Tooth's revelation terrified her. When Jack playfully pulled North's snow globe from his jumper and bounced it from hand to hand, she did not smile or laugh. She watched Summer. The girl smiled wanly at his antics, but did not laugh.
She's like Pitch, Tooth thought. Just like him. Dark, scary... we're making a mistake.
"Aw, c'mon, I can see you're just wanting to crack a real smile!" Jack exclaimed, tossing the snow globe to Summer. Summer yelped as the reached for it, nearly dropping it. She didn't laugh. "It could have broken!" she snapped.
"Aww, lighten up!" Jack took the snow globe and, with a naughty grin, smashed it to the ground. Summer yelped as the orb exploded on the carpet, but the cry died when the portal became apparent. "That's not funny!" she yelled.

"It's hilarious!" Jack insisted.
Tooth realised something else as she watched the banter.
Jack never messed around with her like that.
She began to feel the first hot slivers of jealousy slide into her chest.

"Let's go before the portal closes," Tooth snapped, rising into the air and darting forward into the portal.
"Wow, someone's got their tail feathers in a twist today," Jack said, but Tooth ignored him.
"Alrighty then. Come on Summer, time to meet the Guardians."
Jack looked back at Summer. Under her mop of dark hair, she looked afraid. She clung to her bag tightly. "What's going through the portal like?" she asked timidly.
"Like being in an elevator," Jack said reassuringly. He reached for her hand. "Your tummy goes woosh, and then it's all over. It's kinda fun, really." He winked at her.
On the other side of the portal, the other Guardians were waiting. North, Bunnymund, and Sandy waited in a large semi-circle, surrounded by elves and a few yetis. Summer's jaw dropped when she saw the Guardians.
"Summer," Jack announced, "These are the Guardians. Guardians, this is Summer. We think she might be pretty interesting."
Summer stared at the three Guardians. "You're San-uh, North," she said, looking intimidated. She stared at his Naughty/Nice tattoos. "Um. Wow. They make you look a lot more family-friendly back home."
She reacted similarly to Bunnymund. "Are you even a rabbit?" she asked. "You look more like a kangaroo."
"Definitely a rabbit," Bunnymund said, crossing his arms. "A Pooka, to be precise."
"Yeah, they make you a lot more family friendly too," Summer said cautiously.
Her eyes widened when they alighted on Sandy. "So you're the Sand Man," she said curiously, leaning close to look at him. "I've got a lot of questions for you."
It got very quiet. Jack coughed loudly. "Uh, so," he said. "What do you think, guys?"
"You're certainly different," North observed. "And you can see us."
"That's why we picked her," Jack said proudly. "She was the only adult who saw us."
"Pretty good candidate then, if you ask me," Bunnymund said gruffly. "What's the cane for?"
"Damaged hip and knee joints," Summer said. "I get chronic pain in them. It's easier to walk with a cane."
Summer kept her eyes fixed on Sandy. Jack could see that Sandy was getting nervous. Why was Summer so interested in Sandy?
"Well, Summer," North said, "Welcome to the North Pole! We most certainly hope you enjoy your stay here." He beamed cheerily at Summer, who stared blankly. "North Pole, huh?" she said. "No wonder it was cold."
If Tooth had eyebrows, she would have raised them. Didn't this girl know how to get excited? All of her childhood dreams had been revealed as true. Most people would have been jumping around like maniacs, not commenting on the inclement weather.
Summer turned to Sandy. "So you seriously conjure dreams for all the children in the world? All of them?"
Sandy nodded, with an uneasy shrug.
"Of course he does, he's the bringer of dreams," Bunnymund said impatiently. "What, you think we keep him around for his riveting conversation?"
Sandy frowned and elbowed Bunnymund.
Summer ignored the joke. She stared intently at Sandy. "I think your dreamsand might be faulty," she said. "I haven't had a good dream since I was seven."
Sandy's eyes widened in surprise. A question mark appeared over his head.
"What do you mean, no good dreams?" Jack asked. He felt uneasy.
"I mean, no good dreams," Summer said. "I stopped having good dreams at all. The only dreams I've had since then were bad. I have then every night. So you might want to run an inspection on your sand."
Sandy shook his head. It wasn't possible for his dreamsand to be faulty. He gazed at Summer, her intent blue-green eyes drilling him back. He began to feel troubled.
It wasn't that his dreamsand was being faulty. It was that it was being blocked.

Was this the only child this had happened to?

North coughed to break the silence. "Summer, why don't I take you on a tour of the workshop?" he suggested. "I think you like my toys. I might have something to interest you."
Summer looked up at North, and shrugged. "I guess," she said.

North bundled the girl out of the room. As the door slammed, the remaining four Guardians stared bewilderedly at each other.

"Well," Bunnymund announced, "That was thoroughly underwhelming."


In the workshop, North was hoping the strategy that once worked on Jack might work on Summer. There was something curious about her, besides the strange despair that hung about her like a cloud. Every time he caught a glimpse of her eyes, fire seemed to leap in them. Something was smouldering in her, something running deeper than the despair.

"I thought the elves did the work," Summer said, staring at the huge yetis wielding tiny nails and hammers. The yetis' great hands seemed as if they would be too unwieldy and clumsy to hold the tools, but they handled the tiny hammers and chisels and needles with practiced grace and skill.

