Sandy flew next to Tooth, who was looking around and simply enjoying the night. Sandy knew this was his chance to tell her how he felt, to tell her that he loved her. But... What if she loved Jack? What if Sandy only made her uncomfortable? If he confessed, and Tooth didn't feel the same, she might start to avoid him.
Sandy paused his inner conflict to take the opportunity to admire Tooth. He loved the colors of her feathers, and the way they ruffled when she was cold or excited. Covered almost completely from head to toe, Tooth was a collage of beautiful, exotic colors. Her wings were smooth with swirling patterns on them, giving the appearance of a lace design, when they weren't keeping her in the air, that is. Her entire body shone like a rainbow in the sun.
Most of all, Sandy adored the way Tooth showed her emotions. She would never hide her excitement, joy, or fascination over something, and he loved it when her face lit up with feelings.
By this time, the sun was approaching its zenith, and the two Guardians were over halfway to Tooth's palace in Northern India. At the moment, they were passing through part of Russia, but Sandy couldn't really tell where, because it all looked like cold and snow to him.
Sandy was just preparing to speak, or his equivalent of speech, when Tooth beat him to it.
"Sandy... In my dream, you and Jack were fighting. At first, I was worried you would hurt each other. But then, you both flew away and I couldn't see either of you anymore. I know you're more dangerous, so I should have been more worried about Jack."
Sandy looked at her curiously as she paused, unsure where she was going with this.
Tooth took a deep breath as she began again. "I know I should have been worried about Jack. But the truth is, I was scared to death that something might happen to you, Sandy."
Sandy was shocked, to say the least. Toothiana, Queen of the tooth fairies, had been scared for him? He looked at her in surprise, and a question mark formed above his head.
Tooth stopped flying forward and simply hovered, so Sandy followed her example. He REALLY wanted to know where she was going with this.
"Sandy..." Tooth trailed off. Sandy made encouraging gestures, and gave her a thumbs up.
"Sandy," Tooth started again, "I realized that I really care about you. Really, really, care about you."
Sandy's heart leaped at her words, but he had to make sure she meant what he thought she meant. Tentatively, a small heart appeared over the Sandman, followed by a question mark.
Tooth nodded shyly at him, obviously afraid he would reject her. Sandy quickly made another picture, this one of Jack. Tooth smiled. "Jack? He's a great friend, and amazingly fun. In fact, he's like my brother." Sandy was rejoicing on the inside, and began to show her how he felt.
However, chilling laughter echoed through the air, stalling him. Sandy huffed, exasperated. The universe seemed determined to keep him apart from Tooth, what with all these interruptions and setbacks. The laughter slowed and Pitch's voice came from all directions.
"How sweet; the fairy in love with the dreamer. Too bad you won't have time to enjoy it!" And with that, nightmares rushed in from all sides.
Sandy instantly formed his long dream sand whips, and tried to stay between Tooth and the nightmares. It was easier than he thought; Pitch must still be after him, Sandy thought.
The Guardians fought fiercely, and each time they successfully scored a hit, the nightmare would burst apart. Eventually, Sandy became separated from Tooth, but the majority of the fearlings were still focused on him, so he wasn't too worried.
Soon enough, Pitch himself emerged from the storm of nightmares, floating on his own cloud of black sand. He was wearing a strange hooded robe that covered most of his face. All that was visible was Pitch's predatory smile, full of sharpened teeth.
Pitch waved his hand, and the nightmares stopped their attack on Sandy and began to race around them. Sandy held up his dream whips, and Pitch laughed as he formed his giant ebony blade.
"So Sandy," he began, "here we are again. I don't plan on failing again." And with that, he launched himself at the little golden man. Sandy lashed out with his whips, forcing Pitch to retreat. Every time he tried to dart back in, Sandy's whips were there to stop him. Pitch was forced to go on the defensive as Sandy began trying to tangle him in his golden weapons. They both knew the fight would soon be over if Sandy got a hold of Pitch.
Finally, after a short while of snapping his whips, Sandy managed to snare Pitch's arm. And he exploded. The instant contact was made, Pitch dissolved into black sand that went racing in every direction.
Sandy didn't move, frozen with confusion. Had he just killed the boogeyman? He hadn't put enough energy in his weapons to kill anything; was this a trick?
This thought seemed to wake Sandy up, and he looked frantically around. The nightmares circling him had dispersed, leaving him alone in the afternoon sky. Too alone. 'Tooth!' Sandy realized that he hasn't seen her since Pitch had appeared.
As these thoughts were going through Sandy's head, Pitch flew down from a cloud high above, staying too far away for Sandy to attack him. He looked the same as Sandy had last seen him before he was originally defeated. "Why Sandy, did you lose something?" He asked innocently, even as a wicked smile grew on his face. Sandy made threatening gestures, and a scene of Sandy standing over the prone form of the Boogeyman formed over his head.
"My, my, Sanderson!" Pitch feigned shock. "No need for violence; I haven't hurt Toothiana. Yet." With that last comment, Pitch earned himself a barrage of angry sand pictures, but they went by too fast to be recognized.
"I warned you that I would not fail again. You just didn't listen." And with that, Pitch vanished. Sandy searched the sky for him, but it was filled with clouds, and he had no idea where Pitch could've gone.
Sandy wanted nothing more than to find Pitch and make him pay, but he knew that he would be very ineffective out here all by himself. Although his heart screamed at him to stay, Sandy followed his head, and headed back to the North Pole.
Normally, he was a very patient person, and rarely rushed anywhere, as Sandy found that he could travel very fast without hurrying himself. Today, as Sandy sped toward the North Pole, he went faster than he had ever flown before, and knew that it wasn't fast enough.
Just a heads up, my next update will be correcting small errors in previous chapters, so there's no need to look for a new one just yet.
