Pitch chuckled to himself, enjoying the Frost boy's beating on his looking glass. His fear was tangible, even across this distance, and it was delicious. Everyone's fear was different, but the fear of a guardian particularly so. Bunnymund's was sweet, almost sickening, while North's was strongly alcoholic. Tooth's was, understandably, minty, and the sandman- well, he had never actually know the sandman to feel fear. Even in his final moments before defeat, there was nothing but determined resolve.
But Jack Frost... Jack Frost was on a whole other plane entirely. His fear was cool, crisp and utterly rapturous. Pitch could bask in it all day- in fact, he was planning to.
They found him face down in the soil next to his lake, groaning in pain. His skin was flushed, his eyes cloudy, and burn marks covered large parts of his skin. Tooth gasped at the sight, and Bunny felt like his insides were being crushed. North gently scooped him up, but the boy whimpered in pain.
"Ah'm gonna kill that little summery freak of... When Ah'm done with him, he'll... He'd better watch out, that's all," growled Bunny, fury welling up inside him.
"We must get him back to castle, back to cold. Here is too hot for him," decided North. With three taps of his foot, Bunny opened a tunnel for them and they shot through, catching a quick glimpse of the warren. The last time Jack had been there was when he had let the elves loose. "PHIL!" roared the Russian as they arrived in the workshop. Phil ran up quickly, but froze in horror when he caught sight of Jack. "Fetch medical yetis. Tell them it is emergency!" Phil nodded, and sprinted away, while North hurried the boy up to his bedroom.
Jack stirred feebly as he was laid onto the bed. He gazed up at them, and for a split second his eyes focused. He murmured something through cracked lips. It was barely audible, and the other guardians leaned forward, trying to understand.
"Too many," he whispered. "Too many." He started to struggle, and repeated it again, stronger this time.
"He's delirious," said Tooth, "he doesn't know what he's saying. Sandy! Help!" An arm of golden sand curled around the thrashing figure, and Jack stilled again. Golden snowflakes began to fall from the air above him, and they relaxed.
At that moment, the Medi-Yetis arrived, and they told them on no uncertain terms (in yetish) to either hush up or leave immediately. One opened a green first aid kit, while a second focused on packing snow around Jack's body. He whimpered in pain, and the snowflakes vanished. The first yeti pulled out anti-burn cream, and began to gently rub it onto the scorch marks on his arm and face, and the second yeti turned back to the guardians.
"He says Jack is too hot, but we are lucky: he could be worse." North translated. The yeti nodded, and Tooth fluttered down next to the bed.
"Thank the Man in the Moon," she whispered tears bunching in her eyes. Jack whimpered again, and curled in on himself. As he did, the back of his hoodie slipped up slightly. Tooth gently slid it up further, and they all froze in horror.
His normally pale skin was enveloped by an angry red burn, puckering and contouring at random intervals. In places his skin had cracked open, and these cracks had either scabbed over or were still softly dripping blood. Small black dots of infection had already appeared, and the inside of his hoodie was stained a dark crimson.
The medi-yetis kicked them out. They had never seen wounds this badly, and they needed to treat it in total silence. North took to pacing outside the door, while the others sat by the fireplace the next room over. Every now and then a piercing scream would echo from the Winter room, making the guardians wince. After about three hours, a medi-yeti appeared.
"How is he?" whispered Tooth, darting over. He replied something in yetish, and they turned to North for a translation. The Russian sighed.
"He is in bad shape. They may have to cauterize the wounds, to stop infection."
"What does that mean?" asked Bunny, hopping over anxiously. North sighed.
"It means," he tried, and his voice broke. "It means they will have to burn him again." Another scream reverberated past them, making them flinch. A little watch appeared above Sandy's head, next to a question mark. "Hours," replied North, "maybe an entire day. They do not know for sure, but they've never had to deal with something as serious as this before."
The medi-yeti went inside the room, and North resumed his pacing, but Bunnymund could not sit back down.
"Sandy," he whispered to the smallest guardian. "I think we owe a visit to a certain summer spirit." Sandy's face set, and he nodded. Silently, Bunny opened a tunnel, and the two leaped down. Tooth noticed, and followed them quickly before it could close up.
"He lives in Brazil," she whispered to the other two.
Pitch was back in front of his looking glass, beaming like a child on Christmas. Who would have thought the defenders of children's innocent hopes and dreams could get so violent? The summer spirit's fear seemed to permeate the air as the three of them closed in on him, and Pitch laughed gleefully.
Though he would have to watch out. When his plan was complete, and the Frost boy's spirit had been crushed in its entirety, as well as the rest of the Guardians' morale and sense of self worth, then he might have to fortify his lair. He winced as the spirit got a particularly nasty kick to the stomach from Bunnymund, and basked in the warm fear the fool emitted. Yes, fortifying his lair would definitely be a good idea.
As you can probably tell, I'm awful at Australian accents, so you're going to have to superimpose your own over my feeble attempts. This chapter was harder to write than usual, so I'm sorry for the delay.
If you have any time free (which I'm guessing you do, seeing as you're reading fanfiction!), then just hit that little review button and type me a short note on what you thought of it. Being wonderful, smart people like you are, it should only take a second :)
