Chapter Twenty-Eight

From the Frying Pan into the Fire

Pitch gave Frost a strained smile, "Got her! Uh… she really didn't want to come back to the stables," he tittered nervously doing his best to keep the smile on his face when all he could do was think about that horrible abomination he'd left back at the landfill.

Jack looked up when he heard Pitch return to the stables along with the two reindeer. He smiled, until he saw the look of horror on Pitch's face. He raised an eyebrow, looking quizzically at the Boogeyman. "Anything wrong, Pitch? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Wa-? Wrong? No!" Pitch forced a laugh, "Of course not! Vixen just gave me a bit of trouble along the way is all, and I'm feeling a bit worn out from the stress of the situation."

"Ah," said Jack, studying Pitch a few minutes. He turned to look at the stalls, waving a hand toward them. "I went ahead and put Dasher in his stall. Hope that was okay."

Pitch nodded vigorously, "Yes, yes, quite fine! Uh… did you still want to ride more, or do you think we've had enough of an adventure for one day?" Pitch wasn't sure if riding would help to ease his nerves or not, but he needed to get himself together fast since Jack had noticed off the bat that he'd been quite rattled even though he was working to hide it. He did feel like he had worked a good veneer of calm to wash over his features and disguise any further alarm he may have originally registered when he rode up to meet Frost.

"I'm still up for a ride, if you want to." Jack smiled. "I wouldn't necessarily call what we just did, a pleasure ride, even though it was very adventurous."

It was probably a good idea to ride just to get his mind off of what had just happened and have a chance to think, Pitch decided as he gave the boy a smile, "Well then, let's get to it!" Pitch made sure to ride in the opposite direction of the landfill not wanting to be anywhere near it especially with Jack in tow.

Jack rode up beside Pitch and kept pace, "Soooo, are you going to keep on painting?"

"Hmm… What? Oh! Painting… uh yeah. I… I think I rather enjoy painting," Pitch replied distractedly.

Jack lifted an eyebrow. "That's good. It's nice to know we have another painter around here!"

"Another?" This got Pitch's attention as he turned to Jack curiously, "Do you paint on canvases as well Jack?"

"Well, no. I've never tried. But I told you that I paint the leaves in fall. And, of course, there's Bunny and his eggs."

Pitch smiled fondly, "And don't forget North and his toys. It would seem poor Toothiana and Sandy are the odd balls out… unless Sandy can paint. Can Sandy paint? I know Toothiana said that she had no skill in that department." Pitch had to wonder absently now if Sandy could paint and how that would miff him if the golden man could and could also do so better than Pitch! The little golden man was already so much more powerful then him as an aspect in their chosen fields, for him to best him at art as well would be crushing.

"Yes, North. How could I forget?" Jack laughed. "Um... I don't know about Sandy, to be honest. If he can, he's never revealed that side of himself to the rest of us."

"Good," Pitch said reflexively before blushing slightly knowing that comment likely wouldn't be well received by most of the guardians, and he moved to make the statement a little less offensive, "I mean, Sandy is so talented in dream… uh, it's nice to be able to have something I'm better at than he is."

Jack smiled. "Maybe you could ask him sometime. See if he paints. Someone with his imagination is bound to be artistic in more than one way."

Pitch snorted responding derisively, "And here you said you were surprised that I had that talent earlier. What exactly are you saying Frost? Did you think I had no imagination?"

Jack raised his eyebrows. "No, I wasn't saying that at all. I was talking about Sandy, not you." He frowned, looking Pitch up and down. "Is there something bothering you?"

Pitch huffed, "Well, you seemed so astonished to see that I had any talent, but you expect Sandy to just be pouring with it! How can I not take offense to that?" Pitch swore he was always playing second fiddle to the dream weaver!

Jack leaned away from the Boogeyman, not understanding why the man was getting so worked up. "Pitch, I meant no offense, I can assure you. I was just surprised by your talent because you never mentioned before now that you could paint on canvas, even when we were talking about painting before. For someone who's normally dark and gloomy and enjoys scaring children, it was just sort of surprising to see such cheerful paintings coming out of your hands."

