Chapter 6 – Chosen
My control over granting wishes was becoming more instinct rather than actually doing it out of spite. In fact, you could say that whenever I heard one of those silent whispers, my hands immediately went to work.
However, I could never figure out how or why my center could revolve around something like this. Maybe it was there in my work, but I never noticed. Mom and Dad always told me and my siblings that we would come to know it in time.
Did I know what was coming next? No sir, I did not. All I could sense was that it would all begin with the Northern Lights.
The night breeze whistled gently past the cloud that Cloud Whisper and I were silently perched on while Solar Flare branched out lazily on his own one. Resting his head on his arms, his eyes drifted shut as Manny rose high into the twilight sky.
"Where's Mom? Isn't she here about now?" my sister asked as she tilted her kind gaze to the nearby town below.
"Usually, yes, but remember, sis, Mom said that she had to visit Grandfather North about something important," I said, watching the lower clouds as I spotted Dad getting settled down on his dreamsand cloud.
"Did she say what it was that was so important?" Solar Flare muttered as he raised his head curiously from his side.
"Well, no," I said slowly, turning my eyes back towards them. "She just said that she had this ominous feeling about something in the air …"
Cloud Whisper's gaze looked down towards Dad as he raised a quick yet cautious hand in a slow greeting.
"Sandy looks nervous, too, if you ask me, don't you think so Dusty?" She asked.
I nodded gently as I caught his eye.
"Hey, what do you think Solar?" Cloud Whisper said, tapping our brother's red boot with her pink one. All we heard was a quiet snore in return, and that just turned on her giggles as she murmured, "asleep again."
"Dad?" I asked, falling down to settle down beside him as I followed his wondering eyes out toward the horizon. "What is it?"
Dad only looked back at me with an uncertain shrug as we watched Manny come into full sight.
"Should we get started?" I asked quietly, hearing the beginning twinkles of the night stars.
"Dusty, is everything alright?" Cloud Whisper asked, flying down to join us.
"Yeah, I think so, there just seems to be this … disturbance in the air."
"What kind of disturbance?"
I just shook my head as I said, "I'm not sure, but it must be important if Mom had to go all the way to the North Pole because of it. I hope she and Grandfather North is okay."
Dad sat a comforting hand on my shoulder as he rapped me in his arms. At twelve years old, I was a bit taller than him, just a bit shorter than Cloud Whisper, but he was still able to hold me when he wanted to.
"I'm sure that they are, Dusty," Cloud Whisper said gently as she pulled out her flute. "Shall I?"
With a nod from Dad, Cloud Whisper flew out into the night, playing a song that couldn't help but make me smile.
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are …"
"Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky," I joined in as Dad released me to fly after my sister.
"When the blazing sun is gone, When he nothing shines upon, Then you show your little light, Twinkle, twinkle, all the night. Then the traveler in the dark, Thanks you for your tiny spark …"
The stars of the night began to sparkle along to our song, but a small glimmer drew my eyes to my chest as my little golden star started to glow.
"… He could not see the way to go, If you did not twinkle so. In the dark blue sky you keep, And often through my curtains peep, For you never shut your eye, Till the sun is in the sky …"
In the corner of my vision and the ears of my heart, I heard the quiet beginnings of hurried wishes, but my mind could not conceive them at all. I couldn't do so, because I was perceiving a different face. A hazy vision filled my eyes as I first saw the guarded head of a dark-haired boy with two different eyes, one baby blue and the other a soft brown.
" … As your bright and tiny spark, Lights the traveler in the dark, Though I know not what you are, Twinkle, twinkle, little star …"
The image faded along with the song as I felt the warming rush of my Mother's Gail.
"… Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you … are …" Cloud Whisper stopped in mid-sentence as she watched as Mom came swooping in on hurried winds.
"Mom," I called while me and my sister rushed over to her.
"Sandy, we've got some kind of trouble over at the Pole …" my Mom paused to say as she caught her breath. As she was doing so, I turned my head as I saw, what I later came to learn as, the Northern Lights.
When we arrived at the North Pole, the first people I saw were Uncle Bunny and Aunt Narain as they rushed out the door at us.
"Sandy, Windsong, we are so relieved that you could make it," Uncle Bunny said as he immediately rapped his paws around him for warmth against the cold arctic air.
"What's happened?" I heard my Mom say as she immediately flew out of Dad's plane.
"It's the Globe," Aunt Narain replied, laying a hand on Uncle Bunny's arm. "However, we're here because Manny has summoned us all, again."
"What? Pitch?" my Mom asked as she and Dad followed the others inside.
"Pitch? I thought he was defeated," I said, turning to my brother and sister as they got down out of the plane as it slowly evaporated away into nothing.
