Sorry about the wait, but here it is. I went on vacation and my flight landed at 11:30 last night, so I was scrambling to get this done for you guys. I don't own RoTG and since you probably want to read, I'll shut up now.
North quickly stomped down the stairs while grabbing a large red coat, two sabers, and a big, furry hat. Jack, Tooth, and Sandy (who looked really worried) joined us and we walked down to the stables. Sandy had a physical connection to his home. If it was in trouble, he would know instantly.
"Everyone to the sleigh!" he shouted as yetis scrambled around. Was he joking? I saw yetis carrying reindeer harnesses and horseshoe equipment. Apparently not. A few yetis shoved me out of the way and I tried not to send destructive gusts of wind around.
"If you think for one second I'm getting into some run down, falling apart sleigh then you are gravely…" I stopped as a large fighter jet like structure came out of the storage bay. Like in the songs, there were eight reindeer pulling the sleigh, but I think there was something equivalent to a GPS on the front. North turned to me with a smug look on his face.
"…mistaken," I finished trying, and probably failing, to not look shocked. "One ride. That's it," I said, jumping up into the back.
"Everyone loves the sleigh," North replied while getting in. Tooth fluttered in and sat down next to a worried Sandy. Jack jumped in and stood across from me.
"It's going to me cold, you know," he said. I rolled my eyes.
"It can't be any worse than Antarctica," I replied. Jack had dared me to spend a night in Antarctica. Let's just say the outcome wasn't pleasant.
"Still, you're a SUMMER spirit. Hence the heat. You might want to bundle up," he said, oddly concerned. Jeez, what was up with him?
"Okay, fine," I said. I whipped out my paintbrush and quickly painted a light blue cape. I tapped the cloud image and a real cape fell into my arms. I draped it around my shoulders and turned to Jack.
"Happy?" I sarcastically said. Jack grinned and I got the message. Still confused about the cape thing? I found out that my powers aren't limited to just white clouds. I can make them different colors if I want to (annoying weather people don't like oddly colored clouds so I tend to avoid them). I also found out that I could literally create anything that comes to mind. All I have to do is paint what I want (in this case, a cape) and then touch it. Voila! I have a real cape (I chose a cape over a coat because a cape is warmer than a coat, and it looks cooler).
I looked down to the ground and I saw Bunny standing there, looking nervous. I grinned at the rabbit's distress.
"Scared of heights, Easter Jackrabbit?" I tauntingly said. Bunny gave me a glare that could've melted ice. Jack grinned and gave me a high-five.
"Nice one Misty. Personally, I like Easter Kangaroo better," he said. I gave him a wide grin. He looked over my shoulder and waved at Bunny.
"Come on Bunny, get in the sleigh," Jack said.
"Not on your nelly," Bunny said stamping his foot on the ground. I quickly brought up my staff underneath him and threw him onto the sleigh. He landed with a large thump. He gave me my second death glare of the day. North brought up the reins and turned to us.
"Buckle up," he said. I looked around the sleigh, slightly confused.
"Just out of the question, where are the seat belts?" I asked. North let out a large booming laugh.
"That is just expression," he said. "Are we ready?" he asked a yeti. The yeti let out a spurt of gibberish that probably meant something along the lines of "This thing is not going to take off!" North gathered up the reins. "Here we go!" he shouted and snapped the reins. We took off at a faster speed than that of a jet. I hung onto the side and laughed out loud.
"Woooohoooo!" I shouted. Jack had a similar expression on his face, Tooth looked like she was having fun, and Sandy, while still very worried at this point, had his arms stuck straight up. Bunny, on the other hand, looked terrified. North looked back at us.
"I hope you like the loopty loop!" he shouted as we went upside-down. I laughed again and I must have had a big, stupid grin on my face. I looked at Bunny who looked ready to hurl.
