The thunder in the distance was making its presence known with the soft booming sounds of it crashing to the earth and tearing its way across lands. The wind started to pick up and blew across the land and even through the trees. The soft pellets of rain hitting the ground was slowly becoming harder by the minute. All the wild life was getting prepared for the storm that was coming in; animals of all kinds were running into shelters or homes, the insects were starting to make themselves less known, and even the foliages' leaves were starting to turn into a bright green that signaled the storm is coming in. But not only was the storm coming in, but the darkness that followed. As the storm finally made itself known, so did the shadows that ran across the land.

The shadows started to spread in unnatural patterns and when they crawled onto a living object, it object started to lose it's color. The flowers that spread along the plains of fields were slowly losing their liveliness and color, they started to droop as if they weren't getting enough water and sun. Some of the trees started to lose their liveliness and color in the leaves and even started to fall off rapidly. Then it spread unto the animals, starting with the smaller ones first they started to lose interest in what was going on around them and sunk unto the ground as they went into an exhausted slumber. The shadows continued to spread until it was content with it's destruction to the life around them. As the storm moved, so did the shadows until the storm cleared and the shadows were no more…

The sounds of clanking metal hitting clanking metal, the sounds of electrical beeps, the sounds of sawing against wood, all the sounds were still echoing through the factory after almost two months have pasted since Christmas. The Yetis were working on toys, but not as hard as they would have when the time was approaching and it approached fast. The small elves scurried around the floor in their own little world as they created small destruction to themselves and those around them. The sound of heavy boots started to make themselves known throughout the factory as they stomped their way around the factory.

"Don't slack now! Even though Christmas just ended we still have less than ten months until deadline!" The booming voice echoed out into the factory. Some of Yetis moaned in disgusted as they started to work slightly harder at their task, while the elves just rubbed it off and continued on their way to mischief.

"Seriously, have to reminded them everyday," North said to himself as he turned back and walked towards the shining globe. He stared at the lights intensely, as if one might blink out and cause the Guardianship to stop at a halt. Just like what happened last time when all the Guardians came to see the last light. What was his name again? North thought as he moved his large hand to the top bridge of his nose and rubbed it, clearly he couldn't think today.

All of a sudden he felt a familiar sound in his right pocket of his pants. He reached down the pressed the shining gem on the device.

"This is North," he announced to the unknown person.

"North, it's Father Time" came the reply and it sounded urgent.

"What's wrong?" North asked as he moved towards the fire place to get warm.

"I detected another disturbance in the America region, more in the state of Oklahoma and Kansas area. But it's different somehow than when I detected Grim's interference," Father answered with slight uncertainty. That was unlike Time.

"Different how?" North asked.

"While Grim lives where life around him is completely gone, the areas being affect in this region of the world are in random spots. The life force started to fade to nothing, but it started to come right back after a few hours," Norths' eyebrows started to frown together as he took in this information.

"That is strange, I've never heard of a phenomena quite like that," North replied as he was trying to figure out what to do about the situation.

"Is there anything else that happened there? Even if it's normal," North asked.

"They had a bad storm there, but that's it. I mean, I know a bad storm can wipe out quite a bit of life so this is hard to decided if this is Grim's work or not. But I felt something through my clocks that something didn't feel right. I'm sure this is Grim's work"

"I'll contact the Guardians and have them keep an eye out for strange weather and to check area's that might have been hit," North stated as he thought of the first person to contact.

"Right, I'll let you know if anything changes."

"Thank you my friend, oh, I almost forgot," North didn't know if bring this up was good or not. "Have you heard anything from Nature?" North was worried about what happened between them and didn't want to pry into their business, but they needed all the help they could get.

"…Sorry, but she has been difficult to find, let alone to get a hold of," Fathers' voice went from urgent and determined to sad and hopeless in seconds. North almost flinched and wished he didn't say anything.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure we can come up with something to get her to come back to us," North tried to stay positive, but his confidence in actually finding her was just as bad as Father. If Nature didn't want to be found, she would never be found…

"Thank you," Father answered and then the gem shining quickly grew dimmed to nothing.

"I'm sorry, Father," North said to himself.

