#(sam says he’ll confront feld and bran is like !!!! Oh No)

[hearthtales]

He’d wanted to take on Feld alone… he’d wanted to test his limits. And he truly had left the emergency line to Nettie — a child who still had no idea Samhain had stayed and had only called Nightshade because she was thrilled to chat with a kitty. Bran stared at Samhain, baffled. Words failed him entirely this time.

He barely processed Samhain giving Nightshade the cat carving; only her excited squeal pulled him from his daze. At Samhain’s next words, Bran’s face paled even further. Confronting Feld was a bad idea for so many reasons. He’d just opened his mouth to tell him this when someone called from downstairs.

“Nightshade?” Nettie’s breathless voice, both eager and puzzled. The child herself appeared on the stairs a second later. Her cheeks were flushed, curly hair damp and even more tangled than usual. Samhain’s rumpled flower crown still sat atop her head. She held another flower crown in her hands, with pink blossoms the same shades as Nightshade’s outfit.

Spots of mud stained her dress. Maude would fuss about that, Bran thought distantly, only to realize with a jolt of fear that Nettie had set foot upon the top of the stairs. She grinned at him with the delight that meant she was about to sprint toward him. Bran knew she’d burst into tears if she saw Samhain now.

Bran gave Samhain one last worried glance before he turned from the doorway and caught Nettie midway down the hall, stopping her before she reached the room. “She’s just finishing up now,” he reassured her quickly, remembering the child told him Nightshade came to search Samhain’s room. He managed a weak smile. “C’mon, she’ll be down in a moment.”

Nettie hummed and looked past him longingly, as though considering whether to dodge him and find Nightshade right away. Bran held his breath and let out a relieved sigh when she beamed at him. “Okay!”

As Bran held her hand and led her back down the stairs, she showed him Nightshade’s flower crown and described its creation with bubbly joy (Gruff had helped a lot, apparently). Bran nodded along, offering questions and compliments to keep her distracted.

In the attic, the cold presence decided to wriggle behind some old furniture and boxes. Wisest to hide for now, the creature mused from its dusty refuge, assuming Samhain would leave the inn soon. It liked the attic too much to abandon it right away.

“What was your plan A? Why would you take your barrier down if you weren’t leaving?”

Before Samhain could say anything, Nightshade answered with a disdained scoff. "Obviously cus he thought he could take on the big baddie all by himself!" The words, true as they were, still felt like a slap on the face. Even as Samhain stood up from the bed and stretched his limbs, he couldn't look Nightshade in the eyes when she was mad at him like that.

“You must’ve known what would happen… didn’t you?”

"Ah... admit ah overestimated my abilities to take control o'me own unconscious," Samhain confessed, rubbing the back of his neck as if it were stiff from a few hours of sleeping the wrong way. It wasn't. "Ah've done it only a few times before an' ah thought it wouldn't hurt to test out some limits.." Whether it was the creature's limits of controlling the dreaming or his own ability of taking it, or both, Samhain didn't elaborate.

He held the dream draught in his hand for a bit before stuffing it into his pocket. "It won't happen again," he said, resolutely.

"But o'course ah knew what would happen if I failed, which is why I left a emergency line directly to Nightshade in case anythin' happened," he defended once again only to be shot down immediately by his aforementioned Plan B. "Uh-HUH, yeah, leave the supernatural hotline to the kid, of course! Smart idea! Probably cus if you told anyone else your hare-brained scheme, no-one would've let you!"

"Nightie, please."

"You're lucky she called at all! And right after, too!" Suddenly Nightshade let out a little gasp, remembering sweet little Nettie was expecting her today, "Oh no! I better get going!" It was raining so everyone must've come inside by now and her absence would be noticed, no doubt.

Samhain nodded. "Before ye go, Nightie, could you take these with you?" he asked, handing over his belongings as well as the items on left on the drawer, save for the music box. "Mr. Arthur made this for you," he took her hand and placed the cat carving in her palm; green, beady eyes looking up at her in matching glee.

"(GASP) Is that lil' ol' me???" she squealed until she remembered she was still mad at the ghoul, clearing her throat and looking away. "I mean (cough) It's cute, I guess. Don't think you'll get off that easy."

"Yer welcome," Samhain chuckled. Now that he knew all his items were in Nightshade's safekeeping, he turned to Bran. "Maybe you should stay with Nightie an' keep Nettie company. As for me," the ghoul said with a smirk, green eyes looking up as if he could see all the way through to the attic above them. "Ah think it's time ah have a little chat with Feldmire~"