Pitch was scowling feeling rather judged by the guardian of fun, "The cheer was for you guardians; I just painted it because I thought that's what you would want to see most. The point was to make you all happy Jack; it was a gift after all." His tone turned bitter, "Stars know you don't wish to see anything that's actually of me. You should know by now, I don't do cheer!"

Jack frowned. Seeing that he wasn't going to get anywhere with Pitch, he said nothing more, nudged Vixen, and veered away from the man to ride off elsewhere.

Pitch sighed rolling his eyes to the sky before trotting back over to Jack as he huffed, "Okay look, I'm sorry. I… I didn't mean to get into a mood back there. I just… I don't know. For once I just wanted to not be compared to Sandy. Before you say it, yes I know, that's not what you were doing. I get that now… I was just getting the wrong impression. It can be hard to always walk in a man like Sandy's shadow… even if you technically are of the shadows," Pitch chuckled softly at his own joke looking back hopefully at Jack that he'd accept his apology, and they could start over. He'd already upset Toothiana, he didn't want to upset Jack as well.

Jack sighed. "I accept your apology, Pitch. And, yes, you're right. You did get the wrong impression. I wasn't comparing the two of you at all. I really don't know how you even came to that conclusion based on what I said."

Pitch lowered his gaze, "I… I guess I've always been a little jealous of Sandy. He's my polar opposite. The Yin to my Yang, but I've always felt so hopelessly outmatched by his abilities. That was my fault reading into what you said and letting my own insecurities fuel something that wasn't really there." Pitch sighed heavily to admit this to Jack or anyone, but he wanted Jack to understand why he felt the way he did, and he just wanted to make amends for the slight between them in an effort to move past it. He did really like Jack even if the boy was able to get under his skin at the drop of a hat.

"I dunno. I thought you did a great job creating those nightmares, even if they were dark and evil. With a little more practice, I think you could become as good as Sandy."

Pitch smiled at Jack, but he didn't look confident as he gave a halfhearted, "Thanks Frost. Are you about ready to head back?" Pitch was feeling much more relaxed, but his current predicament was making it hard to enjoy this outing. He needed to start thinking about a contingency plan to deal with his problem back in the landfill, and although this was nice, it wasn't helping his situation.

"I guess," said Jack, giving Pitch a puzzled glance, wondering why the man was in such a hurry. He turned Vixen around without saying another word and headed back to the stables. Probably for the best, he thought, seeing that Pitch was obviously in one of his moods. If he stayed any longer, he might get upset over something he said again.

The two rode back in silence. Pitch could tell that Jack hadn't really been ready to come back in, and Pitch would have preferred to have stayed out and ridden for hours if it had been any other day. As they put the reindeer away, Pitch saw Jack's painting propped up on one of the rafters and pointed to it giving the boy a small smile, "Hey. Don't forget your painting."

"Oh, yeah," Jack smiled. He flew up and got it, coming back down. "Thanks again for this. It really is great." With that said, Jack waved a goodbye and flitted off up and over the glacier wall.

Leaving Frost's company, Pitch moved back down the hall to his bedroom, and he began to panic all over again. This was bad; this was very, very bad! Pitch bit his knuckle as he contemplated how screwed he was.

Pitch made it to his room without interference, and he spent the better part of the night pacing back and forth terrified that North would pick tonight to pay him a visit, but much to Pitch's relief, the Cossack had not come by this night leaving Pitch to his own devices.

He had of course taken all the pages he'd copied out from behind the mirror in desperation of seeing if there had been any spell that would help him destroy the creatures left lurking in the trash heap, but North wasn't the type to keep destructive spells, and these ones in particular were all rather mundane spells that only served small purposes that sided with helpful or pleasant conjurations (when cast correctly apparently.) None of them were in the slightest bit helpful to his current plight, so Pitch was going to regretfully have to look elsewhere.

