Hello! I finished the translation for chapter 7. You will have to wait a little to have the next one... I hope it will be to your taste, dear readers!
I want to thank Jenny (Guest) for her review. And I would also tell you that I had quite a fright yesterday evening after I read the review made by 'Guest'... As soon as I saw it, I asked the fanfiction support if I was doing something against the rules... Their answer is clear: No problem in translating my stories in a 'good English' BUT I have to say it in the author notes. I have already done it in the first chapter so... I won't have to choose between my 'English' followers and my 'French' ones. Ouf!
I'm still waiting for my 20th review (french + english) so that I could tell my husband. He begins to suspect something's going on and I don't want anymore to close my laptop or change the internet site I'm looking (Fanfiction...) each time he comes behind my desk. So I'm making Puss in Boots' eyes, miaw! Review, now!
Story Time, volume 2.
Jamie took a deep breath and started looking at his parents.
"We didn't find eggs yesterday morning. And my friends told me I was silly to believe in the Easter Bunny. That he didn't exist. They also told me that every child in Burgess was having nightmares for two days. But I didn't have one. So, Mum, after you came to give me your good night kiss, I took my stuffed rabbit and I began to… well, I… I asked the Easter Bunny to give me a sign; a little something to prove me he was real. That I didn't make up his visit. I was losing hope and I was beginning to stop believing in him, and also in all the other Guardians, when something AWESOME happened! I saw drawings appearing on my window. Like someone was drawing on the frost. And then…" Jamie was cut in his tirade by Caleb: "It was Jack who was drawing, wasn't it?" The 'last child who believed' glared to his friend. After all, he seemed to have also inherited some maternal features.
"Yes, it was Jack. It's my turn to speak. So, let me do it. Thus, I was saying that drawings were written on the pane. An Easter egg and a cute bunny. And then, the bunny started to move! An ice bunny was leaping in my bedroom and then: pouf! At once he exploded in hundreds of snowflakes. It was so magical! And then, I told myself that it couldn't be the Easter Bunny who did this. As much as I had seen, he was not in control of the snow. And when a snowflake felt on my nose, I remembered what you told me Mom… "Be careful, cover yourself or Jack Frost will come nipping at your nose." I murmured 'Jack Frost!' and then, I heard a voice behind me. A man who seemed very surprised. He didn't stop saying 'He said my name!'. I turned around while repeating the name. The voice was becoming more joyful and disbelieving. And then, I saw him.
I think I gapped like a fish out of water for at least five minutes ! He was there in front of me ! And he thought I didn't see him… at first. He asked 'You could hear me ?' and I nodded. He had a kind of panting as if he had problems to breathe. He asked next 'You could see me?' and I nodded one more time. If you could have seen his surprise and joy! He confessed later that no one had seen him since a very, very, very long time. But now, he was so happy. He first explained that he was the one to make me do the crazy slide the other day! The one I lost my tooth. And that he was the bringer of snow days and snowballs fights… and all the fun games we could play at in winter! I asked him if the other legends were real… And of course, he answered that it was the case! And then… the troubles began."
Jamie had been so excited during his storytelling that the abrupt end surprised more than one person. "Pitch attacked?" asked nervously Pippa. She remembered too well the horrific black horses who charged at them. To know how and why Pitch attacked them in their city was a question which was unsettling her. Jamie's parents were equally on the defensive. They felt that what their son was going to reveal would not be something they will like…
« Euh, no. Not immediately. Before that, there was the crash of Santa's sleigh in front of the house. » « Ooookayyy… » was the only sensible answer his father could emit. "Wait a minute, mate! The same sleigh we witness landing on the pond had crashed in front of your door? No kidding?" wondered Claude.
Watching the surprise on his friends' face, Jamie smirked. "Yeah, the same one. Jack was talking to me when we heard a strange noise. We ran to the window and we saw the sleigh flying in zig zag in the sky to finish bluntly on the road. The reindeers scampered away despite Santa's calls. Jack went down, through the window and by flight, to talk to him. When I went out, Jack was helping the Tooth Fairy to stand on her feet and Santa Claus looked like rather sick. I was so happy to see them. Jack had told me the truth! Everything was true! Santa was amazed that I could see Jack. And then, Jack asked where Bunny was… I remembered a giant rabbit wearing boomerangs on his belt. What came out of the sleigh was… the cutest bunny I had ever seen! Well, ok, I started with laughing loudly. He didn't look like at all the 'master of taï-chi' from last time. That was before he spoke. Well, then, no doubts it was him. A voice with such a huge Australian accent… I couldn't stop myself; I scratched him behind his neck. He reacted like a 'true' rabbit: he thumped his paw on the wood of the sleigh." Jamie heard Cupcake and Monty fawning at the memory 'That's true, he was so cute!' and 'Lucky one! I would have loved to cuddle him!'
