Chapter Six: A Fight in the Woods
Pitch walked slowly as if he knew that the Guardians had set up a trap. The Guardians were beginning to think that Pitch had some sort of an inkling as to what was about to happen, but they hoped that once Pitch spotted the false relic sitting in the tree, that the feeling would fade away and the Boogeyman would fall for their trap.
Fearlings and nightmare men crawled around Pitch's legs, giving the illusion that he was taller. The Guardians sunk into their hiding places, watching. Waiting. Waiting for Pitch to either fall for the trap, or make his move and attack.
"I've got a bad feelin' about this," Bunny whispered, almost inaudibly, but North could still hear him. The ex-Coassak didn't respond—-knowing that it would risk their cover being blown—-but he did nod in Bunny's direction.
Pitch sniffed the air like an animal hunting for its prey, which made the Guardians feel even more disdain toward the Nightmare King. He was an animal. He tortured the children even though they hadn't done anything to him. He played with their fears and enjoyed watching them scream and cry. The very fact that Pitch enjoyed watching poor innocent children suffer ripped at the Guardians hearts and they all knew that this sadistic man had to be stopped.
Pitch walked around slowly, scanning the area with his eclipse like eyes. Fearlings began slither around the area, and curled right past North and Bunny's hiding spot. The two held their breaths, fearing that if they made the smallest sound, that they'd be caught. Once the fearlings passed their hiding place, the two slowly let out a slow breath.
Tooth pressed herself against the tree she and Sandy were hiding in. When she was a young girl she spent a lot of time in the trees and knew the best places where to hide in them. This ability was especially helpful during the years she hid from the Monkey King. Tooth swiftly caught a feather that had fallen off and clutched it with all her might. She and her friends couldn't risk getting caught. If the feather had fallen, their cover would have been blown.
Pitch finally stopped looking around and turned to his army behind him, but a shimmer caught his eye. Pitch turned around and spotted the egg relic sitting in the tree all polished and ovaly and almost gasped.
"One of the relics that belonged to Tsar Lunanoff," Pitch whispered to himself. It couldn't be...could it? If Pitch gained a hold of the relic, he would have so much power. The things he could do to the children. He would be able to make them fear him like never before. He would be the most frightening thing in existence. He could wipe the Guardians out with the relic's power with a swish of his hand. Pitch chuckled madly and began to walk toward the relic. The egg-shaped object reflected in his eyes and seemd to have cast some kind of hypnotic like spell on the Boogeyman. But just as Pitch was about to grab it, just when the Guardians thought that their plan was going to work, the Nightmare King froze.
"Why would something as valuable as this be sitting out in the forest unguarded?" Pitch said out loud. And with wave of his hand, a dagger formed in his palm and the Boogeyman threw it at the fake relic. The phony object shattered into pieces and disappeared in a blink. The Guardians faltered. Pitch hadn't fallen for their trap!
What was worse was that Pitch seemed to know that the Guardians were there. Pitch sent his fearlings and nightmare men to search the entire area. There was no use for hiding now. The Guardains sprung from their hiding places and were about to attack Pitch when a hoard of fearlings grabbed them and held their arms together so they couldn't move. For shadows, the fearlings possessed a very profound grip. The Guardians struggled under their hold and glared daggers at Pitch as he paced in front of them, arms crossed in an almost mocking manner.
"Let us go, Pitch!" Bunny ordered.
"And why should I listen to you?" asked Pitch. "Because you're the 'Guardians of Childhood?' Look at you all. You can barely even protect yourselves."
Tooth's feathers popped out in all directions. "If I recall, you were the one who sent your fearlings to fight us instead of fighting us yourself," the Tooth Fairy said tartly.
Pitch was offended by that comment. He pulled out another dagger and aimed it at Tooth's throat. "I could end you all right here, right now if I wanted to."
"Leave the Shelia alone, Pitch," Bunny growled. Sandy nodded vehemently and produced an image of the Guardians fighting Pitch.
"You're little threats won't work on me, Sanderson," Pitch said, but he drew his dagger away and it turned into shadows in his hand. "But very well then. But I assume that you were trying to bait me with that forged relic of yours."
The Guardians didn't respond. Their glares only hardened.
Pitch tapped a finger against his chin. "It's a shame, really. That was all you could come up with? Lure me in with an egg? That's something that Aster would fall for."
"OI! No I wouldn't!" protested Bunny, although he clearly knew that he would have fallen for the trap if he were the one the Guardians were trying to lure in. Bunny didn't know what to be more angry about. The fact that Pitch was teasing him or the fact that the Boogeyman had called him by his first name.
The other Guardians were just as upset as Bunny. Their plan had failed, and know that they looked back, the whole thing really was a long shot.
Pitch walked around the Guardians. "The feeling of disappointment is extremely upsetting, isn't it?"
"We aren't disappointed," said Bunny. "Just annoyed that yer holdin' us captive and taunting us."
Pitch, irritated by Bunny's constant comments said, "Why don't I make things a little more comfortable for you then?"
More fearlings swirled around the Guardians and the group began to feel that they were being constricted by the fearlings. It got extremely uncomfortable, the exact opposite of what Pitch had said he was going to do.
