To wake up in a strange binnacle was one thing, but to know that you weren't the only one in this predicament was far worse. And there I though that only Tooth and I were struck by this curse, he had to show up and ruin the hope I had, like always. Just…great. At least it wasn't as frightening as Tooth and I. He was almost human looking when he was a guardian; now the only thing differing was his tan and hair. For once, he looked healthy, well for us he was. His usual skin tone was a bluish white, now he was pale for sure but with some hints of colours on his cheeks. He still had his messy locks, except that now they were a brown chocolate, which was a bit "minfuck" seeing that he still had his stricking blue eyes. And there he was, sitting at the top of the stairs looking at us, in his usual brown pants and blue hoodie less the frost. Something inside me just started to boiled up. I don't know why, maybe it was my eternal rivalry with this winter mischief, but there was something off about his calm that I couldn't stand. Of course, I didn't restrain myself from telling him so…maybe accusing would be a better choice of words.
"What's the meaning of this Frost?! If this is one of your pranks, it is NOT funny!"
He looked at me, raising an eyebrow, then followed by his famous smirk leaning back on his hands on the floor.
"Seriously kangaroo", he started, "wasn't it you who said that all I could do was freeze water ponds and mess with your egg hunts?"
"Stop messing with me Frostbite! You seem a bit too calm about this matter."
"Bunny", Tooth butted in, "Jack doesn't have that much power. He's a winter spirit, not a god."
She was right. I was angry by what was happening that I didn't stop myself one second to think that, in fact, Jack had not the magic to perform this kind of prank. I was mad and he just happened to be there. It was perfectly normal to waste all my anger on him, that's what I usually do with this guy.
"Hear the voice of wisdom Bunny", he laughed at me getting up and slowly climbing down the stairs, "I'm in the same boat as you. I don't know why or how I got there, and it would certainly not help if I panic like you guys."
"Easy for you to say", I retort, "you're not the one that pass from being a giant rabbit to a flesh human."
"I would say more of a marsupial than a rodent", he smirked walking right in front of me.
"Keep on joking like that and your pretty fresh fallen snow teeth will get in Tooth's hands really fast", I reply raising my fist.
"Boys! Enough", the feminine voice of reason interrupted.
Turning both our heads toward the source, she looked at us as if she was scolding one of her fairies. It was mother behaviour time; it was like an instinct to her when things started to become heavy like this. But she was right, we shouldn't get our feelings involve in this serious matter. It was logical that Jack woke up just like us, only he must have had less of a heart attack than we did. I sigh pinching my nose bridge, completely discourage by the situation.
"Urg! This is so meddling."
"Just calm down Bunny! Think about it, if Jack is here in the same form as us, maybe North and Sandy got here too."
I took a good look at my surrounding. This house was a perfectly normal house for a family: a basement, where I came from and that I barely saw what was in it; a ground floor where we were at the moment, all lighted up with the morning light coming from the windows which looked fairly good furnished; and a second floor that I didn't have the time to take a look yet and where Jack and Tooth came from. From where I was standing I could see that behind the stairs was the kitchen with a wooden dinner table in the middle and sliding patio door right behind it. Next to us was the living room with two sofas and a tv in front of the wall. And behind me, right in front of the stairs, was the front door. If I stirred my neck a little I could see another door between the stairs and the kitchen; I assumed it was the bathroom. Now, we had to know what was upstairs and in the basement. I didn't pick up anything from my room and the staircase, but since it was dark, I'll have to check it out later. While I was thinking about our location, Jack continued the conversation.
"If they are, it's a wonder they didn't wake up to your screaming."
"I couldn't restrain myself when I saw the new me in the mirror of my room. I'm not used to having hair instead of feathers you know."
"Were there any other rooms upstairs", I asked them interrupting their discussion.
"Hum", Tooth thinking out loud, "I didn't really notice since I was a bit stressed by the situation."
"I think I saw at least two other rooms", Jack said doing the same as Tooth, "and another set of staircase at the end of the corridor."
"Well what are we waiting for", I asked them, "let's go check it out."
With that said, I shoved Jack out of my way, gently of course, even though he was pissing me off earlier. I climbed the stair two by two again, noticing an open room to my left (must have been the one that Tooth came from) and a corridor to my right. Like Jack said, there were two other closed rooms apart from the one he came from that was open, and a wooden staircase at the end, as if it was going in the attic. The two others following me behind, I slowly walked toward the door right in front of Jack's room. Putting my hand on the handle, there was an anxiety inside of me that was afraid to know what lied behind this door. I looked back at Tooth as if I was asking permission to open it, which I received from her a nod. I turned the knob and pushed the door wide open, only to discover that my worries where stupid thoughts. I had just discovered the second bathroom. I sighed in relief, at least there was nothing to get concerned about in this room.
"It's ok, there's no one in here."
"I can't say the same for myself."
Tooth and I turned to the right to see that Jack had opened the second door next to us. He was leaning on the doorframe looking inside and mimicking with his hand to come and check it out, what we did. When we perked our head to see inside, we saw a young man sleeping on a double size bed. We entered to see who was taking most of the space on the bed due to his muscular size. This guy was huge, large of shoulders and I swear he had to be taller than I was. He had a square face with short black hair matching his big fuzzy brows. At the end of his chin was a little black goatee continuing around the mouth to form a pinch. This guy was such in a deep slumber that he was almost drooling, and snoring. He was sleeping in a star shape, taking all the space he could, the cover on him all messed up, even his legs were coming out of the bed limits. He was sleeping far too well to my taste. Of course I knew this guy, but it's been so long since I saw him in this form that I had almost forgotten that he had this look before he became Santa Claus. We had to wake him up. Putting my hand on his shoulder, I shook him a bit to try (in vain) to wake him up. I shook harder only to have the total opposite of what I wanted: he simply turned around on his chest and covered his head with his pillow, mumbling incomprehensible words.
