Vampire Verse [Dreammare] ~☆

The Moon Festival

   

   The entire village fell silent as their beloved Lord Dream stepped up to the front of the creaking wooden stage.
   "Welcome everyone to the Winter Solstice and Moon Festival!" Lord Dream raised his hands out to the crowd and invoked a great cheer from them.
   "We stay up tonight on the longest night of the year just as our ancestors did for centuries. Tonight we carry our ancestors with us, we carry what they did in their lives, and learn from what they created. The recipes that they created, and the techniques that they used. Though they may have been edited and tailored through generations, we evolve just as the land shifts beneath us."
  "I know that the Moon Festival is not usually about death. But tonight I ask you to look back on previous Moon Festivals and honour those who are no longer in our universe. We can only imagine that they to, are celebrating the Moon in whatever afterlife there is or isn't."

   Lord Nightmare looked to Dream as he realized what or 'who' inspired this course of speech.
   "You may know of Lady Nim's passing, my mother, and Lord Nightmare's. But we are not the only ones mourning family. Remember to take the time tonight to honour those who have passed. And remember to enjoy life." Lord Dream smiled sadly, but tried to keep his words more hopeful than morbid, "Tonight, we won't rest until the sun's light!" He called out to the crowd just as he did every year, signalling that he was done speaking. The crowd cheered for Lord Dream before slowly scattering off to the various festivities that ran through the whole village.

   "They hated her." Lord Nightmare muttered about their mother as Lord Dream stepped back from the front of the stage.
   "That wasn't the point." Lord Dream smiled softly, "It wasn't for them, it was for mom. She never got a proper funeral after all."

   Dream took Nightmare's hand again before they stepped off the stage together. Pretty quickly Lord Dream was back to greeting everyone in the village, except that now, people were also handing him gifts in the form of more baked goods, harvested vegetables and fruits, hand-woven fabrics or blankets for the coming winter, candles, and other things and trinkets that the village people specialized in crafting.
   Lord Nightmare sighed in relief when someone gifted Lord Dream a large hand-woven basket to hold everything in. This wasn't the first time that this had happened.

   Nightmare couldn't understand it, they were rich, they could afford to buy all these things off the crafters, and not all of these gifts were an easy and quick thing to make, yet the village people still offered them to Dream for free.
   Lord Nightmare carried Dream's gifts in the basket though Lord Dream still had to carry some of it in his arms. Lord Nightmare bought another basket for Dream.

   The crowd around Lord Dream dwindled slowly as they had greeted nearly every family in the village. Finally allowing Lord Nightmare to see the candles that ran down the sides of the streets and lit the festival to glow through the long night.

   Fireworks flew up from the hills just outside the village and startled Lord Nightmare to jump as they boomed in the sky.
   Lord Dream giggled at him,
   "Don't act like you haven't seen them before." He smiled to him, now that he was able to keep his attention on one face at a time, he chose to smile at Nightmare's face.

   "They aren't quite as loud from the castle." Lord Nightmare explained shyly. Dream squeezed Nightmare's hand gently,
   "Come on, we have enough food to eat a full meal. Let's find somewhere in the field to sit." He suggested.
   "On the ground?" Lord Nightmare asked,
   "A picnic dinner! Just so we can get you to somewhere less stimulating." Dream gently dragged Nightmare away, knowing the best place for a grassy picnic that wouldn't be right next to the fireworks.

   On the way down the glowing streets, Lord Dream was stopped again to greet some village people, it was a young couple with their new born baby. They wanted Lord Dream to meet their baby.
   "Delilah," the mother answered.
   "Hello little Delilah♡ She's so beautiful!" Lord Dream congratulated them while Lord Nightmare waited.

   As they were stopped, a young woman sleepily ran up to Lord Nightmare holding a lit candle on a metal candle holder.
   She didn't say anything as she stared up at him nervously.
   "Evening..." He said first, confused of the woman's intentions. She handed the candle to Lord Nightmare before running off with the biggest blush that Nightmare had ever seen on a stranger's face.

   Nightmare just stood for a moment, with the candle holder in one hand, and the basket of gifts in the other. He was admittedly a little dumbfounded at the interaction.
   When Lord Dream said his goodbyes to the family he turned to take Nightmare's hand but saw that his hands were full, his eyes locked onto the lit candle.
   "Someone gave me a candle." Lord Nightmare explained to Dream, Nightmare was surprised that he received a gift.
   "Was it already lit?" Dream asked.
   "Yes, does it matter?" Nightmare asked as they started walking again.
   "It's a Dreamtale tradition for festivals like these. People will only gift a lit candle to someone they fancy." He explained.
   "Someone they fancy!? Are you sure?" Lord Nightmare repeated.

   "Of course I'm sure! I get one every year." Lord Dream huffed at Lord Nightmare.
   "Yes, I think I remember seeing you get a few lit candles just earlier." Lord Nightmare didn't pay much mind to it at the time, though after thinking about it, it made sense that Dream had so many admirers.
   If anyone were to know of Dream's beauty, it would be Nightmare.
   "So, that woman fancied me?" Lord Nightmare could just barely wrap his head around the idea.
   "Yes." Dream puffed up his cheeks with an annoyed huff.

   "What is bothering you?" Nightmare chuckled at Dream's sudden attitude.
   "Nothing. You are a very handsome man and we are both at marrying age." Dream tried to sound indifferent.
   "You are jealous!" Nightmare smiled at him in amusement and admiration for how funny Dream was being. As if Nightmare could have eyes for anyone else.

   "Perhaps a little. That candle is an open invention for you to pursue her if you wished." Dream avoided eye contact with Nightmare until he pulled on Dream's wrist with his arm linked with the full basket.

   "Then would it be entirely inappropriate for me to regift this candle to you?" Nightmare asked as he presented it to Dream.
   "Unfortunately you can't." Dream smiled to Nightmare.
   "Why not?" The street they were in was empty, and they knew it all too well as they grew closer to each other.
   "The candle holder is made of silver." Dream pointed out, placing his hand against Nightmare's hand.
   "Oh, right."