Author's Note: Chapter one! I hope you guys enjoy this first chapter! =D

Chapter One: Calling of the Guardians

Nicholas St. North hummed along ot his booming Russian music as he shoved his chainsaw through the thick ice block that laid before him. He then proceeded to chip away at the ice. North loved ice sculpting. It allowed him to express himself in ways that sometimes words couldn't do. And North always made something new. Not one ice sculpture was the same as the other.

Suddenly, the door to North's study slammed open and North dropped his ice pick in surprise. He whipped his head around to see one of the many yetis that lived with him in the North Pole. North sighed and rubbed his temples in exasperation.

"How many times have I told you to knock?" North asked. Of course, no one was keeping count. The yeti ignored the question and blabbered things in yetish that North could hardly make out. But what he did get out of the yeti's babbling was something about the Man in the Moon and...Pitch Black.

North's brow furrowed as he stepped outside, grabbing his swords from their sheathes as he did so. It had been a while since the Man in the Moon had said something, and even longer since he had heard about Pitch Black. North made his way toward the Globe Room and looked up at the Moon through the large open window. It was bright and full. A trail of moonlight came down from it and a small moonbeam shot down and hovered just in front of North's face. It flickered and brightened and North—not knowing the language of moonbeams like his old friend and teacher, Ombric—couldn't make out what it was trying to tell him.

"Manny, if there iz something going on, could you perhaps say it in English? Or even Russian?" North asked the Moon. The moonbeam dimmed in a way that almost resembled a person rolling its eyes and flashed a message, one that North could make out.

A series of images flashed through North's head. Images of children waking up in fear and some even screaming. And Pitch was hovering over them all. North growled at the sight of his old foe, and was even more surprised to see himself along with three other people in the vision that took place.

North hadn't seen them in decades. Queen Toothiana, Sanderson Mansnoozie, and E. Aster Bunnymund fought alongside with North in the vision and vanquished Pitch Black. The Nightmare King retreated into a hole that was tucked away in the forest and North blinked when the episode was over. The voice of Tsar Lunar then came, and North was almost shocked at what by what he said.

"I have chosen you and your old friends to end Pitch's reign of darkness. Call them here and more details will follow."

North nearly dropped his swords. Him? And three other people that he barely even remembered? North, Tooth, Sandy, and Bunny have met before and crossed paths every few years, but they never sat down and took the time to get to know each other, let alone fight side by side in battle with Pitch. They all had heard about Pitch spreading his fear and nightmares to the children, and North knew that something had to be done. He along with the yetis and elves of Santoff Claussen had left gifts for the children to find in their homes. It wasn't something North did often, but every once in a while, a child would wake up to find a gift wrapped in the corner of their room and the nightmare was immediately forgotten.

But the Man in the Moon sounded solemn. Something was going on and it involved Pitch. North guessed that it had something to do with the increase in nightmares and fear in children. North turned to a yeti with a serious expression on his face.

"Go and fetch Toothiana, Sanderson, and Aster," said North. The ex-Coassack knew that they wouldn't hesitate to come, especially when the reason why they were meeting was about Pitch. North walked back to his study and began to sharpen his swords. Battles were going to be fought, and he needed to be ready.

…

Tooth dashed around her Tooth Palace, calling several of her fairies to accompany her to Santoff Claussen. She hadn't been to the North Pole in a long time, and she didn't know what to expect. The Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies then set out toward the direction of the chilly village, several thoughts running through her mind as she did.

A yeti had arrived through a magic portal that Tooth immediately recognized as one of North's. Tooth was fluent in various animal languages, but was a little rusty on her yeti. Tooth still managed to make out various words, and the one that made her feather's flare was Pitch.

Tooth flapped her wings to go faster and her fairies followed close behind. The Fairy Queen wanted to know what the Boogeyman was up to. She had heard on her nightly rounds to collect teeth that he was planning something, and Tooth noticed the sudden increase of nightmares in the children. Tooth guessed that this little meeting with her old acquaintances was going to answer all of her questions.

Santoff Claussen came into few and the Tooth Fairy continued to fly. She knew that if she was being called for help, that the situation was far more serious than she had thought.

