Chapter 10 – To Believe or Not to Believe


"Whisp, how do you think Mom and Dad are faring?"

I didn't fail in seeing the worried sketches along my sister's deep brown eyes as she rapped an arm and a wing around my shoulder. "I'm sure they're fine, Dusty," she murmured softly, sitting a hand on one of mine to help comfort me.

Like my sister, I was just worried about our parents and how they were faring against the continuing strands of disbelief and doubt. Although we were chosen, it's true that we didn't feel the effects on our parents, but I could tell we could feel the discouragement of it all.

"You girls staying cool back there?" I heard Maddy ask us as she tilted her head back over her shoulder at me, Aurora, and my sister. Snow was sitting up front with Maddy near the front seat, where she getting the full blowing jets of the air conditioner.

In the back seat, Aurora and I were sharing the middle seat because it seated two people while my sister sat next to me by the window. She had the window cracked just a little, so we could enjoy a little of the summer sun weather.

"Yeah, Maddy, it's fine. Thanks," Aurora said, her ears catching the breeze as the sun warmed her face.

"What's wrong, Dusty dear? Are you worried about your Mom?" Maddy asked me, her compassionate eyes looking back at me as we stopped as a crossing light.

"And my Dad," I answered quietly, laying my head against my sister's shoulder.

"Aw Dusty, it's ok," my sister said gently. "Hey, I'm sure they're ok."

"Why did you think this Angel Moon chose to attack now?" Aurora asked us all as she thought.

"I don't know," Snow said glancing back at us. "You would think it would be sooner, or maybe … Huh, maybe it's the timing, or it could be something really serious that we're overlooking."

"Well, I don't think we're overlooking anything in general, but I did have a sense about something ..." I started to say as Snow and Aurora both turned to look at me.

"About what?" Snow asked, moving her staff to her other hand.

"Yeah," Aurora said. "Is there anything else that you could think of that could help us figure out exactly who this Angel Moon is?"

"What is it, Dusty?" Maddy said as we turned another corner.

Looking gently up into my sister's encouraging eyes and turning back to the others, I said, "Well … Whisp, do you remember that you sung the song Twinkle,Twinkle Little Star right before we left?"

My sister nodded her head as I continued, "Well, during that moment, I became aware of a guarded face that reminded me of that phrase 'the traveler in the dark.' I just can't help but feel that that's important."

Snow and Aurora looked quizzically at each other for a moment before my sister repeated, "A traveler in the dark?"

"Yeah, his face looked real guarded, almost like he was holding a secret and …"

Whoa, whoa, whoa … Hold on, Dust," Snow said as Maddy pulled to another stop. "That can't be Angel Moon. As far as we know, Angel Moon is not a he, she is a she."

"All I know is that I perceived something. It could have something to do with Angel Moon, could it?" I asked, looking up at my sister, who knew me so well.

"Maybe, Dusty, you never know," my sister said with a smile.

Aurora and Snow didn't seem too sure as they simply looked at each other in secret thought. Maddy, however, smiled back at all of us as she announced, "Well, we're here. Now, let's see if we can find Monty."

I probably should have said something earlier, or you might have known already, about Snow not liking or enjoying closed off places. Well, this proved true when Maddy unlocked all of the car doors at once, and Snow's was the first one to open.

Pushing aside the door so quickly and making us think she was going to take off flying into the summer air off on her own, we all watched as she just practically flew out of the car screaming, "Freedom!"

"Snow … the heat …," Aurora, my sister and I screamed at her as we rushed off after her.

Maddy just stood by the car dazed, slapping a hand to her head as she remembered that Snow was not comfortable in closed tight places.

"Hey Maddy," Monty said, waving at her from the entrance of the park gate.

Looking up, Maddy looked up to see Monty walk over. "Are those the Guardians' kids I saw run by?"

Maddy sighed inwardly with a small smile. "Yep, that's them. And, here they come."

Walking along next to my sister and Aurora, I quietly held a hand to my mouth as Aurora practically pulled Snow out of the sun and under a tree. Halfway turning to where Maddy and Monty stood in the entryway to the park, Aurora said something I couldn't hear into Snow's ear as Snow lowered her head in a sheepish expression.

"Girls, come over and meet Monty," Maddy called over to us with a smile as we joined her under the shade. "This is Snow, Casey and Jack's daughter, as I've told you, and this is Aurora, Bunny and Narain's daughter."

"Hey, I think I recognize you," Monty said, turning to my sister. "Aren't you one of Windsong's twins?"

