"What do you mean he couldn't find her name?" Sam Grest asked Evra as the two were out walking near a small creek.
The young snake boy scratched the back of his head with a sigh. "Yeah, normally he would know your name before you even introduce yourself. He couldn't find it, or something."
"Hmm," Sam hummed, digging into his jar of pickled onions and tossing one in his mouth. "Well, she gotta have a name." He frowned when he saw her sickly state the other day.. One can't help but feel sorry for the child. "Maybe the reason Mr. Tall couldn't locate her name because she's blocking him."
Evra raised a brow at the human. "Blocking him?"
Sam nodded. "There are some studies that those who… experienced what she went through tend to put up a mental barrier. To protect themselves emotionally, mentally, I think. There's no telling how long she's….yano..."
"We don't know exactly what she went through…"
"I don't even want to know, but still, we can't keep calling her Little girl." Sam said.
"She hasn't been exactly verbal." Evra said to him, picking up a stick and starting swinging it, hitting some rocks and watching them fly off as they walked.
"She hasn't talked?"
"Too scared to."
Sam walked in silence for a moment then, popping a couple of more pickled onions in his mouth before speaking. "Well, we can give her a name, since we're the ones that found her. We can name her."
Evra gave him a skeptical look. "She's not some pet."
"Do you want to keep calling her Little Girl? There is also a chance that she doesn't even have an actual name."
Evra chewed on the inside of his cheek before sighing. "I guess you're right. Got a suggestion?"
Sam thought for a moment before suggesting, "How about Emery?"
"Nah, I don't think so. She doesn't look like an Emery."
Sam thought again. "Hmm, probably seeing her again might help."
"Oh no way." Evra quickly said. "Mr. Tall told us to give her space. To let her get adjusted before we head out." And not to mention he didn't know how the little girl would react around Sam since he's human. She might attack him for his blood…
That would not be good for anyone.
"So she's in that trailer all alone? What more reason to go and see her. She has to get used to people anyway! She may even open more up with kids her age" Sam exclaimed, pausing on their walk so he could face the snake boy.
"Did you forget that she clawed me?" Evra motioned his bandaged arm. He would have to check to see if the sutures had fallen out yet later.
And not to mention the little girl is a half vampire and there was no telling how actually old she was.
"We were spooked by her appearance, anyone would." Sam mentioned. "Oh, and plus I can get some of my sister's clothes and toys for her to play with."
Evra was about to object to that but then let it stew in his brain for a moment. "Hmm, toys might be a good idea, I can see if I can't snag a couple of concession items for her. And some candy."
"Yeah! What kid resists candy and toys!? Oh that reminds me, has she eaten anything since she's been here?" Sam asked.
"Oh yeah, we left a bundle of food for her inside. She wouldn't come any closer to us but we do know that she has a major appetite."
"Okay, great! Just let me run home real quick and I'll grab the stuff." Sam grinned. "And after we show her that we won't hurt her, we can work on her name."
"Sounds like a plan." Evra nodded.
Sam nodded back before taking off running towards home, the young snake boy watched him disappear from view before he let out a heavy sigh, tossing the stick in the creek.
"I do hope this doesn't backfire on us." Evra muttered before heading off back to the cirque.
The boys quickly gathered the items before meeting back at the entrance of the camp.
"Got the stuff?" Evra asked, holding a box of toys, a bunch of other knick knacks and tasty goodies in his arms.
"Yeah. My little sister has so much stuff, she won't mind if some is missing." Sam said, his backpack filling with clothes and toys, he was struggling to hold it.
Evra soon led Sam towards the trailer, there were signs that some of the cirque members had stopped by and placed a few items outside. A lot of empty bowels and plates outside.
At least the members here were interested in her.
"Wow, it does look like she's hungry." Sam observed.
"Who knew how long it has been since the last time she ate before we found her?" Evra muttered softly. This hit was a little too close to home for the young boy but he tried his best not to show it in front of his friend before facing the little vampire.
They stopped at the door before Evra warned Sam, "Stay behind me."
"Y-yeah, clear." Sam nodded, putting on a brave face.
