Nonexistent (Rise of the Guardians)

7. You, Sir, Do Not Look Very Nice.

We emerged from the windless vortex into a warm climate, with bright light in great contrast to the cold lighting of the North Pole. My scarf fell off my nose in the fierce wind as I blinked to adjust my eyes to the sudden sunlight, and the world came into focus.

A colorful palace painted in shades of pink and orange stood among hundreds of parapets shining with golden plating, all built into the underside of a hollowed out mountain. The rising sun shined between brightly colored balconies as the glittering Tooth Palace stood in the brilliance of the dawning light. I was mesmerized in the palace's brilliance, until I saw blurry black shapes darting around the parapets of the castle.

I was pretty sure the streaks of black careening through the sky were not supposed to be there to mar the beauty of Toothiana's domain.

North squinted as he leaned forward in the front seat of the sleigh, muttering to himself in confusion. Jack leapt into a crouch as indistinct black shapes jetted by with savage screeches. Bunny looked slightly less airsick and quite a bit more concerned. Sandman leaned forward in his seat as he stared straight ahead, and I pulled my aviator goggles off of my eyes to hold my whipping hair back from my forehead so I could see better.

Suddenly, the sleigh and all its passengers were engulfed in a swirling black mass as bits of shadows flitted past, in the shape of nightmarish horses with snapping manes of black sand. They bolted past us, screeching and snapping up mini fairies that were buzzing by in a panicky state.

"They're taking the tooth fairies!" Jack shouted, vaulting up high to snatch a teensy fairy out of the air just as the nightmare that was pursuing it was about to snap it up. As it rushed by the sleigh, I saw a whole little flock of the mini tooths inside its nearly transparent belly. I wondered offhandedly exactly how many of these little sprites there were to help Toothiana with her job as Jack asked Baby Tooth if she was alright.

I snapped out of my stunned daze when the sleigh jerked sharply to avoid colliding with an oncoming nightmare as it galloped at us head on. The living shadow swerved upwards, and North sliced it in two with his gigantic sword as soon as it flew overhead. A handful of metal boxes clattered to the floor of the sleigh when it disintegrated, the little gold containers glinting in the light as North skillfully navigated the sleigh around the marauding nightmares and we sped towards the tooth palace.

"No. They're taking the teeth!" Bunnymund exclaimed as he inspected the metal boxes on the floor.

"What exactly are they?" I shouted over the roaring noise of the wind. Sandy held up his small hand, which was full of black sand from the disintegrated nightmare. I squinted at it for a moment before snapping my attention back to the chaos surrounding us.

We were among the columns and portcullises of the Tooth Palace at this point, dodging nightmares and ornate spirals as we swerved through the air among the pillars supporting Toothiana's palace.

North shoved the reins into Jack's hands and told him to take over before North jumped onto the front of the sleigh and slashed through two nightmares as we flew. Jack snapped the reins and smirked mischievously as he made the reindeer double their speed and weave between pillars even more quickly than before. We narrowly missed several portcullis as North continued to slice through nightmare horses and the rest of us clung onto the edges of the sleigh because Jack's driving was literally the most terrifying thing ever.

I am beyond relieved that he never got a chance to get a drivers license. Or a car.

I screamed in surprise as we clipped a pillar and the sleigh, reindeer, and passengers were sent spiraling onto the platform in the center of the palace, where an agitated Tooth Fairy was dashing back and forth in a panic. Centrifugal force made us all fly out of the sleigh and land in two large heaps, with me sprawled on top of Jack in an unorganized pile, Jack's staff skittering a foot or two away, and my goggles getting crooked from the impact of falling. The others landed in a significantly larger pile a little ways off, North in a position that made him crush both Bunny and Sandman with his bulk. Jack and my noses were almost touching, and I blinked as his playful blue eyes met my stunned golden ones. I smirked and pulled my arm out from under myself to flick him in the forehead.