Guardians Rising

8: Lights

Lights swirled around Jack, making him dizzy. This reminded him of the first time he had used North's snow globe. The sick, woozy feeling that he got whenever he traveled through it came to him now. He tried to put his hand to his aching head, but then found that he was unable to move. He saw the moon shining before him, bigger than he had ever seen it before. Then he suddenly remembered what that little blue light had made him think of. The moon! Were they somehow connected? Was Manny trying to tell him something? Then the lights shifted again, and he found himself falling through emptiness. He was scared.

What seemed like hours later, he came to rest on mossy ground. White light shone on him, cold, and a small sound reached his ears. He sat up and opened his eyes. He blinked at what he saw. Hundreds of floating points of light, glowing like so many stars. He blinked again. They were lanterns. Flying lanterns! Where on earth was he?

He tried to fly up to see the place from above, but . . . he couldn't fly! Suddenly he thought, "Am I dead?" But he couldn't be! He was a guardian, he was immortal!

The sound of a boat crunching on pebbles broke into his thoughts. "Where did it go?" asked a girl's voice. A girl in her late teens, he guessed, perhaps early twenties. He listened for a moment, then,

"It's gone." This time a man spoke, probably a bit older than the girl. He heard boots on gravel, coming toward him, and wondered if they would be able to see him. After all, he couldn't fly, so maybe he was no longer invisible. Then around the corner of rock behind which he had found himself there came a man with short brown hair and a small goatee. He was wearing a dull blue vest over a white, long-sleeved shirt, brown trousers, and dark brown boots. Just behind him there was a girl with brown hair to her shoulders and big green eyes. Her light green dress came down to her ankles, and she had simple brown, flat shoes.

As they came into view Jack was suddenly aware that the lanterns were drifting back down to the ships and houses on the island.

Both of them stared at him. "Hello," said the girl, after an uncomfortably long pause. "Who are you?" she asked.

Jack swallowed his surprise and replied, "My name's Jack Frost."

She looked confused. "I thought Jack Frost was just a legend." Her friend nodded.

"Me too," he said. Jack now knew he must be in some other world, or some other time. They really could see him! And yet . . . He said, "Well, who are you?"

The man replied this time. "I'm Eugene and this is Princess Rapunzel." Rapunzel smiled.

"Oh, you're royals!" exclaimed Jack.

"Yes, well," Eugene stopped talking. Jack realized he was staring at something behind him, so he turned around.

There behind him was something he hadn't seen in a long time.

A nightmare.

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