"I should have known you brought this Sheila here, Jack!"
"Hey! Cool it, Cottontail! Heh, see what I did there?"
"Jokes aside. Lea is here now and there is no going back."
"What do you mean?! We got to get rid of her!"
Lea woke up from the sound of loud voices and slowly got up halfway, rubbing the sleepiness from her eyes before stretching and yawning. It was like she was hit in the head by a sandbag or something heavy that made her go out like a light.
She seemed to be in a symmetrical room near a thirty-foot-tall stone fireplace that had two swords crossed together on top with three lite candles on both sides. Above it was a large red tapestry that seemed to be a mural telling a tale about the Guardian of Wonder arriving at the North Pole, defeating monsters, and befriending yetis.
Another thing Lea noticed was that her backpack was off her back and laid on the floor where her head was. She only guessed that someone must have placed her bag under her head as a pillow for her to sleep until Lea woke up.
Wha…What happened? What's going on? She thought in her mind, still shaking off the sleepy effect that's lingering inside her tired body.
Once adjusting her vision, Lea turned around from the fireplace and saw all the Guardians at once!
North, Bunny, and Jack-whom was crouching on top of his staff at the very hooked tip-appeared to be on a deep argument about bringing a human teen in the Workshop with the rest just standing at the sidelines, not wanting to be involved.
She was able to see two of the other Guardians not engaged in the argument Lea has not seen yet. And they were obvious to her on who they were: The Tooth Fairy and Sandman.
If Lea could describe the Tooth Fairy's appearance in one word, it would be exquisite.
The Tooth Fairy was a part human, part hummingbird hybrid. She was like her fairies-whom were many small versions around her-but more human. She had tan skin, magenta eyes, and peach colored lips. Instead of hair, she had green, blue, and dark purple feathers that make a curved upward style with a long gold feather on the top center–giving the illusion of a royal crown. Instead of clothes, her entire body seemed to be covered in mini feathers from light to dark colors top to bottom. Her neck was gold, both arms and torso region were greenish-teal, her legs were dark blue, and her feet and wrists were a lighter blue color. Around her wrists and ankles were thin golden colored feathers that resemble the appearance of bracelets and anklets, as well as gold circular feathers on both sides of her head to look like earrings. She also appeared to have a long, blue and purple tail-feathers that start at her waist line and end at her knees that resembled a long dress. The drapery feathers on Tooth reminded Lea of a peacock. Her wings were large, translucent, and flapped fast enough to show blurs of green, blue, pink, orange and purple.
The first thing that came to Lea's attention was the constant buzzing and tweeting coming from not just the actual Tooth Fairy but also her mini-fairies. A group miniature hummingbird-like people were talking-or chirping-to the Tooth Fairy on where to go before leaving and having more show up in front of her. They were moving so fast, that Lea could barely see them as outlines of blue-green blurs. She was able to make out a few noticeable features when a few them stopped to chat. Each of them had a round face, long hummingbird beak-like noses, and clear wings that resemble a combination of a dragonfly's and butterfly's.
Finally, there was the Sandman. He was no taller than three feet in height, plump, and short. His eyes were as pure gold as his five shiny spikes of hair. It reminded Lea of the sun. His smooth skin appeared to be a lighter color than the rest of his wardrobe while little orange nose was round. He wore a one-piece robe made completely out of golden sand that belonged in an enchanted beach and was tucking in extra cloth-like sand neatly under his color to look like a thick ascot tie.
"Uh...Hi?" Lea shyly said, letting out a small wave.
Once getting their attention, everyone stopped talking and looked at the blonde teen.
"Ah, Lea. Glad to see you're finally awake after small misunderstanding," North replied, walking over and gently helping her up with his strong right hand. "How do you feel?"
"Um, other than that unexpected powernap, I'd say I'm okay," Lea answered, a bit lost on what just happened while grabbing plus slipping on her backpack once more. Just then, she felt plus smelled her breath like it doesn't have any scent or taste of hot chocolate that she recently drank. "Why does my mouth taste like mint when I clearly didn't have any?"
"That would be me and the girls!" Tooth chirped with excitement, already flying very fast plus close to Lea with her fairies doing the same. "After Sandy knocked you out with his dreamsand and brought you in the Globe Room with Bunny and Jack when hearing all the commotion, we noticed that you finished drinking some chocolate and, since we weren't sure how long you would be asleep, we helped brush, floss, and clean those beautiful permanent teeth of yours!"
The Tooth Fairy's magenta eyes were defined in dark pink eyeshadow. Her eyelashes were long, clear, and each end had a circle. But what mesmerized Lea the most was her eyes. It was like staring at a pair of magenta pink diamond kaleidoscopes with shine effect that give a small illusion of her black pupils being rhombus shaped instead of round.
