Vampire Verse [Dreammare] ~☆

Common People

Attempting #2
Attempt successful.
   

   Winter Solstice.
   Or as the Village of Dreamtale knew it: The Moon Festival. Celebrating not only the shortest day of the year but more notably as the longest night of the year.
   A true celebration of the moon!
   And an excuse for the common people to stay up all night drinking and dancing and lighting hand-made lanterns and fireworks!

   The noble carriage rocked and bumped along the uneven road.  Being led by two beautiful horses from Castle Dreamtale down the gradual hill to the folk village that had the privilege of living on Dreamtale land.

   Lord Dream always enjoyed going to the various festivals that the village would put together. It was his duty to represent his family to the people of course, but it was also an excellent way of passing the long and dark nights as winter approached.
   "I'm glad you're coming with me this year." Lord Dream turned away from the carriage window to look to Lord Nightmare who sat across from him.
   "I already said, I am only accompanying you to keep you safe." Lord Nightmare reminded, he had gotten quite protective over Dream. Being a vampire in this kingdom was a dangerous thing even if the King didn't know your name personally.
   Lord Dream of course was a nobleman, meaning that being invisible from the ranks was impossible from the beginning.

   "They don't suspect me of being a vampire. It's you they are cautious of." Dream sighed.
   "But if you were to be revealed in some way. If your wings were to be seen by someone-" Lord Nightmare rambled a bit before Dream interrupted him,
   "My wings will not just pop out from behind my cape on their own, I do have control over them." He tried to ease Nightmare's mind.

   "Either way, you will need my help if something were to reveal you." Nightmare grumbled.
   "I don't disagree." Lord Dream smiled to him, genuinely glad that he had Lord Nightmare protecting him.
   He switched seats in the carriage quickly so he could sit next to Nightmare. "Do you need me to drain your stress before we get to the festival?~ I know how these things can make you nervous." Lord Dream licked his fangs lightly as he leaned into Nightmare's neck.
   "Not now, you will spoil my shirt with blood if you do. And I thought that we agreed that you couldn't bite my neck anymore." Lord Nightmare had to reject Dream's tempting offer.
   "Right, of course..." Lord Dream sat back on the seat with a bit of a huff.

   "If anyone saw me with vampire bite marks, at very least they would think that I was turned into a vampire and call the vampire hunters to take me away." Lord Nightmare explained just how dangerous their situation was.
   "I know, but wouldn't they let you go after discovering that you are mortal?" Lord Dream argued.
   "No, they would have me executed. It's illegal to even have vampire bites. Whether I was willingly bitten or not." Nightmare explained back.
   "Since when?!" Lord Dream was startled to hear about this new law.

   "As of just recently." Lord Nightmare answered,
   "What a hostile law-" Lord Dream almost shuttered, "I get to bite you in other places though, right?" His priorities were in check.
   "Of course." Nightmare confirmed, "But again, not now. You will have to wait until we get back to the castle." Lord Nightmare pulled away Dream's prying hands before kissing them lightly.
   "What if your smell is too irresistible for me to wait all night?~" Lord Dream questioned with a sweet smile.
   "You can control yourself, if you didn't think you could, then you wouldn't be going to the festival." Lord Nightmare was only mildly amused by Lord Dream's teasing.

   The carriage slowly came to a stop, as the busy sound of people talking filled the outside air.
   "My lords, we have arrived to the village, but the carriage can not go any further due to all of the people in the street." The driver called to them.
   "Thank you Mr. Snow! We will walk the rest of the way!" Lord Dream called back to him.
   "We will what?" Lord Nightmare protested the idea.

   The chauffeur came running to the door of the carriage and opened it. They quickly looked down to avoid staring at how close the two lords were sitting together.
   People crowded around the open carriage door, all eager to be the first to greet their beloved Lord Dream. Luckily for the chauffeur, they did still keep their distance to not be overly crowding.
   The chauffeur offered their hand to Lord Dream and helped him step down from the carriage.

