Noon had come, Dixie was typing on her laptop at her office when she began to hear the voice of Ingrid. She gets up from her chair, Goes to the bathroom, and turns the stink on to splash water onto her face.
She pants a bit as she raises her head to stare at the mirror. Only to come across a rotting vision of her sister in the mirror. "I.. Hate you..." Echo the voice of Ingrid's apparition before Dixie closed her eyes and screamed. Causing Skye to enter, To come at the aid of her friend.
Dixie shakes her head as Skye asks if she is ok. "Yeah I am fine I guess I thought I saw someone or something in the mirror."
"Well Me and Sylvie have been talking and we are concerned about you. I know you have always been a depressing person but this takes the cake. You came here earlier all hysterical according to the boss, Please tell me, what's going on here?" The young Cockapoo girl asks her friend.
The silvery-purple fur pomeranian broke and told her that her sister Ingrid died last night. She was killed by overdose inside the childhood home that she once lived in. "Many years ago I had a falling out with my mother who was dying from cancer. I unfortunately didn't have a good puppyhood."
Skye listens with concern yet with intrigue. "Then me and Ingrid got home later that day and got into a fistfight with her. I punched her in the head a few times. She said that she hated me and I never looked back. The next morning I bought a ticket to Nome, Alaska and I never looked back. That was the last time I saw my sister. No phone calls or even emails. I had forgotten about her until yesterday when I got that Phone call from the Starhold Police Department and I think she's haunting me."
Pretty concerned at this point, Skye inquired a question from her. "Would you go back and make amends to her and your sister?"
"How if she's dead?"
"I... I don't know Dixie, I better get going, Working on a story about Airline Karen who caused trouble at the airport. Sylvie invited us for dinner at her house if you're coming."
"Yeah, I'll come," Dixie says to her friend before Skye leaves the bathroom. The clicks of her heeled boots echo. Dixie gets up, turns off the water, and leaves.
Later that evening as the sun was setting, Dixie drove to the suburban neighborhood and drove up to Slyvie's driveway. Other cars were there as well. Belonging to Skye and Kaltag.
Kaltag and Sylvie have been dating for months now since the day she found out that he proposed to marry her. She closed her icy blue eyes and took a deep breath before the door opened to reveal a Cream and brown fur, brown eye dog in his police uniform.
"Hey, Dixs." the Chinook greets his friend.
"Hey Kal, What's the progress on dinner?" Dixie asks her friend as Bolt replies "Still in the oven, Me and Chase are on a game of Duty's Call: Black OPs Gulf War while Skye and Slyvie are well talking outside." Kaltag informs her as the Silvery/Purple pom makes her way to the backyard where she sees her friends talking and staring out to the night sky.
She opens the door to the backyard and takes a seat next to Skye when Sylvie asks "Did you have a breakdown at work?"
"It wasn't a break really, I just..."
"Don't lie dollface, Skye told me that she saw you scream. What's going on? We want to help you."
Dixie takes a deep breath before telling her that last night she received a Phone call from the police department from Starhold that her sister was found dead at our old home and that this morning in the bathroom she saw a vision of her sister in the mirror. "I... Hate you is the last thing she said before Skye came in."
"When was the last time you saw your sister?" Sylvie asked as Dixie thought about it and said "It's been years, I last saw her in two-thousand and twenty-six. I fought with my mother moments before she died and later when I got home, My grandmother must've told Ingrid about what happened and the next thing I knew was that I got into a fistfight with my sister. I made her nose bleed. I was trying to get her off of me and even then I have beaten her. I came to Nome the next day to serve alongside the Militia and well I never saw her since."
Dixie went silent for a moment as Skye and Sylvie went speechless. "Well, maybe you should go to Starhold and make peace with her then."
"She is dead, My mother and father are dead and the rest of my family won't even talk to me after all the things I've done. Let's say that I told my grandmother off the day my father was killed and my aunt wanted nothing to do with me after I Left them to come here." Skye raised her eyebrow and Sylvie had an expression of concern.
"I became an alcoholic even if I was underage," Dixie spoke with regret. Her voice went quiet and anxiety went down her spine as she thought about the things she'd done. "My childhood and even teenage years weren't the best for me. I've told Sylvie this before but I'll tell you as well."
