The yetis and elves ran around the factory in fear, knocking into all the toys and prototypes.
In the Globe Room, black sand covered the Globe, and then Pitch materialized out of the sand.
“You’re all free to go!” he announced. “We won’t be needing any Christmas toys this year, thank you! Nor ever again! Look!”
Pitch could barely contain his glee as he and the yetis and the elves watched the remaining lights go out. It was just as he had planned!
Pitch waited for the final light to disappear. And waited. And waited.
“No,” Pitch said to himself.
At the same moment that Pitch watched that one light, Jack saw it too.
“Jamie!” Jack cheered.
There was no time to lose. Jack was off to Jamie’s house as fast as the wind could take him.
CHAPTER
TEN
Jamie was in his bed, talking to his old stuffed bunny rabbit.
“Okay, look, you and I are obviously at what they call a crossroads. So here’s what’s gonna happen—”
Jack appeared at Jamie’s window and moved in closer to hear.
“If it wasn’t a dream and if you are real, then you have to prove it. Like, right now.” Jamie stared at the bunny. When nothing happened, Jamie said, “I believed in you for a long time, okay? Like, my whole life, in fact. So you kinda owe me now.” Jamie hugged the rabbit to his chest. “You don’t have to do much, just a little sign so I know. Anything. Anything at all.” Moments passed in silence before Jamie dropped the toy to the floor.
“I knew it,” he whispered.
Jack slipped through the window and into Jamie’s room. He watched as Jamie’s eyes grew dark. His faith was fading fast. Jack had to do something.
Blowing frost onto Jamie’s window, Jack drew an Easter egg on the icy surface.
“Huh?” Jamie noticed the image. In a super-swoop, Jamie grabbed his stuffed rabbit back off the floor. “He’s real!”
Jack drew a bunny in the frosted glass, then using his magic powers, he concentrated on getting the drawing to hop across the window.
“Whoa.” Jamie was thrilled as the rabbit made of frost leaped into the bedroom and then burst into hundreds of snowflakes above his head.
“Snow?” Jamie asked.
A large flake landed on Jamie’s nose. The snowflake glowed blue. Jamie took a long look, considering, then whispered, “Jack Frost?” When no one replied, he stood on the bed and shouted, “Jack Frost!”
“He said it again.” Jack muttered as he came out of hiding. “He said . . . You said . . . ”
Jamie turned. “Jack Frost.”
“That’s right!” Jack cheered. “But that’s me! Jack Frost! That’s my name! You said my name!”
Jamie stood there, jaw hanging open, eyes wide in shock.
“Wait.” Jack realized something important. “Can you hear me?”
Jamie nodded.
“Can you see me?”
Jamie nodded.
“He sees me! He sees me!” Jack leaped with joy, and the room suddenly exploded with snow.
“You just made it snow,” Jamie remarked.
“I know!” Jack let more flakes fly.
“In my room,” Jamie said.
“I know!” Jack sang out.
“You’re real?” Jamie asked.
“Yeah,” Jack said. “Who do you think brings you all the blizzards and snow days, and you remember when you went flying on the sled the other day?”
Jamie glanced at the drawing he’d made, still taped to his wall. “That was you?”
“That was me!” Jack said.
“Cool,” Jamie gushed.
“Right?” Jack agreed.
“But what about the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy?” Jamie asked.
“Real, real, real!” Jack said. “Every one of us is real!”
Jamie clapped his hands. “I knew it!
Just then, Jamie’s Mom called from down the hall. “Jamie, who are you talking to?”
“Um,” Jamie said, grinning, “Jack Frost.”
Jamie’s Mom laughed. “Uh, okay.”
The sound of thunder made Jack and Jamie turn to the window.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” It was North and Tooth on the sleigh. The sleigh was out of control and crash-landed in Jamie’s yard. The reindeer got loose and made a break for the woods.
“Come back!” North called to them.
“North! Are you okay?” Tooth asked.
“It’s official,” North replied. “My powers are kaput.”
That’s when Tooth noticed Jack rushing toward them. Tooth tried to fly up to him, but wasn’t strong enough. “I guess that doesn’t work anymore,” she admitted.
