Dawn of Faith

Chapter 4

When I awoke, the sun had fallen through the sky, kissing the horizon with brilliant orange waves of color. I rubbed my eyes, stretching as I rose from the chair. Thanking my biological clock, I watched from the window as the sun finalized its descent, the air above me fading from orange to pale yellow to a gentle navy blue as its final rays waved farewell to the northern world. Shrugging on my black overcoat, I shuffled out into the hallway, suppressing a yawn. Hushed voices were clamoring from the globe. My feet drew me closer, straining to hear what the argument was about. I caught clips of "Pitch" and "Dawn," and my heart dropped into my stomach anxiously.

"It's too dangerous," I heard Bunny urge.

"You have to trust Man in Moon," North noted with some finality, his deep voice rumbling overtop of Bunny's protests. If the other three Guardians were there, they were silent.

Bunnymund didn't speak for some time, and I could only imagine his pacing back and forth. Taking a deep breath, I willed myself to walk out into the open. Bunny's ears laid back as he saw me glide into view, Sandy's face brightening as I forced a smile onto my lips.

North nodded in greeting. "Ah, Dawn, I'm glad you are here. We were just discuss-"

Before he could complete his sentence, nightmare sand began to billow out from between cracks in the floor. Bunny's ears straightened, and his arms were a blur as they slung forth boomerangs, at the ready. Through the windows the dark sand poured, raining down upon us from the ceiling and morphing into the unmistakable form of nightmares. The Guardians immediately readied themselves, the piercing shiiing of North's swords ringing in my ears.

"Again? So soon?" Jack said, a hint of annoyance creeping into his tone. I pulled a gleaming silver bow from my back, drawing an arrow from the quiver. Without much thought, my body readied itself to dissipate any nightmares that crossed my path, my eyes frantically searching for a distinctive shadow that was nowhere to be found.

As the Guardians leapt into action, faint laughter echoed around the room, but it sounded...unfamiliar, wrong. My ears quickly picked up the feminine tone underneath. Feminine? I stilled, watching for nightmares that scurried up the walls and flew above our heads. Bats. Spiders. Prowling cats. Scurrying rats. Where were the horses? Why did the atmosphere feel so different?

In the back of my consciousness, my overwhelmed mind whirled with thought. This could not be Pitch. Several things stood out the longer we fought against this unknown adversary. The assailant was silent, attacking without warning and in full force. They mentioned nothing to me, said nothing taunting to the spirits beside me. The Guardians relentlessly battled the onslaught of nightmares, none of which were recognizable as Pitch's. There was not a single Nightmare. These followed no commands. The scene was one of utter chaos.

What is happening?

A low growl emanated around the room, as if thunder rumbling outside, and the Guardians paused, apprehension evident in their nervous movements and shining in their eyes. In a plume of splinters and snow the roof collapsed in, and through the swirling mist of debris we could see a great black dragon. The beast landed upon the globe, its long tail curling around and smothering the golden lights of the children.

"A dragon?!" I heard Jack cry through my own disbelief.

Bunnymund and Tooth were quick to strike, but their attacks simply bounced off hardened scales of nightmare sand. The dragon glared at us with deep red eyes, letting out a deafening roar. This was not one of Pitch's creations. No, this beast was too powerful, too unique, too large for Pitch's diminished powers to conceive. The creature opened its maw and I saw an ominous glow emanate from the back of its throat.

"JACK!" I cried, before the dragon released a stream of bright orange flames that seared the wooden structure around us. Reacting quickly, Jack shot a beam of ice toward the dragon's cavernous mouth, but the blaze quickly overtook him. He swiftly retreated, but not fast enough. I heard his voice cry out, taking shelter behind a column and clasping the blackened sleeve of his jacket.

Sandy raised a whip and struck the dragon on the nose, causing it to abruptly stop the onslaught of flames. A ripple of golden sand worked its way outwards from the contact, but the dragon neither dissipated nor transformed into a dream. With an enraged snarl, it swept its tail across the room, catching Sandy and North and slamming them back across the far wall. North's swords clattered loudly to the smoldering wooden floor. Broken from my trance, I quickly flew up to eye level with the beast, taken aback by the unfamiliarity its red orbs held. Pitch was not present behind its eyes.

It lifted a claw and swiped at me, clipping my wing and smashing through a pillar, causing splinters and heavy beams of wood to rain down upon the Guardians. Steadying myself, I withdrew to the darker shadows of the room while Bunny and Tooth distracted the beast. I nocked an arrow into my bow and aimed straight for the top of its neck, aware my attacks could not pierce its heavy scales. Anxiously I watched as the others continued to battle, waiting for my chance to strike. After a few tense moments the creature let out another roar, and my arrow sailed deep into its open throat.

The dragon recoiled, its tail writhing and head whipping about in pain. The other nightmares nearby dissipated as the dragon cried with ear-shattering magnitude. I noticed the slow progression of shimmering silver working its way outward from the origin of my arrow, turning the aggressive beast into nothing more than a pleasant wish.

As the nightmare was finally overtaken by the wish, it gave one final cry and shattered, scattering a rain of silver stardust about the room. I held out my hand as the glimmering dust settled in my palm and into my hair. My mind tried frantically to decipher the most recent events. I looked about the chamber, discouraged by the heavy damage and concerned by the loss of lights upon the cracked globe. Huge swaths of darkness cut across the golden glow, the faith of thousands of children smothered. From the bottom of my heart, I knew the attack was not Pitch's doing. No, a new threat was on the horizon. One more powerful than even Pitch himself.