…

Bunny poked his ears through his tunnel and cried out in surprise when he felt the frigid winds blow. He peeked out of the hole and jumped out, quickly bounding toward the heart of the North Pole. It was freezing! Bunny hurried his pace and thought back to when a yeti had came rushing into his Warren, telling him to come to the North Pole and fast. Bunny didn't want to stop his egg painting session, but when the yeti mentioned Pitch, Bunny immediately slammed his foot against the ground and opened a tunnel that led to Santoff Claussen.

What was Pitch up to? Bunny pondered this as he continued to make his way to the magnificent building that served as North's home, Workshop, and more. Bunny hadn't seen Pitch in centuries, and he hoped that he would never hear of the Boogeyman again. But that wasn't so. Bunny saw the large doors that served as the entrance to the Pole, and burst through them and slammed the door behind him, shutting out the cold. Bunny looked up and saw North waving to him.

"Bunny! It iz good to see you!" he greeted happily.

Bunny rubbed his arms and his brow furrowed. "This better be good, North!" the Pooka shouted back. But if there was one thing Bunny knew, it was that anything that involved Pitch Black was going to be far from good.

…

Out of everyone, Sandy had the most knowledge on Pitch's whereabouts and activity. Sanderson was connected to all dreams, including nightmares. He, in fact, was the first to notice the increase of nightmares and the fast spread of fear. Sandy had done his best to try and override the fear and nightmares with his dreams, but it seemed that as soon as his dreams touched a child, they would be turned into nightmares.

Sandy was surprised when a yeti had popped through a colorful portal and landed on his cloud of dreams. Luckily, Sandy had made the large cloud extra thick so it could support the yeti's weight. In yetish, the yeti told Sandy that he had to head to the North Pole. Sandy then turned his dream cloud into a plane and made a dash for the Santoff Claussen. Like the others, it had been decades since he had been to the palace of wonder, but didn't hesitate to head there. Sandy knew that the meeting had something to do with Pitch and as the master of dreams, he was going to fight so the children wouldn't have to suffer from any more nightmares.

Sandy flew through the open window and landed in the center of the Globe Room. He saw Tooth, Bunny, and North, who was walking from the hallway that led into the room. North smiled and gave Sandy a nod in greeting.

"Sandy! It has been a long time!" North said. Sandy smiled and various sand images appeared over his head. North had no idea what he was trying to say, but he flashed Sandy another smile anyway. The Russian man clapped his hands together and said, "Let's get this meeting started, shall we?"

…

The group started off rather awkwardly, as it had been a long time since they had seen each other. North had brough in cookies, eggnog, and tea to make everyone feel comfortable, which seemed to work because once everyone had finished their little snack, they were more open to talking and asked more questions.

"So, why did ya call us here after so long, North?" asked Bunny. He placed his empty cup on the table. "I'm guessin' that it has something ta do with Pitch?"

"You are correct, Bunny," North said. "Manny sent message through moonbeam. Pitch iz up to something."

Sandy nodded and put up a dreamsand image of Pitch and children cowering from him. "Children fear him more than they did before."

Tooth nodded. "I was doing my nightly rounds the other day and I found a lot of children that refused to go to sleep because of nightmares." Tooth took a sip of her tea. "Something has to be done."

"Toothy iz right," North said. "Which is vhy ve are all here." North then bellowed with dramatic flair, "Ve are going to stop Pitch!"

Bunny choked on his cookie. "What?!" he exclaimed after coughing.

Tooth's feathers began to pop and her fairies fainted. "Us? Stop Pitch? But what are we going to do? Do you even have a plan? What did Tsar Lunar—"

Several images flashed over Sandy's head at such a speed that one would never make out what he was trying to say. North held up his hands.

"Yes. Manny called us here because ve have been chosen to stop Pitch," said North.

"But what are we supposed to do?" asked Tooth. She fluttered out of her chair. "Did the Man in the Moon give any information on how to stop him?"

North shook his head. "No, but he did give me vision of us fighting and defeating him."

"But how are we supposed to do that?" asked Bunny. He stood up and looked up at the moon. "Don't you have any other intel that ya can give us?!" he shouted up at the celestial body. The Moon didn't respond.