-------
May 4th, 2026
Starhold Thule
At the home that Dixie grew up in, Dixie stood in the Kitchen, Her sister Ingrid who looked like her older sister but lighter. She stood at the end of the counter. Her little sister holds up a bottle of beer and asks "What the fuck is this?"
"Why the hell are you snooping around in my room Ingrid?" Dixie snaps back at her little sister. With rage in her voice, she yells "Why are you into this shit Dixie? We fucking need you right now?"
"NO, YOU DON'T!" Dixie yells out at her sister as the rage the two emit from each other, Both show their teeth, Snarling at each other as Dixie shouts "I try to do better Dixie, we can't rely on Mother for anything and even then what has she done for us other than beat and belittle us. I want you here because you are all I have at this point. You're going to cut this shit out!"
"FUCK OFF INGRID!" Dixie screams, getting up and leaving the house in the middle of the night. Ingrid stands alone and pours out the bottle of Beer?"
The next day their mother Sandra would be unresponsive in bed, Dixie came home around three am in the morning. Walking upstairs to her mother's room to check at least check on her. Seeing her mother wasn't breathing, Dixie checked her pulse to have no response. Panicking and shaken, She calls 415 for the ambiance, Stating in a hysteric voice that she pleads for help.
By that morning, Sandra Woods was declared deceased, Succumbing to her tumor. Dixie stood outside of the Hospital room that Sandra was held in as Ingrid came to check on her mother. Noticing her crying sister, Ingrid falls onto her knees
---------
Present day
"I never saw her since. We got into a fight one last time and I left her alone."
"Dixie, I'm sorry, Only if I knew you back then, I would've wanted to help you," Skye says as Slyvie asks if she plans on going to Starhold to make amends. "Damn it, Sylvie, I don't know. I don't want to think about it, Just drop it and never speak of this. Even if I were to go, I would want to go alone."
"Ok ok, I think you should but I'm not going to force it on you," Sylvie assured her friend who was getting frustrated. They calm down when Kaltag comes out and announces that dinner is ready.
"Alright," Skye says as they all get up and enter the house. They see a platter with loads of Hamburger patties, lettuce, onions, and tomato. French fries and Tatertots were in two separate bowls and lastly were BBQ, Ketup, and Mustard sauce next to the platter.
As they all begin to serve themselves, Nikki comes in with a case of beer. "Hope you asses don't eat everything all at once."
"Hope you didn't drink everything all at once," Kal replied as Nikki placed the twenty-four-pack beer on the table. Dixie grabbed a bottle and took a sip before she bit into her burger.
"Hey Dixs, I Heard that Governor Foxington was caught running a drug ring not so long ago. The person you had a crush on. What's your opinion?" the chinook dog says as Chase gives his two cents on the subject.
"What he's doing is an insult to the cynoea community, He needs to be taken out of Office. He's as much of an idiot as the current president." the German shepherd spoke as he took a bite out of his burger.
"Ok sergeant who voted for him, I warned you Chase that Foxington would cause harm to the cynoea community but you kept saying that he would make things better, and look what happened."
"Kal, do you listen to the things you say at times? Last week you're going off about how you came across Saurins from Lemuria." Chase replied as the two were near another debate when Skye told everyone to chill. "Please no political debates, every time we have dinner, You two always get into these pointless debates."
As everyone talked, Dixie sat in silence, eating her food and sipping her bottle of beer as the voices got lower. Her vision goes dark before seeing Ingrid or an apparition of her deceased sister. Ingrid's Silvery-Purple fur is nothing more than charred black and red burnt skin. Ingrid walks off to the guest room.
Dixie gets up and follows her into the room only to come across a hellish-burning room. Everything is on fire, the walls are burning in a red/orange inferno and the window that faces the front of the neighborhood shows flames lastly, Ingrid is lying in bed. Pale and sickily as she utters to her sister that she hates her.
Skye comes in and Dixie snaps back to reality. "I saw her for a bit, It was a vision. This room was on fire and the outside was on fire and..."
Dixie went silent before telling Skye that she was leaving for the night. Skye says wait but Dixie goes out the front door and enters her car. She proceeds to drive off to her home.
Upon arriving at her apartment, She placed her bags on the counter and went to her room. She booked a flight to Starhold, Thule, and packed her things. Her phone went off, She picked it up to see Slyvie calling her.
"Damn it, Sylvie, I don't have time for this." says the pomeranian but she answers the phone and holds it close to her right ear. "Dixie, what's going on? Why did you leave in such haste?"