“What are you doing here?” North asked Jack.
“Same as you,” Jack replied, and then he motioned to Jamie.
“Wow! It is you!” said Jamie. He looked at North and Tooth in awe. “I knew it wasn’t a dream.”
“Jack! He sees you!” North exclaimed.
“Wait, where’s Bunny?” asked Jack.
North looked down at the ground. “Bunny wasn’t so lucky,” he said sadly.
“Oh no,” said Jack as he noticed a regular-size bunny in the sleigh.
Jamie let out a giggle. “That’s the Easter Bunny?”
Bunny was frustrated. “Now somebody sees me! Where were you about an hour ago, mate?”
“What happened to him?” asked Jamie. “He used to be so huge and cool, and now he’s . . . cute.”
Bunny was at the edge of his nerves. “Did you tell him to say that?” he asked Jack. “That’s it! Let’s go! Me and you! Come on!
Jamie quickly tried to explain. “Actually, he told me you were real. Just when I started to think that maybe you weren’t.”
Bunny stopped hopping toward Jack. He turned to Jamie. “He made you believe? In me?”
Jack grinned. “One down, four hundred million to go.”
Bunny returned Jack’s smile, but it didn’t last very long. The group heard more thunder in the distance. Pitch was floating on nightmare sand in the air above them.
“Get Jamie out of here,” Jack ordered.
“What are you going to do?” asked North.
“I have no idea,” Jack admitted, and then, as the Guardians hurried away with Jamie, he jumped up and flew furiously fast at Pitch.
Pitch was shocked to see Jack flying up toward him after what he had done to him in Antarctica, but he sighed and flew down to meet him.
Jack and Pitch sailed right into each other and tumbled throughout the town. Snow and nightmare sand swirled everywhere as Pitch tried to obtain Jack’s staff once again.
“You should’ve stayed out of this, Jack,” Pitch warned. The two were now rising above the town. “If you had, it would be over by now. And you’d be no worse off.”
“But everyone else would be,” said Jack.
Pitch couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Since when do you care about everyone else?”
With a burst of energy, Jack pulled his staff free from Pitch’s grip, but before he knew it, the nightmare sand had twisted around it and pulled it away from him.
Without his staff, Jack couldn’t fly. Pitch started to wave good-bye as Jack fell to the ground.
Meanwhile, Pitch’s Nightmares were searching everywhere for Jamie and the powerless Guardians. Bunny led the way into an alley, only to find that it was a dead end.
Thud! Jack was back, having fallen into a Dumpster.
Jamie and the Guardians helped Jack up to his feet. “That was a good try, Jack!” North said encouragingly. “A for effort!”
But Jack could only think of one thing. “My staff. It’s gone.”
More thunder cracked behind them, and a shadow began to creep along the walls of the alley.
Pitch’s voice boomed down. “All this fuss over one little boy. And still he refuses to stop believing. Very well. There are other ways to snuff out a light.”
A
s if to prove his point, Pitch’s shadow began breaking the lights in the alley. Jamie looked scared.
“You want him, you’re gonna have to go through me!” said Bunny.
Pitch laughed. “Look how fluffy you are! Would you like a scratch behind the ears?”
“Don’t you even think about it,” Bunny retorted as he jumped back up into the safety of North’s arms.
Then Pitch’s shadow disappeared and was replaced by the sound of hooves trotting down the alley’s pavement. The real Pitch appeared, riding on Onyx. “I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see you all like this,” he said. “You look awful.”
It was true. Because of what Pitch had done, the Guardians were weaker than they’d ever been. And yet they still tried to protect Jamie.
“Jack, I’m scared,” Jamie confessed in a small voice.
A memory stirred in Jack. He remembered his sister saying that when the ice began to crack all those centuries ago. Jack remembered how he had assured her that she was going to be all right.
Now Jack knew what to do. He faced Jamie. “We’re gonna have a little fun instead.”
Pitch continued to close in on them. “So what do you think, Jamie? Do you believe in the Boogeyma—”
Pow! A snowball hit Pitch in the face. Jamie giggled as Pitch wiped away the snow. Jack handed Jamie another snowball.
