Ok, now we're a little scared. Why? Well, North might have gotten hit in the battle, and when I say hit, I don't mean a pansy little smack in the face, no, I mean hit by something very similar to what Jack got hit by. I mean we didn't actually see North a lot in the fight. Sandy and Tooth were working together while Bunny was dangling off the wing of the sleigh and Jack was saving me from a messy death. None of us were around North, who's to say he didn't get hit and kept it from us.

The remaining Guardians looked at me and each other worried. Bunny was the first to look at the door which all our gazes then followed. Sandy hovered over to the door and began to twist the handle slowly. Tooth, Bunny and I had hurried close by him in case we something unexpectedly hurts Sandy. He pulled the door open slightly, allowing me to poke my head around the corner.

"North? North, are you ok? It's Bethany." I spoke calmly and quietly. Sandy had pushed the remainder of the down open. His office was still a mess, even when we helped clean it up a little, when we found out Pitch had taken the Book of Oath. We had managed to pick up some papers and turn the furniture the right way round at the time but they now seemed to have moved back into their original backward positions. North was nowhere to be seen.

We stepped in the office slowly, preparing for any surprises that came out at us. This wasn't right, something wasn't right. We looked around although it was difficult to get a clear sight of what was in here. Then we heard a sound. Like a groan. Bunny, of course with his sensitive hearing, was the first to pick up and moved into its location. He sniffed around, picking up a piece of furniture and moving it out of the way.

Underneath was North, curled up on the floor, with his eyes tightly shut. His arms were around his stomach were the veins of black sand were crawling up his body. Tooth's humming wings were heard behind me.

"North!" Tooth screamed as she whizzed down to him, placing a small hand on his cheek and the other stroking his head. Us three moved closer and the tears in Tooth's eyes could be seen.

"No, North, why didn't you tell us?" She whispered. I could feel the tear swell up in my eyes and when I glanced at Sandy and Bunny, they had the glass looking in them as well. North groaned opening his eyes to reveal one had lost its original colour. While one remained a magnificent blue, the other had turned blood red.

We were all taken aback by this; the black veins were bad enough. It seemed that North's transformation was happening slowly, possibly due to the location of the cut. Where Jacks had been straight through the chest, North had it in the left side of his stomach and it was slowly making its way up. It also seemed the North was fighting it, but this had left him so incredibly weak.

"I…I d-didn't vwant y-you to wo-worry. Tis t-too late for me. I c-cannot fight i-it." North breathed out exhausted. I felt guilty for doing it but I had to, it was only a matter of time before North would be consumed and I needed to get an answer out of him before we went down to get the book back and change Jack and North back. I stepped forward by Tooth and looked right into his eyes.

"North, I know your hurt but you can do this. Is there anything you can give us, tell us how the book helped Pitch to do this. I have a theory but I need to know about the book. I know there's something in that cookie filled brain of yours." I begged North could tell us something before he changed; the tears now began to fall down my cheek but still tried to maintain my smile. When he looked up at me, he seemed heartbroken but a little smile appeared on his face. I smiled more. I love it when people smile.

"Library, t-top shelf, far l-left, gold book." He said still smiling. He brought a hand up to my cheek and brushed back a tear that was about to fall. "Your smile is important, Beth." he whispered. I was confused, what was that supposed to mean? I knitted my eyebrows together with questioning eyes at North but before he could answer, his eyes screwed shut and the sand and mist consumed him. Tooth and I moved back fast to meet Bunny and Sandy who watched from a distance.

When the Black blanket disappeared, so did North.

There was now no hesitation, we all made our way to the library, I followed from behind considering I had NO idea where the hell I was going in this place. Seriously, it's like Pan's labyrinth, it's ridiculous. Tooth was leading the way saying she knew where it was. The girl has good memory after all. Bunny and Sandy were either side of me, following until we arrived.

WOW! This – It's huge! I mean, how does he read this much! Oh for the love of – how are we supposed to find the bloody thing! We all stood at the doorway staring at the unbelievable size of the library, it looked like it went on for a mile. After sighing, rolling our eyes and cursing North for being a hairy bookworm, we made our way down to the far left. It was Sandy and Tooth's duty to look at the top as they were the only ones who could fly up.

I grabbed the ladders that were nearby and slid them along to climb and push myself along looking for the gold book. Bunny, I was on the verge of falling off the ladders and crying out in laughter. He decided to go with his stereotypical demeanour and was jumping up to find it. No joke, he was jumping like they do in the cartoons, arms curled up to his chest, facing the bookshelf and jumping up every 5 seconds like Peter Rabbit to look for it. I think I'm going to pee my pants!

After trying to contain my amusement and about an hour of looking, Sandy had found the book and began waving it in the air with a huge grin on his face. I cheered, patting the little guy on the head and telling him well done. He's so cute! The other two had gathered and the four of us were now looking down at the book which Sandy still held, he was glancing at us as if to wait for us to give him the thumbs up. I turned to him Sandy and smiled.

"Let's gets reading shall we."

Sandy turned the cover.