"I think it had something to do with my vision at the house. I swear I saw Ingrid on your bed as a corpse. Am I hallucinating?"
"I don't know Dixie, I don't know why you had a vision. Skye went to check on you and you left the house without finishing your dinner. I am not mad. I am bewildered."
Dixie breathes and says "I.. I am sorry Slyvie. I won't be at work for a bit, I am going to Starhold, Thule for the rest of the week. There are people I need to go see, I am leaving at four in the morning and won't be back until Sunday."
"Dixie I don't understand what going on. You are going to Starhold to visit these people. As in like your family?"
"Yes, Sylvie, Family that most likely don't want me around. But as you and Skye suggested, I ought to make amends with them or be haunted by regrets. If the boss asks about my whereabouts, I am on vacation. I'll see you Saturday."
Dixie hangs up and sits on her bed in silence.
---------
Chapter 2
At Eleven am, Dixie makes it to her hometown of Starhold, Thule after leaving the airport. Thule is one of the few "Lost" lands on Earth and is Scandinavian territory. Dixie takes a rental car and drives to her old home in Jol St. Tears come down from her eyes as she sees the burnt parts of the house. The fire started at the right where Ingrid's room is located. She gets out of the car and enters the condemned home.
It was a vacant two-story home. Old furniture from her childhood including an old gray sofa and photo frames of a young Dixie and Ingrid in their school uniforms on their first day of Middle school.
She smiles at the sight of this old photo and takes it and places it in her bag. Other photos a childhood moment of her in the Starhold Mall sitting on the lap of a human dressed as Santa Claus. She smiles at these rare times of happiness. She goes upstairs to her old childhood room to see it intact. The old blue walls, the twin-size she used to sleep on looked dusty but it had that old childhood charm to it. Her bookshelf was filled with various novels she used to read as a puppy as well as one picture frame of her puppy five year old self riding a pony on her field trip to Draz-Adol Ranch.
She smiles at the frame, Picks up the picture frame, and places it in her bag. Her phone rumbles from the left pocket of her black leather pants, grabbing it to see Steele calling her. She answers the phone and says "Hey Steele, I'm out of town for a few days."
"Sylvie told me what happened last night. I wish you could have told me about what happened."
"Yeah Like how you almost killed the Hero of Nome during the Second diphtheria pandemic just so you can be the champion because god forbid that someone else saves Nome while you get all the glory and fucking fame that..."
"Dixie, what does that have to..."
"Don't fucking interrupt me Glory hound!" Dixie yells with anger in her voice before taking a long deep breath and apologizing to him. "Steele, I.. eh.. I'm sorry. I lost myself for a moment."
Wiping the tears out of her eyes, She goes to sit down on her bed with her phone in her hand. "Dixie, I know my faults, I'm guilty and I don't expect you to forgive me all those years ago but *sighs* I want to help you."
"I'm ok Steele, I just want to be alone for now, I'll be home on Saturday. Goodbye." She hangs up the phone before hearing knocking on her door. She gets up to go downstairs to open the door to see a cop from the Khzah-drun Police Department. A Nasic shepherd with the classic black and brown fur. His brown eyes met her blue eyes and his dashing face stuck her. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, I used to live here, I'm just coming to see this house for the last time before leaving back to Omigard for good."
"This is kinda off limits to come here but if you lived here before then you must be the sister of Ing... We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. I came to check for any crimes committed before the fire. Officer Diggs Larson at your service."
"Oh my, Dixie Woods and it's ok. I'm indeed Ingrid's older sister. I'll be going here in a bit. I reckon that the hotels are only expensive."
"Oh yeah, about ten more Aeros more than back in two-thousand and fifth-teen." the two chuckles as she places her back over her left shoulder, allowing it to hang from her shoulder. "Hey Diggs, I took some of my old belongings if that's ok. Just a few picture frames and memorabilia."
"Fine by me. This is my last shift anyway and I'll be getting some drinks at Falkgar's Hilt bar." Dixie tilts her head and asks "That's still here? Say maybe I'll meet you there. Tyr knows I need something to drink."
