Chapter 2

Toothiana

The celebration had been going on fairly well considering that there was some unwanted visitors, but no matter as long as he didn't stir any trouble. Of course I did have duties as a guardian but I am sure my fairies could hold on for one night. I was in the middle of a conversation with sandy and the spirit of forest when I heard Nicholas informing about the new spirit in our midst, the man was interesting looking, a hybrid like myself, but he seemed off like he didn't want to be here. He had his hand sort off protectively up, his ears flattened against his skull and his tail circling his feet. I thought nothing of it since his face was blank and cave not a single emotion away. I was one of the firsts to reach Nicholas's side when the hybrids eyes started to reek of panic. He spread his wings and leapt at the level above us, his wings had been folded so tightly against his backside that they had been almost impossible to see. Now that I got better view of what exactly he was, enormous black wings, sharp talons, scaly tail and those forest green eyes, not human put something similar. He looked threatening but that could be because of his dragon appearance. Dragons were already rare but in the last hundred years they had been disappearing near extinction. Some spirits thought of it as a relieve, but for me it was unfortunate, in my opinion they were misunderstood creatures and now that one of them was crouching above us I could not find the words and my every muscle was paralyzed. I could jump for joy that there still was these magnificent creatures alive, but I could not ignore those threatening green orbs that seemed to stare down on everyone. Most of the crowd were whispering and glancing warily at the man, his face was blank and he was trying hard to change his pupils from slits to normal so he wouldn't seem as dangerous, but his body language and emotions were not in sync. The man was unconsciously preparing himself to deflect any kind of attack.

All went silent when sinister laugh echoed through the palace, "ooh I knew this would be worth to see" my attention snapped from the man to Pitch who was now standing next to him. Almost every spirit was too focused on the hybrid that they did not dare to move, but the hybrids position relaxed slightly and he was now glaring at the nightmare king angrily.

I did not hear what Jack said but the man was crossed and spoke carefully "I knew there was something fishy when the all mighty king of nightmares out of all was willingly going to a moon celebration, it was not funny in the slightest"

The two spoke like they knew each other and the younger of them was now completely relaxed and his pupils were normal again. The bogeyman's face was curved in a creepy smile but his eyes shined with something more… kinder, dare I say.

"Hiccup my boy, I was merely concerned about your own wellbeing…" 'Boy? Concerned? Are they related?' I took more careful glance at the man, now that he stood up I could see him more clearly. He was lanky but not weak at all, he did not show any weaknesses nor fear, and if anything he seemed offended by Pitches words, his eyes shined in the face of a challenge. 'They are not related but they are familiar with each other and seemingly in good terms' the man's demeanor had changed from wary to confident in a matter of seconds.

"They're dragons and please stop calling me that I'm not a human anymore" '… What?' not being a human anymore meant that they had met before the hybrid became a spirit, only those who believe are able to see spirits and going by that then this spirit had been Pitches believer in life and now a potential ally. Jack had been as baffled as everyone else but only he was able to voice what we all feared to be true.

"Hold on, hold on, do you know him!"

"… Yes I know him" and just like that the whole world seemed to grow just slightly darker. Pitch Black was a handful alone but with an ally that was… well, half dragon, and could place all the other spirits on edge with a halfhearted glare. Apparently also had some powerful friends on his side, it did not look good. Pitch was snickering at Jack who was ridiculed by the other seasonal.

The hybrid seemed frustrated by Jack but he froze, his ears rose to attention and his slit pupils were frantically searching for something from the darkness outside. A small creature came flying full speed at the hybrid chirping fearfully, it clung to his shoulder for dear life. Its hind leg was dark green stained with some kind of liquid, otherwise it had bright green scales with a tint of white. It said something that seemingly stopped the man heart and it was good that the creature was fast enough to leap down from the hybrids shoulder before he took off. The gust of wind was enough of a proclamation of how strong his wings were, Jack was pushed back from the force and Pitch had disappeared at some point. The creature was as blown off as the rest of the spirits, it recovered fast and was about to fly after the hybrid but was stopped by Aster who took a hold of its wings. Jack also recovered shortly and flew after the older seasonal but came back frustrated and empty-handed, the creature, small dragon to be exact had turned deathly white and Aster was forced to let it go, for it was whiter than a sheet of paper and unconscious.

