Chapter 4: The Tempest Begins
Pitch stood over Jack, a shadow over the prone young spirit. His face was relaxed and he looked so much younger than he was. Already, Pitch could feel the stirrings of respect and gratitude towards this young boy, who had stood up against the Guardians in his belief and faith in him. Him; who was the enemy. Pitch knew that he would do anything to defend this boy. He felt in that moment, the belief that Jack had, that he could have a place as well. He decided that he too, would want to be stronger. For Jack
Pitch moved to stand closer to Jack. He reached down to lift his hoodie, checking on his wound. It was healing rapidly, due to the snow, and now it was nearly gone, in just less than a day. Pitch replaced Jack's hoodie and stepped back. Jack stirred, mumbling to himself, turning over and sighed, displacing snow which flew in the air. Pitch didn't want to leave. For once, he craved company, specifically the company of this boy. He was already growing weaker, the annoying light of the Guardians made even the fear children had while they were asleep to disappear. He needed more.
Pitch placed a gentle hand on the boy's head, carefully and lightly, smoothing out the curls. He could feel how smooth and delicate like flakes of snow his hair was… It was a cool temperature, so soft and fragile, yet his features so sharp and subtly dangerous. Pitch knew how he could look when he was murderously angry, and to be on the receiving end of his grief-stricken rage. The boy was beautiful. He was delicate, but powerful. He was precious. Oh, if he had gained him as an ally back then, his power would have been unlimited. Nothingcould've stopped him, especially not the Guardians and their precious sentiment. But all of these events would not have occurred. Pitch realised that he enjoyed this Jack, the one who would willingly give his help to him, the annoying and happy one. Pitch realised with a jolt, that he wanted Jack to be happy, and not what he previously envisioned of his vengeance – Jack and the Guardians in cages, withering in the dark like he had. He wanted to be equals with Jack, a friend, which held his respect and his affection. Ugh. Since when had he, the Nightmare King, have to desire to be equals with someone? Was he that belittled that he should yearn for something he should have had?
That was enough. Pitch turned to leave, and allowed a last look. He knew what he had to do. He had to grow stronger, so the next time he met the boy, he would not be such an embarrassing mess. The shadows melted and dissolved, and disappeared. The room seemed to brighten a bit with the absence of Pitch.
/
Weeks passed and although Jack was coming up empty with his idea for Pitch, though he was busy occupying himself with bringing winter to every continent or snowball fights with Jamie and his friends, it was still in the back of his mind. He never visited Pitch since the last time he had been careless enough to get attacked by a lion and dropped his guard enough to get carried off by Pitch into his lair, but he felt that the Nightmare King wouldn't appreciate the intrusion. He often visited his fellow Guardians, helping out at the Tooth Palace, annoying Bunny with his presence, and hanging out and helping North test his new toys – he was surprised how up-to-date North was for an old spirit with the latest popular toys. But mostly he hung out with Sandy. The quietest Guardian was a soothing presence, always an open ear (honestly, he couldn't do anything to stop what you're saying right?) and he always understood and never lost patience. Somehow Jack felt that the silent happy fellow was infinitely wise in what he saw in the world, all that he observed and what he showed to the children in their dreams.
'Okay Sandy I give up… What is it?' Jack said, lying lazily across Sandy's dream cloud as he spread golden dream sand to all the sleeping children.
Sandy made the sand into the image of a platypus, and snickered soundlessly at Jack's stunned expression.
'Egg-laying, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal…' Jack face palmed. 'Yes…! Man, Sandy! You're good…' Jack laughed, clutching his stomach
Sandy shook his head and formed the sand into the form of a pair of binoculars and an exclamation mark.
'Yes, yes… Keep a lookout I know.' Jack said, sitting up and looking over the cloud. Recently there were rumblings of mysterious dark creatures emanating a sinister aura darting in the shadows in towns around the world. There had been no harm done, but the suspicions were there – what were these things doing or what were they waiting for? And who sent them? There were a number of enemies that the Guardians had, but Jack knew they were inclined to think it was Pitch
Jack leaned his chin against an arm, and sighed out of boredom. Sandy smiled, and formed a dancing figure of a small dolphin to cheer him up. Jack smiled but continued peering over the golden dream cloud.
Just then a shadow darted across Jack's vision of the street below. 'There!' Jack pointed, and immediately Sandy took off, carrying the both of them in the direction of the movement. The figure darted here and there, keeping to the shadows, clearly avoiding them. Jack and Sandy rounded a corner, and ended up in a town square where groups of people were milling around and chatting, the figure was nowhere to be found.
'Drat… We lost it!' Jack yelled, shaking his fist in frustration. Sandy just shrugged and smiled kindly at Jack's little outburst, like a young kid who lost a marble
A piercing scream tore through the air, followed by a growling and a ripping sound that made Jack's insides turn to mush. The two Guardians flew into action, Jack with his staff, and Sandy on his cloud. They shot through the alleyways towards the ripping sounds and were shocked with what they saw.