"He fended off my hand and jumped while shouting on Jack. That it was his fault if he was in this state. I don't know why it was Jack's fault if he was in this form. But I knew that Jack had made me believe in Bunny a few minutes ago. So, I eased him by explaining that Jack had helped me believe in him, when I was going to surrender. Bunny was moved. Jack too. I think that they were not very friendly before that… and since that moment they became closer. »
"Really? What makes you say that?" asked Cupcake. "Oh, the way Bunny was looking at Jack several times. As if Jack would prank him… I'm sure he had annoyed Bunny on more than one occasion and that he is quite spiteful at that. Well, that's my idea. I had no time to ask them about it. But I will do it as soon as I will see one of them again!" Jamie was smiling with a toothy smile –minus one- and his eyes were shining with hope.
"And after? Is it when you picked us?" Monty's question was pinpointing the core of the problem Jamie tried somehow to resolve. How someone could explain quietly to their parents (and friends) that Pitch tried to harm them and that the Guardians had pulled through alive thanks to Jack's shrewdness? What will follow would be quite 'tricky'…
"No. Something else happened before. Something really important." Jamie took a big breathe and talked. « Pitch came to Burgess. And he decided to attack me. It was at that moment that the window panes in the main street shattered. The Guardians were too weak. It's because I was the last one to believe in them. There was only me in the whole world. If my faith had faltered or if I had disappeared, they would have vanished." Caleb cut him short: "How come you were the last one to believe? You already said it but I don't understand."
"I don't know. Only that I had not a single nightmare and that I believed in them. That elected me as Pitch's target. I was the last one raised between the Guardians and Pitch's victory. They made me run in the streets, in the center of the town, to try to outwit him but he travels through the shadows and the dark corners; in the middle of the night it was Mission:Impossible! He and his Nightmares army surrounded us. Beside Jack, the other Guardians were very weak and powerless. Tooth couldn't fly, Bunny was tiny and Santa Claus was becoming old. He was losing his magical powers and his agility. Jack told me to not be dejected. That fear will always exist but we could rule it. He proposed me a game to get us out of this situation. He threw a snowball at the Boogeyman which landed square on his nose –you would have seen his face! Hahaha! – and hauled me in the streets. I was sitting on a trash can lid, like the other Guardians, and we were sliding on the ice path Jack was creating with his powers…"
"Ah ! it's when we intervene !" Pippa exclaimed. Knowing that her friend had nearly been wiped out by the dark man with the frightening gaze had shaken her. Knowing that the great joy in his story was approaching had thankfully exhilarated her. At the corner of her eye, she could glimpse Jamie's father, his hands gripping the armrests. He was the one who was the least aware before this meeting and it must had been a choc to listen to his son talking about legendary beings and deathly dangers, all of that wrapped in the same speech.
"Jamie, if it's the time for your friends to come on stage, could you perhaps let one of them continue? What do you say?" Rachel asked sweetly. She had observed her son going through an emotional rollercoaster while retelling all the incredible events he had lived these last days. It would be better to treat him carefully.
"Good idea! I will do it first!" and without waiting for Jamie's and the others' reaction, Cupcake begun to talk. "I was in my bed when I heard a tap coming from my window. Then I saw Jamie who was flying, like he was hung by his PJ, in front of my window still. He told me to come meeting him and Jack Frost. A snowball landed on my nose, and then I saw him! Jack Frost! His blue eyes, his white hair and his sparkling smile…No surprise that the Tooth Fairy was all smiles and blushes with him after the battle… Well, I continue. You were already sliding in the street. I saw passing on the ride a cute little rabbit, then a huge white-bearded man with a red fur coat. And also an amazing woman!" Cupcake turns around to speak to Rachel: "Honestly, the Tooth Fairy is SO beautiful! She has eyes like two giant amethysts and such long eyelashes! But the most fantastic thing is that she's part human and part bird. She has feathers on her whole body: green ones, blues ones and even yellow ones! And her wings are as thin and transparent as a dragonfly! She's gorgeous!"
"I think she looks like a hummingbird… She flies like one." Noted Monty.
"Yes! That's it ! You're right, like a hummingbird! Where were I? Oh, right. The slide through the town… It was the best slide ever ! Unfortunately, Jack had to stop us. Pitch was standing in the middle of the road, ominous. Monty was so excited by the slide that he kept singing 'youhou!' in front of Pitch, before crying and hiding him behind Santa." The twins laughed at this part. "Ah, the shriek you made! Too funny… It's a shame the situation was less cool. » "Thanks Caleb for your support. Very nice. I owe you…" grumbled Monty.
"What happened next?" Rachel put the conversation back on track. It was THE important part, she felt it.
"Pitch proclaimed that the Guardians were vanquished and that they weren't even able to stand for and protect a band of kids." Pippa explained in a small voice. "He asked who will stand for them… Jamie surprised me when he said 'ME!' Cupcake added 'AND ME!', then Claude and Caleb. I looked at Jamie because I was quite scared, and when I saw the resolve in his eyes, that made me take a stand. The last to tell was Monty. The Guardians were worried for us. Pitch shouted that we were pathetic for he thought we could do nothing… He was wrong!" The satisfied appearance worn by the children showed the Bennetts that the end was more pleasant than the Nightmares King's threats implied.
