Facets of Belief

By Uniasus

Chapter Nine – Reinforcements


Baby Tooth only let herself fret after she had found her way out of the maze of tunnels Pitch Black controlled.

Spooky spirits?

Sometimes she forgot just how young Jack was. She was used to people looking young but being really much older than their appearance suggested. With Jack though, he was just beginning his life as a guardian. He probably didn't understand where spirits came from, that they were all chosen by the Man in the Moon to protect those who needed it, be it on a global scale like the Guardians or a local one like many Irish immortals. Spooky spirits just didn't exist, unless they were like Pitch and were supposed to be good and then went bad. The Man in the Moon wouldn't select someone to be a guardian just to scare people.

However, the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow was making her re-evaluate that assessment. His appearance was scarier than Pitch's, what with the graphic stump for a head and uncanny ability to know where she was at all times. And it really threw her for a loop when the horse he rode spoke, but it had a smooth voice that reminded her of satin pillows. Baby Tooth supposed that without having a human head, the Man in the Moon had to give the Headless Horseman some way of communicating.

It took a lot of effort to get him to understand. Only Tooth understood fairy speak in it's audio format and Baby Tooth had never meet anyone other than her fellow fairy workers with whom she could communicate telepathically. She tried charades and writing, drawing pictures and mangled English her small voice box couldn't produce. But eventually the Headless Horseman, whose name was actually Igmar the stallion told her, understood. Or rather, Montigo, his horse understood. Baby Tooth wasn't entirely sure which was the one in control, the one with the mouth or the one with the reins, but it didn't matter after they agreed to help.

And so Baby Tooth found herself holding on to Montigo's forelock as he cantered invisible along the Interstate.

Jack had been right. The Headless Horseman, both Montigo and Ingmar she supposed, lived off of fear but had no plans of world domination like Pitch did.

"We like scaring people," Montigo said. "But it's a brief thing. We've seen how the children now are scared all the time, awake or dreaming. They don't come into the cemetery anymore. We don't get visitors now. "

Baby Tooth suggested they go to Burgess. A child there had seen the Guardians a few nights ago, and such proof of belief made it hard to shake off. He might have forgotten about Santa and the Tooth Fairy, but he would have been one of the last to forget and thus one of the easier ones to remind. She had activated many memory capsules whose face she couldn't see. Perhaps Jamie was one of them.

Being a local guardian, the Headless Horseman only had powers and beliefs in a limited range. But Burgess he said was quick enough and he was eager to see the rest of the town. Baby Tooth hoped this worked. Jack had not looked well in that cage, and she was sure North would be antsy to start swinging swords.

Baby Tooth tugged gently on Montigo's forelock, directing him properly.

This had to work, it just had to.

#####

Jamie woke to a sharp sting in his neck. When he pulled his hand away, there was a green feather between his fingers. The color was familiar in a way he didn't understand. Absent-mindly, he twirled it between his fingers. At the same time, he tongued the hole in his mouth and thought about his childhood belief in the Tooth Fairy. Was his mom hiding feathers in his room to pretend that she had come?

There was a noise that sounded suspiciously like a whinny from the street. Any other night, or day, Jamie would have no problem slipping to the window and peaking out into the street. But the world had turned scary this past week. Shadows ate people and the whispers in the night could make your ears bleed.

He felt another sting, on his thigh this time through the blankets. And then another one on his foot. His hand. His side. Suddenly, staying in bed was no longer the safer option. Jamie stood up and leaped onto the floor, making sure to land far enough away so that the Boogieman hiding underneath could not grab him.

Seeing he was standing near the window, Jamie took a look outside.

The Headless Horseman was standing out there.

As he watched, the rider brought his hand up and waved.

Jamie quickly ducked down so he couldn't be seen, back against the wall beneath the window. The Headless Horseman! Outside his house! Before, he might have been a little excited about the idea, but now it terrified him.

As if sensing his fears, the shadows under his bed grew eyes and started stretching towards him.

"There is no such thing as the Boogieman." Jamie chanted the phrase over and over. His mom had told him it, to convince him that nothing was in his closet or under his bed. But Jamie didn't believe it, for with each time he said it the eyes grew bigger and the shadow taller until there was a shifting horse of black sand with legs on either side of his bed and a mouth full of grinning fangs.