"Yep, and this is my little sister, Dusty," my sister told him proudly. "She is my mother's youngest child, but, unlike Solar and I, she is actually the Sandman's daughter, too."

"Awesome," Monty said, pushing up his spectacles. "Uh, I wish these would fit. They keep sliding down my nose."

"Here, may I see them?"

Monty looked at me curiously as he handled them over. "Well, sure, but be careful."

"What are you going to do, Dusty?" Maddy asked me as she bent down to watch as I simply held them out in my hands.

"Watch and see," my sister said I closed my eyes in concentration. Although my eyes were closed, I felt a breeze flicker past my silver hair as it started to ripple across my shoulders. With a smile, I lifted the small glasses higher with one hand as I welled sparkly misty purple stardust from my fingertips to cover them entirely. Folding them over in my hands once, I imagined them shrinking just a tiny bit as I felt the change. Opening my eyes, I saw Maddy and Monty's eyes widen as I passed Monty's spectacles back into his hands.

"Try them now. Do they fit?" I said simply with a smile.

"Why, yes, they do. Thank you," he smiled, raising them to the light. "Now, I see why they call you Dusty."

I innocently beamed before I heard Snow ask, "You saw Claude and Caleb, right?"

"Yeah, they were over by Burgess Pond when I last saw them," he said, tilting his head in her direction.

"Burgess Pond? What were they doing there?" Snow immediately asked. Clearly that was where her home was.

"Beats me; All I heard was arguing," Monty said, turning to Maddy.

"Then, we better get over there," Maddy nodded to Snow as we all took off into the park.

"Here, this way, I know a short cut," Snow said, leading the way past a clearing.

Coming through a huge clump of bushes, Maddy and Monty helped Snow push some aside as we looked out to clearly see Claude and Caleb sitting out by Burgess Pond, or actually one of them, the other, Claude it had to be, was ambled up next to a tree waiting albeit to leave.

"Caleb, come on, the Guardians aren't here. So, let's go already," Claude said with a glance down towards his watch. He wore his dark black hair sleeked back as he tugged as his two piece navy suede jacket collar uncomfortably.

"How do you know, Claude? Don't you remember seeing Jack Frost that night when Pitch attacked us?"

A second voice came out from under a red brown beanie cap as one of the twins sat the other direction towards the water on the surface on Burgess Lake. Pulling his blue sweater off, he wiped a hand through his dark hair as he looked up at his brother. "Why are you not wondering why Jack isn't here?" Caleb asked his brother.

"It was just a dream, Caleb. A dream back when we were kids."

"You know it wasn't," Caleb said with a desperate tear. "It's like you don't even want to believe anymore."

"Believe in what, Caleb? The Guardians? We haven't even seen them for the longest of times. Besides, I believe in reality, not fantasy."

"Well, if it wasn't for your dreams, you couldn't even exist in reality!"

"You want reality? Look around, what do you see? An empty pond? No ice to cover it?"

"It's summer, Claude. Maybe Jack is bringing winter somewhere else."

"No, he's not," I heard Snow whisper as she gripped her staff with a worried and determined eye.

"How do you know?" Claude asked challengingly.

"Look, Claude. Just because you cannot find it in your heart to believe anymore, it doesn't mean that I have to give it up, too."

"Very well, it's up to you, but when will you see that what you experienced was only a dream?"

"I wish you could just open your eyes and see what's in front of you. The Guardians are real!"

"Oh yeah, then where are they?"

"They're -"

"Yeah, not here."

Snow's eyes narrowed as she tightened her grip on her staff. Already the air was started to feel colder. Aurora was looking upset, too, and I had to say that I was, too, knowing that our parents have been there for them, in more ways than one.

"Caleb wants to believe, but it doesn't seem that Angel has anything on him," my sister said, stating the obvious.

"It's Claude that's deafening it. His light has already went out, you can tell by the fact that he doesn't believe anymore," Aurora said, turning to Snow. "What are you going to do?"

Turning to face us before she stepped out of the bush cover, Snow said, "It's not Claude I want to assure, it's Caleb. He's where we should start."

"Follow my lead," she said, striding out into the clearing.

Raising her staff, Snow threw it down to hit the ground as she dove headfirst into Burgess Pond. Only a few moments had passed before we started to see a slippery thin sheet of ice start to cover the lake where she dove in.

"Caleb, come on, this stuff was fun when we were kids, but we're grown up now. It's time we stopped believing in fairy tales."

"Fairy tales? Is that what you think they are? Well, I know better because I've seen it, and you've seen it, too. You just don't like to admit it that you did."

"Admit what? There's nothing more to …" he started to say as a sudden wet snowball, that was more water than snow, hit him in the back in the head.