This was one of the longest nights he'd ever spent at the Pole, minus the first severe spanking he'd received from North where the Cossack had shoved him angrily in his room with a promise to be back later once he'd calmed down to deal with him. North had left Pitch to await impending doom literally from that morning until midnight! The waiting and dread he endured this night felt very akin to that one.

Waiting until after two in the morning when Pitch was almost certain that North as well as the majority of the inhabitants of the Pole would be safely tucked away in their beds, Pitch crept carefully out of his room and darted down the hall towards North's office. He could feel his blood pumping in his veins and his heart palpitating impossibly loud in his ears the closer he neared North's office. Every sound made the nightmare lord jump or silently shudder. The fearlings contained inside him roiled through the entirety of his nervous system sensing his own fear and wanting to devour him from within.

He paused taking a deep breath to steady himself listening intently outside the door before daring to open it. The door creaked unbearably loud, and Pitch's blood froze as the creak moaned his arrival. After a minute of just listening for any kind of signal that there was anyone else in the room and being assured there was not, Pitch cautiously moved into the office shutting the door behind him.

Quickly he made his way over to the desk drawer he knew there was paper in and withdrew a piece, and grabbing a quill from the top of the desk, Pitch quickly folded the miscellaneous pages covering the blueprints away to reveal the schematics in their entirety. Pitch was glad he could see in the dark now as his eyes traversed the page taking in the details, but mostly looking for the spot where he knew the secret room would be on the plans. It took him a few minutes to find it (and every minute in North's office felt excruciatingly too long!) Pitch kept expecting at any moment North was going to walk through the front door, and he would have to try with great difficulty to explain himself. There really was no good excuse he knew especially once he'd finished scrawling down the specifics to get to the secret room (which Pitch was in luck had another entrance from the 5th floor of the workshop that seemed to be an attic entrance and most likely less fortified than the outside wall had been.)

Pitch breathed a sigh of relief as he carefully latched North's office door closed and hastily retreated from the vicinity of the office. He darted into a dark alcove to look over the rudimentary map he'd created on the folded piece of paper he held. It was scrawled messily in his rush to remove himself from North's office, but it was good enough Pitch decided as he moved down the corridor towards where the stairwell was located.

Pitch traversed the steps as quietly as he could and managed to avoid detection from the yetis that watched over the Pole while everyone else had slept. Pitch too knew their rounds as he'd made a point long ago when he'd first been brought to the Pole (when he'd formally been planning to escape) what the guard yetis routines were so as best to evade discovery from them. This forethought was definitely a boon now Pitch found as he easily maneuvered past the passive perception of the unwitting guards.

The floor that the attic entrance was on was not a common grounds area, and it was in fact for all intents and purposes blocked off. Pitch had to move and climb over several crates to get to the entrance, and once over the crates and boxes, he found the top was locked with a heavy chain. Pitch had to dig around within the many crates until he found a piece of a broken machete blade that he used to pry at the bolts holding the frame of the door in place. He got the door open, but he managed to cut one of his hands deeply in the process. Pitch grimaced in pain as he ripped a piece of sheet from one of the crates to wrap around his wounded hand and proceeded to lift the latch and peer down into the room.

The room was hallow save for a metaled robotic looking thing. Pitch dangled from the top and worked his way down the small inlet of steps that led to a very small walkway even for someone as thin-framed as Pitch. The room was lined in cobwebs and was what Pitch found to be delectably eerie. He moved down to the ground looking about to see if this was truly all that was housed in this otherwise empty room. Pitch peered up in awe at what had to be a twenty-foot tall mechanical man.

This thing definitely looked dangerous Pitch decided as he smiled up gleefully at the robot. The mechanical man had several gizmos worked in to the metal casings of its arms and chest. The intricate detail was amazing Pitch noted as he looked over the entirety of what he could physically reach. Now all he had to do was figure out how to open the side wall and how to turn the blasted thing on to control it. He didn't see any controls? Strange, most of North's gizmos had controls of some sort he'd noted from meandering about the workshop and inspecting its oddities.

