Wow, I've returned…! Truly, thank you to you all who apparently like me and this story. Really, I don't know why. I'm a terrible person.
I DO NOT own Rise of the Guardians nor do I own Pocahontas.
Chapter 11 – Reconciliation
He couldn't breathe. The tiny fear spirit was trapped underneath the cloth of this gigantic robe on top of him, and he didn't know how to get out. Ironically, he was scared. He was scared down to his very bone. He needed fresh air. Batting his little arms around in an effort to get the cloth off of him was of little to no use. Panic began to cloud his mind as he began to full on shake. Screaming and howling from beneath the cloth as warm salty tears streamed down his chubby cheeks didn't do anything much either except for making his vision more blurry than it ever was before. It was so dark in here…
The Nightmares waiting in the shadows stood there confused as they glanced at one another, deciding what to do next. This was definitely not part of the plan. One Nightmare timidly stepped forward out of the darkness to get a better look at what was going on, and one by one, the rest of the Nightmares did the same until they were completely surrounding the frostling and their master.
Jack quickly wiped away his tears. Yes, it was a little silly at why he was crying when his own enemy turned into a baby. With Pitch being a little infant, darkness and fear would definitely not be a problem in this world anymore, right? It wasn't like he had to take care of him or anything… Jack blinked. Take care of him…? He shook his head. No, that would be stupid. Why would a Guardian suddenly start to babysit the person they were all trying to stop in the first place? In fact, if Pitch were just stomped out right now, the Guardians would finally win once and for all. They wouldn't have to worry about fear ever reigning over the earth again. It could all be so easy… Jack felt the adrenaline rushing through his cold veins. This all could be over in just one second. He aimed the bottom of the staff at the creature beneath the robe. He didn't really want to do this, but it had to finish one day. His breath quickened as he realized at what he was about to do. It could all be over…
All of the surrounding Nightmares dumbly stood around the scene, watching with blank eyes as the Guardian hovered his staff over the infant. That is, until one Nightmare near the back of the group finally snapped as it realized what was about to happen. He was going to kill the Boogeyman! With newfound realization racing through its mind, it suddenly began to gallop with such sheer force through the crowd of Nightmares that it knocked many of them over. The running Nightmare, however, did not care about the safety of its comrades at the moment. It needed to save its creator.
As if from a scene from Pocahontas, the Nightmare dashed over and finally landed itself between the staff and Pitch, effectively stopping the Guardian from crushing the wreathing child with his shepherd's stick.
Jack was surprised. Where had this thing come from? Seemingly frozen in his readied position, Jack snapped out of his trance of destruction and felt his eyes begin to observe this very thing that decided to interrupt him and his execution.
Although the Nightmare was supposed to be a machine of fear and darkness, within its blank eyes seemed to hold some kind of emotion. Jack felt his breath hitch as he finally picked up on one. Desperation?
Slowly, the rest of the Nightmares -which were merely watching the scene unfold in front of them- quietly shuffled forward in front of Jack until they made some sort of thick wall that would not permit Jack to go through it.
The boy was startled, to say the least. For once, he was not the one that was protecting a child. For once, it was not him that was going to save the day. For once, it was him that was actually going to inhumanely kill a crying child. And it was the Nightmares who were standing up against him, peacefully and desperately trying to not let him get to their master. Jack looked up at of their high alert faces, all of them saying "No Jack, not today."
The Guardian sighed, his shoulders finally relaxing from their previously tense state as he lowered the bottom of his staff back to the ground. It was wrong, what he was about to do. He was supposed to help children, protect children, give fun to the children; not kill them. The feeling of guilt crept its way through Jack's old soul. And although he was a frost spirit, he still felt shivers up his spine. Now fully relaxed, and with a level head in mind, Jack closed his eyes, and then reopened them with a new determined fire. He knew what he had to do.
Jack stepped up to the tense Nightmares, and as he did, all of them in front of him jumped up and huddle closer to each other. Jack shook his head. "I'm not going to hurt him," he began with a quiet and cracking voice. "I promise. I just want to help." The fear machines were not buying it as they moved even closer to one another, indignation clear on their faces. The boy sighed once more as he tried to convince the horses of the night even more. "I just want to get him out of there, and make sure he's okay."
After a few seconds of nothing, Jack figured that there was only one other way to get them to trust him just this once.
The hollow sound of Jack's staff falling to the floor blended in with the hoarse cries of the Nightmare King.
Jamie sat there in the middle of his room as the little Guardians around ran around his room with Sophie. He had long since calmed them all down through means of lullabies, stories and just general hushing, and now he was tired. He had barely been awake for two hours and it already felt as if he just went through a whole day babysitter job. (And worse yet, he wasn't even being paid!)
