Sandy's dream

No one would have thought about it too much, but Sandy did dream. He was always surprised by how very accurate they were.

He wasn't planning on falling asleep there, not at the pole, but he found himself drifting off, so he fluffed himself up a pillow and settled into his cloud by the roof of the workshop. It was comfortably warm and out of the way.

When he slept, he knew his sand would do its job, because it always had, but today he wondered. Something was wrong with the flow as it made its way through windows and walls to children. He noticed it earlier but put it out of his mind.

His dream was normal, but unsettling. He was with the others, having a wonderful time in the warren painting and laughing. Something was off though. Where was Jack? His companion and occasional partner in crime would NEVER miss something like this.

He was mostly watching, sending out the occasional shape as inspiration, talking to them, which was odd as he had been Mute all his life. There was no sound to it, but they seemed to hear him.

He wondered again as he had many times before what he would sound like were he able to speak. He had always imagined a little, neutral voice. He never considered he would have any kind of accent, and he was fairly soft-spoken. While pondering this the looming danger in the air dissipated.

Stone sentinels were dancing about with no rhyme or reason which made Bunny actually laugh. It was boisterous, like he had been mixed up with North, who gave him a surprised look.

His wide-eyed stare held a hyperactivity that was very unlike him, and very LIKE Tooth. He shook his head.

Tooth, meanwhile, was standing rather firmly and tall with her head cocked to the side like she was trying to hear something she as a fary couldn't hope to hear in a million years.

He had to chuckle.

Turning to explore the dreamscape while they bickered about 'what was going on' he noticed the odd colors in the Warren. Something akin to what might happen if the dye river overflowed, and then exploded. He chuckled. Dreams. He rolled his eyes.

Floating off he checked the outermost corners of the Warren. He loved exploring his dreamscapes but they were usually more on-track than this. There were no shadowy places, actually everything was impossibly lit. As he floated he noticed he was smelling something that was distinctly NOT the Warren.

It was the smell of Ice. The smell of an oncoming snowstorm, a cold breeze, a frozen lake. He felt a chill and noticed the ice on the leaves and snow on the ground. Also made weirder because he never felt the cold, ever. Looking back at the others they were still in warm weather and springtime. He peaked through a door and saw Jack, sleeping in a little bed in the corner.

He looked calm, but at the same time too pale. This was saying something for a kid who was literally the embodiment of winter and snow.

Putting a hand on his arm to wake him, he paused. His hand had slipped through. Jack didn't believe in him? He backed up and left the room. Scratching his head he looked through to the others. They were arguing about this and that, but none of them were concerned about Jack.

Odd. The colors were swirling again, this was de-railing fast.

He floated over to the others and they couldn't see him. What was going on? This wasn't a typical dream. He was excluded entirely, or was he...?

Listening a little more intently, he saw the color drain from the dream, which was a bad sign, and heard their conversation like someone had un-muted a TV.

"But he KILLED HIM!" Someone said, it wasn't a voice he recognized.

"I know, but how is this HELPING?!" Another anonymous voice.

It was as if some random people were talking through them.

"BOTH of them, I can't believe..." Yet a third unfamiliar voice.

"NO. It can't be, I won't believe-"

They muted again, so he was dead in this one. This was not a 'good' dream. Something was a tad off-kilter. Now he was concerned. This was not one of his dreams, and therefore he was in real danger.

When he turned around he was confronted with the BIGGEST cliche ever. Zombies.

It was...disturbing to say the least, but they couldn't do much more than that, so he turned his focus on waking up. He failed.

This was bad. Very bad. He needed to wake up before something actually went wrong. Something was happening and he couldn't shake the feeling Pitch was involved. He needed to know what was happening, now.

He made his way out of the warren as quickly as possible. Behind him, though, was exactly what he was looking for. Nightmares.

He started slashing, but they reformed faster than he could kill them and, just like before, he felt a sharp pain in his back and through his chest.

Thankfully that woke him up.

Double-thankfully, he was mute. He would have hated to wake anyone, or worse in his eyes, call attention to the fact that the Guardian of good dreams had just had a NIGHTMARE.

Shaking himself awake, he double checked everyone, they were sound asleep. When he looked, he saw no black sand, no cliche horror movie tidbits, no danger.

Maybe he had just gotten himself worked up over nothing. Although it couldn't hurt to check...He went home to his island and saw both dream globes. As he had expected, his was healthy, but Pitch's...

It was half-way to full.

His heart dropped and he shot back to the pole ASAP. Pitch was planning something...AGAIN! Sandy rolled his eyes, would that man never quit? It was getting annoying.

