Me: I own nothing except the story and Phoenix/ Tefnut/Jackson. Yes that is his name in this story. I know... I am so lazy aren't I? ^.^
Asher: The "angst" is strong in this one. I love it.
For those of you who don't know Phoenix is a character that is in my story The Unknown Marauder among others.
Sandy perched himself on a small cloud of dream sand outside of a small home on the outstretched of the village looking on at the scene through the window and shock his head sadly sending his sandy hair flying into the dry desert air. There was a look of dismay in his gentle golden eyes his gentle face set in a sad expression as he watched the quivering figure in the the blankets through the open window. He couldn't help but feel that the boy had a very striking similarities to Jack Frost the new spirit created by Mim not twenty one years ago to the day.
He could not for the undead life of him understand it. No matter what he did the boy continued to have Nightmares. He worked hard on the boy. Much longer then he spent on most and still nothing he did worked to help relieve the child's Nightmares. The boy still continued to shake and shiver and cry out even as the dream sand shifting and turing above his head in unfamiliar shapes. Needless to say his mother did not understand what was wrong with him. Poor lady. No one else did either when she had told them. The poor boy. Every night it was the same thing with him. Sometimes it was even worse then just a Nightmare. When the children talked and laughed about their good dreams he would be off in the corner looking forlorn and sad. However the children never excluded him that made Sandy smile. To see a child exclude a child just for not laughing when they were was something unheard of. But still the boy had refused making the children sad.
"He must be eating too much sugar before bed!" Tooth has instantly proclaimed when he had told her. North had blamed Bunny by saying his eggs were rotten, or something like that. And Bunny was saying something along the lines of mistletoe being the creation of Pitch being responsible for it. Although when it had continued to happen after Easter and Christmas they both shock their head in resignation. Bunny had said something about the Groundhog being responsible, somehow. Umbrick had gotten worried and startled when Sandy had told him. Though he wasn't a guardian he was the closest to Mim and thus to the world. He knew what would happen if the boy continued to have fears of the night. Even Katherine had taken it upon herself to come into the boy's village and read to the boy a Fairy-tale story in order to sooth him. A gentle story with a happy ending. In which the Princess saved the Prince in distress from a magic hating king or whatever and the both of them lived happily ever after in the end. The normal fairy tale stories that were written for this world's children. Something to make the children happy.
A fat lot of good that had done. The boy still continued to have Nightmares no matter his or her actions.
Sandy did not know what was wrong either. He sighed making little to no noise at all. Making up his mind he willed himself into the room floating right next to the boy who's face was brimming with sweat and tears that Sandy gently brushed aside. He rarely used this technique Mim had given him as he though it was a complete depravation of privacy but now it seemed like he had no choice He had to see what the boy was dreaming about after all Pitch was not strong enough to cause this much terror. He placed his hand above the boys eyes and closed his.
A sun bleached, pure white battle field atop a thin surface, bodies everywhere everywhere, shouting, yelling, the twisted laughter of Pitch bloodshed and bodies turning to ash on the ground being trampled on the ground, and then a figure of a girl dressed in the color of the sun holding a shinning sword taking down Nightmare after Nightmare if only to be cut in half by Pitch and falling to the ground. The shoutings of a man dressed similarly to her but more regally. His golden eyes wide in horror and burning like his sun with anger. He knew who the man in gold was, even if he had only seen him once. But what he recognized even more was the crib holding the figure of a crying child being guarded and protected by Night-light.
With a cold shudder down his back Sandy pulled back away from the boys un-awakened thoughts and looked down at the boy on the bed his eyes wide in shock and amazement. Had he... just seen the last darkness battle ever fought? The one that determined the outcome of the world. Could it be that this boy had been a warrior of that time defending the light from Pitch with her master by her side and countless other gods and others of her creed? But why was he here? From what he had seen he should have been reborn with her master... in a world that was now closed off to all but in death. Not had he only been reborn in the wrong place but in the wrong gender as well?
Suddenly the boy's bright blue eyes opened and looked up and for an instant Sandy thought he was looking right at him. But no. The young "boy" was looking past him. Looking up at the "moon."
"It was all for you... so be grateful," the boy said silently. Sandy frowned and the young "boy" met his gaze. "She forgot his name... I used to think that was so cruel of her... but I know death is not thought over much here. At least not anymore." "His" eyes told the Sandman that the boy would not remember anything from this moment.
Sandy did not know what to say to him. All he could do was make the boy fall asleep. Tonight the Nightmares did not come, if only for tonight. This was what he deserved. He would tell Mim about this, or perhaps he already knew which was why he had asked him to come here tonight. Before he left Sandy bowed before the figure on the bed before leaving through the window.
Outside a figure stood in the moon's light watching Sandy leave. He did not want to be caught by him and even though he wanted to join his friend he wanted to see how the boy was doing. So when the last golden sand was finally gone he zoomed silently down and climbed in through the open window looking down at the boys sleeping smiling face wishing he could touch the boy so he could tuck a lock of his snow white hair back from his peacefully sleeping form.
Jack Frost never understood why, unlike most kids, he always worried and came back for this one. Perhaps it was because he was the son of the little girl who had come to his pond every day. The desert did not suite him. It didn't make him melt like most people though, but the girl had given him a scene of belonging and happiness even when she had had to move. So he would do the same for her child.
For the rest of the night he watched the boy sleep soundly thanking Sandy for whatever he had done.
