"DROP THAT!"
Dawn jumped and let the buttercup fall even as she looked around to see who Bog was actually yelling at.
He landed between her and the flower, pushing her back with his bulk and knocking the bright yellow blossom away with the head of his staff. He dropped the staff and spun around. Dawn yelped when he grabbed her wrists.
"I don't see any blisters yet." His eyes darted frantically between her hands and her face. "We should treat them just to be safe, but maybe your gloves protected you –"
"Bog, what is your problem?" Dawn pulled her wrists free; actually he let go when she flexed her shoulders to start pulling, but in principle she pulled herself free.
"That was a buttercup!" Bog shouted.
"I know that!" Dawn shouted back.
"Then why were you touching it?"
"I was going to eat it!"
Bog's greyish-brown face went greyer.
"Dawn …" His voice was abruptly low, serious, pleading, placating. "Whatever's the matter, I swear to you, I will do everything in my power to help make it right. Please, please believe me. Whatever it is, don't hurt yourself over it."
"What are you talking about?"
"I don't know, and if you don't want to tell me that's fine, I'll respect your privacy, but Dawn, I need you to promise me that you won't try to poison yourself again."
Dawn's jaw dropped.
"Promise!" Bog urged her desperately. His hands clawed the air around her shoulders, though he didn't touch her this time.
"I promise. But, Bog … Buttercups aren't poisonous."
"… What?"
"Ask any fairy; we eat buttercups all the time. And wear them. Marianne used to have the most adorable buttercup petal dress …"
Dawn reconsidered.
"Actually don't ask Marianne. She used to wear that dress a lot when she and Roland were together, because he said yellow complemented her wings, although now I think what he really liked was how it matched his hair, and then he started calling her," Dawn tried to mimic Roland's drawl, "his 'little buttercup', and I think she actually burned that dress after she left him."
She shook her head. "But any other fairy will tell you buttercups aren't poisonous."
"… Oh."
"Don't be embarrassed!" Dawn hugged Bog. "If they're poisonous to goblins, you couldn't have known I wasn't in danger. You did the right thing. It was a little scary having you grab me and yell at me like that, but now I know you were trying to help and you were being sweet and heroic. But you do owe me lunch."