Alaia Skyhawk: Well, I guess I'll tell you the book and vid now hehe. The book was from the Vampire Hunter D series, and the video was "Jack Frost's Science Project". And now, moving on to an announcement.

Having reached the point in this story, that I needed to reach to avoid spoilers, I've posted the first chapter of a new ROTG story, "Dreamer and Shadows". As the title suggests, it's based a great deal around Sandy, starting at the very day he was born during the height of the Golden Age. I'll continue all the way through to the end of the Golden Age, which means you guys will get to see my version of how Sandy, Bunny, and Kosmotis all know each other from back then, and also of the events that led to the Golden Age's fall :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians, the Guardians of Childhood, or any related characters etc. This story is written purely for entertainment purposes.

~(-)~

Chapter 72: Benevolent Shadow

Gazing out of the window of his cottage, as he had done every day since 'waking up' from the nightmare of his enslavement, Kosmotis let out the smallest of sighs. He could see his daughter walking across the lush field of grass beyond the edge of the cottage's garden, wild-flowers sprouting in her wake as if a reflection of the smile she wore. It was now two days since the Guardians' annual meeting, a week since he'd been freed, and today she intended to go out into the world to check on and re-familiarise herself with the current weather patterns and Balance of Nature.

Her brief 'holiday' of sorts was over, and now was time for her to resume her work.

Kosmotis watched her for a few moments more, then turned away from the window. She'd urged him to continue resting for a while, a few weeks at least, and he'd implied through silence that he would do that. But in truth his conscience wouldn't let him wait. His heart was urging him to go do that which he'd now agreed to do. And so, with a final glance to confirm she was now beyond sight, he stepped into the shadow behind one of the cottage doors and disappeared.

Caught in the realm of perpetual twilight, the place where all shadows were one and which was the road by which Fearlings travelled, Kosmotis gave only a passing hesitant glance at the handful of them that waited beyond that threshold for him like a pack of starving vultures.

He'd not mentioned this to his daughter, or to Jack. No, he heeded the Spirit of Winter's lesson, about how fear only had power over you if you allowed it. And so when the Fearlings lunged at Kosmotis, they were repelled by his stern projection of their insignificance. If only he had known back then, when he'd guarded their prison, how truly simple it was to keep them at bay. If only they had all known.

Kosmotis turned aside from those thoughts, refusing to dwell on them, and stepped out of that realm of eternal dusk to emerge once more into the light. He'd stepped out from the shadow of a school-bus, to regard the place of education to which it belonged. Unnatural Fear existed in adults, but it was children to whom the Fearlings were drawn. The best way to locate and remove that kind of fear from children en-mass was to go to places they gathers.

Schools were ideal, and this one radiated an aura of varied kinds of Unnatural Fear. Everything from being afraid the homework about to be handed in wasn't good enough, fear of being picked on again by the school bullies, and even the fear the bullies hid behind their actions and which fuelled them.

Stepping through the shadows again, this time to enter the school, Kosmotis walked past each and every classroom. Gathering up and snuffing out every dreg of Unnatural Fear he could sense. The children would hand over their homework with confidence, the bullied children would cease to be afraid of their tormentors, and the bullies would suddenly find themselves lacking the motivation to cause trouble anymore. Why act tough by making someone else miserable, when you felt you had nothing to prove?

Kosmotis smiled to himself in satisfaction, slipping into the shadow behind a row of lockers and emerging from behind another set several miles away. Town-by-town, county-by-county, nation-by-nation he would visit every school during daylight hours. He would persist, no matter the time it took to go to each and every one of the millions of schools on this world, and once that was done he would chose another type of place that people and Unnatural Fear tended to gather.

The people would still know fear, but only the kind that was intended within nature. He would not coddle them the way the Constellation Families had unwisely coddled the people and worlds under their care. That lesson had been learnt, painfully.

