Author Notes: Chapter One of a new RotG FanFiction. I know, I haven't finished the other one yet and I know, Scarlet is not in this one. She's not even going to be mentioned in this story, but she was more or less a practice. I've decided to make an actual spirit this time. You shall find out who as you read. "This is scaryk26 saying: HAVE FUUUUUUUUUUUN READING!"
It started out as a beautiful, peaceful day at the Tooth Palace. All the Mini Faries were working hard, as always. Nothing big had happened, not since Pitch attacked, but that was over a year ago now. Toothiana was cheerful and chipper, as usual. There was certainly no change there. She was just chatting to a few of her Faries whilst concentrating on her work, which she helped with a lot more often. She enjoyed exercising and stretching her wings. Seeing the children was more or less the reason why she was helping out a lot more than usual. She loved kids so much.
Whilst in the middle of a conversation with Baby Tooth, a strange dark cloud hovered over the Palace. Tooth stopped in mid-sentence as she gazed up at the mysterious cloud. It was most peculiar, especially the material it was made from. It didn't look like you could swipe your hand through it and expect to feel nothing. It looked like you could actually touch it and feel the texture of rough grains of sand.
'Sand?' Tooth thought to herself curiously. '...Oh no!' Suddenly, a herd of Nightmares burst out of the sand cloud like torpedoes, heading straight for the Tooth Palace. All of the Mini Faries squeaked and squealed with fear as they hid in every available hiding spot in the Palace, trying their best to avoid the sandy mares.
Tooth, however, was frozen stiff and couldn't move a muscle as the Nightmares practically petrified her. She was broken out of the trance as a Nightmare came charging at her, causing her to yelp. She closed her eyes tightly, waiting for the fierce contact... but nothing ever came. She slowly blinked her eyes open seeing nothing but her Palace, free of Nightmares and clear of their sand. The Faries came out of hiding, one by one, and looked to the sky. Nothing but clear blue skies as far as the eye can see. Tooth had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach that something awful was about to happen. She gathered a small group of Faries and fled to the North Pole.
Even though Easter had long past, Bunnymund still needed to prepare for next Easter. And he always thought it best to get a head start. He sat on a rock somewhere deep in his warren, an egg in one paw and a paintbrush in the other. He'd only painted 346 eggs on his own and there were still millions more to be done. Though, then again, his little googies could very well paint themselves in the pools. He was just there to paint the main ones.
Quick as a flash, everything went black. Bunny literally jumped off the rock he was sitting on and looked around, trying to find any source of light. His breathing became more rough and shaky as the seconds ticked away. Just then, the darkness disappeared as fast as it came and what Bunny saw made his heart stop. Not a single egg to be seen. Not even the huge, 7ft Guardian Stones were seen or heard. Even the egg in his paw was missing!
He was too scared to move or even breathe! That was until the darkness surrounded him once more then disappeared, revealing the mounds and mounds of Easter Eggs covering the warren. The Guardian of Hope sighed in relief and dropped to his knees, taking a large group of googies in his furry arms and holding them tightly to his chest. He gently put them back on the ground and stood up straight.
"I don't know what the heck that was, but I need to warn the others. Fast." And with that he thumped his foot on the ground and hopped down the hole that appeared beneath him. He was going to pay North a visit.
Jack was returning to his lake after spreading joy and mischief in his little home town of Burgess. He flew over the trees that surrounded his lake and landed next to one. He pulled his hood down and ruffled his snowy white hair, leaning back to rest on a tree. He softly closed his eyes and sighed with a smile. He had another great and seemingly perfect day with Jamie, Sophie and the others. He bumped into Baby Tooth and a few other Fairies today as they were collecting teeth. They managed to squeeze in a few conversations before they had to fly home and file the teeth.
As Jack was just about to settle down and take a quick break, he heard a snap to his right. He opened his eyes, expecting to see a child, but no. He saw a large black wolf with golden eyes that seemed to glimmer like the sun. Jack gasped and stood up straight from the tree, slowly backing away. That was until he bumped into another wolf behind him. He jumped into the air when the hungry canine snarled and growled at the Winter Spirit. He flew up to a branch that was fairly high off the ground, high enough so that the wolves couldn't jump up and tear his legs off.
When Jack started to relax, he looked down at the wolves and took note of how familiar their patterns were. They didn't have fur anywhere on their bodies. They were made out of black sand and their patterns bared a striking resemblance to those on a Nightmare.
"Pitch?!" He questioned himself as he noticed that the wolves seemed to multiply. They were coming out of the shadows, behind bushes, trees. Everything! There were no longer two lone wolves now. By the time their pack had fully formed there were 20 wolves all together. But Jack knew that there could easily be more lurking in the shadows.
There were too many for him to handle alone at one time. He knew this wouldn't be the smartest thing he ever did, but it worked. He closed his eyes tight and cleared his mind, not allowing the wolves to sense his fear. He inhaled deeply through his nose and exhaled through his mouth. Then he opened his eyes... Nothing. He looked all around him for any sign of black sand or intensely dark shadows. Not a single one of them could be seen. He sighed, relieved. He knew he should tell the others about this in case they experience the same thing. He launched himself off the branch and made his way to the North Pole.
Meanwhile in Brazil...
Night had finally come and the Sandman was busy spreading happy dreams to all. As he sat on his cloud guiding the dreams to each house, he felt a strange presence lurking nearby. As he looked around and saw nothing, he shrugged it off and went back to work. Just as he was about to send the next dream off, he noticed his cloud was turning black. It started from the front and worked its way all around until the entire cloud was as black as ebony. Sandy hovered off the cloud and stared at it. He was shocked to say the least and a little worried.