"We thought so, too," my brother said with a clenched fist that immediately burst into flames. "Cloud and I saw what happened to him."
"We aren't sure it's Pitch this time," I heard a familiar voice say as we all turned to see a thirteen year old girl stand in the doorway. Her brown tipped ears peeked out over her blue greyish hair as she leaned against the door.
"Aurora," I said, running up to give my friend a hug. "What do you mean?"
"North just called my parents in about two hours ago and since then we've been watching the lights on the gigantic Globe go one by one, again and again. We don't know what it is."
"Could it be Pitch? He was dragged away by his Nightmares about 14 years ago, right?" Solar asked as he sat his hoverboard beneath his feet.
"To my understanding, yes, at least that's what my parents, Aunt Windsong, Uncle Sandy, and Aunt Tooth believes."
"The Tooth Fairy is here?" Cloud Whisper asked with an excited smile. No matter how many times my sister has heard about the Tooth Fairy, she always cannot help but get excited whenever she sees her favorite role model, besides Mom, of course.
"Yeah, she's right over …"
"Hi, kids," Auntie Tooth said as she poked her head through the door. "Your parents are waiting for you upstairs, so come on and I'll take you up to them."
"Hi Toothiana," my sister said, flying up to fly alongside her.
"Wait, if everyone else is here, where are Auntie Casey, Uncle Jack, and Snow?" I asked once we got to the top of North's elevator.
"They'll be along shortly, I'm sure," Auntie Tooth said as she flew over to join North at the Globe.
Walking over to tug on Grandfather North's sleeve, I hugged him as I caught sight of the disappearing lights. "What's happening?"
"I don't know, little one. Believe me, I wish I knew," he replied in his deep accent, his baby blue eyes narrowed in guarded determination and deep thought.
"Hey, Dusty, over here," Aurora called from over in the corner as she waved me over to where she stood with Snow.
"Hi Snow," I whispered, inching away with her and Aurora.
"What's happening here?" Snow asked in a confused tone.
I shrugged. "We wish we knew," I replied as Aurora nodded simply.
"Snow," we heard Uncle Jack call for her. Looking from him to us, Snow quietly sighed as she promptly rejoined her parents next to the Globe.
At her return, I saw my parents and Aurora's parents turn to us as well.
"We better get over there," Aurora said, taking my hand.
Standing still under North's rooftop skylight, we watched as Manny came into full view as his moonbeams flooded into the room. Touching a hidden floor compartment in the floor, I gasped as I watched a huge glimmering mystical crystal arose out of the floor.
"Manny's choosing a new guardian?" North asked, his eyes twinkling.
"Why?" I heard Aunt Narain murmur as she looked at her daughter with knowing eyes.
Sure enough, as Manny's moonbeams illuminated the crystals, five images appeared from out of the crystal – Solar Flare, Aurora, Cloud Whisper, Snow, and me.
"Is it Pitch?" Uncle Bunny asked with a furious yet nervous stare at North, who just shrugged.
"It could be," Grandfather North said anxiously, "could be someone else."
"Who could be worse than Pitch?" Auntie Tooth said as she fluttered her wings timidly.
Before anyone could say anyone else, the crystal immediately back beneath the floor, where a mysterious image of a woman with long dark hair and huge dark wings appeared. In the prestige of the moment, it quickly vanished away as Manny guiltily diminished his moonlight.
Indefinitely, a huge silence filled the room as the faces of Grandfather North, Uncle Bunny, Auntie Tooth, and Dad grew strictly white.
"What's wrong?" I heard Uncle Jack say as he and Auntie Casey looked up at Grandfather North expectantly.
"Who is it?" Auntie Casey asked.
Pointing a weary finger at the floor, I heard Uncle Bunny murmur, "That … is definitely worse than Pitch."
"Why Dad?" Aurora asked as her ears drooped to the sides of her hair.
"That is Angel Moon, otherwise known as the Minstress of Deception," Grandfather North said as he turned away.
Aurora, Snow, and I looked even more confused, but it was Auntie Tooth that continued. "She was once a Guardian like the rest of us. She was known as the Guardian of Truth, but then … well, she disappeared a long time ago."
"Now, she's come back," Uncle Bunny said, sliding a wearied hand along one of his long ears.
Looking up at Mom, I heard her say, "Ok, so what do we do?"
Grandfather North then looked down at the five of us. "Manny has shown us what we are to do."
Alright, after some long thinking about how to approach this next chapter, here it is. Now, a part of it does reflect from writergirl142's tale "Snow Mist: Guardian of Imagination," but that's only because we're writing on the same story - only from two different views. So, check it out, it is really cool, trust me. :)
Also, can you figure out who Dusty had a sense of? I can't say anything, for it's going to be revealed later in the story. So, please enjoy. :D