Dan supposed it wasn’t so bad in these ancient times, if a little bit jarring. Okay, a lot jarring - but Vallo was fond of things like that (shaking their skeletons from their skin, anyway) and he really couldn’t hope for more than a month going by (or even two weeks at this point) without them being displaced or inconvenience somehow. This was both, in large quantities, but if there was one thing he was sure of it was that they all knew how to survive - some better than others, however, scrappy was a good word to describe their happy little Vallo community in general.
At the very least, it was an interesting time in terms of his chosen career path - the scientific foundations of medicine were being formed, and add in a magic component and that just made things all the more intriguing. Not to mention he was both practicing his nursing skills and learning more about herbs used for medicinal purposes and exorcising demons - surgical instruments were crude, but luckily he didn’t need to deal with that yet and just patched up locals on a smaller scale, and helped with ailments like head colds.
Claire wasn’t crazy about the time change either, but - they’d get through it. Even if Dan felt the frustration she felt, being separated from her mom - it was melancholy like vines around the heart and he wished he could fix it right away, but he couldn’t. Instead he just tried to keep it together, and stick with both her and Sabrina. There was a little house they were staying in - one room, for a small fee, and it looked to be on a farm. Wheels of straw soaked up the sunshine and beneath scattered clouds - he knew Sabrina was planning to pitch in with the locals too, a good way to curry favor.
That morning he let her sleep a little later than he let Claire sleep (because he knew it would take awhile to get Claire up and moving) then went over to Sabrina and gently roused her. “We’re still here,” he said with dry amusement, in case she thought this was a brief sojourn.
Obviously. She bit back actually saying the word, trying to push down her unamusement. It wasn’t Dan’s fault that they were in the past or sleeping on a crappy straw bed that she was pretty sure had bugs crawling around in it or the lack of clean running water or a hundred other million things. She knew long before truly waking and feeling the damnable straw poking into her that they weren’t back home because she couldn’t smell Nick or feel Nick or sense him there. Sabrina had gotten way too used to having him right there with her in bed, even with the nightmares that might wake one of them in the middle of the night.
Sleeping without him sucked. She wasn’t a fan and would have words with Vallo later when she was wandering around and looking for ways to help people. It felt weird not having Salem around either or that connection to Hell that had curled itself around her when Pandemonium first showed up.
Instead Sabrina pushed herself up, making a face at the scratchy blanket. At least her clothes still felt normal even if they looked like what everyone else was wearing. And her magic was fine, no hiccups in that department that she could sense yet anyway.
“The smell kind of gives it away, Dan,” she told him before glancing around to see what Claire was busy doing. They had to keep it together for the little girl. It was bad enough that they had been pulled there but pulling Claire from her mom was just rude.
“Good morning to you too,” Dan replied from where he was busy fixing Claire’s hair - or, well, he had what constituted a comb or hairbrush (though he wasn’t sure what it was made of - plant roots, maybe? It worked, either way). Braiding it intricately probably wouldn’t happen but he could handle putting it into two poofy buns, careful not to pull too tightly - she was already in a bad enough mood.
And obviously Allison was better at fixing hair but he’d do his best, while their six-year-old just pouted and sulked. Lots of rainclouds hovering over this little space here today.
“Maybe we can do something about the smell though? Pick some flowers?” he suggested, since - no, the scent of straw was not pleasant, and everything overall reminded him of the forest floor and soil. “I’ll go around with my makeshift medical bag first. You planning to at least see Geliara?” He knew that coven was around, having a long, long history in Vallo.
“We can do better than flowers.” Little bundles of dried ones worked well enough, but witches had been bathing in rivers and things for nearly as long as time. They’d created lotions and soaps long before they had been in regular use. Fragrant candles as well. Sabrina would gather what they’d need and get to work on making some for them. And possibly something to help detangle hair. Because Claire looked like she was going to need it.
“No, I think I’ll do Beketh today.” Sabrina had a feeling they were in the mountains. She’d heard talk about them several times yesterday and figured it would be a good idea to seek them out as well. And maybe score some of their delicious blackberry chocolate as well. Maybe that would help cheer up Claire.
Probably only temporarily, but it’d be something. “Do we need anything else?”
Oh, right. Beketh. Dan was glad to hear they were also currently in this time period - some of the covens had no presence in modern Vallo, others did. But he also knew Sabrina and some others had worked hard to establish a presence with that particular aloof coven - they weren’t nasty, they just seemed to keep to themselves and didn’t really open up to the idea of new friendship unless an interloper could prove their usefulness, which he guessed he understood.
“Better than flowers sounds good. I can’t think of anything else though - maybe scented oil, for the oil lamp. I can see if there’s some at the market.” He’d have the coins, and that was another thing too - it was so dark in their space; currently they had one oil lamp burning, but the lack of natural light filtering in probably wasn’t helping moods either. But they’d do what they could - just had to stick with it, and find some more candles (bonus if they were fragrant). “I think Nadia’s around too?”
That seemed to perk up Claire a little, a shift in the perpetual raincloud - she at least had a friend to play with. “Can we find her?” she asked hopefully. “And sleep over?”
Well, Dan didn’t know about a slumber party, but. Maybe teaming up in that regard wouldn’t be too bad of an idea. “We’ll find her,” he promised. “And see what her and her mom want to do. Don’t forget to eat something,” he added, with a glance at Sabrina. Dan would have Claire with him while he did the medical rounds, so he’d make sure they took an afternoon break - but Sabrina would be separated from them if she was going to visit with Beketh.
