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Jed sighed as the rats began to pour from under the manhole cover again. Oh yeah, this nightmare was getting way too familiar.
The thing was, he wasn’t really afraid of rats. Aunt Despair’s rats were so cute, the way they would climb over his lap and poke their little heads into any hole they could find — into his sleeves, under his knees and elbows, up his pant legs. Sometimes they even climbed up his arm right to his shoulder and walked around the back of his neck! It was so cute! He loved their curiosity and fearlessness and their tiny little hands and feet and intelligent eyes and cute little noses and plump bellies and long tails.
He wasn’t afraid of nightmares, either. After all, his best friend (at least, in the Dreaming) used to be a Nightmare. And now that he was a Knight of the Order of the Dreaming, they even came to him sometimes when they were having problems! Well, him and Gault. At first he had been jealous that Gault took Alice instead to help with the more grown up problems, but then he had realized that grown up just meant boring and complicated, not scary and exciting, so he didn’t mind anymore. He got to help with the fun ones.
But this nightmare was from that time the rat bit him on the ankle in the basement, after he fell sleep crying again that one time. He braced to fight the rats again, but then realized maybe he could try this a different way this time. Instead of attacking or running (it never worked), he stood still and pretended they were Aunt Despair’s rats.
“Hello,” he said calmly as they ran up his legs and climbed his shirt. “You are my Nightmare, but I’m not afraid of you anymore. I like rats now. Can we play instead?”
The rats paused as one and looked at him curiously. Then they began moving again, but in all different directions, like Aunt Despair’s did. He carefully sat down and laughed and giggled as they explored under, over, around and through him (well through his sleeves, anyway). At the end, one sat on his shoulder and put a tiny little paw on his ear and said, “You know, now that you are not scared anymore, I won’t be able to come back.”
“Oh, that’s too bad! But maybe we can be friends in the Dreaming? You could play with Aunt Despair’s rats, when she comes to visit? I’ll ask Nana Unity for cat food for you?” (Jed had looked up what rats like to eat, in case Rose ever wanted to get him one for a pet.)
The Nightmare Rat rubbed against the side of his face and shivered with pleasure. “I’d like that, Jed!”
“Good, then it’s settled,” Jed said, as the dream faded around him.