"He got away" Jack seemed angry and gripped his staff tighter. Sandy was checking the dragon and I told the other spirits to go home, some of them had already left.

Jack

I was sitting at Norths work office holding my staff closely, we were discussing about the new seasonal, again. The dragons hind leg had been wounded somehow 'and what do you know they bleed green blood' it had been but into a cage after a long debate whether or not it would try to fly away after it woke up, Tooth was against it but Bunny got her after explaining that the little dragon will only hurt itself more by fleeing in panic. Tooth had treated its wound, provided it with a pillow and moved it near the fireplace, the creature was colder than ice. It was inside of a cage made from dream sand, it seemed to be sleeping. I had seen many dragons in similar state 'not boasting, but I have singlehandedly woken up every one of them and got away without a scratch. This would be a piece of cake' it's some kind of hibernation state against cold or something. Of course I told the others this and North came up with the idea of warming it up so it would wake up, he also wanted to offer it a cup of hot chocolate but I don't think dragons like anything sweet 'not that it was a bad idea, I think it would be funny if dragons were fond of chocolate and other sweets', surprisingly Bunny was with me on this but North had already ordered one yeti to bring milk chocolate for everyone 'mine cold, obviously'. Now that all were seated comfortably and with hot chocolate in hand it was time for jet another guardian meeting.

"So, what must to be done with thiz" North was the first to speak.

"Ah say that we go after the traitor" Bunny was the first to answer and somehow I agreed with him, maybe he wasn't a full traitor but he did have some explaining to do.

Sandy said something that went over my understanding but Tooth seemed to know what he said.

"Sandy is right Bunny, we do not know has he even sided with Pitch jet" Bunny gave a frustrated huff and took a sip from his drink.

"Jack what do you think?" North asked seeing that I was unusually quiet. I lifted my head to meet his eyes.

"I think that the least we could do is find the guy and ask him, but then again no one has seen him before now. He's master in hiding since I haven't seen him even by a glimpse and I've traveled the most mysterious places in this world" I said bushing my hair back and bringing my staff horizontally on my shoulders.

"Well then where should we start?" Tooth chirped up wigs beating excitedly but stopped when a faint yawn was heard near the fireplace. The dragon had turned shade of a golden coin, it was arching its long back and stretching its wings as far as the cage allowed. It settled back down so that the injured leg was on the pillow and it was smiling at us sweetly.

"Oh could you be so kind and let me free?" it blinked its big blue eyes innocently at us while the smile turned more and more into a smirk. I was surprised it could even talk.

"You can talk?" it was North asking the question.

"of course not, I am a dragon and dragons cannot speak human language." the dragon answered, turning little bit violet colored and chuckling mischievously even thou it had already confirmed what North asked.

"Where's that bloody galah ya bugger?" Bunny was crouching beside the cage now gripping the sand bars tightly.

"Well aren't you a rude fuzztail" said the dragon, smile never faltering. 'Fuzztail, I'm so gonna rub that into his face'

"What did ya call me? I dare ya to say tha..."

"Bunny, don't be so rude to her" Tooth gestured for sandy to disperse the cage and when he did the dragon stood up and walked easily towards Tooth, like it didn't have a bleeding hole in its hind leg and sat down in front of her.

"I am not surprised that the only reasonable two-leg has wigs" Again that tint of violet ghosted over its skin before disappearing under the glittering gold.

"Why thank you" 'leave it to Tooth to get the compliment first' "And what might be your name if I may ask?"

"Certainly, my name is Stormfly. Although it is more appropriate to tell your own name before asking another's." Stormfly was smiling sweetly up at Tooth, there was no telling what she was thinking.

