We stopped right outside the office door.

"Alright, here it is," Jack said. He waited for me to go in first, but I found my feet frozen to the ground and my eyes glued to the door. "What's the matter?" he asked, seeing my delay.

"Is he... mad at me?" I asked. Jack genuinely looked surprised.

"Why would he be mad at you?" he asked.

"I wasn't exactly... nice to him before," I admitted. "I got mad at him, and shouted at him for trying to make me a Guardian, when he had been nothing but kind to me. At the time, I was too angry to care, but now I feel kind of guilty about the way I acted."

"Nah, he's not angry," he said. "None of them are. I think you made Bunny feel guilty though. He won't admit it, but he feels terrible that he hit a girl."

Finally, a laugh bubbled up and out of my mouth before I could stop it, and he smiled triumphantly.

"I am kind of curious though, why don't you want to be a Guardian?" I shrugged, like it wasn't a big deal, but it was; we both knew it was.

"Well, for a number of reasons. I've been alone so long, I'm not sure I could fit in with people again, I feel betrayed by the Moon, I don't know how I could possibly help to protect children, I don't have any believers... any one of them is a good enough excuse by itself, and I qualify for all of them."

Jack nodded. "I get it, I was the same way. I fought against them at first. Had to go on a whole messed up adventure with the Guardians before I actually became one." This peaked my interest a bit.

"Really?" He nodded, and gestured to the door.

"In there is the single most forgiving man you will ever meet. He looks pretty tough on the outside but, well, you'll get the Russian doll speech sooner or later."

I stared at this Jack for a moment, gauging his character, and from what I could tell he was one of the most genuine people I'd met in a long time. Somehow, I knew I could trust him and his judgement, at least on this. I gathered up my courage, and knocked on the door.

"You may enter!" North shouted from inside. I slowly opened the door and slipped inside, followed by Jack. I was glad he decided to come in as well. I would probably need the moral support.

North looked up from where he was sculpting what looked like a remote controlled transformer, and gave me a big smile.

"Vera! Jack! Good to see you! You are feeling better now, dah?" I nodded, and North offered for Jack and I to sit in the two chairs on the other side of his desk.

"So, I imagine you have quite the story to tell," North said seriously. "But this is only if you are ready to tell it."

"I am," I insisted. "It's really important that you know all of what I know, as well as the other Guardians. Did you want them to be here or..." I trailed off and waited for him to pick it up.

"If you only feel comfortable speaking to Jack and I, or just me, or just Jack, then you may do zat, but if you would rather speak to everyone, zat can be arranged as vell."

I thought about it carefully. It wouldn't be an easy story to tell in front of so many people, but they all needed to hear it. It was really important, and she couldn't help but feel like this is what The Man in the Moon had chosen her for.

"I think this is something that everyone needs to hear," I said finally. He nodded with a warm smile.

"Then we will meet in sitting room. Come! I will send for other Guardians." North strode out of the room, and Jack and I had to trot to keep up.

"Daryl, find Bunny and bring him to meeting room. Phil, vere did Sandy fall asleep?"

A particular large yeti, Phil apparently, answered with in a peculiar language that Vera had never heard before.

"In room already? Perfect! Is Toothy back yet?"

More babbling and arm waving.

"Well, send Northern lights for her. Meeting will be soon!"

"Phil" nodded and marched off to do his job, and North continued leading them back to the sitting/meeting room.

"Your wings," North said to Vera. "They are not damaged?"

I bit the inside of my lip and glanced back at them. They were both distinctly ruffled and messy. The left one, which has been dislocated just yesterday, was still very sore and swelling a bit at the joint. The right one was just stiff from the excess flying. I did not fly at top speed very often, and to keep it up for four hours was quite the feat.

"I'll be fine," I said. North looked down at them in concern.

"Vill have Toothy look at them after meeting," he said. I just nodded, and we finally entered the sitting room. Yesterday, I had not been in the right mind to appreciate how cozy the room really was. There was a wide assortment of recliners and loveseats as well large roaring fire taking up almost one entire wall that she noticed Jack seemed to stay as far away from as possible.

Next to the coffee table floated a short, glowing man with a suit made from golden sand and a wild, windswept, yellow hair. He was fast asleep, his chin resting on his chest and I wondered if he was used to sleeping like that or if he would wake up with a crick in his neck.

I was careful not to disturb him as I passed, and I chose to sit on a stool closest to the window, and taking the opportunity to preen my feathers. Despite popular belief, birds do not just preen to make themselves look nice or to keep themselves clean. It's much easier to fly if all of your feathers are in place and perfect condition. I was still picking at my feathers and straightening the ones that could be salvaged when Bunny came in with a handful of half painted eggs.