Pitch shrugged deciding that he'd worry more about that in a minute. It was dusty down here, and it reminded him too much of being stuffed back down in the darkness of his lair, shut away and imprisoned. Thinking a little fresh air would be good, Pitch moved over to where the indention in the wall was that led to the outside and began working his hands over it to find the release mechanism to open the door. It took him several pushes and prods, but he'd managed to find the right combination within the stonework and cheered as the doors began to slowly slide open. What Pitch did not see, that would have alarmed him greatly, was that as the door opened, the mechanical man's visor drew up, and its head swiveled in Pitch's direction.

The metal man creaked with rust joints as it shifted and a mechanical voice boomed down at Pitch, "Intruder alert! Intruder alert. Breach has been made! Neutralize the target!"

Pitch spun around letting out a shrill scream as the twenty-foot tall machine lunged forward smashing a fist into the stone where Pitch had been standing moments ago. Luckily, Pitch's ability to react quickly paid off in this instance, but without his ability to disappear into the shadows, he was as good as a sitting duck out here.

Yelling at the top of his lungs, Pitch dashed outside skittering in the snow as the mechanical man tore through the door after him breaking apart chunks of the wall as a loud siren blared throughout the Pole signifying a violation of the integrity of North's semi impregnable fortress.

Pitch ran as if his life depended on it, because at this moment he was fairly sure it did!

The robot lumbered after Pitch much more quickly than Pitch thought possible; its arms whirred as gadgets within them came to life and clicked and clacked preparing some automated reaction.

The wall was bending to the left, and Pitch rounded it just in time to see a flare of flame erupting past him as he gasped in terror at the sizzling patches of snow. He was going to seriously cease to exist if this thing got a hold of him. Pitch clung to the wall for half a second before barreling towards the landfill, if anything, he hoped the horrible creature within would make for enough of a distraction to allow him an escape. He was so close! He just had to make it!

The mechanical man shot several more bursts of flame as Pitch barely dodged and rolled out of the way finally making it to the landfill panting grievously. Pitch saw the creature lurking, and he backed up dangerously close watching and waiting as it staggered forward sensing his presence. The robot now stood over him as well, and its arms were heard powering up as it lifted them to fire, "You will be eliminated!"

Pitch could sense the tentacle before it reached out of the depths to grab him, and as it swung up to crash down on him, Pitch dove with all of his might in between the legs of the robot as the robot's fire ignited the trash, and a horrible screeching filled the air as the monsters were incinerated. The robot swiveled quickly now to face Pitch who had nowhere left to run having been effectively backed into a wall.

Powering up to fire once more, the mechanical man announced, "Threat neutralized."

So, this is it, Pitch thought sadly as he covered his face and crouched against the wall awaiting disintegration.

"STOP!" North's voice rang out over everything else. "Deactivation code: fruitcake!" At the mentioning of the word, the robot turned to face North, then powered down.

Pitch still cringed shuddering against the wall in terror for several moments before realizing that he was in fact not dead. Elation filled him as he jumped to his feet patting his body and laughing hysterically at how close of a call he had, "Oh thank the stars! North! You saved me!" The laughter of course quickly died out as Pitch sobered looking around at the carnage. One of the smaller slug creatures limply slithered up out of the inferno still on fire and screeching as it collapsed finally shriveling in on itself and dying. Pitch was struck silent by the chaos that surrounded him, his jaw worked to say something, but no sound would come forth.

North stood quietly, cutlasses in his hands, as he stared around them, his eyes finally resting dangerously on Pitch.

Pitch had turned white as a sheet tugging at the makeshift bandage on his hand as he stuttered, "I… I can explain!" Pitch backed up two steps coming up flush against the wall. He swallowed hard as he stared with no small amount of fear at North. There was nothing he could say that wasn't going to earn the Cossack's wrath at this point Pitch sorrowfully realized.

"You will… later." North said, his voice sounding like he was doing his best to hold back the anger that was bubbling just under the surface. "Right now, I suggest you get back to your room as quickly as you know how."

