In one corner was Jackson Overland Frost, armed with his staff, a snake and his wit.

In the other were the biggest, meanest nightmares Jack had ever seen, all made of pitch-black sand and all hungry for blood.

Jack readied his staff and licked his lips.

He felt the snake wriggle nervously around his arm, "Hold on tight little buddy," he muttered to it, but he never lost eye contact with his ambushers, "this is gonna be one heck of a ride"

The snake laid still and the pressure around his arm increased for a second, like it was wishing him luck. Jack knew he was going to need it.

The nightmares stamped their hoofs, and charged.

Jack fired a shot at one and yelled as he saw it go down. Then he has to dodge another as it galloped towards him. He got that one on its flank, freezing it instantly. He flew upwards, and started firing, the shots looked like lightning, downing one nightmare after the other as they galloped through the air to meet him.

Jack knew that for each nightmare, a child was tossing and turning in bed in fear, so he showed very little mercy.

One avoided his shots and almost hit him. Jack hit it as it was turning to charge again.

The rest snorted, seeing most of their comrades fall, and retreated, hiding back into the shadows. Jack hit the slower ones in the rump. Watching smugly as they whinnied in surprise

Then it, as suddenly as it started, the fight ended, snow started to quietly cover the black sand.

Jack flew back down to inspect the damage, at least five-no six bodies laid still in the snow, something he couldn't wait to tell the other guardians about

He had the winds knocked out of him from behind; his staff went flying from his hand.

One of the retreated nightmares, seeing Jack off his guard, had rammed him, hitting his back. Jack was now pinned to the ground, his staff uselessly thrown to the side, out of reach. Out of his reach. He was powerless and the nightmare seemed to know it, neighing out in victory.

Okay Jack, you're being pinned by a horse that looks like it weighs way more than it should, you can't reach your staff and North, Bunny and Tooth have absolutely no idea where you are. No biggie.

A couple of the other nightmares started to come back, now encouraged and very, very angry.

Oh, that's a biggie.

One of the other horses leaned towards Jack, mist coming out of its nostrils with each excited pant.

Whew!

"Someone needs a breath mint!"

The nightmare wasn't amused by his joke and it started to rear up, hooves aimed directly at Jack's head. Jack was immortal, but a hit by that beast would definitely give him a headache the next morning.

He wants to knock me out, then take me to Pitch, with that thought, Jack started to struggle, to move away from those hooves, but there wasn't enough room. Finally, in a last ditch effort; he threw his arms up, hoping to soften the blow a little.

He felt the pressure on his arm release and saw a sudden flash of white, a familiar flash of white. He saw the horse about to crack his head open suddenly whinny, rear up and fell. The others galloped back. Including the one pinning him. Jack rolled out; he felt wood against his hand.

The smile was back.