Which Jack?

Chapter 2

        You could see black horses charge on, and the sadistic smirk of a man dressed in pitch black. If you were to be totally honest, the horses were beautiful creatures, despite the negativity practically rolling off them.

        You've seen one before and stroked it. You had once woke up one morning and sensed a change in the air, and for whatever reasons one landed near your house. Enchanted by its beauty, although some part of you had warned you against it, you stroked it, and your hand came away sandy. Something caught your eye for a second, and turning your attention to that for a second, the horse disappeared. That was also the day it rained the black and gold sand that you had collected in your jar.

        Unlike the guardians, you hadn't the ability to draw large amounts of extra power from the hope and faith of the children. You do love to play with them, when they can see more than your silhouette. Even when all they saw was your silhouette, you loved to comfort some of the sad children. Although sometimes parents and children themselves become disturbed because your presence. You can't blame them, honestly, you understood that they thought they were going crazy due to stress or whatever. 

        Anyway, you had to go back and help. Of course you had to! You couldn't go anywhere anyway. So you went ahead to where some guardians were approaching the man dressed all in black in their various ways, wings or otherwise, while the man laughed sadistically, black sand surrounding the other guardians. Since you were behind him, you could launch a surprise attack on him, but you didn't have a strong enough spell to attack him. What a wasted opportunity. Either ways, you used what you had learnt of the black sand back at home, which you were surprisingly good at, and dispersed the nightmare and the ammo that the man, whose name you had learnt from the various exchange of shouts was Pitch Black, ah the irony, shot at the guardians. You soon saw the new girl and the other people you saw at the great hall, and had to doge several attacks from Jack Frost yourself, which was not easy, it was awkward moving quickly in the air. Not that Jack was attacking you, but you were behind Pitch, and it was rather inevitable that since Pitch just dodged them, you would have to deal with them yourself. Not only Jack's either. Your action of turning black sand against Pitch caught the attention of the other guardians, and you could see their wary glances. Friend or foe? You could almost see the question floating above their heads as they looked at each other. 

        Sooner or later they had managed to defeat him, and he disappeared in a puff of smoke. Actually, it was more like a puff of black sand. All the horses too. And it was your turn with the rather skeptical and suspicious guardians. The fairy, who now had a little... fairy? bird? --No offense little one-- following her around, approached you first, chittering excitedly. She was a cheerful one, you unconsciously thought, as you smiled along. The small one made incoherent, at least to you, chittering.

        "Hello! I believe we haven't formerly met. I'm Toothiana, the tooth fairy and fairy queen! You can just call me Tooth! Come on, follow me! North would want to talk to you about your feat with the black sand... Don't worry" She quickly assured upon seeing your frown, "Just some questions. We're all curious who you are. Come on!" She laughed, flying off. But you were exhausted, all the adrenaline had left your system, and although you struggled, you were steadily falling, your efforts to slow it down were mostly futile. It took Tooth a while to realize you weren't following, and was instead falling. After more fruitless struggling, you remembered your voice, and you shouted for help. Tooth dived quickly, and caught you. What is with you and falling? "Are you okay?" Tooth asked a little worriedly as she set you down and help guide you through the maze. How do they find their way here? "Yup, just a little tired... It gets better with time." You smiled to a slightly confused Tooth, but before she could ask what you meant, you had reached to hall, where the golden sand guy, the rabbit, Santa and Jack was waiting.

        "Hello... Y/n I believe?" The Russian man asked, and you nodded, sitting down in the chair the sand man pushed to you. "Thanks." You mumbled. "You look a little pale..." Jack observed. "I'm fine." You said resolutely, more to yourself than to him. Or anyone else for that matter. Santa nodded, still looking at whatever he held in his hand. He frowned. "What's your last name?" He asked, finally looking at you. "L/n" you replied. A headache was stating to form. Why? Was it because you were tired from the tricks you performed that day? But it had never happened before. Then again, you never over worked yourself this much, and now you were losing focus. Note to self, you thought sleepily with the pain of strain behind your eyes, don't over extend yourself. Finally noticing someone was calling your name, you snapped out of your tired haze. "Ya?" You replied. "You sure you're fine, mate?" asked the rabbit, and you were met with rather cautious glances. Maybe they were asking out of formality, or maybe they really cared. Trying to keep awake, and trying to be polite, you stifled a yawn. "Um... It's late and I -yawn- don't think I can keep awake anymore..." You said a little timidly, an apologetic look on your face. "Um.... Can Someone take me home? I don't know the way." You were feeling a little guilty, you sort of owed them an explanation, but your headache was now pounding on your head, a violent guest trashing your thoughts. "Of course. Come on, we'll take you home. You can come back tomorrow." Tooth nodded to Jack. You bided farewell to the guardians, and in the hallways, you found various mythical creature, not all of them resembling humans, muttering in the hallways, stopping when you got too close, and regarding you with distrustful eyes. But you were way too tired to care.

        In the back of your mind, you were vaguely aware of a shadow somewhere.