Yep. I forgot to post this on the last week. I'm stupid, I know. But on the bright side, it was really good, it gave me time to end up with the chapter 13, which was taking me forever and have far more than 7.000 words. It will be a record when I publish it. Now, enjoy the shortest of chapters!
PandaAttack2109: Awn, I hope you're well honey, and it's okay, I was just a bit surprised to don't see you last chapter. As for fanfictions I totally agree, you can be an amazing writer, but an original – even if stupid – idea is essential. And for coffee, I got this from the stereotype of Russians drinking vodka all the time and put it on coffee as well. I had no idea if it would be edible at all, so I got my friend Jeremy to try that out. It is good but strong as hell. Or maybe we are just too weak to drinks.
Disclaimer: I had a dream that I owned it. It was so good…
Chapter 11 – Forest
When they arrived, the woods were filled with fire, smoke, and darkness. Above, the moon witnessed everything quietly, sadly, on its crescent form, and without being able to do a thing. North wasn't surprised.
The snow filled the forest floor, the season was starting, winter was arriving and snow was already there, filling the floor, leaves and grass like a soft blanket. A beautiful blanket that now held black and red tint.
Tint? North wished it was. The scent of blood was strong and devastating, not even when a bandit king he felt so much blood on his lungs as now. Fire danced on the trees, not burning many of them, but instead running through them, like if they ran or searched for things.
Looking closely, he could see it wasn't fireballs, but fire spirits flying, fire whirling around them and feeding on their powers. The one he was looking at though, was roughly thrown out of the air.
A creature picked it from the thin air and sent it directly to the floor on a neck breaking strength, and when it landed over the spirit, North could finally see what it was. The Nightmare raised its pawns and buried them on the spirit's head, killing it fast and horribly.
North knew that spirits could not die unless their head were cut off or severed just too badly, it would work too if the heart was taken out, if not, they would heal after some time, change shape on seconds and be like if nothing happened, but the pain would still exist.
The Nightmare released a keening sound before a Fearling appeared, crawling from the shadows like some sort of ghost, and diving to the attack as well. Yet, they weren't many and North could see by the fire that was long over the forest that there was far more spirits there.
His eyes widened though, when from the fire and the woods came a Nightmare and as if not enough, on its back no one less than Jack himself.
"Jack!" He yelled, but it was too late. The Nightmare almost ran over him before they noticed the Guardians standing shocked on the border of Jack's lake. The winter spirit seemed terrified, but his worry didn't disappear when he saw the Guardians. There was something wrong, North could spot.
"North! Ahead... Pitch is holding them! The children are safe... the Nightmares got them away..." Jack was nearly without oxygen as he yelled, his hands gripping on the black mane of the Nightmare for dear life, as he held his staff tightly, it was broken in five irregular pieces, all them he held under his left arm.
Was probably when North noticed the boy's wounds, there wasn't probably a member of him that didn't held a burn of any kind, there was flesh being shown, burned and bleeding, yet, he wasn't deeply injured.
"Jack!" Tooth yelled as she moved closer to the boy. "How could they do that to you?! Why Pitch didn't wait for us?!"
Jack frowned and gave a sigh. "If he waited any longer, I would be dead! Come! Now you all are here you can help him!" The winter spirit said, worry dipping from his mouth like water from a man that had just drowned. He gripped the mane dangerously thigh, and the Nightmare released a keen pitched screech, wanting to go aid its master.
"Jack, slow down, ya can't fight like that! Listen to reason and go to the Pole wait for us-"
"Like hell I will!" Bunny was interrupted harshly by Jack, and the frost spirit glared daggers at him like if he was some sort of traitor. "Pitch is out there spending the few power he still have to keep them away as the Nightmares get away with the children and you freaking tell me to stay away?! While I breathe I can still fight, and I am returning there right away, you guys following me or not! I just left thinking you all would be of help, but it seems like I'm the only one interested on helping!"
North smiled sadly at the courage of the boy. His boy was brave, even if it was useless and dangerous. He handed his hand to the boy, and cupped the frost spirit's burned cheek tenderly. "I'm going with you, Pitch certainly will need the help sooner or later, and his powers aren't completely back yet."
"That's right." Jack agreed with a smile and North nodded with one of his own. He wasn't letting his adopted 300 years old son go to battle alone, neither his once-enemy-now-crush fall in battle without him raising an arm to defend them. He jumped though, when a whip of golden sand hit the floor just few centimeters from him. Looking down, he stared at a really angry Sandman.
'The fire spirits have retreated!' Sandy signed, pointing to the woods and North moved to look as well. On the other side of the lake he could sometimes see one spirit or another flying on the woods, flying from the core of the battle or running into, making their way around it or anything. Now though, there was no such thing, all had gone inside to the battle.
