Chapter Ten:

Third Person P.O.V.

"I think she's telling the truth. I mean, did you see the fear in her eyes? If what she said wasn't true, than explain why she was so terrified." Animalia states taking a seat on the edge of the couch.

"She sure hasn't given us any reason NOT to believe her," Jack added.

North nodded. "So you are both in favor of believing Vera?" He asked. They both nodded. "How about you Sandy? Vhat are your thoughts on this?"

The small golden man donned a thoughtful expression, then gave a thumbs up.

"Tooth? Do you believe her?" Animalia asks turning her doe-eyed gaze on the fairy.

"Well she did look terrified for his life. Didn't really care too much about her own, just his. That's a good enough reason for me to believe her." Tooth said truthfully.

"Then it's settled, ve shall give Vera our full trust." North said, clapping his hands together. "Now, vhat do ve do about the monster?"

Silence.

"Come on, there has to be some way we can track this guy," Jack said. "What do we know about him?"

"Almost nothing," Tooth admitted.

"Vera said she can feel spiritual energy or something. She can lead us to it and we can help her defeat it." Animalia suggested.

"So, what? We use Vera as a radar and fly her all over the world until we find him?" Jack shook his head. "That could take months!"

"We could try getting a bunch of other spirits together to help us," Tooth suggested. "lf there are more of us looking, we might be able to track him down. Kinda like a search party. Since Vera has the sensing thing, she can lead us to possible locations."

Sandy nodded excitedly and pointed at Tooth.

"That's a great idea Tooth!" Animalia agreed.

"So, who wants to tell Bunny that we're working with the Groundhog?" Jack snickered.

Sandy shook his head and created a sand image of a skeleton.

"Ve may not need Groundhog," North agreed wearily. "I believe Vera has many friends in Halloween Town who vould be more apt for hunting down our monster."

"I get to meet other immortal Jack?" Jack asked, eyes gleaming.

"It appears so," North sighed. "Jack, go tell Bunny and Vera. We are going to Halloween Town."

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Vera's P.O.V.

"Open. Close. Open. And close. Open. Extend them as far as you can... now flap them around a bit."

I did as Bunny told me and winced a bit. Bunny noticed at once.

"Did that hurt?" He asked.

I shrugged, and pulled my wings back in tight.

"Only a little," I admitted. It actually hurt quite a bit, but I didn't need to give him that grief.

"I don't know much about wings, so I'll have Tooth take a look at 'em, but as far as I can tell, you've got a bit of muscle damage in the left wing joint."

'Gee really?' I thought. 'I hadn't noticed.'

"What do you think they're talking about now?" I asked. I didn't need to clarify that I was talking about the Guardians.

"I dunno," he admitted. "They looked pretty spooked 'bout the thing that attacked Christopher. They're gonna want to talk about finding the quickest and most effective way to find it."

"Right you are kangaroo," Jack said from the doorway, casually carrying his staff over his shoulder. "And we have found our solution, if you're willing to help that is," he directed at Vera.

"I am willing to do anything and everything it takes to stop this thing from ever hurting another child," I said without hesitation.

"Alright, so you wouldn't mind bringing us to meet your friends in Halloween Town and getting a hunting party together?"

That gave me pause.

"Uh... what?"

"The other Guardians came up with a MOSTLY foolproof plan to capture this thing that attacked Christopher Robin, but we're going to need the help of a lot of your friends from Halloween Town to pull it off."

Bunny and I exchanged a look.

"Alright, please do explain," I said.

"This wandering spirit, he could be anywhere by now, right?" I nodded.

"Yeah. As long as his soul isn't chained to anything by a traumatic experience that occurred when he was alive, he could be literally anywhere."

"Right," he said. "And you can only sense him when you're near him, right?"

"Yes... but I can't differentiate between two different spirits. They all feel the same to me, and there could be hundreds of wanderers on Earth just right now. It's impossible to tell."

Jack hesitated. "Well that could make things a little more complicated, but the plan should still work."

"And the plan is to... do what exactly?" Bunny finally asked, wanting to get straight to the point.

"We're going to get a lot of help from all of your friends down in Halloween Town to help search all over the earth and report back to you with anything they find," Jack said to Vera.

Vera blinked in surprise. Then again.

"My... friends?"

Jack then looked a little concerned. "Well yeah. Your friends with that Jack Skellington guy and I hear he's pretty popular. We figured you must have some people there willing to help too... Right?"

I bit my lip in worry. Wouldthey help me? I'm pretty sure Jack would, but who knows what goes on in Halloween Town these days? Times do change, and so do people- even the ghostly or immortal kind of people.

"Yah did say yah had some friends down in that dark, spooky, deranged-" I gave him a look and he caught himself. "Town didn't yah?"

