4

'Jack?'

'Hm?'

'How much longer are we going to have to stay here?'

Delia had now idea how much time they'd spent in her dreamland. Was it hours? Days? Did time even work the same way in dreams? All around her the flower field had vanished as Jack had frosted flower after flower and the summer day had transformed into an early spring night. It wasn't a scary night, with the full moon shining down on them and illuminating the whitewashed field. Delia had wandered around after a while, unsure of what to say and thus remaining silent.

'I dunno.' Finally answering her question, Jack had stepped beside her, gazing up at the full moon. 'Why the change of scenery?'

'Huh?' She had temporarily forgotten that her mind was responsible for the weather and their surroundings. 'Oh, that,' she murmured. 'I'm not sure.' She turned to look at the frosted flower field that was shimmering silvery in the moonlight. 'Maybe I thought it would be more atmospheric.'

'What?'

'Nothing.' She sighed. She had to get out of this dream, after all her father was still in that cage, contained by Pitch, an image that was haunting her relentlessly. Her chest tightened at the thought of it. 'Jack, we need to get out of here, now. I can't be expected to sit around and wait until North or the others decide to wake us up!' Her voice had risen according to her sudden burst of panic and Jack was now staring at her with a rather concerned expression.

'Hey,' he said, and put a hand on her shoulder. 'We'll get Jamie back, you know that, right?'

'Yeah? And how do you plan to do that, huh? We have no idea where Pitch hiding, what his plans are or even how to check if my dad is still okay!' She was breathing heavily and could feel that leg-binding fear coming back to her.

'Look, Delia.' Jack sounded very calm, but she knew he was holding back for her sake. 'Tonight, we'll confer with the Man in the Moon and he'll tell us what to do. For sure,' he added, when he saw the doubtful look on her face. 'And Pitch can't hurt Jamie physically, that's impossible for us Spirits, Guardian or not. The only thing he could do is subject him to terrible nightmares, but Sandy said he was taking care of that. He'll be safe and we'll rescue him very soon, so try to remain calm, okay?'

He was looking at her intently, his blue eyes prying deep inside her soul. He had no proof for his conviction whatsoever and she had absolutely no reason to believe him, but somehow her pulse calmed down. She took a deep breath and blinked away the tears that were burning behind her eyes.

'Okay,' she mumbled.

'Good.' Jack granted her a gentle smile. 'Now what do you say we turn this dream into something a bit more fun, hm?' He spread his arms and suddenly big flakes of snow were falling from the skies.

'What do you mean?' Delia wasn't sure whether her definition of fun was in line with Jack's.

'What about a good old snowball fight?' He opened his palm and a snowball formed on top of it. Delia took a step back. Being cold and wet as well as worried was not on her priority list. Jack grinned mischievously.

'Jack, I don't think this is a good –' Before she could finish her sentence, a soft snowball hit her square in the face. '…idea,' she added as the snow dropped from her nose to the ground. She wanted to reprimand him for being so irresponsible, but suddenly a giddy feeling in her stomach made her giggle.

Jack grinned. 'Feel it yet?'

She giggled again and had to focus with all her might to scowl at him. 'What did you do to me?' She asked angrily. 'This…' Another giggle. '…is your doing, isn't it.'

He floated up a few feet and shrugged. 'I thought you could do with a little more fun in your life, you know.'

'I…' More giggling. 'Am perfectly capable of having fun on my own, thanks!' She crossed her arms, but had to release them almost immediately to hold her stomach when another wave of laughter overtook her.

'Yeah, I can see that.' His tone was very smug and had Delia not been so busy with trying to breathe, she would have slapped him for it.

'Make this stop!' She said between waves of laughter. She glared up at him, but Jack only studied her nonchalantly, not bothered by her apparent anger.

'I can't.' He shrugged. 'It'll wear off in a bit, you'll see.'