He had to get out of the room.

There was a brush of feathers on his cheek. The window something seemed to whisper. But out the window was the Headless Horseman, the dead solider looking for his head who might use Jamie's to replace it.

The nightmare reared and Jamie didn't care how but he had to leave the room. The quickest way was through the window so he had it open and was dangling from the windowsill before he realized it might not have been the best idea ever.

"Drop," a voice said.

Jamie looked down to see the Headless Horseman below him, hands out to catch him. Despite being a scary figure, the voice was soothing. Much friendly than the shrill scream that came from the nightmare slowly approaching. Jamie closed his eyes and dropped.

The Horseman caught him. Jamie had just enough time to see the nightmare snarl before he found himself tucked into the chest of the Horseman and the stallion took off towards the woods.

"Where to?" The Horseman asked and Jamie was surprised to hear the voice come from the horse and not the rider.

"The pond." He answered. The silence that followed gave Jamie the distinct impression that the question had been directed to someone else, someone Jamie couldn't hear or see, but the Horseman took his request in stride.

It wasn't long before they were at Overland Pond. Jamie slid off the horse, grateful that his knees held him. Immediately, he stepped on to the ice. It may be April, but the pond always had a layer of ice on it till June. Jamie had a feeling it would support him better than the Headless Horseman.

"What, what do you want?"

"See that Baby Tooth? Back in the day, someone thanked you for saving them."

At the name, a small fairy materialized near the Horseman's shoulder.

"You're a fairy! You came to visit me!"

The horse rolled its eyes', but the fairy zoomed at him and flew circles around his head.

"I can't believe I forgot you." He held out his cupped palms and the fairy came to land in them. She was green with mismatched eyes and had a long pointy nose. "You're the one who woke me up. Thank you, that nightmare would have gotten me."

Jamie looked up at the Headless Horseman. "Thank you for catching me."

"You're welcome."

Jamie returned his attention to the fairy. "Why are you here? I didn't loose a tooth."

She began chirping and gesturing, but Jame didn't understand. He looked at the Horseman for help, but the rider just shrugged his shoulders. "I can't understand her very well either, only her mom the Tooth Fairy understands the fairy language. But from what I can get, her mom's in trouble as well as the other Guardians."

"Guardians?"

"You know, Santa Claus. The Easter Bunny. Sandman."

"They're all real?"

"Real as Baby Tooth in your hand."

Jamie looked down at the fairy in his hands. She was warm and soft. Very obviously real. As was the talking horse and headless rider in front of him.

"Right. So you need me to what? Help the Tooth Fairy?"

The fairy in his hands peeped an affirmative before diving into a long sting of squeaky toy sounds that Jamie didn't understand. Nor did the Headless Horseman apparently.

The horse snorted. "As far as we can guess, it has to do with Pitch Black. Or as you know him, the Boogieman."

"The monster under my bed that attacked me?"

"Worse, the King of Nightmares who controls those monsters. It's because of him that the world is a scary place right now and no one will come to visit us."

Was it just Jamie, or did the Horseman sound lonely?

"If the Boogieman has control over nightmares, and these...Guardians...haven't been able to defeat him, how can I?"

"Good question." The horse began to pace, while the fairy in Jamie's hand went into a thinking pose. After awhile, she squeaked out a word.

"That one I understood," the horse said. "Belief."

"Belief?"

"Ingmar and I are a connected spirit, and like most we exist because of belief. Someone wrote a story about us and enough people thought it was true, resulting in us as you see."

The baby tooth fairy made some noise, but the Horseman kept talking over her.

"Believing in something makes it real. Mind over matter and that sort of thing. If you believe there is something under your bed, there will be something there."

"Coach is always telling me to imagine making a goal before kicking the ball."

"Same thing. Thing is the more people that believe in a spirit, the stronger it gets. Pitch and the Guardians were always opposite poles, so somehow he got you kids to stop believing in them, their powers disappeared, and he was able to scare you into believing in him. What we need your help with is in taking Pitch's power away and giving more to the Guardians."

"And I do that, how?"

