I have this whole great story just sitting in my head and it's killing me to go chapter by chapter D:

Oh well it must be done. Besides what kind of writer would i be if I spoiled everything in less than a minute.

*Falls to the ground dramatically in impatience* xD

'Its not what it looks like...Its not what it looks like. Say it out loud then, idiot!'

Alice mentally fought with herself but she couldn't quite get the words out of her mouth. The two faced each other in a tense silence for what seemed like hours to Alice as she struggled to make her lips move. The elf in her lap looked from one horrified face to the other and decided it would be smart to jump down and retreat behind her.

"Wait!"

Alice found her voice when Sandy suddenly lashed out and seized the blackness in her hand with a vine of dream sand. In a split second the shocked expression on his face changed to one of angered confusion, a look that didn't suit him to well.

"Let me explain!" Alice shouted furiously and stood up with her hands clenched tightly into fists. It was bad enough she didn't understand anything that was happening, but now he had just snatched the only thing she had that could help her determine what exactly this stuff was right out of her hands. The stream of golden sand held its unmoving captive high over his head and gripped it tighter when the anger in his face deepend and a question mark condensed above him.

'Explain what?' She thought. The passion in her blue eyes quickly dimmed upon this sudden awareness and she sat back down uncomfortably and looked down at her hands, unable to make eye contact.

"Actually, I can't." Alice said slowly. "Well I can, but-" Alice looked up halfway through her explanation and gasped. Somehow the nightmare sand was able to wiggle from the golden grasp and began to gently float to the ground only to be swiftly impaled through its middle. The rather violent action left Alice sitting in a shocked silence. The dark sand jiggled for a moment before casually wrapping around the tendril of dream sand and materializing back into it's noodle like form on top of it. Sandy's brow twitched in irritation and with a quick movement of his hand the dream sand quickly withdrew and stabbed through it's center again. The black sand once again repeated it's previous action and sat perched on the glistening sand. Two blinks was all it took for the anger to leave his golden eyes which then widened a little as he realized things weren't what they seemed. He seemed to relax some although he was still wary. Without a word Alice got up and walked towards her confused friend and her movement appeared to catch the black sands attention. In a fluid movement the sand melted and fell to the ground before solidifying back into it's original shape. Alice sat down on the ground with and held her hand out.

"See? It's different somehow." She said softly as the sand enthusiastically jumped into her hand without seeming to hold a grudge. Sandy floated over to her and Alice held it out with in hopes he would understand. He stopped in front of her and gave her a suspicious worry filled frown in which she responded with a reassuring grin. He reluctantly sat down in front of her and cautiously reached out. A golden strand gently formed above his palm and reached out and poked the black substance. Alice smiled as she waited for it to respond but nothing happened.

"Hm. It usually pokes back." She said and as if on cue the black sand quickly shot out and poked his finger, making Sandy flinch away with a surprised look. Alice laughed when his eyes narrowed, obviously bitter towards being bested. After deciding things were safe enough at the moment he relaxed again and sat with his arms crossed before a stern look crossed his face and another question flashed over his head.

'Great, I was hoping I wouldn't have to be the one to explain things.'

"Well, you see...I went for a walk this morning...actually not this morning, since morning here only happens every six months apparently..." Sandy raised an eyebrow as she started to ramble.

"Right, well you get the picture. Anyways I saw that girl again, you know the crazy one, and she talked to me. Some kind of nonsense about the sand, she really wasn't making sense at all. Then before I could get away she was right in front of me." You would think having to explain the same thing over again would help lessen the feeling of anxiety that started easing into her mind. The figure of a person running and another question mark flashed over Sandy's and he titled his head with a frown.

"It's kind of hard to run when your sitting in the middle of a frozen lake." Alice muttered when she caught onto his question. Sandy raised his hands in front of him, palms up, and his face twisted as if to say "What?" An image of the device Jack gave her flashed over his head.

"Yeeeah, I might need to clarify there too." she said slowly and rubbed the back of her neck. "And I'm getting to that part. There was this black cat stuck on the ice which turned out not to be an actual cat. That might of been a dumb move on my part." she stated casually. He casually moved his head from side to side in a "so-so" gesture of agreement.

"Hey!" She shouted and gave his shoulder a playful shove. "It was early, and besides, it's not like I've ever had to worry about killer cats before." They shared a laugh, well more like a silent giggle on Sandy's part before the seriousness returned. It was definitely easier talking to Sandy than it was with anyone else she had to explain to. Alice cherished the brief humor that was followed by silence and kept her eyes on the ground when she decided to go on.

"She showed me something. I don't know what it was but it was like the whole world was different. I cant really explain it." Alice didn't dare look up in fear her eyes would betray her steady voice. "Then she went psycho on me and that's when I used the thing Jack gave me and the...bunny guy showed up and brought me here. On the kind of bright side this thing followed back." She ended quickly, desperate for a subject change. "I know it seems suspicious but I find it kind of curious." A clock appeared over his head going counter-clockwise and quickly disappeared.

"What?" Sandy frowned sightly and the clock appeared again, this time with the device.