"They went to help fight Pitch! Come on boys! I'm not letting a friend of mine die today!" Toothiana said and Jack nodded just as certain as her. "Follow me! Lead us Gehenna!"
The Nightmare whined and ran, not an impossibly fast pace but one they could actually follow. Secrecy was thrown out of the window as they ran, Jack by all means trying to get his staff on a single piece on the way, but he couldn't do a thing.
North handed him a dagger, one of the many he had hidden, and they continued. The way was easy, just too easy, he could hear the fire and war screams, yells of pain and grows of beasts, but he couldn't see a thing, they were still far from where the fight was happening.
The forces were all concentrated on the middle of an opening on the woods, a circle where no tree was growing, a perfect place to a fight. But not a good one if you were in disadvantage. And Pitch was.
On the middle of the circle stood a black tree, made of spikes and pointing to the skies threateningly, almost roaring in defiance, it's branches growing and stretching, picking fire spirits in midair and trusting their hearts with the spikes. It did not reach the ones far away, it only killed when they got close enough. What was doing the main kills where a totally different thing.
Above it Pitch stood, his scythe changed to two blades with chains on its handle, there was no difference between his coat and the tree of darkness, so the feeling it gave was that it was but part of Pitch's coat.
Pitch roared as he evaded a fireball, one of many, and threw his blades on two different spirits, then pulling out from their flying bodies and spinning them. It was red with blood and fire, but North knew that magic sand was never destroyed and simply burned without harming itself.
It was madness, no one on Pitch's place would be able to fight so fiercely given the circumstances and disadvantages, yet there he was, each five seconds a fire spirit was hit with those blades, and if they got too far and into the woods, it was Nightmare bait.
There was a time when Kings were chosen by their prowess on battle, bravery and ability to stay back, so the ones who needed aid would flee and be safe. He was a heroic villain, an flawed hero, he hadn't seen it before but he could now.
With a war cry, a yell of battle frenzy ringed as he threw one of the blades on a spirit that got too close, the blade trusting and entering the spirit's body, and then being pulled out in inhumane strength, the body being left open on the forest floor like trash. With a strong pull Pitch took the blade from the spirit's body and it fell on the floor, lifeless. Pitch fighting he never stood to have survivors, he executed mercilessly.
"Pitch!" Tooth called and the Nightmare King was only able to stare as fireballs were thrown in the direction of the Tooth Fairy, that thanks to her wings and agility she evaded to safety.
North clenched his fists as the word was spread between the fire spirits with a simple glance, there was help coming, and they didn't fight anymore with only Pitch and his Nightmares and Fearlings, but the Guardians as well.
"Return!" North just heard as he heard Jack yelling behind him, his fingers tight around the Nightmare's mane and finding an inner strength to yell from nowhere. "Let's go! We got the children!"
North swallowed hard as that got the fire spirit's even more attention and like a fire storm they all rose fists, fire licking around their fingers as they charged. A stronger attack this time. Aiming to them and nothing else. And then the yell.
"RUN!" Was the roar of darkness, like if every shadow suddenly screamed on a mass of voices, all different and at the same time alike, screaming perfectly on unison, on a terrifying screech. Shadows knew better, they weren't dumb, they never feared, but they were masters of self-preservation. They knew it was time to flee.
Jack seemed the first to understand, the attention was on them, Pitch would have time to flee if they ran now, and if they wanted to live, they had to move now. The Nightmare almost pushed everyone as it turned around and ran, the Guardians not far behind.
Fire licked at their feet and on some of them, on the spot they were just few seconds ago, burning trees and grass like if it was dry hay, the conflagration swallowing everything that it touched and more.
His heart was on his mouth, almost jumping off, and North couldn't do nothing against it, besides keep running. And if the spirits went behind Pitch again, forgot about them? A fireball that hit his enchanted coat showed it was a lie, yet he couldn't stop worrying. He never left one behind, he never fled when there was still one to be rescued, but here he was, running, and even if his heart argued, he wasn't going to stop running until he fell dead, or one of his friends.
And if Pitch was down right now? Just because he didn't see the fall, it didn't mean anything? No, the fact he wasn't there made it even worst. Jack lead them deeper into the forest, where the trees were thick and the fire spirits couldn't keep on by the wind, instead choosing to fly close to the floor.
The Nightmare was fast as a bolt and never stepped wrong, was like if the hard forest landscape was nothing to it, like if it didn't even touched the floor. Jack had tears running down his eyes, so did Tooth, and North had to voice that pain.
"And Pitch?! We will really leave him?!" North yelled, and he could see Sandy shaking his head, both serious as apologetic, like if he knew of something the others did not, while Bunny was startled, but still on his senses.
"The fire spirits ar' behind us! Pitch fled already! Save yourself North!" Bunny yelled and North's blood boiled. Really boiled, like water on the fire. He doubled his pace and got his hands on the fellow's shoulders, before lifting him and slamming a fist on his jaw. Sandy and Tooth braked, surprised and scared with that, but rage was almost slipping out of North on the form of strength and tears.
