Chapter 18

Three days before Christmas, during the night, the streets of Burgess was well-lit by Christmas lights and other decorations. People were bustling around as they shopped or wandered around for the holiday season.

However, many hours later, as the moon rose higher and higher in the night sky, the people slowly returned to their homes, emptying the streets.

Children, during this hour, were preparing for a good night sleep. Some were already tucked in to their beds, snoring loudly.

The wind howls like a wolf, looking for its lost mate. No one should be standing on the middle of the road, or walking on the side walk.

"This town…never grew." A shadow stood in the middle of an alley beside a large brick building. It came out and walked to the middle of the road.

Pitch Black snorted, irritated at the large Christmas decorated lantern blinking above him.

"Turn off…!" A large horse, the Boogeyman's Nightmare, suddenly morphed from the black sand that came out from his hand, shot up and speared the lantern. The lantern fell with a loud crash on the road.

Pitch smiled, satisfied.

"But that's not enough, am I right?" he laughed sinisterly as he took out five small vials form his pocket. And without a second thought, the Boogeyman threw them to the ground.

The glass vials shattered, and the contents, which were a green colored liquid, slowly morphed and grew to a gigantic size.

"This…bullfrog…" Tooth, whose eyes locked on the bullfrog with three eyes, attempted to touch the animal.

"I feel hypnotize…" she added before Sandy stopped her hand from touching the thing, moving her away from the frog.

North chuckled lightly, but suddenly stopped when he heard a sound coming from his coat pocket. He silently walk away from the two and took out a snow globe.

Bunny, having stopped hopping after the wolf cubs went away, stood beside Jack who was talking to Eren.

"Goliath sounds fun for your name-"

"Do you want me to eat you?"

"Aw c'mon Chayim, Atlas sounds boring!" Chayim gritted his teeth as the winter sprite teased him.

"I am really glad that you decided to come out from your home my dear Anya." Anya, who was standing beside the doorway of the large tree away from the others, looked down and saw her friend The Lorax.

"Sir Lorax, I am really grateful that I came out from my palace." She formed a heartwarming smile.

"I finally conquered my fears of the dangers of the outside world." She added and looked at Chayim, who was ranting at Jack.

"Anya, my dear," Anya looked down at the Lorax, "I'm so proud for your courage." He opened both of his little arms, inviting Anya to hug him.

Anya smiled and bent down to hug her dear friend.

"Thank you so much for rescuing me that time…I thought I was all alone, but then you appeared." Anya said happily to the Lorax, whose eyes were about to burst into tears.

"It's all right, you're welcome." The Lorax said. The girl wanted to say more, however their conversation was cut when North called Bunny.

"Bunny, something happened!" North ran to the group and stopped.

"What is it mate?" Bunny asked, concerned.

"This!" he showed the snow globe that he took out earlier.

The Guardians grouped together and moved closer to the globe.

"That is-?"

"A monitoring surveillance snow globe, we planted it to many towns and cities so we can see our enemies clearly…" Tooth answered Chayim.

"And right now it is showing Burgess…"

"There's giants!" Jack said as a giant appeared walking across the road on the snow globe.

"Pitch is attacking my town! We have to do something North." Jack added and gritted his teeth.

"Right, so what's the plan North?" Bunny asked as the old Guardian stroked his beard with his right hand.

"We'll go right now, let's go!" North and some of the others ran towards the sleigh.

"I'm going now Sir," Anya kissed the right cheek of the Lorax, who immediately blushed.

"Let's go Chayim,"

"Yeah…!" Anya and Chayim ran, leaving the awe struck Guardian of the forest.

The Lorax smiled as North's sleigh slid down on the water and flew towards the early morning sky.

"You finally left the nest Anya…" The Lorax said as he turned around and walked towards the door of his large tree.

North's sleigh came out from the magic portal. Below them was the town of Burgess, the winter sprite's hometown.

Jack looked down and saw Dream-Eaters stomping their large feet on the streets.

"North, what's the plan?!" Chayim asked as the sleigh suddenly descended.

"As usual Chayim. Improvise!" North then landed on a street and climbed out of the sleigh. The Guardians soon followed suit and looked around.

The gigantic Dream-Eaters walked slowly across the roads and some houses.

'I hope Jamie is alright…' Jack thought worriedly.

"Well let's get going!" Bunny pointed his boomerang to a Giant walking beside a house.

"Wait, we can't just do that!" Chayim protested then pointed at the roof of a house.

"First let's observe them, they don't seem to notice us…" he looked at the giant Dream-Eater sharply, then continued, "Which means they're not 'ordered' to attack us."

"And what do you mean by that?" Bunny said skeptically.

Chayim thought for a moment, then said. "They're here for something else…maybe they're gathered here for a meeting or-"

"In any case let's just observe them." North said excitedly. The Guardians looked at each other and agreed, and ran to a nearby house to observe the hordes of giant Dream-Eater.

A little boy was sleeping in the bed, inside his room. The room was poorly lit by a lamp on the child's desk. The walls were decorated by blue wallpaper and some posters, showing famous children's T.V. show.

On the child's head, swirling and emitting a friendly golden light, was golden sand, morphed and formed into a monkey which was moving and dancing around magically. It was his good dream.

However, since the child was sleeping he didn't notice that a large pair of amber eyes looked at him from the outside of his second story house.

A Dream-Eater stood outside a window, eyes locked on the golden dream that was playing above the child's head.

Chayim, together with Anya and Jack, watched the Dream-Eater from a roof of a house as it raised its right hand and opened it wide.

"What is it doing…?" Jack wondered and so was the girl.

Suddenly, a pair of tentacle-like appendages morphed on the index finger of the dream-eater. The tentacles moved like a snake towards the window, and slowly passed through the glass, entering the child's room.

"…what is that…?" Anya gulped after she saw the tentacles pass through the glass.

"I don't know…" Chayim stared at the hand intently. He was clueless.

The pair of black sand tentacle slithered across the floor of the sleeping child. The child was snoring loudly as his good dream played around his head. Suddenly, at the foot of his bed, the pair of tentacles peered in.

They slowly moved like a pair of snakes towards the boy.

The tentacles had reached the boy's head, where his good dream was playing. It looked at the dream first.

Suddenly, the tip of the tentacle opened, revealing sharp, hook-shaped rows of little teeth.

The tentacle darted its opened mouth to the boy after it groaned, then back to the dream. And without any second thought, the tentacle lunged itself to the golden sand.

The golden sand of the dream slowly turned into a dark sand. The monkey, who was playing and dancing innocently, turned and morphed into something sinister.

The boy suddenly groaned as the pair of tentacles, not glowing golden, but now sinister-like color, sucked at the dream out of the boy.

"Jack, you seeing this?"

"Yeah…" Jack answered Chayim, then continued, "It looks like it's sucking the dream out of that kid."

Chayim then grunted and stood. He took out his twin segmented blades.

"Chayim…?"

"Anya, stay here will you? Keep an eye out for anything, especially Pitch Black." Chayim said, and he smiled at the girl.

Anya looked at him then with disappointment said, "Okay…"

And before Jack could ask, Chayim suddenly pressed the trigger on the hilt of his blades. A pair of grappling hooks shot out and attached to the Giant Dream-Eater, then with a strong force and thrust, he launched himself towards the enemy.

Chapter is up! The war starts now! Special thanks to Sumi-Sprite