The green grounds that cover the cave like land was bright and radiant as flowers and trees were blossomed into every color you could imagine. Through the mazes of endless green mossed tunnels came a blur of gray that made its way through to its destination with amazing speed. It halted as it came to the end of the tunnel and the view of an open, green grassed area with more trees and large stone figures that were shaped like an egg surrounded the the area. The sky above was bright and blue with the sun high over head signaling the late afternoon hours. Suddenly a beeping sound erupted the peacefulness of the forest. A large furry hand grabbed the device from his breast strap that held unto his boomerangs and clicked the shining button.

"Ay, this is Bunny," Bunnymund called out.

"Bunny, this is North, we have bad news," North replied with an urgent voice. Bunnymund's content expression went serious. It's Grim, he thought.

"What's the bad news, mate?" Bunnymund walked slowly up the path that had flowers that were bell shaped that colored the eggs when it was time for Easter. North explained to Bunnymund what him and Father talked about just an hour ago.

"So it's happening already? And almost two months close to Easter too," Bunnymund's voice was grim, but also very angry. Who knew what Grims' plans were. And only Father Time was able to get near his cave, but with great difficulty. He wished he could confront Grim and knock him bloody out!

"I wanted to let you know what is going on, I know you are more busy with Easter coming up," North was trying to reassure him. "We will do everything to protect Easter from being destroyed by anyone, even Grim!"

Bunnymund smiled for a brief second and replied, "I know you will, mate. We've got each others back, like we did when we went against Pitch."

"That's right, now you continue on my friend and make those eggs to bring hope and life to the children and the world!" The shining gem on Bunnymunds' device glowed dim and went dark. He starred at the gem like it was a life force itself, he didn't want that life force to go away, never. He hit the gem again and called into it…

"Tooth."

The twilight hours were approaching fast on a city when lights were starting to come on. The lights of the streets, homes, and various places made the city come back to life while the darkness closed in around it. Suddenly glowing, glittering strings of sand started to cut through the darkness and spread through the houses and streets. The sand would enter through the house and float around the sleeping children, making various shapes of what the children find fun and joyous; a very happy dream. A figure on top of glowing sand that hovered over the city was ordering the sand to reach the children and make good dreams for them. A beeping noise sounded and golden hands reached down and grabbed the device out of his pocket. He closed his eyes after he pressed the gem. This is Sandman, he thought. A few second went by before the caller responded.

"Hey Sandy, this is Tooth, we have an emergency," Tooth called back with urgency in her voice. Sandy closed his eyes again. What happened? He thought, pouring his thoughts through the device to answer and talk to is the best thing that has happened to him since his Guardianship. He always wanted to be understood and now he finally is. Tooth answered back about what Bunnymund told her.

"It's horrible Sandy, there isn't much we can do until the time comes that Grim makes his appearance. But maybe we can try to figure out what is being sent out that is draining the life energy," Tooth stated. "Maybe we can stop whatever it is." Sandy nodded in approval and sent his thoughts back. "I agree, I'll be on the look out for any shadows and also for any life that has been drained."

"Great, I'll make sure my fairies keep a look out too, talk to you later Sandy and good luck!" The gem glowed dim and faded. Sandy looked up with a determined expression as he worked on his dream sand and floated closely around the area to see if he finds anything unusual.

March came pretty fast as the end of winter was approaching, though looking through the window sure didn't make it seem like winter was ending. It was snowing softly through the winter night as Arielle looked out the window in the kitchen. She was finishing up dishes from her and her mother's dinner. Arielle was in a trance as she looked up at the moon that was a sliver, though you could see the part of the round moon that was completely covered in darkness. I wonder what Jack is doing, Arielle thought as she finished her washing. She dried her hands and walked out to the living room, her mother was sitting lazily on the couch and reading a book. She diffidently got that trait from her mother.

"Still on that book, mom?" Arielle asked as she sat at the far end of the couch.

"Yeah, I haven't had much time to read because of work, but I still try," her mother smiled up at her. Arielle could see she was tired, but she looked more lively than she did before the job. It made her focus on something else… Maybe it was….

"Arielle," her mother called to her, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Yes?"

"I notice you have a lot on your mind lately, what's wrong?" Her mother's expression looked worried.

"Nothing really, I mean, I know my coughing is getting worse and I'm scheduled to see the doctor next week…." Arielle wasn't for sure if it was that. Maybe it was Jack? She thought, but like she could tell her mother that her mind is on a fairy-tale boy that actually exists.

