Sorry that this chapter is so short. It took me ages to come up with an okay backstory for Sandy, and the second half is kind of just a filler.
Chapter 4: Flowers and Frost
A few days later, Jack could still not get it out of his mind. Why had he never asked Sandy or the other guardians about their pasts? They all knew about his past! So it was for this reason that when Jack saw the trails of golden sand traveling around a small village one night, he decided to seek out it's master. Sandy.
When Sandy saw him, he smiled. But noticing the serious look on Jack's face, a golden question mark appeared above his head. Jack pulled in a breath, and asked the question that had been haunting him.
"Sandy, why can't you talk?" Sandy looked at him, surprised, but a golden image formed around the two guardians.
It was a young boy sleeping. Jack realized that it was a young Sandy. All around him were pictures of what Jack assumed the boy was dreaming about. There were far away places, amazing creatures, and magic. It was beautiful. But all of those pictures disintegrated around him as the boy woke up.
The picture seemed to blur forward in time, and the boy looked older. This time, he was telling younger children stories about far away lands full of magic and wonder. After only a few moments, the children and the boy were dragged away by harried-looking adults.
The sand reconfigured itself into a third image, this time of Sandy as a young man. He was painting a landscape, but a fantastical one. It reflected the places and creatures from his stories and dreams. Then, the sand showed the young man and a woman exchanging rings and sharing a kiss. Marriage?
Jack looked at Sandy, about to ask what had happened to her, but he shook his head and gestured back to the sand. Jack took that to mean Sandy wanted to let him finish the story before Jack asked any questions.
The young woman and young man now looked older, and the woman's stomach seemed to be bigger. Sandy had a kid?! A young kid was added to the picture, and the man was telling him stories as the woman looked on. But soon, the images took on a darker cast. The little family seemed to run out of money, as the man was unable to sell his paintings, or earn any money from his stories. Eventually it showed the woman taking the little boy's hand and dragging him away, as the man sank to his knees in despair. The final image showed the man on his knees, staring up at the full moon, looking like he was begging for something.
As suddenly as they had formed, all the sand pictures burst apart.
Jack stared at Sandy. This was Sandy's past? This tragic story?
"And then what? Manny gave you magic? You became the Sandman?" Sandy nodded. "But I thought you had to die before you became a guardian!" Jack continued. Sandy looked at him solemnly, and nodded. He conjured one final picture of the man. He was shielding two ragged looking children from a group of what looked like robbers. He told the children to run, and one of the robbers stabbed him. He fell to the ground, and the life drained out of his eyes.
Then the picture disintegrated for good, and Sandy looked at Jack expectantly.
"Sandy, I'm— I'm so sorry!" Jack exclaimed. "What happened to them?" Sandy knew that Jack was talking about his wife and son, and he shook his head. He had tried his best to forget about them. Even after thousands of years, his memories of them still hurt too much to think about.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, each with their own thoughts. Finally, Jack started to speak.
"My sister," He started. "I loved her more than anything else in the world. I still love her more than anything, even though she's probably long gone by now. I can't imagine what it would have been like to lose your son, and your wife. You've gone so long without seeing either of them." A strange expression formed on Sandy's face at Jack's words, but then he smiled and looked down. He spelled out something above his head. T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U. Then a picture of an ear. Jack smiled.
"Any time, old friend. Any time." And they sat there together until the sun rose over the horizon, and they had to continue with their duties as guardians.
Later the next day, Jack was back in Rapunzel's tower. As soon as he arrived, she ran over with a huge grin on her face.
"Jack Jack Jack! Look what mother brought me!" She squealed. She held out a box of paints and brushes.
"Wow, princess. That's so cool!" Rapunzel grinned at him.
"I want to paint the walls! And everything else in this whole tower! Can you help me?" Jack was surprised. He wasn't a painter! But he could still try.
"Of course! Although I'm sure how much help I'll be."
A few hours later, they had worked out a system. After Jack had realized that Rapunzel had never seen most of the things she wanted to paint, only read about them in books, he had the idea to make models for her out of snow. Then, when they had realized she didn't really know how to paint, he had drawn on the walls in frost to help her.
The frost-covered tower had been beautiful, but Jack had to admit that the young girl's paintings were even more beautiful. She had a ton of natural talent, and Jack bet she would be a really, really good painter in a few years. After all, she didn't have much to do while being stuck in this tower.
"Can you make a flower?" Rapunzel asked Jack after a few hours of practice. She had been practicing in the same spot, and painting over her mistakes, but now she was ready to start something permanent.
"Of course. What type?" Rapuzel was surprised.
"There are different types of flowers?" Her green eyes were wide. She had never heard of that before.
"Yeah," Jack said. Then he got an idea.
"What if I fly out and go collect you some flowers, then bring them back?"
"You would do that?"
"Only for you, princess." He winked and flipped backwards out of the window. Soon, Jack ran into a problem. He didn't know what flowers to get! He didn't want to get roses, because of the thorns, but he still wanted to find some flowers that would be interesting to paint.
Eventually, Jack found some multicolored lilies, bluebells, poppys, and a couple dandelions. He thought she would think that the dandelions were interesting. He also decided to grab a small handful of leaves, because he guessed that she had never seen those up close before either.
When he returned to the tower, the first thing he noticed was that Rapunzel had covered the bottom half of a whole corner with random shapes and colors. It was actually very pretty.
"NIce work, princess. I brought the flowers!" she gasped and ran over to him, running her fingers over the softness of the petals and feeling the prickly leaves. When she got to the dandelions, she paused.
"What are these?" She asked, holding one up.
"It's called a dandelion. If you make a wish on one then blow the seeds off, it's supposed to make your wish come true."
"Really?" she asked, disbelieving.
"Well," Jack answered.
"It's as real as the Tooth Fairy and Jack Frost!" She grinned.
"I wish-" Jack cut her off.
"Don't tell me what your wish is! That ruins it!"
"Oh, okay." With that, Rapunzel closed her eyes and exhaled. She watched in delight as the small, flowy seeds flew out the window, catching the light.
"It's beautiful!" She squealed.
"Yeah. Yeah it is," Jack responded.
They spent the rest of that day painting flowers and leaves all over the front wall of the tower. When the sun set and they ran out of light, Rapunzel asked Jack a serious question.
"Jack," She said. "The way you describe it, the world sounds so nice and fun. But the way my mother describes it, it seems like a dark and scary place." Jack looked down at her, unsure how to answer. To lie, and say her mother was right, or to tell her that her mother was wrong, which he was not supposed to do as a guardian.
"Well, Princess," he said carefully. "There is definitely a lot of fun in the world; How else would I guard it?" She laughed, and he continued. "But, there is also a lot of bad in the world." He thought of Pitch, and the little girl's own mother. "You should listen to your mother. She knows how to keep you safe."
"But Jack," Rapunzel continued, "You tell me stories of all the kids you help have fun, and they aren't stuck in towers like me!" Jack grimaced.
"Yeah. Most children are not stuck in towers. You know, you should just ask your mother about that. She might be able to answer." Still not satisfied, but sensing that Jack wasn't going to say anything else, Rapunzel hugged him.
"Bye, Jack! See you soon!" And Jack floated out the window, wondering how he could get the witch to let Rapunzel out of the tower.
Sorry this chapter was so bad, and took me so long. I'm having trouble getting this story where I want it to go. But don't worry, the next chapter will be better. Please review if you liked this!