He shook his head and began making a new cloud. But as he was making it, he noticed black sand come from his hands instead of gold. Now he was scared. How was this happening? Why was it happening? He tried again and again to form golden sand but had no luck. He tried to form a beautiful dream about harmless tropical fish, but instead ended up forming a pack of huge, black, hungry sharks. He tried again but this time he wanted to form a Brontosaurus herd. He managed to make one but as he got onto making the next, he somehow made a ferocious Tyrannosaurus Rex. They began to multiply and they eventually took down the peaceful Sauropod. Sandy looked down at his hands with fear in his eyes. Never before had he been able to create such monstrous nightmares.
'...Nightmares?' He thought to himself. The penny had finally dropped. There was only one spirit who could create Nightmares and that was, of course, the Boogeyman. 'Pitch!' He had no time to waste if he wanted to stop Pitch from spreading even more terrible curses. He, thankfully, managed to form his Sand Plane to make his way to the Pole to warn the others. On the way there he tried forming more peaceful dreams. Success! 'Thank Moon!' He could make dreams again instead of nasty Nightmares.
Tooth was the first to make it to the Pole closely followed by Bunny and Jack. Sandy was the last to arrive but was the first to question why everyone else was here. He began making various signs using his dreamsand and Tooth answered.
"Well, I'm here to tell you guys about what happened at the Tooth Palace. It was awful." Bunnymund took notice of what she said and quickly butted in.
"'ang on, Tooth. Are you tellin' me you 'ad a bad experience too?" She nodded then Baby Tooth began to explain how the Nightmares had attacked her Palace again for the first time in over a year.
"Nothing bad had really happened. The Nightmares didn't take any of us. But they did give us quite a fright."
"I had trouble with black, sandy wolves that looked like they were gonna eat me. They were coming out from bushes, shadows, trees, rocks. You name it!" Jack explained, glancing between the Guardians.
"You guys know my warren never goes dark until it's night time, right?" Bunny asked rhetorically. "Well, it did today. My googies disappeared as soon as the darkness did. Every living' creature, besides me, vanished. Bu', thankfully, they all came back when the darkness reappeared and disappeared again." Sandy explained how everything he tried to create turned into ferocious nightmares. Even if it was something as simple as fish, they turned into bloodthirsty sharks.
"You all right now, Sandy?!" Jack asked worried but was relieved when Sandy made a little golden unicorn, a smile on his face to help get the good news across. Everyone looked towards North's office door as he came striding into the main room. He smiled as he greeted his fellow Guardians, his voice booming with joy.
"My Yetis told me you have come to pay me visit. So, what is big news?"
"Pitch is back." Tooth said calmly so as not to startle him too much. North's smile quickly turned into a frown and his eyebrows furrowed slightly.
"You sure, Tooth?"
"We're all sure, Mate. He spooked all of us one by one." Bunny replied. North scratched his beard in thought but was quickly put off when the lights started to flicker. Everyone looked up at the lights as they slowly dimmed until they were flat out, the only light source coming from the globe. The Guardians huddled together back to back for protection against anything that might strike them. Suddenly, all of the lights on the globe went out leaving the entire room pitch black. Everyone held their breath in the intense darkness... until the globe lights flickered back on again. They all turned their heads to look at the globe and noticed a mysterious black shadow hovering in front of it. It had golden eclipse eyes that stared at the Guardians watching their every move. Their eyes widened as the shadow smiled evilly with bright white, razor-sharp fangs.
The globe lights flickered off again, leaving the room dark and silent once more before all of the lights, including the main ones that lit up the workshop, came back on again. For good this time. They all looked at each other with wide eyes before a dark cackle invaded their ears, making them shudder with fear.
"Okay." North began. "I believe you now."
"I hate to admit it, but that was creepy!" Jack exclaimed, shivering once again. Everyone nodded as they looked at each other, worried about what they were going to do. Sandy just happened to look up to see the Man in the Moon making his way to the open hatch above the workshop. He used various sand signals to tell the others about Manny. North looked towards the open hatch to see the Moon in full view. He smiled happily as he spoke.
"Man in Moon! It's good to see you old friend. You have probably come to tell us about Pitch?" A single ray of moonlight shone down onto the floor on a large tile, revealing a shadow that held the shape of a man with broad shoulders, swept back hair, a smooth round nose sloping down straight from his forehead and a long pointy chin. Nobody else but one being held this silhouette. The Boogeyman. The Nightmare King. Pitch Black.
"We beat him once, Manny. We'll beat him again, right?" Jack questioned, hoping the answer would be 'yes'. The shadow in the moonlight changed to form the shape of a young woman sitting on a large shire horse with a long tail that touched the floor easily and a mane that came down to its knees. The woman was hunched over and appeared to be wearing a long hooded robe that draped over the horse's backside. In her left hand she held the reigns and in her right hand she held a massive yet thin scythe.
The Guardians gasped slightly, shocked at why Manny would pick this spirit to deal with Pitch. She was the most powerful spirit the ever walked the face of the Earth. She can do things no one else can, especially when it comes to killing. She could make it hurt or she could make it painless. She could kill you slowly or she could end your life there and then. Not only can she take the lives of human beings, but she could also take the lives of spirits as well. The best thing about her job is that she feels no pain, she IS dead, she CANNOT die.
She is Death.