Chapter Text
It was barely dawn, morning mist lingering still at the corners of the meadow. Ahead of them, Danny bounced on the balls of his feet, the tip of his toes barely appearing to touch the ground as he walked. Sam and Tucker trailed hesitantly behind, the dew collecting on the hems of their skirt and pants, clinging to their shins as they trudged forward.
“Whatever he’s up to, it didn’t have to be this early” whined Tucker, barely stifling a yawn.
Without a word Sam rubbed at her eyes, but didn’t disagree. She hiked up her skirt and jogged closer to Danny
“What’s in the bag?” she asked.
Danny shook his head dismissively, the movement accompanied by the chiming of his bell earrings. Sam stopped short, deep frown lines digging themselves into her forehead.
“Someone’s moody” Tucker whispered, nudging Sam as he caught up.
Sam shrugged it off, but a sense of unease had already wormed its way inside her mind. Danny usually kept them informed… or at least told them a shortened sanitised version of the plan. Post-incident Danny was an asshole sometimes, if she was honest.
Said-asshole stood silent at the top of the hill, presiding over them as he waited for the pair to join him, bags under his eyes and gaze stuck on the far sky.
“Watch out for the fairy circles” he warned, voice taking on that melodious quality it usually acquired the closer they wandered to the woods.
Sam shivered when his bright eyes fixed on her, the inhuman green specks hypnotising as they swirled. Danny had been weird since the incident, that week when he’d gone missing twice and come back changed both times. Although the boy acted more like himself again, petty and childish with a crass sense of humour at times, his too large eyes that sometimes glittered eerily in the light seemed too all knowing for his age.
Danny pulled a garden trowel out of his bag, leaning down to dig a small hole into the ground. Leaving the small object to the side, he then reached a hand up to Sam who passed him some herbs, the ones from her garden that he’d asked her to bring, and without so much as a thank you, Danny sprinkled a pinch into the pocket of earth.
“That’s not exactly how you’re supposed to garden” sassed Sam, clearly having crossed the line from understanding to annoyed now.
Danny tilted his head back and sighed.
“I’ll explain after, I promise” he pleaded. “When everything is done and there are no uninvited ears to overhear.”
He looked sideways at the nearby tree line as if it were itself a guilty party. Maybe it was. Danny’s parents may be folklorist kooks, but he had gotten himself mixed up in something that was very much real.
“Do you have the thing?”, he asked Tucker, reaching up for him too.
Tucker rummaged in his bag, leaning in up to his elbows before his face lit up and he let out a “aha!”, presenting Danny with his prize. The magic touched boy inspected the small lump, fingers circling it hesitantly as if afraid to make contact. Danny picked the ball of iron wool up and held it close to his face to inspect, before making a noise of approval and turning back to the task at hand. The boy’s face scrunched in concentration as he cut a tuft of the iron off and dropped it into the hole. He pocketed the rest. Then opened the pouch. Danny dropped something small and white into the pocket, mist rolling over his lips and nose as he whispered unheard words under his breath.
“Was that a tooth?!” screeched Tucker.
Danny, for the first time today, smiled. Bright puffy gums on each side framed the edges, the barest points of new white fangs peaking through. Sam clutched the edge of Tuckers sweater hard enough that she was afraid it would tear.
“All teeth are fresh and locally sourced” Danny joked, a glint of mischief in his eyes as he scooped mounds of dirt over the eclectic collection of items.
Only now did Sam notice the slight lisp hidden beneath the musicals up and downs of Danny’s words.
“CW says it’s normal” Danny tried to assuage belatedly. “They started wiggling last night. Drove me crazy. I had to take them out.”
“So, you decided to start gardening with human body parts for fun?” Sam questioned, at a loss for words.
“So, like CW told me, I might as well take advantage” Danny countered, gently patting the soil flat with his garden trowel.
The boy let out a tired breath as he straightened, wiping the dirt stains off the legs of his jeans.
Later, he’d explain to Sam and Tucker how he’d created a barrier around Amity, using a canine for each cardinal direction. Each represented a season, Danny had read from the grimoire that the mysterious CW had gifted him, the larger upper teeth for the solstices of winter and summer while the smaller lower teeth represented the equinoxes of fall and spring.
Sam didn’t trust CW, the ominous cloaked figure they’d only met in passing that Danny had grown to trust. But fair enough, the fog no longer rolled onto the streets of Amity bringing with it the faint sounds of voices giggling in the wind. The barrier couldn’t stop anything powerful enough to be a real threat. However, not having to run after numerous small trickster spirits let their small coven—as Sam had named them—have more time for well deserved rest.