The idea of being in one room with two six year olds sounded headache inducing but she’d bare it if it helped out Claire. Or maybe she could hook up with one of the covens and give the rest of them more space to spread out. Sabrina was fairly certain she could handle herself for however long this went on for and Dan had enough to do with trying to keep Claire occupied. She could find the things they’d talked about and drop them off here in a few hours and then look for somewhere else to head to.
She’d figure it out.
Though she wasn’t sure if dropping the stuff off would work or not. Did she really trust the innkeeper that they were staying with to not rummage through their things and take what they wanted? Nope. She didn’t.
“I’ll see what I can get and make sure you guys have it. And don’t worry. I’ll eat.”
One room, two six-year-olds - admittedly, Dan wasn’t necessarily looking forward to that either but sometimes you just had to grin and bear it. This had to be traumatizing as hell for a little kid, to be suddenly wrenched from routine and your own home - fuck knew it was traumatizing for most of the adults around here too, even if they were somewhat used to Vallo’s antics by now.
The Snowglobe had been a nice taste of that - and everyone had been tripping over themselves to find a way to communicate with those inside of it (and they still didn’t know who had created the snowglobe, did they?). At least now they all had the journals that could reach across time periods. A small silver lining.
Claire’s hair was all finished, detangled as best as he could get it and wrapped up in two poofy buns, so he let her go to grab her purple sparkly backpack (the one thing from home she had with her) while he found his supplies. “And you’ll be back by sunset?” Dan prompted because, well. Sabrina was still grounded. Technically.
She hadn’t removed the hex right away and had taken her time to do so - in return, he wasn’t going to shave off a few days of her teenage prison sentence. No good behavior, no shaving off.
“I will be indoors by sunset,” she agreed. Though would it be there or somewhere else, who knew? If they added Nadia and her mom to the group then Sabrina could figure out her own place to stay and still be back to wherever that was by sunset. She’d be keeping true to the weird version of grounding that was still occurring. It just might not be with them. But their place was already a tight squeeze with the three of them and the littles obviously needed their adults.
She’d been on her own before and could manage it again for a few days.
“I’ll try and get some more information about where the unicorns are hanging out too, Claire bear,” Sabrina told the little girl, knowing that was a favorite of hers. At least that seemed to bring out another smile.
“That’s pretty exciting, huh?” Dan said, and yes - Claire thought so too. She was obsessed with unicorns (those sparkles on her backpack were in tribute) and they seemed to be good at turning frowns upsidedown when it came to her.
He’d like to be able to stick with Sabrina, however - though he understood if she’d rather be on her own rather than sharing a room with a million people. But hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. Obviously Dan prioritized her above, well - his own self, really. He’d just feel better if they were together even if he trusted her ability to survive.
The place was as clean as they were going to get it and he was as ready as he was going to be - who knew what lay in store for them today, but it’d be an adventure no matter what. If something drastic could refrain from occurring though, that’d be great. However, he knew better than to expect much when it came to that. “Shout if you need me,” he added - telepathically shout, that is. He’d hear her.
And then he leaned in and squeezed Sabrina in a hug - especially if she chose not to stay with them for tonight, he wanted to get one in. “Love you. My new grey hair is named after you too.”
She hugged him tightly back, lingering in it for a moment because she wasn’t too sure where she’d end up that night and also wanted to get it in. “You’re not as funny as you think you are,” Sabrina told him as she moved over to give Claire a hug as well, straightening the girl’s two buns a little. “See if Dan can find some fun ribbon for your hair.”
Sparkly would probably be out, but there should be a variety of colored fabric with various plant dye around. It might cost a bit but between her helping out with various spells and dealing with some infestations and Dan’s nursing abilities they were able to make a decent amount of coin most days. So a little money on some ribbon wouldn’t mean they were left starving.
Sabrina grabbed the bag she’d managed to find when they’d first arrived and tucked one of their breadrolls inside of it before slinging the satchel over her shoulder. “I’ll ping you when I’ve got the stuff to find out where you guys are and let you know what I’ll do tonight.”
Claire’s poor buns - they turned out decent, Dan thought. But right, ribbon would probably perk things up a bit. She giggled at that, her small arms thrown around Sabrina in turn because warm hugs always helped make things better too (just ask Olaf from Frozen). She obviously missed her mom and her other people (like Nick, with his pretty nails) but Dan made sure to keep reassuring her that they’d all be reunited soon. He didn’t want her to give up hope.
So he gave her a breadroll to nosh on as well, while they walked, and took one for himself for the road. “Alright, sounds good - and what are you talking about, I’m way funny.”
Okay, that probably wasn’t true but oh well - he’d just keep it positive as they all navigated the past. Keep it light. And look after them like he always did, and always would.
Sabrina rolled her eyes. For as independent as she could be, she was very much a teenager. Keeping it light was a good idea. Kids were like pets, right? And picked up on other’s emotions? She was pretty sure that was a real thing. Not that she hung out with many little kids aside from Claire. She definitely needed to try and grab the kid some chocolate. Who could be sad while eating chocolate?
Someone, probably. But hopefully not Claire.
“I’ll check in with you in a few hours,” Sabrina told Dan before teleporting off in a whirl of hellfire. There were tasks to complete but first she’d carve out some time to check in with Nick and Roz.