A/N: Hey! Thanks so much for the lovely reviews! If you haven't read the Guardians of Childhood books, this might be a bit confusing... sorry I'll do my best to explain..Anyway, on with the story!
Warning:There's some blood in this chapter, so if that stuff makes you queasy...
Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians or Guardians of Childhood... Sad day.
Over the next few days, the spirit slipped in and out of consciousness, not understanding where he was. The child looked so young and frail and so very tired. Bunnymund sighed and his friend glanced at him from the corner of his eyes.
"Something on your mind?" Ombric finally spoke up.
"...He is just so young. I want to know what has caused this..." he mumbled and his whiskers halfheartedly twitched.
"I understand, friend." And he did. Which wasn't surprising. Even though the wizard had founded the happiest place on Earth, a place of peace where children could grow and learn the impossible, he understood heartbreak.
And this was heartbreaking.
Bunnymund had been searching the Arctic for a special type of permafrost there, (which, when added with a pinch of Mars Spice and a dash of coconut milk, would make an excellent filling for his new chocolate candy) when he had stumbled upon a young child reeking of blood, which was understandable, seeing as how he was covered in it. He was laid across the snow on his stomach, his arm outstretched and across from him laid a wooden staff, the end curled up into a 'g'.
He had ran up to the child, his nose twitching like mad, taking in the smell of cooper. A large column of ice and what looked like to be sand stood over him. The Pooka would have stayed and admired it's beauty for a moment, but the poor kid was loosing blood fast. He scooped both the staff and the boy up bridal style, blood dyeing his green robes red and tapped his foot against the ground. Bunnymund shifted the boy so he wasn't hitting against his egg encrusted staff, as well as the wooden one and dropped down into the tunnel running as fast as his feet could carry him. His robes pooled around his knees, threating to tear but he didn't stop for anything. He made sure the child was as still as he could carry him when a hole opened in the boundaries of Santoff Claussen.
The children that lived there ran up to him, excited over some candy he was likely to give them, but at the sight of blood, they all dropped back, eyes wide.
"Might someone please go get Ombric?" Bunnymund breathed.
They stay glued to their spots before they ran off to get the wizard, the youngest William running the fastest.
The Pooka calmly walked in the direction of Big Root, the center of Santoff Claussen, when Ombric and North rushed out, alarmed by the stammered exclamations of "Bunnymund! Blood!"
North swore, "What happened? Are you okay?"
"As you can see, I am perfectly fine, however, I cannot say the same for this fellow." Bunnymund stated.
"Quickly, bring him to the infirmary," Ombric ordered.
They all moved to the hospital-like room and set the bleeding child on one of the beds placed there. North ushered the village children, whom had all followed, out of the room with promises of toys and other goods later before turning back toward the others.
After a few seconds of debating where to start, Katherine pushed the doors open and entered, followed by Nightlight.
"Guys? What's going on? Who's that?" Kathrine pushed her way between North and Ombric.
"Kathrine, please fetch me a few washclothes and bowl of warm water," Bunnymund requested.
"Okay," she answered obediently. "Nightlight, help me."
As Nightlight filled a bowl with warm water from the sink on the wall opposite from the bed, his friend retrieved some rags and brought it to Bunnymund, who thanked her and set it on a bedside table next to Ombric.
They peeled off his ruined sweatshirt and the three elder guardians set to work wiping at the smeared blood on his neck first, checking for and wounds, then his chest. When they found none, they continued to rub the rest of the blood away. When Bunnymund finally realized where the red liquid was flowing from, his heart dropped and he glanced at his comrades, seeing their grim expressions as well.
"Kathrine, please go see to the smaller children," North expressed softly.
"Why? I want to help! I'm staying," she was stubborn.
But Nightlight glanced at the unconscious body, then to them in sorrow and pulled at Katherine's arm, leading her through the infirmary's door.
"Do you know how to sew wounds closed?" North breathed shakily to Ombric.
"Yes."
As the ancient wizard hurried off to get the necessary supplies for the operation, Bunnymund set himself with the task of clearing the still bleeding injury enough so they could see what they were dealing with.
Lines upon lines appeared on this child's flesh, all of them self inflicted. Most of them were red, irritated by the blood that was still flowing. Any mortal would have been dead by now. There were thirteen fresh wounds in all, eight on one arm, five on the other running down the length of his limbs.
Tears filled the Pooka's eyes (a rare sight) and North spoke for both of their minds.
"Why?"
Ombric returned and sucked in his breath when he saw the full damage but drew closer, setting his supplies on the table.
"I need your help, the both of you," he muttered, hesitantly touching the scars.
Two hours later, they had patched up every wound they could find, stripping his clothes off and throwing them somewhere to be washed. By now, the two other Guardians, the Sandman and Queen Toothiana had appeared. They were shocked when they saw such a young child in so much pain. They each helped to get the white sheets on the soft bed changed to ones that weren't stained, sending him good dreams, doing the best to wash the red out of the child's white hair and wrapping gaze around his wrists.
