The Guardian Games.
Jacks POV
It had been a few months since we had defeated Pitch. I was sleeping in a snow pile by my lake when I heard bells. I opened my eyes and looked for the source of the noise. In the distance heading straight for my lake was the sleigh. I hopped out of the snow bank and awaited Norths arrival. The sleigh landed on my lake. I could hear the cracks under it and I slammed my staff onto the ice to make it thicker. North jumps out of the sleigh followed by Tooth and Sandy. They all run and engulf me in a huge hug.
"Wh- wh- guys . . . I cant . . . Breath." The last bit came out as a gasp as I couldn't breath. They let go and I took in a lungful of air.
"So. Why are you all here?"
"Because the games shall begin shortly." Tooth replied.
"Games?"
"Yes Guardian Games. Shall be fun. You will join no?" North boomed.
"Join? Whats going on? What are the games?"
"Its were all of us Guardians compete in a game that each of us pick. For example my game I picked is whmmrh mrrhmmhrh!" north had placed his hand over tooth's mouth to stop her from saying any more.
"Can not tell you what games are. So will you join?" North asked
"Um. Sure?"
"Yay!" Tooth squealed. Sandy made images of them all going to the pole and smiled widely at me. North came over with a big grin and slapped me on the back dragging all the air out of my lungs.
"Come to sleigh!" I smiled up at him struggling to catch my breath. This would be interesting. Upon arriving I see bunny looking out the globe room window apparently miffed about something. Hes wearing a huge coat, gloves, a blanket, and even socks on his ears and a face mask. None of his fur was visible. I fly out and meet him in the globe room.
"Hey Kangaroo, whats up. . . With . . You?" I slowed down with the look he gave me. I backed away to what felt like a safe distance. I studied bunny who looked like he wanted to kill someone. *why? Is it because I said id join the games? Whats got him so angry?* That's when North walked in.
"Ahh bunny, still angry I see."
"Ya I'm bloody angry! Now leave me alone!"
"What happened?" I directed the question at North but kept watching bunny. At that Bunny whirled around and jabbed a gloved finger at my face.
"You! You happened!"
"Well how about you tell me what I did!" I yelled back.
"You, you dyed my fur Pink!" with that he took off the coat, gloves, socks, mask, and blanket. Bunny was indeed pink. I couldn't help it I laughed right there.
" I . . . Don't know who . . . Did it but that's . . . Priceless!" I said in between laughs.
"why you little! Wait what? This wasn't you?"
"nope. But whoever did it is awesome!" I said still laying on the floor letting out peals of laughter.
"if it wasn't you, then who. . . . . . North" bunny glares at North who backs away with a sheepish smile.
"Ahh. I knew this would happen sooner or latter. I just thought it would be funny. It is funny no?"
"its hilarious North! why didn't you tell me? I would have done it myself!"
"why you little!" bunny screams as he launches himself at me from across the room. I didn't move out of the way in time and was thrown into the wall. I heard a loud crack and suddenly pain flared up from my wrist witch was bent at an odd angle. I stifled the yell and merely groaned. Bunny looked guilty for throwing me.
"sorry mate. Thought you would move in time." he mumbled.
"its okay. I'm fine." I said forcing a smile that I feared was actually a grimace.
"so when do these games begin?" I asked trying to divert the attention away from me so I could inspect my throbbing wrist.
"ah! Right now. First we begin with Sandy's!" North bellows. I nod and follow bunny and north out side were Sandy is waiting.
Sandy's game really only consisted of us running away as sandy barraged us with dream sand balls. We were playing a sort of dodge ball game. Only instead of sitting out when your hit, your in for a good long nap. I ducked just in time as another golden ball whizzed by my head. North was laying on the ground candy canes dancing above his head. Yetis ran around panicking with out north in charge. This only served to help me and the others hide from Sandy's golden balls of slumber. I hid behind another yeti and heard a squeal as tooth was hit with a dream ball. I smirked. Now only the kangaroos left. I turned and bumped the yeti I was hiding behind with my left hand. Pain once again flared up in my wrist. I was pretty sure it was broken but it was nothing a bit of snow couldn't fix. I have broken many other bones in my three hundred years of solitude and all I did was rub some snow on it and it was fine. Suddenly the yeti I was hiding behind screamed and ran away. I looked up in time to see yet another dream sand orb coming my way I jumped up and flew to my left effectively running into bunny. We both fell to the ground and bunny was hit with a golden sand orb.