When he rolled into the workshop again time stretched and he landed face-first.

He woke up. NO WONDER!

He scolded himself, of course two competing globes could never have so many believers at once. He should have seen that. Now, was he STILL dreaming. He combed the place very carefully for signs of falsehood. Nothing. He made his way to the workshop and North was, actually, NOT carving. He was pacing.

"Why? Just GET UP ALREADY!" He roared, not seeing Sandy at all. Not completely odd unless you factor in that he was right in front of the Russian's face. Still no good. A yeti came roaring in and started babbling. Both of them went running off leaving him in a closing office that was now blank. The walls and ceiling were closing in on him. Sighing, he sat down. He knew the drill for these.

When it finally came down on him he jumped like a madman. Obviously he had not completely prepared himself for that. How could anyone?

Standing in Tooth Palace he was skeptical. He would assume this was a dream too, he was starting to seriously wonder what North had been putting in his Hot Cocoa lately.

This time, terror wasted no time rearing its ugly head. Tooth faries with sharpened teeth and claws came at him in droves. He was expecting to be surprised, but he wasn't anticipating the sting. It was like fire, all of them scratching at once. He couldn't convince himself to be calm this time.

He was pushing them out with sand and flying away as quickly as he could while wishing very much that he had a voice to swear with. Swatting them away he noticed a much larger, more familiar farie coming his way, that rammed into him so hard it knocked the air out of him.

Then there was nothing. No dream, no waking, just darkness.

His chest felt like someone was beating it, hard. Then he heard his name.

"Sand Man you get your butt back here!" He heard Bunny yelling. Confused, he pieced a few of the dreams together for an idea. Was he actually dead?

"Mate, you better open your eyes and breath or I swear I'm comin' after you." Bunny was a little less angry this time, more desperate. Uh oh.

He put all his effort into doing as Bunny had suggested. What would kill him that wouldn't disband him? Soon, he could feel his own body, which told him a whole lot. He had drown? How? Despite what others may think he was actually a fairly good swimmer.

He tried to breathe and was met with a gurgle. Prying his eyes open ever so slightly he saw a cloudy white sky and a soaked Easter Bunny.

"There you go, mate, come on." He urged. Sandy almost listened but it became difficult. He tried but his eyes were too heavy and as a dream spirit it was natural to close his eyes again. The fact that he still wasn't breathing didn't bother him as much as it should have.

He lost the sound of Bunny's voice as he slipped back under. The only thing he could feel was that steady pounding in his chest. He stayed there trying to come up with what Bunny had wanted...

"Wake UP! Sandy, wake UP!" The angry-sounding Bunny's voice reached him once more, but this time there was no ignoring it. All of a sudden his chest was on fire.

He sat up as straight as he could and coughed and coughed. He wasn't processing anything that was said, just trying to get air. Basically he sat there for a moment retching and coughing water for who knows how long until he could breath at which point he flopped back over panting.

Eyes still shut he listened for something that might tell him if this was a dream, too and found nothing. Nothing, that was, until his ears popped.

"-up, Mate." He caught the end of Bunny's sentence. Carefully the dream maker sat up once more, scanning around him warily, a question mark poised above his head.

"Easy, mate. Pitch was causin' a stir, we didn't know you could, but you drowned and Jack was the only one around. He jumped in after you mate. Had to fish him out too. If I'd been a moment later lookin' for him...who knows..." Bunny explained.

Jack. He stood up and searched for the winter spirit to no avail. Question mark still bouncing he looked back at Bunny.

"Relax, mate. He went off to let the others know we were coming, it's meeting night you know." He explained, Sandy raised an eyebrow.

He made all the signs to ask his friend why he had sent Jack back to tell the others that they would be late when in all actuality he should be dead.

"I'm hope, mate. Plus I didn't figure you were goin' down easy." He nudged. Sandy chuckled. Then he rubbed the back of his head and just looked a little uncomfortable. "By the way, how did you...not well, you know...dissolve?" He asked.

He just looked at the bunny and started laughing and waving a hand. He signed 'I'm solid.'

Bunny just looked confused for a moment and then just threw up his hands.

"And here I am thinking you're actually MADE of sand." he shook his hand. Sandy just had to laugh. No denying it was a common mistake. He could be disbanded, he could re-form from, but he was indeed very solid.

Through the flight back to the pole, which Bunny insisted he be part of, he mused on what he had ever done for Jack that he would risk his life and face one of his worst fears to save him? He would have to ask him about that some time.

I hope this makes as much sense to you as it does in my head, let me know, thanks!