"I prefer carrots, mate," he said as we came shooting out of the tunnel. I got my first good look at the North Pole. It was a majestic land of ice that was full of lights. Large warehouses and workshops were carved right out of the ice. I hung over the edge of the sleigh, admiring the view.
"Hey Bunny, check out this view," I said, catching Jack's eye. He nodded and gave me a mischievous grin. He walked across the sleigh and pretended to trip on a step. His staff crashed into me and I fell off, screaming. I quickly grabbed the runners and held on tightly. Bunny peaked his nose over the edge and he had a worried look on his face. He caught sight of me and I grinned.
"Surprise," I said. Bunny's face turned into a grimace.
"Auh, rack off y'a bloody show pony," he said. I flew back up and landed on the sleigh. I settled back down as North took out a snow globe.
"I say, Sandman's Island," North said as he threw the snow globe. We passed through the magic portal and came out the other side. Jack and I had been to Sandy's island before. It's a large island covered in golden sand with the sides sloping up into a small hill at the top. At the top of the hill was a golden palace right out of a fairy tale. Under normal circumstances, some permanent dream helpers would be floating around. Dream helpers are dreamsand creations that are shaped like common dream figures. They can think, talk, and they help Sandy spread his dreams. They're like Pitch's nightmares, but more powerful, and not as plentiful.
Of course, why would it be a normal circumstance?
Nightmares flew around snatching the dream helpers out of the sky. Some of the bigger dream helpers held their own, but the nightmares soon overwhelmed them. A dream helper is not going to be turned into nightmare dust like a regular dream would. It would take a direct attack from Pitch to turn even one into a nightmare.
I jumped of the sleigh and rammed my staff into a nightmare about to take a little sand fairy. I cupped her in my hands and flew back down. She looked like your classic Tinkerbell fairy, but she was entirely golden. She had a short dress on and long hair. You could barely make out little carved facial features and wing patterns. I remembered this fairy.
"You okay Little Sand?" I asked. The little fairy nodded her head and passed out in my hands. Jack, Tooth, and Sandy tried to take flight, but the nightmares prevented them from helping out the rest of the dream helpers. Instead, Jack and Bunny started to throw blasts of ice and boomerangs respectively. The ice blasts were very effective at stopping the nightmares and the boomerangs scattered them into sand. There wasn't enough room to pull out a dreamsand whip, so Sandy improvised with a ball of dreamsand. When the dreamsand hit the nightmares, they turned into streams of golden sand, but too many still remained. North turned to me.
"Take the reins!" he shouted. I handed Little Sand to Tooth and snapped the reins. North stood up and slashed the nightmares with his swords. I did my best to navigate the sleigh, but I think we all learned that I really shouldn't drive a sleigh anytime soon.
North took the reins back and steered us down to the island. At this point, the island was deserted and it was very quiet. Sandy floated around in shock, running his fingers through the not-so-golden-anymore sand. Jack flew over and placed his hand on Sandy's shoulder. The rest of Guardians gathered around Sandy mournfully. Tooth opened her hands and Little Sand fluttered out. Sandy gave a small smile and patted the fairy's head.
"I have to say, this is disappointing," a voice said from above us. I looked up and saw a very unwelcome sight. A pale man in a dark robe flew above the island. He had a smirk on his face and his yellow eyes seemed to pour into my soul. He was floating on a cloud of nightmare sand and I shuttered.
"Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman, and Jack Frost all in one place? And unable to rescue a few dream helpers? I was expecting more of a challenge," Pitch said in a mocking tone. Jack glared at Pitch and looked ready to blast him out of the sky. Sandy, normally calm, was staring daggers at the nightmare king. Pitch's cloud floated lower and I felt my heart beat faster. I forced myself not to think about the splinter.
"Well, well, well, could this be Misty Fog?" Pitch said in a tone that sent shivers up my spine. He floated closer and I drew back. "Haven't you learned your lesson yet, or do we need a repeat of what happened to Stella?"
"I guess I didn't considering I'm here," I said, trying to keep my voice from shaking. Pitch gave me a smile that could easily be considered creepy and floated away. He flew a distance away and Bunny turned to him.
