Trouble at the Tooth Palace

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When we drove through the portal, everything span and we then saw Tooth Palace in the distance. As we got slightly closer, multiple unidentifiable things flew out of the Tooth Palace and towards us. I couldn't even figure out what they were.

"... What?" North muttered, confused. I then saw what they were: Black Horses. Only they weren't exactly horses. They looked like horses, but something wasn't right with them.

The horses flew past us like lightning, screeching around the sleigh. They were completely ignoring us, meaning they were flying next to us, above us, or directly towards us. Bunny forgot about his travel sickness and jumped into action. One of the black horses flew directly towards us. I quickly sidestepped and Sandy created an umbrella with dreamsand to block the attack. Jack ducked then turned to look at the mysterious creatures.

"They're taking the Tooth Fairies!" Jack informed us. I turned to look at the horses and saw Tooth Fairies fluttering about panicked in the opaque stomach of the creatures. I saw one horse flying within reach of me. I pulled my knife out of the holster on my thigh and as soon as it was within range, I slashed at the creature, causing it to disintegrate and the Fairies to be released. They weren't released for long though because as soon as they went to fly away to safety, each Fairy was devoured by another horse.

I suddenly felt something grab the back of my shirt and pull me up and away from the sleigh. I let out a yelp of surprise and shock. I heard everyone shout my name and soon saw Jack leave the sleigh and fly after the horse that had flown off with me. I started to struggle against the horse.

"I'm almost there, Lily!" Jack yelled. He was still pretty far, so I'll have to try harder to get away from this thing. I remembered that I still had my knife, so I pulled it up and stabbed behind me and into the neck of the horse. I forgot that these horses disintegrated, so as soon as I destroyed the horse, I dropped like a sack of flour.

A feeling of dread spread through me as I fell towards the ground. I know that us spirits and Guardians are immortal, but would we survive a drop like this?

I stopped falling. Had I hit the ground? Did I survive? My eyes were squeezed shut, so I slowly opened them. I was hovering in the air. Did Jack catch me? I looked up and I saw him flying towards me. I looked behind me to see a pair of giant Robin wings keeping me up. This was new. I'd never been able to do this before.

"Are you okay?" Jack asked, concerned. "Considering I almost fell to my death, I'm good," I replied, trying to make myself feel better. Jack smiled and nodded."Come on, we need to get back," He said. I nodded and we flew towards the sleigh as fast as we could.

As we were approaching the sleigh, Jack and I caught sight of a Tooth Fairy being chased by a black horse. Man, I really need to think of a name for these things. Jack pulled up and flew straight for the fairy. I flew straight towards the sleigh and dropped as soon as I was above it. I landed on my feet but fell to my knees.

"Lily! Lily, you okay?" Bunny asked, putting a paw on my shoulder. I brushed my hair out of my face."I'm fine. I'm fine!" I said, catching my breath.

Jack dropped into the sleigh, cradling a fairy that hadn't been devoured. We all turned to look at him. "Hey little Baby Tooth, you okay?" He asked the trembling fairy. Baby Tooth chittered affirmatively.

We began to descend through the Tooth Palace, trying to find Pitch, Tooth, her Fairies or one of the black horses. We kept going until one of the strange horses was in sight. Jack had walked over to the front of the sleigh, I had stood up and was standing at the side holding onto the edge.

"Here, take over!" North yelled at Jack. He took the reins and cracked them, causing the sleigh to go faster. North pulled out his swords and stood at the head of the sleigh. He attacked a black horse, which broke apart into black sand in the sleigh. Tooth boxes rattled to the floor. Bunny picked one up.

"They're stealing the teeth!" He said. So they were stealing the Tooth Fairies and the teeth. What were they trying to do? Sandy wiped some of the black sand off of his sleeve, getting some on his fingers. He looked at us confused.

"Jack, look out!" North shouted. I turned around to see Jack flying straight towards a tower. He turned around and pulled hard on the reins, causing it to turn extremely sharply and to crash roughly onto another tower. As we landed, due to Jack's stupid driving, we all fell to the floor of the sleigh. I landed on my back, hard.

"Jack, learn to drive, man!" I groaned. Willow crawled out of my bag and ran towards me. I immediately forgot about the pain that my back was in and scrambled towards her. She jumped up to my chest, and I wrapped my arms around her. She crawled out of my arms and around to sit on my shoulder.

We then all saw Tooth flying around, panicking."Tooth! Are you alright?" North yelled up at her. We all got out of the sleigh and ran closer to her. Tooth sighed in disbelief and hurt.

"They- they took my fairies, and the teeth, all of them," Tooth informed us. She began to descend to the level of a spire, looking and sounding like she might break down. North, Sandy, Bunny and I climbed up to be at her side.

