His body was arching, and his vision blurry. He felt like he was going to faint, due to the overuse of this body over the last couple of days, but he kept on going. He felt sick; a high feverish warmth had spread throughout his body, and a most displeasing nausea, which he had no way of getting rid of. He had tried, but it had proved to be hopeless on the third day, and thus he had begun to ignore it the best he could. However, it didn't change the fact that he was worried for his own well-being.

Jack stumbled further along the path which he had been lucky enough to stumble upon at the fifth day of his travel since he had been unlucky enough to cross paths with the gang of bounty hunters, whom he still feared were following him.

He couldn't be sure however, about whether or not they had given up on their chase, but he would take no chances in that matter, and had therefore decided not to rest for more than an hour or so at a time to make sure that he would not be found and made an end to while he was out cold.

Whether or not it was a bad idea to follow the path, he didn't care; he was tired and he wanted to sleep but he couldn't; not even if he wanted to. The fear kept him awake, and with the fear that swelled in him the higher the risk of being found. Not by the hunters, oh no, they were nothing compared to the creatures which lurked in the darkness, waiting to be able to consume ones heart if they found it filled with fear. Little was known about the creatures, and what has been found out wasn't pleasant. No one knew where they came from or how they were formed or who was the mind behind them; one day they simply showed, out of nowhere in the depth of the night, like thunder from a clear sky. The first victims to the unfortunate fate which reached upon those who were unlucky enough to cross paths with them had been a man and his daughter while they had been wandering the woodlands during the night, which once would had been considered risky, considering the wildlife, but not downright dangerous as it was now.

A woodchuck had had the unfortunate event of stumble upon them, finding only their empty vessels, with their souls sucked out like were they flies fallen pray for a starving spider. But not only were their souls gone, their bodies were cursed, becoming part of the shadows the following night after they had gotten their souls taken away.

What happened next had been like a nightmare, and thus the creatures had gotten their name – nightmares – as they had devoured an entire village and following spread like a disease along the night, before disappearing as dawn approached, only to return when twilight fell upon the lands.

This had happened about three years ago.

And this was what Jack was fleeing from, or thinking that he was fleeing from, he wasn't even sure anymore due to the high fever. He just knew something was after him, and was close by, but whether it was a hunter or a nightmare, he did not know, but he needn't know. He just knew that he had to get out of the forests and to a village so he could be safe. Or at least feel a bit safer for that matter, considering that he was but a criminal and guards no doubt had their eyes out for him. If he held a bounty, which he still needed to find out, because why else would the bounty hunters continue to follow him through all these days, where they could have gone hunting for somebody of more importance than him, and doubtlessly more precious, as they probably would put it.

With a hissed breath the young thief fought his way across a fallen log blocking his path, and continued with steps that clearly indicated that he had gotten little to no sleep over the last couple of days. He clouded mindedly continued on, not really knowing where the path took him but little did he care about that fact, because what did it matter when all he cared for was to get away. As long as he could follow it to get away then he was okay with it. However, in his state of mind, then the path could easily be taking him back to where he had come from, or maybe lead him into running in circles; he didn't know, and he didn't question where it was leading him. Not that he didn't want to, but merely because his absolute lack of energy and sleep had made him lose the ability to think about much more than the thing he was doing right at the moment, as well as delay his senses rather drastically, causing him to lose track of a lot of details around him.

He didn't even notice that he was only a few meters from the forest edge, when a horrible vertigo took him. He paused, despite everything in him screamed for him to continue, and grasped a young tree by his side for the support his Sheppard's hook wouldn't be able to provide

Blinking he tried to push away the dizziness, and shook his head when it didn't work. Scared for what was happening he tried to continue his run and tried to ignore the sudden horrible feel consuming him, but the pain from his injured leg (which he had more or less tortured himself with while been on the run by completely ignoring the fact that it needed to be tended) were too much, and he didn't come far before tunnel vision hit him next. He stopped up again when his body began to sway and a weird emptiness filled his already clouded mind.

No, no, no, not now. It's too early, please, he silently pleaded when he finally realized what was happening, feeling his knees grow weak. Away. I need to get away. I need a safe spot. A place to rest and –

He shook his head, trying to keep going, but he was too weak to be able to do so. His knees soon gave out from under him and he fell to the ground as his vision went black, unknowing of the hooded rider watching him from distance.

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The sun was lowering on the cloudy autumn sky, causing long shadows to cover the lands far below. Three foreigners rode on an old country road towards a small town showing in the horizon, cheerfully bantering with one another with not a care in the world. They did not care that they were gaining attention from the ones passing by them, and little did they care for the cautious glances tossed their way as they passed, which was no wonder considered the dangers which roared in these lands; neither did they care for the way they each stood out from the crowd, in their own special way, and less of all did they care for any other than themselves. They did not own a sovereign by legal work, the food they ate had never been paid, and the few things they owned had rarely been theirs to begin with. Only one of the horses, on which one of them road, had been bought legally, as well as their weapons, and that in whole other kingdoms.