Pitch paused wanting to say more, but seeing the look on North's face, the nightmare lord decided it was best to just do as the man stated. Pitch shrank against the wall before slinking away eyes wide as saucers and fixed on North as he passed him. Once Pitch had taken about ten steps along the wall, he did as North had commanded and scurried off hastily not wanting to upset the Cossack more than he already had.

He kept looking back at North as he ran, but the Cossack seemed to still be surveying the scene. A hard lump was forming in Pitch's throat now as he made his way back towards the fortress entrance. Several yetis and elves were now gathered outside. Many of them glaring daggers at Pitch, and all Pitch could do was lower his head and do his best to hurry back to his room to avoid their scathing stares.

It was a long walk of shame that even though he was moving at a relatively quick pace, it seemed to take much longer than any other time he'd made the jaunt. He was terrified of what was to come. He'd really messed up this time, and he knew without North telling him that this was going to likely be his worst punishment to date. That was to say that North didn't throw in the towel and send him away for unleashing a deadly robot and setting fire to his landfill… of course then there was also the reason why all that came about. Pitch pulled at his hair fighting back a sob of frustration. He'd finally made it to his room, and as he entered it, all the energy fell away from him as he slowly walked over to slump onto the bed.

The minutes ticked by as Pitch waited for North, but he didn't come. After twenty minutes passed, Pitch began pacing nervously, and as time went on, Pitch found himself staring out the port holes, pacing the floor, and sitting on the bed rocking with his head in his hands as the anxiety built upon itself. The waiting was torture! North had to know this on some level?

Pitch finally stopped just standing, peeking outside of his door, and jumping at any and every sound dreading it to be North coming to finally deliver his punishment. Every time though, it was only a random yeti or elf walking by. Everyone that was normally asleep had been roused by the commotion he'd caused, and many were grumpily complaining, and after realizing everything was alright were slowly dissipating back to their rooms.

Hours passed, like this, and it got to the point that Pitch could no longer stand to stare and wait. Part of him screamed to make a break for it. No one was guarding his room, he could have run when he was outside, but instead he'd done as he was told and came back here like a good lap dog to await chastisement in the most horrible of ways he knew. Pitch couldn't understand why he stayed in this room, like a man awaiting the gallows, but he did. He moved back to the wall to stare out of the portholes it had to be late morning by now. The sun was well in the sky, and the sky was coated in a golden bright glow. Pitch's eyes moved around his room now taking in all of his paintings and the rest of his gifts given to him by the guardians. How had he managed to mess up this badly?

Pitch slumped against the back wall and dropped into a huddle in the corner. He pulled his knees into himself and covered his face not able to bear to look at any of it anymore. It wreaked of disappointment and failure. As he thought on this and the mounting anxiety over flowed within him, Pitch began to weep.

A light knock came to the door.

"Come in," Pitch's voice wavered as he swiftly wiped at his eyes to dry the tears from his face. He knew it had to be someone other than North because he doubted the Russian would deign to knock at this point.

The door slowly opened, and Toothiana fluttered in. She looked around the room until she spotted Pitch. Her face displayed concern and worry. Without taking her eyes off the Boogeyman, she closed the door.

Pitch was a picture of misery. His eyes took her in somewhat hopefully, he wanted her to save him, but he knew that wasn't going to happen. He shuddered doing his best to control his cracking voice, "Hey Toothiana," he tried to sound welcoming, but he came out just sounding afraid.

"What happened?" she said, softly. It had taken her awhile to actually speak. She hovered in the air in front of Pitch and looked down at him with pitying eyes.

Pitch paused staring at her a long moment before looking down, "What didn't happen. Everything went so wrong! I… I tried to fix it, and I just ended up making it worse!" He was shaking his head woefully as he spoke.

"Maybe if you started at the beginning." said Tooth.

