"Coming down anytime soon?" Alice shouted and looked up. Jack sat on a balcony above her looking down with a sly smile.
"Fancy meeting you here. When did you notice?" He said and casually tapped his staff onto the rail. A thin coat of white frost traveled over it and a few stray snowflakes began to fall descend towards her.
"Lets just say you don't make a very good ninja." A snowflake fluttered down and fell into her outstretched hand.
"Funny, I used to be a pro at that." He chuckled and jumped down. A chilly breeze flowed past her as the wind cushioned his fall, landing him gently in front of her.
"Wow," she mused and held the beautifully symmetrical ice crystal up before it melted away, "I didn't know they really looked like this."
"Funny thing, most people don't. I have a thing for symmetry though." He boasted before glancing at her shoulder with a strange look.
"Uh-Well that's...adorable."
"Now whats he doing." She mumbled when she caught onto his sarcasm and reached up to pluck him off her shoulder. "I thought I told you to leave the hair alone." She scolded and yanked the golden lock out of his mouth which was now soaked in saliva.
"They grow on you." He smirked and bent down to get a better look at the sand.
"So I keep telling myself. So how much did you hear?"
"Everything."
"Great, so i don't need to explain again...Just how long have you been here?"
"Long before you got here." Jack subconsciously leaned the side of his head against his staff.
"Well thanks for coming to my rescue when I got here." She muttered sarcastically.
"Well you did catch me a little off guard. Next time you throw a party with nightmares you should invite me."
"I take you as more of the "crash the party" type."
"You would be right." He said with a mischievous smile and looked her in the eye for the first time. "You know that stuff usually isn't good news."
"Yea lay it on me, Iv'e had a bunch of lectures already."
"Well I'm not really one for lectures, but still you should be careful." Alice frowned and jingled the bell on the elf's hat.
"Are you okay?" He asked with a soft look in his eyes.
"Ugh, I wish you people would stop asking that. And besides I feel like I'm not asking the obvious question here."
"Which is...?" He asked slowly and raised an eyebrow.
"What are you guys?"
"Didn't we already do this? Ya know, Jack Frost, Easter Bunny-"
"Yea yea I know that part, but how?" Jack eyes narrowed in confusion at her question.
"I mean like where do you guys come from? Why don't you wear shoes? How do you do that thing with the ice?"
"Uhh...We should probably go talk to the others." He stood up and held out a hand.
"But-" She started as she took his cold hand.
"Don't worry, we'll answer all your questions." He assured and pulled her up, making the black sand quickly sliver up her sleeve. "Now hold on tight."
"What do you mean hold on-." Jack quickly grabbed onto her waist and shot up into the air with an enthusiastic "Whooooo!"
"A little warning maybe!" She yelled as the ground flew away from her. The floor above them quickly approached and in a couple seconds Jack landed onto the railing with cat like agility and lowered her to the ground. Alice made a mental note to ask him to teach her how to fly.
"This'a way." He declared and led the way to a familiar looking room. Upon entering Sandy spotted them over his shoulder and sent an enthusiastic wave, holding a fancy looking cup of eggnog in his hand. The three guardians stood at the base of the stairs and North and Bunny were busily talking with various gestures and an occasional wave of the hand.
"Hey guys, whats up? Been awhile since we all met like this." Jack announced his presence smoothly and twirled his staff before resting it on his shoulder. Alice sat on her previous spot on the window ledge and Jack leaned against the wall next to her. North and Bunnymund quickly ceased their chatter.
"Ah Jack, good you found her." North turned and exclaimed cheerfully and held his arms out. "Great, everyone is here now."
"So what happens now?" Alice whispered to Jack. keeping a fake smile on despite the fact she was terrified of whatever she was about to learn.
"Relax, you had questions right?" He said with a cool headed disposition.
"Yea..."
"Well so do we" He smirked.
"Well don't look at me." She muttered and changed into a dimmer tone when she questioned him about the first thing that came to her mind. "Yesterday you said something about that guy, The Nightmare King. Who is that exactly? The bad guy?" Alice awkwardly noticed the room go a little quiet upon her question.
"Pitch Black. He's basically fear, and he thrives on the fear of children especially. He hungers for children's dreams the most because of the innocence and purity they hold and leaves leaving only misery and despair." Jacks voice grew especially dark. "So yea, you could say the bad guy."
Alice leaned against the window, definitely more depressed than she was a few moments ago. It seemed really unlike him to have something so morbid come out of his mouth. "So all those times I felt like something was under my bed, or creeping up the hallway..."
"Yup." Jack said grimly. She felt a paranoid tingle in her arms and crossed her arms over her knees.
"What about nightmares then?"
"The boogeyman is the controller of fear, corrupting dreams with nightmares is a tool for spreading that fear. He will prey on those who are of weak heart and vulnerable." North interrupted "Luckily Sandy here is quite skilled in defending these dreams." He added this last part with a lighter mood and Sandy smiled and held his hand out and swept it in the direction of the other three guardians.
"We do a pretty good job of keeping fear in it's place, too." Bunnymund said with a firm nod, agreeing with Sandy's gesture. Alice was now sitting up straight with her one leg crossed and the other hanging off the ledge, Liking the way things were going.
"So if Pitch can control the nightmare sand...then what does that make Ava?"
"That is good question." North said in a strange tone and stroked his beard subconsciously.
