In the sight of all this fun, Pitch was miserable. He rose into the sky and saw not one ounce of fear as dreamsand creatures roamed the streets, and snowballs whizzed through the air.
“You dare have fun in my presence?” he cried out to everyone. “I am the Boogeyman, and you will fear me!”
He swooped down toward Jamie and his friends, but instead of catching them, the kids ran right through him. They didn’t believe in him anymore.
The Guardians approached the now-powerless Pitch. He turned toward the forest outside of town and ran.
But Pitch couldn’t outrun the Guardians. They met up with him at the Pond.
“Leaving the party so soon?” North asked as Pitch crashed into him.
“You didn’t even say good-bye,” Tooth pointed out and then tossed a coin to Pitch.
“A quarter?” Pitch asked.
Whack! When Pitch wasn’t looking, Tooth punched him in the jaw. One of Pitch’s teeth slid across the ice.
“That’s for taking my fairies,” said Tooth.
Pitch scowled. “You can’t get rid of me!” Pitch looked down. He was standing in the center of the ice-covered Pond. “Not forever. There will always be fear.”
“So what?” North retorted. “As long as one child believes, we will be here to fight fear!”
Pitch pointed at hundreds of Nightmares emerging from the woods. “Really? Then what are they doing here?”
“I don’t know,” North said. “But they can’t be my Nightmares. I’m not afraid.”
“Looks like it’s your fear they smell,” Jack said to Pitch.
Suddenly, high in the sky, the clouds parted and moonlight shone through. Pitch’s eyes grew with terror as the Nightmares moved closer to him.
“AHHHHHH!” Pitch tried to run from the Nightmares, but a cloud of black sand swept him through the forest. Finally he was pulled under the old, broken bed and back down into the dark hole in the forest floor. The hole closed itself up, and Pitch was gone.
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
The sun began to shine over the Pond. Jack found his staff lying on the ground. He lifted it toward the sky.
The moon was there, shining its last moonbeams before the sun’s rays took hold of the day.
Jack looked up to see a faint smile on the barely visible face of the Man in the Moon. Jack smiled back.
Then he heard Tooth laugh. He looked around to see that he was surrounded by the Guardians.
“What’s going on?” Jack asked.
“Are you ready now, Jack?” North asked. “To make it official?” A yeti handed North the ancient book of the Guardians. “Then it’s time you take the Oath.” North cleared his throat. “Will you, Jack Frost, vow to watch over the children of the world?”
Jamie and his friends—along with the other Guardians, yetis, elves, and eggs—made a circle around Jack.
“To guard with your life their hopes, their wishes, and their dreams? For they are all that we have, all that we are, and all that we will ever be.” North finished reading the vow, and waited for Jack’s answer.
Jack looked first at Jamie, then at North. “I will.”
“Then congratulations, Jack Frost, for you are now and forevermore . . . a Guardian.” North closed the book.
The kids cheered wildly. The yetis and the eggs celebrated.
“You’re the man, Jack,” said Claude.
Bunny congratulated Jack. “Good job, mate.”
“Klassno!” North picked up Jack, giving him a hug with kisses on both cheeks.
Amid all the celebrating, Jack noticed the Mini Fairies flitting about, swooning and fainting with joy.
“Keep it together, girls,” Tooth reminded them.
Caleb pointed to something huge in the sky. “Look!”
“It’s Santa’s sleigh,” exclaimed Monty.
After everything they’d seen, the kids still couldn’t believe their eyes at the sight of the sleigh.
“Everyone loves the sleigh,” said North, chuckling. Then North saw the sun rising higher in the sky. “Time to go,” he told the Guardians.
Sandy threw dreamsand up into the air. It floated down softly and landed on Jamie and his friends, who began to yawn and stretch.
Bunny gave Sophie an egg. She giggled as she ran back to her brother. “Happy Easter, ya little ankle biter. I’m gonna miss you,” he called after her.
“You’re leaving?” Jamie asked drowsily. “But what if Pitch comes back? What if we stop believing again? If I can’t see you . . . ”
Jack knelt down to look Jamie in the eye. “Hey, hey, slow down. Are you telling me you stop believing in the moon when the sun comes up?”
“No,” Jamie replied.
“Okay, well, do you stop believing in the sun when the clouds block it out?”
“No,” Jamie repeated.
“We’ll always be there, Jamie. And now”—he pointed to Jamie’s heart—“we’ll always be here.” Jack smiled. “Which kind of makes you a Guardian too.”
Jamie was proud.
“Let’s go home. I’m sleepy,” Claude said.
“I can’t keep my eyes open,” Pippa agreed.
“What time is it?” Caleb asked. “I’m dreaming.”
Jack smiled as he stepped into the sleigh with the other Guardians.
Jamie waved good-bye as the sleigh began to speed along the ground. He ran behind the sleigh until it lifted into the air, heading for the North Pole.
Jack was happy. Happy to have helped defeat Pitch and to finally know who he really was: a Guardian. He turned back to watch Jamie as the sleigh careened into the morning sky. He formed a snowflake in his hands and let it go. . . .
THE END
Jack Frost can turn water to ice with just a touch of his magical staff, but he wishes he knew more about who he is and where he came from.
A dark presence has returned.
North sounds the call and gathers the Guardians to his fortress at the North Pole.
The Guardians are on their way!
The Man in the Moon has chosen a new Guardian: Jack Frost.
Tooth and her Mini Fairies are excited to see that the rumors about Jack’s sparkling white teeth are true.
But Jack doesn’t want to be a Guardian.
North asks Jack who he is. What is Jack’s center?
North shows Jack what’s at his center: eyes that have always seen the wonder in everything.
There’s trouble at the Tooth Palace. The Guardians climb into North’s sleigh. Everyone loves the sleigh . . . everyone except Bunny!
And they’re off!
Tooth stores every child’s baby teeth at the Tooth Palace. The teeth hold the most important memories of childhood.
Now Pitch has taken the teeth!
The Guardians must get the teeth back and stop Pitch before it’s too late, and they need Jack Frost’s help. Will he join them?
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
SIMON SPOTLIGHT
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Rise of the Guardians © 2012 DreamWorks Animation L.L.C.
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
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First Edition
ISBN 978-1-4424-3075-4 (print)
ISBN 978-1-4424-5254-1 (eBook)
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Rise of the Guardians Movie Novelization Page 8
