Author's Note: Hello, all! I am pleased to announce that this story now has an accompanying Spotify playlist. Follow the instructions provided in the Foreword if you want to check it out!

Jamie's eyes were sparkling like a galaxy in motion as he stood frozen in the entrance to Nathalie's hidden hideaway; his little body simply couldn't process the majesty of the Tree of Life's sprawling mass stretching through the domed cave and the scaled bulk of Salazar the dragon snoozing beneath its mass of branches, so he had to take a minute or so to absorb it all. As soon as he did, a shrill scream of excitement erupted from his wee little lungs and he skipped his feet like he was running in place, throwing up dust clouds around him. He didn't know what to focus on first and so his head zipped about in all directions. Nat giggled and strode into the natural room, gesturing lightly for Jamie to follow. He scampered after her eagerly, clinging to the softly billowing folds of her dress.

"It's the biggest tree I've ever seen…" Jamie whispered in awe as his wide eyes fixated on the branch they passed; it was nearly as thick as three of him.

"This tree is as ancient as the Earth itself. It is Her history," Nathalie explained. "Do you see those strange fruits it bears, hiding amongst the leaves?" she asked while gesturing to the nearest mini-biome sphere where it sat atop a twisting branch, its iridescent surface rippling as a light breeze passed over it. "Those are the records. Within each one is a world in itself, home to creatures of that habitat and era. The farther back you trace along the tree, the further back in history you travel, all the way to the trunk, where life was but mere cells struggling to survive on an inhospitable planet."

"Wicked," Jamie breathed in approving awe. "I wanna look in one!" Nathalie complied with his wish; with a mere wave of her hands, the tree began to contort and writhe. It branches uncoiled and twisted around one another and coiled again, their gigantic green leaves quivering with the tremors. Jamie exhaled slowly in wonder as one of the branches dipped down to curl slowly around them, bearing one of the glittering clear bubbles close enough for him to observe. Within was the portrait of a deciduous forest on the onset of winter, where a pack of wolves were baying as they chased a massive elk through the thick trunks. Jamie hesitantly poked at the bubble's surface and jumped back when it easily bowed to his weight, allowing the tip of his finger to slip through the liquid-like surface. Then, without hesitation, he grabbed onto the branch on either side to shove his head into the bubble with a squeal of glee. Nathalie looked to Jack in amusement.

"You two are very much alike."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jack flushed while rubbing at the back of his neck. Nathalie laughed and looked back to the little boy as he yanked his head back out of the bubble with a breathless smile.

"This is amazing! Show me more, please, please!"

Nathalie allowed Jamie to enjoy the Tree of Life to his heart's content. The air of the cave was filled with groaning wood and shaking leaves as Nathalie traveled the cords of history, allowing Jamie to peek into the worlds of ages long past. He eagerly absorbed it all like a sponge; he would take his fill of one bubble before giddily requesting the next. Nathalie wouldn't have thought it possible, but once he had pored over the Tree's offerings for almost an hour, his eyes were shining even more brightly than when they had arrived. "This is so amazing… I can't believe something like this exists!" he grinned as he played with one of the leaves that Nathalie had allowed him to pluck from the tree (really, it wouldn't hurt it, and he thoroughly enjoyed the fact that it was bigger than his head). He waved it around like a flag as he jumped around Nat in a circle. "I dunno what was my favorite! I didn't know that dinosaurs had so many feathers! The unicorn was prettier than I ever imagined! All the really old fish things were kinda gross-looking but also really awesome! Jack, Jack, wasn't it so neat when that big crocodile-thing came swooping in and just crunch! ate that other fish and all that blood went everywhere?!" he screamed in rapture as he balled up his fists, one of them crinkling the thick stem of his new toy.

"Uh, yeah, it was cool," Jack responded lamely, because the poor boy was draped over one of the Tree's branches holding his stomach with a green tint to his pale face. Nathalie had spent a good five minutes teasing him for being so surprisingly squeamish. Nathalie, infected by the boy's boundless enthusiasm, smiled brightly and pointed at the base of the tree, where Salazar was watching with interest. Jamie's screams had of course woken him up long ago, but since he was with Nathalie, he had surmised that the little boy was no threat. A forked tongue flickered at the air as the earth spirit gestured to him.

"Jamie, would you like to meet Salazar before we leave!"

"Yep, yep, yep!" the boy cried and took off over the uneven ground for the dragon. He ran right up to his massive paws which could crush him underfoot with so much ease and grabbed on of his talons, shaking it like he would hands. "My name's Jamie! You're a beautiful dragon!" he gushed giddily. The dragon made a rumbling noise reminiscent of a purr and flicked his giant tail, clearly pleased with the praise. Nathalie and Jack followed more slowly, wishing to give Jamie room to explore the creature's features to his heart's content. Salazar didn't budge an inch as Jamie clambered onto his scaled back, using his ridged spikes for balance as he tottered up to his elephant-sized head. "Hey, Mr. Salazar, you want a head scratch?" he asked while stooping down to scratch at the scales beneath the holes that served as the lizard being's ears. Salazar's back leg began to pump and claw his foot into the ground while his chest rumbled in a thunderous purr, head twisting and tongue lolling out of his mouth with his eyes crinkled up in pleasure. Apparently, a head scratch was just what the dragon ordered. "Hehe! You're kinda like a big puppy and a big kitty all-in-one, aren'tcha?" Jamie cooed. Salazar growled happily in response. The cave rumbled as the dragon abruptly flipped onto his back, using his wing tip to push Jamie onto his stomach; he wriggled about, begging for more pets, and Jamie happily complied. Nathalie watched him with a warm smile.