'Jack Frost!' She shouted and because she had no better weapon she formed a pile of snow into a projectile and went for his head. Unfortunately for her, her aim was far from impeccable and so the snowball missed Jack by a good foot.

He blinked at her, then burst out laughing. 'You call that a snowball? This,' he formed another one in his hand, 'is a snowball.'

And for the second time in a row Delia experienced a snowball square in her face. 'Stop it!' She yelled.

'Only if you get me,' he called back. He was obviously enjoying himself.

And so she ran after him, still fighting the odd giggling fit, trying to hit him with a snowball of her own. Regrettably, Jack was a flying Spirit and even without her poor throwing abilities he would have been near impossible to hit. She threw snowball after snowball as he weaved and evaded, and slowly another sensation took over the feeling of Jack's forced fun. It was, she suddenly realised, true enjoyment. Delia hadn't fooled around like this for a long time. As a girl raised only by her father most of the time she had been quick with taking on responsibilities in the household and had found that, between helping her father and studying, silly games like this had had no more space on her timetable. This time, she decided to truly let the feeling wash over her, take hold of her and distract her from her current concerns. After all, this was only a dream, right?

When she had played so much that her arms were getting heavy, she let herself fall into the snow and stared into the night sky. A smile was spreading on her face. Realising he wasn't being chased anymore, Jack came flying over.

'Everything okay?' He asked, once again sounding quite concerned.

She sat up and looked at him. She now understood that he had only try to cheer her up with his magic snowball. Delia smiled and said: 'Yeah, just tired.'

He studied her for a second, then floated down to sit in the snow in front of her. 'You know,' he said. 'That was quite a fight you gave me there.'

She smirked. 'And I would have won if not for your annoying flying ability.'

He caught her tone and grinned back. 'Yeah, keep telling yourself that.'

She was opening her mouth, ready to return a comment, but suddenly she blacked out. When she opened her eyes again, she was in the arms of Santa Claus, who gently shook her.

'Delia, it is time for waking up.'

She blinked and stared at him for a second. Then she sat up.

'Wha– ?' She rubbed her eyes and looked around. She was lying on the floor of the Earth room, as she had christened it, Jack a few feet away from her, being kicked awake by Bunny.

'Wake up ya lazy kid!'

Jack shot upwards, his arms flailing. 'What's happening?' He reached for his staff and got to his feet.

'Relax, Jack, it's all good,' a woman's voice said and suddenly Delia saw the hummingbird-like fairy she had seen in her very first dream. The woman's wings were fluttering too fast for Delia's eyes to process and she was clad in a feathery green and blue outfit, some longer tail feathers sticking out from her back. She noticed Delia's curious inspection and came buzzing over.

'Hi Delia, I'm the Tooth Fairy, nice to meet you!' She was fluttering excitedly up and down. 'But, of course you know that! You do know that, right?! Oh, how thoughtless of me, here,' she reached into a pocket and Delia wondered where she even kept pockets in that skin-tight outfit. When she retrieved her hand, she was holding a small, golden, cylindrical box with Delia's face on one side. It was a picture that had been taken some years back, with her smiling happily into the camera.

Delia took the box and turned it around; something inside was clattering. 'What is this?' She asked, fascinated.

'Your teeth,' the Tooth Fairy answered eagerly and Delia nearly dropped the box.

'My what?!'

'They contain your memories,' Jack answered, though he was scowling. 'Tooth, why did you bring them here?'

'I'm not sure,' Tooth answered. 'It was a gut feeling.'

'How do teeth contain memories?' Delia asked, dismissing the slight tension.

'How?' The Tooth Fairy looked uncertain. 'I don't know, but I know that they do.'

'That's crazy…' Delia murmured, though more or less to herself. She didn't consider memory-containing teeth the craziest thing she had encountered lately.

