Rise of the Guardians 2

Chapter 21

"There's Toothiana. She's the Tooth Fairy. She collects kids teeth with help from the Baby Teeth. She says that they hold the most important memories of childhood" Merida said

"The Sandman's a Guardian too." I said

"Who's the Sandman?" Rapunzel asked

"You've never heard of the Sandman!" Jack exclaimed. She shook her head. "He's the reason you wake up with yellow sand in your eyes. The guy who makes sure kids have sweet dreams."

She shrugged "Gothel never told me much. I mostly got my knowledge of the outside from the books I read and she made sure they were mostly bad things."

Sensing that this was still a sore topic for Punz, I directed it back to the Guardians. "Sandy's the Guardian of Dreams. He's a short yellow guy who never talks. I've never understood why though"

"I think it's because he doesn't want to wake the kids up" Jack said "Either that or he just can't, I haven't been able to figure it out."

"So is Sandy the opposite of Pitch?" Rapunzel asked "Is he the Spirit of Nightmares?"

"He's not exactly his opposite." I said "He's the Spirit of Fear and Darkness. He can control them because they cause fear, but he's not their master. They can turn on him if he's feeling enough fear."

"Why does he even exist?" Punz asked "If MIM chooses all the spirits, why does are there Spirits like Pitch"

"He exists because of belief" Jack said. We turned to him "I had the same question after we fought Pitch 3 years ago and North explained it to me."

"Didn't he start that war because he wasn't believed in" Merida asked

"It wasn't him that kids and adults believed in." Jack said "It was his center." We still looked confused so he continued to explain. "You know how I wasn't believed in for 300 years, and how Breeze and Punz still aren't."

"Yeah" I said

"Well, I was confused on how I was still very powerful for all that time" Jack said "When the Guardians lost all but one believer they were extremely weak. But I had managed to stay strong for centuries without one believer. North said it was because my center was believed in. Fun wasn't directly connected to Winter or to me and so kids still believed in fun. But the Guardians centers were strongly tied to their holidays their person. So when the kids stopped believing in them they stopped believing in their centers as well."

"Like Sandy and Dreams" Merida said "When he stopped being believed in, so were dreams."

"But wonder isn't directly connected to Christmas or Santa" Meri said

"I think it is" I said remembering something "Remember the song Its the Most 'Wonder'-ful Time of the Year. People connect their centers with the Guardians person and holiday"

"That also why losing Easter during the fight with Pitch hit Bunny so hard." Jack said "Easter that year represented the hope that the Guardians still existed. Sandy was gone and so were dreams with Nightmares in their place. Kids teeth weren't getting collected fast enough. When Easter never came, that hope was destroyed."

"What happened to the Kangaroo" I asked

"He turned into a small cute bunny"

I imaged that in my head and began to chuckle which soon spread to Meri and Punzel and grew into full out laughter.

"I'm trying to be serious here" Jack complained

"Imagine that" I giggled "Jack Frost, being serious. The world must really be in trouble"

"You guys are hilarious"

We stayed there all day talking and laughing untill the sun began to sink below the horizon.

"We'd better get going" I said "We might want to keep moving, incase Pitch figures out somehow, a way to track us. We going to get the Viking this time. His name's Hiccup, right?"

We all moved to join hands. I turned to Merida. "Meri?" She seemed distant. "Meri are you alright?" She shook her head and seemed to snap out of it.

"I'm fine. Did you want something?"

"I just though that we might want to change up who wears the watch" I said "Pitch knows that I have it, we might want someone else to be wearing it if he targets me" She accepted the watch and we all joined hands.

"Here we go again" I groaned and we were off.