From school-to-school he went, following the mid-morning mid-week hour westwards around the globe. Staying at the same latitude, going to as many places in a region that he could before time's march forced him to move onwards. It would take many many circuits to finish that band around the world, and several bands before he'd covered all the settled lands in the North of the World. The South of the World would be easier, it was less densely settled, but even so there was at least two years of work ahead of him for the schools alone. Large, small, and even tiny; in total they numbered over eleven million.

A sobering thought, when he considered that each of the Guardians could tend to all of the world's children in any single span of twenty-four hours. And that in fact two of them did so on a daily basis, and a third daily distributed the power that protected all adults and children against being Touched by Fearlings.

Kosmotis paused in his work, caught by those thoughts upon reaching the coast of Northern America for the start of his second circuit. A sudden need to ask for advice, to seek reassurance, almost overcoming him. Yet despite knowing that Jack, Bunny, or Sandy would all be more than happy to give that advice, and that so would Tooth and North after a little hesitation, Kosmotis clamped down on the urge and resolutely continued on his way.

He passed through roughly nine-hundred more schools before an odd 'void' in the ambient Unnatural Fear caught his attention. It being so unusual compared to everywhere else that was settled, that he traversed the shadows to reach it out of curiosity.

When he arrived, and discovered the name of the town, his surprise then immediately faded. It was Burgess, Jack's original 'home territory' from before his Range of Belief expanded to worldwide. There were only a handful of kids in the place who had phobias to cure, but other than that the place was brimming with youthful confidence. And for that reason Kosmotis found himself lingering to fix those things, and even go so far as to seek out any Unnatural Fear in the local adults.

Burgess was what the rest of the world would be, once the 'backlog' of fear was dealt with and all that was left was to travel around maintaining things. For that reason he stayed and watched, imprinting the image into his mind. A memory to serve as a reminder of what he wished to achieve.

Kosmotis wandered the town, the hours drifting towards dusk. Flitting between shadows, standing in places he could watch the children play once school was done, or observe their parents contentedly going about their errands. And then he wandered through the woods of Jackswood Park, arriving on the shore of Jack's pond. It was there, skipping rocks across it, that he spotted an oddly family boy who was on the cusp of becoming a teenager.

Jamie Bennett.

Kosmotis twitched, the name rising unbidden in his memory. This boy had previously made a big enough impact on 'Pitch' to imprint his identity into memories of that madman's host. 'Pitch' had known this boy well, or at least well enough for a vague image to surface of an eight-year-old Jamie glaring at him.

Kosmotis frowned, snatching with his mind at the image before it could slip away. Turning his attention on it until it unfolded into a night-time scene of the boy stood defiantly with Jack, while the heavily weakened trio of North, Tooth, and Bunny did their best to remain upright behind them. A child who had faced down the Nightmare King.

The Steward sighed, letting go of the memory and cautiously walking around the pond's edge until he was just a few steps away from the youth. That was when Jamie paused, seeming to look out of the corner of his eye, before pointedly looking off to the side of the visitor he'd seen yet hadn't seen.

"I know someone's there. You better not be one of those Spring Legends, come to be annoying because of the late snowfall Jack handled in France two months ago. Sheesh, you'd think by now that you'd all know he's just doing his job. Get lost, before I go find and ask a Spring Sprite to tell Mother Nature."

Kosmotis' eyes widened in surprise at the bluntness of the boy's ultimatum. Clearly this youth was used to dealing with Immortals, and also knew exactly who was in charge of what. Impressed, he reached down to pick up a stick. He then used it to write something into the soil at the edge of the pond.

'I'm not a Spring Legend. I just stopped by area for a rest.'

Jamie, having seen the stick rise, relaxed from his annoyed stance upon reading the message.

"Ah, sorry. It's just you would have been the third one in the past two weeks, to hang around here on the off-chance of finding Jack. The first two thought no-one here could see them, which is true, but I knew they were there. Ombric taught me this trick, where if you close your eyes and use your other senses, you can touch an immortal even if you can't see or hear them... I clouted both of them over the head. One with my school-bag, and the other with a branch. And warned them same as I warned you. I didn't feel either of them about after that."

