Nightmares. Chapter 2: Distant Memories

   “Elizabeth! Elizabeth, where are you?!?”

   I was running through the dark, thick, snow-covered woods, yelling out her name as I tried my best to follow the tracks quickly being covered by the fresh snow. It was only a game! She wasn’t supposed to be in danger! We had only been playing hide and seek; I know mother didn’t like us to play this far into the woods, but it had the best hiding spots. I always made sure Elizabeth didn’t go far; she wasn’t that good at hiding anyway. But tonight, she had gone farther than she normally does. And apparently, she had disturbed something living in the woods.

   “Jackson! Help me!”

   I pushed myself to run faster; she sounded close. I pushed away low-hanging tree branches and pushed through the foliage until I came across a clearing. I stopped short when I saw the wolves surrounding a small, cowering figure who was backed up against a tree, and my heart dropped when I saw that the figure was indeed my little sister. She looked to me with pure terror in her eyes.

   “Help me!” As she cried out the wolves snarled, itching closer to her. I saw tears rolling down her face. “I’m sorry I went too far into the woods!”

   I took the situation in slowly, trying to figure out what to do. Father had told me, in case I did ever come across a pack of wolves, the best thing to do was to remain calm and try to distract them. How I was to do this while getting Elizabeth to safety I didn’t know.

   I called out to her. “It’s alright! Just, don’t move! I’ll figure this out…” Elizabeth only response was a nod and trying her best to stop crying. I had gained one of the wolf’s attention, and I looked around for anything that could help. I cursed myself under my breath for leaving my musket at home; it would have been really useful right now.

   I saw a dozen small rocks lying on the ground on my left side, and an idea struck me. I moved over slowly, crouching down and reached out with my left arm to pick one up. The wolf that had now focused on me growled. I narrowed my eyes and quickly snatched it in my hand. I passed it to my right hand and grabbed another. The wolf began to creep towards me, and soon a few others began to lose interest in my sister. I picked up three more rocks before standing up. I had four tucked into my left arm, and waved the remaining rock in my right hand.

   “Hey! Look me!” I tossed one of the rocks at the wolf closet to my sister, hitting it in the side. It snapped its head around to look at me. The other wolves began growling as the wolf I had hit started to make its way towards me. I breathed deeply to gather up my courage before throwing another rock. It barred its teeth at me.

   “I’m sorry Mr. Wolf- oh wait, no I’m not.” I now had the entire packs’ attention, and they seemed much, much angrier than they did a mere minute ago. I tossed another rock, hitting the wolf nearest to me in the head. It stumbled away from me, before rearing on its hind legs and growling. The other wolves began to howl into the night before making moves to advance on me.

   “Whoops, look at the time,” I nervously began to back up, putting distance between the wolves and I as well as between me and Elizabeth. “I must be going.” I began to turn, only to stop and look towards the clearing. I saw my sister standing there, still frozen in fear.

   “Elizabeth! RUN!” For a moment I feared she wouldn’t move. Then, thankfully, I saw her quickly snap out of her daze and race around the other side of the tree, sprinting into the woods as fast as her little legs would take her. A few of the wolves looked after her, and I threw the last two remaining rocks at them. They quickly refocused on me, fury burning in their eyes.

   Why was I asleep on the sidewalk? What happened- Oh; right. Pitch. He must have knocked me out with that arrow. I don’t remember it hitting me though… I sat there for a few moments before something occurred to me.

   What had I been dreaming about? The dream felt livid and real. I felt like I had actually experienced it, almost as if it was a memory. I shook my head; that was impossible. I couldn’t remember anything that happened before waking up next to that lake with the Man in the Moon telling me my name.  

   “It was just some stupid dream. Probably a nightmare Pitch tried to scare me with.” I looked up at sky. Dawn was just beginning as the sun began to rise up. I rolled my eyes a little.

   “Nice try, Pitch! But your nightmares will need to make more sense than that! Not to mention actually scare me!” I yelled out, knowing he wouldn’t hear me.

   I stood up and brushed myself off, remembering the events that played out late last night. I walked over to a nearby building and looked myself over in the reflection on the window. Minor bruising was evident on my face around my eyes and temples. I raised one of my eyebrows and looked at it closer. I didn’t remember actually being struck. I had held off his nightmares pretty well, perhaps it was only dirt. I gathered up the end of my sleeve and rubbed it against the dark spots, only to pull back as pain surged through my head.

   Okay, maybe not. I shrugged and turned away from the reflection and looked for my staff. To my surprise, it was nowhere to be seen. I groaned and leaned against the wall behind me.

   “Great, just great.” I started to walk around the area, looking in the bushes and behind cars for any sign of my staff. I wondered if Pitch had taken it with him; it seemed like something the shadow man would do. I continued to search when I finally saw it. Relieved, I went over to it and crouched down to pick it up, only to have it send blue sparks at my open hand. I pulled back in surprise.

   “What the-?” I tried again, and thankfully it didn’t shoot sparks at me. I picked it up and twirled it around a bit.

   Hmm, did the whole forest fall asleep or am I missing something? I continued to walk down the trail I had always followed; it was worn with my feet prints. I had been taking this path ever since I had woken up next to the lake that lay in the middle of this forest and had found out who I was. After a while it had started to feel like home, or the next closest thing.

   I kind of guarded the lake in a way. Whenever people would come out to fish in it, I’d make the topic layer freeze over just enough to discourage them, same with people who tried to take a boat out onto it or swim. And during the winter, I hardly ever froze it through enough for kids to go skating on; seeing them on the ice made me uneasy. Even though I knew I could freeze it fully and make it safe.