"He really is such a curious, appreciative little boy," Nat remarked to Jack as he lounged against one of the tree's branches beside her. "I had quite forgotten about how inherently pure children are…" It had been a very, very long time since Nathalie had deigned to frolic amongst humanity. Man's callous treatment of the Earth and her bounties had only worsened in the last four hundred years; they no longer believed in the entity that was Mother Nature nor that the Earth had any sort of will, so there was no pleading to them to respect their natural surroundings. However, looking at Jamie and his enthusiastic outlook on everything, and his deep-rooted love for the wondrous things around him, Nathalie wondered if children were the key to reversing the sorry state of the world as it was.

"Yeah. He gives me as much hope as I do him," Jack smiled lovingly as he watched Jamie clamber all over the dragon. His gaze then flickered to her. "I think you would make a good Guardian, Nat."

"M-me? I don't know. The role of Guardians is to protect certain aspects of childhood, yes? I haven't the faintest idea what my role in such would be," she stammered shyly and fidgeted with the folds of her dress. Jack sidled over to where she was standing, close enough for it to be intimate but not close enough for them to touch and set of their adverse reactions, smiling sweetly. Nathalie didn't even need to wait for him to reassure her before she smiled too; just knowing that he was there for her set her heart to fluttering and her nerves to humming with a joyful buzz. As he went to say something, she caught the flicker of something over his shoulder and her eyes automatically followed the movement. The smile slowly fell from her lips as all the color drained from her face, and Jack looked at her in utter bewilderment. There, hovering over Jack's shoulder, was the faintest wisp of Pitch's dark sand in the form of a small insect. Nathalie's hand shot out to snatch it out of the air, enclosing it and crushing it within her fist, and Jack gasped in horror as the purple sand crystals leaked from between her fingers.

Nathalie's heart stopped in her chest. It was over. It was all over.

"Salazar!" she screamed as the cave began to rumble ominously. At the exact same time, Jack screamed for Jamie, forming an icy wind beneath his bare feet to scoop the perplexed boy off of the dragon's belly and vault up into the trembling leaves of the Tree of Life. The dragon snarled savagely, clawing up the earth in clumps as he whipped back upright, while Nat vaulted up his tree-trunk legs to plop down at the base of his neck, a saddleless dragon-rider. Above their heads, the circle where the earth above had fallen away was slowly being eclipsed of its light as a maelstrom of the shadowy purple-black sand swirled menacingly. "Get Jamie out of here!" she screamed at Jack as the dragon stretched out its massive wings. As it gave one powerful flap, the Tree whined and keened in the hurricane-force winds that tempested through the earthen dome. Pushing off with his sturdy legs, he bore Nathalie into the air, shooting through the opening just as the tornado of Pitch's sand began to spiral down. The scales on his front turned a burnt orange as fire gathered within his chest cavity; then, with a tremendous roar that sent toe tropical birds screeching into the heavens, it spilled from his maw to collide with the dark storm. The fire was white-hot and turned the sand into glass instantaneously; as the dragon shattered the grotesque crystal under his sharp claws, Nathalie bent backwards to wave her hand in the direction of the opening below. The trees surrounding the opening groaned and shifted, spreading their roots into a thick, interlocking woven mass that not even an ant could wriggle through. The glass shards tinkled harmlessly over the bark surface, and Pitch's sand could not wriggle its way through to do as it pleased with her blessed Tree of Life.

He would have to kill her in the skies- and Nathalie was not one to be killed so easily, not when she was fighting in her own domain.

"Pitch!" she yowled into the writhing black maw. The cyclone parted to reveal him standing amongst the whirling particles, hands clasped behind his back and sneer curling, as if he were a god descending among mortals to wreak havoc. Well, it wasn't an entirely inaccurate description. Wrenching her bow from her back and docking an arrow before he could even blink, she had the arrowhead trained on the spot between his eyes. "Do not think that this will be like last time. You've made a mistake coming here," she warned. Out of the corners of her eyes, she saw the faint pale form of Jack flitting through the air, Jamie tucked safely into his arms. Both of them cast worried glances her way before the winter wind carried them into the clouds, and out of Pitch's reach.

However, it also meant that Nathalie was without help from the Guardians for quite a while… But that mattered not, because reinforcements she had in plenty. A confident grin distorted her features, alighting her emerald eyes as her body began to sing with the blood rush of battle. It had been so very long since Nathalie had been able to let loose against a formidable opponent, and despite the stakes she could not help but be excited. The Earth began to thrum in tandem to her silent signaling; below, the trees began to writhe back and forth of their own accord, their branches twisting higher and higher as their growth rate began to accelerate. Flocks of birds began to take to the skies, toucans and parrots and songbirds and raptors alike to begin counter-currently flying around Pitch's own dark tempest. A distant yowl of a jaguar was joined by another, then another. Stampeding hooves rolled like distant thunder, approaching with great speed. Nathalie was very pleased to see a shadow of doubt darken his expression.

"Brace yourself, Pitch Black."