"STAY." Amrita demanded in what could only be described as a very forced tone; her attempts to not sound scared or distressed were failing. She was standing with her back against the wall beside the door, one hand flat on the stone surface and the other pointing down at a little smoldering star that was floating happily a foot or two away from her. The little charm had been practically at her side since they were ported back to HalloweenTown, and the little Vetala was less than thrilled. Even moreso when the Charm didn't listen. Her demand to stay apparently meant 'come closer I love your attention!' to the Charm, and it almost eagerly bounced closer, glowing brightly in joy.

"Nnnn...!!" Amrita's pointing hand smacked hard against the door's wooden surface, frantically patting around for the door handle. It was found, the door was thrown open and with surprising speed she ran through it, pulling it closed with a very loud and echoing THUD. There was an odd little knocking noise from the other side, as though the Charm was confused by the sudden disappearance of it's master. She held onto the door handle with both hands for a moment or two, leaning her weight backwards as though the limbless charm could somehow force the door open on her. What remained of her lips pressed tightly together in a thin line, her visible jaw clenched shut in pure determination to keep that thing in her room, away from her.

Today was another terrible day. She had studying to do and she was locking herself out of her room.

+++

As it just so happened, a certain skinwalker happened to have been walking down a certain hallway towards that very same door, bare feet making no noise as he slunk through the undead dorms. By the look of the mildly annoyed and more than so disappointed look on his face, combined with the dorm they were in, almost anyone at this point could have guessed why he was walking away from a certain Pricolici's room, Nuk's presence not even noteworthy to many of the undead at this point. Most ignored him whenever he could be found sauntering through the halls, knowing whether he was leaving or not by his mood. This time was no different, his hands shoved deep into his pockets in a slightly pouting manner, the message so clear it could not have been more obvious if someone had written in neon ink 'Shehk isn't home' on his forehead.

Glowing amber eyes flickered a little with interest as he noticed the very petite form of a girl pressed prostrate against one of the many wooden doors lining the hallway, Nuk's gait slowing considerably as he eyed the scene. Even from a first glance he could recognize Amrita's form when he saw her, the girl sticking out of the crowd due to her tiny size and always-adorable mannerisms, and the corners of his mouth turned up in an amused smirk even before reaching the door. Cute things always managed to do that too him, unfortunately -- one of his few 'well-kept' secret weaknesses. By the time he'd reached the door his strut had slowed to a crawl, then to a stop, turning completely to face her and not-so-inconspicuously staring at the undead girl with a curious look, eyebrow quirked in a questioning, skeptical manner.

"... watcha doin, Itty Bitty?"

There was a twinge of audible amusement in his voice that reached his eyes as he glanced from the girl's terrified face to the door and back, briefly wondering if that's just always how she looked. The knock only raised his eyebrow higher, the other furrowed in confusion, and he tilted his head to amplify his inquisitive look, definitely not about to leave her alone now. Not when there was clearly something interesting going on. Reaching up to cover her tiny backwards hands, he turned the doorknob and pushed the door open with ease, Amrita's tiny body not nearly enough to stop the bruteball player, smile widening a little when he noticed the crystal that seemed so taken with it's master.

+++

So focused was the tiny undead on keeping that thing locked in her room that she failed to notice the much larger skinwalker wander down her hallway. Then again, with how silently he moved there was a good chance she wouldn't have noticed him anyway, unless she'd been staring right at him...which was also unlikely, given her affinity to looking at the ground. It was a habit she was slowly changing, but a habit nonetheless. If asked, she usually answered some excuse about making sure she didn't fall, as shuffling with backwards feet made it quite difficult to correct herself if she tripped forward. Nukpana successfully became a ninja, right up until he spoke.

Then he was greeted with a startled (And thankfully short) scream.

Amrita's cloudy grey eye turned to stare as wide as it could up at the skinwalker, the only thing going through her head at the time was 'OHGODITGOTOUTSOMEHOW'. Which was silly, considering the Charm couldn't float through walls. Yet. When she recognized him, her entire body visibly relaxed, nearly slumping against the door in relief. It wasn't her Charm going through walls and gaining a voice, it was just another Student.

"S-sorry! I was, um, trying t----NO DON'T--!" Big hands enveloped hers and being unable to stop him Amrita was forced to not only watch the door open, but to be unable to leave, as he'd successfully trapped them there. Her eyes were wide again and her jaw slack in dismay, an expression that could only properly be captured as: OAO! The Charm bounced happily, seeming very pleased with this game of peekaboo...and look, Mama brought a friend! For being just a smoldering star-like charm it certainly seemed happy and active.