Lea just blinked, trying to process that very fast explanation from the happy energetic Hummingbird Lady. The Sandman knocked her out and then got her mouth cleaned by the Tooth Fairy while she was asleep? This had to be another one of her crazy first meets with the Guardians ever.
Jack couldn't help but chuckle, making a jump off his staff and-while grabbing his weapon-landed on the edge of the stoned fireplace to sit plus chill. "You're lucky that I came around the corner and stopped Bunny in time from taking you back home before knowing the rest of us," Jack spoke up to Lea, lightly swinging his legs back and forth, "Otherwise, I would have spent the whole night turning and freezing this place upside down looking for you."
"Uh, thank you?" Lea replied in both confusement and gratefulness, hoping that Jack was kidding about freezing North's place and turning it upside down.
"Also, it is very nice to meet you, Lea! You look so cute! And your teeth are absolutely amazing, too!" Tooth exclaimed, already placing her hands on Lea's cheeks before sticking her fingers in the young teen's mouth to study it again. "You know, I feel like I have seen and heard of you before, but I'm not sure where," she said, thoughtfully.
Although caught surprised, not to mention a little weirded out, Lea remained calm and let the Tooth Fairy do whatever until she was done.
"Tooth! Fingers out of mouth," North gently scolded, giving her a warning of personal space for the blonde teen.
"Oh! Right!" Tooth said, already letting go and flying back to the others with her fairies following, "Sorry, sweetie! You and your teeth are still pretty!" she lightly whispered that last part with glee.
Lea chuckled a bit, rubbing her cheeks from the teeth prowling experience. Just then, she saw the Sandman floating close and checking on her head by placing a small gentle hand on her forehead with a look of concern from above.
"I'm not hurt or anything. Besides, I've taken worse falls than that back home," Lea assured, slowly understanding that he's wondering if she hurt herself from that small 'greet' involving Bunny.
When it comes to spending nearly an entire childhood talking to a wooden toy as her best friend with the help of her imagination, Lea happened to become very good at understanding nonverbal communication.
Sandy gave a sigh of relief and lowered down to Lea's eyelevel before offering his right hand to her, using his left hand to create a sand-like top hat to tip off in a friendly manner.
Lea couldn't help but smile with a tiny laugh and shook the Sandman's hand gratefully. It was soft, warm, and light, like the sand from the beach. She even studied up close how his golden eyes resembled a pair of sun stars underneath his black pupils.
"It's nice to meet you, too, Mister Sandman," Lea politely said, smiling.
She heard North chuckle. "Please, Lea. Call him Sandy. There's no need to be formal when being around friends," he gently said.
Lea looked at Sandy, seeing him nodding his head on North's statement.
"Sandy. Good to know," Lea grinned.
After doing that, she spotted the Easter Bunny leaning on his right side near one of the large wooden pillars located in the room, folding his arms and legs, acting like he doesn't care. He didn't even look at Lea, making her believe that she made him upset about that hot chocolate incident.
"Um, excuse me? Bunny, is it?" Lea politely started, walking closer to the Guardian of Hope. "If you're still mad about me accidently spilling hot chocolate all over you earlier, I wanted to say I'm sorry and let you know that I didn't mean to hurt you. I got excited when leaving the kitchen from seeing the food being prepped perfectly for your arrival here and wasn't looking where I was going."
Bunny just huffed in frustration, still not looking at Lea. This caused the blonde teen to frown.
"Was it something I said or did wrong?" Lea questioned.
"Nah. Mister Grumpy Pants here is just having a hard time accepting that grown-ups can see us," Jack answered, already flipping down from the fireplace with ease and putting his staff away back in his holster, after giving it a small spin.
Bunny finally turned his head, giving a cold glare at the Guardian of Fun. "Because they shouldn't, Jack! This is all too fishy. She's far too old to believe in us. Only children believe and see us."
"Yeah? Then how come Lea is living proof that young adults like her still believe in me and everyone? Huh?" Jack argued, defending Lea by getting in front of her to confront Bunny. "She deserves to know us better."
"No, she doesn't! If anything, we should make her forget and take her home,"
Lea gulped, lowering herself down behind Jack from being seen by the Guardian of Hope.
"Bunny!" Tooth reprimanded, shocked as the others on what he suggested. "How could you say that?!"
Sandy gave a look that said 'Yeah, not cool' while crossing his arms.
"I understand your concern, Bunny, but Lea is technically still a child," North reasoned, trying to prevent this argument from getting worse. "Jack brought her here to meet all of us and that is exactly what she is going to do."