I pretended not to notice when he stopped to look at me nervously, but Jack made it impossible to do so when he said, "Stop looking like a nervous rabbit, kangaroo. She's not going to bite." He paused and looked at me uncertainly. "Are you?"

I smirk and muttered, "Probably not." Bunny still didn't look comforted and took the seat furthest from mine. Jack chuckled lowly, and twirled his staff, sending a soft gust of cold wind through the room. He leaned down to whisper something to me when Tooth came zipping in the room followed closely by what looked like a miniature version of herself. The mini tooth fairy looked around and at the sight of Jack, she gave an excited squeak and zipped over to sit on his shoulder.

"Hey there, Baby Tooth," Jack greeted. "Baby Tooth" squeaked happily in reply before peering curiously at Vera.

"Baby Tooth, this is Vera," Jack introduced. "Vera, Baby Tooth."

I smiled at the adorable little heterochromia fairy with one blue eye, and one violet eye.

"Pleasure to meet you," I said, offering her one of my fingers to shake. Baby Tooth looked elated and shook my finger happily before freezing and looking at my smile. In an instant she was right in front of my face, squeaking excitedly and trying to get a better look at the inside of my mouth.

"She wants to see your teeth," Tooth explained almost sheepishly. "I may or may not have told her how pretty they are." I allowed myself to smile with my teeth and Baby Tooth actually swooned.

"Hey, I thought my teeth were the pretty ones," Jack whined teasingly.

"Oh they are beautiful," Tooth assured. "But it's not every day we see teeth as naturally white and straight as hers. Consider yourselves equal."

Jack shook his head at me in mock sorrow. "Stealing my fangirls out from underneath my nose," he said teasingly.

Baby Tooth squeaked something at him that only Tooth understood and they both giggled before the little fairy sat herself back on Jack's shoulder.

"Now that ve are all here, ve can get to the matter at hand," North said, regrettably bringing the light atmosphere down a few notches. "Vera has seen something zat she says is very disturbing, and may affect the children of the entire vorld."

And suddenly I was the center of attention. All six of the Guardians were staring at me expectantly. My mouth went dry and I swallowed hard.

"I... I guess it started when I left here yesterday. I was... angry and upset. I left to be alone but I decided a visit to Christopher Robin's house would do better to cheer me up. But as I got closer to his house I got a weird feeling."

"Feeling?" Bunny asked. I was surprised by his question as he had not spoken a word to me since my less than triumphant return, but his question was not hostile. He was genuinely curious.

"I have a natural instinct for anything supernatural related, as it is my job to lead the Wandering spirits of Earth to their afterlives," I explained quickly. He nodded and silently gestured for me to continue.

"When I got to the house, all the lights were off and the door was open. I went inside, and it was a mess. It looked like a tornado had struck, but just inside of that house. His parents were not just dead, they were mutilated. Who ever killed them... they-they-they..."

I couldn't finish the sentence so I took a deep calm breath, slowly let it out, and continued. "When I found Christopher, he was hurt, but alive. I didn't know where else I could take him. I thought of going back to Halloween Town, but I didn't know if the thing that did this was seeking refuge there, so I flew here."

I looked at all of the Guardians. North was not looking so jolly anymore, and Tooth had tears welling in her big, violet eyes. Sandy looked down, and his mellow smile was replaced with a concerned frown. The happy, ever present sparkle in Jack's eyes had dimmed to an angry storm grey color, and snowflakes started floating down from the ceiling. Bunny... Bunny wasn't even looking at me. He had his back to me, staring into the fire, but his ears were drooping.

"What do you think could have done this?" Tooth asked shakily. "Not even Pitch would do something so... so..."

"Repulsive? Insane? Sick? Sadistic?" Jack spat. "Who ever did this is putting everyone in the world at danger, not just the kids."

"It was definitely a spirit," I said. "I could feel the energy radiating from the house and—" A horrible realization dawned on me. Just the other night I had been about to track down a Wanderer. I had felt it and was about to go after it when I became distracted. "It was there the day Bunny and I had our fight..."

Finally, Bunny turned around. "What does our fight have to do with this?" He asked slowly.

"That night, when I was leaving Christopher Robin's house, I was going to find a Wanderer, a mortal spirit trapped on earth, that was in the area. When you attacked me, I forgot about it. But... I think it was the same spirit that attacked Christopher."

  ****I DO NOT OWN DREAMWORKS, RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, DISNEY, WINNIE THE POOH, SLENDERMAN, HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA OR ANYTHING ELSE!!!!! JUST THE STORY PLOT! ****  

Last Edited 2/28/19