It was dark, silent. Verene thought at first that her eyes were closed, but trying to blink didn't seem to change anything. She couldn't even feel her eyelids. She couldn't feel anything, really. Wait... She could feel something, if she concentrated. Flying? Floating? Something like that.
She felt herself start to fall, and she instinctively tried to cling to whatever was keeping her up. There was an odd tingle in her mind, reminding her of an annoyed sigh, but she stopped falling and settled back into her earlier float. Gradual, the darkness around her lightened, though it took her a moment to realize what she was seeing.
It was the Dog burial ground, and it was crowded. Someone was being buried, Verene realized, with a kind of detached interest. She hadn't heard about a death. Actually, she couldn't remember finishing up her shift the previous night. She remembered being on patrol. Otelia had been half-drunk, but Rollo hadn't seemed to care, so Verene hadn't made a fusss.
Of the patrol itself, though... There had been a fight with a couple of Rats. Had she been knocked out? Or maybe just knocked silly. That had to be it. Who was being buried, though?
She tried moving closer, surprised to realize that she could do so without needing to push past anyone. The Lord Provost was giving the eulogy and everything fell into place as he named the Dog being buried.
Rollo.
The eulogy finished, and Ahuda started singing The Puppy's Lullaby. It's for me, Verene realized. I'm...dead.
It took a while for that thought to sink in. Dead. How could she be dead? Lots of Puppies died, but... Not her. She and Phelan had just gotten together. Things were good. She couldn't just die.
She came back to herself as Beka knelt by one of the graves - her grave.
"Good Dog."
Good Dog? Was that her too? Good Dog. She liked that. It would have been better to live, but maybe, just maybe, this wasn't the worst fate she could have. Her view tipped as if she was bowing, and then the blackness started to take hold again. Verene welcomed it, clinging to those two words. Good Dog.
AN: It's been a while since I actually read this scene in Terrier, so I might have gotten some of the details wrong. Please correct me if you notice anything off.