"Didn't y'a learn your lesson?" he asked in a threatening tone. "It's been nine months, not nine years. There's no way you can be back to full power." Pitch gave a shallow laugh and swirled a stream of nightmare sand in his fingers.
"Don't you remember rabbit? There will always be fear, and not just from children. Teenagers have fear, adults have fear, even spirits have fear. With all of the terror that has happened lately, it wasn't very hard to come back to full power."
"We beat you once, we can beat you again," Jack said with a snarl. Pitch glanced at Jack and gave us a taunting smile.
"Perhaps you can, but did you ever consider this?" With that, Pitch whipped around to face me. He held out his hand and his eyes glowed with a yellow light. I felt myself moving, but I wasn't in control of my body. The little sliver had allowed Pitch to take control of me.
"I think you forgot a little detail concerning Misty," he said as he floated away. He gestured with his hand and I unwillingly let a gust of wind blow the around the Guardians. The wind prevented Sandy and Tooth from taking off and when Bunny threw a boomerang at Pitch, the wind didn't allow it to go far before coming back. Pitch summoned his nightmare sand and disappeared with a laugh.
While this was going on, Jack flew over to me and used a counter wind to try and stop me. Our winds collided and we floated there in a stalemate as the winds battered each other. Eventually, I felt my wind weakening and Pitch's hold on me lessen. Jack gave one final push and I collapsed on the ground. Jack flew over and sat on the sand next to me.
"Misty, you okay?" he asked. I nodded my head and Jack turned to the rest of the Guardians.
"She's back to normal," he said and they came over to me. Sandy gave me a smile and Little Sand floated onto my shoulder. Tooth helped me stand up and I tried to not meet anyone's eyes. It was my fault that Pitch had escaped after all.
"I'm sorry," I mumbled to the sand below me. North patted my shoulder and I looked into his eyes, dark brown meeting brilliant blue. They showed a deep kindness that very few spirits had ever given me.
"There is no blame," he said to me in a kind tone. "The only blame is on Pitch." Bunny hopped over and nodded in my direction.
"He's right, but what do we do now? Without the dream helpers, the dreamsand is going, well, sand like. Can't give dreams with this stuff," Bunny said as he poured a fistful of beach sand onto the ground. Sandy floated in silence as he watched his island fall into ruin. The sand on his body was slowly turning tan and we looked on not knowing what to do. We couldn't just give kids dreams…wait a minute.
"Sandy, is the well okay?" I quickly asked. Sandy looked up in surprise before nodding his head. Jack looked at me and then smiled in understanding.
"Of course, the well!" Jack exclaimed. He flew up the hill and we quickly followed. At the top of the hill was a well with golden water inside. North, Bunny, and Tooth looked at the well curiously.
"What is this?" Tooth asked.
"From what Jack and I could gather, a drop of this water can turn an entire beach's worth of sand into dreamsand. Sandy also told us that dreams don't have to be delivered just by dreamsand. Just about any small object will work. Like raindrops."
"Or snowflakes," Jack continued.
"Or feathers," Tooth put in, catching on.
"Or glitter," Bunny said smiling.
"Or even candy cane dust," North said with finality. I quickly painted some glass bottles and scooped up some of the water for each of the Guardians.
"Until Sandy can get his sand back to normal, we can give the kids dreams," I said. I met Jack's eye and he gave a ridiculously big smile.
You can probably guess what happened next.
No need to explain what's going to happen next. I'm going to get the next chapter up as soon as possible to make up for the wait.
To PeachtreeAmuto, Sandy didn't attack because the nightmares were far off in the distance and his first priority was the kid's safety, not hunting down nightmares. I hope that makes a little bit of sense.
Please review my story because I can't know your ideas if you don't critique (nicely though). The next chapter will be up soon, so please stay with me *puppy dog eyes*...never mind, I can't do cute.