Pitch sighed laying his chin on his knees feeling quite resigned and tired. There really was no point in lying, and so, he told her, "The beginning… well, It's a funny story actually. North brought me to the library about four weeks ago, and left me to look about… I did, and I found something rather curious. A spell book page; of course I was curious… who wouldn't be right? Well, I decided I'd test it out. It didn't work at first …so ….the mess I just cleaned up and threw away. I never realized…" he shook his head taking in a deep breath to get the strength to continue, "I didn't know the spell was making some …monstrosity. I found out today when one of the reindeer got loose. Frost and I went to track it down, and that's when I saw it. I knew I had to clean up the mess I had made, and I swear that's all I wanted to do!" Pitch paused covering his head in his knees unable to face her any more as he continued, "I …I heard North say that that secret room held something dangerous, and I planned to use it to take out the creature I'd unwittingly created… and well… you know the rest…"

Tooth silently and slowly shook her head, her face still showing a mixture of sadness, concern, and worry. She let out a heavy sigh. "I'll let you know that North is not pleased."

"I know," Pitch wined on the verge of tears again, "I didn't mean for anything bad to happen! You believe me; don't you?" He brought his forlorn eyes up to meet Toothiana's.

"Of course I believe you, Pitch, but it still doesn't make what you did right. You might not have meant for bad things to happen, but you still did wrong by taking that spell page and dabbling in something you shouldn't have been." Her voice sounded almost motherly.

Pitch averted his eyes back into his lap. He felt so stupid now. He knew better when he took the pages in the first place; he knew that it was risky. He wasn't versed in magic, but the subject had always intrigued him. With North being a well renowned wizard, Pitch had known the man would have something magical that he'd be able to dabble in, and he'd also known that North would have almost definitely refused to teach him any of it. In the end, curiosity and pride had won out over common sense, and now Pitch was going to pay for it. He grimaced bringing his eyes up to meet hers once more stating in resignation, "I don't suppose a heartfelt apology is going to do much for me here is it?"

Tooth sadly shook her head. "It took North and the yetis a good part of the morning to clean up the mess and get the fire under control. And once the rest of us were informed of what had happened, we, too, came to help. North and some of the others are still working on it even now. The fire has mostly been put out. Now North and the other Guardians are making sure whatever those things were are completely destroyed."

Pitch cringed, "Everyone is here?" The thought of all the guardians being involved made the whole situation that much more shaming. Pitch was in awe to hear that the fire was still going even after four or more hours... well, there was a lot of trash there. His thoughts now wandered to the mechanical conveyer system that carted the trash out wondering if that too had been damaged by the licking flames. He was in so much trouble! Pitch pulled at his hair in his apprehension, "He's going to kill me, "Pitch moaned feeling a wave of self-pity.

A small hint of a smile tugged at the corner of Tooth's mouth before disappearing. "I doubt that."

"No, but I have a feeling I'm going to wish I was dead by the time he's through with me," Pitch whined.

Tooth looked at him with pity. "I wish I could help you, Pitch. But I have to confess that I think you do deserve some form of punishment."

"Some form of punishment yes, okay, but does it always have to be that form of punishment?" Pitch pouted. His gut was twisting to think of it, and ghost pains panged through him knowing what he could expect North to do to him from these current escapades of his.

"That is not for me to decide." Tooth said. "But… seeing how mad North was earlier, I can almost guess that it will probably be that punishment."

Pitch's face flushed as he stated almost inaudibly, "I know. I messed up pretty good this time. I... I should told him when I discovered those abominations, but I was so afraid to get in trouble, I thought I could fix it; I don't know how I managed to do so much damage instead. I'm so sorry Toothiana; believe me, I am. "Pitch curled further into himself as tears brimmed in his eyes and silently spilt down his cheeks. He felt absolutely awful knowing the carnage he'd caused and the disappointment he was sure North now held concerning him.

Tooth floated down and put her arms around Pitch to try and comfort him.

Pitch closed his eyes taking solace in her embrace nuzzling his chin over her shoulder and just letting her hug him. He sniffed, "I swear I seem to spend more time apologizing than anything." Pitch laid his head back against the wall looking up at the ceiling as he let out an ironic laugh considering the fact he had not given Toothiana her card and painting, yet another apology.

