"When all you've got to keep is strong,
Move along, move along,
Like I know you do.
And even when your hope is gone,
Move along, move along,
Just to make it through."
'Move Along,' by All American Rejects
Chapter 10
Santoff Clausen was usually rather quiet this time of year. Winter was the busiest season for the yetis and elves as they frantically worked (or just swiped cookies in the case of the elves) to make the many, many toys for North's famous yearly ride. Spring was generally considered their down time, and most worked in smaller shifts to keep up production and still let the other workers could rest.
But now one could hear raised voices, one in particular, out over the frozen snow...
"I know what I saw, North! He was a Pooka, plain as the nose on your face!" Bunnymund shouted, angrily pacing over the hardwood floors.
North tried to sound gentle as he pointed out, "You said he was cloaked in magic. Perhaps this was illusion? The imps, they are good at that."
Bunny paced around North's Command Center, fiddling with his boomerangs to keep his hands busy. "Someone could have fooled me with an illusion, yeah, but no one could fool this sniffer," he gestured to his nose. "No one can copy a scent. Tooth, help me out," he walked over to where the busy Tooth Fairy hovered.
"What can I-Pembley, two front teeth, horseriding accident, hurry girls!-do to help?"
"I want you to look at my memory of it. I need to show you all what I saw," Bunnymund said firmly.
Tooth actually stopped hovering and let her feet touch the ground in shock. Sandy's jaw dropped, and North sat down in surprise. Tooth's ability to manipulate memories was a rarely used skill. She could bring forth memories, hide them, even remove them from the mind of any mortal or immortal. Such a talent was very draining, and normally went against the morals of the Tooth Fairy. What Bunny was asking her to do was something that hadn't been done since the Dark Ages. She could find the memory and display it through the Moon Crystal for all of them to see, thus getting the other Guardians' observations on what Bunny had seen.
"You are that serious, old friend?" North asked.
"As a heart attack," the Pooka said with a firm nod before his expression softened. "He was so scared, North. Scared of me! The last of my kind was scared of me! I can't...", Bunny shook his head, ears flattening against his head in distress. "I can't just leave the poor kit like tha'. We have to find him! What if somethin' happens to him? And if he survived, did any others? Did any-"-he swallowed hard, the possibilities swirling in his head. "Did anyone else make it ta Earth? And if they did, why wouldn't they contact me? I could help protect 'em! Nowhere on Earth is more hidden than my Warren!"
Sandy put a gentle hand on his shoulder in comfort, the fallen star giving his old friend a smile of reassurance. "If, if I'm just seeing things, you lot will be able to tell. But if I'm not, then I'll need every bit of your help to find him," Bunnymund said firmly.
"And you will have it," North said with a nod, the others echoing it. They walked over to where the Moon Crystal was hidden, North using his control panel to draw it up. "Tooth, let us see memory."
The Tooth Fairy nodded. "Alright then. Girls," she nodded to the four little fairies around her, "you'll have to take over for a bit while I do this. I'll be back at the palace in a while." They chiruped their agreement and headed back to their home. "Bunny," Tooth said as she motioned for him to sit, "you need to relax for this, okay? Let your body relax and let your mind go back to when you first saw him."
She moved to stand in front of him, her little hands at the sides of his furred head. "Remember how he looked standing there. Remember his scent, the sound of his voice, how he moved, how he ran. Remember the feel of his magic. Remember, Bunnymund."
He remembered. She slowly drew the memory from his mind, a soft glowing light in her hands as she pulled back from him and walked toward the Moon Crystal. This crystal could detect any falsehood, illusion, or lie. If the image was false, it would show them the truth. She gently set it down on the tip of the gem, and the memory formed as a perfect image in front of them. The other Guardians gasped in amazement at seeing the face of another Pooka. The image did not waver, shimmer, or distort in any way. There was no magic to affect sight in that memory.
"He is real, my friend," North said in soft wonder to a visably trembling Bunny. "You are not the last."
Sandy nodded, hugging his furred friend in joy.
Bunny smiled, all but dancing in joy as he unconsciously reaching out to the image to reassure himself that it was indeed real. "Now you lot know what he looks like. If you see him, you'll know him, yeah? You can, oh crikey, I don't rightly know what to tell him," Bunny said, suddenly at a loss. "Tell him I don't mean him any harm. I just want to talk! I don't want anything from him, I just want him to be safe!"