Toothiana and Sandman unwillingly left to their attend to their 24-7 jobs again, and North had retreated to his small workshop to sullenly meddle with some bits of metal and wood. Kathrine had been demanding to be let in again and again and eventually Ombric caved and allowed it.
Nightlight stood by her side the entire time, clutching her hand uneasily. Despite his young appearance, Nightlight knew a whole lot. As Kathrine asked question after question, Bunnymund sat in a chair in the corner of the room, his nose twitching thoughtfully.
/
"Errgh," Jack groaned brought his hand up to wipe at his eyes. He squeezed a teddy bear that had made an appearance in his arms in confusion. When the spirit opened his eyes for the first time in a week, four large, hairy creatures stood in front of him. "Phil?" he mumbled reaching his hand to reach for him.
The yeti nearest to him, the one he was grabbing, shook his head and grumbled something Jack was too tired to decipher and grabbed a glass of water for Jack to drink, which he did. The Winter Spirit then huffed and gazed around him confoundedly.
"Where am I?" he croaked.
Before not-Phil could answer, the double doors swung open, revealing a old man in long, blue robes and an equally long blue cap. He had a long beard, which laid across his chest, all except a single hair on the end of his beard, which was slowly twirling and untwirling.
Jack continued staring at it as the man came closer, for some reason wanting to cut it off. It was weird.
'Wait.. I don't think that's what I should be focusing on right now..' Jack thought and dragged his eyes to the soft smiling face and light blue eyes.
The yeti's shifted to leave, glancing back at the two as he went to stand by his bedside, where he stopped and stared, making Jack uncomfortable. The man must have noticed because he broke the silence and looked down to the sheets for a moment.
"Чувствуете ли вы себя хорошо, детеныш?" the man said.
"What?"
The elder stared at him for a moment longer before trying again.
"How are you feeling youngling?"
"Umm...good I guess. I'm a bit sore, though." he realized something. "What am I wearing."
The man smiled sorrowfully. "Your clothes were dirty so we had traded them for some of my student's clothes."
That explained why they were a bit too big.
"Okay then, well.. what happened to me then?"
The man's eyes darkened and he looked like he didn't know what to say.
Instead he said, "How rude am I? My name is Ombric Shalazar, wizard of Atlantis. Who might you be?"
"Oh..Jack Frost..Spirit of Winter-oh crap!" he muttered. He hadn't wanted to tell him what he was or he might get kicked out, and he was really hurting right now.
But Ombric just smiled and bowed slightly. "It has been a pleasure to meet you, youngling." The wizard watched as the child's eyes widened, the glance down at his wrists and hide them under the sheets when he regained memory of what he had done. Jack flushed a deep blue and was about to stammer out either an apology or excuse when the doors burst open for the second time that day and several children ran in, beelining for the bed.
There was a lot of noise from the excited jabber of the kids and Ombric was practically knocked over in their haste to get to him. They all spoke at once, trying to get Jack's attention.
"Дети," Ombric had regained balance. "Будьте почтительны. Джек говорит по-английски."
All the kids quieted down as they decided who would talk first when the youngest boy jumped onto his bed, careful not to hit his legs.
"Hi!" he squeaked. "My name is William. I'm the youngest. Oh, did you like my teddy bear? I let you borrow him cause you got hurt." Jack glanced at the bear in his arms, smiling.
"Thank you, William. It helped a lot," he gushed and William beamed.
"How did you get hurt?" A young boy stood next to his head. "It was scary."
The Spirit's eyes widened before he relaxed. "I got in a fight with a dinosaur," he mischievously said and they all gasped. Even Ombric smiled.
The children disrupted into noise again before settling. "What dinosaur was it?" the boy, Fog, he would later learn asked.
"A T-rex."
They all made noises of confusion.
"A Tyrannosaurus Rex?" Ombric supplied.
"Uh, ya." Jack lamely said, confused. People usually just called it a T-rex. Then again, there was a lot of strange things going on.
Through the doors, which had been left open, came four new visitors.
Jack was left to gape at the newcomers. There in front of him stood the Guardians but not the ones he knew.
A/N: Dun dun DUN! Heh.. Well.. there's a chapter for you guys. Tell me if there's any spelling or grammar mistakes, I tried my best to fix them all but I might have missed a few. I'm trying to get as much as I can done before school starts again. T.T
Jack knows Russian and Yetish but is just too confuzzled to decipher it right now. Just so you know what Ombric's saying:
Дети. Будьте почтительны. Джек говорит по-английски. = Children. Be respectful. Jack speaks English.
Anyway, there ya have it...
Review plzzzz!
Peace. Love. Cookies.