"It has a clock on it?" She asked doubtfully, struggling with their guessing game of charades. Alice could've swore she heard a soft tinkling noise as he impatiently shook his from head side to side. He reached up and took the box in his hands, pointing at the clock going in reverse and then back to the box when he pressed a button.

"Oooh. Well I would've used it sooner but it kinda slipped my mind..." A very unamused look fell on his face.

"Well sorry." She said sarcastically "Did I forget to mention I was sitting on a frozen lake with a deranged lunatic? Things like that tend to distract you." In response Sandy held up the device up to her face and shook it with a look that said "That's why we gave you the darn thing in the first place!"

"Yeah, yeah, "Oh my god Alice look at all these horrible decisions you've made today," I get it already." She half shouted with an impatient wave of her hand. Sandy's irritation was replaced with a dim thoughtfulness and Alice noticed their conversation take a silent turn.

"Well enough about me, how was your day?" She said with a sarcastic cheerfulness. A sigh escaped her lips when the grim look in his eyes didn't waver.

"It really wasn't that bad, I did get away," she defended, "and all I got was a little scratch." His eyes flicked to her hand and back to her eyes.

'Nice going, idiot.' She thought and mentally face palmed herself. Sandy held out his hand as if to ask for it and Alice scooted away a little.

"I'd rather you not, its a little tender." He insisted as he took her wrist and gave her a serious "trust me" look.

"Fine," she muttered, "but your not gonna like it."

Sandy gently took her hand and slowly unwrapped her bandage and, much to her surprise, kept a calm disposition as it fell onto her leg and revealed the damage. He tilted it from side to side to examine it and held up his other hand.

"What are you doing?" Alice asked suspiciously, in fear he would touch it. After her last unpleasant experience she wasn't so keen on having him poking around in it. He held a finger up and gave her a reassuring smile before placing it over the back of her hand and making her flinch.

"Hey! Didn't you hear me when I said it was tender?" She accused and fought the urge to pull her hand away when it started to sting. He rolled his eyes and a picture of a young child in a crib flashed over his head.

"I'm not being a baby." She grumbled and placed her elbow on her knee and leaned against her free hand with her cheek. "You try being harassed by a psycho-stalker and see how you like it." Sandy chuckled at her response before turning his attention back to her hand. Alice suddenly became very interested when streams of glowing sand began to flow from both sides and slipped under his hand. The glow under his hand grew brighter and illuminated their faces and a warm sensation quickly took the place of the pain. After a few moments the light died down and Sandy removed his hand. The wound on her hand looked a million times better. The small clumps of black sand in her cut were gone and the grey discoloration around the edges turned into a more natural red. It actually looked a lot like a normal cat scratch...well a very long normal cat scratch. Before Alice could marvel at his handy work he quickly wrapped it up nice and firm.

"Wow. Any more tricks up your sleeve I should know about?" Sandy's face scrunched in thought before he looked down his sleeve and held out his hand as two golden birds suddenly appeared and flapped around her head before vanishing.

"Neat," She laughed, "and thanks. A lot." He gave her a nod and Alice couldn't contain her eagerness.

"So you can heal wounds?" She asked, a curious spark in her blue eyes. Sandy shook his head.

"Oh, so I take it only wounds that involve this stuff." She said and looked down at the black sand sitting motionless on her knee. Upon looking up again she saw him staring blankly at nothing in particular with a small frown, obviously lost in thought. Alice studied him carefully and pondered what seemed to be bothering him so much.

"Your not blaming yourself are you?" Alice asked when she recognized the look on his face, not sure if she was right or not. His eyes flickered to meet hers before he quickly diverted them to the side. That all she needed.

"It's not your fault, Sandy. You could of been on the other side of the world when she showed up, and there was no way you could've known." Irritation started to rise in her when Sandy didn't respond. Alice racked her brain to think of what she could say. The whole point of being a Guardian in the first place is to guard. It's kind of in the job description, if you could call it a job. Alice sighed and smiled.

"You shouldn't frown you know, it doesn't suite you." She said and before he could raise an inquisitive eyebrow she pinched his cheek into a half smile. He crinkled his nose and wiggled out of her grasp, finally beaming a very contagious grin on his face. The elf that decided it was safe to approach pinched his own cheeks and smirked up at them with a big goofy smile.

'Well that all went better than expected.' Their chuckles were interrupted when somewhere in the distance North's booming voice met their ears and Sandy turned thoughtfully towards the sound.

"I imagine your going to have to run off and have a little meeting with your buddies." She said, mirroring his thoughts. He gave her a quick smile of confirmation and pointed to her and then to the ground.

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere." He gave her a quick thumbs up and a smile before turning to leave. The elf had already begun the climb to his spot on her shoulder

"Oh and Sandy." She shouted after him and he turned and raised an eyebrow. "Any more mythical people I should know about?" The smile on his face widened and he turned back without an answer. Within a minute he was out of sight, leaving Alice sitting on the floor with goofy grin on her face.

"...Awesome."

Went over this a a couple times looking for mistakes, so If I find a typo later I'm going to go into the past and slap myself.

Well, I need to get off this computer or I'm gonna be late! :O Cheers!