'Alright, mates, I don't want to interrupt whatever bonding is going on here, but we're kinda on a time limit.' The Easter Bunny stepped up to them. 'Delia, this is Sandman. Sandy, this is Delia Bennett, Jamie's daughter. Yeah, I know, I just thought I'd do the honours,' Bunny added when Sandy knit his forehead. The Sandman looked like what Delia could only describe as an oversized, round churro, made completely from golden sand. He was smiling and even though Delia still felt a slight resentment towards him, she couldn't help but smile back.

'Hello,' she said, but instead of answering, he formed a hat on his head, took it off and bowed. He turned his hand and opened his palm and only after a moment did Delia realise he was gesturing for her to copy her. So she did and Sandy formed a small pony on her palm which whinnied and galloped around. 'Uh…' She was unsure of what to make of it.

'He's tellin' ya that he's protecting Jamie with his dream magic,' Bunny translated.

Delia stared at Sandy. 'You… you can't speak?' She asked quietly. Sandy smiled and shrugged, then suddenly his face was sullen. He gestured for all of them to gather around and the others came closer.

'What is it, Sandy?' Santa asked.

The Sandman created a picture of her father, then the horse, then the sand atop his head formed the number ten.

'What does he mean?' Delia asked, looking around at the others. They looked almost equally as sullen now.

'I think,' Tooth explained, 'that Sandy means to say he can protect Jamie for ten days, at the most. Is that right?' She looked at Sandy, who nodded.

'Ten… ten days?' Delia swallowed. 'That's… I mean, thank you! But, that's not for very long, is it?'

'Well, I guess we all get what that means, then.' Bunny's expression had turned very grim.

'We need to find them,' said Jack determinedly. 'And soon.'

…

Night was falling and the Guardians and Delia were starting to get more nervous by the minute. Jack was watching Delia as she paced back and forth in the room, forehead wrinkled, and his stomach tightened. He saw so much of Jamie in her, her earthy green eyes, soft auburn hair which she wore in a long braid down her back. Her posture, her smile… it pained him every time he looked at her, knowing that Jamie's connection with him, and with the other Guardians, was what had driven the Boogeyman to bring this misfortune upon their small family. Jamie had never stopped believing, even as an adult, and Jack had assumed it would be the same with Delia. But then her mother had died and everything had changed… from one day to another she had completely lost faith, in all of them, and it had felt as if a large knife had struck Jack's heart. He had still watched her grow up, feeling the same pride as Jamie whenever she achieved something great, but knowing she'd never see him cheer, well, that was something he had never really come to terms with. Then Pitch had attacked and, again, Delia's world had been turned upside down. Jack wasn't happy, of course, about the way it had happened, but something inside him had started glowing the moment she acknowledged his existence. It wasn't easy being the snow spirit who no-one really believed in, but Jamie had made it worth it. And now Delia. She looked up and saw him studying her and there was something in her gaze Jack couldn't put his finger on. It made his chest tighten, but he decided not to linger on it. Anything but finding Jamie was utterly unimportant.

'What?' She asked him and, for a second, he contemplated not answering. But her eyes were steady and demanding and he found himself explaining.

'I just thought how extraordinarily you look like your father,' he admitted.

Delia blushed and tugged at a strand of hair that had loosened from her braid.

'Oh,' she murmured. She looked disappointed and Jack had no idea why.

'Something wrong?' He asked.

'Ah, no, well…' She turned her back to him, studying the giant globe floating in the room, illuminated by thousands of tiny lights. Children. 'It's just that my dad always told me I look like my mum, which is stupid, since she looked like a surfer princess, but, you know.' She shrugged and faced him again. 'I don't have much else left of her.' There was a deep, heart-wrenching sadness in her eyes that overtook Jack and made his stomach tightened into several knots.

'I'm- ' He started, but she interrupted.

'If you're about to say "sorry", don't!' She ordered, looking fierce. 'It's not your fault and that expression doesn't make it any better.' Then her gaze softened, as she must have realised how aggressive she sounded. 'I mean, thanks, though. It was a long time ago.' She smiled and Jack had the inexplicable urge to close his arms around her, to not let anything hurt her like this again. Instead, he got to his feet and turned to North.