Tooth said nothing, only hugged him closer.

He finally let go of his knees and tentatively reached out to embrace her as well, sinking into her hug as he mumbled a soft, "Thank you."

Tooth still didn't speak. She lifted a hand to run over and through his hair, just allowing him to get out everything that he needed to get out.

He couldn't help but to lean into her touch closing his eyes as he breathed a soft contented sigh. To be touched in this way was soothing and almost electric to Pitch. His eyes opened in to half lids as golden eyes surveyed her carefully. He let his hand gingerly reach out to touch her cheek exploratively afraid that she would cringe from his touch. He was glad she had not. His hand lingered only a moment on the soft surface before letting it slide away. "I... I wanted to give you something, and I want to do so before... before it's no longer just you and I here." He was pensive as his eyes shifted nervously.

Tooth pulled away, smiling. "Really?"

Pitch wished he could share her enthusiasm, but all he could give her was a small forced smile as he backed up the wall to stand once more and moved over to the far corner of his room where his dresser met the back wall. There he picked up the painting and grabbed the envelope off the dresser. He carefully turned it to her looking down at it as if he'd forgotten what it'd looked like himself, "I… I made this for you the last time you were here… the day I… chased you away. I wanted to make it up to you and tell you I was sorry." He lamely lifted his arm out to give her the card now still unable to meet her gaze.

"You made this for me?" Tooth looked at the painting as she reached out to take the card. "Oh, Pitch, it's wonderful! Thank you!" She leaned forward and placed a small, light kiss on his forehead.

He had been looking down, but at the gentleness of her kiss, he had glanced back up at her shyly unable to help an actual smile getting through his otherwise melancholy mood. He was happy to see her happy even with such impending circumstances looming over him.

She backed away and held up the card. "I'll read it later."

He nodded; his hands were shifting across the top of the painting in his uneasiness. Realizing what he was doing, he handed it to her carefully, "Here; I… should give this to you before I ruin it to." Once she'd taken the painting he steepled his hands and thrummed his fingers together to find some way to expel the building tension he felt that came with the inexorable task of just waiting.

"It's beautiful and will look lovely on one of the walls of my palace." she said after examining the painting closer.

Pitch placed his hands behind his back now as he began to pace, worry once more etching his brow, "I hate this," he lamented, "I feel sick with the waiting, but I don't want him to come either!"

"If it makes you feel any better, I can assure you it won't be anytime soon." she said. "Once they get everything cleaned up and under control, North already said that he's going to take some time to cool down first before he sees you."

"Oh," Pitch gulped. His whole body went rigid, "I imagine he's rather upset with me. If he's going to be a long time, I… I should probably go tend the deer then. They'll need to eat… and, and stretch their legs," Pitch stated wanting to do something other than pace around his room. The closed in space was starting to drive him mad.

Tooth's mouth twitched nervously. "Did North say you could go out of your room?"

Pitch pouted, "He didn't tell me I couldn't leave it… and I didn't say I wouldn't come right back. I just want to make sure they are getting cared for… in light of my colossal failure, they shouldn't be made to suffer as well."

Tooth nodded. "Just to be safe, I'll go with you. At least it'll seem like you're under my watch, just in case some of the yetis wonder."

Pitch relaxed slightly, "Thank you Toothiana. I appreciate you letting me check on them. It puts my mind at ease." He opened the door peering tentatively out before moving stiltedly out into the hallway. He knew North likely wouldn't want him out of his room, but he was glad he was able to convince Toothiana to not only let him go but to also come with him in case he met with any resistance.

It felt good to leave the confines of his room after having paced it for several hours in his anxiety. This was good, the walk allowed his mind to clear a bit and focus elsewhere, so he didn't have to think so much about what was to come. He desperately needed a distraction! Pitch took the opposite hall that led to the back side of the Pole not wanting the glares he'd received earlier when he'd made his shameful march back to his room hours previously. He wanted to avoid as many other residents of the Pole as he could muster. He felt bad enough already without having to lump on their accusatory glowering.