"Whyyyy..." Amrita whined as though he'd doomed her for life...and then the quiet suffering voice became something more of a panic when she realized the Charm was once more looming towards her. "Letgoletgoletgo!" She cried at the Skinwalker, trying to pull her hands free.

+++

The scream was met by a slightly startled look from the skinwalker, who wasn't completely unused to being greeted by screams, but he usually looked quite a bit more threatening and it was usually on purpose. Therefore he might have even jumped a little at the piercing sound that filled the air, snapping his eyes to look at the tiny girl even as he shoved open the door, unfortunately the action already set in motion. Had he known, he might have paused for a minute to consider the action before actually doing it (there was no question that he would, unless there was some serious sad-faces on Amrita's end,) but as it was he didn't even have the chance to. Even the apology and the stammered 'NO DON'T' wasn't enough to save the situation -- by the time it all had registered, the door was already open and the damage done, the cute little crystal clearly happy to be free of it's confines. Pausing where he was, hand still covering both the doorknob and Amrita's backwards hand, he blinked at the deathcharm, tilting his head to one side.

Overall, Nuk was very confused. There didn't seem to be any reason for the girl's reaction... it certainly couldn't be the minipet who seemed so happy to see her. Or at least as happy as a mostly-inanimate object could look. Still, as that whine surfaced from the girl still stuck to the door (thanks to Nuk himself) the pieces of the puzzle began to fit into place, her rising panic coaxing him into letting her go, although his body was still between the door and the frame, unfortunately blocking her from merely closing it again. Whether or not this was intentional could be debated, although for the most part it seemed he was quite innocent in this matter, more interested in her curious reaction than in being mean for the moment.

"I think it likes you," he started with a little curiosity, grinning after a moment of consideration. Indeed, it seemed the thing was following Amrita, Nuk's grin broadening at the realization. Clearly he still did not understand the situation -- in his mind, this was all too adorable, something that was not very good for his reputation but still was very entertaining.

+++

It was the Skinwalker's fault that the thing was now on the loose (and what a terrible creature it was, floating there all content-like!), and so it would be the Skinwalker that would have to save her. Instead of running away like she wanted to when her hands were released, she instead latched onto whatever part of the much taller boil that she could. Leg, arm, hand, pelt - she wasn't really in the mood to care what she grabbed, so long as she could hide behind him. Normally she wouldn't dare touch him, but normally there wasn't a terrible creature in her room, about to be let into the unsuspecting hallway.

Yes, she was paranoid.

"I don't like it." She said in a very serious way, peering around the boil who had both doomed and momentarily saved her from the smoldering thing. The Charm floated happily, but alas it could not get to it's Mama; that friend of hers was in the way! But, for now, it floated from one side of the door opening to the next, trying to find a way past the tall and furry friend. Amrita was very happy to stay on the other side of Nukpana. Very, very happy.

"It...it showed up after a f...fire..." The word was uttered in a very low tone as though it were a forbidden one. "Beast attacked Candycane lane and it...it's been watching me ever since!" She whined, shedding some light on the terrible creature for her fellow actor.

+++

Amber eyes followed the girl's desperate, panicked movements as she darted behind him, putting him between her and the minipet which looked nothing but pleased to be reunited with it's owner, his head swiveling around to stare curiously at her as she latched onto him tightly. That in itself was unusual -- he didn't think he had ever been the shield in a situation like this... usually he was the one people were trying to be shielded from. At least it made things interesting, he guessed, but the usually-very-gruff-and-mean monster wasn't exactly sure how to react in this sort of circumstance. Natural impulses told him to snicker, but for some odd reason he found it difficult to do so, possibly because Amrita was about half his size. So, of course, he did nothing, instead wondering if he should feel some sort of empathy, and wondering if this confusion was part of the process.

In the end he decided no, it wasn't.

Nuk's reaction to Amrita's comment was to lift his eyebrow quizzically, looking completely skeptical of her statement of dislike for the harmless little crystal. Nevermind it had death in the name, lookit how cute it was, bobbing there trying to get at her -- it loved her! How could she not like it? It was with this mindset that the skinwalker almost moved out of the way to let the tiny creature get to it's 'momma,' thinking better of it at the last second. Maybe it was the mention of 'fire,' or perhaps it was empathy after all slowly starting to seep into his thick skull, but he reached down to pick up the girl who was clearly so unhappy, letting her sit on his shoulders to keep her away from the crystal.