"I apologize my rudeness, my name is Toothiana. Now might you want to answer some of our questions?" Tooth took it upon herself because the dragon didn't seem eager to talk with anyone else.

"That depends…" Stormfly glanced behind over her shoulder at Bunny who was leaning against the fireplace glaring at her. She turned back to Tooth with a serious face "may I eat the bunny-rabbit?"

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!" Bunny's face was hilarious, I couldn't contain my laughter and Stormfly seemed also amused. I think I like her.

Tooth was trying to get the dragon tell them something useful information, Bunny was throwing insults at the creature and Jack was laughing his lungs out. North was disappointed that the little dragon didn't even notice the hot chocolate cup next to the fire. Stormfly had been joking about eating Bunny, she had distracted the guardians effectively but it didn't change the fact that the guardians still needed information about this new spirit. Forgetting his own cup of hot chocolate North stood up from his respective seat and stood next to Tooth.

"Having fun and receiving new frienz iz a great thing, but we need to know about that seasonal spirit who was with us last night" North was smiling kindly at the dragon who was looking straight into the man's eyes and trying hard to find any kind of hostility. After several long minutes she hung her head downwards and whispered with a low growling like voice.

"The master does not like outsiders, especially humans. I can answer your questions but I will not be responsible of the consequences" after saying this her body color changed from golden to blue-black colored and she was fuming angry. Norths expression was more serious now and he was eying the creature carefully.

"Who iz this master of yours?" North asked strongly. Stormfly lifted her head to look at North and gave and irritated huffing noise with few smoke rings coming out from her nostrils. "Don't ask stupid questions, otherwise I won't answer… You have already met him"

"What does he have to do wit' Pitch?" Bunny was standing next to North arms folded. Stormfly looked at him straight in the eyes "… I apologize but I do not recognize this practical person" Her body flamed violet color.

"You're a terrible liar, did you know that? Your skin turns violet every time you lie" Jack stood up from his seat near the window and walked to the center of the room, holding his staff on his shoulder smiling smugly at the dragon. He had been watching the dragon closely and noted her expressions to the changing body colors.

"Clever…" Stormfly was more irritated because the spirit had guessed her weakness easily and lying wasn't an option anymore. "Master doesn't usually let him inside our territory but when he does they meet somewhere far away from the nest. The elders say that Pitch Black was Furys guardian when he was a human"

"We need to meet him. Can you take us there?" Stormflys Eyes snapped angrily towards North and she hissed

"NO!" Now her skin was flaming with different colors, all of them were tinted black. She was furiously buffing smoke rings at growling low at the guardians. "Now set me free or I will burn this building into ashes" There was flames coming out from her mouth to reinforce her point.

The guardians were confused, the creature had been calm and collected just few seconds ago and now she was flaming furious.

"Sandy knock her out!" Bunny shouted in alarm when Stormfly took off towards the ceiling, the sandman was already trying but failing to hit the dragon with his dream sand. Stormfly was dodging every one of them elegantly and shrieking furiously at the guardians. Stormfly was too focused on dodging the sand bullets that she didn't notice Jack who was behind her. Jack locked her between his staff and himself, Stormfly was as tall as Jack but the boy had strength behind his attack and no matter how furiously she clawed the air she couldn't free herself. The staff was on her throat and she was shrieking in blind rage, but Jacks cold temperature was tiring her until slowly and painfully she gave up. Jack brought her down carefully and let her go being cautious of another attack.

Stormfly was dead still her body color pale yellow, she was cornered and the only way out was to lead these two-legs to Fury. Maybe he would understand and scare these fools away, like he did with every other threat.

She sighed "Are you familiar with northern archipelago?"

So here it is. Thank the gods I got it ready, I simply just hate this chapter and it was pain to write. I'll try have the next up in three or four days but I won't promise anything. Thank you for those who wrote comments on this I love reading them3.