"Everything is gone. Everything..." Tooth trailed off, lost for words. Baby Tooth emerged from behind Jack's shoulder and flew towards Tooth.

"Ah! Oh thank goodness, one of you is alright," Tooth said, holding Baby Tooth close to her.

"I have to say... this is very, very exciting," A voice echoed throughout the Tooth Palace, and I couldn't tell where it was coming from."The Big Five, all in one place. I'm a little starstruck," We all looked up to see Pitch Black standing on a higher level of the tower we were on. He looked down at us rather menacingly.

"Did you like my show on the globe, North? Gotcha all together, didn't I?" Pitch said the last bit in a sing-song voice to get on our nerves.

"Pitch! You have got 30 seconds to return my fairies--" Tooth flew up to where Pitch was previously standing, but he had disappeared. Instead, his voice echoed to the right of us on a different tower.

"Or what? You'll stick a quarter under my pillow?" Pitch said in a mocking tone."Why are you doing this?" North asked him.

I tried not to let my irritation show. In most movies I've watched, people always ask the villain that, and it turns out the answer is something we really didn't want to hear.

"Maybe, I want what you have," Pitch started, "To be believed in!" He declared. I knew I didn't want to hear the answer."Maybe I'm tired of hiding under beds!" Pitch told us. "Maybe that's where you belong!" Bunny retorted, quick as a flash. Pitch suddenly appeared on the underside of the spire level that we were standing on."Tah! Go suck an egg, rabbit," Pitch said, then disappeared. Bunny reached down to hit Pitch only to find that he wasn't there.

"Hang on. Is that... Jack Frost? Heh, hehehe. Since when are you all so chummy?" Pitch asked him.

"We're not," Jack replied, holding his staff, ready to attack."Oh good," Pitch said, Jack turned around to see Pitch leaning on a gap in the tower."A neutral party. Then I'm going to ignore you, but you must be used to that by now," Pitch said, mockingly. I know I've only known Jack for about an hour and a half, but I was not having any of that.

"Oi! Pitch!" I shouted, jumping down onto the spire level that he and Jack were on. When I landed, I pulled my knife from it's holster and began running at Pitch. The Guardians followed me."You nasty little rat! Get here now!" I screamed at him. Before I could reach him, he disappeared into thin air.

I turned around, to try and find him, as did the rest of the Guardians. Tooth spotted him first, grabbed one of Bunny's boomerangs and flew towards Pitch, letting out a war cry. He only smirked when one of his black horse appeared beside him and screeched at Tooth. She backed away, looking at the horse with shock.

"Whoa ho ho ho, hey! Easy girl, easy. Hehe," Pitch calmed the horse down slightly. He then chuckled.

"Look familiar, Sandman? Took me awhile to perfect this little trick: turning dreams into nightmares," Pitch told us. That's what I'm gonna call them: Nightmares. When the Nightmare was standing still like that, I managed to get a good look at it. It had golden eyes, and razor sharp teeth. It looked scarier than any regular horse. I couldn't sense any signs of life or soul in the Nightmare, which means it was made, purely, of fear.

"What's the matter, Tiger Lily?" Pitch asked me, I looked from the Nightmare to Pitch, who's dull, golden eyes were boring into my hazel-green ones. "Don't you know what kind of animal this is?" He asked me, knowing I didn't. I just glared up at him."Obviously you wouldn't. It's a creature of my own creation," Pitch informed us. Now what I was gonna say next would probably get me killed.

"As far as I'm aware you didn't create the horse species," I said in a genuine tone, just to annoy him."Don't get smart with me, girl!" Pitch threatened me."Whatever," I said in a monotone voice. Pitch just glared at me until he noticed the looks on the Guardians faces. He chuckled.

"Don't be nervous; it only riles them up more," He told us, "They smell fear, you know." "What fear? Of you?" Bunny laughed as Tooth returned his boomerang, "No one's been afraid of you since the Dark Ages!"

"Oh, the Dark Ages! Everyone frightened, miserable, such happy times for me - oh the power I wielded! But then the Man in the Moon chose you to replace my fear with your wonder and light. Lifting their hearts and giving them hope. Meanwhile everyone wrote me off as just a bad dream. Oh there's nothing to be afraid of! There's no such thing as The Boogeyman!" Pitch finished his speech.

"Well that's all about to change," Pitch said threateningly, taking a step forward. At that moment, something started happening to the Tooth Palace. It was like the towers and spires were rusting. Pitch seemed to notice as well.