"I guess the easy way won't be an option", Jack said laughing at my attempt.
Tooth decided to make things work faster by jumping knees on his back and bouncing on him like a trampoline.
"Come on North! Get up!"
"не! I am tired, long night! Let me sleep!"
He knew something about last night?! I looked at Jack, and by the way he was looking at me, we had the same idea. We both grab an ankle each an try to pull North off his bed, but this giant had a weight matching his size. I wasn't helping either that he decided to grab the bedpost to stay in his little dreamland. With Tooth bouncing and screaming at him while the Russian was retorting in his sleepy native language, and Jack and I pulling with all of our strength to make him come out, it was a surprise that none of the neighbours came ringing at our door to tell us to calm down. After several minutes of loud arguing, I saw a new person enter the room. He was walking casually with a sleepy face plastered on and a glass of water in his left hand. It didn't take too long before Jack notice him too, still pulling at the leg but just hanging there, like frozen by the new character entering. This little blond guy was no taller than 4 feet at least and was all chubby. His hair all spiky had a hint of orange in the dark blond. I hadn't the time to analyse him before he came right next to the bed, pulling the pillow from North's grip and empty his glass of water on the Russian's head, which separated itself rapidly from the mattress. This stand up causing Tooth to fall on the bed and Jack and I to fall on our back on the ground. The little guy turn to us and start to angrily mimicking his frustration of, I guess, being waked up by screaming. Jack looked at me shrugging a bit at the silent scolding. North now fully wake up was doing the same with Tooth. None of us really knew what he was saying. It was hard when he had just pictures above his head to talk his thoughts, but now, in a human form, he was simply mute. I decided to speak up for the rest of us:
"Sorry, sorry Sandy. It's just that we had ta get 'im out of the bed, and since mister here wasn't helpin', it got a bit out of hands."
With that, he seemed to calm down a bit. But now at least, we were all together.
I looked at myself in the mirror. The first time in the day that I knew exactly how I looked like. My hands crisped the borders of the sink, not really believing what I had in front of me. I was a total stranger to myself. At least, I was still good looking. My face looked like that Australian Broadway dancer…think he's an actor too. Stars were never my strength anyway. My green eyes were still there with big dark eyebrows covering the top. My body was build up like those suffers of Bondi Beach in Sydney, the tan coming with the package deal. My famous body marks that usually dress my fur were now permanents tattoos on both upper arms, even the ones on my forehead were still there. The marks were a bit covered by some greyish black locks that were part of my hairstyle. My hair was a bit messy like my previous no-more-fur, long enough to be funky, but short enough to spike a bit in the air on their own. The hair at the back of my head was the same style as the fur on my cheeks was…except shorter. There were even sideburns that could someday be completed by a beard. I don't know if the day I would see one on my chin would come, and I seriously hoped that I wouldn't have to wait this long before going back in my old body. I just wanted for all of this being a really bad dream. I wanted to go back to the way I were, in my warrant, worrying over my ephemeral eggs. Urg crikey! What have I gotten myself into? If only I knew.
A sudden knock on the door brought me out of my depressing thoughts.
"Bunny", it was Jack's voice, "are you all right? You've been in the bathroom for hours."
"Y-yeah, Ah'm comin'."
I heard his footstep climbing the stairs. After our reunion in North's room, we all agreed to get dress up in what we could find in the rooms we woke up and meet up in the kitchen to try and solve our problem. I went in the basement to find some straight black jeans and a white t-shirt. Whoever was living here before us had really simple tastes in fashion. Before going back upstairs, I passed in front of a little bathroom. I had to see myself before the reunion. That led me to where I was now. I would have time for sulking later; I had to go back upstairs with the others. I let some water run down my hands and bring it to my face to refresh myself before drying it with a towel near the sink. Dropping it on the ground, I exit the restroom to go upstairs, but a noise coming from around me stopped my run just as I put my feet on the first stair. I looked around the dark basement to notice something new: A door not far from the staircase, in front of my room right at the other side. The sounds coming from behind it was like furniture falling on the ground or something like that, accompanied by mumbling and cursing. I slowly walked toward the source of the noise, putting my ear on the door to try to draw words from the mumbling, but everything seemed to have stop. Instead, there was a laboured breathing. Maybe the person behind that door was the owner of the house and knew what had happened to all of us. I quickly opened the door, discovering a messy room with furnitures turned upside down and clothes all over the place. My eyes rose up to a silhouette all dress in black pants and shirt. It was obviously a male seeing he had no curves, but he was thin and tall, taller than me maybe. His head bowed between his arms that were both extended, hands on the wall where between them was hanging a mirror with a huge crack on it, as if this person had just punch it. He seemed to have heard me as he raised his head to look at me through glass. Now his facial features were clear to me.
"What in the bloody hell are you doing here", I asked him almost raging.
When he turned his head to really face me, I could clearly see those amber eyes filled with question. How the heck Pitch, the Nightmare King, the one we defeated not so long ago, could be here in the same situation as us.
YaY! So I've finally finished all the descriptions…finally. Now that you know how everyone looks like and that the intro is done, I will finally be able to begin the real stuff. Again I'm sorry for the typo mistakes. English is not my native language so I'm writing to get better ^^
Thanks a lot for the one review "LibbyaLobster", I was really happy that in less than a few hours after the post I had someone interested in my story. I'll try to keep up the fast work. Ciao~