"We will," North said with a firm nod. "Won't we, Sandy? Tooth? ...Tooth?"
Toothainia was staring at the memory, gazing into the young Pooka's eyes. "Bunny? I, I'm not sure, but its possible that you might have caught an impression of his magic," she said uncertainly. "If you did, I might be able to look into his memories in this image."
The other Guardians exchanged surprised looks. "You can do that?" Bunny asked.
"Its a long shot, but I can try," she said. "It might tell us why he was so afraid of you. If we knew that, we could help him understand that he doesn't need to be afraid." She reached out her magic, tugging at the image of the kit, and pulled something forward. The entire image shifted, changed to what the kit had been thinking right then. Or rather, the flashback he'd been having.
A terrified kit, little more than a baby, was running from the terrible sounds of angry shouts and curses. He tripped as he scrambled over the fence that marked his tribe's land, falling to the ground and sobbing. "Get out, get out! The outcast can never return to the homeland!" the white-furred elder shouted angrily behind him. A red tipped boomerang zinged through the air, nicking at small black-tipped ears, and the kit shrank back in horror. Blue eyes were wide in pain and shock. "On pain of death! If you ever come near one of us again, we'll kill you!"
New thoughts went through the young Pooka's mind now as he faced the Easter Bunny. His territory, this is his territory, if he finds me again-"Lache ni-kyet! Lache ni-kyet! Maganoi ni-po curtari!"*
*Please don't kill me! Please don't kill me! I won't trespass here ever again!*
The memory faded, and the Guardians were left staring in horror.
"What...why would they do that?" North breathed in horror. Sandy wasn't in much better shape.
"Bunny...what could he have possibly have done for them to think he deserve that?" Tooth asked in stunned shock.
Bunny, on the other hand, was growling in rage. "I know those marks, I remember hearing about that tribe. They tossed that poor kit out because he was born with the wrong color markings." He sighed quitely, then explained, "Some Pooka tribes and clans were really superstitious. When the Age of Enlightenment came, before the Golden Age, most of those clans calmed down and discarded those stupid beliefs. But some tribes were stubborn, wouldn't let go of their prejudice. They were isolated, and not allowed to go out into the stars until they got rid of that poisonous nonsense. And when the Golden Age arrived, nearly all of them stopped. All but two tribes."
Bunny shook his head. "They used to kill the ones they didn't want, but the High Council came down so hard on them that none of 'em dared kill another child. Casting them out was the most those ignorant bastards were allowed to do. It was a mercy for the poor children they threw out. Nearly any other tribe would gladly take them in. But this kit was thrown out right before the, the end," Bunny swallowed down his emotions. "Tooth, can you find out anything else? How he escaped? If there's any others with him?"
She shook her head. "No, not without the poor little one being here for me to touch. I can't get any more out of this memory."
The elder Pooka nodded. "Thanks. You're a fine shelia, you know that?"
Tooth smiled gently. "You're welcome." North immediately went to her side as her wings drooped and exhaustion pulled her down.
"Now we know who to look for, and why is scared," North said thoughtfully. "Will certainly take time to get to come to us. Must be patient. We will keep many eyes out for little Pooka, yes?" The others all agreed.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!
Many hours of tears and greif later, Rhosgobel decided that he really needed to keep away from Aster.
After that massive scare/breakdown, Rhosgobel would stay buried in a shallow burrow every Christmas and Easter. He made sure to stay indoors or in some kind of shelter at night, a precaution shown to be needed when he saw the Sandman looking for something each night. (Unbeknownst to Rhos, he was spotted by a few of the little Tooth Fairies from time to time, but he moved too fast for them to keep up. Bunny would be wildly frustrated in trying to track him down for decades.) He headed back into his hunt with a vengence, eager to get back to Burgess as soon as possible.
However, this little treasure hunt was definately not as easy as it sounded.
