Chioniphobia

Ombré

"Do you know what her wings looked like?" Jack asked.

North stopped fiddling with whatever contraption he was working on and looked up at his fellow Guardian, blue eyes startled. "What?"

"Grim. Back when she had wings, do you know what they looked like?"

"Grim had wings?"

Jack shrugged, hopping down from his perch on a nearby shelf. "I'll take that as a no, then."

"Now I am curious about answer as well. Did not know Grim was having wings." North strolled over to where his coat hung and dug a snow globe out of one of its pockets. "We ask Bunny- he knows her best. The Warren!" he commands the globe, throwing it on the ground so that it bursts in a flash of brilliant, swirling light.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Bunny was used enough to the sight of one of North's signature snow globe arrivals, but not quite enough to keep from dropping the egg he was working on when St. Nick performed one in the middle of the Warren. He let loose a few choice curses- that egg had sported an especially striking ombré that he was particularly proud of, at least up to the point where it smashed on the ground.

"Bloody-" Bunny let out a sharp breath. "North. ...and Jack? What are you doing here?"

"We have question for you!" boomed North.

Bunny sighed resignedly. "Yeah, alright, what is it."

"What did Grim's wings look like?" Jack inquired, hopping up on top of one of the egg golems.

He sputtered. "W- wait, what?"

"Wings! What did they look like?" North clarified helpfully.

"N-no, I got that part, it's just- Grim? The Grim Reaper? Wings?"

Jack frowned. "Aaaand he doesn't know either. Figures."

Bunny side-eyed the frosty sprite, who was now lying upside-down on the stone-faced sentry of the Warren.

"How do you know she had wings?" he demanded.

"She told me."

"Yeah, but-" Bunny cut himself off again. "Well, if you wanted to know so badly, why ask me? Why not ask her brother?"

"Grim is having brother now as well? Where is he?"

The Guardian of Hope rolled his eyes. "C'mon. You know who Sandy is, North."

Jack sat upright, nearly tumbling off the golem. "Sandman?"

"Did not know he was having sister, especially not the Grim Reaper," North mused.

"Well, they're not biologically related or anything. Sandy told me he just found her one day, though he didn't say anything about her having wings."

Bunny turned to find he was addressing empty air. The wintery Guardians had already rushed off to interrogate their next victim.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Sandy! Hey, Sandy!"

Jack waved his hands like an airport traffic controller signaling that it was clear to come in for a landing. Sandman peered over the edge of his dreamsand cloud and, recognizing his fellow Guardians, floated down with a smile.

(What's up?) he signed.

"We have burning question for you, friend!" North proclaimed.

"Two, actually," interjected Jack. "One, why didn't you tell us you had a sister? Two, what did her wings look like? And, uh, while we're asking, three: what happened to her wings? She told me a human was the reason she couldn't fly anymore, but that's all she told me."

Sandy smiled, though his eyes were sad. (Three kinds of people in this world, Jack: those who can count, and those who can't.)

"Yes, is more than two questions, but we must know!" North protested.

Sandy sighed and formed a new dreamsand cloud to seat himself on, sitting cross-legged as he beckoned for his friends to come closer. They obeyed, North crouching a bit in order to see eye-to-eye with his companions.

(None of you ever asked if I had any family,) Sandy began. (I didn't really know it mattered. I don't know if you guys have family, either.)

"I had a sister," Jack offered.

"Lived in orphanage. Do not know of blood family, but had many many brothers and sisters," North added.

Sandy nodded and continued. (Grim used to have black wings, like a raven's, only bigger. A human cut them off- a nonbeliever. You ever wonder why humans can't see magic?)

"Thought that was simply way things were," North replied, and Jack agreed silently.

(Well, it is now. Back then, they could see magic just fine. But when that human cut Grim's wings off, the Man in the Moon made a veil between the world of magic and mortals to keep anything like that from ever happening again.)

"She could not just regrow wings? Is not way of birds, but she is magic, like us," North argued.

Jack's eyes widened, realization striking. "Not when a human cut them off. That's why the moon did what he did- so humans and people like us couldn't hurt each other. Magic can hurt humans a lot, but humans can hurt magic a lot, too. Eventually one would've stamped the other out."

Jack pictured what would've happened if humans had been able to see him back when he'd first changed, regardless of belief. Would he have been worshiped for his power? Locked up as a carnival freakshow? Maybe his abilities would've caused hysteria, forming mobs to hunt him down. It wouldn't have been a picnic for the others, either: maybe North could've kept his more magical side a secret, but the other three were very clearly not human. He doubted Tooth, Easter, and Sandy would've been as well received if everyone could see them.

(Before, people like us had to stay hidden. Now, we have to work to stay seen,) Sandy summarized. (Only Guardians have to depend on belief, but we're practically immortal otherwise. Some magical peoples are immortal, too, but they're not able to influence the mortal world like us. Others have long lifespans, but they do die. Grim and Pitch don't fit in either category- belief influences their power, like us, but they don't fade when people stop believing.) Sandy paused. North and Jack got the impression that he was taking a breath. (I was like that too, once.)

"But not anymore?" North inquired, raising a bushy eyebrow.

Sandy nodded. (Gave it up when I became a Guardian. Grim wasn't too happy with that.)

Jack mulled over this, thinking of scars forming grooves in pale, thin skin. He stood on his toes and whispered something to North, whose eyes lit up. The Guardian of Wonder laughed, a hearty laugh where he buckled Jack's knees with a slap to the back while holding his vast belly.

"Excellent idea! Come, Sandy, back to the Pole!"

A bemused Sandman allowed himself to be dragged off by a bright-eyed Jack and an enthusiastic North.