The name 'Ombric' brought another vague image up from the depths of Kosmotis' memories, of a eccentric-looking wizard and the face of a girl who had been around the age that Jamie was now. Two more people who had defied and defeated Pitch in battle.

Kosmotis chuckled to himself, pleased to be able to recall such brave individuals, and erased his first message before writing a new one.

'I've met Jack. He helped me not too long ago. How do you know him?'

Jamie started to grin.

"He's my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-gr eat-great-great-great-great-great-great-great uncle." He laughed, pointing at himself with his thumb. "And I'm gonna be a great wizard someday! Ombric said I can apprentice to him full-time once I graduate from high-school." The boy stepped close. "Say, what's your name? If you tell me your name, I should be able to see you if I try hard enough."

The immortal beside him hesitated, aware that the boy would recognise his face from his fight against Pitch. The spark of Unnatural Fear that it caused within him, was then enough to jolt him into taking a deep breath. He couldn't hide from possible rejection, and this would just be the first such confrontation of many.

Again the message in the dirt was wiped clear, and then replaced with two words.

'Kosmotis Pitchiner.'

The reaction from Jamie was instant, as he leapt back in surprise and dropped into a battle-stance. One hand raised ready to strike with any one of the latest spells that Ombric had taught. But no fear radiated from him, instead there was a focused caution and a hint of curiosity. The youth closing his eyes as though searching for something until they snapped open again and he looked directly at the one he'd been looking for.

Kosmotis tensed, having felt the perception of the young wizard locate him, but did not move as the boy then frowned.

"You're not the Nightmare King, I can tell... Are you really the guy who the Fearlings possessed? If so, when did you get free?"

Kosmotis still didn't move, his answer tentative.

"I am who you think I am. As for how I was freed, it was my daughter and Jack who did it. I've just started my new job, working for her. I remove the Unnatural Fear in people, that otherwise the Fearlings would gain ambient strength from."

Jamie had now relaxed, and actually looked slightly amused.

"So you're saying that you're now the opposite of the 'Boogeyman'? Instead of scaring people, you stop them from being scared."

Kosmotis dropped the stick, which he'd been holding almost defensively, and shook his head wryly.

"I don't stop them from being scared. In fact it's part of my job to make sure things that should scare them do so at least a little. So that individuals such as young children don't get themselves hurt by climbing too high up a tree that has weak branches, or dash up to a growling dog to try and pet it. I just prevent them being scared of things they shouldn't work themselves up over, such as being sick from panic because they don't think their homework is good enough, or because a tiny harmless spider is sitting in their bathtub."

Jamie strolled over, looking up at him. His height barely came up to the immortal's shoulder.

"That's actually pretty cool. I hear stories about stuff like that all the time, and I can't help but think how silly it is. Though I know it doesn't seem silly to the people who are scared like that. It's great that there's an immortal now who can help them."

Kosmotis smiled.

"Thank you for thinking that. And now, I really should get back to doing my job. It's been a pleasure to meet you."

Jamie gave him a jaunty salute in farewell.

"Same goes. If you're ever near Santoff Claussen during the middle two weeks of Summer Break, come visit me and my sister Sophie there. I know Ombric will want to meet you as well, and Katherine will too. She's said for the longest time, that she believed you were still there inside Pitch Black.'

Kosmotis nodded, still smiling.

"I think I'd like to meet her too. I'll see if I can spare a day or two during Northern Summer. Again, thank you for speaking with me, Jamie Bennett."

Jamie watched as his unexpected visitor vanished into the shadow beneath one of the nearby rocks, a suddenly wicked grin lighting up his expression.

"So... Uncle Jack helped get rid of the Nightmare King forever, and never told me? This calls for a payback prank."

Chuckling to himself, the boy turned and ran up the hill towards his house. Jack would be visiting Santoff Claussen during summer too, and in that village the possibilities for setting up pranks were endless.

~(-)~

Alaia Skyhawk: One more chapter in this arc, and it'll be on to the next one. And don't forget to check out Dreamer and Shadows! Baby!Sandy is cute :D