"We were hoping you'd know."

Jamie was only eight. He didn't know a lot of thing. Just the alphabet and basic math. And that the Tooth Fairy was real. That, he had to admit, was awesome.

"You're a scary spirit, how come you didn't try to hurt me like the monster?"

"We like scaring people Jamie, but not hurting them. Or scare them too much. If we was too scary, no one would come to visit us."

"Who would want to visit you? You don't even have a head to throw at people."

Jamie gasped and turned around, the fairy zooming to put herself between him and the new threat.

It was a man, or at least looked like one. He was lacking eyebrows and had slicked back black hair, but what identified him as not human was the color of his skin. It was grey, like ash, and there was something about his eyes that reminded Jamie of the nightmare that was under his bed. Like the Headless Horseman, this spirit was mounted, his black robe merging with the sand horse beneath him to the point were Jamie would have wondered if they were the same creature if he hadn't seen the shadows that suggested that the man had legs.

Jamie knew that this was Pitch Black, the Boogieman who lived under the bed and more importantly the King of Nightmares. Because that's had to be what had appeared in Jamie room earlier and now had them surrounded. Horses similar to the ones Pitch was riding; horses made of black sand that were constantly shifting to give a small iridescent glow that was easily overshadowed by the golden furnace that was their eyes. Their bodies reminded Jamie of the things that lurked in shadows and their eyes recalled the power of Hell.

At this point, Jamie wouldn't be surprised to find out Pitch was also known as the Devil. Or at least his cousin.

Slowly, Jamie looked around him. Nightmares circled him, the fairy, and the Horseman. Judging by the Horseman's horse's prancing, Jamie wasn't the only one nervous. The sand horses spiraled closer, tossing their manes, and Jamie found himself backing up until he was pressed against the Headless Horseman, feeling his calf along his side and a surprisingly warm horse belly behind him.

Eventually, the circle of nightmares stopped tightening. Pitch was no where to be seen, but Jamie could feel his eyes staring at the three of them.

"Why isn't he attacking? He could easily take me and Baby Tooth out." The Horse muttered around the bit.

Jamie eyed the nightmares. Now that they had been circling the trio harmlessly for a few minutes, he found them less threatening. Fears of being smothered in sand or trampled by hooves slowly faded from his mind as he realized there was no attack coming.

And with that knowledge, all fear fled him.

The nightmares were nothing more then creepy sand horses, just like the Headless Horseman was nothing more than, well, a rider without a head. He was safe with both of them.

"Pitch doesn't want to hurt kids. Just scare them."

He took a few shuffles forward, ignoring the protests from the horse and the fairy's tugging on the back of his pajamas. A nightmare was blowing hot air into his face, muzzle widening to revel sharp fangs. Before he could convince himself otherwise, Jamie shot out his hand and tapped it's face.

Instantly it turned gold.

There was a hiss of anger and suddenly Pitch Black was visible again. His nightmare reared, hooves dangerously close to Jamie's head but then there was a strong arm around his waist and he found himself seated before the Headless Horseman as they galloped back towards Burgess.

"Did you see that? I destroyed a nightmare!" Jamie tried to turn around and look behind them, but the Horseman was too bulky.

"I saw," the horse said. "How did you do that?"

"I just realized that I wasn't scared of them anymore. I didn't think Pitch or his horses wanted to hurt me."

"Can you do it again?"

"Yeah, but if we want to beat Pitch we'll have to get some help."


A/N: And here's proof of the Guardians' warped view. Baby Tooth shares Tooth's view, which is similar to most of the Guardians. They believe that all magic comes from the Moon, and so all spirits were created by him to be a guardian of some type. The Big Four were simply exceptional due to centers. (They seem to forget MiM made them to face off something older than them – Pitch. They like to say he was supposed to be the first Guardian but went sour, which is wrong.)

However, it's entirely possible for spirits to come to life without the help of the Moon. This is a foreign idea, hence Baby Tooth's initial confusion at the Headless Horseman.

Should probably write a fic where the Guardians are face to face with their mistaken thoughts, but that won't happen here. Just Baby Tooth gets her eyes opened.

Plot bunny strike! Oh man, who wants to see the Guardians go up against God?