Making sure they were both ready, Evra sets the box on his hip before knocking on the door gently with his free hand. "Um, hey, it's me, Evra. From this morning?" Evra announced. He placed his ear up against the door and heard nothing, as usual.
"If you're awake, can you knock on the wall, please?" Evra asked, since the little girl wasn't speaking.
A moment later, there was a soft knock on the wall coming from inside.
Sam let out a little giggle at that.
Evra smiled softly before continuing, "okay, one knock for no, two knocks for yes…, I got a few things you may like, can I come in? Please?"
The two waited a couple of minutes in such awkward silence the duo experienced before they heard the two knocks.
"She said yes!" Sam gasped with glee, but Evra quickly hushed him.
"One last thing, zero physical contact. As we both know, she will swipe you." Evra adding.
"Oh, like a cat??"
Evra gave Sam a look before going in slowly. The trailer creaked as the two boys entered. There were signs inside of the place that were explored as all of the cabinet doors, bathroom, closet doors were all open, a couple of broken plates in the sink.
The boys took a moment before they realized that the little girl was sitting on the far corner of the bed, wrapped around her were blankets and pillows in sort of a cocoon, her head slowly poking out to look at them.
"Hi," Sam said, giving her a wave. "I'm Sam Grest, we didn't get the pleasure of introducing last time!"
His outward personality caused her to hide back into her cocoon.
Evra glared at Sam before setting the box on the stuff. "Like I said, we have stuff for you." Evra said to the girl, trying to appear non threatening to her as he dug into the box and pulled out some cotton candy webs on a stick. "We got some candy."
She didn't move.
Evra sighed before slowly walking over to her. "It's okay, it's very good, it's sweeter than what I gave you for breakfast." he smiled.
The little girl began rustling after a couple moments later and pokes her head out and looks at the boys.
Evra smiled more. "Well hi there," he took the wrappings off of the cotton candy before holding the stick out to her. "Go on, You can have it."
The little girl stared at the green boy before looking at the candy. It does smell very sweet and appealing. She moved from within her cocoon but then stopped when she saw that Evra wasn't moving back and glared at him. Her red eye seemed predatory.
"Whoa…." Sam whimpered, not liking the look either.
Evra slowly placed the candy on the bed and moved backwards away from her. "See? No harm, no touch." Evra smiled, waving his hands to emphasize that.
The child looked between the boys and the candy before she crawled out of her nest and grabbed the candy on the stick. She inspected the treat before taking a bite of it.
The sugary web was super sweet, she felt it dissolve faster in her mouth, really liking the taste and began eating more of the candy. Her hands quickly became sticky from the sugar.
Sam and Evra began to relax as they settled on the ground. Evra placed more candy on the bed for her to eat. "See, we won't hurt you."
The little girl devoured her treats before looking at the boys. Tilting her head to the side and examining them.
"If you like that, you might like what we got you." Evra said, watching her crawling off of the bed and actually getting closer to them…
Well, to the box he brought in.
Sam did feel uneasy when she was close, he could still see the array of scars on her arms, and even though her eyes still did not have much life, he relaxed to see the little girl was intrigued.
"Go on!" Sam encouraged her.
The little girl opened the box and stood there. She saw it was filled with multiple toys and trinkets the Cirque sells. She made a noise when she picked up a doll of Madame Truska. She stared at the pretty doll, petting the doll's hair.
"Truska is one of our prettier members, she's also really nice." Evra explained before smirking. "Trickle her chin." He points at the doll.
The little girl looked at Evra for a moment before she tickled the doll's chin. She gasped and nearly dropped it when facial hair started to grow on the doll. She pulled and touched the beard it was growing. It was super soft and silky.
The boys giggled before Evra dug into the box and pulled out a doll of Rhamus Two Belly. The little girl looked at the doll before making a grab at it.
Evra pulled away. "Not yet, I want you to see this." He smiled before taking some nails that were loose, a couple pieces of hard candy and some of the bandage of his arm and stuffed them inside of the doll. Both Sam and the little vampire's eyes widened when the doll got bigger and bigger till it went from the size of a bouncy ball to the size of a large rat and shook it. The items jingled and rattled from inside of the doll before Evra squeezed the belly.
