woman unless she was at school or work. He acted as Nokomis's guardian so her parents did not worry too much about the strange creature. It was entering the second week with the dog and he seemed to be getting anxious. He followed her to work that day and hid in the back. He only showed signs of being more than a statue when Nokomis stumbled into the back and passed out on the couch that existed just for her. The dog whimpered and paced as he waited for the young woman to wake. A half an hour later her eyes started to flutter open. The dog cried again as he licked her cheek.
"Hey boy." She tiredly raised her hand and stroked his head. "Sorry I scared you, it happens sometimes." She slowly sat up and sat for another five minutes before walking out of the backroom to finish up the closing chores. Nokomis had her back to the door and was straightening up when she caught something in the narrow mirror that lined the back of the bar. Startled, she spun to see four men and five women in the tavern. "I am sorry," She breathed out, "But we are closed. We open again tomorrow at 7 am and you can register then."
"We would have gladly come in the mornin', but the mutt here wouldn't stop botherin' us, well one of us, until we came here." The man in the front replied. He slightly scared Nokomis. He was tall, taller than Dakota with long rye bread colored hair, narrow hard blue/grey eyes, a long scar down his cheek and left eye, and a permanent snarl on his lips.
"Mutt?" Nokomis asked hesitantly. The man pointed to in front of the bar. She leaned over to see a medium to large black dog staring up at her with smoldering gold eyes. "Oh." Once she acknowledged the dog, it jumped up and put its paws on the counter. "Hello." It barked at her and then started growling when a black streak shot out from the Employee Only door.
"There's another one!" The man barked as he jumped out of the way of Nokomis's dog. The identical dogs growled at each other until one of them sniffed and cocked its head. He cautiously stepped closer to the other, then released its defensive stance and started wagging his tail happily. After a moment the two dogs started rubbing against each other.
"I am confused." Nokomis thought aloud as she watched the two dogs.
"That makes to of us. Apparently they know each other, perhaps part of the same litter or pack. They wouldn't be scentin' each other if they weren't."
"I suppose."
"I can't believe that mutt's been botherin' us for two weeks just to see its brother."
Nokomis looked over at the man, "He came to you two weeks ago?"
"Yeah, wh-"
The man didn't get a chance to finish his sentence because the tavern's door opened loudly. "Noko, what the fuck does this fucking dog want with you?" Dakota stalked in as a large black dog ran in to collide with the other two dogs. "Who the fuck are these tools?" He looked at the nine people standing in the tavern.
"What did you say you little prick?" The leader asked as he walked straight up to Dakota.
"I asked, what the hell are you doing here? The tavern is closed or do you not know how to read?"
"I could ask you the same thing." The man grinned, showing off his teeth. The air started humming with growls that made even the dogs pause their happy reunion.
"I know the owner and Noko here, so I have every right to be here. You don't."
"Technically, you don't." Nokomis said without thinking.
"See, this nice young woman here doesn't even want you. I suggested now that the dog is here, you go home now to do whatever prissy thin' you were doin' before."
"Oh and who is going to make me?" Dakota challenged.
"I suggest you back off Dakota, you may be rather powerful wizard but even you cannot take on a pack of shapeshifters." Nokomis tried to stop the fight. "Also, I don't want to explain to my mother why there is broken furniture."
The two men glared at each other for a moment more before taking a step back. The man looked over to Nokomis and looked impressed, "So you think we are shapeshifters?"
"Yes." Her eyes swept over the group, "I would say a canine, but I am unsure of which type."
"Very observant of you."
"I have had time to observe many types of Fey in my lifetime."
"Way Stationer's daughter would. We are the Blood Claw Pack. I am the pack's Alpha Sage, I am sorry for causin' trouble." He gave a sharp nod.
"Nokomis Ash, employee of The Wayfarer and it is fine. No harm, no foul just be careful please." Nokomis nodded back.
"Don't forget human daughter of the owner's of this joint." Dakota snorted as he plopped down in a stool. The pack visibly stiffened.
"Thank you Dakota." Nokomis muttered and looked away. There was an awkward silence that fell over the company until a few minutes later when the door opened again.
"This is why I hate dogs!" The familiar voice of Chezza wafted in as a streak of red entered and pounced on the black dogs. "What the hell, all he wanted was to visit these mutts?"
"Chezza." One of her leap mates tapped Chezza on her shoulder.
"Hmm?" She inquired, "Oh." Her face went flat as she realized there were other people around. "I expected Nokomis, but a pack of wolves and the pervert I didn't. What the hell are you all doing here?"
"Same as you." Nokomis answered before a fight broke out, "A dog forced them to follow him here."
"But why? I've had that freaking dog annoying my Leap for two weeks before he demanded that we followed him here."