"Hehe. Oh look, it's happening already," Pitch chuckled. Jack looked at us confused. "What is?" He asked us. Tooth realised what was happening and a look of heartbreak spread across her face.

"Children are waking up and realizing the Tooth Fairy never came," Pitch explained in a mocking tone, "It's such a little thing, but to a child?"

Jack still looked confused. He turned to us."What's going on?" He asked us."They... They don't believe in me anymore," Tooth explained, a look of dread on her face. Pitch has hit us hard. Easter is in three days. I can tell that something bad is going to happen.

"Didn't they tell you, Jack?" Pitch asked him,"It's great being a Guardian! But there's a catch. If enough kids stop believing, everything your friends protect - wonder, hopes, and dreams - it all goes away. And little by little, so do they," Pitch chuckled. So if no one believes in us, we disappear? Die? No one told me that.

"No Christmas, or Easter, or little fairies that come in the night," Pitch spat, "There will be nothing but fear, and darkness... and me." We all looked up at Pitch with shock.

"It's your turn not to be believed in!" As soon as Pitch said that statement, Bunny had decided that he had heard enough. He threw his boomerang at Pitch. He ducked but, it soon came flying back to him. The Nightmare whinnied and Pitch rode it straight off of the side of the spire and headed down.

We all ran and jumped off of the spire, chasing Pitch in a free-fall. Bunny threw egg bombs at him, but they exploded in the air too far away. Pitch then steered the Nightmare into a shadowy section of rock and he was gone. I looked down and saw I was incredibly close to the ground. When we landed, we held up our weapons in a defensive position and scanned our surroundings for any Nightmares or Pitch himself.

"He's gone," North declared. I holstered my knife. I remembered that Willow was still on my shoulder, so I took her off and held her in front of me. She gave me a very irritated look. It was then I remembered that she hates drops like that. I just chuckled slightly at the look on her face, apologised and set her on the ground to explore the lagoon that we had landed in.

I turned around and walked to stand with Sandy. North and Bunny were talking about Pitch. Sandy turned to look at me and started to talk using sand figures. He first made a sand figure of me above his head, then a lightbulb, then one of Pitch's Nightmares, then a question mark. He was asking if I had any idea what the Nightmares were. I shrugged.

"I haven't got a clue what they were. They didn't have any life or soul in them. None that I could sense anyway," I told him. Sandy nodded, disturbed at the new information about the Nightmares.

I looked up to see Jack and Tooth walking towards the lagoon wall, Jack was walking on ice patches he created and Tooth flew. Tooth was telling him about what the Tooth Fairies do here and how they protect memories. She then told him that his memories were here too before he became 'Jack Frost'.

Jack then backed away."But, I- I wasn't anyone before I was Jack Frost," He said, slightly confused."Well of course you were. We were all someone before we were chosen," Tooth explained. "What?" Jack asked, quietly.

"You should have seen Bunny!" North said, laughing. I laughed too, remembering the photo of a smaller Bunny that North had shown me. "Hey, I told you to never mention that!" Bunny whisper-shouted, hastily.

"The night at the pond, I just...Why I assumed... Are you saying, are you saying I had a life? Before that, w- I- With a, with a home? And- and a family?" Jack asked, raising his voice in excitement.

"You really don't remember?" Tooth asked him, confused."All these years the answers were right here... If I find my memories, then I'll know why I'm here. Ya have to show me!" Jack then started to fly up."I- I can't, Jack. Pitch has them," Tooth reminded him. Jack stopped and turned around."Then we have to get them back!" Jack shouted.

Tooth went to speak more, but some of her feathers began moulting. "Oh no..." She gasped, "The children... We're too late."

No, we can't be too late! We can't lose Tooth!

"No! No! No such thing as too late!" North yelled. He turned around humming as he thinks."Wait, wait, wait wait wait wait wait! ..." He muttered. He suddenly turned around and pointed one cutlass at Bunny, who flinched backwards. "Idea! Hah!" North raised his voice. He then gestured with his other sword between Sandy, Bunny and I. "We! Will collect the teeth!" He declared.

"What?" Tooth asked, in disbelief."We get teeth, children keep believing in you," North explained."We're talking 7 continents, millions of kids!" Tooth argued."Give me break, you know how many toys I deliver in one night?" North asked, rhetorically."And eggs I hide in one day?" Bunny added. Tooth smiled at us. I felt Willow climbing up my left leg, and up to my shoulder.

"And Jack, if you help us," North turned to Jack, "We will get you your memories."Jack crouched to be eye level with us, a smile on his face. Tooth laughed excitedly, Bunny grumbled and Sandy gave Jack a thumbs up.

"I'm in!" Jack stated.

This is gonna be brilliant.

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