"See? At least North, Tooth, and Sandy understand and agree with me," Jack remarked, folding his arms while giving a confident smirk.
"Why does no one ever bloody listen to me?! There are reasons why people shouldn't completely know us!" Bunny nearly shouted, causing Lea to jump and whimper a bit. "We can't just bring a stranger from out of the blue to our homes. For all we know, she might be a spy working for Pitch."
Lea looked confused a bit on that last part. "Um, I don't know who Pitch is, but I can assure you that I'm no spy," she spoke up, remaining in her position behind Jack.
"You heard her. Lea doesn't work for the Boogie Man," Jack commented, making his point. "Besides, if Pitch was involved, the Man in the Moon would have told us or North would have detected any fear activity from the globe."
Lea stayed quiet, staggered to know that Bunny would think that she would work with the Nightmare King, the Guardians' archnemesis. Of course, she was aware the Guardian of Hope was just worrying about the safety of his team from something unfamiliar. And Lea has experienced this feeling the whole night when meeting the Guardians in person.
This is all stressing me out. I need Nightlight to help calm me down, Lea thought, trying to reach for her companion from her backpack.
Suddenly, after not feeling him, Lea looked in her bag to realize that Nightlight was nowhere inside!
No, no, no, no! Where's Nightlight?! I can't go home without him! Her eyes became wide in worry. She lost the one little friend from her childhood in North's gigantic Russian Palace!
With the young teen girl was trying to rethink where she last saw Nightlight, Jack and Bunny's argument grew worse.
"Jack, you're still new to this! She could be lying!" Bunny shouted angrily.
"Oh, please! Lea is too shy to even lie," Jack argued back, not leaving his gaze at Bunny. "She's klutzy, but nice. Also, remind me again who knows kids better for three hundred years from up close experience? Oh, that's right. Me!"
Seeing that Jack was busy, Lea moved away from the conflict quietly while trying to get Sandy's attention by waving his hand to him. "Psssst! Sandy!" she quietly shout-whispered.
Once hearing her, Sandy turned his head and went to check what Lea wants.
"I need your help. Have you seen a wooden boy that's this big, light blue, has a plastic spear on his back, and can glow in the dark?" Lea asked quietly, using her hands to describe the measurement of how big Nightlight was.
Sandy thought hard on the description, showing a sand-like hourglass moving around over his head to show he was thinking. Then, his sand image changed into a lightbulb, indicating that Sandy remembered where he saw Nightlight and nodded his head.
"You have?! Where!? I need him back! Please, tell me!" Lea begged, looking concerned.
Sandy pointed over at the control table that's near the giant globe, using his left hand and a sand-shaped arrow.
Looking over, Lea could see Nightlight just sitting on the table where she last left him when talking to Jack.
"Oh, thank goodness," Lea sighed in relief, knowing that her wooden companion was safe. "Thanks for your help, Sandy."
Sandy gave Lea smile, as if saying, 'No problem. Happy to help.'.
"You're also gullible. Remember how Pitch got to you?!" Bunny yelled back, growling.
"He set me up! Pitch even tried to convince me to join him, but I said no!" Jack snapped back, glaring hard.
"Yeah, after risking everything!" Bunny shouted.
"Oh, will you just let it go, Kangaroo?! We stopped and defeated Pitch Black in the end! Time to move on!" Jack shouted, nearly close to grabbing his staff.
"Don't. Call. Me. KANGAROO!" Bunny yelled, leaping at him.
Jack jumped away in time, doing a tuck and roll while grabbing his staff out.
"Too slow, Cottontail!" Jack laughed.
"Not too close yet!" Bunny yelled.
Seeing that things were about to get ugly, Lea discreetly tried moving towards Nightlight to grab him.
"Let's face it, Bunny, I'm just one step ahead of you," Jack replied confidently, smirking as he waited for Bunny to come so he could use his staff to create ice frosts on the floor to make the Guardian of Hope trip.
"I'll show you step ahead," Bunny grumbled, before launching himself again, only to slip on the floor thanks to Jack. "AAAHH!"
Jack continued laughing, as he flew up, only to see Lea was going where Bunny was about to crash into her.
"Lea! Look out!" the Winter Spirit quickly shouted.
Hearing him, Lea yelped before moving away from the table.
"AAAHHHH, CRIKEY!" Bunny continued screaming and slipping until he ran out of ice and tripped plus crashed on top of the table that was full of stacks of paper around.
Turns out, that crash also managed to send Nightlight flying off into a mound of toys. If things weren't worse, the tower of toys collapsed.