"hey! That means I won!" I shouted with a large smile. I had won the first guardian game. Sandy floats over and nods. He smiles at me and then out of nowhere hits me with a golden dream sand orb. I fell back and drifted off into sleep. I woke up in my room in the pole. *wait why am I here?* I reached up and ran my hand threw my hair biting my lip at the sudden pain in my wrist that's when it all came back to me. Pink bunny, the games, and my broken wrist. I made some snow with my staff and placed it on my wrist. The pain died down to a bearable throb. I got up and made my way down to the globe room. Inside I found bunny smiling evilly at tooth, sandy, and especially North. *still not over that great prank* I inched my way in and hid in the shadows. I was content to just listen to their conversation.
"should we wake Jack?" Tooth was asking.
"no let him sleep. Hell need his rest for ma 'game'" bunny replied.
"and what would this game be I wonder" I said popping up from behind Bunny's chair and scarring the rabbit so he jumped 4 feet high.
"an Easter egg hunt. " he said with a smile. I raised my eyebrows at him.
"with a twist." he then explains that we are to find as many eggs as we can in his warren. However some of them are traps. He didn't elaborate on the traps just said we should avoid them. With that were falling threw Bunny's tunnels on our way to the warren. When we arrived still pink Bunny started to hand out maps of the warren. They had four red X's on them to witch he explained are booby trap eggs. Then Bunny walks over to a large hourglass.
"Best you hurry mates." he says with a smirk. We set off hunting for the eggs. I flew down some of the tunnels and was able to find two eggs. Though they were probably the only ones in the tunnels. After five minuets of searching the tunnels I flew up high above warren looking for the colorful blobs. Instead I saw tooth searching the area by the rainbow river, sandy hunting in a couple tunnels I already cleared and Bunny stalking North who had made his way to the fields. I decided that it wouldn't hurt to check their as well. I checked my map and saw North heading straight for one of the trap eggs. *whats he doing?! That egg is clearly marked as a trap!* I look at Bunny who has a huge evil grin on his face. *oh. Getting back for that prank. Nice one kangaroo!* I hover out of sight but close enough to see whats going on. North approaches the bright red egg. As he picks it up he sees there is a message in the paint. I squint and can just make out what it says. Merry Christmas North. I watch as the egg explodes showering North in rainbow paint. He turns around and I get a clear look at his face and almost burst out laughing. North's white beard was now purple, green, and yellow. His hair was orange and blue and his face witch got the full force of the paint bombs blast was a swirl of every color I've seen. It spiraled out in a circular pattern shaped like an egg. I heard Bunny snickering in the bushes not far off. North turns to the bushes and starts yelling at bunny.
"What was that! That not fair! This is Easter egg hunt not prank war!" North yelled.
"hey mate, I already told you it was an Easter egg hunt with a twist. Certain eggs are traps. I've marked four on your map. I didn't say there was only four." Bunny replied with a smirk. With that he bounded away from North who stood there huffing. Ya he was mad. I got out of there pretty quick. I didn't want to be caught in the crossfire between Bunny and North. I head out farther into the meadow. I find three more eggs and place them in my basket. I hear Bunny yelling for everyone to come back to the clearing by the river. I fly over to find North covered in even more paint. Tooth had some on her feathers but quite a few eggs. Sandy had loads and no paint what-so-ever. North had one egg. I had five. Tooth had seven and somehow Sandy had found 12. Bunny then declares Sandy as winner of the second game. And with that bunny opens another tunnel back to the pole. Now it was time for Norths game. We gathered around out side the globe room and North led us to the sleigh. But instead of the big sleigh we found four mini ones. Each with a reindeer harnessed to it. Bunny stared in slack jawed silence. North had picked this just to get back at Bunny I'm sure. North tells us that we must fly our sleighs out of the workshop and through the obstacle course out side. I jump into one of the sleighs.
