Sticks and Stones

3

Dream POV

It's officially been about 4-5 months since the villagers popped up, and finally, the villagers are starting to cut back on their visits. They went from coming all day, every day, to about 4-5 times a week, from just after breakfast until maybe 3ish pm.

Still more often than Nightmare or I are comfortable with, but at least we get alone time again, and I'm not always passing out from exhaustion from distracting the other kids. You could think that parents would watch their kids, but I ended up a glorified babysitter, and I'm only around 4 and a half years old!

James, the mute human boy, is still a delight to be around, and he always seems to brighten up when he sees me wearing the flowercrown he made me. Night was able to use his magic to make it so the flowers won't wilt, which was pretty cool! James still prefers Night to me, which I'm okay with since Nightmare seems to be warming up to the little boy.

I worry for James, especially since I've noticed that the villagers seem to reject him. I'm not sure if it's because he's mute, or maybe because of something I don't know about, but whatever it is, they don't really like him. The fact that he's always dirty, is always hungry, is way too skinny, and seems surprised when gifted something is proof enough. I think Night also noticed, and that's why he's warming up to him.

When James and the other villagers aren't over, though, I'm usually listening to stories from Night, or we're doing something together like training or making flower jewelry! I didn't know it, but apparently, he's really good at making them, so we have a blast when we do make flower jewelry.

At the moment, though, we're at a nearby river and playing around in it. Night had set up some magic protection or something around the tree so we could spend time at the river. It wasn't deep, so we didn't have to worry about falling to the bottom and not being able to swim back up.

We were in some light clothes, we had somehow gotten a few different outfits via the villagers, so our regular clothes wouldn't get drenched and stuff. I let out a giggle as Nightmare gave me an amused look. I had splashed him with some water by jumping since the river was very shallow.

I yelped as I was splashed back before getting a grin. It was on! We spent maybe the next 4 or 5 hours having a sort of water fight before we sadly had to head back to the tree. I was upset. We had been having fun! However, I also knew why we had to head back so I didn't put up much of a fuss, and I managed to get Nightmare to agree to an extra story tonight, so I was happy.

After my brother and I both changed, we headed to the tree, though when we arrived, we saw James looking around, seemingly confused. Looking at Nightmare, I was confused on why a two year old was here, alone, and on a day that was supposed to be 'Villager Free' even if we did like the kid. My twin was also looking at me and shrugged before turning to James and seemed to be thinking about something before he finally took my hand and pulled me towards the hidden tree, and subsequently, James.

As soon as James saw us, he lit up and ran over, giving us both a hug. Of course, we both returned it, though we were still confused about why a now 3 year old was off on his own, so after the hug, my twin decided to ask. "Hey James, how are you, bud?" Nightmare had a gentle voice as he spoke and a small but genuine smile.

James looked, almost down, but gave him a smile anyway and another hug. He wasn't fooling Night or I, but Nightmare ruffled his hair. "I see. Well, what are you doing here by yourself? That's dangerous, you know..." With his voice still gentle and soothing, Nightmare tried to figure out what was on. James, though, just shrugged and pointed to himself and then to the both of us.

Nightmare seemed to understand what James was trying to say, "You wanted to come visit us?" James nodded happily, and I could help but smile. I loved James like a little brother, and it was cute that he wanted to visit, but it was also worrying that he was here on his own. He was only 3 years old and a human at that. He could get sick or attacked and would die easily.

He wasn't a monster or a magic using human, so he was fragile, especially compared to Nightmare and I, who were Guardians. We at least had magic to protect ourselves and were immortal to an extent. Plus, the animals could sense the raw power our young bodies held, so the more dangerous ones left us alone. James didn't have that sort of protection like we did.

"Well, here we are. Though you should be careful since there are wild animals around and you could get hurt, James." Nightmare gave James a semi stern, semi soft look as he spoke, and James just nodded in agreement. I had a feeling this wouldn't be the last time James would do something like this, and it worried me. Hopefully, he wouldn't get hurt, though.

In the end, we ended up having to look for food to feed the three year old, and I found a regular apple tree when looking around. He had teeth, so he could probably eat apples, right? Right. Plus, he was 3, so he could probably eat them since 4 year Olds could. With a nod to myself, I went to pick an apple or 2 for James only to freeze as the apple I touched turned Gold, shit.
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Here is Chapter 3! What are your thoughts?