'Hey,' he asked, and North looked up. He and the other Guardians had been in a deep, serious discussion that consisted mostly of rushed whispers and Jack had had no interest in their schemes, hence his studying of Delia. 'Will it be time soon?'

'Hm,' North made, stood up and walked towards one of the windows. 'I think so. Moon is almost at his peak.'

Delia perked up. 'Finally!' She exclaimed, her eyes shining.

'Open hatch!' North ordered one of his yetis, and the big furry creature obliged.

A window opened in the large ceiling and Jack could see the stars, twinkling brightly along the black night sky. Then he saw the moon and it was almost like the first time he'd awoken as a Guardian. There was a buzzing in his head and heat filled his chest, droning out everything around him. The rays of the moon illuminated a large, intricately ornamented tile in the floor, which lifted and revealed itself as a built-in glass display, holding a large Chrystal. The Chrystal started shining, glowing in a rosy light and slowly, the outline of a person coming into view. It was too blurred to clearly identify, but Jack could see a billowing dress, long, flowing hair and large, feathery wings spread on the person's back. Suddenly a tune started playing, a song Jack didn't recognise, but it still tugged at his heart and he could feel tears streaming down his cheeks. It was less sadness, and more nostalgia, but he didn't know where he might have heard it before. When he stared at the others in terror, he could see them crying silently as well, even Delia, and then Bunny mumbled.

'Impossible.'

Tooth wiped her tears and floated closer to the apparition. 'Really?'

Sandy just stared, captivated.

'It can't be,' North concluded. 'Agape?'

…

'Agape?' Jack asked, obviously confused, while the other four guardians just stared at Delia with expressions of terror. Since none of them made any attempt of explaining it to him, Delia decided she had to take the honours.

'Yeah, one of the four kinds of love.'

Jack blinked at her.

'You know, the Greek? No?'

Jack shrugged.

'Well, see, the Greek believed that there existed four kinds of love: romantic love, Eros; the love of family, Storge; the love between friends, Philia; and unconditional love, Agape. But, well…' She looked at the other Guardians. 'I don't really understand how that's relevant to rescuing my father.'

At last, North cleared his throat and started pacing the room.

'Ah, you see,' he said, looking mildly uncomfortable, 'we are Guardians, no?'

Delia nodded, confused at to what his point was, exactly.

'Guardians of Childhood. And, well, there are also Guardians for adults. Guardians of Love.'

'What?' Delia stared at him. 'Are you telling me that these… these four actually exist? As Guardians?'

'Well, I mean, we've never really met them!' Tooth chimed in. 'We're kind of working in different spheres, you know!'

'Whow whow whow, wait a minute here, why have I never heard of them before?' Jack at least seemed equally as shocked as Delia.

'There's nothing to hear about, mate,' Bunny said. 'They're them, we're us. They do their thing, ya know, make 'em adults fall in love, make 'em care about their friends, their kids… and we do our job, care for the kids, make 'em happy an' stuff. There's no need for us to consider their existence.'

'But, clearly there is!' Delia protested. 'I mean… Agape is something a child would feel for their parents and…' She blushed slightly and studied her hands. 'We fall in love, you know.'

Jack snorted. 'Yeah, but that really has nothing to do with childhood.'

'Yeah, it does! Some kids develop early.'

She looked up to find all five Guardians staring at her. Sandy, mischievous, Tooth, curious, North, surprised, Bunny, disgusted, Jack, shocked. She put up her hands in defence.

'Hey, not me guys! I mean, not that I haven't had a crush before, but – hold on, I don't need to justify my love life in front of immortal spirits!' If her head was as red as it felt, she would have been visible from miles away.

'I guess there is time and place for this topic, no?' North asked, in an attempt to reconcile them again and the other Guardians nodded, except Jack. He was staring at her darkly, with an intent she could not identify.