It was Claude's turn to speak. He was febrile and the words were colliding in his mouth. "There were hundreds of Nightmares, or thousands! A giant wave like a tsunami raced for us. Their eyes were so frightening. But Jamie didn't move ! He had a hand streched in fornt of him. And when the nose of the nightmare touched his hand, the black sand became golden… It was beautiful ! Pitch didn't understand what was happening, and neither me!"
"What does these nightmares look like? You're talking about them like they are some kind of beasts…" Ian Bennett couldn't imagine what they could be. "Black horses, skeletal, with eyes black and yellow. He probably chose that because of the pun: night and mare, night/mare. The night and darkness with a mare or a horse. The mares in the night… I confess I found it cheap…" Rachel raised one eyebrow. This young Philippa never cease to amaze her. She already knew that the girl was the best student in her class, but since this morning she was discovering her humor and her liveliness, and the esteem she had of her was steadily growing.
Ian asked again: "And the golden sand you talked about, was it the one from the Sandman? You didn't talk about him?" "Yes Dad, it was the Sandman's power. Since we refused to quit having faith in the existence of the Guardians, our dreams won against our nightmares. The Guardians' powers came back. As soon as we touched the Nightmares, they turned back to dreams. We followed the dream sand to where he was coming from and found the Sandman. He created a sand hat upon his head and thanked us with it. Then he went to help the others against Pitch. He's phenomenal with his sand whip. Pitch had no chances. I wonder if he didn't took the Sandman as prisoner… But we freed him!"
"Is that how the battle ended ?" Rachel founded it too quick and rather 'disappointing'… "Oh no Mrs Bennett, between the objects and animals made in dream sand and the snowball fight we had with the Guardians, the elves and the yetis, that was something!" "Yetis, Caleb? What yetis?" "Oups, we forget to talk about them…"
"My turn, my turn !" Monty was jumping on the couch. "When we touched the Nightmare for the first time and the Guardians had their power back, they called for help their allies. Santa Claus brought yetis and elves. The Easter Bunny stomped his foot on the ground and giant stone eggs came out from the hole he created… They were quite nice with us. We played with them a little when they walked us back near your house."
"The yetis'fur is so soft! They have huge mustache over their fur. It's very funny." Pippa added.
"They helped us to go to the pond so that we could assist to Jack Frost's oath. It's when he became officially a Guardian." Cupcake said.
" 'twas so touching… mainly for Jamie! Right mate, you wouldn't let go of him after that!" Claude ended.
"Tss… as if you were not crying like me !" Jamie was blushing and his head was lowered. "You didn't want to part with them either. Who knows when will see them again?"
Caleb was quick as lightning to answer his friend's supplication. "I know! When we decide to use the gift of the yetis! By the way, where is it?"
"A gift? What kind of gift? What are you talking about ?" Rachel's interest had come back full force with this new information. She had still tones of questions, but they could wait. She had to prepare the meal and the answers could be given on a full stomach. This one, on the other side… "Ah, well, we forgot to tell you that one of the yeti threw a snow globe in my hands before he went back home through a magic portal. From what we gathered, it's a snow globe which opens such portal. We don't know how it worked, but we will find!" Jamie barely finished his sentence before he ran to his bedroom to retrieve the precious object.
The gracefully decorated snow globe was now perched on the dining room table. The children were eating with gusto their meal. The French fries and the burgers had a constant success with kids (young or less young, Rachel sighted observing her husband wolfing his fries at an incredible speed). Details from last night were exchanged among two mouthfuls, and even Sophie who had been strangely quiet during the explanation given by the older children, was babbling bouts of expressions evolving around the Easter Bunny. She hadn't dropped her colorful egg. Rachel had opened the window for the dog who was whimpering behind. Abby had not waited to run to her food, served earlier by her good master Ian.
Jamie was helping his mother in serving the dessert, some fruity ice cream, when he watched his sister stretch her hand for the snow globe, grab it and drop it on the ground for it to roll on the floor under the table and she shouted: "Bunny!"
The children didn't understand at first what was happening when the Bennetts' table was sucked up by a magic portal that opened in front of them. Sophie had already rushed in the colorful vortex, Abby on her trail. It's a high probability that what happened next was not the wisest decision Mr Bennett had ever made. He ran after his daughter laughing and shouting "Geronimo!" (Yeah, Ian loved chick flicks and the Doctor Who series). The children looked to each other and without any more doubt, they jumped in the opening. Rachel didn't budge. She was contemplating the room and the gaping vortex before her. Adventures; that was all she ever dreamt for. Why was she staying, petrified, while all the others were yet on the other side?
Rachel sighted, caught in flight THE thing she judged essential for this impromptu travel and walked gamely to the rest of her day. The travel was brief and quite disturbing for her equilibrium. She landed rather forcefully on the grass and before she could open her eyes, she heard a voice with a thick Australian accent yelling: "Sophie? Jamie? Kiddos? What are you bloody doing in my Warren ?" Ah, she was going to have the great pleasure to meet the Easter Bunny. Having thought about bringing the camera was therefore an excellent idea!