Chapter Text
The air wreaked with death. Puffy held her nose as she walked closer to the crash sight. It was clear that whatever happened here wasn’t a normal ship wreck. Parts of the boat were burned to the point of disintegration. Blood splattered on the sail and floor.
When Puffy finally released her nose, the irony smell of that blood filled her lungs. She grimaced and called out, “Is anyone here!?”.
There was no response.
“Hello?!”
Nothing.
Puffy sighed and began to look around the wreck. Plenty of people crashed their boats and ships into this side of the peninsula, it was a pretty hazardous part. Puffy had made it her job to help the survivors of these crashes and get them to the nearby fishing village safely.
But Puffy had never seen anything like this.
There were clearly dead bodies, but they barely looked human anymore. They were melted like a burnt marshmallow falling off a stick at a campfire. Their eyes oozing out of their sockets, faces sloping down to one side before completely falling off the skull.
Puffy had to look away. Whoever had done this was a monster.
As Puffy continued to walk through the wreckage, she swore she heard someone sniffle. Puffy turned her head quickly towards the noise.
Maybe this hadn’t been completely hopeless after all.
The noise had come from somewhere behind two big crates. Puffy quickly pushed them aside to reveal a small boy lying face up on the sand. He had unkempt dirty blonde hair and held a pale freckled hand over a gash on his nose. He was only wearing a big white T-shirt but it was stained with blood, presumably from his nose. The boy looked up at Puffy with big green eyes.
“Oh my god! Okay, here let me just…”, she pulled out her handkerchief and went to clean the boy's nose but he flinched away.
“Hey, it’s okay. I’m not here to hurt you”, Puffy said her most calming voice. The boys brow furrowed but he removed his hand from his nose to let her look at it.
“Alright”, it was certainly a gash, right on the bridge of his nose. Puffy could probably stitch it back up at her house.
“Okay, I’m going to take you up to my house to get you fixed up but I’m going to need you to hold this to your nose”, she said and handed the boy the cloth. He pressed it against his nose but he looked almost annoyed. Like he was wasting time by simply treating a wound.
“Take my hand and keep your head down, alright?”, Puffy reached her hand out to the boy. He stared at it for a few seconds before taking it begrudgingly. Puffy led the two of them out of the wreck and hoped the boy had listened to her when she said to look down. Puffy didn’t want him to see what had happened to people that could have very well have been his family.
It was a long walk up to Puffy’s cottage. Through the pine trees and fog that smelled like ice in autumn. It was still dark but that fog painted the sky a hazy dark blue. Once they finally made it, Puffy brought him to her kitchen where the boy sat on the counter.
She grabbed her med-kit from the cabinet and walked over to him.
“Can you move your hand for me?”, she asked and the boy slowly pulled the cloth away to reveal the gash.
“Okay, drink this. it will help the process”, Puffy said, giving him a healing potion. He sniffed at it a little before sipping all of it down.
“Look up at me. There we go. This might hurt just a tad”, she said before threading a needle and holding the boys face up. He closed his eyes tightly as Puffy poked the needle through the skin at one end of the cut. She pulled the needle all the way through and then pulled it into the other side. The boy bit his lip in pain as Puffy continued the motion until the entirety of the gash was sewn up.
Puffy cut the thread. “All better, see?”
The boy nodded and felt the stitches with a small hand. Puffy stared at him.
“You’re probably tired. You can sleep with me in my bed tonight. We’ll figure everything else out in the morning”, Puffy said and smiled softly. The boy just stared at the floor and nodded.
“What’s your name?”
He didn’t look up. He just stayed silent.
“Okay, well you can tell me later. Join me when you’re ready”, she said and began to walk towards the bedroom.
“..Dream”
Puffy turned back to look at the boy. “What?”
The boy was still staring at the floor. Then, again he spoke for the first time since Puffy had found him. “...My name is Dream”.
Puffy smiled and said, “Well it’s a pleasure to meet you Dream. My name is Puffy”.
