"Rest now, good Hunter. Forget the dream and
awaken under the morning sun" the Mentor of Hunters praised his newest charge as he put Gehrman's burial blade around the hunter's neck. He never felt right using it except in these rare circumstances when a hunter could awaken from the dream. He could almost remember his blades of mercy and threaded cane flashing in the moonlight back when he danced and fought with the beasts of Yharnam.
In one swift swing, he decapitated the hunter and their body fell to the ground. Blood began to pool from the headless corpse that began to drain into the newly dug grave the hunter would now inhabit the Hunter's Dream.
The gate opened and in walked the Doll. She walked up to the mentor of hunters and put a hand on his shoulder. Gently cupping it before taking the body of the now headless hunter and putting it into the grave.
"Rest my hunter, you have done enough this hunt." the Doll whispered to him as she finished making sure everything was ready for the newest hunter to be laid to rest.
The mentor rolled his wheelchair out of the field where they continued to lay more and more hunters to rest. How long had he been doing this now? At this rate, he had been doing this longer than his predecessor. The graves had well over doubled at this rate.
Since he had been turned into a mentor the dream continued to expand to hold more and more hunters that he continued to send into the meat grinder of Yharnam. His mind brought forth the memory of when he struck out under the moonlit nights he remembered how Yharnam teetered under the brink of destruction. Drowning itself in blood as its citizens descended further and further into the beasts that lurked within.
The mentor looked down, a cripple now bound to a wheelchair. A branch crudely attached to his right leg that allowed him to barely limp around and severely limited his own combat skills. A handful of hunters, blood-drunk or masochistic, had challenged him and refused to awaken from the dream. He always put them down like the beasts he hunted and deposited them into a grave so they could escape the fate he was shackled to. No matter his hatred of his situation. He would never pass this fate on willingly to someone else.
He glanced over to a small tombstone in a corner. Occasionally he would go there and sit for a period of time. Reflecting on the dream he was stuck and the never-ending hunt. When he closed his eyes he could hear the words that had driven him to take over as the mentor of the hunters.
"Somebody help me... Unshackle me please, anybody... I've had enough of this dream... The night blocks all sight... Oh, somebody, please..."
How young he had been when he had heard those words uttered from Gehrman while he slept. Coming to the blood drunk city to look for a cure to maybe extend his life from the disease that ravaged his body. Oh, had he danced under the night sky when he awoke in perfect health for the first time in years. The Doll over the years asked him if he regretted taking over as the Mentor of Hunters. He had told her no every time even if he was living in his own hell.
He shook his head and continued to roll his wheelchair out of the field and back towards the workshop. Maybe, he would pass the time and thumb through one of the many novels that appeared randomly. He was thankful for the little things the dream gave him to do so that he would not lose his mind entirely.
As he approached the hill that led to the workshop he stopped for a moment by the gravestones that had led him all over Yharnam. From the clinic where his hunt began to Byrgenwerth where he fought Rom, to the Nightmare of Mensis where his inner beast came closest to erupting from within.
He reached out for the stone. If he could just leave for but a few minutes to see what had happened outside of the dream. Just to leave the dream and remember what it was like to be free before that thing came and took his leg away and confined him to the dream. To go and fell the cool Yharnam breeze across his temple once more. It would be enough until eventually, he could awaken from the dream.
As his hand drew near his body froze. Tendrils shot from the gravestone and lashed at his arm. Knocking his hat off, cutting him deeply and knocking him out of his chair, which went flying down the path far away from him.
"No." a single but overwhelming voice roared in his head. Threatening to dissolve his brain into a pile of mush if he came closer.
"Please," the Mentor begged as the tendrils receded and the Dream went quiet once more. "No more of this. Please let it be over."
The mentor tried to stand, propping himself up on his good leg first but when it came time to stand on the ramshackle prosthetic it slid from under him. Sending him sprawling onto the ground. A once glorious hunter now as worthwhile as an infant separated from its wet nurse.
"Please, let me awaken," the mentor sobbed. His fist pounding on the ground. "This dream has no end. End my suffering, and let me see the sun once more."
He heard a creaking sound and looked up to see the Doll pushing his wheelchair towards him. He reached out for her to help him. She had been his sole companion and guiding light since he had arrived in the Dream. She knelt down and helped get him to his knees. He looked at her and she pulled him in tight. Allowing him to finish his last racket of sobs before he composed himself.
"I…I should…" the Mentor tried to begin but trailed off.
The Doll kissed his forehead. The Mentor remembered when his own mother would do that. Waking up in the middle of the night from a nightmare she would come in and calm him down. Leaving him a kiss on the head as a reminder that she was already right around the corner.
"My hunter, your time is not here yet. It may not be here for centuries more. I know you will bide your time and continue through the dream. Being the torch that the hunters need you to be until they can carry it themselves."
The Mentor nodded as the two of them helped him back into his chair and eventually got his prosthetic. She then wheeled him back towards the workshop.
"Rest for now my hunter." the Doll told him as she wheeled him up the path. "A new hunter will approach soon and they will need you to be there to guide them once again."
"Indeed, perhaps they will be the one to end this cycle." the Mentor replied softly as he stared back out into the field of graves once again.