   However I wasn’t sure why I did those things; I just didn’t like anybody else being in contact with the lake.

   Eventually I came upon it. It was a nice, cool, early-spring day; the sun was up by now but wasn’t giving off too much heat. The wind (with some of my assistance) was blowing a nice, gentle breeze through the forest. The lake was glistening in the sun, and a few patches of snow remained from the last snow fall I made. I smiled a little; the area was calming after what had happened last night.

   I walked over to the water’s edge and put my feet it. To anybody else, it would feel freezing, but to me it felt wonderful. I started to walk deeper into the water when I heard the foliage rustle behind me. I snapped around and held my staff in a fighting stance.

   “Who’s there?” I got no reply, and I slowly made my way out of the water, walking towards the sound. My staff began to glow blue; I was not taking any chances.

   “Come out or I’ll freeze you so cold you won’t thaw until next spring!”

   It was then a gold stream of sand shot out at me and formed a big, open hand implying “STOP”.  It was soon followed by the appearance of the Sandman, and I lowered my staff, releasing a breath I hadn’t realized I had held in. I smiled a little before walking towards him.

   “Sandy, dude, you scared me.”

   Sandy then shrugged apologetically before pointing towards me. I raised my eyebrow, not understanding. The small guardian then flew up to eye level with me and pointed at the side of my head. Oh right, the bruising. I hesitated; should I tell them I was approached by Pitch? If I did, would they still trust me? Might as well; if I don’t, it might only cause bigger trouble later. I bit my upper lip before looking at Sandy.

   “Uh, you see I h-” I was cut short when a swarm of mini-fairies came rushing at me and plowed into me, knocking me to the ground as they squealed happily at me. A few tried to open my mouth. I was flustered to say the least. Sandy looked down at me and laughed silently as he floated in the air. I think I felt myself blushing when Toothiana made her way over to us.

   “Oh my gosh I am so sorry. Ladies!” Instantly the mini-fairies stopped and looked at the hummingbird-hybrid as she pointed her finger behind her. The mini-fairies seemed to sigh before flying behind the tooth fairy. I took that moment to stand up and brush myself off. Toothiana then gasped and flew right in front of me just like Sandy and her mini-fairies had done.

   She held my head still and looked at the sides before asking, “Jack, what happened? It looks like someone decided to put your head between their hands and then try to crush it.”

   I pulled away and quickly made my way over to the lake to see my reflection; sure enough, the bruising had gotten even worse. It was now beginning to reach across my forehead and farther back towards my ear. I poked both of the new spots and pulled back when the pain returned. I bit my lip again before looking back at Tooth and Sandy, and I could see the concern on their faces. I slowly made my way over to them and breathed in deeply; I knew I had to tell them, but for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to form the words. I looked down at my feet, trying to stall.

   Toothiana didn’t have any of it. She put her hand under my chin and gently lifted my head up, stopping when she had eye contact with me.

   “Jack, please. You’re hurt, so tell us what happened.”

   I sighed, and started to recall how everything played out. “Last night, after I flew out of the North Pole- oh, sorry for that by the way- I came back to Burgess. I walked around on the sidewalk for a bit, you know, to think.” I scratched the back of my head and began to pace back and forth. “I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings much, and before I knew it I was surrounded by shadows,” I paused as I heard Tooth gasp, putting the dots together already. Sandy looked me over in worry; he must have figured it out too.

   Toothiana then put her hand out in front of me, stopping my pacing. “Jack, did Pitch attack you?”

   I nodded before continuing. "He attacked me after he first, uh… tried to get me to join his side…” I mumbled the last part, hoping that they wouldn’t hear.

   They did. Toothiana put both hands on my shoulders and turned my body so I was directly facing her. “He what? What did you say?”

   I tried to back up a little. “I said no! I said no and then he attacked me!” Sandy was next to me now as well, floating at eye-level. I saw him form a question mark over his head in his dreamsand followed by an assortment of weapons. I understood.

   “First, he just called on the nightmares to attack. But then once I was almost free of them, I think he shot an arrow at me. I don’t think it hit me anywhere; I’m pretty sure it exploded next to my head. I-Its, all a little fuzzy, actually.” My head started to hurt while remembering the fight last night. I placed a hand to my forehead, trying to ignore the pain that pulsed from the bruise; the cold of my hand felt nice against the head ache I was starting to get. I then noticed Sandy and Tooth share a glance before looking at me again, saying nothing.

   “What?”

   Tooth looked at Sandy one more time before responding. “I think you should come with us to the Pole, Jack. Something um, something might be… wrong with you.”

   I stepped back again. “Wrong? What do you mean? I’m fine.” Sandy glared slightly and pointed at my head.

   “Well besides that. It’s just a little bruising, probably from collapsing on the sidewalk.”

   The concern returned to their faces; I think I had left that part out before.

   “Jack, please. Let us at least you know, watch you for a little while? See if uh, the bruising gets any better?” The tone of Tooth’s voice suggested it wasn’t really a question. I sighed, giving in.

   “Alright. I guess it can’t do any harm.” Instantly the mini-faires bombarded me again, but this time they held back and I didn’t go toppling over. I laughed softly as Tooth and Sandy looked at me and smiled a little. Toothiana then lifted off the ground, and motioned for Sandy and I to follow. As soon as I lifted off the ground however, the headache intensified. I grimaced for a moment, before shoving the pain down and following the two guardians. It would pass, I assured myself.

   I’m fine; there isn’t anything to worry about.