Giving Fantasia: The Taking Fantasia Sequel

Chapter 11: I Can Feel It! In My Belly!

Chapter 11: I Can Feel It! In My Belly!

Jack thumped. The sack opened. Two stubby elves peeked inside.

Jack zapped them with his staff.

"Beat it."

The genius elf ran. The average-intelligence elf wondered where the genius elf was going. Jack zapped again. The average-intelligence elf froze into a popsicle.

Angrily, Jack clamored out of the sack.

"You guys!" he announced, "Have zero concept of personal bubble space!"

Four guardians turned: North, Bunny, Tooth, and Sandy (Santa Clause, Easter Bunny, Toothfairy and Sandman). Prior to his entrance, they had been bickering beneath an enormous globe. As Jack entered North's observatory, they immediately quieted.

"AH!" North boomed. "There he is! Jack Frost!"

"Hi Jack!" Tooth fluttered forward. An armada of mini tooth-fairies trailed behind. "How was your trip?"

"Da!" North agreed, using the Russian word for 'yes.' He motioned to the yetis. "Hope the yetis treated you well?"

The yetis gulped. Guiltily they brushed wrinkles from Jack's hoodie.

Jack pushed them away.

"Oh yeah." He kicked his staff. It twirled up from the ground and he caught it midair. "I love being shoved in a sack and tossed through a magic portal."

Jack was being sarcastic. But North looked delighted.

"Ah good! That was my idea! Jack, you remember the group! Bunny, Tooth, and Sandy – "

"Before you say anything else!" Jack interrupted. "I'm going to say this one last time!"

North rose a dark brow. Bunny furrowed. Tooth bobbed nervously. Sandy dozed.

"I am not a guardian!" said Jack. "Kapeesh? You're all hard work and deadlines, and I'm snowballs and fun times. But most importantly..."

Jack glared at the observatory skylight. The Man in the Moon was just visible through the clouds.

"I don't want to be a guardian!" He swiped at a passing elf. "So buzz off!"

"Believe me mate, my thoughts exactly." Bunny fingered his boomerang. "Some of us don't think you're guardian material."

Tooth looked reproachfully at Bunny. Earnestly, she returned to Jack. "Jack, I don't think you understand why North called us. A few minutes ago, North saw Pitch."

Jack frowned. "Pitch? Pitch Black?"

"The Boogie Man!" North circled his beefy hands. Behind him, Sandman conjured an image of a scythe. "Pitch was here! At the North Pole! There was black sand covering the globe. And darkness in the sky! And outside there were – "

North shuddered.

"—shadows!"

"Hold on, hold on." Bunny pointed his boomerang. "I thought you said you saw Pitch. What do you mean black sand? And shadows? What's with the shadows?"

"Shadows!" North waved sinisterly. The mini tooth-fairies cooed. "From across the sea! Black as ink and evil as sin! Yes, my friends!"

North pound his fist.

"Pitch was here!"

The mini tooth-fairies twittered.

"And he is up to something bad!"