The three men were all well-armed, should anything troublesome come across them, which often happened, and each of the three had their own very unique weapons, from each of their respective native lands.

One of them, a young and doubly handsome warrior from the South was a tall, tan and muscular man with tribal tattoos all over his body, and went by the name E. Aster Bunnymund, twirled his boomerang in his hand with a wide grin appearing on his lips, once they had just passed a carriage. In his hand was a pouch which he had not been in possession before they had done so, and nobody had been able to notice what he had done, well none but his two friends who each looked at him with knowing expressions, as they passed the boarder to the town.

Bunnymund's emerald green eyes looked back at the carriage behind them before he with ease stuffed the pouch into the inside pocket of his rope, while listening for the sounds of anything which could seem like trouble, all the while he continued his conversation with his companions. He knew it would take long for the victims to discover just what had happened to their cargo, since it all had happened fast and unnoticed, but he had learned from experience that you could never get too cautious, especially not when dealing with things like these in the open areas just outside of town.

A smile flashed upon his lips when he eyed his oldest companion, a rather round dwarf with golden hair, styled into five points, honey colored eyes and a normally innocent looking face, by the name Sanderson Mansnoozie, and saw his expression the moment they found themselves outside the town's tavern, where drunken people were walking in and out. His facial expression showed nothing but its usual innocence; though his eyes shone with what Bunny knew to be his lust for what awaited them and their long fingers, behind the doors to the tavern. The same went for their last companion, a young Cossack, who went by the name Nicholas St. North; his smile clearly showed that he was more than ready to continue their work with ease for once, in order to get a break from what they had lived through the last few weeks. The last days he had kept worrying about a youngster he had met in the forest, but had disappeared before he could have been to any further help for the boy; it had been a pain in the neck to listen to, so, therefore, it would be wonderful to get him on other thoughts so he wouldn't continue to worry about some boy he had no change to help anymore anyway. Bunny had already planned that he would make the Cossack do most of that night's work in order to get him busy and forget about it.

They each jumped off of their horses and bound them to the stables nearby, before they headed into the tavern, where a warm, thick air met them with the smell of alcohol and sweat filled the air. The place merely consisted of one large main room, where drunkards sat at small tables and sang and drank to their hearts content, while a fire burned in the fireplace, and a man at the bar kept purring up for his craving guests. At the far end of the main room was a staircase leading upstairs to where the guests no doubt would be able to spend the night and greet a morning filled with hangovers the upcoming day, with or without a certain kind of companion.

It was one of these kinds of places the three foreigners knew they could gain some easy outcome, simply by using their charismatic skills and quick hands, but also one of the only places left where strangers could easily settle in without people being cautious of each other and be suspicious all the time, unless guards entered and caused troubles. There were also another reason as of why they had searched out the tavern after they had left the ancient forest two days ago; sleeping under an actual roof would protect them for the dangers of the nights at least for a single night, and if they were able to get some work done in the meanwhile then so be it.

The three of them headed back in the room in order to get the seemingly only free table there were to be spotted in the tavern, and get a better lookout for who they would see as their first victims. Once they sat down, Bunnymund immediately took off his boots and stretched his feet as far towards the nearby fireplace as possible to get some warmth back into his toes. Despite that he was completely covered in all kinds of furs from head to toe then thanks to him being from the South, he had a low tolerance towards the cold, even though that the autumn weather was mild this far, compared to the earlier years.

Feeling the blessing of warmth on his toes, Bunnymund lay back with his back against the table and closed his eyes. A single nod was the only response he gave North when he was asked whether or not he would like some mead. He didn't even have to look at his friend Sandy to know that the small guy had agreed to some mead as well; despite his size, that guy was able to swallow more liters of that stuff than any other person he knew.

After a few minutes he opened his eyes with a content sigh, and looked around at the people in the tavern. It was obviously a busy night for the bartender, considering the amount of people present and probably meant that the rooms for rent must be booked up for good, unfortunately. "Busy night, huh? Perfect condition to work in…"

As an answer, he received thumbs up from Sandy who sat with an amused expression while he watched a pair of drunken men try to dance to the song their friends sang, only to look like overgrown chickens that were being chased by a fox.

The small man laughed silently as one of them stumbled over his own feet and landed in the crowd, sending a few people down with him in the fall.