"Your deathcrystal attacked you?" He asked, a little surprised. His own crystal, whom had grown into quite a handsome and fearful beast, had done nothing of the sort, although it had tried to assert itself in the beginning. Still, beyond trying to sleep on his bed and destroy his things, (he'd had to put it in the closet after that,) it hadn't done anything nearly to that magnitude... perhaps she was right in being fearful? Glancing down at it, he narrowed his eyes suspiciously, lifting one foot to try to nudge it away, if only so Amrita could be more coherent.

+++

In her dedication to keeping Nukpana between herself and the Death Charm, each of his little shifts was met with a shift of her own; if he moved to the side, even a little, she shuffled right after him to the same side. He was going to keep her from the charm for as long as he was here! It had been decided.

The moment it seemed he was going to pick her up, she only happily tried to climb onto him to 'help', and once on his shoulders she held on tightly, even going so far as to hook her backwards feet under his arms to his back. The skinwalker was tall, very tall...and that was perfect. So far the Charm had stayed mostly on ground level, or at least to her waist level; hopefully it couldn't float any higher than that. The question though, had her biting her lip lightly.

"W-well, no, but...but it's Mama did!" Or she assumed it was the Charm's parent, as the Charm only showed up after the Christmas Ninja sucker punched it into the sky. It was the only thing that made sense! "A-and yesterday, it almost lit Bookbat on fire!" Shaking like a little maraca, she wrapped her arms around the top of his head; even if he wanted to get her down, he'd have to fight her for it.

Though it was pretty obvious that he'd win easily.

+++

There was another blink, and Nuk's eyes lifted to the girl perched on his shoulders, his expression slightly flattened in a very comical manner, looking very much as if he considered she had just led him astray. The fact that she'd omitted certain details, however, actually only intrigued him on the inside -- cute got you his attention, but deception kept it. In a few seconds he had already considered all the things Amrita could do that he couldn't in that department, and for that brief moment he was quite impressed. To her credit, he hadn't even seriously considered that'd she might have been stretching the truth, far too taken in by the adorable face that had been peering up at him with wide eyes and a horrified, slightly-parted mouth, which was really an accomplishment in itself.

For the most part it seemed his efforts were fruitful in keeping the minipet away from the girl, although to any onlookers the situation might have looked utterly hilarious, what with an eight year old on his shoulders and him balanced on one foot in an attempt to keep a floating crystal at legs-length. Then again, any onlookers that might have snickered at said situation would have surely gotten a swift knuckle sandwich as well, something most of them probably knew, and was possibly the reason they were keeping quiet, so it was hard to tell if there were any or not. At the moment the skinwalker was too preoccupied with what was now felt like a vibrating neck brace clinging to him, his vision shaking a little as she made his head bobble along with her. Reaching up, he set his hand firmly on her head right between the flowers, pressing down as if there might be an off switch like there was on an alarm clock, which only made him look more like some demented, painfully untalented ballet dancer.

"Why don't ya just show it who's boss?" He replied, as if it were the easiest thing to do. And it was... for a nearly six-foot bruteball player who beat up and threatened kids practically for a living. Once again he didn't really take his conversationalist (or her height) into consideration. He was far too used to being selfish for that.

+++

She wasn't stretching the truth per se, she was being prejudiced against the creature whose parent successfully killed most of the students in Candy Cane Lane. She had a great reason to fear the happily floating charm! It didn't cross her mind that he believe her to be deceptive though. If she had an inkling of it, she would have apologized profusely; it wasn't her intention, and she certainly didn't have ulterior motives that DIDN'T involve getting rid of the Death Charm.

Like a good alarm clock she stopped trembling when the big hand pat down on her head. Headpats were always the one thing that calmed her down near instantly; it erased the immediate fears from her mind as though it were an etch-a-sketch being cleared. Nukpana's horribly untalented ballet dancing pose paid off in the end as she relaxed at least a little bit.

"It won't listen to me! ...And it's made from FIRE." She sputtered out the word in a squeaking gasp, burying her face into whatever hair or pelt she could. The thing scared her, it was made from her greatest fear, and it wouldn't leave her alone. She was doomed. "I don't know hoooow~" She whined next, horribly muffled by the back of his head.

+++

(( Will update as posts come in ))