It began with the Nightmare.
It had not been quite like the others that Jack and Sandy had fought together, since the battle at Easter. The few strays they had come across were either vicious or cowardly, depending on the amount of dreams they had absorbed. Some gained strength, and others gained size, though for the latter it sometimes became a disadvantage, making them slow in their speed as well as their intelligence, and making it easy to trick them. This made the work of reigning them in, and returning them to their original state as Dreamsand much easier, though Jack would quietly admit to himself that he liked it when the Nightmares were fast, and could give them a good, exciting chase, before he trapped them with a blast of ice, or Sandy caught them with a woven lasso of Dream sand.
This Nightmare, however, was small, about the size of a squirrel, clever and very, very fast. It had popped out of nowhere while Jack had been telling Sandy about a snowball fight he'd had with some new Believers earlier that day, when it had pounced out from nowhere, screaming as loud as possible into Jack's ear of all things, right before tearing off to who knows where.
Sandy and Jack were right on its heels, with Jack being in the lead for the most part. As it turned out, the Nightmare was very good at dodging, weaving through gatherings of chimneys, through alleyways and eventually beginning to weave through trees, as it lead the two Guardians with it out into the woods.
While Jack was eager to keep chasing it, Sandy began to slow down, frowning as he did so. The Winter Spirit noticed, the wind helping him to skid to a stop, before he used his staff to grab hold of a slender birch tree, and used it to turn himself around quickly. "Sandy, come on! It's getting away!" He called. The Dream Weaver nodded, but made a 'wait' sign, then a question mark, and what looked like a bear trap.
Jack frowned. "You think it might be a trap?" When the other nodded, he gave a thoughtful 'hrm' and settled on a sturdy enough branch, while holding on to the tree.
"Then what do we do? Should we go get the oth-YEOW!" The Winter Spirit cried out, when a black streak of something tore right past him, and with out a doubt bit him, followed by a quick tearing 'RRRIP' sound.
The smaller Nightmare practically perched on a nearby branch, a piece of Jack's pants between its teeth, as it grinned at the two Guardians, displaying the piece of fabric like a proud trophy. Jack gawked for a moment, then scowled.
"Why you little-" He set off before Sandy could stop him, the Nightmare shrieking gleefully as it set off once more, the two of them weaving between the trees and shadows. The Sandman grimaced in slight despair over the others temper (he thought it a miracle at times how Jack had started to get along with Bunny), but quickly set off after them both.
The Nightmare eventually lead Jack to the opening of a cave. This gave the Winter Spirit pause, if only because he could grimly remember what happened the last time something had lured him into a dark cave without any backup.
He would probably have let the wind carry him back to where Sandy was, if he hadn't heard the sound of someone crying. Tempted as he was to go straight in and investigate, he decided to wait until his fellow Guardian arrived. The moment Sandy finally caught up to him, Jack was given a solid scolding in a whirl of Dreamsand by the Dreamweaver, telling him how irresponsible it was to just take off like that!
And then Sandy frowned, paused and shaped an icon of an ear, a question mark and a closed eye with a tear running from it.
"Yeah, I hear it too." Jack agreed with a frown, "but I figured it would be best to wait until you got here. Didn't have the best of luck the last time I heard voices coming from a dark cave."
The Dream Weaver simply nodded, then signed how he would lead the way. If a child had gotten trapped in a place where a Nightmare was as well, then as Guardians they had to do their best to help.
They moved slowly, taking in their surroundings as they did so, with Sandy wielding his whips, while Jack kept his staff ready. As they got further into the cave, Jack grimaced at their surroundings, spotting a range of familiar cages. He nudged Sandy and nodded towards them with a 'look familiar?' expression. The Sandman responded with a grim nod. There was no doubt that this cave was part of the Boogeymans domain.
If that sorry piece of a shade has gone so far as to kidnap a child... Jack thought angrily, but stopped when Sandy suddenly grabbed him by his hoodie, tugging quickly while pointing at one of the cages. The Winter spirit frowned, narrowing his eyes when he spotted the tiny Nightmare circling the cage, the piece of fabric from Jacks pants still in its mouth.
When listening closely, the sound of sobbing could be heard from that particular cage.
The Nightmare spotted them and quickly disappeared with a shriek, when Jack sent a blast of ice magic at it. A bit of it hit the bottom of the cage, which caused it to rock, and the sobbing turned into an outright bawling.
"Crud..." Jack said with a grimace, earning a glare from Sandy. The Dreamweaver gave him a firm 'wait here' sign, before he flew up to the cage. Once there, he began to examine things thoroughly, because you never knew if it was another of Pitch's tricks, and a well made one at that.
But when Sandy looked into the cage, his eyes widened in surprise and shock. He gestured wildly for Jack to join him, his sand making shapes so fast, that the other had a hard time understanding him, while he grabbed onto the cage to steady it. One of his more desperate symbols took the shape of a padlock being smashed with a hammer. Jack frowned as he joined him, looking into the cage with a worried frown. The darkness made it hard to see things properly, but the glow from Sandy did, that he could at least see that the child was wrapped up in some kind of dark blanket.
"It's okay..." Jack called soothingly. "We'll get you out of there."
Or he hoped so anyway, the Winter Spirit thought worriedly, as he examined the cage along with Sandy. Already then he could tell something was off. While the cage had the same design as the ones he had seen in the other part of Pitch's lair, there was no part of it that looked like a door you could open.
