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A wailing scream.
It rang out just below Pandaz, previously asleep in the small loft atop the doorway. She leaped out of bed, dizzy in sleep with her heart beating out of her chest.
‘Clee.’ There was only one person close enough to let out such a clear scream. Fear coursed through her, ‘Please let her be safe.’ She landed badly, falling to her knees and hands from her hasty choice of rushing to her child’s side.
“Kiddo? Kiddo! I’m here. What's wrong? What happened?” Scrambling forward to reach her child, just feet away and still too far. As soon as she closed the gap between them, she clutched her close.
Small sobs, unnoticed in her previous panic, now rang out clearly. In the moonlight, tear tracks faintly shone as Pandaz saw no danger, just her child in distress. Clee’s beloved dog was nearby, trying to lick her face awake. He kept whimpering as he kept failing to help his beloved friend. Clee was deeply asleep, Pandaz realized she was having another nightmare.
“Oh, kiddo…” Pandaz sighed as she went to sit behind her daughter, laying her in her lap. Nightmares had become a common occurrence once Rams had disappeared. In retrospect, the sudden and large move away from her home into what her child only saw as a friendly stranger’s house wasn’t the best for her. Now, she could only work with what she chose, taking the sleepless nights in stride for her daughter’s wellbeing. She knew from experience how horrid nightmares were. It pained her heart to know she couldn't prevent them, but she would always make sure she would be there to comfort her in the aftermath.
Clee’s hair was cold as she held her under her chin, rubbing circles in her arms to hopefully comfort her. Updog came and laid on Clee’s legs, a trained response to help ground her in any situation she needed extra help. As the two sat with Clee, unfortunately being lost to Hypnos and meeting Melinoё on her journey through her dreamworld, her sobs slowed. After what felt like hours, in reality, it couldn’t have been more than 15 minutes, Clee opened her blearily. Dazed and sleep-drunk from her unknown distress, she just barely escaped the Nymph of Nightmares.
“...Mom?” Clee let out a weak, wobbling call as she gained her bearings. Little moonlight poured through the windows, the ever-eclipsed moon still shining a circle into the sky.
“Hey Kiddo, feeling better now?” A small, comforting smile graced a mother’s lips in the moonlight as she looked at her child below her, craning to face her child.
“‘Nother nigh’mare?” A small hum confirmed as she went to wipe the young one’s tears away. “‘M sorry…” Clee turned away, upset at how common of a nuisance this has become to her. How common of a mess it’s made for her mother in the dead of night. Tears bloomed in her eyes once again, now of frustration. At herself, at that wretched nymph from her book and dreams, at anything Clee could irrationally blame for her struggles these recent nights.
“No, no, no! It’s okay, kiddo.” Pandaz kissed the top of Clee’s turned head, cooing reassurances to her daughter. “I’m here for you. You’re okay.” After comforting her once again from the aftermath, a tentative, “Would you wanna talk about it, superstar?” left Pandaz's lips. Not much could be seen in the eclipsed moonlight, but Pandaz felt the way Clee curled in on herself.
Updog noticed as well it seems, reaching up to paw at her stomach and arms to make her orientate herself away from the guilt she felt so late at what could only be assumed to be night in the seemingly eternal darkness.
After a long silence, a small plea escaped Clee’s mouth. “...Don’ leave me, please. I don’ wanna be alone, Mama.” Fresh waterworks started at the small admittance, Clee clinging to her mother for comfort. Her dog had backed up on the bed, seeing the two handling it without his help.
Pandaz’s heart just about broke right then and there once again, real pain blooming throughout her chest at the weight of those uttered words. Pandaz could barely process Rams’ disappearance as an adult. Her poor daughter, still learning new things in the world she was newly introduced to, of course, would struggle to process her first loss. As much as she was easily pleased and entertained, she never faced this struggle before. She clutched onto her daughter, a lifeline for both of them as they tried to process their emotions in the recent flurry of events the two could only hope to move on from soon.
“I would never.” Conviction filled her voice, her voice clear despite the whirlwind of pure emotions filling her head to the brim with confusing and overwhelming emotions. “I got you, my little one. I promise I’ll be here with you. I’ll always protect you.” Her voice weakly cracking, overran by her tears now escaping. “You’ll be safe with me. I won’t leave you. Ever. I’m here. Mama’s here.” Her daughter held impossibly tighter as she whispered muddled consolations, the little clay golem’s face hidden in her mother’s hair. “I’m not going anywhere, superstar.” At those five words, Pandaz’s strong facade finally fell. She openly wept as the mother-daughter pair tried to find bearings through their mazes of emotions, side-by-side. The two were a mess, huddling close as if they were to move just an inch away the other would disappear. Perhaps in the child’s mind, that was what she thought reality would bring her once more after the loss of one parent.
Seeing the two, their emotions rising, Updog enveloped them in his fur, trying to lick away the two’s tears. He bashed his sides into the two, sniffing in their faces as slobber wiped away the tears. Giggles broke out as he tickled the pair’s faces.
“Up! You’re -ha!- tickling me!” Clee giggled out, struggling to get the words out as she went from crying to laughing so rapidly.
“Hey, Up! C’mon!” Pandas affectionately groaned out false annoyance at the dog's actions, going to pet him as he turned to collapse his entire body weight on Clee like a large noodle. As the giggles died down, the three now sat in content silence. A bubble of heaven they formed, peace now brought to the rough night. The three settled into a mess of a huddle, finding comfort in each other's presence. A mess of a family, but one that would choose each other when it came to the worst.
A tiny whisper of, “Love you, Mom” broke through the silence.
A fond, “I love you too, my little superstar” reciprocated.
A hearty, “Bwoof!” rang out among them, echoing the two as they broke into small giggles once more.
The eclipsed night hadn’t felt this peaceful in a long time.