“I do believe in you,” Jamie told Pitch. “I’m just not afraid of you.”
Pow! Another snowball hit Pitch in the face. With Pitch distracted, the Guardians, Jack, and Jamie ran out of the alley, but not before Jack picked up a few supplies out of the trash . . . wooden crates, a trash can lid, and a wok.
“Ready for a little more fun?” Jack asked Jamie.
Whoosh! A blue streak flew past a man walking his dog on the quiet streets of Burgess. Just like he did a few days ago, Jack was creating a path of ice with Jamie by his side. But this time, the Guardians followed on the trail in sleds made out of the wooden crates Jack had found in the alley.
“Yeah! Come on!” Jack encouraged.
“Cool!” added Jamie.
“Who needs a staff when a child believes in you? It’s like the first time the reindeer flew,” North observed.
“Let’s go get your friends!” Jack said to Jamie.
Cupcake was lying in bed, the covers pulled way up over her head, afraid of falling asleep and having another nightmare, when a snowball pounded into her window.
She lowered the covers and saw something she’d never seen before: It was snowing inside her room! For the first time in a while, Cupcake smiled.
A few houses down, Pippa was also amazed by the snow drifting down in her room. She went to the window when she heard a knock on the pane. She couldn’t believe what she saw: Jamie Bennett floating outside her second-story bedroom window!
“Jamie, how are you doing that?” she asked.
“Jack Frost,” Jamie answered. “Come on, we need your help!”
Jamie zoomed across the street, and that’s when Pippa saw him. “Is that . . . ?”
“Jack Frost!” Pippa heard Monty cry from inside his snowy bedroom.
The same thing happened in Claude and Caleb’s bedroom.
“Wow!” Claude exclaimed, watching the snowflakes fall from his ceiling.
Then Christmas presents fell at the foot of their beds.
“Merry Christmas!” North bellowed.
The twins rushed to their window and watched the Guardians speed past on their sleds.
“Happy Easter!” added Bunny.
“Don’t forget to floss,” Tooth put in.
Then, to the boys’ surprise, Cupcake sped by in her own sled.
“Jamie was right all along! The Easter Bunny is real!” said Caleb as a group of kids ran to catch up with Cupcake.
“And the Tooth Fairy,” added Pippa.
“And Santa!” said Monty.
“They’re all real!” cried Claude.
A few minutes later, Pitch stood on a rooftop, watching Jack, the Guardians, and Jamie and his friends come to a stop on their homemade sleds.
As the group looked up at him, he churned his nightmare sand, covering the sky above the town in pitch-black darkness.
“You think a few children can help you?” Pitch chided the Guardians. “Against this?”
Pitch directed the nightmare sand to wind its way through the town. Everything it touched was destroyed. Then the nightmare sand made its way toward the group.
Jack noticed the fear in Jamie’s face. “They’re just bad dreams,” he assured him.
“And we’ll protect you,” added Bunny as he, Jack, Tooth, and North moved in front of the children, blocking them from the nightmare sand.
“Aww, you’ll protect them.” Pitch sneered. “But who will protect you?”
Jamie looked around at his friends. They all looked even more scared than he did. Jamie was determined not to let Pitch win.
“I will!” he volunteered, and stepped forward.
Jamie’s friends all did the same. Soon, Jamie, Cupcake, Pippa, Monty, Claude, and Caleb were standing in front of the Guardians. The nightmare sand rushed toward them.
“They’re just bad dreams!” Jamie reminded his friends.
The kids all put their hands out as the nightmare sand barreled into them. But instead of knocking them over and hurting the Guardians, the black sand transformed into golden dreamsand!
“Whoa . . . ,” said Claude in absolute wonder.
Every strand of nightmare sand that the kids touched turned to dreamsand. Soon, the Nightmares were running every which way, trying to get away from the dreamsand.
“Jamie, what’s going on?” asked Pippa.
Pitch was wondering the same thing. His plans were crumbling along with his Nightmares.
