A/N: Wow! Holy Crap guys a whole 21 reviews in only a week! That's the most I've ever received in that short of a time span! You blew me away so I wrote you a chapter that will knock your socks off (and probably break a few of your preconceptions as well lol!). But before we get to that, here's some shoutouts to you wonderful people!
AzazelLuciferCrowley: Yes our resident bad guy will be making a reappearance quite soon!
Moonshroom420: Yes and no, this next chapter and the one that follows will start to clear things like that up a bit. Essentially right now he is just a mindless drone, but in a chapter or two…we'll see :) The fear of the sandman question will definitely be answered this chapter.
MagentaScribe: m'kay, here it is!
Guest: Because the trees hate us! But look, I got a chapter up before I left! And they took my computer away already so I'm typing this A/N up on a different machine! (I think I'm already experiencing withdrawls). And I believe the girl you are referring to (If it is Seraphina you are thinking about) is Mother Nature. Seraphina is her other name.
Taranodongirl1: Thanks so much and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Daughter of Wisdom and Music: Thank you!
Kiss-My-Asphalt: my answer to your hopelessness and speculation is in the four pages below. Enjoy.
Beanie-art1: Oh it is! And yes he reminds me of a feral child too. Oh my gosh and I was totally in the mood for tacos and there are so many friendly bears out there! Anywho, have fun with your drugged tea and taco bears! See you somewhere around the 10th of August!
I.F.T.S: we got twenty one! A record for this story! And I can't wait to see their reaction to this chapter either!
Sheeijan: Don't worry! Pretty much everyone hates MiM right now! But I promise he will be redeemed by the end of this story!
Caitycaterpillar: FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD READ THE CHAPTER BELOW TO SATISFY YOUR CRAVINGS FOR REDEMTION AND FREEDOM! …I'm not quite sure what happened there…
Bug349: Well last chapter was the ugly duckling before this swan of a chapter so enjoy!
A Stripped Tigger: Because he makes a mess wherever he goes! Yay for Pitch movie quotes!
Doubled-Helix: yeah her reappearance was quite overdo wasn't it? And Yay for rhymes!
Notasongfic: just chant BLIZZARD real loud and I might hear you from wherever I am in comparison to you and you just might get one! Either that or Jack will hear you and give you a blizzard…
Thisisentertaining: Hehe yeah her absence was a bit unnerving. Knowing me it will probably cause story drama later on…
TearsDrippingDown: Thanks and I would never forget all you beautiful people! Look, I'm even updating after they confiscated my computer for safe keeping!
Dragongirl2011: here's an update only five days later!
Azhaeda: they are nothing if they are not extreme lol! Aww and I'm so glad I got those accents right! There's nothing worse than reading a fic where there are supposed to be iconic accents and there are none :/ Thanks and yeah its sort of camping, it's a fishing trip at a lodge farrr up in the wilderness. Where stepping in bear crap is common lol!
Michaela95:Thanks so much and enjoy the next chapter!
MoonGirl1155: Thanks for all the reviews and I'm so glad you're enjoying the story! I'm glad its original (first chapter praise! Yay!) It was gross wasn't it? I was aiming for older teenage girl catnip when thinking up this fic. HERE'S AN UPDATE TO HOLD YOU OVER UNTIL I GET BACK! *throws update and runs away*
Disclaimer: I own NOTING! Noting at all. Except my ideas…and my keyboard…ENJOY!
Chapter 10: Moving Mountains
She had knocked for quite some time before he answered, but he let her in and entertained her for a while instead of the fear and guilt. She didn't try to melt his heart and comfort his humanity with promises that the boy was a pure soul. She didn't attempt to whisk away the centuries old child that lay in a bed with a golden band around his head. She merely sat and recalled three hundred years worth of memories, starting with a cape clad newborn who was stolen away from the light of the world.
Before an hour passed, the others had gathered around and tears were freely shed. More than once they had felt the urge over the years to check up on the silent Nightmare King, but they had shrugged it off and ignored the prodding of the Moon and his Commander. Jökul had paid the price for their unwillingness to step out of their daily routine. Seraphina was not angry with them. She had no right to be when she had been the one to abandon him when he was no longer convenient. If anything they should have been angry with her, but sorrow outweighed all other emotions in their hearts.