The items puked back out and both of the children gasped. The nails pierced through the candy and curled into a ring, the bandage formed a lovely bow on top.
The little girl grabbed the nails and examined it. Trying to think how the heck the doll was able to do that.
"Whoa!" Sam gasped. "I didn't know these toys could do that!"
"Yeah, these are really neat." Evra giggled, watching the little's girl's mind going blank as she messed with the toys.
Now she wonders what other strange toys were inside of the box and placed the two dolls on the ground and goes back in. She dug around till she pulled out a very..peculiar thing.
It was a Madam Octa keychain. Beads of sweat began pouring from her skin and she quickly tossed it back into the box and backed away from it. Possibly reminded who's spider it belongs to and was afraid of them.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Sam asked, seeing that she was scared. He quickly dug into the bag and pulled out more normal looking Barbie dolls. "These aren't scary, see??" He waved the doll at her.
The little girl stared at the boy and the doll before taking it from him.
He smiled and continued to pull out more dolls, one caught the girl's attention. One Barbie doll was dressed as a witch, instead of Barbie blonde, the hair was snow white. "Hey, this one looks like you." Sam said, seeing the comparison to them.
The little girl picks it up and examines the white hair doll, and doesn't move, just stared.
While distracted, Sam turned to Evra. "Come up with a name, yet?"
"I got a couple." Evra replied. "How about Ava?"
Sam considered it before shaking his head. " No, that doesn't seem to fit."
"Well, okay… how about Carly?"
" That's my sister's name."
"Oh, sorry." Evra scratched the back of his head. " Selena?"
" Hmm, not quite, but it's in the right direction." Sam said, digging into the bag again to get his pickled onions.
" What do you mean in the right direction?" Evra asked puzzling.
" Hey, you want some?" Sam quickly asked the little girl, holding the jar up to him. " They're really good."
The vampire took a whiff of the jar and leaned away from it, her nose scrunching up from the smell and shook her head no at it.
"Oh c'mon, these are yummy." Sam said, popping one in his mouth.
"Sam, focus, what do you mean?" Evra said, getting the attention back.
"Oh, sorry. Right, you're going at the right direction with the names " Sam said.
"I don't follow."
"I'm going off, based on appearances. White hair, red eyes even though only one eye is red. I think we might have to go with mythos names."
" Mythos??"
"Mythological. And I know what kind."
" Sam, speak English."
" Vampire, we give her a vampire type name."
If Evra had been drinking, the liquid contents would have been spewed out and left him in a coughing fit.
The little girl looks at Sam as well.
"What? White hair and red eyes are kinda associated with the typical vampire trope. First mentioned in Bram Stroke's Dracula."
If only Sam knew that the Cirque's residential orange haired vampire unintentionally gave the author ideas for the Prince of Darkness.
"S-she doesn't look like a vampire." Evra said, now lying his butt off.
" She does." Sam said, fingers tapping on the jar. " Ooh, I know, how about Nyx!"
Nyx….? The little girl's thoughts echoed that one word. Causing her to tilt her head to the side.
"Hey, do you like that name?" Sam asked her. "Do you like Nyx?"
"What myth is Nyx?" Evra asked Sam.
"Nyx is the primordial goddess of the night and mother to the vampires. Selena was close, but Nyx seems to... fit."
Oh how much did Evra want to burst this boy's bubble that the majority of vampire lore in pop culture were false.
Rolling his eyes, Evra looked back to the girl. "Do like any names, any of them at all?"
It took her a moment, but she responded with two knocks on the floor, making Evra giggle a little.
"Oh, that's great!" Sam beamed. "Which one do you like?"
She turned to Sam, pointing a finger at him.
Evra blinked. "Wait, you actually like his idea?" He asked in confusion.
" You like mine?! Oh that's awesome!" Sam grinned. " So, you really like the name Nyx??"
She nodded this time.
Evra sighed, shaking his head. "Looks like it's settled then." He smiled softly at the little girl. "Hi Nyx, I'm Evra Von."
"And I'm Sam Grest!"
Nyx gave them a wave and something that just might resembled a small smile.