"Stop thinking for yourself for five minutes! He can be dead now and you don't even fake that you care! If he did die, I'm sure you didn't deserve his sacrifice!" North roared as loud and as angry as his body and psyche permitted, and not far he could see the Nightmare almost joining him on that, making the Guardian of Hope pay. Sandy waved angrily back, but North ignored that with the hint of shock and anger on Bunny's face.
His claws buried on his hand and North released him hard on the floor. "Sorry if I don't feel any sympathy for an enemy that tried to kill me and my friends, frighten the whole world to feed his powers!" Bunny yelled as loud as North and when North was going to hit another blow on the Pooka, a fireball bought him back to the reality and dangerous situation. He turned back, only to see the fire spirits making a circle around them, using their disagreement as advantage.
North regretted nothing, he wasn't going to leave that pass without defending Pitch. Exactly as the circle that the spirits made around Pitch, now they made around the Guardians. Jack put the places of his staff on his pockets as he touched the shadows of the Nightmare, and from it a spear of shadows appeared.
North knew not where Jack learned to do such things, but the spear had a long blade and seemed able to cut bones like butter, not one to mess with, since Jack was really used to fight with long weapons, such as his staff.
"Poor Boogeyman, his distraction worked for nothing, it seems. I love Guardian's foolishness." A woman said and darted towards, meeting Tooth's blades on a combat of scimitar against sabers, and the fire spirits closed up, the closest ones fighting, the ones far throwing fire.
North thanked that he had picked his enchanted coat, enchanted against fires, frost and dust, for by now, he would be naked. He raised his swords and ran to the combat, where everyone sort of did something of their own.
Bunny showed how deadly a boomerang could be by simply knocking the spirits out with it, besides the poisoned eggs, while Sandy made a vicious with his sand whips and Tooth with her sabers.
Jack fell into synchrony with the Nightmare as it moved and Jack attacked, evading fire and weapons, while wounding spirits and keeping them away. North danced with his swords, a gift he never forgot to mention, one that he liked the most, and one that was absurdly useful in times like those.
They bought, and he just stopped when he failed. They were many, now more than thirty, and the fact he fought more than one at once made him an easy prey. The sword of the fire spirit was almost entering his body, when it stopped. The spirit's mouth fell open to leave a gurgle of blood, before falling to its side, body without head.
When North rose his eyes, he was more than delighted. With one leg on a strange angle, skin burned and wounds open and bleeding, Pitch stood behind the corpse, his breath accelerated and pupils large, but besides that not even bothered by taking a life.
"I thought I said run!" He yelled angrily at the Guardians before North grabbed him by the waist and pulled him to his side, saving his from a deadly blow that was going to pick him off guard. Pitch hissed as he moved the scythe and buried it on a spirit's head, before taking it and burying again on another spirit. "I thought death had taken you!"
North yelled over the sound of battle and war cries. "Not yet." Pitch muttered, as he jumped over a spirit and attacked the one behind him, while taking off the head of said spirit with a dagger that wasn't on his hand two seconds ago.
Maybe he should say something about the killing and the forever slaughtering, but in that battle he didn't think any more about mercy or pity, for his enemy didn't. Leave Pitch take their souls, be the grim reaper for one day, the Guardian of Wonder was simply too happy for his Boogeyman to be alive at least. He could deal with it. If he survived it of course. So now they fought. They fought until a scene got his attention. Bunny with a sword on his chest, many burns on his body already.
His four pawns touched the floor, as he dealt with the pain of the wound. Tooth and Jack were far, fighting for their own hides, and he was the only one that noticed, but was too far to react at the time.
The world slowed down as a fire spirit raised its sword, ready to take the head out of the Pooka, as a mighty prize. North's heart beat as fast as the beats of a dragonfly's wing. There was no time to help, he wasn't close enough. The only with some time to react was Pitch, that was half on the way to Bunny.
Except for the fact that he was down in his way as well. The Boogeyman buried his nails on his own head, a snarl of pure pain on his face as he stared at Bunny in pure rage, pain and something animal about it.
His eyes were completely black now, no iris, no pupil, no reflex, no color, only black as blood was spilled out of his lungs and his mouth opened on a silent roar in a way physically impossible to a human, like if his jaws had changed inside and mouth widened, giving North a show of his sharp animal teeth wet with blood that was spilled from him like if he drowned on it.
Pitch's body arched, knees bowed as one hand touched the floor and he lowered his head, lowering like if he was going to speed off on the fastest sprint of his life. Maybe he was. But what happened North wasn't waiting for. He never waited for something of the sort, was never ready for it, and would never be.
There wasn't a single enemy now. There were two.
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