"You and me both but I'll be there with a few friends of mine but hey you know I don't they'll mind if you tag along besides you're pretty twilight Pomeranian. Those black pants and Starhold Wyverns Hoodie. Say you're a hockey girl?" Dixie would blush at the comment that the Nasic Shepherd said but she replies with "Me oh no, I'm not a sports person. I'm a newspaper Columnist at Omigard. I make gossip-filled articles around the streets of Omigard, Hell my friend busted a Ku'Krog Cult."
"Well I better get going or my boss will have my ass. Nice to talk to ya and I hope you can make it to Falkgar's Hilt." Diggs tells her as he shakes her hand and then walks off. Dixie felt infatuated by the shepherd only to be reminded of Steele. He looked nice even if he wasn't as built as Steele.
She locks the door to the house and leaves her home for now. She entered her rental car and drove to the nearest Motel to stay at for now. She went to the main lobby to pay for a room until Saturday and was given the keys to room six. She enters the room that contains a large queen-sized bed, a Dwarven-made black chair, a ten-inch flat-screen TV facing the bed, and a small kitchen and bathroom. "Better here than..." She quiets herself and walks in. Placing her bags next to the chair and fell face flat on the large soft blanket of the bed. "Oh, this feels ok." She murmured to herself before her phone rang again.
She picks it up to hear Skye's voice. "Hey, I just want to check on you and see how are you holding up."
"I'm ok I guess. Just sulking around and going to a bar here in a little while to get my mind off of everything that's been going on."
"Yeah, I feel ya. Everest and Bolt did a job career booth for Career Day at the Omigard Elementary School and they were doing a presentation about their jobs there one of the pups asked them if they arrested people for their skin colors and both of them looked confused and got this Everest said that they arrest canines just as much as people of colors. It was weird for them."
Skye and Dixie chuckle for a little before asking her about her day, Skye said that there was nothing new other than Sylvie coming in crying because well she lost her dad.
Dixie went silent for a moment, being reminded of her sister. "Oh Dixie, I'm..."
"No Skye, It's ok. I'll text her here in a little bit. Have you talked to her about it?" Dixie asks over the phone, Skye tells her yes and even thinks about her during the talk and remembers that conversation they had at her house the night before Dixie left for Thule.
Dixie took a long breath and said that she'd call her back due to her phone losing battery. "Well be careful, please. Goodbye." Skye says before Dixie hangs up, Walking over to her bags and taking the charger out of her bag. Plugging it at the outlet beside her bed.
She became saddened at the news that Sylvie's father had passed away. She knew how it felt since her father was nice to her and her sister by comparison.
Chapter 3
Dixie arrives at the Bar, Its brick exterior hasn't changed with a green neon sign that says "Falkgar's Hilt." She entered through the refined wooden door and went to the end of the bar to sit at. She messages Sylvie, to check to see if she is ok when she sees Diggs come in alone, Still in his police uniform, He takes a seat on the stand when she gets up to go say hi to him. He faces her and says "Hey. Dixie Right?"
"Of course, I thought you had friends coming?" Dixie questions him and he replies that they bailed out on him. "Damned, Mind if we have some drinks together?"
"Wasn't that the plan we made earlier?" Diggs replied with that wicked voice of his that turned her on. He orders two beers as the bartender gives them two cold beer bottles. "You're dressed differently, Whiching out the pants for a short knit skirt huh."
"Why yes, I wanted to look appropriately." She tells him, lifting her right leg and placing it over her left leg. Revealing the fishnet stockings she wore along with the black gothic knee boots she wore.
"Say, Dixie, So Omigard? What is it like?"
"It's beautiful, Loads of snow during the fall and winter seasons and cool air even during the spring and summers can be nice to walk through at times," Dixie tells him that much about Omigard before taking a drink of her beer. "So Diggs are you seeing anyone?"
"I did but we had a fallout, I have been looking for someone else since then. She cheated on me with a Bulldog who turned out to be an abuser, She wanted to get back to me but I told her to go find someone else because I'm not about to her hurt like that again."
Diggs explains to Dixie before admiring her puffy Silvery-Purple hair. She blushes and says thanks to him. "I know we only just met but I would like to know more about you. I know you must be going through a lot since well that but you look fun to hang out with."
"We can exchange phone numbers if you like but... there's a guy I'm seeing back in Omigard and I'm only here until Saturday."
"Oh, what's his name?" Diggs asks him as Dixie answers Steele Hams. "Steele, isn't he the champion of Nome during the whole second pandemic a decade ago?"
