Next chapter, all done! Hope you like my plot!
"Cloud Castle? What's that?" Jack asked as the group rode down the elevator, Sandy excluded. He had rushed out of the place after North gave the news. "It just happens that it's Sandy's home base." Heart said expertly. "Okay, so what's happening there?" Jack continued to ask. "My guess, same thing as last time." Tooth said as they stepped off the elevator. "Probably after the dreams. She couldn't go after the teeth like Pitch did, even she knows the entire Palace is on our best guard after last time's fiasco." "Why go after dreams?" Jack asked. "Is it the same thing as the teeth?" "Uh...more or less." Tooth said.
"Dreams are kids' drive." Heart interjected. "It's what they work towards. Without them, they feel like their life just goes phbt." She said, sticking her tongue out and giving thumbs down. "Oh." Jack said. "Then I suppose we're taking the sleigh again?" North smiled. "Eh, everyone loves the sleigh!" he said. Jack rolled his eyes at the familiar comment. Bunnymund groaned behind him.
By the time they had made it to the sleigh's holding dock, the elfs and yetis (mostly the yetis) had pulled out the sleigh and harnessed the reindeer to the front. They all piled in the front, Jack freezing an elf as he glided in over the side. Heart, who had been walking behind Jack, gave him one of those you're so immature looks and thawed the short man out with tap of her red flat. The ice came off him in a sheet of water and the poor elf walked in a dazed circle, his nervous system short circuiting from the drastic temperature changes.
Once everyone was in, the sleigh took off through the icy tunnels, sending a flurry of ice shavings in its wake. In the back seat, Bunnymund's groans could be heard by everyone. "Oy, I forgot what a terrible driver North is." He said regrettably. Tooth just smiled at his discomfort. Jack, as always, was standing up front, trying to gain the most excitement out of the ride. Behind him, he could hear excited cries of "Faster, Gramps! Faster!" mixed with exhilarated laughs at the sheer speed coming from Heart.
The tunnel began to end and Jack could see sunlight at the end before being blinded momentarily by the midday sun as they burst outside. The reindeer took off and next thing Jack knew, they were flying across the blue sky freckled with white clouds. As they sped past cotton-ball fluffs, Jack turned around towards Heart. She caught his gazed, smiled at him and gestured with her eyes to the edge of the sleigh. Realizing what she meant, Jack smiled back and nodded. She gave him one last look before running to the side across from her and leaping off. A moment later, she came up next to the sleigh, laughing with her wings outstretched. She twisted into a corkscrew dive just as Jack leaped off to follow her. Heart snapped her wings open and pulled up from her steep decent, doing a precise backflip and shooting back towards the sleigh.
Jack suddenly flew in front of her, causing Heart to come to a clumsy forced stop. "Hey!" she yelled at him as he glided away, laughing at her stricken expression. She glared playfully at him before going for the bait and taking off after him. Surprised at her unsuspected speed, Jack had to quickly turn around and fly towards the sleigh again in a not-so-graceful manner. Heart laughed before giving chase at Jack. They flew in circles under, above, and around the red sleigh as a sliver sphere was tossed from the front. It suddenly exploded in a flurry of glass and a blue and green funnel-shaped portal appeared in its place. The sleigh, followed by Jack and Heart, was sucked into the snow globe/portal before it disappeared, leaving the icy wasteland as silent as they had left it.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
A few seconds later, an identical portal appeared in the skies above the African plains. Out flew the reindeer, followed by the sleigh, which Heart and Jack had settled into during the short trip. The slight after-feeling of vertigo was not helping Bunnymund's condition. As they flew on, a large medieval-like castle made entirely of gold sand cast a shadow over the group. North suddenly veered sharply to the right, narrowly missing a gold light followed by a dark purple streak. The suddenness caused everyone to tear their eyes away from the impressive building in front of them to the surrounding area. What they saw shocked even Heart speechless.
