ROTG shortfic:Say My Name

Say My Name

She'd never heard Sandy say her name. Maybe he did say it, just never in the presence of others. But that was fine, she'd accepted that she may never hear his voice say her name, or anything else, for that matter.

Since winter was coming, she made herself busy, gathering her supplies so that she could start the seasonal process all over again.

After she'd worked for a few hours, she stretched out and looked over her work, scrutinizing every brush stroke. Each was perfect, so she set them aside and only paused when she saw the familiar light glinting off of the gold ring on her left hand. Gold like Sandy's dreamsand.

She sighed dreamily and carefully shooed away a pair of squirrels that were making themselves comfy in her workshop. All animals were welcomed to take shelter in her home for the winter to hibernate, predator and prey, from reptiles to amphibians to mammals.

The only birds that remained was her small flock of pheasants, and her cockerel was getting antsy about all of the wolves and bears that were arriving, fearing for his hens. He crowed his concerns to her, and she chuckled before flying down to speak with the predators.

The three wolf pack alphas agreed to leave the other animals alone, and the bears promised the same, so long as they themselves remained undisturbed.

With everything settling down, she set aside her work and headed off to bed, finding lizards and squirrels and mice and a few insects scuttling about, finding holes and such in the tree trunks that made up the walls of her underground home.

A lynx had made itself a nest at the foot of her bed, and a lone red fox lay curled on the dark red carpet near the fireplace. The saplings that were her bed posts had their leaves tangled above, creating a ceiling where fireflies rested.

She carefully lowered herself onto the bed, so as to not disturb the sleeping lynx, and settled down to sleep as her wings finally gave out, dispersing multi-colored maple leaves around the room. The fire slowly died down, casting uncertain shadows, before leaving only the fireflies to glow and create their own starry skies in the dark room.

When she was fully asleep, the round and golden Guardian of Dreams came to her bedside, not waking any of her animals, nor the object of his affections. Sandy smiled at her, the love of his life, as he carefully sprinkled dreamsand over her so that she could sleep peacefully.

He tenderly brushed her hair away from her face as she smiled, the sand taking the shapes of animals like rabbits, kittens, lithe little sparrows, and himself. He smiled at her once more, silent as always, gently kissing her forehead before taking his leave, leaving only the glow of his dreamsand in his wake.

She had never heard the Sandman say her name, but that was ok. She didn't need to.

This is a small pre-fic that I made to foreshadow my new Rise of the Guardians fic. Be safe and be happy!