"They think they do work," North said with a wink. "The yetis know better. What do you think?"
Summer looked around at the yetis bustling in their work, the bright jewel colours of the toys and the chopping, hammering, and banging sounds, the elves and their chaos. "Not bad," she said.
North saw Summer's eyes alight on a box of art supplies. He watched her eyes widen. Summer crossed the room and held her hands out almost instinctively to the pencils, paintbrushes and other tools.
"You like art?" North asked. Summer nodded wordlessly, testing each pencil on a strip of paper with a practiced hand. "Good quality leads," she said quietly.
North smiled. "I think I have something you might like," he said, leading her to a small room.

The pen he'd been tinkering with earlier still lay on the desk besides the strips of scrap paper.

"This is my latest invention," he proclaimed. "A – how you say – pet project of mine. I intend to give these to older children."
"What does it do?" Summer asked, rotating the pen in her hands. "It's heavy."
"It's filled with a special inkwell that never runs dry," North said. "The ink changes colour to whatever colour you fancy. The pen also interacts with brain – it reads the mental processes and adjusts position of hand to imaginings of mind. Theoretically, it better allows images in the mind to translate onto paper." He beamed. "Plus, is eraseable. Is genius, no?"
He took the pen. "Allow me to demonstrate. So, I want to draw tree, yes? Tree has brown trunk. So I draw brown trunk. Nice, rich, chocolate brown." He scribbled a brown tree trunk. The pen ink was a rich, reddish chocolate colour. "Ahh, yes. Now, trees have green leaves, no? So I draw the green leaves."

North began scribbling leaves. Sure enough, the pen ink had changed to a glorious emerald green. He glanced at Summer. Her eyes were bright and wide open with amazement and her mouth was slightly open.

A warm feeling blossomed in North's belly. So she can experience wonder after all, he mused, she simply needs a little nudge. Very good sign indeed. Good find, Jack.

He handed the pen back to Summer, who grasped it as if it was a precious gem. "It's amazing!" she exclaimed. "Can – can I try?"
North nodded. "But," he said, "I wish for you to draw something specific for me."
Summer nodded vigorously. "Sure," she said. "Anything."
"I want you to draw your dreams for me," North said.
Summer's eyes darkened momentarily, but she nodded. "Which ones?" she asked. "I mean, I have a lot of dreams so.."
"The worst ones."
Summer's mouth set into a grim line. "Are you sure?" she asked. North nodded. He was apprehensive about what he'd see, but he felt it was necessary. Perhaps revealing what her nightmares consisted of would help shed light on the mystery on why she was getting them.

North pulled a chair out for Summer, who sat down with the many pieces of paper.
And Summer began to draw.

"You're right, drawing is easier with this pen," she said as she worked. "I'm not making nearly as many mistakes."

North didn't respond. He was too engrossed with the images she drew. He found himself seized by a fascinated horror.

"You've been having these since you were seven?" he asked. Summer nodded. "This one was the first," she said, tapping the paper with her pen. "I never forgot it."
She was pointing towards one of the scenes she'd sketched – a dark, reddish sky, over a forest of twisted trees. The trees were dead, blackened and macabre. They resembled human bodies, twisted and broken almost beyond recognition. Knots in the wood appeared to form screaming faces.
Within the wood, a spiderweb made of barbed wire stretched between the trees. In its centre, a huge, hulking spider. Its body was like a tarantula's but the head was the shiny smooth carapace of a beetle he didn't recognise. The top of its head – the upper jaw – tapered into a long spike, forked at the end. The lower jaw ended in a shorter spike that rested under the larger spike.
Between the two spikes, the spider-creature was gripping a small child. She must have been five, and was wearing a nightgown. The child's white-blond hair was a stark contrast to the dark scene. The child's mouth, however, was filled with spiders.
By the spiderweb stood a sinister black silhouette. North swallowed hard when he saw it.
"My little sister," Summer explained. "The figure... I think it was a vampire. It controlled the spider, and used it to catch my sister. Then the vampire forced her to eat spiders, otherwise the big spider would kill her."
"Bizarre spider," North said.
"The head comes from a Hercules beetle," Summer said. She shuddered. "We had to study them in school, once. Apparently the jaws hurt if they bite you."
She indicated to different animals prowling in the forest. Rabbits, squirrels, cats and other animals stared drooling out of the image with wild, mad eyes. "The animals were infected or possessed.. they were normal at first, but went mad and started hunting me. The same thing happened to the trees – they'd fall down in front of me or drop branches on me."
She looked back at North. "I was trying to rescue my little sister, but I also had to get out of the forest within a certain time or I'd die too. I had two minutes to go by the end of the dream. I woke up crying."
North stared at the scene, and the other dark images around it. "That was just one dream?"
"You asked for the worst."
"Are these dreams normal for you?"
"They are. I have dreams like these every night. Not always as bad as this one, but they're not great either. I don't sleep well."
North frowned at the silhouette. "I think it's time we returned to the others," he murmured.


Author note - Herculese beetles actually exist, and they are evil monsters! Where I grew up, we got them in our garden a lot, along with elephant beetles and rhinoceros beetles, both also bizarre creatures.
Summer's dreams are actually based on my own dreams. I merged a few together for the dream she describes. Summer's nightmares were very much inspired by my own experience - I rarely have good dreams, and have weird, bizarre and often scary dreams every night.
So yeah. If the dream sounds really out-there, blame my subconscious :P
And I dare you to google Hercules beetles!
-Ali