By the time she had finished they were all standing silently in the room they had confined the boy into for their safety. The room was padlocked and sealed completely, its only occupant restrained to the gurney with iron cuffs and a band of woven sand that wrapped around his head. He had begun to look sick from being forced to sleep for so long and his nose was inflamed from the feeding tube they had placed to sustain him. He took shaky breaths every few moments that did not betray a restful slumber.
Mother Nature watched him silently for quite some time, taking inventory of his healing injuries and the dilapidated state of his body. Pitch had not cared for him after her abandonment. She ran her fingers through his dirty hair, nails catching on old scars and scabbed wounds. He didn't respond to the touch. She sighed and turned away. She now realized how very wrong she had been to leave him when he was broken. Her heartbreak was a pitiful excuse for abandoning a soul to wallow in darkness. She couldn't help but wonder if the outcome would have changed had she stayed with him.
"Sera, is there anything we can do to help him?" Tooth asked, breaking the mistress of seasons from her thoughts.
"That I do not know," the woman responded. "He has been like this for over two hundred years. It's hard to know if there is anything left to rescue after so very long. The darkness is so strongly knitted into him that separation from it could very well mean death."
"Well we must try something!" The Fairy Queen announced. "We are not Guardians at all if we abandon him to either an eternity in hell or a merciful death. He deserves better than that after all of our shortcomings. If the Man in the Moon and his Commander promised this boy a deliverance from evil then it shall come to pass. All we must do is be obedient."
"Ah second that," Bunny chimed from the corner of the cell. "'E needs 'elp and if we can give it, then we're gunna give it."
"Is only right ting to do. If ve are to be doing someting about dis den I vill not be saying no."
Sandy nodded solemnly in agreement, his heart already heavy with the revelation of what he had been assigned to do. Every spirit was given gifts and each one of those gifts was purposed for more than one thing. His sand, though used primarily as a dream caster, would tonight become the vessel of deliverance.
"Sandman," Mother Nature called softly. "Do you know what we have to do?"
Another solemn nod was his only reply.
"Then it is through us that he will be returned to the light?"
Another nod.
"Good. Let us begin." With a curt nod, The Sandman began his delegations. Pictures of needed items flashed above his head while he worked to prepare the boy, sending him into a deep and painless slumber while his comrades prepared an empty room deep in the bowels of Santoff Clausen. When the room was ready, North returned, unshackled the boy, and carried him in his arms down three flights of stairs. He never stirred, even when they laid him on the sheet covered table and tied him down with the leather straps. Pain would almost certainly be involved and as much as it hurt them to cinch the straps so tight, they knew it was only what was best for him.
The beginning of the evening was uneventful. The Sandman spent over an hour at the boy's head, searching for any indication to show him how to proceed. By the time he had a plan, dreamsand had filled the air with his thoughts and sent all the others to sleep. So he began alone, sending small streams of sand into the boy's mouth and nose. Jökul seemed to take it well, breathing without difficulty besides a cough or two, and Sandy let him rest for a bit before he tried to cast out the darkness.
He wiped his golden hand across his brow, let a silent prayer pass his lips, and placed his hands on the boy's temples. But before he could begin, the black sand attacked the invader and Jökul's eyes shot open. A blood curdling scream rang through the room, pitching the others into consciousness and sending Sandy back a few feet before he regained his courage and once again took his place at the boy's head. All plans had flown out the window the moment the sprite's eyes opened and Sandy gripped his sand in an iron fist. With another scream, the boy began to thrash against the restraints, eyes swirling black and gold.
Chaos ruled supreme as many hands held down the thrashing body, their own screams mingling with his awful screeches. His back arched and slammed painfully with every advance of the Sandman's weapons, like the black sand within him was trying to smash the boy open to provide a route of escape. The spasms were so powerful even North was displaced when he bucked.
