Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians. It's charming characters respectfully belong to William Joyce and Dreamworks.

Soundtrack: The Day's Leisure- CLANNAD


Chapter Four


He hasn't gotten that much sleep lately. Since that day, he's been having dreams about black sand and yellow eyes. It's been a week since he last saw that girl. A whole week since he's been at the pond. He winces inwardly. He was supposed to take Emma a few days back but never got to because of his own selfishness. She'd been giving him the silent treatment lately. He'd have to make it up to her.

He was standing in the barn, listening to the chickens cluck as he fed them some corn. He's taking his sweet time so that he can avoid the stable as much as possible. He doesn't even notice Matt walking up to him until the blond pushes him slightly. Jack snaps opens his eyes, jumping at the touch. For a moment, it looked like there were two of them until his vision cleared. Thank goodness. He inwardly sighs with relief. The world didn't need another Matt. One was bad enough.

"A week, Matt," Jack scoffs, shrugging the hand off of his shoulders, "Really?"

"You alright there, Jackson?" Matt frowns, ignoring his previous comment. "You look like you're gonna fall over."

"Why didn't you help?" Jack asks, avoiding the other boy's gaze. He had half a mind to scold him. The other half wanted to ignore him completely but that would've been too childish.

"Look," Matt exhales sharply, voice trailing off as he thought. "It's complicated. You wouldn't understand."

"What wouldn't I understand!?"

"A lot of things," Matt deadpans. "Just trust me on this, please?"

He didn't agree with a lot of Matt's decisions. Matt was an emotionally constipated person. Any talk of feelings and the blond would be out of the room so fast one would think he was racing a rabbit. He's trying to understand the older boy's odd behavior. Maybe Matt and the girl didn't get along in the past. She did come off as rude from their previous encounter. It still didn't make it right. He drops it for now and changes the subject, sensing Matt's unease.

"So how's the love life?" Jack wriggles his eyebrows suggestively. Matt turns such a bright red that he's matching his vest. Jack's lips quirk up in amusement.

"Non-existent!" Matt shouts. His eyes dart around the barn as if he's looking for an escape route.

"Oh come on," he smiles lopsidedly. "You still haven't asked her yet?"

"Easy for you to say, you don't have a love life either!"

"I'm oddly okay with that actually," Jack shrugs his shoulders.

"Just watch, you're gonna turn into a hermit when you get older!"

"I don't know about you but that sounds pretty exciting."

"Oh, for the love of-!" Matt presses a hand against his forehead, sighing heavily. "Why do I even argue with you? You're impossible!"

The two boys fell into a comfortable silence, watching the chickens run amok. Jack can't help but admit how soothing animal noises were to his ears. He was always around them and it helped him think.

"Hey, Jack?" Matt asks hesitantly. Jack hums in response. "How are you and Emma so close? Don't you...don't you ever get tired of being around her all the time?"

Matt's face is unreadable. Jack tilts his head in his friend's direction and frowns at the tension. What brought that on all of a sudden?

"Well, yeah, she does get annoying sometimes," Jack admits, pondering over his question. "But you know what, aren't all siblings are? I think we get along so much because we have similar things we like."

Matt frowns and turns away as if he were thinking over his answer. He didn't say anything else which made Jack tense as they walked outside of the barn together.

They can see Piper folding laundry by the house nearby and placing them on clothespins, hanging them on a long wire in between two oak trees. Matt inhales sharply. Jack follows his friend's eyes toward the brunette girl and smirks. Her hair isn't tied in a braid today and she isn't wearing her usual bright pink dresses. She's wearing a light blue dress with an apron tied to her waist. Yup, his friend is a goner.

"You know what, maybe I'll become a hermit with you," Matt says, breaking the awkward silence. "Being a hermit isn't so bad, right?"

"Nope, I claimed that job already," Jack shook his head, smiling cheekily as he leaned against the taller boy's shoulder. "You're gonna be a married man someday, remember?"

They both pause in their tracks when Piper glances over at their direction. She smiles and waves before turning her attention to the laundry in front of her.

"Lord give me strength," Matt breathes, smiling.

He zoned out during their conversation and saw a flash of red by the forest. It's the girl again! His heart leaps at the opportunity and he finds himself moving towards her.

"Where are you going?" Matt frowns at Jackson's odd behavior. "You're not going to meet up with Piper?"

"There's something I have to do," Jack replies, pressing his lips into a thin line. Which wasn't far from the truth. He really needed to speak with her again. "Go on without me."

"Okay," Matt drawls out skeptically.

He sprints for the woods. Thankfully it's still light outside that he could see the pathway in front of him. Few people visited the pond during winter time because the ice. They'd rather swim than slide on the surface. But he didn't think she was there for ice skating. She was sitting on the bench, looking at something beyond the ice.

"Hey," he calls out softly.

She yelps in surprise and whirls around, staring at him with wide eyes. She grabs her staff and points it at him threateningly.

"Whoa, whoa!" He flail his arms around, taking a step back as she advances. He laughs nervously. "Easy! I didn't mean to scare you."

She pauses in her tracks but doesn't take her eyes off him. She looks him up and down as if she were sizing him up and debating if he was a threat or not. She meets his eyes and they stare at each other for a moment. Her expression is unreadable.