"You got that right," we heard Snow say in the distance as she juggled another ready snowball in her other hand as she fetched her staff from the water.

Caleb, watching the snowball come out of nowhere, squinted towards Snow in the distance, but because of his wavering belief, he just barely saw the crook of her staff as she made a light snow fall over his head.

"Jack Frost?" Caleb called out with a smile as he saw snowflakes dance about his head as one of them turned to water on his nose.

"Not quite, Caleb, that's Snow," Maddy said as she and Monty walked over to meet him.

"Maddy," Caleb said, looking up at them and then back up to the snow. "It's good to see you, but I know that this is Snow."

Maddy laughed as we all joined her at the side of the lake. "No, Caleb. It's really Snow Mist's work, and she's right behind you."

Caleb turned his head in a gasp as he sure enough saw a little version of both of the ice and water spirits that he had known as the winter and water spirits of Burgess. Snow just smiled at his reaction.

Making a snowflake form in her hand and then change to the shape of a dewdrop, Snow said, "Do you see me now?"

Caleb just nodded with a laugh as Claude pushed himself off the light snow on the ground.

"Wait a minute," Claude said, slipping on the edge of the icy pond as Monty helped him to his feet. "Maddy? What are you doing here?"

"Well, we were hoping that you and Caleb could help us with a little problem," she answered, looking over at us and then back to the twins.

"What problem? What's going on?" Caleb asked with concern.

"Come with us and we'll explain everything," Monty said, giving the twins a convincing smile.

"Explain what? You haven't exactly said what we need to know?" Claude said, leaning against the tree.

"In a single phrase, guys, the Guardians are in danger," Maddy said to them, "and they need our help."

Caleb just smiled, but Claude scoffed as he said, "The Guardians? They actually need our help?"

"Yes, they do," Maddy said desperately, irritation becoming quite noticeable in her voice.

"What exactly do the Guardians need us to do? They haven't exactly done anything for us," Claude argued with a rueful grin.

Aurora groaned as she turned to meet mine and Snow's eyes. "Here we go again. What is it with this guy?"

"Last I remembered, Claude was one of the most faithful of Jamie's friends when they stood up to Pitch," my sister said to us, joining our circle.

"He is not going to be easy to convince by the way he's acting," I said, cueing back into the conversation.

"The Guardians haven't been there for me, why should I be there for them?" Claude shot out.

"Remember that moment when Pitch …" Maddy tried, again, but she was interrupted when Claude held up a hand.

"I don't need for you to remind me. Maybe I do recall that moment, but … get this … it was only a dream."

"A dream can be real," I said softly. "Something tells me he wants to remember, but because my Dad put everyone to sleep the night all the Guardians left, I think that's one of the main reasons he doesn't believe."

"You may be right, Dusty, but his non-cooperative nature tells me differently," Aurora said, frowning at the scene.

Snow was boiling with anger watching them by this time as she whispered, "If he tells off our parents one more time …"

"Nothing you say, Maddy, will convince me differently. We're leaving," he said, turning to Caleb.

"No, I'm going," Caleb said to him as he picked up his beanie cap from off the ground and setting it back on his dark head. "The Guardians need us to be there for them like they were for us."

"You're seriously believing all this?" Claude said with a scoff.

"Yes, and if you don't want to make a fool of yourself, you'll come with us, because if you don't, then I'm afraid you may be buried in a snow ditch," he said, glancing Snow's way.

"He's tempting me," Snow said with a wry grin towards us. "Should I do it?" She held up another final ready snowball as Aurora and I looked at each other with a shared grin.

"Caleb, enough. This is kids' stuff …" Claude said, starting to walk after him.

"Do it," Aurora and I said at the same time as Snow evidently hurled the snowball at him.

Colliding with the back of his head, Claude lost his footing and fell face first deep into the snow. Looking up, he brushed the wet snow and dirt off his face as he looked at his brother as he heard Caleb say, "Now, are you ready to come with us?"


As we watched Maddy file everyone into the car, I watched as Snow held an arm to her shoulder as she was thinking of the crowded ride back.

"Hey Snow," I called, earning her attention and also Aurora's and my sister's eyes, too.

"How about we catch a ride back to Jamie's in my sandy copter?"

"Is it outside?" She asked with a smile.

"Yes, but I can also make it where you don't feel the summer heat at all on the way back," I said confidently, raising my hand to form my early version of my helicopter.


Here's the next chapter. I didn't keep to incorporate all I had planned for this one, but for the next chapter, it will be included. So, please enjoy. :D