His mother had already called him and Sophie down multiple times for breakfast, but he constantly yelled back to her that they would be down later and that he was busy with homework and that Sophie just wanted to be here.
Eventually, she just gave up.
Over the course of the two hours the six of them were together, it seemed that the Guardians had forgiven Jamie's little sister quite quickly and almost immediately adopted her as their new playmate. Now, Tooth was quietly giggling in squeaks as she flew around the room with her flitting wings (that she had almost immediately learned how to use), chasing the mischievously smiling Bunny who was bounding around the room from desk to bed to floor, almost (almost) knocking down everything in his path.
As he hopped from place to place with his speedy little legs, little North tried to crawl across the floor as quickly as he could to follow his two companions while he strained his chubby neck up to see the beautiful little sparks of dream sand Sandy was accidentally making from all the excitement he was having. Jamie, although very tired and exhausted, was very glad that everything was going well for once. He smiled faintly as he watched his sister loudly laugh with joy as she too ran around his room, watching the magic around her with wide awestruck eyes. Jamie was happy. The younger ones were happy. All was going well.
The boy closed his eyes. If he didn't feel the urge to just go back to sleep again, he would actually lift his arm to give himself a good pat on the back. I think I've gotten pretty good at this babysitting thing. Jamie thought. Then, with a triumphant smile, he began to praise himself. Good job, me. I'm so proud of you, me. You are so awesome, I wish I were you, me. Oh wait, I already am me. Haha, I am so awesome… And after a few minutes of just shutting his eyes, the exhausted boy fell right asleep once again, just like he had the night before, as the sounds of the laughter slowly became silence to his unconscious mind.
Sophie looked over to her sitting brother. "Jamie, shiny!" She cried as she pointed to Sandy. Jamie did not move. Sophie shrugged, and tried again, but this time a little louder. "Jamie, shiny!" She saw her brother begin to lie down on the floor, hands snuggly put underneath his head to make a makeshift pillow. With a little frustrated pout, the little girl went up to her brother's peaceful figure and was about to shout her previous words right into his ear. That is, until she finally got up close enough to see that Jamie was actually sleeping. Sleeping? No, sleeping is for nighttime, and right now is morning! Big brother should be awake! And so, she decided to become her brother's new alarm clock.
Cupping her tiny hands around Jamie's small ear, Sophie took a big breath and then immediately began to shout at the top of her lungs through her hands, "JAMIE, WAKE UP!"
The sound was deafening for his ears. Jamie shot up into the air, his heart pumping like mad as he heard intense ringing from one of his ears, making his head ache seemingly in time with the rings. With his eyes wild and big and his breath suddenly quickening in pace, Jamie screamed (and not like a little girl, he would say) as he finally landed on the floor on his bottom. "What!? What?!" He screamed, as his head wildly scoured the room for anything that could possibly be going wrong.
As he looked around, he slowly calmed down as he noticed nothing was out of the usual except for some of his stuff scattered around the floor now because they had been knocked over previously by the little kids. In fact, the only thing that was going wrong at this moment was his mother shouting up from downstairs if everything was alright.
"Yeah Mom, everything's okay!" Jamie shouted back.
"Are you sure!?"
"Yeah! I just stubbed my foot really hard against the bed is all…!" The boy mentally high fived himself for making up such a good lie in such a short amount of time.
"Well, okay then…"
A prideful smile spread across Jamie's face. He had saved the day yet again. But as soon as he turned around to face his sister again, his smile changed into a disappointed and angry frown. Sophie, who was all giggles and smiles before, immediately piped down into a sullen silence as soon as she saw the face her brother had on. She instantly understood what that face meant; it meant she was in trouble, big trouble.
"SooopPPHIIIEEE!" Jamie felt his anger rise to its fullest potential as he stared down daggers at his little sister. He let it all out as he began to intensely scold the little girl.
"Sophie! What do you think you were just doing!?" His younger sister opened her mouth, as if she wanted to say something, but she was cut right off as Jamie began to shout again. "Shouting in my ear, almost making me deaf! That's what! Why would you even do a stupid thing like that!? Did you know how much that hurt!? Do you know the headache I'm feeling right now because of your stupid trick!? Tell me, why!?" The little girl felt like curling up into a little ball, but instead, she just stood there, frozen with fear.
She opened up her mouth again, and this time, she was allowed to speak. "Um… Sandy… shiny!" She said with shy eyes as she feebly pointed upwards to the floating startled Sandy.
Jamie suddenly realized how quiet it had gotten. There was no laughter, not joy to be heard, just silence. It was possibly even more deafening than the shouts Sophie had blasted into his ear. The boy then slowly became aware how everyone in the room was now staring at him and his little sister.