A dark figure was hunched over a young girl, its claws were razor-sharp and it stood over the terrified girl, its teeth glistening. But it was not alone. Two more of those horrible creatures were with it, and bent over other humans, who were….not quite so human anymore. They were slowly twitching and writhing, crying out. Then, their screams turned into growling, and their eyes lost their gaze, but turned feral and yellow. The first figure had bitten into the girl, and she was twitching and grunting in obvious pain, the flesh on her bones seemed to be alive, popping up in weird places, till they settled into their new positions, her nails extending into talon-like claws which scraped at her own face.
'Hey!' Jack yelled at the first one, snapping out of his shock and shooting a blast of ice at it, but it dodged, and slowly turned towards the two stunned Guardians. Its eyes were bright red and were brimming with malice. Its teeth shone and dripped with saliva, as it growled at them with a heated gaze. It was literally heated – an acid-like mist which emanated from its eyes
Sandy struck at it with his golden whip, but the creatures, no longer human, scattered and quickly reformed, inching quickly to flank the two of them. Clearly they were vastly intelligent, as two tried to strike them from behind, only to be blasted by Jack's staff. However, their lightning-quick movements evaded the blast and they regained their former position.
Sandy and Jack stood back-to-back, surrounded by dark and evil creatures, in an all too familiar position like before in the battle with Pitch's nightmares. The creatures were snarling and inching closer and closer.
'You take the ones on the left. I take the ones on the right?' Jack whispered, trying to lighten the tension. Sandy rolled his eyes, and just then, the ringing of bells from a sleigh rang from the sky, and North's sleigh ploughed over the creatures, causing them to hiss and back off. The sleigh landed with a thud and North, Bunny and Tooth leaped out, forming up with Sandy and Jack.
'Whoa. How'd you guys know to get here so fast?' Jack said, taking up his back with Bunny's
'Sandy sent a message, mate. You guys didn't think we would just let you own this party on your own did'ja?' Bunny smirked, boomerangs at the ready.
The creatures moved to surround them, inching around the fringes, trying to carve a way out. The Guardians engaged, Bunny flinging his boomerangs while Tooth assisted with glancing blows. Sandy and Jack whipped and shot at them, while North sliced and diced with his twin swords, yelling at them in Russian. Then the creatures started to inch apart, dodging and running whenever they had a break and the Guardians gave chase, splitting up. Sandy and Jack engaged the remaining two, careful not to get too close to their fangs. Suddenly the biggest one lunged at Sandy, pinning him down.
'Sandy!' Jack shouted, flying over but only to be knocked aside by the other creature. Jack felt his body fly and slammed against a solid rocky wall with a painfully audible thud. His head smashed into the rock - a cascade of gravel fell loose from the impact and covered Jack in a dusting of debris - causing him to see stars and head to spin painfully. He cried out and landed on the ground with a cry, dropping his staff. He tried to get up, only to be pinned down by both the claws of the figure. His acidic red eyes bored into Jack, and he growled, staring at Jack, the mist causing Jack's eyes to water and sting. But the creature held Jack in place, pushing him down and growling at him, apparently clear he did not want Jack to move at all.
Sandy was having a harder time, he whipped and slashed with golden dream sand, which seemed to have a particular effect on the creature, and it shrieked and slashed at Sandy. Jack grabbed wildly, squinting through the tears, fingers clasping on a loose rock and hit the creature pinning him to the ground and it hissed as his eyes were impaled by a rock. Jack grabbed his staff and dashed to Sandy's aid. Sandy shoved the creature off him, but the creature swiped a claw at him. It gave a massive guttural roar, raising a humungous talon to deliver a deadly blow. Just as it was about to finish Sandy, Jack jumped between them to protect Sandy. Sandy reached his hand out to pull Jack away, and right at the moment the claw would've sliced through his jugular, the creature stopped mid-swing, and backed off, hissing, like it was warded and paralysed by the sight of Jack. It hissed and shrieked as if in pain, curling into itself and backing away at the sight of Jack. Jack was stunned in confusion, and Sandy took advantage of the lapse and whipped at the creature. The creature howled and backed away towards his comrade. Then the two without another sound, turned tail and bounded off on its fours into the darkness, zipping through the edge of the forested town and into the trees
Jack panted heavily, and turned to Sandy to ask him if he was unhurt. Sandy shook his head and indicated to Jack to ask him the same question.
'No I'm fine…' Jack whispered, checking himself. He ignored the pounding headache and asked, 'Did you see what just happened?' Sandy nodded, frowning. 'It could've killed me…' Jack frowned. 'But it didn't…' Jack said, utterly confused. Jack held his head absently as he frowned.
'What were those things?' Jack asked, rubbing his head.
'Unknown…' North's voice sounded from behind them. Sandy and Jack turned to find the other 3 Guardians walking towards them, dirty but unharmed. 'But this is serious magic. Dark…. I have never seen such ferocity and dark magic…'
'All of a sudden, they just up and dusted...' Tooth said, rubbing her arm and moving up behind North. Jack moved to see if she was hurt but she reassured him that she was fine. She smiled.
Sandy and Jack then began to tell the others of their own battle with the dark creatures, also reporting their confusion at why the creature failed to attack Jack. All of the Guardians looked at each other wearily and with concern. What they had just witnessed and fought had baffled them all. If anything it had brought more questions than answers. And what exactly were these things turning humans into?