Sandy closed his eyes and blocked out the chaos that surrounded, mercilessly beating back the darkness with his light. Again and again he pushed forward, ripping it to shreds even while its own strikes were felt within his very body. This was his purpose, this was his fight, and he would not be shaken down no matter how loud the darkness made the boy scream or how hard it bashed him against the table. It wasn't until spindly arms snapped the leather straps and pale fingers gripped him tightly by the hair that Sandy lost his concentration. Eyes black as night, the boy snarled and threw him across the room by his head, a pulse of ice sending the rest of the warriors of light into the walls. The room trembled as the remaining straps snapped free. Bare feet hit the floor and a snarl cut the air like a knife but he did not dare attack any of them. He paced from wall to wall, obsidian eyes locked on the little golden man that floated not even three feet away.
Sandy regarded the boy silently, listening to him growl and grind his teeth while he paced uneasily. He sent his sand deeper while their eyes were locked, destroying the dark grains while their host bellowed and screamed in pitches no human voice could ever reach. He pushed forward relentlessly, keeping his distance from the fingers that clawed the air around him and ripping down the barriers the enemy had placed. He continued on with vivacious ferocity until the force of evil had dwindled to nearly nothing and would have pushed on until there was nothing left had it not been for the sand's chance of tactic. The evil was not without its other methods and it very much so wanted to continue to live. So when it could not face its opponent head on, it took a hostage to ensure its survival.
Quite suddenly, the Sand fled into the furthest reaches of Jökul's mind, the boy's macabre growls and screeches suddenly dropping into the anguished cries of a child in agony. Falling to his knees he clapped his hands over his ears and screamed in terrible pain. Though his heart was breaking, Sandy pushed on in search of the enemy, trying his best to block out the choking sobs. The others could do nothing but watch as black eyes returned to grey and the frail body shook with pain. Blood trickled from his ears and nose.
Though it was killing the child, the Sandman pushed on and cornered the blackness in his body. Sensing its coming demise, it threw Jökul into a seizure, wracking his body with tremors as bloody froth bubbled from his mouth. Sandy let go, hoping and praying that the host could be spared if the parasite within him was allowed to live, but the sand did not release the child. His seizing only grew more violent with the retreat.
Sandy began to panic. He couldn't do it! He couldn't save this boy and now he would die. A strangled whine and a gag from the winter sprite sent Sandy to the floor, little golden hands rolling him gently so the black vomit trickling from the boy's mouth would not choke him while he thrashed. The bringer of dreams tried again to rid the boy of the poison, but the gurgling scream that followed only reminded him of his failure. A panicked and half lucid plea cried out from within him, meant not for the Moon but for the one that made it.
Help me! Help me! Please help me save him!
And though requested in desperation and surrounded by chaos, the Commander's reply was easily heard.
Not through your power, Bringer of Dreams, but through Mine shall he be saved. Release your hold on his life and trust in Me.
With a silent sob, Sandy let go of his ties to the sand and stepped back from the boy.
Command it to leave, Sanderson.
I have no voice.
Who made the mute and deaf? The ears and mouth? Was it not I? Speak and command the evil within the boy to flee.
I can't!
Do not doubt. Even a child with the faith the size of a grain of sand can command the mountains to move and they will move. The time has come to be movers of mountains, Sanderson. Now speak.
And for the first time since the day of his birth, Sandy felt a tingling at the base of his throat. He felt it swell within him, powerful and awe-inspiring. Felt it build up in his chest and fly from his mouth, a rich baritone yelling "OUT!"
And the black sands fled.
Within two seconds, Jökul's body stopped seizing and arched rigidly off the floor. He collapsed with a shudder, gold and black sand streaming from his mouth and nose. Torn from its host, the black sand was consumed by the golden in moments.
Sandy rushed towards the boy; his entire body trembling as he slid the sweat soaked head into his lap. The boy was shaking too. Sandy stroked the sprite's brow, trying to offer some small comfort while the others recovered and began to help. The boy's eyes opened, revealing the clearest shade of cerulean blue Sandy had ever seen.
Well now that I've gone and done that, y'all are going to have to wait until I get back from roughin' it to get a new chapter. MWAHAHAHA!
If you're confused by anything in this chapter or the story in general, feel free to PM me or leave a question in a review.
SPEAKING OF REVIEWS, please leave some! They are my plotbunny food :) lets beat 21 reviews chilluns!