Sophie continued her broken explanation as she pointed at Jamie. "Jamie… Sleeping… In morning! Mommy say no sleeping in morning…" Her face was pinched up in frustration as she tried to find the right words to say with her limited vocabulary. "So, Jamie… wake up!" She finished with a small smile. Even though she was in huge trouble right now, Sophie couldn't help but feel proud of herself. Her words were getting better! Mommy would be so proud…
After hearing his younger sister's rather innocent explanation, Jamie forced himself to calm down. It was his younger sister. Sophie was a heck of a lot younger than him. She just doesn't understand a lot of things. With his eyebrows still knitting together with annoyance, Jamie finally sighed. "Okay, Sophie. You're off the hook." He grumbled.
As soon as the words finally came through her tiny little ears, the little girl immediately brightened. She's not in trouble anymore? Jamie happy!? Out of nowhere, she felt her legs running and her arms spread out in a hug. She smiled a mile long smile as she ran towards her big brother and wrapped her small arms around his legs. Looking up at Jamie with her long grin, she squealed. "Thank you!"
With a sigh, the older of the two broke his scowl with a tired smile. "You're welcome." He said, as he sat down on the floor again to be at his sister's level. "But next time if you see someone sleeping and it isn't nighttime… No matter what, never ever yell into their ears to wake them up, okay?" Sophie nodded with vigour. "I know you mean well, but just don't do that, okay? It will scare the poop out of them, and they might get mad at you like I just was. Understand?" Jamie explained softly, anger all drained out of him.
He felt hazy once more as the adrenaline from before quickly wore off, and the fast reacting muscles slowly becoming relaxed again.
His little sister nodded once again. "Good. I'm going to sleep again, okay?" He said, as he got up and turned around, heading for his bed. "And this time, if you really need to wake me up, do it gently. I don't want another heart attack today." With a final nod from Sophie, Jamie finally let himself fall onto the bed, not even bothering with the blankets anymore.
He heard the little ones slowly becoming joyous again, as they ran around the room once more, just like they had before the big lecture. Peace had returned to his room (which had kind of turned into a daycare at this point).
All was well once again.
Welcome back to this story! First of all, I've tried to update this as quickly as possible. In fact, I finished this chapter in one week and was planning on uploading it on Saturday. But, guess what! My freaking internet broke down and killed itself.
So now, with no internet, I bring to you a late update, even when I've promised to try not to do that again. I'm sorry! (EDIT: My internet LIIIIIVVVEEESSS *lightning flash*)
Anywho, I'm sort of not feeling this chapter. I mean, I feel like everything is going by too quickly, and it took quite a "dark" turn that was I feel was a bit too sudden. Basically, I don't think this chapter was the very best. Maybe if any of you guys want me to change a few things about it, I might go and revisit it again and edit some things, but that's just about it.
Also, I forgot to do this, and the people that I am directing to may never see this, but thank you for your past support! I know I have lost many along this long long hiatus but I still want to show my appreciation if they ever do come back.
But anyways, way back when I was still doing this fanfic and was updating sort of regularly, I would respond to comments and make a whole list of people who favourited or followed. So… here it isssss…. :D
lilyblaney – No no, thank you! You were one of the only people I saw that had suddenly gone through all of my works again and then actually liked them enough to favourite and follow and review and whatnot. So thank you. You are one of the reasons (along with everyone else, of course) that I am continuing this. I just feel like I needed to finish something that I hadn't for two years, and that little boost to my ego was all I needed I guess. Haha… *clears throat* You do? Heh heh, I've always liked a little dancy happy Pitch myself. He wasn't OOC at all to you? Oh, that's good then. At least he isn't that far off from the original character… :)
Adventuregirltwi1
Rebecca Frost – Wow, thanks for reviewing basically every of my story so far…! That is some dedication. I really appreciate your feedback. :D
MarissaKeye
dalilah (Guest) – Wah, thank you so much! I am glad you like this so far. Don't worry; I will continue this to the very end (which will probably be soon). Stay tuned for more chapters in the near future!
…And that's it! I hope I didn't forget anyone. Thank you all so much! All of your support, no matter how small, is always appreciated.
I feel like I've abandoned a child or something and then I see it all grown up and now I'm trying to be on good terms with it again. (run on sentence is indeed run on)
And as always, thank you for all of your support, follows, favourites, and reviews! They mean a whole lot to me and always make me smile. :) . Room for improvement anywhere? I want to be better! Thanks! And please leave any suggestions in the reviews too! Who knows? Maybe I might just use them in the story! Also giving you credit, of course. Please review, favourite, and/or follow!
Thank you for reading and have a nice day!
Someone136
