Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians, but I guess I do own my OCs

Chapter 5: Sand, Sun and Screeching Griffins

Despite the creepy vibes the Fool was sending off, the Guardians managed to stand their ground. Jack gritted his teeth. "Stop messing around," he said harshly. "You can either release our friends or-"

"Or what?" the Fool cut him off, still smiling. "You're in my realm and you would do well to mind your manners here."

"What nonsense are you spouting?" Bunnymund snorted. "I don't think I've ever seen you fight. There's no way you would be able to beat us, even if you wanted to."

The April Fool sighed dramatically. "You're right, I do detest pointless fighting." He leaned back in his chair while pretending to think. His expression suddenly cleared. "Oh, but I do love games!~"

"We don't have time for this," Jack said, growing more irritated by the second.

The jester wagged his finger annoyingly in Jack's direction. "Now, now. There's always time for games." He clapped his hands and the table laden with sweets and chairs all disappeared while the Fool floated gently to the ground in front of the two guardians. "I had so many party games planned, but it seems that you both only have enough patience for one of them~ Such a shame…" The man twirled around and began to walk away from the duo.

"Where do you think you're going?" Jack challenged, shooting a jet of ice at him. Just as the ice was about to hit the Fool, the jester vanished.

"Attacking the host? Weren't you ever taught your manners?~" The Fool's voice echoed all around Jack and Bunnymund.

"Coward!" Bunnymund yelled, whipping out his boomerangs. The jester's laugh resounded through the air.

"As much fun as I've been having with you, we simply haven't the time for more delays. I propose a game of hide and seek~ I hide your friends, and you seek! Simple, no? The game is won when your friends are found. Ready? Begin!" The mad Wonderland blurred and the Guardians were dumped back in the alley that they had first entered the Fool's realm from.

~~~~~2 hours later~~~~~

"We've been all over London and we still haven't found them!" Jack ranted as they were led to another dead end. "For all we know, he kept them in his realm and is laughing at us as we search!"

"While I don't doubt that he's laughing at us," Bunnymund began. "I don't think he would cheat at his own game." The rabbit loped towards the frustrated ice spirit. "I'm sure he hid them somewhere, we just aren't looking in the right places. He did say it was 'hide and seek' after all."

Jack frowned. "Maybe he hid them in a place we wouldn't ever think of looking?"

"I'm not so sure about that, mate," the rabbit replied. "He would get bored if we never found them, right?"

The ice spirit sighed as he realized the Easter bunny had a point. "Well I don't have any other ideas of where to look."

"If I were an insane jester, where would I hide a Russian sword wielding maniac, a feathery fairy and a man made out of sand?" Bunnymund wondered outloud.

"I got it!" Jack said suddenly. "He hid them in places where it would be hard for us to find them, but would still make sense!"

"And those places would be…?"

"Well, we're going to have to go to a beach again…"

~~~~~A Beach in Florida~~~~~

"I don't know, mate," Bunnymund said, shaking sand from his fur. "I think it's a bit of a stretch to be looking for Sandy here."

"Unless you have any other ideas," Jack said, scanning the beach yet again for any sign of the dream giver. "Believe me; I'm not enjoying it either." He glared at the sun as it beat down on him unmercifully.

"So our friends are missing all over the world most likely and we're just going to keep combing this endless beach until- ooph!" The last part was mainly due to Bunnymund tripping over a huge red and green box sticking out of the sand.

Jack stared at the box curiously as the people milling around the beach were acting like it wasn't there. "How do they not notice this?" he asked, reaching for the attention grabbing cube.

"Most likely it's prime Guardian material," Bunnymund grumbled, getting to his feet. "If it belongs to one of us Guardians, humans either won't see it or they'll just write it off as a strange occurrence. You know how sometimes humans seem to trip on thin air? It's usually because some holiday spirit is too lazy to clean up after themself. Leprechauns are notoriously bad about that."

Jack cautiously approached the cube as if he was expecting it to explode. Heck, knowing the April Fool it probably would explode with a huge bang and shower of confetti. He carefully prodded the box with his staff and jumped backwards reflexively when the top opened automatically.

"Testing, testing~ Is this thing on?" the Fool's voice rang out from the box. "Ahem. Well, congratulations on making it this far!~ I didn't think you would figure it out this fast! As you may have guessed, your friend Sandy is here, but to get him back, you're going to have to play another game~ A game within a game, if you will." Jack gritted his teeth. He'd had enough of this nonsense. The voice continued, "In order to get your dear, silent friend back, you'll have to beat a creature I've enclosed in this box~ I've called in a favor to have it ordered~ Until next time Guardians. Ta!" the voice cut out.

