Greetings! We won't be seeing Dracula or Pitch in this chapter... at least not directly. My apologies to anyone who wanted more of the Bad Guys.
*Singing* I don't own any of it! *Singing*
Jack was lounging on a rafter in the Globe Room of the North Pole, idly polishing his staff. North and Bunny argued while Tooth gave directions to her mini-fairies below; Sandy was the only one absent. It had been a few days since Dracula and Pitch attacked in Burgess; Jamie was currently grounded for the damage his staff had done to the house—and his lack of a believable excuse for said damage.
Jack smiled at something Baby Tooth was saying when Sandy flew through the window. Jack glanced up but returned to his staff and Baby Tooth, leaving the others to welcome Sandy. Sandy was flashing sand shapes frantically, he looked panicked. "Sandy! Sandy slow down, we cannot understand you."
Sandy wouldn't slow down and Tooth finally called up to Jack. "Jack? Can you tell us what Sandy's saying? He's going too fast."
Jack looked down, a small smile on his face; the smile quickly disappeared and Jack's eyes widened. "The Mermaids?" Jack jumped from the rafters and flew down to Sandy; as soon as he touched the ground, his staff leaned up against a table, he began signing nearly as fast as Sandy's sand shapes.
"Jack signs?" Bunny asked, hopping up to North and Tooth.
"Apparently. Now we know how he has all those silent conversations with Sandy." Tooth shrugged.
Jack finally turned to the others, his face paler than normal. "Pitch and Dracula attacked Melodia, the Mermaid city. Sandy says two of them made it to the Island of Sleepy Sands; and they're pretty sure they're the only ones who escaped."
The Guardians gasped, their hearts sinking. All legends have a center - even though there were only a few official Guardians – the mermaid's center was music.
"Sandy doesn't think they just captured them." Jack whispered. "Dracula was throwing these black energy balls, when they hit a mermaid, they would enter them, and then the mermaid simply… disappeared."
"Couldn't 'e 'ave jus' teleported them?" Bunny asked, hoping he was right.
"Remember, mermaids aren't like you and me, they don't have to keep up on a job for people to believe in them, so if their music is silent…" Tooth trailed off, looking pleadingly at Jack and Sandy, begging them to tell her that what she was thinking was wrong. Jack and Sandy shook their heads sadly, and Tooth clapped her hands over her mouth, tears filling her eyes.
"So Dracula… killed… the Mermaids…" North summed up slowly.
"I didn't think legends could die… I thought they would just fade…"
"So… what're we gonna do?" Bunny asked.
"That's just the problem," Jack answered, a look of frustration covering his pale face, "we can't do anything. Dracula and Pitch could be anywhere by now, doing anything, and there's no way we can follow them! For all we know, they could have come and gone from all the legends by now!" The air turned icy cold and a short blast of winter wind blew around Jack.
"Jack, Jack just calm down." Tooth suggested in a small voice and Jack took a deep breath, getting his emotions – and the storm around him – under control.
"Sorry…"
Bunny shook some snow out of his fur and sighed. "I can' believe I'm sayin' this bu'… this seems pretty 'opeless."
You said this wasn't the first time Dracula's attacked, how was he stopped before?" The other Guardians shrugged, not knowing the answer to that. Jack sighed, all out of ideas.
"There might be a way to find out though…" Tooth began hesitantly. "The Tree Sprites are ancient; older than any of us. They guard the history of the world, from the very beginning."
The others brightened slightly. "How you know this, Tooth?" North asked and a small smile crossed Tooth's face.
"I used to play with them in Punjam Hy Loo."
"How do we find them?"
Tooth frowned in thought. "It's been getting harder to find them – what's more, getting them to talk to you – since the humans started clear cutting forests; but our best chance would probably be the Amazonian Rainforest."
Jack started a little. "The Amazon? Wouldn't we be able to find some in the Northern Forests?"
"Maybe, but the Tropical Sprites are more talkative." Tooth responded, shrugging.
Sandy frowned at how nervous Jack was acting as the others discussed the trip to the rainforest.
"Uh, guys?" Sandy looked at Jack but the others didn't hear his soft voice; Jack was biting his lip anxiously. "Guys?" Sandy looked for a way to get the other's attention but, unfortunately, there was no conveniently placed elf to use.
"Then we leave now. We will use a snowglobe." Jack opened his mouth to protest but never got a chance as Bunny playfully shoved him through the portal.
"Hey- wait!"
Sandy followed worriedly, Jack wasn't the type to get nervous for no reason.