"Why are you here?" She asks slowly. "Are you following me?"

"No, no!" He protests, "I just want to talk is all."

"Well, then you wasted your time." She's about to head into the forest.

"Wait!" He calls out. She stops in her tracks but doesn't turn around. He wasn't expecting her to actually acknowledge him. She's expecting a response. His breath hitches as he blurts, "What was that creature? The one that attacked me."

She doesn't reply right away but she doesn't ignore him. That had to be a good sign, right? Should he have mentioned it? The curiosity was slowly driving him to the brink of insanity."You mean the demon?" It sounded more like a statement than a question.

His eyebrows rose at such a bitter answer. Whatever he expected, that wasn't it. Demons? She couldn't be serious. Well, just yesterday he didn't believe in the existence of witches and magic. So he gave her the benefit of the doubt.

"Is that what it was?" He asks skeptically.

"I'm not too sure myself," she admits. She whirls around and he's staring into her eyes again. "They don't normally attack people. Just people's dreams."

"People's dreams?" He echoes, raising his eyebrows. "Then why'd it attack me?"

"Because you were vulnerable," she says bluntly. "Did you see the trails of sand on its hooves?"

"Not really, I was busy running for my life," he smiles sheepishly.

"What if I told you that there's someone out there giving you good dreams and bad dreams?" She drawls hesitantly.

"Wait, wait, wait, are you trying to tell me that the Sandman and the Boogeyman are real?"

She nods her head and waits patiently. Jack's laugh was borderline hysterical. He can't believe this! He had to be dreaming this conversation right now. There was no way that something from a fairy tale was giving everyone in the world dreams and nightmares. That's children's stories! He was patient. He'd been willing to listen to her when she mentioned the demons. He remembered reading about them somewhere in church. But the Boogeyman? The Sandman?

"Do you realize how insane that sounds?" He asks, voice higher than usual. She flinches at his tone but he doesn't make anything of it. "You aren't lying to me are you?"

"It's the truth," she says so softly that he thought he imagined it.

"Then why haven't I been able to see them until yesterday?"

"Because you've never believed in them," she says, looking stricken. "Because I've been fighting them for years."

He softens up. All traces of disbelief and judgment were gone. She'd been protecting people even though they seem to treat her differently? Why would she even do that? Why go through fighting those creatures everyday just to get torment? He doesn't understand her reasoning. He doesn't understand anything about her.

"Who've you been fighting to protect?"

"The kids," she says with a soft smile on her face.

Alright, that he understood. They were good kids. A little rowdy at times especially at bonfires when they were rough housing one another but none of them deserved to have nightmares.

"They're the creatures giving my little sister nightmares?"

"Little sister?" She echoes, frowning.

"How do I stop them?"

"What?" She jumps out of her stupor and looks taken aback by how serious he is.

"Train me."

"You're joking," She gasps, furrowing her eyebrows. "I know how much you care for your sister. But it's not going to be easy."

"I don't care," Jack says. If he could herd sheep without any problems, he could handle anything.

"I won't be getting rid of you anytime soon, am I?" A ghost of a smile spreads across her lips.

Jack smiles. It's the first time he's seen her do that since they met. She should do it more often.

"'Fraid not, miss," he winks at her and gives her an over the top bow that she rolls her eyes at. "Name's Jackson Overland."

"Elizabeth Sinclair," she introduces, curtsying awkwardly.

"Nice to meet ya," he says and he truly means it. "I'm looking forward to helping you out."

"Get some sleep then," she says with an exasperated sigh. "You're gonna need it."

They weren't exactly friends yet. But she wasn't pushing him away anymore like she did when they first met. It was a start. He pondered over it until he went home. It wasn't until he got home when he realize he hadn't thanked her for saving his life. He sighed. He'd have to thank her tomorrow when he got the chance to.

"Hey, Jack!" Emma tackles him to a hug. "We missed you today."

"I know, sorry Emma," he ruffles her hair and grins. "How were the lovebirds today?"

"They're the same as always," Emma snickers. "Did you do something? Matt seemed awfully skittish."

"Maybe," he singsongs. Emma rolls her eyes and shoves him.

"You talked with that girl again today, huh?" She asks, searching his face though he doesn't know what for.

"The Boogeyman's real," he whispers. She freezes and her breath hitches as she hides behind her hair. He frowns at her.

"He is?" She asks just as softly.

"Hey, don't you worry about a thing, okay?" He nudges her shoulder. She doesn't protest but he sees her pout. "I'm gonna stop him."

"How?"

He doesn't know either. He doesn't know how tough training will be. He doesn't know what he's even getting into. He hears Emma yawn softly beside him.

"Come on, let's get to bed before mama yells at us," he urges.

"I'm not tired though," she yawns as she stretches her arms out. Jack chuckles and shakes his head.

"I'll believe that when pigs fly, Emma," he tells her. She sticks her tongue out at him, tells him goodnight, and heads out the door, shutting it gently behind her.

He had another nightmare that night.

He was running from a man hidden in the shadows. A man that had yellow eyes. Darkness swirls up his leg and torso until he's completely engulfed in it. The man in the shadows won.


A/N: As always , thank you so much for reading!