Which Jack?

Chapter 3

        The next day, the headache remained. And it hindered your concentration and caused you to wince every few seconds, when the pounding becomes too much to ignore. No one seemed to really notice though, so you didn't have to explain the funny look on your face. As much as you liked these people, especially Jack's easy going attitude and Tooth's cheeriness, you couldn't wait to get it over with. This time you actually flew to the "base" , with a bit of help from Jack every now and again.

        "Hello Y/n!" Santa greeted. "I think I forgot to introduce myself the last time." He laughed, a hearty, booming sound. "My name is North. You probably know me better as Santa Clause. And this one over here is E. Aster Bunnymund. A pooka. That one is Sandy Mansnoozie. I think you already knew who those two are." The respective guardians waved, and Aster came over to shake your hand. "Y'know us better as the Easter Rabbit and the Sandman." His chest was visibly stuck out when he mentioned Easter. It was obvious he loved his holiday. You had to agree, his holiday was great fun. You loved looking for the chocolate eggs hidden around town, and you would sometimes slip eggs into the baskets of disappointed children who didn't find any, due to most of them being found by older children. Or you would hide some in plain sight, and you giggled at the astonished looks and yelps of joy when they realized they do have eggs to bring home! Just because you weren't a full human doesn't mean you don't enjoy and appreciate what these guardians did.

        Santa was still looking at documents, before finally sighing and putting them away. "I don't believe I've any information on you, despite your claim that you are at least part human. Have I missed out anything? Y/n L/n, right?  Hmmm...." You watched North rack his brain. Due to your headache, it took you quite some time before you realized that North probably kept records of all the children of the world, who's nice and who's naughty. You thought you must always be naughty, since you've never, not once in your life, received a present from Santa. That led you to wonder how to even make the nice list, must you stay home all the time? "I've never received a present from you." You confessed, your headache clearing up a little, much to your relief. Why did you have a headache again? You've never had one this bad, even when you caught a cold and had a fever. Not even when you went a week with only an hour of sleep. (Long story.) You were more than grateful when Jack Frost passed you a cup of hot tea of some kind, and it help to ease your headache quite a bit. "What! How could it be? I pride myself in never forgetting a child, human or otherwise!" Listening to North's exclamations of indignation and confusion, you noticed something move out a corner of your eye. A shadow? Wait... That looks like... A baby horse? Not really paying attention to any one else, you started to walk towards it. "Y/n? What are you doing?" Jack's voice called out, while the others had either left for whatever reason, such as the call of duty, or trying to get North's attention back to the question they were supposed to clear up. Anyone else thinks this feels more like an interrogation? 

        When you got close enough, you realized that there was nothing there. Maybe you imagined it, due to your headache. "Never mind." You finally replied before going back to your initial spot. North had fially got over the fact that he had made a mistake, so the interrogation goes on. "What are you?" A classic question. One you believed you had answered before. Oh well. "A Jack of all trades. I learn all your trades, yet I master none." North nodded. "Wha 'bout that jar of sand? Y'mentioned it the last time." "I collected some sand, gold and black, in a jar back home. It makes me sleepy, which would make sense now that the gold ones belong to the Sandman. Who was the other guy, and the black sand?" You questioned back. You hated how much this feels like you were being interrogated, or how you thought it would feel, watching some police shows of people being interrogated. "He's the bogey man. The king of fear and nightmares. He's pretty powerful. But no big deal to us." Jack answered you instead, his confidence obvious. You took another sip of the tea, then nodded to show you understood. His cocky attitude honestly made you want to laugh, and with great willpower, you pushed down the smile.

        "Anyway, the sand sometimes give me dreams, and.... How do I explain this? Sometimes its like I'm watching a movie, watching things happen. Um... I don't really know are they the past or the future, But I would guess the future from Lusa, but who knows, it could be a mix of both." You rambled, trying to explain, until you thought you probably got your point across. "And the black sand?" The fairy queen asked, this time she was surrounded by the bird things which you guessed were probably fairies. Funny, you never thought Fairies would look like that, but these creatures were so pretty. "Black sand?" You were confused, prying your thoughts away from the strange fairies. What did you know about black sand? It's black and easier to control, at least to you, than gold sand. That was pretty much the extend of knowledge you had of black sand. And now you knew they were under the power of the bogey man, a man who spread fear to the children. What you knew would neither be of any use nor something they didn't already know, nor obvious. Like, black sand is black. Seriously.

        "You can control black sand right? You were doing so during the battle..." She prompted, before turning her attention to one of fairies who was chattering in her ear. Then she nodded to the fairy, and they engaged in a fairy-queen-to-fairy conversation while the others were curious to what you have to say. "Oh. That." You answered, and your head pounded again, with more ferocity than any time before. The cup dropped out of your hand and landed onto the floor with a crash, but you took no notice. You'll deal with that later. You swayed on your feet, before falling onto the ground, still conscious, and very well aware of the cut on your pant leg due to the broken pieces of.... China? Porcelain? Whatever that cup was made of. It dug into your skin. You were scarcely aware of people shouting. And though you hadn't blacked out, it was like all your senses shut down. Your brain too.

        What's that thing over there...? Is that a shadow? It seems to be consuming everything in the room...