"It looks like we're on our own," said Tooth. She rubbed her arm and turned to North. "Do you have a plan?"

North rubbed the back of his head. "Not yet."

Bunny ran a paw ove rhis hair. "Crikey, this is great. We've been chosen ta fight the bloody Boogeyman and that's all MiM is going ta tell us."

"I guess this is sort of an honor," said Tooth. She looked at the others. "We already do a few things for the children already. Maybe that's why Manny chose us."

"But he can't even give us a plan on how ta defeat Pitch?" said Bunny. "This is nuts. We barely even know each other."

And it was true. The group of four hadn't seen each other in decades, and didn't take much time to get to know each other either. North knew a little bit about Tooth, Sandy, and Bunny. It was the same way for the others to. They all had one thing in common though, a love for the children of the world and a strong desire to protect them from harm.

"Even though ve do not know each other that well, ve still know each other a little," said North. "Besides, that vill not stop us from stopping Pitch's reign of darkness."

"North has a point," said Tooth, her wings beating enthusiastically. "I'm sure—no, I know—we'll defeat Pitch. We just need a plan to stop the nightmares and then we can confront Pitch."

Sandy nodded in agreement and the trio turned to face Bunny, who still had a look of unsureness on his face. The Pooka then sighed and shook his head.

"Fine," said Bunny after a while. North, Tooth and Sandy cheered. Now all they had to do was come up with a plan. It sounded simple, but Pitch was as crafty as they come. The group would need to be smart and ready for anything. The first thing they needed to do was stop the increasing nightmares in the children, something that Sandy had been doing for a while without success. The four stood in the center of the room, deep in thought. Tooth then had an idea.

"How about I send my fairies with some dreamsand while they go out to collect the teeth," Tooth said. "More dreams will be able to spread faster that way."

"That iz great idea, Tooth," North complimented. The Tooth Fairy smiled and she turned to her fairies.

"You guys get ready to start collecting teeth. We'll be at Tooth Palace in a little bit," Tooth said to her fairies. The small troupe of fairies saluted their queen and flew out the window to head to Punjam Hy Loo.

"If the fairies are going ta be spreadin' dreams along with Sandy, what do the rest of us do?" asked Bunny.

"Ve make the children less afraid," said North. He gestured to the Workshop below. "I already give children toys sometimes. Bunny, you make chocolates and paint eggs. Ve can put them in children's rooms too."

Bunny cocked his head side to side. "I guess that'll raise the ankle-biter's spirits up. But we still need to think of how to stop Pitch."

North waved his hand dismissively. "Bah. We can think about that later. Right now, ve need to focus on getting children less afraid."

"I think this plan will work," said Tooth enthusiastically. "If we can quell the children's fear, Pitch will get weaker and stopping him will be easier. There probably won't be that much of a fight."

"Oh, there's gonna be a fight," said Bunny. Sandy, North, and Tooth turned to the Pooka. "Pitch is gonna play rough. Trust me. We're gonna need ta keep an eye out for 'im if he tries ta interfere."

"Okay, then," said North. "Ve have plan and we're ready to go, yes?"

The group of four looked at each other and nodded. North grinned and said, "Okay! Pognali! Let's go!"

But before the group left, another moonbeam shot down from the moon. The little light flashed a message to North and the Russian stroked his beard.

"I like it," said North. "It has nice earring to it."

Bunny blinked in bemusement. "Uh, I think ya mean 'ring,' mate."

"Iz what I say," said North. He waved as the moonbeam flew back toward the moon and began to walked down the hallway with Bunny, Tooth, and Sandy following him.

Bunny walked up to North's side and asked, "What did the moonbeam tell ya?"

North smiled. "Our group name," he answered. "Ve are the Guardians of Childhood from this moment forward."

Author's Note: Pognali means "Let's go" in Russian. =)

So! The Guardians have officially gathered for the first time in forever (no Frozen reference intended XD) and things seem to be going along just swell! But, of course, things aren't going to stay calm for long. Things are going to get intense...hehe...

Until the next chapter!

-BeyondTheMoon1203