Before them, little gold lights twinkled as they flew frantically around, leaving little gold-dust trails that quickly faded in their wake. Behind each one, an unnaturally large dark purple falcon chased them in hot pursuit, screeching loudly. Only these birds were nothing like the Nightmares Pitch's army had consisted of. These weren't even real, detailed falcons, but only purple silhouettes, almost like... "Shadows." Jack whispered in realization. "Oh, I missed these guys." Heart said grimly. "Not." "Well, I'm sure they'll be happy to see you to, but right now their after the dreams!" Tooth said, her wings buzzing to life. "So let's settle some old scores." "Way ahead of ya, mate." Bunnymund said, happy for an excuse to get off of the crazy sleigh. Pulling out his boomerangs, he jumped off the edge, landing on to the back of one of the oversized falcons.
"Well, better not let him have all the fun." Jack said and flew off, Heart seemingly having the same idea. He flew swiftly opposite the direction of most of the shadows. Each one he pasted, he froze as best he could, some falling to the ground, others breaking through it and continuing to chase after their prey. Some others noticed how Jack could prove a threat and a group of six ambushed him.
Whirling around towards the diving Shadows, Jack raced to meet them, freezing two more on his way up. As the enemies sped towards each other, the falcons broke into two trios, three swerving to the right of Jack and the others continuing their decent. Jack swung his staff at the incoming birds, missing the majority of them but hitting one's wing, sending it screeching to the ground far below. The other two split apart, flying to the opposite sides of Jack, flying at him from two different directions. using a trick he learned during the Battle of Nightmares, Jack waited until the last-minute before suddenly dropping down like a stone. The unsuspecting Shadows slammed into each other with a ear-splitting screech, disappearing in a burst of dark purple dust.
Jack smiled, satisfied, before turning around to face the others. While he had been busy fighting the three Shadows, the other part of the group had used the distraction to continue pursuing their prey. While he had back turned, the three of them alone had each grabbed one in each claw and were chasing more with their beaks agape. Jack scowled. Not only were they dangerous, they were smart, too.
Jack raced at the falcon nearest him. He swung his staff at it, slamming the crook into it's back. It screeched like the rest of its fallen brethren, letting go of the two dreams it had caught. The gold specks twinkled happily before turning around and shooting off past Jack towards the Cloud Castle behind them. He felt a feeling of accomplishment, but knew he had only saved only two of the hundreds, maybe thousands, of the tiny, persecuted dreams. Turning his mind back to the rest of the battle, he spotted another Shadow chasing vigorously yet another little gold light, so consumed with the flight it didn't notice it was heading right to Jack's left side. Angling his attack to intercept the racing spirits, Jack took off toward them. Waiting for the perfect moment, he suddenly shot in front of the falcon, grabbing the Dream in his cupped hands.
"Ah!" he cried out suddenly. He instinctively pulled back his vulnerable palms from the searing hot speck. He blew on his hands, trying desperately to cool them off. He looked at the Dream in front of him. "Their hot!" he said (rather obviously) in disbelief. "Well, duh!" Heart said, snatching up the dropped gold light. "Their virtually living sparks!" she said, stuffing the Dream into the bottom of her quiver. Jack spotted more glows coming from the same place on her back. "Wait, why can you touch them?" he asked. She gave him another Duh! look and pointed to herself. "Uh, spirit of comfort and warmth, here!" she said, rolling her eyes. "These guys are practically related to me!" she said before flying off again.
Jack surveyed the scene around him. Off to his right, North and Bunnymund were on the sleigh, North slicing through Shadows as he flew past, Bunny throwing one boomerang and smacking falcons with the other. Tooth was a little ways in front of him, stabbing Shadows with one of Heart's red daggers and dogging the dust they caused after exploding. And to his far right, Heart shot arrows with pinpoint accuracy, hitting a Shadow with each one. Occasionally she threw a summoned knife when in close corters, which was hardly ever. She usually hit them before the got that close with a well-shot arrow. They seemed to be doing pretty well, except for one thing.
They still hadn't found Sandy.
Continuing to scan his surroundings for anything he might have missed, Jack spotted a dark purple flash of a cloak and jet black hair disappear behind the side of the Castle. Curious, he flew over to the place he saw it at and rounded the corner to see a woman, a simple purple silhouette like the Shadows, turn and glide up swiftly up the side of the wall, slipping unnoticed into an open window. Jack, knowing this could very well be important/dangerous, followed in through the same window.
Cliffhanger! sorry if this disappoints you guys, but I will try to get Chapter 4 done as soon as possible!