A/N: January 7, 2013

Thanks everyone for reviewing!

…

Yeah, I'm so diligent with replying to people. (cough-not-cough)

Anyway, there's a mention of Sandy owning a ship. I read somewhere, that he lived in a ship, so I thought, "Can his sand come from said ship?" Then I read in his picture book that the ship is immobile, but it's mobile in this story.

BTW: I think this chapter was awful and I think the next one will be the same, so I don't blame you if you flame me or something. Or not respond at all. I'm all cool with that.

SANDMAN

Fall, 1708

Sandman was the bringer of dreams. So, that meant he was constantly busy with at least one part of the world still being asleep. That didn't mean though that he couldn't leave the area that was asleep though. Most of the time, his ship would fly around the world and spread most of the dreamsand. Sandy just was the maker of that ship, and brought dreams to only a small area.

Currently, he was in what the humans called "The New World." To him though, it wasn't new because there had been people, and people mean children, and children mean children that need dreams when they sleep. But now there were the colonists from England there as well as the natives. He was in a small town called Burgess.

This town was not supposed to be asleep though. Actually, it was in the afternoon, not even close to night. He was here for two reasons.

1) He hadn't really looked at the colonies before.

2) Both Bunnymund and Toothiana had been in this particular town in the span of a year, and both had shared some interesting tales about a boy. Unfortunately, Sandy had been asleep himself so he hadn't heard the complete tale.

Now, Sandy had been minding his own business on a log in the woods, when stick came flying towards him. He did the natural thing and summoned a whip. Then he flicked his wrist and the whip arched through the air only to smash through the stick.

"Sorry!" someone shouted. Sandy looked up. A boy with brown hair and eyes and a hooked cane was running towards him panting. Why could this boy see him? "You're a spirit aren't you?"

Instantly, Sandy was on guard. Why did this human know about spirits? Dreamsand started to flow slowly from his fingertips. The boy held his hands up in surrender. "No! Wait! I know Bunnymund and the Tooth Fairy!"

Ah! This must be the boy that Bunnymund and Toothiana had met around Easter! Sandy instantly formed a bouquet of flowers and offered them to the boy. Fortunately, he got the message and waved him off. "It's alright. You didn't know and thought I was an enemy. I shouldn't have said that so sudden." Sandy nodded his head. It made sense now that the boy could see him.

"So who are you?" he asked. Sandy nearly face-palmed himself. How is it that the boy could see him, if he didn't know who he was? The boy must've seen him confusion because he laughed and said, "Yeah, I just met someone else who I could see without believing." Then he looked at Sandy with a scrutinizing face. "Golden sand…" he murmured, "I think you're… Sandman? You don't see like the type that brings bad dreams. I already met him."

His last sentence confused Sandy. What did he mean that he already met someone who gave bad dreams? Sandy was the oldest Guardian and even he hadn't heard of a spirit that gave nightmares.

Sandy pushed it to the back of his mind for the moment. In sand he wrote 'Name: ?' then an arrow pointing at the boy. The boy laughed. "Oh, my name is Jackson Frost. But a lot of your spirit friends have been calling me my full name: Jackson Overland Frost." Sandy smiled at the amiableness of Jackson and formed 'Sandy' and an arrow towards himself.

"I can call you Sandy?" Jackson repeated. Sandy nodded.

"That's grea-" Jackson was cut off by a shrill neigh that split the air. In the distance, Sandy could see the approaching form of a horse. Jackson shielded his eyes to see, and muttered, "Oh great,"

Sandy watched as Jackson kicked his hooked cane up into his hands. His eyes widened as the horse grew closer. Whatever the horse was, it wasn't a normal one. It was black and its skin looked like it was constantly moving. With horror, Sandy realized the skin was moving because it was made of sand similar to his own but black. Tendrils of black sand were flying off, and the skin also was in waves at some places. Its eyes were a glowing, sickly yellow.

Jackson started winding up his cane as the horse- could it even be classified as a horse?- grew closer, and just as it jumped up to tackle Jackson, he swung the cane. The hooked part hooked around its neck and Jackson forced it to slam into the ground. Then, he slammed his heel into the horse's head. His heel went through it, and the black sand collapsed and sank into the sand.

Sandy blinked at Jackson's brutality, while said boy groaned and hit his cane bottom against the ground. "Not another one! I thought Pitch would've given up by now." Jackson complained.

Sandy's eyes widened at that. Pitch? As in Pitch Black, the Boogeyman? What was he doing targeting a human boy. To ask his question, Sandy tugged on Jackson's shirt and wrote 'Pitch?'

"Oh, this previous spring, I met Pitch." Jackson explained, "I wasn't afraid of him though, but I could see him." The spot where he defeated the horse was darkening. Sandy saw it and tugged on Jackson's pants fruitlessly. "Then I kind of insulted his beliefs about another Dark Ages and he got mad and started sending these imperfect horses for practice of his black sand." Jackson sighed, resting his head over his hands on the arched part of his cane. Meanwhile, sand was coming from the ground and forming lumps. Sandy started jumping around and waving his arms for Jackson's attention, but he was too stuck in memory lane. "At first it was fun. I started to learn how to fight. But then it just got annoying. I was able to defeat them so quickly."

Jackson stiffened and his eyes widened as a shadow fell over him and he felt air hitting the back of his neck. He turned around. There, directly behind him, was a black sand horse the size of a Clydesdale. Its nostrils were flaring. It reared up, neighing deep and loud. Jackson stood there, frozen with shock and fear. Suddenly, gold swept across the black like a wave. The Clydesdale shrunk and turned to a small golden, gangly foal. The foal whinnied and circled Jackson before dispersing.

Jackson then fell to his knees shaking. Sandy ran over to him. "What did you do?" Jackson breathed. Sand figures showing the Clydesdale and Sandy appeared. The sand Sandy figurine touching the bucking sand Clydesdale and it transformed into the foal. Jackson's face contorted into confusion. "You touched it and it turned into a foal?"

Sandy frowned in concentration on what he should draw, and then drew Pitch and himself. Beside them, he did equal signs and a picture of a child tossing in their sleep with a monster above him and a child sleeping restlessly with a unicorn above him respectively.

"Oh! So you make good dreams and Pitch makes bad ones, but you can switch the dreams because they're dreams." Jackson summarized and Sandy nodded eagerly.

"Jackson! Where are you?" A voice rang through the air. Jackson started towards it and smiled.

"That's my sister, Pippa," he said. He turned to Sandy. "She'll probably see you. Would you like to meet her?"

That got Sandy going. As much as he loved children, he couldn't just reveal himself to every child. As Pippa's voice grew closer, and her footsteps grew louder, Sandy grew more panicked. In a rush he did what he did best: summon dream sand. It was in the shape of a ball and he threw it at Jackson. The boy's eyes closed and Sandy caught him before he fell. He paced briefly as Pippa just grew closer and then decided to dash into the forest. He watched with relief as Jackson woke up quickly and started to tell Pippa but Sandy, but stopped when he didn't see the said Guardian.

Besides, for as long as Sandy had known Jackson Overland Frost, he'd always handled his nightmares fine. That never changed much to Sandy's delight over the next 300 years.

END