"This is bloody ridiculous." There was ice hanging from the end of Bunny's nose and his paws were shaking so hard it threw off his natural equilibrium. "We'll never find him like this!"
He and Tooth stayed close to North's back, using his huge frame as a windbreaker. The ice that settled on her wings made it harder for her to fly and she hugged her arms around her chest miserably.
North, for his part, had violence written across his face. He struggled forwards through the deep snow, eyes fixed on what Bunny could only assume was the horizon. The weather was so poor and the night so dark it was hard to see anything other than that which was illuminated by Sandy.
Only Sandy seemed unaffected by the weather, flying on ahead. He'd sent out tendrils of golden sand in every direction, hoping to find trace of Jack.
"If my tail falls off because of that irritating little…" Bunny shook away the complaint. He and Jack Frost were not likely to ever really get on, but Bunny was loyal to the Guardians and thought of them all as family, which meant that Jack could be considered the bratty little brother he'd never wanted and didn't really like all that much. Likewise, it meant that Bunny owned the monopoly on messing with the kid and if anyone else tried he'd pound them into the dirt.
And that was just Frost.
The kid they were chasing might one day grow up to become the bane of Bunny's life, but until then he was just another child who needed their protection. It didn't matter who he was or would become. A Guardian protected children, whether they were the top of North's Naughty List or as precious to them as Jack – or both, in this case.
Bunny was jerked out of his thoughts by Tooth's cry of pain. She fell from the sky and Bunny only just caught her. North stopped his trek and turned to shelter them both. Ever so gently, Bunny held her close. "What's wrong, Tooth?" He asked.
"We can't stop!" Tooth protested, her teeth chattering. "I'm fine."
She wasn't. Bunny could see the ice that had formed on her wings, testament to how terribly cold it was.
They'd all been out in the cold before – such was unavoidable when you had a close association with a little terror like Jack- but for all their complaints, Jack had actually protected them from the worst of the it and even in the sleigh, she's had some shelter.
North unwrapped the sash from around his waist and gently draped it around Tooth's shoulders. "Bunny, take her back to the Pole."
"No, we have to find Jack!" Tooth was already struggling to get free from Bunny's arms. She was strong, she was a fighter and she was a mother. Every instinct she had called out for her to keep searching until she could take Jack into her arms and keep him safe. But no matter her resolve, she was no match for nature's cruelty. Feathers and fine spun wings were not made for battling the cold.
"You no use to Jack as popsicle!" North pointed out reasonably. "Bunny, take her, and work with Yetis. We must cover more ground!"
"You got it, mate!" Bunny nodded, already tapping the ground with his paw. The earth swallowed them whole and just being out of the wind made the cold so much more bearable.
By the time they were back Tooth had already stopped shivering, but Bunny still handed her over to the elves for some care while he went in search of Phil.
North did not subscribe to violence, but he was perfectly capable of it. It was seductively easy to spend his thoughts on ways in which he could inflict pain and suffering.
Pitch's taunts still rang through his ears, made all the worse for their truthfulness. North had never been so scared in his entire existence.
He knew of course that he cared for Jack, as he cared for each of his fellow Guardians. He would give no less of himself in their protection than he would the children under his care.
The crux of the problem wasn't North, and it wasn't even Pitch. It was Jack. Jack's life was no more precious to him than Sandy or Tooth or Bunny. The difference was that it had been Jack, and not the others, who had abruptly and unapologetically turned all of their lives upside down. They were all guilty of hiding in their work, but in doing so had lost sight of much of what it meant to do what they did. Jack, in his wild, untamed ways, had forced them all to face some uncomfortably truths and in doing so had dragged them rather unceremoniously back into the world.
They couldn't lose him now.
"Sandy? Anything?" North bellowed over the wind that howled angrily through the passageways of the mountains.
Sandy shook his head sadly and continued to search.
They trekked deeper into the mountains. It became harder and harder to continue as the wind turned all of its helplessness and fear into a frightful storm.
North marveled at Jack ever having made it so far when he…
Jack couldn't have made it that far. He was a small, barefooted boy who was already sickly and running on fear alone. If North couldn't physically battle the storm then Jack had no hope.
Cursing himself loudly, North called to Sandy. "We have to go back!"
They'd missed him somehow.
Sandy must have reached the same conclusion because he swooped down and seized a hold of North's shirt, hoisting him into the air with a strength none would have expected of him.
North flailed a little but settled as golden sands warded away the worst of the weather and they sped back towards the Pole.
This time they circled around to the south, where the wind was less strong and the mountains provided a greater protection.
North hoped there was enough left of Jack's rational mind to have put some thought into where he ran, and so they shot across the icy canyons and passageways, looking for something, anything…
Then finally…
Sandy deposited him feet from the huddled form hidden beneath the rocky outcrop. Jack had managed to find the one place of shelter and hadn't hesitated in burrowing in. It was that and only that, North suspected, that had saved his life.
"Jack!" North cried, bounding over to the boy, his boots leaving huge imprints in the snow.
He was shocked when Jack stirred at his voice, his head slowly turning towards North.
North tried again, hope swelling in his chest. "Jack?"
Jack stared up at him, hazy eyed and confused
Seizing all of his courage, North dropped to one knee and took Jack's shoulders in his hands. They remained firm and his heart soared in his chest.
Even crouched he wasn't able to maintain eyelevel with Jack, but he tried his best not to be as intimidating as he knew he could be.
Holding one stern finger to Jack's face, he said quite firmly. "You will not fear me." He didn't give Jack a chance to protest. Removing his overshirt, he wrapped Jack in its folds and lifted him into his arms. Sandy swooped down again, took hold of North's collar in one small fist and carried them up and away from the snow covered ground.
Jack buried his face against North's chest as they flew through the air, completely overwhelmed by the sensation.
North held him tighter. "It's alright. I won't let you fall."