   The minute that Lord Dream had his feet on the ground, he was quickly greeted by a wave of "hellos" and "good evenings" from the people. Most would be overwhelmed by the warm welcome but Lord Dream knew what he was getting himself into by coming to the village.
   He smiled and greeted them back, knowing many of them by name already. It wasn't a very large village.

   Lord Nightmare stepped down from the carriage himself and was greeted with surprised looks and whispering from the gossipers.
   It was only after Lord Dream took Lord Nightmare's hand to drag him through the crowded streets that anyone even considered greeting Lord Nightmare with a polite "Good evening".
   Lord Nightmare thought of them as shallow for only greeting him for politeness' sake. He said nothing back to them.

   "You could at least nod to them, or acknowledge them at all?" Lord Dream was noticing Nightmare's rudeness as they went.
   "I don't see why we couldn't have taken the horses to the village square." Lord Nightmare made sure to stay close to Dream, if only to not be swallowed whole by the growing crowd as they walked down the road.
   "It's more personal this way-" Lord Dream seemed to be having two conversations at once, "Thank you Mr. Gardner. You as well!" He turned back to Nightmare, "How am I supposed to say hello to everyone from the back of a horse? You wouldn't be so friendly with someone who's talking to you from such a higher level as a horse."

   "Good evening, Lord Nightmare..." Mr. Gardner nodded his head out of timid obligation.
   "Evening." Lord Nightmare's voice was not necessarily an easing sound for most ears, but at least he acknowledged them for once.

   "See was that so hard? Good evening Mis. Bun!" It seemed like  Dream didn't have time to stop and take a breath.
   "My Lord Dream! Happy Solstice!" Mis. Bun grinned happily as her ears perked up,
   "Hello young Weller! Yes, you as well!" Lord Dream waved as Mis. Bun handed him a freshly baked biscuit.
   "Please, take this, I made sure to keep enough of your favourite flavour for you!" She smiled to him.
   "Thank you so much! I must go now, but hopefully we run into each other again!" Dream rushed off through the crowd with Lord Nightmare in tow and a biscuit in hand.

   "Oh my! Lord Nightmare, good evening! Forgive me, I didn't see you at first!" Mis. Bun nervously rambled to him.
   "Evening." He nodded his head at her. Lord Dream was already saying hello with a new person. Lord Nightmare couldn't mentally keep up with anything and felt just about whiplashed in listening to Dream's five different conversations.

   "How do you keep doing that?" Lord Nightmare muttered to Dream.
   "Doing what?" He giggled at Nightmare.
   "It's like you are having three conversations at a time, how can you keep track?" Lord Nightmare found himself feeling anxious in such an attention-seeking crowd.
   "I just slowly learned how to do it over my many times of visiting." Lord Dream answered him between greetings with others.
   "You are a social sheep herder. I could never." Lord Nightmare watched on in amazement. Dream giggled at him.
   "Now don't ever say that my job isn't hard again!" He waved his finger at Lord Nightmare before playfully putting the biscuit into his mouth and carrying on.
   Even Lord Nightmare had to admit that the biscuit was delicious.

   Eventually, they made it to the village square, the centre of the village where there was a wooden stage for Lord Dream and Nightmare to step up on.
   "What are we doing up here?" Lord Nightmare questioned as everyone gathered around the stage and talked amongst themselves, some of them were clearly whispering about Lord Nightmare actually being there in the village for once. Many people in the crowd held candles in their hands making the crowd almost glow.

   Lord Dream was finally able to take a breath on the stage.
   "They like it when I talk to them. So I usually give a short speech when I arrive." He explained calmly, "Did you want to say anything to them?" 
   "Nothing that wouldn't get me booed off the stage." Lord Nightmare knew that he had nothing nice to say to the people.

   "They might not spread awful rumours about you if you at least did something to earn their love." Lord Dream tried to argue.
   "They do not hate me because I don't talk to them, they hate me because they decided to long ago." Lord Nightmare grumbled under his breath.
   Lord Dream sighed sadly, but didn't have the time to argue.