'Alright, movin' on,' Bunny agreed. 'Does that mean we'll have to find that Agape spirit in order to rescue Jamie?'

'And how do we do that?' Yet another obstacle that settled heavily in Delia's stomach. She sighed and stared at the place where the glowing crystal had been.

'I do not know.' North looked heartbroken and Delia knew that the Guardians cared about her father's rescue as much as she did, yet she couldn't help wanting to blame them for his disappearance in the first place. She knew that wasn't fair, so she bit her tongue and swallowed her spiteful comment.

'Maybe…' Tooth muttered as her wings started fluttering with excitement, lifting her higher into the air. 'Maybe I have an idea.'

'Yeah?!' Delia straightened, hoping for some kind of miraculous resolve. 'You know how to find Agape?'

'Oh, no, not Agape,' Tooth said and Delia's heart sunk down again, as if a door had been closed shut right in front of her face. 'But, Eros. Probably,' Tooth added as Delia's head perked up.

'How d'you know how ta find Eros, huh?' Bunny eyed her sceptically and Tooth blushed.

'Not me, personally!' She protested. 'But my fairies get around and they… well, they hear things.' She shrugged.

'They hear things?' Jack asked. It was the first thing he'd said in a while and Delia looked at him. Something about the way he stared at Tooth disturbed her. He seemed… determined, but also very dark.

'Yeah…' Considering Tooth's reaction Delia thought it wasn't just her imagination that Jack acted strange.

'And, what did they hear, your fairies?' North asked.

'Ah, right!' Tooth turned to North, obviously relieved to escape Jack's scrutinous gaze. 'Basically, Eros seems to be the one easiest to lure out among the Four Loves. He just needs to take an interest in you, you know…'

'An interest? The Spirit of Romantic Love needs to take an interest in you?' Delia stared at Tooth in disbelief. 'Tooth! That's like saying the president needs to take an interest in your political opinion! How do we do that? How do we even know where he is? Wait – is he a he?'

'Apparently he prefers to appear as a male human;' Tooth explained. 'But he sometimes appears as a female, mostly depending on what the other party is interested in.'

'How do you know all that?' Jack looked slightly disgusted.

Tooth blushed. 'Fairy network,' she mumbled.

'Anyway,' Bunny intervened. 'The kid has a point. Where is Eros and how will we get his attention?'

Suddenly, Sandy had jumped in-between them, looking exasperated. It occurred to Delia that she hadn't paid him any attention, and so his attempts to communicate with the group must have been overlooked.

He stared glumly at them and Delia felt guilty. She ought to look into his direction once in a while to see what he had to 'say' about things. He puffed his cheeks and signed with his sand. A weird shape appeared in the air.

'Is that… country?' North asked.

Delia squinted. Sure enough, the outlines of a country were visible. 'Not just any country,' she said. 'France.'

'France?' Tooth looked unhappy. 'Not my department.'

Then the sand changed and a tall building came into view. Delia had seen it before, though only in pictures.

'The Eiffel Tower…' She murmured, more to herself than anyone else. 'Paris! Eros is in Paris?!'

Sandy nodded eagerly.

'Seriously?' Jack frowned. 'The Spirit of Romantic Love is in Paris.'

Sandy shrugged.

'So Paris…' Delia mused. 'But how will we get his attention, I'm not sure we –' She gasped as a cloud of sand engulfed her and protested. 'Sandy, what are you doing?'

But Sandy just gestured towards her, and she looked down on herself. The Sandman had draped her in a golden ballgown made entirely of sand.

'I don't understand…' She said, feeling uncomfortable in the dress. She rarely wore anything but jeans and jumpers.

But North laughed, delighted. 'Of course!' He exclaimed. When Delia stared at him, still confused, he explained with a soft expression. 'You, Delia! You will lure out Spirit of Romance.'

Delia took a step back. 'Are you kidding me?!'