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((OOC: Night!))

Tianara's gaze softened. He was tired, she thought. It would probably take him longer to recover than it did her. She would yell at him later. On second thought, maybe she wouldn't, she thought, looking at the exhausted face. Joshua had learned why she had protected them.

Gently, she brushed back his hair, resting her hand lightly on his cheek for a moment. "I know," she said softly. "You just wanted to help me. I know, Joshua. It's all right."

She rested her hand over his while he slept, hoping she could be of some comfort to him. The nightmares that usually came after one's first encounter with one of the Dark Ones could be...devastating. She couldn't protect him from those, but she hoped it wouldn't be so bad with someone else watching over him.

((OOC: ...I guess I should probably fill you two in on how the Dark Ones work eventually, so that I don't have to keep doing repair-jobs for posts that don't make sense. >.>))

Tianara, who had fallen into a doze, started awake when she felt the darkness shifting, returning, and then...vanishing again. She began to relax - perhaps it had changed its mind - and then she felt it shifting and reforming. Her eyes widened. Someone (and here she glanced suspiciously in Mac's general direction) had managed to banish it - its physical form - however briefly. The Dark One itself, of course, wouldn't be harmed by this; the creature was nothing more than an amalgamation of negative energy, possibly mindlessly hunting for extra power to add to itself, possibly with a sort of rudimentary cunning, possibly incredibly intelligent. Tianara didn't know - they were not her special study.

All that this would do was make it angry.

With a sigh, she sat up again and called to the merfolk to help her. This had just turned itself into a very, very long night.

((OOC: Thank you, Lucky. You're very thoughtful. 3nodding ))

Tianara heard Joshua's soft whimpering. Her eyes softened marginally, and she directed her thoughts silently to the merfolk. Within seconds it was arranged - they would use her to banish the Dark One should it return again, and what concentration she had left over would be used to protect Joshua. He was asleep, and thus an easy target. It didn't occur to Tianara to protect Mac as well - she had all but decided he had been the one to banish its physical form the first time, and so he would be fine.

She made her way silently over to the bed once more and rested her hand gently on his forehead. He probably wouldn't wake from it - it was a very gentle touch. She was simply making sure it was nightmares only, and no residue of the Dark One remained in the boy. Satisfied that there was not, she sat beside him on the bed and sang softly in the merfolk tongue - old lullabies her mother had once sung to her. They weren't magical or anything; they were sheerly for comfort. Tianara didn't really know what else to do. If they were just nightmares, she couldn't do anything for him except let him weather them and wake up.

Tianara watched him quieting, but knew that the dreams were not subsiding. She had been through this already. There was nothing for it but to ride it out, and to interrupt it would be just to do him a disservice. So she kept singing her lullabies, and waited. And waited.

When he woke up, she touched his shoulder very gently. "But you survived it all right," she said quietly. "And it won't be so bad after this. The first time is always the worst." At his question, Tianara blinked mildly, then laughed. It was a soft, weary sound, without much humour in it. "I was never mad at you, Joshua. You scared me half to death, that's all."

And yes, fear had led to anger and she had snapped at him. But she had calmed down, and the half-maddening terror was gone now. "I really do have good reasons for most of what I tell you, you know," she told him now. "But you were just trying to help. It's okay."

((OOC: Last post - I gotta go to bed. Goodnight!))

Tianara smiled a bit. "It was worth a try," she reassured him. "Who knows, it might even have worked; if we'd had two challengers who both knew exactly how to handle it, it might have backed off. It just picked on you because it knew you were a beginner. At least, I suppose that's how it works," she brooded, frowning. She had never actually studied the Dark Ones - it was something of a dangerous course.

She smiled and gave him a brief one-armed hug around the shoulders. "If you always listened to people who knew more than you, you wouldn't be here today. How many people who know more than you have told you that the seafolk didn't exist? Testing is good. Just not when it could involve your life."

Absently, she rose and looked out the window. "It'll be light soon," she remarked. "If the Dark One wants to try again, it'll have to be in the next couple of hours."

((Hey, we need to post what the others are doing as well))

((OOC: What others? The merfolk? They aren't doing anything. They're riding out the Dark One, just like the humans are. razz ))

Tianara smiled a bit as she gazed out the window, waiting patiently for the dawn. "You sound so shocked," she teased gently. "Is it so amazing that I could be right for once?" She glanced back briefly, and the smile had spread to her eyes, erasing the worry for the first time all night.

"Oh, it will," she replied to Joshua's fear. "Not more than once, though - and I doubt it'll be as strong as the first two times. It's less interested now. Backing it off twice has made us less desirable targets. Now if you'd fallen, things would be different. But as it stands, it's okay." She left her post at the window - sort of - to look around entirely, smiling a bit.

Her smile widened a little at his question. "No - no, it wasn't," she replied cheerfully. "I'm not nearly positive enough to generate that kind of energy. What you felt was mostly Sorry and Nezik - I'm sure Narcis contributed some, and Jinx, but they're more neutral personalities with worse memories. I called to the merfolk and they supported me, and I passed it on to you."