Egypt by itself was an entire six month stay to clean up, destroy, alter, or just plain vanish the many and varied magics the country had. Sweet MiM, Egypt was fracking overloaded with Death Magic! It didn't help that he'd had to dig through solid stone in cliffs and tombs just to reach most of it. (He had been rather stunned that Pookas were naturally strong enough to dig through solid stone.) The young Pooka had nearly given himself away to Pitch when he'd had nightmares for a straight week about all the shambling cursed mummies of former crypt robbers he'd found in various tombs throughout the Valley of the Kings. (And if anything, the Valley of the High Priests was far, faaaaar worse.) Don't even get him started about the sheer number of tablets and wall carvings he'd had to destroy. And the scrolls. Lots and lots of scrolls.
Egypt was a lovely country with an incredible history, but Rhosgobel was more than happy to see the last of it.
His journey around the Old World continued. Rhos was sent after some of the oddest things. Some examples were a tiny statue of a faun from a Roman ruin in the Swiss Alps; a platinum pendant from a temple in the jungles of India; a bronze crown from what would become the city of Istanbul's catacombs; a sheild of unknown make from a cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia; a black lion's pelt from a village in East Africa; and an Egyptian ankh from a sailor's grave off the coast of Austrailia. (By Cronos, what a nail-biter that trip had been!) It had felt like he was bouncing like a deranged ping pong ball across most of the world.
Mainly, he was sent after books or scrolls. Anything written down that could tell a person (or spirit) about how to raise the dead, release spirits, or open the Gates of Hell was quickly destroyed. The Pooka hid the more beneign items in the depths of his backpack, Tempus' magic enhancing the bag to hold everything and to hide it from all detection. Occassionally, the entire pack would empty of these objects, passing on to Tempus' realm and safely out of the human world forever. It greatly eased Rhosgobel's mind that Pitch would never be able to get his hands on such powerful magic.
And, to the young Guardian's absolute shock and delight, he was sent on a trip to the hidden entrance of the lost Library of Alexandria. There, he'd been told to gather nearly a dozen books and scrolls, all detailing Time Magic. He mourned the loss of knowledge, but Rhos understood that he had to destroy them. Time Magic was not meant for mortals to use, no matter how well-intentioned they were. The rest of his time in the famous library was spent reading. (Despite rumors to the contrary, the former Jack Frost had loved reading, and had been an avid bibliophile for nearly all of his immortal life. To destroy books willingly seemed like a sacrillage.) Afterwards, Tempus had instructed Rhos in how to ward the Library against Pitch's magic, to prevent the Nightmare King from ever gaining access to the huge amount of knowledge and power to be found there.
The Master of Time did encourage Rhos to pick out a few books on Magic to learn from; after all, Magic had a tendancy to come in handy for almost everybody, but especially for Guardians. The young Pooka had agreed, and packed seven thick tomes to read, (after Tempus had sent a pair of enchanted spectacles that could translate what he read into English.) Three of them were grimoires, or books that compiled several other books of magic into one, and these were all about purifying and healing magic. They were sure to help in the fight against Pitch.
From his arrival back in time until now had taken more than two years time, 26 months, even with his Time Pendant speeding him up. With so much time gone on his treasure hunt, he could now think of his modified staff. The Guardian hurried to set up the deadly new spear in the depths of the Himilayan Mountains to charge. The Pooka had traveled another month to reach the icy mountains, placing it in a carefully hidden valley that would protect the weapon from anyone that would steal it. It had taken great effort, but he had also brought in nearly 4 dozen mirrors, the better to focus the light of the Moon onto the staff to help it charge. Even the broken shards of a few were used to bounce the light onto the crystals.
It took four more months to reach North America. Mostly due to having to stop at three temples in southern Argentina, a lost city in Venuzuela, and then swim to the bottom of a pirahna infested lake in the Amazon rainforest to find all the artifacts that Tempus had wanted stored away. (To say nothing of that giant fracas with the vampires in that cave in Mexico...it was all a big misunderstanding! Half the myths that mortals believed in about vampires were completely bullshit. How was he supposed to know that thing about vampires and garlic was true?!) All that was just to reach what would become Texas.
Sadly, most of what would become the United States and all of Canada was already picked clean of magical items by Pitch already. Rhosgobel had thought he'd spied a shadow of the Nightmare King once or twice in Mexico and Venezuela, but it all led to nothing. Pitch would not reveal his hand before he was ready, but Rhos took some comfort in the fact that his would be a much, much weaker army this time around.