"Creature?" Bunnymund asked, hands creeping towards boomerangs. "I don't like the sound of that." Jack silently agreed. The box then shot out a piece of paper that floated down towards Jack. The ice spirit caught it warily.

Sorry, Jack. And the huge rabbit dude too. I really didn't want to do this, but the Fool helped me out before and I owe him. I hope y'all live.

-Hal

Jack felt a cold sweat break out on the back of his neck as he flipped the piece of paper over. On the back, he discovered a detailed drawing of a screeching griffin, claws extended and wings unfurled. Beneath the drawing was one word in Hal's handwriting underlined many times.

RUN

Jack instantly dropped the paper and started dragging Bunnymund backwards just as an unearthly screech split the air. Jack dropped to the ground and slapped his hands over his ears to try and muffle the sounds from the newly created griffin. The rabbit had it worse as he looked like he wanted to cut his own extremely sensitive ears off.

"What in blazes is that?!" Bunnymund yelled, ears ringing. The duo was forced to hit the ground as the griffin just barely missed raking their heads with its deadly claws. It let out another piercing cry before circling around for another strike.

Bunnymund fired one of his boomerangs at it, causing the creature to swerve at the last moment. "This is insane! I can't keep this up forever!" Bunnymund cried as jack attempted to hit it with ice blasts. The thing was just too fast for him.

Jack's mind raced as the beast kept coming back for more attacks, seemingly impervious to their best efforts to wound the creature. 'Hal,' Jack thought feverishly as he attempted to swipe at the griffin yet again. 'If I live, I swear I will kick your butt into next week for this.'

The battle seemed to last for hours, but it was probably only a few minutes. Jack and Bunnymund couldn't hold out much longer and both were breathing heavily.

"Does this thing have ANY weak points?!" Bunnymund growled in frustration as he fired his boomerang at it for the umpteenth time.

Jack stared at the seemingly unstoppable beast. He examined the griffin closely as it screeched over his head yet again. Then he noticed something very interesting about the creature. "Its wings!" he wildly pointed at the creature's large brown wings. "It always tucks its wings in before diving at us to protect them!"

"Well, that simplifies things," Bunnymund smirked as he threw both of his boomerangs. They sailed a good foot above the griffin's head.

"Where were you aiming?!" Jack asked in disbelief. "The ocean?"

"Wait for it…" The griffin suddenly screeched in pain as the boomerangs arced backwards and hit both of its wings. The wings folded immediately and the creature was sent plummeting to the ground. Bunnymund smirked as he caught his boomerangs an instant later. "Piece of cake."

Jack rolled his eyes at the rabbit's boasting to cautiously approach the griffin. The creature gave one last pitiful shriek before it turned back into a piece of paper. The paper fluttered and Hal's words on the front seemed to be shifting around and rewriting themselves.

If you're reading this, the griffin is gone. Good job. Honestly, I'm shocked because that was one of my masterpieces. Listen, both of you Guardians. I'm not the only holiday spirit the April Fool has recruited to hassle you. Watch your backs. Especially for any arrows. Since my part is now done, you can have your friend. Good luck.

-Hal

Jack flipped the paper back over to see that the image of the griffin had disappeared and was new lines were forming an image. Jack squinted as the image squirmed into a distinct humanoid figure with spiky hair and-…

"Sandy!" Bunnymund exclaimed, watching the picture of the other Guardian become reality. In a matter of seconds, the silent dream weaver was hovering next to the other Guardians, a radiant smile upon his face. Jack smiled back in relief.

"We thought we'd lost you forever!" he said. Sandy just smiled back easily in response.

"Good to see you, mate," Bunnymund added. "But now I'm curious… what did Hal mean when he said we should watch our back for arrows?" Jack tilted his head in confusion. That was truly baffling. He turned to the Sandman.

"Any ideas?" he asked. Sandy looked uncomfortable, as if he had an idea but didn't want to say it. "It's okay," Jack said. "It can't be any more ridiculous than the situation we're in."

Sandy paused before a sandy image of a heart appeared above his head. Bunnymund stiffened at that. "You don't mean that narcissist, Cupid, is involved…do you?" He asked in a way that was almost a plea. The Sandman only nodded in response. Bunnymund groaned. "Just what we need… A deadly archer who's in love with his looks."

A/N: Hey y'all! *dodges rotten produce* It's been a while, huh? Yeah, I know... but I've been pretty busy lately... I have too many unfinished fanfics and *gives a long list of excuses that no one is interested in* and to sum it up, that's why my update was really late. Thanks for understanding.

So, yeah I was kinda at a loss. I was like, 'Where can I put Sandy? The beach! Cuz it's got sand!' ...I wrote this pretty late at night. Please excuse any of my bad humor.

Please review and tell me what you like/hate/have recommendations for! Constructive criticism is appreciated, but please no outright flaming! Thank you! :D