^^^^ROTG^^^^
Deep in the Amazon, a dark haired teen looked up from his carving as a chill foreign to the area caught his attention. His golden eyes narrowed in anger and he stood from his lounging position. His tanned hands gripped his knife and the carving started burning. "Frost."
^^^^ROTG^^^^
Within moments everyone was standing together in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest. Jack had landed on his front from Bunny's playful push, but now he stood and looked on into the dense trees and plants with nervous glances while his knuckles turned whiter from clenching his staff.
"Kay, we're in the Amazon. Tooth, where do we find these Sprites?" Bunny asked.
"We don't find them anywhere." Tooth replied, "They will find us. We just have to let them know we want to see them."
"How-how long will this take?" Again only Sandy noticed the fear in Jack's voice and eyes.
Sand-smoke puffed from his ears at the blindness of the others. They were Guardians for Moon's sake! They should be able to pick up of\n the worries of one of their own. True, Sandy didn't know the source of Jack's anxiety, but he knew something was bothering the young Guardian.
They waited for nearly half an hour; Tooth, Bunny, and North passed the time the way they usually do… arguing and working. Sandy was keeping a close eye on Jack, who was lying up against a tree; his eyes half closed and knuckles white around his staff.
Sandy had just started dozing when two Tree Sprites appeared; one was a man the other female, but they both had similar characteristics; green hair and woodlike skin.
"I am Awarra," the woman spoke, and then gestured to the man beside her. "This is Tanha-do."
"We know why you're here, and we have come to answer what we can."
Jack pulled himself to his feet and leaned heavily on his staff. "So you can help us?"
The Sprites nodded and Awarra studied Jack for a moment. "Brave boy." She then remarked, causing Sandy to worry; she seemed to be referring to Jack's nervousness – and the cause of it.
"What can you tell us about Dracula?" Tooth asked and all attention turned to the Sprites.
"Dracula was one of the creatures locked away during the Golden Age." Tanha-do began.
"He reigned primarily on this planet, but his pain was felt other places as well." Awarra picked up the tale, "For a long while he seemed undefeatable."
"So 'ow was 'e stopped? And what can ya tell us abou' the black energy 'e has?" Bunny asked.
The Sprites frowned. "That power is a new one. He did not have it the first time."
"So there isn't really anything you can tell us that will help." Jack sounded exhausted; he was relying almost completely on his staff and the breeze to hold him up. Bunny frowned at Jack's tone of voice but, to Sandy's annoyance, he shrugged it off.
"Not necessarily…" Awarra started, re-catching everyone's attention. "Last time, at the peak of Dracula's power, the most powerful legend in the world intervened."
Jack looked up and Sandy noted worriedly how cloudy his normally crystalline eyes were. "Who?"
Awarra's expression grew concerned as she took in Jack's appearance. "He doesn't have much time." Sandy thought he heard her mutter as Tanha-do answered Jack's question.
"The Great Solair. Lord of the Solar System. The Sun." The Guardians gasped. Solair was a legend, even among legends; he interacted with them even less than MiM did.
"'ow does this 'elp us?" Bunny wondered aloud and Tooth quickly shushed him.
"We Tree Sprites are the guardian's of history, but sometimes we can see the future—which is just history that hasn't been written yet."
"You can tell us how to defeat Dracula?" North asked but the Sprites shook their heads.
"But we can tell you that the five of you will not succeed-"
"WHAT?! You sayin' this is 'opeless?"
Awarra stared coolly at Bunny. "You did not let me finish. I said the FIVE of you would not succeed. I did not say you would fail."
The big four looked at each other in confusion but Jack looked up and spoke in a hoarse whisper. "We need the other legends…"
Tanha-do nodded. "Exactly."
"Dracula has only gotten the mermaids at this point but you must hurry to gather as many others as possible. We must go now, good luck, Guardians." Awarra and Tanha-do vanished without there a trace of them being there.
"At least we have a place to start now…" Tooth commented.
"Yeah, which legends do ya reckon we should look fa first?"
Jack didn't seem to be paying any attention to the others and sandy began to panic; Jack looked awful, like he was barely conscious. Sandy fought for the others' attention but what ended up getting their attention wasn't Sandy. Jack lost his grip on his staff as he passed out. He landed in a heap on the forest floor, oblivious to the Guardian's calling his name.
Poor Jack... why must I be one of the many that loves to see Jack in some sort of trouble? I wonder what's wrong with him...
A note about the Tree Sprite's names... Awarra is an actual tree in the Amazon and Tanha-do is a variation of castanhas-do-Pará the Brazilian term for the Brazil Nut Tree.
~~Wavelength