My Sister's a Guardian (RotG Fanfiction)

Chapter 24: Since Night Falls

(Content/trigger warnings for this chapter: depression-like thing)

--Ranya--

Now for the second part of the plan.

I spent more time reading next to my bed to lower Tooth's suspicion—her gaze darted to me every time I moved even a millimeter. But after a few hours, I strode downstairs to where Sandy and Zachary were. Tooth flew a few inches behind me, her feathers bristled. Sandy knelt on the white rug in the living room, Dreamsand spiraling from his hands to form small dinosaurs of all different species. Zachary sat in front of him, trying his hardest to squish all seventeen of them onto his lap with his pudgy arms. The toys kept falling off, and he growled.

"Sandy!" I called, doing my best to make my voice sound cheerful amidst the still-present weight in my body. He and Zachary turned to me.

I bent to their level on the scraggly rug. "Could you please make me one?" I pointed to Zachary's dinosaurs.

Tooth's eyes narrowed, and she rubbed her arms as if she were cold. "What would you need it for?"

"Who wouldn't want something made by the Sandman?"

"It's just that you've been suspicious today, Ranya. I can't help but worry. You could knock someone unconscious with that Dreamsand."

"I won't. I need your protection."

"I just can't take your word for it."

"What happened at the school today was a mistake, Tooth."

Dreamsand coalesced into a dinosaur in Sandy's golden hands, and he held it out toward me.

Tooth tried to grab it away, but I snatched it and clutched it hard against my chest as I ran back upstairs to my room.

Tooth followed close behind. She was in my room a mere second after I had crossed its threshold into—a battleground. That was what this room had become. Not the lively greenhouse my sister thought it was, or the homey area I did, but a place to plan and plot and fight.

I needed to distract Tooth while I got the Dreamsand off this dinosaur.

"I had anxiety that suddenly began six years ago and then stopped after four." The grainy texture of the Dreamsand—not unlike its dark opposite—dug into my arms as I pressed it tighter to my chest and stood my ground in the middle of the room. I would not back down. Could not.

"That is strange." Tooth's voice was even as she hovered a few short inches in front of me. She looked down at my dinosaur. "But Ranya, I'm sorry, you can't have this." She tried to seize it from my tight grasp. I hunched over, shielding it with my body.

"Do you know what happened with my anxiety?" I kept my hands as close to my chest as possible and dug my fingernails into the dinosaur's legs, scraping away some of the Dreamsand. The toy let out a crunch, and I froze.

Tooth's eyes darted to my fingers. "What are you doing?" She darted so close to my face and so suddenly that it startled me, and she was able to grab hold of the dinosaur. She yanked as her eyes shone. I held on tightly. "Ranya! Are you scratching off Dreamsand?"

I pressed the scraped golden dust in one palm back onto the dinosaur and clenched the other in a fist. "No. I just touched it wrong."

Tooth finally managed to yank the dinosaur away and began examining it. Gashes would be evidence that I needed searching—and crumbly Dreamsand wouldn't be easy to hide. If she found a spot, Isabelle and I probably wouldn't be able to escape tonight. I had to distract her—better this time.

Tooth went right to the legs. She began running her fingers over their surfaces and held the Dreamsand creation up to her bright pink eyes.

"Hey Tooth! Exactly how many feathers do you have?" I questioned.

"I don't know, Ranya." Tooth ran her fingers over the part I had originally scraped some off but smoothed over.

I tried a different tactic. "So you can just take my things now?"

"This was a gift."

"Gifts belong to the receiver."

She darted to the part on the leg I hadn't restored as her eyes widened, looking intently.

"So you hurt minors now?" I tried again. Tooth looked up. "You guys are forcing Isabelle into danger against her will, and now you're taking my things?"

Tooth gave a grim smile. "We're in trying times, Ranya. I have to be suspicious of you; you could put yourself and others in danger with this Dreamsand. And Isabelle was chosen to be a Guardian. She can defend herself."

I latched onto the more emotional thing. The more passionate, angry thing. "She's a child."

"Katherine was, too, and we wouldn't have defeated Pitch the first time without her. Isabelle just hasn't realized her calling."

"The Man in the Moon can find someone less terrified for her life."

Tooth gave me a pitiful look. "We need Isabelle to defeat Pitch. Perhaps even kill him for good this time."

"You should stop acting like her fear doesn't matter. You fight fear! Fear, Pitch, has killed two of your fellow Guardians. Have you forgotten about your friends who are somehow more important than my sister?"

Tooth's eyes paused, then looked away. "People are dying from the Terror Storms, too. Since this morning, three more have struck. There are over a thousand people dead." That's the Man in the Moon's fault for not choosing someone willing to fight now. I didn't voice that thought.

Tooth evidently didn't notice the small uncovered spot I had taken from, for she flittered over and set the dinosaur on top of the books on my shelf.

I had gone too far.

After that, it was easy to hide the Dreamsand in Isabelle's drawer in the bathroom; Tooth apparently didn't think I was as suspicious anymore. My chest squeezed a bit painfully, though; I was going behind her back, and I had brought up painful memories that clearly still haunted her. Lying to her to protect Isabelle was one thing. Convincing Tooth she was horrible was another.

I told Isabelle her ChapStick was almost gone (it was) and that she needed to check it out. She seemed to get my underlying point.

As I walked back to my room, light suddenly streamed in through my window. Windshallow had returned to day.

Step two was completed.

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