Dream looked up at her with those big green eyes again. He pointed at her.
“Like your hair”.
Puffy stared at him a little before laughing and saying, “Yes, just like my hair”.
Dream opened his eyes to a wooden ceiling. A warm sunlight was shining in through a window to his left. He sat up and looked around. Puffy had left Dream in the bed room all alone. She trusted him in her own room. Surprising.
Dream slipped out of the bed and crept over to the door. He slowly opened it. The bedroom led straight to the kitchen. Puffy was cooking something at the furnace.
And it smelled really good.
He walked over and leaned against the counter next to her.
Puffy looked down at him and smiled that warm smile Dream was starting to get used to, even though he had meant her less than 24 hours ago.
“Hello there! I’m making porridge if you’d like some”.
Dream nodded.
She poured the sticky white sludge into two wooden bowls and walked over to place them on opposite ends of the kitchen table. Dream sat down and let the warm sweet smell fill his lungs. That’s when he realized how hungry he was. He quickly picked up the bowel and began to drink down the mush. It flowed down his throat and filled his stomach with a warm fuzzy feeling.
“You’re certainly hungry”, Puffy said. Dream put the bowl down, empty.
“Could I have seconds?”, he asked sheepishly.
“Of course”.
After about two more bowls of the porridge, Dream was finally full.
Puffy folded her hands in her lap. “So Dream, how old are you?”.
“Nine or ten I think”
“You don’t know?”
Dream shook his head.
Puffy hummed. “Do you..know what happened?”, she seemed hesitant to ask.
Dream just stared at the table.
“Do you know where your family is?”
He played with a string on his shirt.
“Well, do you have anyone you could stay with?”
Dream shook his head again.
Puffy sighed, “I suppose you can stay with me for now. I have the room”.
Dream looked up at that. “Really?”. Puffy smiled that smile, “Of course.”
Puffy slung a cloth bag over her shoulder. She felt the shadow behind her and turned to look back at Dream still following her silently. She had told him to stay at the cottage but he had followed her down to the village, never straying too far. Like a duckling.
It had been two days since Puffy had found Dream on the beach. They got him some proper clothes and shoes and now he was starting to look like a proper young boy. Besides the huge scar along his face. But plenty of people had scars, Puffy had a few of her own from her adventures at sea. It was just unusual for a little kid to have them.
Puffy noticed the stares Dream got. And she knew he noticed them as well. He seemed self conscious of his face.
“You keep following me like a little duckling”, Puffy chuckled.
“You want to get some pies?”. Dream’s big green eyes lit up and he nodded. Puffy handed him four emerald coins and pointed him towards the bakery. She watched from a far as he inspected the pies behind the glass in awe.
“Captain Puffy!”
Puffy turned towards the voice to see a large dark demon walking towards her.
“Bad!”, she smiled up at the giant demon. “How are you?”. BadBoyHalo crouched down to speak to her, “I’m good. Who’s the little boy following you?”.
“His name is Dream. I found him alone at a shipwreck. I’m taking care of him until we find his family”.
Bad tilted his head, “His family wasn’t in the wreck?”.
Puffy bit her lip, “I’m not sure. It wasn’t a very pretty sight….there weren’t...Dream was the only survivor.”
Bad hummed, “I see, well how old is he? Maybe him and Sap would get along?”.
“He says he’s either nine or ten but he must be at least ten. maybe eleven.”, Puffy said looking over at Dream showing a pie to the worker at the bakery. “But yes! I’m sure they’d get along”.
“Great! Well, I’ll see you soon then. Don’t wear yourself out. Kids are tough!”, Bad said and stood up to his full height, completely dwarfing Puffy.
“I’m aware. Bye Bad”, Puffy waved as he walked off.
“Who was that?”, a voice behind her asked. She turned to Dream, who was already tearing pieces off an apple pie.
“My friend, he has a boy around your age if you’d like to meet”, Puffy suggested. Dream just shrugged and bit off a piece of pie.
“Well let’s head back up, little duckling”.
“Okay Puffy”.