"What was that word you and cotton-tail were throwing around...?" Jack started to say and comically rubbed his chin. North's eyes narrowed when he caught onto his game.
"Now Jack we can't start throwing things in the air like that, this is big accusation."
"Right off the tip of my tongue." Jack said and Alice realized he was hinting that she was being left out of the loop.
"Whatever it is I want to know too." She huffed and crossed her arms.
"Yea North, spill the beans. What is this Nightmare Child I keep hearing you guys mention?"
'Nightmare child?...'
North sighed. "We are not saying this is the Nightmare Child, but it is very strange. She seems to have a good amount of control over the sand from what I've heard, though I doubt she is as powerful as Pitch."
"Your tellin me, horrible reflexes that one, moved like a wombat. And besides what'a we talking 'bout this for, we know that's just some dumb sham to put people on edge, right Sandy?" As the conversation took a darker turn Sandy's expression took on a look of tense silence. His adamant eyes met Bunnymund's and the pooka's ear twitch in uneasiness.
"What is a Nightmare Child? Is there more than one?"
"There has never been a Nightmare Child." North corrected her. "Legend has it that in the dark ages an individual with full control over nightmares would rise. This person would be even stronger than the Nightmare King and be able to turn children and into nightmares with little effort. As you can imagine Pitch was very interested in this." North informed
"So Pitch doesn't control nightmares?" Alice asked.
"Only to certain extent. Nightmares are wild and are very unpredictable." Alice vaguely recalled the short conversation Jack, Sandy, and her had the night before.
"What does his daughter have to do with this then? Is Ava his daughter?" Alice asked. Even though she was getting answers it felt like a million more where popping up. North raised an eyebrow.
"How did you know he has a daughter?" North asked with a surprised tone.
"I'm a good listener."
"No Ava isn't his daughter. Last night, when Ava suddenly appeared and attacked, there was a strange shift in the balance of nature. That's why Sandy mentioned Mother Nature." Jack started to explain. "Mother Nature, huh?" As Alice processed this new information she remembered how surprised Jack seemed at the mention of a daughter, but at the moment he seemed to be pretty filled in on details to her.
"Yes, rarely things so... unnatural happen. Her presence was certainly abnormal." North finished for him.
"Your saying she just popped out of thin air?" Alice struggled to understand what he was saying.
"Well, you could say it like that. There was huge distortion in the fabric of the universe around the time she arrived."
"Yea I felt it too." Bunnymund added in a low voice. "Same thing happened a'while back to."
"Aw that's not fair, why didn't I sense it?" jack whined and slumped against the wall.
North chuckled and crossed his arms. "It comes with age." If it weren't for her being a huge science geek Alice wouldn't of caught on to what North and Bunnymund were implying.
"A distortion? You mean like a...whats that word...a hole? No that's not right..." Alice uttered. Sandy raised a helpful finger and a picture of a worm wiggled above his head and then disappeared.
"Wormhole! Right!" She shouted suddenly with a huge smiled and enthusiastically pointed at him. Sandy proudly smiled at this. At least someones was being cheerful.
"If she came through a hole in the fabric of the universe, which would obviously disturb the balance of nature, then that means she could of come from another place." A golden clock briefly flashed over Sandy's head.
"...Or time." Alice said quietly, taking note to Sandy's image.
"So maybe there's a reason there was never a Nightmare child. She never stayed in the past." Jack observed
"But if she is being such a disturbance, why can't Mother Nature do something about that? Isn't nature the most powerful force in the universe?" Alice asked.
"Ah yes, most important lesson, much like nature, Mother Nature is neither good nor evil. She observes from every leaf and every drop of rain but that is what she is. An observer." North informed her. Alice never thought of their meeting as a "lesson" but she made sure to store it away in case it would be important in the future.
"Oh." Alice felt a tinge of disappointment. "So I take it you can't just look her up in a phone book or anything."
"'Fraid not." Bunnymund said with a laugh.
"Ok so we know that much, but what's the deal with Alice?" Jack said and nudged her shoulder and grinned when he received a glare.
"Wrong time and place?" Bunnymund offered with a shrug. 'Funny, doesn't feel wrong.' Alice thought, not regretting a moment of the last two days.
"Then what about the second time?" She added. Jack thought for a moment before speaking.
"You said that The Nightmare Child could turn a person into a nightmare right?"
"Supposedly." Bunnymund interrupted, still not buying the whole legendary Nightmare Child thing.
"So what if that's what she tried to do?" Jack voice started rise as if he were a detective suddenly cracking a case.
"Do what?" Alice asked warily.
"Think about it. Alice was the first child she sees-"
"Child?" Alice asked with a glare.
"Anyways, what if she tried to corrupt her?" Jack ignored her comment and finished quickly, leaving everyone's eyes to wander to her.
Alice felt a car suddenly slammed into her.
"But...you said she could do it with little effort. If so why was I standing there for almost a whole day before fur ball here showed up?"
"Excuse me-fur ball?" Bunnymund stuttered annoyingly making Jack snicker. Alice ignored his annoyance and rubbed her eyes.
"No matter. You have already been imprinted." Ava's spine tingling words repeated over and over in her head.
"What if I'm corrupted?
I've had the word Nightmare Child stuck in my head since the beginning of this story and it feels so good to get it out. So, woopie questions are being answered, yet new ones are surfacing. :O