What happened there, and all around Sandy, was one of the reasons why he loved being in taverns, not only because of the easy work, but also because there were always so much going on at the same time. There were so many people who would come and drink to forget the problems in the world and act like fools for a single night, well knowing that when morning would come they'd be forced to go back to see the darkness spreading in the land. It was sad, really, but in dark times like these, you do what you can to enjoy what you have. And the more drunk and busy they got the better the condition it would become for him and his two friends to work in.

The two foreigners watched as the drunken dancers got to their feet and began to dance again, this time in a quicker tempo than before, which caused laughter to explode from the crowd once more and others began little after little to join in on the act.

"Would be a shame if that ginger one of them woke up with an empty pocket tomorrow," Bunny muttered under his breath, so only Sandy could hear, once his eyes fell upon the pouch hanging around one of the dancing men's waist.

The small golden man made a discreet nod to show that he had heard, his eyes landing on the pouch as well. It wasn't small enough to go unnoticed, but neither was it big enough to contain more than ten sovereigns. None the less, the man seemed already too drunk to notice if it went missing, at least until morning.

In the meanwhile North had returned, and handed out their drinks to each of his friends before he took a seat around the round table they had occupied, and took his tankard with a thirsty look in his eyes.

Bunny accepted his tankard and thankfully began to sip from the steamy, warming drink, feeling how the warmth began to spread throughout his body already from the first sip of the honeysweet golden liquor. All remaining cold in his body got pushed away, had it never been there to begin with. "What took ya so long? I was about to become a frozen Pooka here."

North shrugged as he lowered his tankard, which he had been about to take a drink of. "Long line, very busy; man at bar hadn't time, and needed assistance from kid."

Bunny snorted and raised an eyebrow in suspicion as he eyes the lower part of the Cossack's face. "And ya are sure it weren't 'cause ya had to have a mead of yer own before ya came with one for us?"

"Why I do that?" North questioned, looking slightly insulted.

"I don't know, just a hunch," Bunny said as he exchanged glances with the dwarf by his side, and jokingly continued. "Or maybe it's the foam beard ya have gotten all over ya face ta prove it." At his words the Cossack wiped his beard, causing his two friends to chuckle, now that he was aware of the evidences to prove that he indeed had taken some mead for himself before coming to them.

After wiping his mustache and beard, North took a swallow of his mead and studied their surroundings in order to figure out just who he wanted to target, and to try to take the attention away from the possibly remaining foam in the beard. Though there were countless of people in the Tavern who could easily become the victim for their crimes, while not remembering anything of what had happened the following day, then they couldn't simply take anyone, since the risk of being caught in the act always was at stake. "You two have found a costumer, yes?"

Bunny nodded and pointed towards the man he and Sandy had been watching while North had been up to receive their drinks. "That man ain't gonna remember anything tomorrow and his trading ain't one of them small ones either."

"He iz big fry?"

"Nah mate," Bunny shook his head. "As far as I've analyzed he's lower middleclass, might be a tailor; his dancing friend there seems ta be the same thing. Haven't noted any big fry, and it's possible he's taken a hole in his savings. However, that guy at pillar, not him, that other guy with the blonde hair, yeah him, if I guess correctly he's with the guards, and where there's one there's more. Better watch it when we begin ta work."

North nodded to his friend's words while watching the one being suspected to be a guard. He was fierce looking despite his relaxed posture, but he still looked too cautious to be part of the common people, a proper candidate for being a threat to their work.

"One at the bar too," Bunny continued, when he noticed Sandy pointing out a woman at the bar who stood out like the man at the pillar.

"Yes, I saw her," North said with a nod. "But she iz not guard; she iz marauder."

"How do ya know?"

"She kept asking for jobs, rumors, nearest caves, that sort of thing and her equipment iz not exactly suited for a guard. Way too expensive. Iz not worth taking risk with pickpocketing her; iz suicide."

"Well that's one less guard to worry 'bout," Bunny muttered before sitting his tankard down on the table, his eyes going from the female marauder to his friends. "So what's it gonna be; pickpocket, stealth or gambling?"

Okay, I'm so sorry if this chapter isn't that good, but I've seriously been so stuck with how to continue after the first, that I've written about 16 different versions of this chapter but couldn't get any of it to look just the least bit good. It's horrible, I know, and I probably should start to actually plan my chapters better (this has become a problem on my other fics as well… so I'm stuck in them as well.. Duh!).

Maybe watching Sherlock Holmes and reading Hamlet at the same time isn't the best idea, because the first part of this chapter (which was written right after I had read Hamlet and watched an episode of Sherlock), came out pretty weird, with the composition of words…? Or maybe it's just me.. I don't hope I disappointed you with this. Who am I kidding, I probably did.

Wow, my self-esteem is really low for the time being.

... Did you enjoy it?