Soon dreamsand was making its way into the bedrooms of children all over the town. Dreams were becoming sweet again.
In Pitch’s Lair, the Mini Fairies were gaining strength. Baby Tooth perked up. Her wings began to flutter.
And just like the Globe at the North Pole, the darkened Globe at the center of Pitch’s Lair began to glow with lights again. More and more lights sparked to life as the Mini Fairies opened the tooth boxes. The memories within the boxes returned to the minds of children all over the world.
Sophie looked out her bedroom window. Dreamsand rushed past, as if traveling down a golden highway from the sky.
“Pretty!” she exclaimed as a strand of dreamsand turned into a glittering butterfly outside her window.
As dreamsand made it into the windows of more and more sleeping children, the globe in North’s sleigh began to glow with more and more lights as children began to believe. Soon, North could feel his power rushing back. He pulled out his swords, ready to destroy some Nightmares.
At the same time, Tooth’s wings began to flutter again. Jamie and his friends cheered as Tooth zoomed through the air.
Tiny Bunny was being chased by a Nightmare. He tried to run and hide, but the Nightmare caught him by the tail. Bunny was prepared for the worst when all of a sudden, he grew into his old size again.
“G’day, mate!” Bunny greeted the Nightmare just before he flung his boomerangs and sliced the Nightmare in half.
Pitch continued to send his Nightmares into the fight, but the Guardians were now at their full strength. North threw a snow globe onto the ground, and the yetis and the elves from the North Pole came rushing in to help.
“No way!” Caleb and Claude exclaimed at the same time.
Elves parachuted in, bailing out of toy ducks and planes.
Bunny opened a big rabbit hole in the ground and then welcomed his Sentinel eggs. Some of Jamie’s friends hitched a ride on top of them.
Jack scanned the scene and saw Pitch sitting on Onyx on a rooftop. Pitch disappeared down the roof, and Jack ran to find him, with the Guardians in tow.
On the roof, Jack moved out of the way before Pitch’s nightmare sand could hit him.
“Ho, h
o, ho!” cried Bunny as he tossed boomerangs at Pitch.
Meanwhile, on the wrong roof, North burst out of a rabbit hole with his swords at the ready. “Hyah!” he yelled into the empty air.
On the ground below, the kids continued to face the Nightmares, reaching out and touching them, causing them to turn into golden dreamsand butterflies.
North jumped to the right roof and then knocked Pitch off the back of Onyx. Pitch made a scythe from the loose nightmare sand, just as North rushed toward him.
Clang! Pitch’s scythe met and North’s sword. Soon the other Guardians had Pitch surrounded.
“I hate you, Frost,” Pitch hissed, backing into an alley with the Guardians following close behind. He split himself into many shadows to distract them, then doubled back behind Jack. He held an ax made of nightmare sand in his hand.
“Jack!” Bunny warned.
But before Pitch could strike, a golden whip made of dreamsand bound Pitch’s hands together. The whip was being wielded by none other than Sandy. Dreamsand flooded toward Pitch, and he was thrown back by it.
The other Guardians were filled with joy by the return of their friend.
Sandy rose above the battle, shooting strands of golden dreamsand in every direction. Nightmares quickly disappeared, leaving behind only happy thoughts.
There was so much dreamsand floating around that Sandy turned some into a gigantic brontosaurus. Everyone cheered as Sandy created more creatures out of the dreamsand.
Jack started a snowball fight. He hit Jamie first. Jamie grabbed some snow of his own and pelted Claude.
“Oh yeah? Bring it on.” Claude took out an elf.
North pulled Jack aside.
“Your center?” he asked.
“It took a while, but I figured it out,” Jack said.
North grinned and tossed something to Jack. Jack caught it and knew instantly what it was: a nesting doll that looked just like Jack! Jack smiled at North. North winked. Then he lowered his eyes as he was hit by a snowball. North turned slowly to face Claude and Caleb. For an instant the boys looked scared, but then North laughed.
“You’re all on the naughty list,” he said. “Bunny, think fast!” North joined the fun by smacking Bunny in the face with snow.
Rise of the Guardians Movie Novelization Page 7