Luckily however, it seemed like Sandy had a solution at hand. He motioned for Jack to get ready to pick up something, while he began to coat some of the bars of the cage with Dream Sand. A fine layer at first, but then adding more and more. The dark iron began to hiss, as if it had been coated with acid, and Jack soon realized what the Sandman was doing. But it also meant that other things might be listening, and the Winter Spirit caught himself looking around in alarm, watching the shadows in alert.
The child had stopped whimpering, probably reacting to what Sandy was doing. When Jack looked back, he smirked when he noticed how almost half the bars of the cage had been eaten away at this point, and he carefully perched on the edge of the cage. The soft glow from Sandy made a small figure more visible, and Jack thought he could see a pair of eyes watching him, wide with fear and brimming with tears. Who knew how long this poor kid had been stuck in this place?
"Come on, it's okay..." The Guardian of Fun said gently, "let's get you out of here." He leaned forward, carefully gathering the bundle up, and held it close. The child was stiff as a board at first, but Jack figured it was because the poor kid was, quite understandably, terrified of being dropped. But then it carefully wrapped its arms around his neck, giving a quiet sniffle.
"That's it..." Jack murmured softly, rubbing the child's back as he held it close. "You're gonna be okay."
Sandy on his part was looking worried, frowning as he hovered carefully around them. His eyes widened at sudden, and he quickly tugged on Jack's hoodie, pointing to the darkness before he quickly wielded his whips, scowling fiercely at what he saw. Jack looked, and felt himself go paler.
There were several Nightmares hanging from the ceiling, now all revealed by the glow from the steadily dissolving cage, their eyes lighting up in a range of white and gold as they glared at the intruders. They were, Jack noticed with slight dread, the kind that resembled the beasts they had fought around Easter. Which meant that they were sleek, fast and very, very dangerous.
"Hold on tight, kid." Jack muttered. The child let out a quiet whimper, but dug its fingers into the hoodie for a better grip. Then the whimper turned into a loud shriek when Jack suddenly let himself drop, before the wind caught him quickly, sending him speeding towards the cave's mouth, with Sandy following suit.
The Nightmares screeched in fury behind them and came after them in a large wave, their hooves seeming to crackle like thunder as they tore through the air after their prey, their eyes gleaming in hunger and fury.
Once they were outside, Sandy and Jack quickly set off upwards in an attempt to get away from the Nightmares. Looking down, Jack gasped when he saw the thick wave of the creatures thundering out from the cave. "There has to be at least thousands!" He called to Sandy, who could only nod with a frown. It shouldn't have been possible for there to still be so many after the Easter battle, but it was something they had to worry about later. Right now, the child they had rescued was their first priority. Cruel as the thought was, it also left them at a disadvantage, being unable to protect the child while fighting the creatures at the same time.
The Nightmares had followed them up into the sky, and had begun to circle them in a mass of snarling, screaming forms, seeming almost to merge in a shapeless black cloud of black sand and shadows, that only seemed to keep its distance, because Sandman was quick with his whips.
Sandy narrowed his eyes, looking to Jack, before grabbing him by the hoodie and setting off up straight up into the air. Jack followed the best he could while hugging the child close, right before Sandy seemed to drop them all three like a rock being dropped into water. His own golden cloud of Dreamsand seemed to expand, and before Jack knew it, he seemed to be drowning in a sea of gold...
And then they were in the air again, swooping down across an icy landscape that Jack quickly recognized as the northern frozen wastes around North's castle. There were no sign of the Nightmares, much to his relief, but the child they had saved was still (rather understandably) distressed, as Jack and Sandy set down for a moment to catch their breath.
"It's okay, it's okay..." Jack murmured to the kid, rocking it gently, while rubbing its back. "That was scary, huh? Don't worry, we're safe now." He looked to Sandy, frowning as he did so. "We're close to North's, right?" Sandy gave a confirming nod. "Right. Then we better get this little guy there as fast as we can." The child had slowly stopped crying, and had settled down, hugging close to Jack as he did so. Jack frowned in worry, brushing his fingers lightly across the child through the black material of the cloth he was wrapped in. The poor kid was frightfully thin... Just how long had Pitch kept the poor kid in that cage?
Sandy was looking concerned as well, yet at the same time he also seemed confused. He moved closer, and reached out carefully to gently touch the child's shoulder, drawing its attention to him. It turned its head to look at him, and as it did so, the upper part of the black blanket (or robe? Jack wondered) fell away, and Jack could only blink in surprise and confusion.
The robe had dropped down over thin, bony shoulders, revealing how the child was a boy. He had a mass of black hair that seemed to stand up like a crest, and in the light of the winter sun, his skin was pale, with a very obvious grey tint. His eyes were golden, and they welled up with tears as the boy began to hiccup with sobs again, clearly upset at the sight of the Sandman.
"S-Sandy..." He whimpered. "I'm s- I'm sorry!" And he let out a heart broken wail that had Jack cringing, before he instinctively pulled the little boy close to comfort him.
Sandy looked at the little boy sadly, before he carefully conjured up a golden butterfly, and made it fly into the boys face. The child's sobs died down, and Jack held him close as he passed out in the Winter Spirits arms.
The Sandman gently tapped on Jack's arm to get his attention, and carefully signaled to Jack, that they needed to get this boy to the North Pole at once. Judging from his very serious expression, there was no time to argue or ask questions, so Jack very carefully gathered the little boy up in his arms, and allowed Sandy to lift them all three up on a cloud of Dreamsand, that quickly turned into the shape of a carpet. As they flew, more and more questions seemed to gather up in Jack's head, though there was one that kept repeating itself, as he looked at the sleeping boy in his arms.
Why did the little boy look so much like Pitch Black?