Disclaimer: I still don't own The Rise of the Guardians/The Guardians of Childhood. How sad.

By the way- small spoilers regarding the books in this chapter. You've been warned.

The Demon Trashcan

Most people who knew the Sandman would describe him as a calm, sweet man who was one of the most powerful spirits of all.

He was wise and always had a smile on his face.

The Nocturnal Magnificence, Sanderson Mansnoozie, Sandman the First, Lord of High Protector of Sleep and Dreams!

First of the Guardians of Childhood!


Sandy, for his part, didn't really care about his tiles at the moment.

Nor was he smiling or feeling clam.

Why? The trashcan! Because by the stars, he hated this trashcan on his head!

He tried and tried to get it off, but still it stayed, it wouldn't come off!

After the first ten minutes, there was honestly only one conclusion he could think of as to why the trashcan wouldn't come off.

This - this thing from hell that wasn't a trashcan at all! Yes- yes that was it! It was fake, a demon in disguise!

And why must this be true?

Because he was the Sandman damn it and it should not take this long to get a simple trashcan off his head!

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Twenty minutes later, his sea shell helpers found him, still trying to get the thing from hell off.

Thankfully, with their help, he finally manged to get it off, although by then he had bumped into several objects (his pretty sure he broke some sort of vase), ran into a few walls, and tripped over The Sand laying on the floor.

But back to the matter at hand.

Apparently, the sea shells had discovered a problem and had tried to fix. Finding that they could not, they went to find him to ask for help- which is what lead to them finding him stuck in that thing.

And now? Now he was staring the problem.

Staring at floor.

Which was currently covered in ice.

As a matter of fact, so was the stairs. And the walls. And the doors. And for that matter the rest of this entire part of his island.

On the bright side, The Sand seemed to have finally stopped laughing and had lifted itself off the ground. Now it was circling the trashcan demon from hell, drawing the Sandman's attention to it.

He had forgotten that it was there.

He had felt a rush of happiness flow through him when the thing came off, and had jumped in the air with joy and a silent laugh, but now he stared at it with an uncharacteristic hate.

So what did he do?

He picked it up with dream sand and slammed it repeatedly in to the ice-covered floor.

Giving a satisfied look at the now crushed trashcan, he turned to face The Sand, ignoring feel the stares.

What?

He didn't do anything wrong. He had done the world a favor. What if the demon trashcan tried to attack someone else?

The Sand scoffed in disbelief. Wasn't it the snow-child who made it "attack" you?

The Sea shells, seeing that they weren't going to get any help at the moment, decided to come back later.

Sandy was having moment, it seemed.

He ignored that the all of them.

And besides, even though Jack did do it, that thing was evil. EVIL. And Jack- Jack had been scared at the time.

Sandy felt no anger towards Jack- it was not in is nature (the thing didn't count).

Speaking of which - where was Jack?

The Sand seemed to pause at the question, the mass of Sand spreading out slightly as it reached out with its senses for the boy.

With the Island being made of sand, it didn't take it that long for The Sand to find him.

Suddenly, without warning, The Sand shot out of the room like a bullet. Sandy, wide-eyed, used the dream sand to follow right behind it, dread filling him. Was Jack okay? Did something happen?

When they finally arrived to where to the balcony where Jack fell, The Sandman covered his mouth with his hands in shock, staring at the scene before him.

Jack!

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Bonus! Short Story! In Celebration for Linda Chicana

Jack's Adventure

A soft, beautiful voice sang the Song of Dreams*, filling Jack's heart with joy.

He couldn't believe it! Sandy had told him he could visit them, here on the Island but...

A real mermaid! Right in front of him!

As he listen to the mermaid's song, he remembered when he first heard of mermaids, a little while after he had been "born".

The Wind had told him all about mermaids and he had dreamed of one day meeting one, asking again and again to hear about them.

After hearing about so many wonders, and the adventures, and fair maidens that married the heroes, along with the tales of the mermaids, he could remember acting out his a "adventure" of his own.

In childish glee, he had pretended to have a been asked to go on 'daring rescue' to save a mermaid. He had imaged dolphins, and evil pirates, and dangerous missions, and he acted it all out in his excited. And at the end he had fought the evil villain and won the mermaid's hand in marriage. It had been perfect in his mind, because, really, what better adventure could there be than saving a real mermaid and marring her?

Mother had giggled so much that he had felt embarrassed and didn't talk for the rest of the night.

He had to admit, he felt a little silly now, staring at the mermaids. For all their beauty, the mermaids was no damsels in distress. He had seen what they could do with those spears of theirs.

Why would one of them chose him to marry anyway?

He still wanted a kick-ass dolphin sidekick though.


* Song that the mermaids sing in The Sandman picture book.

I wasn't going to put the last part, buuuuuttt...

Linda Chicana sent me a pm a while ago, asking if she could borrow the Water Spirit. She said it inspired her to write her own story, and I agreed to let her use The Water. And guess what? She published the first chapter just the other day. Yay! In celebration, I added this little story I wrote awhile back. Go read it! It's called 'Of Crashing Waves and Hearts Despaired'. I love the story so far, but you got to go read and review for yourself. The Water would like if you did too, I'm sure.

Anyway, how did y'all like the chapter? Let me know if you see any mistakes.