"Nightlight!" Lea screamed, running over to the toys and trying to dig out her wooden companion.
"Oh, now see what you did!" Bunny yelled at Jack, after picking himself up from that crash.
"What I did?! You're the one who started it!" Jack argued, flying down and getting close to Bunny while putting his staff away. "Next time, look before you jump, Kangaroo!"
"Guys! Stop!" Tooth exclaimed, already getting between Bunny and Jack. "Can't you see that Lea needs help?"
Bunny stopped and looked at the girl, finding her fitfully and looking through the pile of toys. "What's with her?"
Just then, Lea gasped in shock! Her hands on her cheeks before slowly covering her mouth.
"Lea, what's wrong?" Jack asked, starting to worry.
"No...No..." she muttered, not believing what she found while on her knees.
Bunny came over to see a very damaged wooden doll in front of her. "Oh, dear,"
The other Guardians slowly came around Lea, utterly speechless to see Nightlight cracked into pieces.
The wooden toy's middle torso had a hole in the center. His arms and legs were broken and scattered all over the floor. But worst of all, Nightlight's face was cracked in half.
It was clear that the weight of the toys was heavy enough to break a fragile toy, like Nightlight.
Lea's eyes were close to breaking into tears. She didn't know what to do.
"He's gone..." she quietly muttered to herself.
"Lea...I don't...I don't know what to say...I...I…" Bunny stammered, as he tried to find the words.
Not looking up, Lea immediately stood up and just ran away from the scene.
"Lea! Wait! Come back!" Jack shouted, trying to stop her but was already gone.
The Guardian of Fun hadn't felt this bad since his somewhat betrayal with the Guardians in ruining Easter.
"...What have I done?" he questioned himself, completely hurt.
Bunny looked at the toy, hurt and sadness filling him. It was the worse feeling. Even more than when he, for a moment, wasn't believed in.
"I'm...as guilty as you, mate," Bunny said, sadly.
Jack sighed. "We're both to blame. All Lea ever wanted was to meet us and thank us for being the Guardians. But now, it looks like we hurt her feelings," he looked down at the toy in dismay. "I just wish I knew more on why Lea carries a wooden toy with her."
Sandy looked at North, bringing out sand images on asking whether this was one of his designed toys.
"I can assure you, Sandy, this toy is not one of mine," North answered.
Just then, Tooth and her fairies looked at the broken toy closer. The fairies began chirping and let out a sharp squeak that made Tooth gasp!
"Of course! That's why she looked so familiar!" Tooth exclaimed, slapping a hand on her forehead.
"What you going on about, Tooth?" Bunny asked.
"Lea Carolina Thompson! I once tried to help her remember her childhood memories when she lost her grandparents, five years go," Tooth explained.
"Wait, Lea lost her grandparents!?" Jack exclaimed in utter shock.
"Yeah! Lea always loved and see them every Winter Break. She was lonely when none of the kids at her school wanted to play with her, as a child. So, her grandparents made her a special handmade toy on her birthday so she would never feel alone again,"
"...They made Nightlight," Jack Frost replied, starting to understand.
Tooth nodded her head, only to look sad. "But her happy spirit was a bit broken, after her grandparents passed away. So much, that she and her parents never went back to see her aunt and cousins at their hometown during the holidays ever again."
Jack stared in disbelief. He began to realize why Lea was so upset. Nightlight was more than just a wooden toy to Lea. He was a friend created by Lea's grandparents. And Jack accidently destroyed Nightlight because of a pity arguement.
"Oh, man, we got to find her!"
"Come on, mate! You and I'll look for her. The rest of you, get that doll patched up and looking brand new," Bunny directed, before racing off on his paws.
"Right behind you, Cottontail!" Jack hollered, taking out his staff and hurrying up to catch up.
"Good luck, you two," North said, already picking up the pieces with the mini-fairies helping out.
Jack and Bunny searched opposite directions to cover more ground. They checked around North gigantic workshop top to bottom, asked different yetis, even the elves, but had no luck. The two Guardians kept searching until they stopped at the bottom floor and met together in defeat.
"Please tell me you had better luck than me," Jack asked.
"No such luck. She's nowhere inside North's Workshop," Bunny replied, shaking his head. Just then, he had a sneaky feeling. "...You don't think she went out on the tundra, do ya?"
"Of course not. Lea wouldn't be that depressed and upset to-" Jack started, only to stop and think about that scenario with his eyes wide. Hurrying to the door where he and Lea first came in, Jack noticed some foot prints on the snow that were recently made and continued moving deeper into the cold regions.
"Oh, no..." Jack muttered, fearing the worse for Lea.