Nokomis shook her head, "I do not know and neither do they. I think I am going to call my mother and see if she can help us. Please do not kill each other while I am gone." She turned and walked into the back where she called Amaris. After talking to her for about five minutes, she hung up and walked back out. Another red dog had joined the dog pile while two men had joined the Fey. More? I am too tired for this "My mother will be here shortly."
Everyone turned to look at her. Dakota spoke up, "The one on the left is a Wizard while the one on the right is a Siren."
"I needed to know this why?"
"Why not?" Nokomis shook her head. "Isn't it common courtesy to inform someone what you are?"
"More so to inform me their names. At the moment I do not really need to know specifically what they are, I already know they are Fey."
"Whot's a humon doing here anyways?" The wizard asked.
"She works here and is my daughter. I suggest Wind Wizard, you do not insult her in any way." Amaris warned as she walked into the tavern. "Now what is going on here?" The room erupted in voices trying to be louder than the others. "Enough! Nokomis?"
Nokomis nodded, "The five dogs each came from a group, one being the one we have cared for. They arrived all within twenty minutes of each other. First was the medium black do with the Blood Claw pack, next the large black do with Dakota, followed by the larger red dog with the Long Tooth Leap, and finally the larger red dog with the Wizard and Siren."
"Thank you. Wind Wizard, can you sense the dogs?"
"No ma'am. They would be of the earth since they are dogs." The wizard replied as if it was obvious.
Amaris glared at the man, "Do not be rude child, I am well aware that canine creatures tend to be of the earth element; my husband is an Earth Wizard. However, he cannot sense them and neither can I. That leaves fire, but I have a feeling that is not right. They are obviously hounds, but none I have ever seen before."
"They're Hellhounds." Everyone looked over to a lone table startled. A young bored looking man with long blue and white fire for hair that hung by his shoulders was the one who spoke. "And aren't of this plane." His cold blue eyes shifted to the dogs that suddenly stilled to look at him. "What are you two doing? Cerberus. Orthrus. Pull yourselves together." The five dogs barked and slowly morphed together to create two large dogs; one with two heads and one with three. "That's better. Now, let's get down to business." He sighed as he stood up and took a half hazard bow, "I am Hades, nice to meet you... I guess."
"You look a bit young to be Hades. Aren't you suppose to be like a billion years old or something?" Dakota snarked with a smirk.
"It's a title smart ass. I took on the title like the predecessor before me and yada yada. Now can we get this over with before Hel bitches and moans at me for taking my sweet ass time. She's such a pain in the ass sometimes."
"Hel as in the Norse goddess?" Nokomis asked, slightly afraid of how he would reply.
"That's the one. Anymore questions before we begin? No? Great. So, the five of you that received one of these lovely hellhounds, were chosen for a very important task. As some of you may know like that lovely lady behind the bar, Cerberus and Orthrus are guardians of the Underworld and on occasion ferry dead souls. Mostly they make sure they don't escape and feed on them. The problem is, souls have gone missing and Hel and I don't know why. The system in the Underworld is almost flawless with eons to perfect the system.
"We need you to find out why these souls went missing and where they are. One of the hellhounds will assist you so they can bring them back down to us. Any questions?"
"Yeah, why do we have to do it? The dead are your job." Dakota asked.
"Because even though this is on us, we can't exactly leave. Hel and I aren't meant for this plane of existance."
"Are you okay?" Nokomis asked, worried for the Fey before her.
His cold eyes looked at her, "As long as I don't stay much longer, I'll be fine." Hades grinned at Amaris, "I like her, you've raised her well. Maybe she'll be my Persephone."
"Try it and I'll be far worse than Demeter." Amaris warned as her silver eyes glowed like liquid silver.
Hades raised his hands in surrender, "No longer dreaming of it. Any other questions?"
"If we don't do this 'task'?" Sage asked.
"At the moment, we'll have a lot of lost souls floating around on this plane. In the long run, I fear terrible things will happen."
"Do we have to start this task right away? I'm a little less than a month from finishing this quarter of school."
"I don't know what school is, but as long as you do it in a timely fashion it shouldn't matter too much. Better sooner than later though."
"So you mean to tell me, I have to work with a Siren, Wizard, a pack of Wolves, a human, and a dumbass in order to prevent something terrible from happening?" Chezza asked unhappily.
Hades shrugged, "Technically only those Orthrus and Cerberus chose. If the pack or leap wish to join in then more power to you. More is better than less."
Chezza let out a frustrated breath, "I would not abandon one of mine, of course I would join them."
"Then you have your answer. Any other questions?" When everyone remained silent, Hades nodded. "Cool. Best of luck. Cerberus with me, Orthrus you're with them. Behave. Until your dead." Hades waved and then he and Cerberus were engulf in blue and white flames.
No one talked, too stunned or unhappy with what just happened.