Chapter 20: The Warren Goes Up in Flames...Again (North's POV)
We hit the ground flying. No, really. Tooth and I were thrown harshly out of the sleigh and crashed right into Comet and Cupid. When I stood up, Tooth suddenly slammed me against a stone wall just as a burst of flame came through the stone archway to our right. I nodded in thanks. We both took one look at the smoldering grass in front of us before leaping through the arch into the monster of a battle waiting for us on the other side. As I parried my first opponent away, I shouted behind me to my reindeer, "Dash away all!"
I didn't see Bunny or Sandy anywhere as Tooth and I fought the fire army for the umpteenth time. With Tooth as the aerial attack, we quickly erased a multitude of fire spirits from existence. We were backed through another archway into a small canyon-like pathway.
"Hey North, Tooth! What's up with you?" I was slightly startled by the sound of Jamie Bennett's voice behind me. An egg-bomb sailed over my head and after it made contact with a spirit, Jamie sliced through said spirit like it was paper.
"Small attack, two fire spirits at my palace. What's your story? Where are Sandy and Bunny?" Tooth shouted back as she used a stray piece of ice like a dart to pierce a fire spirit in the heart.
'Wait, ice?' I thought, ducking under a red-hot javelin as it swung through the air exactly where my head had been seconds before. When I got around to asking if Jamie or Diane had gotten their armor broken somehow, they both said no. It would have seemed that the ice just appeared at the right place, right time, and by some random coincidence.
"Bunny and S-Sandy are in the valley. And Pitch must have been brought back, because—" Diane did not get to finish her sentence. A breath of evil echoed across our battleground, causing fire army to momentarily cease their attack.
"Pitch? Not quite, fragile mortal. But I learned my darkness from many, that is true." A voice hissed from every shadow, every darkened nook and cranny. Then, a shadow rose off the ground in front of me, its shape bending into a human form. Amber eyes appeared first, then white, pale hands, and legs, a torso, and a head.
The shadow figure wore modern clothing, black converse high-tops (for which I received many requests for at Christmas), black pants, and a simple, black t-shirt. The figure also had obsidian metal gauntlets covering his forearms. He was holding a jet black bow in his , and a red and black arrow nocked on the bowstring. A helmet suddenly flashed into existence on the person's head, the design matching the gauntlets. The armor glinted in the fading daylight as it raced into existence along his body.
At first, the insignia on the gauntlets was too faint to make out. Right before all hell broke loose again, I suddenly recognized it. 'Death has the same insignia, the very same. With the trident and sword crossed over a flame.' I thought with a sense of dread. Why would this shadow spirit be wearing Death's insignia? Death wasn't evil. She did not take sides, as her role was to be equalizer of us all! All of us immortals technically lived forever, but if we got injured seriously enough, we can die. There was a balance of life and death, even for us.
I'm not entirely sure what happened in the next few moments but when I regained my full awareness, I was at the top of the hill overlooking the valley in Bunny's Warren. There were no fire spirits there, for the time being. Sanderson and Aster were visible on one side of the valley. But something seemed wrong, and that's what brought me running down the hill toward them.
Bunny was lying on his side, coughing rather violently. Sandy vaguely acknowledged my arrival. Bunny seemed to be just barely conscious of his environment, and overwhelmed by a great internal pain.
"A boy with Death's insignia on his armor is in the grove next to the third egg meadow. How is Bunny?" I asked, kneeling next to my fellow Guardians. Sandy made a dreamsand 'X' above his head. He had no idea. A little ways off, I saw a little pile of those randomly appearing ice shard piles. They really were starting to show up everywhere on the battlefield. But where?! Where on Earth were they coming from?
Sandy, having just noticed, was just as surprised as I. They certainly hadn't been there five minutes ago. That's when we heard his voice. "Run."
I have never heard Jack Frost's voice so quiet, so hoarse, so very…defeated. His warning was the only thing to alert us to an coming force. I had to hold back my rage when Jack flickered into view about seven feet in front of us with Hell by his side.
Jack was in shackles and I could see burn marks on his wrists. Another pile of ice shards was next to them, and Hell had Jack caught in a tight head-lock. Bunny's eyes cleared and he bounded up unsteadily. I grabbed his arm to help him find his balance. Hell's armor was constantly shifting from time period to time period, making it very hard to locate a weakness.
"I will make this plain and simple. Tell me where Pandora's Box is, or I terminate Jackson's life in front of your very eyes in the most torturous way I can possibly think of." Hell said coldly, drawing a dagger out of thin air and holding it to the Guardian of Fun's neck. My mind struggled to catch up with my eyes. Hell and the shadow boy both had armor that bore Death's insignia. I knew in our present state we stood no chance against Hell's army of fire spirits. I didn't know how Hell knew about Pandora's Box, but if he had damaged it or the Hope inside it, then Bunny's collapse made more sense.
"And If I don't tell ya, and ya kill Jack? I still wouldn't." Bunny's comment might have seemed heartless toward Jack's position in this situation, but I knew Bunny was just trying to draw out more information from our attackers.
"Then Jack Frost's first believer will suffer the same fate. I will make sure of it personally." Hell replied sadistically, as the shadow boy appeared next to him and dropped Jamie unceremoniously to the ground.
"Jamie," Jack's scratchy voice was painful even to hear as he scrambled to his feet and shoved Hell's dagger away from him, stumbling over to Jamie. Regardless of his shackles, Jack cradled his unconscious best friend and first believer in his arms, as Tooth and Diane rushed down the hill into the valley. The fire army gathered on the crest of the valley
"JAMIE!" Diane screamed. Tooth had to restrain her as she tried to run to Jamie and Jack.
"Dark, what did you do?" Jack whispered, hugging Jamie close. I got my first full look at the Guardian of Fun then. His face was haggard, and marred by three lines of red where Hell's trident had gotten him. His skin was nearly as white as the snow he brought, marred by three red lines. His blue hoodie was torn in a few places and a small area of the blue fabric on the front was discolored, I guessed, by blood.
I wasn't sure if I was surprised or expecting to see tears, steaming as the hot liquid connected with his cold skin, sliding down his face. "Dark?" I thought, "So that's who Hell's ally is."
Hell pointed at Jamie. "Give up, Jack. It will be so much easier. You know how to save him." He said. Dark held up his right hand and the bow and arrows became a cloud of black mist above his palm.
Jack turned his face away from Jamie's. His eyes met Diane's, Tooth's, and then mine. There were amber rays around his pupils, like I had just noticed that Dark's eyes had rays of cerulean. He brushed hair from Jamie's eyes. "I wouldn't want to make you break the Guardian Law, Jack." Dark added. He sounded so young, and looked that way too. Hell's fingertips danced with flames and hovering above Dark's hands were filaments of that black mist. Dark raised his right hand threateningly at Jamie. In that moment, a very cold, unsettling feeling settle over me. Would this war only end when one side was totally annihilated? And what if the losing side…was my side, with the Bennetts, other Guardians, and "good" immortal spirits?