"Well sorta, He was also a asshole back then," Dixie says it like it is to him. "Then why would you want to date him?"
"Who said I was dating him?"
"Oh, I figure you were. But he sounds like a really bad a hole huh." Diggs comments as Dixie tells him that if being with him was bad, She reveals that she slept with a Bloodhound singer for a country band.
"You slept with that guy?"
"Yes I did and was even an honorary member of their band then we had a fallout. Plus I and his partner were at odds. Nearly kill the bitch with my bare hands." The two chuckles when Diggs tells him that he heard from the news that he and his partner were taken to jail for violence.
"Not surprised about that, They're pretty toxic to each other, and like I said I nearly killed her but someone else stopped me from doing soo." Dixie takes a sip from her bottle before saying that person was of supernatural origins. "Well I'm glad they did stop you or else you wouldn't be here today."
"I've been to jail many times before both when I lived here and in my time at Nome. Fuck even as an honorary member I've gone to jail but mostly to get away from her." She says to her new friend. "Of that bloodhound used to call me firecracker when we slept in bed together."
"When the news broke out my boss Butch roasted him the entire time, He's a Kangal shepherd. Everyone in my department roasted him and that orange bitch. My other friend, A Saluki said that she's an embarrassment to all of Hykoria."
"And she is." says a voice behind them. They turn to see a Black and cream fur Saluki walk towards them wearing a Khzah-drun detective badge over her turtleneck sweater that matches the pencil skirt and the same boots Dixie is wearing. "Who's this cute goth girl of yours Diggs?"
"Dixie Woods, she used to live here Ivy." The Saluki looks at Dixie, comments about how cute she looks, and introduces herself as Ivy. "A detective huh."
"Well Yes, One that works with this jackass right here. He damn sure piss off my Live snipe earlier." Diggs interjects and says "That was an accident and he knows that, He just doesn't want to admit it."
"And what was this all about?" Dixie questions Saluki as she informs her that Diggs spilled Frost Cola on her liver snipe. Directly on his crotch.
Dixie chuckles as Ivy tells her that the boss's dick was larger than Diggs's own penis. "You wish."
"Nah it's true. face it if you ever thought about touching my body, He would be as piss as the flames of the 5th circle of Hell."
"I don't want you, Maybe Lou wants you but I don't want to risk that." Diggs comments when Ivy corrects him and says that Lou is gay.
"This sorta sucks, I'm leaving Saturday and you both have work tomorrow," Dixie says to Diggs and Ivy with them nodding to them. "So Miss Woods where to do live?"
"Omigard," Dixie answers the Saluki's question. "In Alaska right? I heard that the weather is nice in Autumn. Is it true?"
"Of course, it is," Dixie replies to Ivy as she drinks her beer. "Well Dixie, if you ever come back to Starhold, I'll have some drinks with ya and Diggs, don't be late tomorrow or Butch is gonna have you on his pike."
Ivy walks off, exiting the building and leaving the two at the bar for the night. By 12:pm Midnight, Dixie returns to her motel room black-out drunk. wobbling around before falling onto the bed. She lay there for a moment. Rolling onto her back and slowly lifting herself to take off her boots. Taking off all of her clothes before falling back onto her bed.
"Ugh oan I want sleep." She says to herself when she hears voices from the bathroom. She struggles to get up but she manages to do so and wobbles towards the bathroom to see a ghostly figure that resembles Ingrid. From her pinkish and light lavender furs and pink hair to her blue eyes and lilac color puffy chest like her own chest. Wearing a pair of nylon leggings and a gray turtleneck with a heart shape boob window. "Ingrid, Hey it's been forever, Look I know that we didn't always got long butt look and listen closely ger, I luv u."
The apparition looks at her with disgust before stating that she hates her once more before Vanishing. "Ingrid, Ingy?" Dixie drunkenly calls out to her dead sister before curling up in the bathtub and shutting her eyes.
While dreaming, She finds herself back at home in the year 2026 on April 25th according to an old Phone she used to own. She looks into a mirror to see herself still nude. She jumps at the sound of shouting. She tries to put some clothes on only for her hands to go through them like a ghost going through walls.
She leaves her old room and heads downstairs to see a drunk, younger version of herself screaming at her sick mother. Sandra, her mother looks like a forty-year-old version of Dixie herself minus the pink hair that both she and her sister have but her fur is darker than her daughters.
