The first thing I was aware of was the pain. Throbbing jolts of agony pierced my head and I lay there for a minute, try to figured out why I had been knocked out, and where I was. I then remembered the Nightmares and bolted up, my staff at the ready. IT was a bad idea. The world swayed and the land seemed to move like the ocean. I collapsed back onto the ground and stayed there for a while, resting. After a while I heard the sound of movement.
"Hello?" a voice groaned. It was Jack.
"Over here" I said. I pushed myself up onto my elbows. Jack was a distance away from me. He seemed to be able to move around. He looked around at the sound of my voice and winced when he caught sight of me.
"Ooh, Breeze are you alright" He said "You look...awful"
"Thanks, Jack" I grumbled
"No! I meant-" I stood up
"I'm fine" I said and then promptly crashed to the ground again. "On second thought, maybe not"
"I think you hit your head on something." He said "We need to get you to Punz. You stay here and I'll go look for her and Red"
"No, wait. Don't leave!" I called after him, but he had already strode off. I tried to follow, but I couldn't even stand up without falling back over again.
I could hear him talking to someone and after I heard footsteps. Punz, Merida and Jack were hurrying toward me. When Rapunzel say me she started running.
"Breeze are you alright! I'm sorry I wasn't here earlier! Where are you hurt?" It was almost like talking to Tooth.
"Punz, I'm alright" I said "My head's sore, I think I hit it on something. Are you and Merida okay?"
"We're fine" Merida said "We were knocked out last night after we were ejected from the portal. Jack just woke us up."
Rapunzel wrapped a strand of her hair around my hand and began to sing. Her hair began to glow again and I began to feel better. My vision cleared and my head stopped throbbing.
"Thanks Punz" I said "So, what do we do now?"
"I think we should stay here for a little while." Merida said quietly "We could try and figure out what happened back there and we could rest for a while." Punz nodded in agreement.
We all sat down in a circle.
"We shouldn't have met those Nightmares." Jack said darkly "He didn't know we were even going to travel back in time."
"He might" I said "He's recruited new followers. We've seen Gothel and Namtar, but who know's whom else he's managed to convince. There are a lot of dark spirits out there and they have a wide variety of powers."
"That still doesn't explain the Nightmares appearance!" Jack said frustrated "He shouldn't be able to send them hundreds of years into the past."
"There is someone who can though." Merida said. We all looked at her. "Father Time. Remember North said that he'd gone missing. Maybe Pitch kidnaped him to stop MIM from choosing new guardians and when that didn't stop us, he used Father Time to send the Nightmares after us!"
Jack looked sceptical "If he could do that couldn't he come here himself? Or just change history to prevent the Guardians from ever coming to be?"
"Time travel is very complex." I said "North built this watch to specifically transport spirits. Father Time's machines, whatever they are, are a lot more complicated. Father Time's a good spirit and I can't see him helping Pitch. My guess is that Pitch is trying to figure time travel out on his own and can't seem to transport Spirits yet." Jack and Meri stared at me.
"How do you know all this?" Jack demanded
"I asked Father Time ages ago" I said "A word to the wise-never ask him anything, he can go on talking forever."
"Excuse me" Rapunzel said "Who's North?" We all looked at her.
"Sorry, Punz we forgot to tell you." I said sheepishly "North's a Guardian. You might know him better as Santa Claus"
"Santa Claus" She said incredulously
"Yep. He is the protector of Wonder. he has naughty and nice tattoos, a Russian accent and he fights with twin swords"
"And there's the Easter Kangaroo. He's the Guardian of Hope" Jack chimes in
"Easter Bunny." Merida said rolling her eyes "He's not what you expect. He's really big, and he fights with boomerangs and exploding eggs."
"Exploding eggs?"
"Yeah" Jack said "I always wondered where they came from though"
"They're the eggs that go bad before Easter" I said. There was a silence.
"How do you know this exactly" Jack asked
"Don't ask" I mumbled
"There's Toothiana. She's the Tooth Fairy. She collects kids teeth with help from the Baby Teeth. She says that they hold the most important memories of childhood" Merida said
"The Sandman's a Guardian too." I said
"Who's the Sandman?" Rapunzel asked
"You've never heard of the Sandman!" Jack exclaimed. She shook her head. "He's the reason you wake up with yellow sand in your eyes. The guy who makes sure kids have sweet dreams."
She shrugged "Gothel never told me mutch. I mostly got my knowledge of the outside from the books I read and she made sure they were mostly bad things that I read."
Sensing that this was still a sore topic for Punz, I directed it back to the Guardians. "Sandy's the Guardian of Dreams. He's a short yellow guy who never talks. I've never understood why though"
"I think it's because he doesn't want to wake the kids up" Jack said "Either that or he just can't, I haven't been able to figure it out."
"So is Sandy the opposite of Pitch?" Rapunzel asked "Is he the Spirit of Nightmares?"
"He's not exactly his opposite." I said "He's the Spirit of Fear and Darkness. He can control them because they cause fear, but he's not their master. They can turn on him if he's feeling enough fear."
"Why does he even exist?" Punz asked "If MIM chooses all the spirits, why does are there Spirits like Pitch"
"He exists because of belief" Jack said. We turned to him "I had the same question after we fought Pitch 3 years ago and North explained it to me."
"Didn't he start that war because he wasn't believed in" Merida asked
"It wasn't him that kids and adults believed in." Jack said "It was his center." We still looked confused so he continued to explain. "You know how I wasn't believed in for 300 years, and how Breeze and Punz still aren't."
"Yeah" I said
"Well, I was confused on how I was still very powerful for all that time" Jack said "When the Guardians lost all but one believer they were extremely weak. But I had managed to stay strong for centuries without one believer. North said it was because my center was believed in. Fun wasn't directly connected to Winter or to me and so kids still believed in fun. But the Guardians centers were strongly tied to their holidays their person. So when the kids stopped believing in them they stopped believing in their centers as well."
"Like Sandy and Dreams" Merida said "When he stopped being believed in, so were dreams."
"But wonder isn't directly connected to Christmas or Santa" Meri said
"I think it is" I said remembering something "Remember the song Its the Most 'Wonder'-ful Time of the Year. People connect their centers with the Guardians person and holiday"
"That also why losing Easter during the fight with Pitch hit Bunny so hard." Jack said "Easter that year represented the hope that the Guardians still existed. Sandy was gone and so were dreams with Nightmares in their place. Kids teeth weren't getting collected fast enough. When Easter never came, that hope was destroyed."
"What happened to the Kangaroo" I asked
"He turned into a small cute bunny"
I imaged that in my head and began to chuckle which soon spread to Meri and Punzel and grew into full out laughter.
"I'm trying to be serious here" Jack complained
"Imagine that" I giggled "Jack Frost, being serious. The world must really be in trouble"
"You guys are hilarious"
We stayed there all day talking and laughing untill the sun began to sink below the horizon.
"We'd better get going" I said "We might want to keep moving, incase Pitch figures out somehow, a way to track us. We going to get the Viking this time. His name's Hiccup, right?"
We all moved to join hands. I turned to Merida. "Meri?" She seemed distant. "Meri are you alright?" She shook her head and seemed to snap out of it.
"I'm fine. Did you want something?"
"I just though that we might want to change up who wears the watch" I said "Pitch knows that I have it, we might want someone else to be wearing it if he targets me" She accepted the watch and we all joined hands.
"Here we go again" I groaned and we were off.