"Well yeah, but that was 500 years ago!" I said. "I can hardly say that I know them now. I'm not sure how many people I could get to actually help me. We're talking about a town who dedicates all 365 days of the year to making Halloween perfect. I don't know if many of them would be willing to take time out if their busy schedules just to hunt down one spirit. Granted, he's a terrible spirit, but no different than Count Dracula or Pitch Black, or even the Leprechaun."

"Well," Jack said with that charming smile of his. "We'll just have to go find out for ourselves, now won't we?"

I looked from him to Bunny, and back again. They were both looking at me expectantly, and I crumbled.

"Fine, when do we leave?" I asked. Jack smiled and gestured to the door.

"Right now!"

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"In what messed up universe did you think it was a good idea to make flying reindeer?" I shouted at North over the sound of the wind whooshing past my ears. The large man just laughed and had the deer perform another loop-de-loop. Beside me, Bunny was look scarily nauseous, and groaned in protest to the unnecessary aerial tricks.

"Hey Bunny!" I shouted. "If you're going to chuck up some carrots, make sure to give me a warning, alright?"

He groaned again and gave me the "okay" symbol. Behind me, Jack snickered and stood up. This gave me some pause. Enjoying a rollercoaster reindeer ride was one thing, but standing up was dangerous for people who didn't have wings like Tooth or myself. Jack must have read the look on my face because he smiled reassuringly.

"Aw, don't worry so much! I'm fine, see?" And with that, he fell off the back of the sleigh. I didn't even have time to register what I was doing before I had instinctively dived off of the sleigh right after him. I don't even remember making the decision. It kind of just happened. Must be a mama bird instinct or something. Either way, I was now free falling and searching for the familiar blue hoodie so I could make the intended rescue. It took me almost a minute to realize that he was not below me.

I snapped my wings out (wincing as the damaged muscles pulled in protest) and wildly searched my surroundings. Had I accidentally dived right past him? Had he disappeared into a cloud? Had an invisible flying goblin eaten him? I soon registered the sound of laughter above me and looked up in bewilderment to see Jack Frost just floating there. It was then that I remembered our first encounter and the fact that he had been floating upside down with the help of the wind when I met him.

Feeling a little foolish now, I flew up to his level and gave him an irritated swat with my wing. He just kept laughing.

"Aw, I'm sorry. Did you actually worry about me?" He teased.

"Well yeah!" I admitted. "My first real friend in 5 centuries, and I thought you had taken a nose dive off of a magic sleigh at 600 feet from the surface of the earth!"

Jack grinned cheekily. "So I'm your best friend?"

I rolled my eyes and finally allowed myself to smile- which still feels weird on my face mind you. "Don't get ahead of yourself there Jackie, my trust is hard to come by. One cannot simply becomemy best friend."

"But maybe I will be in the future," Jack insisted.

"Maybe," I agreed.

After North looped around to make sure we were both alright, Jack and I played air tag and had short races alongside the sleigh. I had offered to let Tooth join us, but she said she was having fun just watching us. Whatever.

After a few hours, the air started feeling a little warmer and a little sweeter, like a wind with the heavy smell of pumpkin spice and candy corn was wafting around me. It was still nippy, and cool enough for Jack to be comfortable, but that was to be expected in a town where it was always autumn.

After years and years and yearsof living on my own, I was finally back.

We were here in Halloween Town.

Okay, so this should probably be the last chapter for today. I promise I will post another tomorrow. Now that I am far enough on my updates here on , I am going to let you in on a contest I have set up on Wattpad (which is further ahead on updates at the present moment.) I have a fun summer challenge out there for all of those really artsy people- or just anyone who likes to draw/paint/ sketch/animate. I am looking for people to draw/sketch/whatever their favorite scene(s) from this story. The winner gets their choice of prize:

Option 1: Having Access to my Google Docs page where I write all of this and have access to new chapters and ideas before anyone else.

Option 2: Being my personal editor/helper and reading over chapters for errors before I post them.

Option 3: Creating their own OC (own character) for me to put in book two of this series. (You would be in charge of characteristics, what they look like, etc. and I would find a way to add them to my idea for book 2)

Remember, you don't have to be amazing at art (because I sure as heck am not). All you have to do is put in a good effort, maybe a little description of what scene you picked, and submit it and you could win!

If you would like to participate, please submit your picture to tygersongstories or you could send it to my Google+ account. My name there is Tyger Song. My collection for Giving Way to the Light is available to the public. I already have some people who have sent in contest entries if you would like to check them out. Please do not put down other people for their artwork though. There are people of varying ages and talent who have sent in their art, and I love each and every one of their submissions. Some people are very sensitive. Only positive things please. :)

All pictures must be submitted by September 1st, 2016, and I will announce the winner September 4th of 2016.