Dixie and Sandra scream at each other over financial issues. Their bills were due and they didn't have enough money. Feeling lost, Dixie witness her past self shout back. Telling her mother that she works over twenty-four hours at the pizza parlor to support herself, Ingrid, and her mother. Sandra dismisses her claims, Calling it horseshit from her. Dixie's past self had enough and left the house with her sick mother calling out to her with anger in her voice.
Dixie closes her eyes before opening them again to see herself back at the night before she left for Nome. She sees herself and Ingrid fighting about the alcohol Dixie has been drinking. Ingrid pours out the wine in the sink as her sister shouts "What the fuck Ingrid!"
"You're not leaving me here Dixie, I need you here and now!"
"No, you don't, You got Bosco now. Now either go live with him or come to Nome."
Tears fell from the eyes of her sister as Ingrid asked "What is there in Nome that isn't in Starhold!"
"A NEW LIFE FROM THIS HELL!" Dixie screams at her before and without warning slapping her across the face, causing current Dixie to flinch as it now came back to her. Ingrid yelps, Dixie balls both her fists before punching her on her head. Ingrid kicks her in her stomach, trying to get her sister off of her before running out of the house and into the dark.
Past Dixie stood alone. Shaken and horrified that she attacked her sister out of pure rage all due to her selfishness and for that moment, All that Primal Twilight Pomerian Rage got to her. Her heart rapidly skipped every beat and her legs shook with instability. Causing her to collapse onto her knees. Current Dixie looks with regret, Whispering "I'm sorry Ingrid. I'm truly sorry."
She then wakes up in the tub before vomiting due to having a terrible hangover. She got clear vomit all over her bare breast and puffy chest. "Awe fuck, I guess I need a shower do I?"
Chapter 4
Dixie returns to her old home for the last time. Entering the dank vacant halls to see plastic covering the majority of the furniture. She goes towards her sister's old room. To see the lavender color walls and the various stuffed animals, Books her twin-size bed, and that old and outdated flat-screen TV from two-thousand and twenty-six.
She takes a sit on Ingrid's old bed and says "I'm sorry Ingrid. I'm sorry for that night. I never wanted to hurt you like that. I was lost and wanted to leave all of this behind. I..." Her voice cracks. Tears come out of her eyes and her breath shakes.
"I'm sorry, You don't have to forgive me but I'm sorry and I do love you. I should've been there when you needed me but since you've gone and entered the afterlife well I hope you're treated better there than in the world of the living. I hope you found salvation wherever you are. I'm sorry Ingrid. I'm so so sorry."
The purple Pomeranian sobs silently when her ears perk to the sound of clicking Heels. Lifting her head to see a person standing there. It was Ivy from the bar. "I'm sorry for your loss Dixie."
The Pomeranian wiped the tears out of her eyes and asked how did she get here. Ivy tells her that Diggs gave her the address. "Well, I feel terrible and I want to keep history as history if you know what I mean?"
"Of course Miss Woods. If there's anything you want to get off your chest I'm all ears."
"Well, we seem to have something in common. The boots you're wearing are the same as mine." Dixie remarks the Saluki's Boots as the two chuckles. "You got a punk thing going on?"
"Sorta, I'm a heavy metal person, you?"
"Alternate Rock for me. I too house some demons but I got good ol Butch beside me." Ivy said.
"You know, Boys won't let anything happen to the girls they love. Even after me and Butch had a fallout, We couldn't split apart. As if the Norns who dwell at Yggdrasil's roots seal our fate together."
"Yeah. I also snap at a guy I'm seeing. He's the former champion of Nome during the second Diphtheria Pandemic. During that time he was an asshole but also and if memory serves me correctly he lost his wife prior in a fight against the Alasians. He took it the hard way and took it out on the Hero of Nome and for the longest time He was ensnared by the fame and ego but in a way it was..."
"Well Dixie, when someone is angry, It them showing how sad they are." Ivy tells her as Dixie faces her and asks what she'd meant by that?"
Ivy expresses that maybe Steele's brash ego was him shielding his true sadness from the loss of his ex-wife. "I won't defend his actions of being an asshole to everyone around him all those years ago but that was in 2027 almost twelve years ago."
Dixie thought about it. She's seen the times that Steele had been abrasive and dickish from his lies about his team's death and the time he nearly killed Balto but she would remember her times with him on their first day in 2035 of June and how Steele changed. The time they've spent together walking the Omigard Park that night and their luscious sex weeks after.
