It was a few hours later when Sandy arrived, dripping in the cave. Valetta was behind him. Jack leaned upon his elbows for a better view. He winced as a few of his scabbed reopened.

"You don't look too good, Sandy." He really didn't look that good. Sand was dripping off him and… was it just Jack, or was Sandy smaller than normal?

Sandy dragged himself over, his feet touching the ground for once and making wet, squelching sounds. A floppy question mark appeared above his head and he pointed at Jack. The meaning was clear.

"What happened to me?" Jack looked over himself and had to admit that it was a fair question. "I fell. Valetta found me. I think she's the spirit of health."

At this point Valetta intervened. She put her hands on her hips. "And I'm still saying that's not true. I have no idea what you're talking about. I've certainly never heard of anything like spirits."

Jack just shook his head. "Come over here, Valetta. I want to try something."

She looked at him suspiciously. "What?"

"You'll see." She slowly came over to him and he reached up to grab her hand. There was this soft fizzing feeling that started in his hand and ran down through his body. As they watched, his cuts scabbed over and his cheeks lost their feverish tinge and turned back to his healthy blue.

Valetta's eyes opened wide in astonishment and she snatched her hand back. Her mouth hung open as she stared at her hand. Jack lay back with a sigh as her felt the last of that healing energy fade away. He glanced over at Sandy.

"Can you try that with Sandy, Valetta? He's got the beginnings of a plague and I'm hoping you can heal him."

Valetta looked at him, her eyes still showing her shock, then numbly nodded and grabbed Sandy by the hand. Almost immediately, he started growing as his lost sand got replaced and they all watched as the black, plagued tendrils of his sand got burned away.

There was a moment of silence as they all took in what just happened, then Sandy showed them a picture of the other guardians.

"You're right Sandy. We do have to hurry. If Valetta could just finish healing me, we could be on our way."

Valetta mutely walked over to where Jack was propped up on his elbows and quickly healed him. He jumped up, all his energy back and retrieved his staff from where it was propped up against the wall. "I don't suppose you can fly yet, can you?"

Before Valetta could reply, Sandy had conjured a cloud out of sand and offered it to her for her to ride on.

They were on their way at last.

So, I'm sorry this took so long. It's been hard to work on it when there's no snow to be seen here. It's kind of hard to get inspired to write about cold things when it's 30 pus degrees here(That's Celsius). It just doesn't work with the mood in the story. Anyway, I'm thinking the next chapter will be the last one. I'm just losing my motivation to write this story and I have a list of other fanfics to write this school year, if I have time. I'll try to have the last chapter up in the next few days. I might even get it done by tonight if I work at it.