Faith and Trust

The Book

“Wait, what” Jack spluttered. Great grandfather. How long had he and the Guardians been asleep?  

“Umm, yeah. He told me about you and the Guardians”

“He...he did?”

“Yep” Mira said, her eyes shining. “He always told me that you guys would be back. You can fix everything!”

“Fix what” Jack asked urgently “What’s the problem?”

“Not here” Mira said glancing around at the almost deserted street. “I’ll get in trouble. Follow me.” She started walking along the sidewalk, occasionally glancing around, as if to make sure no one was following.

“Where are we going?” Jack asked

“Somewhere were we can’t be overheard” Mira whispered. “People don’t like me talking about this stuff. I’ll tell you why when we get there.”

They walked in silence for a while,  before Jack asked “Where is everybody. Why-” But she shook her head and kept walking. Jack wanted to press the issue, but then realized that she was the only one who could see him and it might look odd for her to appear to be talking to nobody.

They came to the edge of the woods and Mira walked in to them, following a small dirt tail. Jack found that the wind could now at least carry him a few inches off the ground, and so he drifted in the air behind her.

After five minutes the trail opened up into a small clearing. Mira walked in and sat down.

“Sorry” She said “But if they found me talking about it again, especially to someone they can’t see, I might of have it taken away.”

“Taken what away?” Jack asked. She wordlessly pulled something out of her bag and handed it to him. It was a red book, with the title ‘The Guardians of Childhood’ written on it in gold letters. Down at the bottom in smaller gold letter was written ‘ by William Joyce’

“William Joyce?”

“That was Great Grandpa James pen name” Mira explained “He wrote down the stories for Nicole-my mother, but she wanted him to publish it so everyone could read them. He was already ridiculed as an old fool for even telling these stories, so he created a pseudonym.”

Jack opened the book. Inside was the table of contents. It contained 5 books, with titles that made Jack laugh.  Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King, E. Aster Bunnymund and the Warrior Eggs at the Earth's Core, Toothiana: Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies, The Sandman and the War of Dreams. And the last one, The Guardians Rising: Pitch Black’s return. He flipped the page over but stopped as he saw the dedication.

To my best friend Jack.

May this book bring you more believers than you ever thought possible.

 

He felt tears in his eyes threatening to spill down his face again, so he quickly turned the page and skimmed through the stories. The first 4 were about how the 4 original Guardians defeated Pitch back in the dark ages. The 5th was the Battle with Pitch Black’s Nightmares, and when Jack became a Guardian. At the end of the books there were 5 pages in which there was a drawing of each Guardian.

“Mira” He said after a long while “What happened. What was the problem that you were talking about.”

“Well, part of it’s that you guys disappeared and all.” Mira said “And that nobody believes in you. But the other parts that the world almost doesn’t care about living any more. You saw the streets. Grandpa James said that people used to care about life and they would play and laugh. He also said once there wern't clouds blocking the sky and the sun.

“Wait, It’s like this everywhere?” Jack gestured to the sky.

“Well...yeah” She said “But it’s okay. You and the Guardians have come back to fix things right?