She remembers him taking her out to see the My Chemical Romance show in Omigard that winter of 2036 or when they spent their Valentine's at the ski resort. "I'm pretty sure he loves you, It may have taken him time to realize it but when was the last time you talked to him?"
"Yesterday, I went off on him and lost my cool, I called him out for his behavior all those years ago and the last thing I did was apologize to him before hanging up."
"But you never did the same with your sister." Ivy gives it to her straight. Dixies states that she just has a heart of the damn but wishes to redeem it. "And that's why I came here, to give my apologies to her even if she's dead. Does the morgue have her corpse?"
"Yes, Dixie I can take you to the morgue, would you like me to take you there?" Ivy ask her. Dixie nods for her shake when her phone rumbles. She takes her phone out from the left pocket of her purple hoodie.
Steele texted her to ask when she would be at the airport tomorrow. She texted him that she would be there at noon before putting her phone back in her left pocket.
"It's him wasn't it?" Ivy asks her.
Dixie shakes her a bit before saying that she's ready to see her sister one last time.
Minutes later they would arrive at the old brick police station in the Dwarven city of Khzah-drun. They enter the police station to see many cops in uniforms and civilians of different races. Caninoids, Dwarves, and Norse humans. Even a single Lothian stood near the commissioner's office. By the looks of it, the Lothian is a lunar Moth right down to her green and pink wings.
Dixie follows Ivy to the morgue. Entering an elevator as the Saluki's index finger touches the button that leads to the Morgue. After a minute-long ride to the first floor they reach the morgue, Ivy allows the Mortician to check her and Dixie's IDs before allowing them entry.
They enter room five as a mortician gives them a mask and a pair of gloves each before property letting them in. "Miss Kasaredottir, Her body is just odor knows no bounds. That's all the warning you're getting."
"It's not for me, It's for her." Ivy refers to Dixie. The Norsemen looks at the pomeranian and says "You must be the sister. very well."
They enter, Many tables with sheets covering them yet they come across one with a tag that contains the number "412". The tag in question is attached to the table that holds Ingrid's corpse. Dixie's hands shake as she pulls back the sheet that covers her sister's face. She held a long stare of sorrow at Ingrid's face.
The pinkish Pomer's face still looks no different then from 2026. Dixie lets out a shakey sigh before telling her sister that she's regretful of her actions. "I'm so so sorry Ingrid. I should've taken you with me." Dixie whispers before kissing her sister on her forehead and then covering her again.
"Ivy, is it possible that she can be cremated? I wish to take her ashes home with me."
"Yes, Miss Woods."
By nightfall, Dixie arrives to the airport back to Omigard, Alaska, With her bags, she boards flight 3 and takes a seat near the doorway of the plane. By nine twenty am in the morning She'd arrive at the Omigard Airport. Walking to the lobby when she sees Steele waiting.
"Morning there." the Malamute greets her as Dixie lets go of her bags and wraps her arms around his waist. "Steele, I forgive you." She says to him when Steele nods and says to her "Let's go home, Dixie."
Epilogue
Dixie places an urn that contains Ingrid's ashes along a shelf in her room. She looks at that Polish marble Nordic pattern urn with her sister's name on it before climbing down the steps of a ladder she was using. Steele stands there by the doorway. "Sylvie needs you right now."
"Yeah Skye told me Thursday, I message her on my ride to the airport. She going to a funeral back in Anumitila the coming Wednesday." Dixie tells him. "Anummitila, I thought she was born in Hykoria?"
"Anummutilia boarders near Hykoria Steele, That's her home. I thought you knew that?" Dixie says to her boyfriend. "Not good with geology especially when it comes to hidden regions in the Middle East but regardless I think you and Sylvie ought to talk before she leaves then."
"I'll tomorrow Steele and I'm sorry for snapping at you Thursday."
"Don't worry about it Dixs, I still get flak for that. But I somewhat know that Kaltag and Nikki are still unforgiving to me about my actions. You know what, I don't expect them to forgive me after all I was an asshole, been filled up with ego and fame for my "Heroism" but the grief and sadness from Maria untimely death only fuel the fire."
"Steele, I forgive you. I myself was an asshole to those I held dear to my heart. We aren't too different you know." Dixie says to him as Steele smiles.