"I wish I could go with you, but with work-" her mother started, but Arielle cut her off.

"No, no, don't worry about that mom. I can handle this by myself, I'm not a little girl anymore," Arielle didn't want her to worry, but that was near impossible. As she looked at her mother's face, it became sad and her eyes were glowing in tears, threatening to fall.

"The one thing I pray for everyday, is for you to stand up strong and never be ill again…," her mother started,"...and to help you the best I can, but there is nothing I can do to stop this unknown illness," her mother shuts her book and brought it to her face as a cover, her body shook and tears were now starting to fall. Oh mother, Arielle thought as she scooted across the couch and wrapped her arms around her.

"Mom, you do the best you can everyday and I know that, you can't blame yourself for something that can't be controlled," Arielle wanted to tell her the truth, but she didn't want to be serious about it or her mother will never get out of this depression. So she laughed.

"Come on mother, I'm sure those silly doctors will find out what's wrong and cure me in no time," her mother looked up at her and had a small glitter of hope in her eyes. "All we can do is wait and see," she finished.

"Now, how about that movie you promised me that we would watch," her mother's face perked up as she remembered.

"That's right, I almost forgot," she got up and went to the TV stand and grabbed the movie.

"I'll go make popcorn," Arielle replied smiling.

After the movie ended it was almost midnight, Arielle had to wake her mother up a few times during the movie, but over all she did good staying awake.

"Well, I'm heading to bed dear," her mother said as she walked slowly to the stairs and turned around. "Love you."

"Love you too, mom."

After she went up the stairs Arielle went around the house and started to turn off the lights. Once they were off she headed up stairs and grabbed her coat and boots. She opened the balcony door and walked out to the railing, looking up at what was left of the moon that was trying to shine.

"Jack?" She called out, very timid at first. Why did I call out his name, she thought as she blushed. She hasn't seen him in a week, probably going on two weeks now. After he left that day and she woke up the next day, she wanted to see him. She wanted to go play out in the snow, she wanted to do something fun with him. This was something she longed for after she was told she couldn't go outside and play.

As she was put into a trance looking at the moon with her thoughts visualizing in her mind, she saw something in the sky coming in.

"What's that?" She asked herself as she was looked harder and noticed dark clouds coming in. But that's what not caught her attention, the clouds were moving funny across the sky and then suddenly they disappeared, like mist. Arielle blinked her eyes a few times and realized that she was possibility losing her mind or just really tired. I'm going to bed now, she thought as she turned around and headed back to her room.

He couldn't get this bad vibe out of his system, like something was about to happen. He knew that Grim was possibly the reason he got this vibe, but not this soon. Father said it would take him awhile to gain any sort of power to do something destructive. Jack thought back to what North said to him; to keep a watch out if something strange happens, especially to the life forces. As his mind took him into what he should be doing he noticed a familiar sight floating near a town with gold sand stringing throughout the town. Sandy, he thought as he flew towards him.

As Jack approached he noticed Sandy was doing something with his sand and what was in his hands. He squinted his eyes and noticed it was his device. By the time he reached him the device was back in his pocket. Sandy heard the young Guardian's presence and turned to him with a wave.

"Hey Sandy, what's going on?" Jack asked curiously. Sandy sent his thoughts through the device and Jack got his device out of his hoodie. Sandy gave him all the details that is being spread. That's why I got that vibe, Jack thought.

"I'll be on the look out, now that we know what we have to look for," Jack answered seriously. He was trying to figure out what he was needing to be looking for, this information will help. Sandy sent his thoughts to him. The only person I'm worried about is Bunny, he won't be able to do anything with Easter approaching and we believe Grim will strike around that time. Jack nodded his head in agreement.

"I agree, that is when the life force will be at it's maximum, right?" Jack asked. Sandy nodded yes. "Well cotton-tail doesn't have to worry, cause we are going to do everything we can to stop Grim." Sandy smiled and nodded his head again.

Once Jack talked to Sandy, he realized where we was in the world and he couldn't be any happier.

"Sandy, can you do me a favor?" Jack asked, knowing he would say yes anyways. Sandy nodded and looked at him curiously.

"Can you send some dream sand to a friend of mine?" Sandy smiled brightly and nodded again as he followed Jack to this person's house.