"ready, set, GO!" North bellows. I grad the reins with my uninjured hand and snap them. The reindeer from all four sleighs take off down the icy track. Tooth's in the lead with Sandy on her tail. Bunny is gritting his teeth and looks like hes going to puke as he barrels down the track after Sandy. I notice that I'm not going fast. In fact I'm hardly moving at all. I snap the reins again and we slowly start to accelerate. *uggh! If only my wrist wasn't broken!* I mentally scream at my self. I grab the reins with both hands and give it a large snap. The reindeer takeoff down the track as I gasp at the pain from my wrist. I start to catch up to Bunny who has managed to pass Sandy. The poor the sandman had ran into a pillar of ice. He sat there shaking his fist at Bunny. Tooth was the first one out of the ice caves. Bunny on her tail. As I fly out of the ice caves I see Bunny and his sleigh falling to the ground. He was going too fast and took a sharp turn effectively hitting the floating ice burg. North comes out of the caves in THE sleigh and saves Bunny and the reindeer. I focus on the course. In front of me is a series of ice burgs and pillars. I fly forward and dodge three of the ice burg walls and weave around the pillars set in the middle of the paths. I grit my teeth with every motion in my left hand. I start to come up on tooth who's slowing down. I yank on the reins to avoid running into tooth. However, when I pulled on the reins I pulled with more force on the right so as to not hurt my left hand any more than necessary witch in turn made the reindeer slow but jerk to the right. We hit a large ice burg and fell out of the sky. At first I began to panic but then I remembered my staff. I turned to pick it up and instead saw it falling above me. I jumped and reached as far as I could but it was a good five feet away from my hand. I looked up at North expecting him to come and help me. However he was busy announcing Tooth as the winner of the game. I yelled for them but my voice was carried away by the wind. I was fast approaching the water. The reindeer was still dazed. I unhooked him from the sleigh and he took off toward North and the others. I look down and fear seizes me. I drowned once. I could drown again. The sleigh hits the water with such force it splinters and cracks in half. I'm thrown into the water from the impact and desperately try to swim to the surface. My lungs start to burn and I unwillingly try to breath. Instead water rushes in and I start to cough effectively filling my lungs with more water. I don't know witch ways up. The edge of my vision starts to go fuzzy and black. I hear a muffled scream. Then everything gos black.
Sandy's POV
I had seen Jack falling and hit the water. I started tugging on Norths coat but he shoos me away. I fly up into his face and show a picture of Jack falling into water. North turns around to where I'm pointing and we immediately take off to help Jack. When we get there Tooth screams while I used my sand whips to illuminate the water and bring him up. I lay him down on the floor of the sleigh and North starts beating on his chest to get the water out of his lungs. After three dreadful minuets he sits up and lunges to the side puking up water. I notice that his right hand is griping the side of the sleigh while his left is cradled to his chest. Its then that I realize how its bent at a strange angle. *he must have broke it during the fall* I tried to tell North but he had no idea what I was saying. Tooth was fussing over Jack and wouldn't let anyone commune with her. Bunny was in a state of shock. He just stared at Jack. Jacks POV I was only semi conscious when I started breathing again. My lungs burned as I tried to get the water out. I'm finally able to see again and look up at Tooth who is telling me nonsense. Bunny's in shock, North's looking down guiltily and waving sandy off. Its then that I see what Sandy's trying to tell north. I look at him till he catches my eye and I shake my head and glare. He forms a question mark with sand and I mouth the words 'ill be fine. Don't say anything.' he slowly nods obviously hesitant to trust me on this. Bunny finally snaps out of his trance like state and glares at me.
"you just cant have enough attention can you?!"
"what?"
"you have to stay in the center! Your just the most important one of us aren't you!?"
"bunny what are you talking about?" I ask my voice raspy from the salt water. Instead of answering bunny turns away and tells north to fly them back to the pole. I sit in stunned silence. When we get back bunny says that if they don't start Tooth's game now hes leaving. Tooth starts to object saying I need rest but I interrupt her.
"no. Bunny's right. Whats your game tooth?" I ask placing my fake smile on. She looks at me then at bunny and back.
"ok. Well my game is . . . . Hockey." We all just stare at tooth in silence. I'm the first to break the deadly quiet.
"um tooth? Are you sure about that?"
"ya! I've always loved hockey. Oh come on! Please?!"
"oh we will play toothy don't worry." north replied to her begging. Tooth sequels with joy and picks up one of North's snow globes. She threw it on the ground and we were all whisked away to tooth palace.