"Is that better?" asked Pitch sarcastically. "I could throw in a glass of wate if you'd like."
"We're good," North said sharply.
Tooth tried fluttering her wings to cut through the fearlings, but these ones were much thicker than the last one she and the other Guardians had encountered. Whenever the Fairy Queen beat her wings, they'd slap against something hard and metallic.
Metal, Tooth thought. The fearlings were wearing metal. Pitch must have ordered the fearlings to armor themselves with some kind of metal to make it more the them to escape. Tooth turned to the other Guardians, who seemed to realize this as well.
"Yes, my army has come along way since our little meeting in my cave," said Pitch. "The armor takes a lot of energy to break. And with the situation your in, that feat is practically impossible."
"Nothing iz impossible," said North.
Pitch rolled his eyes, but North had really meant what he said. A an old and wise person had once told him a long time ago that you could do anything that you set your mind to. Real magic was in believing. The Guardians turned to the man in red and nodded, chanting (Sandy metally) an old, yet powerful phrase, "I believe, I believe, I believe…"
Pitch stared in bemusement. "What are you doing?"
The Guardians ignored him and focused on the fearlings that were slowly crushing them. They barely made out the last "I believe" as the fearlings' grip on them tightened. But then, in a flash of light, the fearlings dissipated. The Gauardains were free and gasped for air once they were released.
Pitch was infuriated. The Nightmare King whipped out a scythe and said, "If you wanted to fight, you could've just said so." And he charged along with reamins of his nightmare army.
The Guardains fought bravely. Firece and true. They sliced at every fearling that came their way, crushed every black, shadow projectile tossed at them. It was the first time they had ever fought together, and North found that fighting side by side with Sandy, Tooth, and Bunny made him feel even stronger. And even though their fighting styles were very different, the Guardians still managed to work together to annihalate the fearlings and nightmare men that came their way. Tooth didn't have her swords, but her wings were as sharp as knives and they cut through every fearling and nightmare man. Bunnymund chuckedhis boomerangs with precision and they hit ever target. Sandy used his golden whips and snapped and slashed them at the shadowy creatures. And North expertly wieled his swords, slicing them through Pitch's henchmen.
Pitch had had enough of the Guardians trying to foil his plans. The Boogeyman drew out his scythe and began to slash away at the Guardians. The four weren't expecting this at all. North parried with Pitch's large scythe before it made contact with his chest and Bunnymund dodged it expertly. Tooth and Sandy hovered in the air and the scythe took a swipe at them. It was a giant mass of nightmare creatures and the Boogeyman versus North, Tooth, Sandy and Bunny. They were outnumbered, but they still managed to fight the creatures off. The Guardians only had to keep this up until the sun began to rise. Pitch wouldn't be able to fight during the day.
Pitch knew this, which was he he sent out hoards and hoards of fearlings toward the Guardians and did his best to try and strike at least one of them with the sharp end of his scythe. The Moon was slowly beginning to set, and the Guardians knew that they were winning.
"Are ya ready ta give up, Pitch?" Bunny asked as he caught a boomerang in his paw. The fearlings and nightmare men were slinking back into te shadows and only a small amount of them remained. Pitch's lips curled back into a snarl.
"I'm not finished just yet," Pitch growled. The Boogeyman waved his hand and three nightmares sprung from the ground. The nightmares stomped their hooves against the ground and their amber eyes flickered with malevolence.
The nightmares were complete just yet. It had taken decades for Pitch to even create just one of them. But with the sun just about to rise and the Guardians still undefeated, Pitch decided to bring up three of his new creations and finally test them out on some subjects—-the Guardians.
"What in the world are those?" asked Tooth as the nightmares began to approach. The Tooth Fairy balled up her fists and fluttered her wings, ready to strike.
Sandy put up the image of a question mark. The nightmare creations looked familiar. They seemed to be made up of some sort of sandy substance. The Sandman didn't know for sure, but if there was one thing that Sandy knew, it was that those nightmares needed to go.
"So, are ve fighting these things of or vhat?" asked North. The Guardians nodded and then charged for the three horses when they suddenly sunk into the shadows along with Pitch. The Guardians looked round frantically, their guards up, waiting for Pitch to strike. They knew that Pitch was still there. His shadow stretched across the trees and he began to talk to them.
"Do you really think you can defeat me?" Pitch said. "I have an entire army of nightmare creatures and what do you have? An old thief, a egg obsessed rabbit, a golden grain of sand, and a fairy 'queen' who rules a bunch of flies and boxes of teeth. How do you expect to stop me?"
The Guardians knew that Pitch was just trying to get to them. They ignored him and circled in the center of the clearing, watching the shadows carefully.
"Why did Tsar Lunar even chose you?" Pitch continued. "You never even bothered getting together until now."
That caught the Guardains of guard, but they quickly regained their composure and stayed silent. It was always best to let the villain talk and stay quiet so one could easily attack and make their move.
But there was that vague feeling of guilt that lingered in each of the Guardians. They never thought that they'd see each other again and never bothered to think of invitng each other over. But then the Man in the Moon told them that they were chosen to end the Dark Ages. But why? Why them? They barely even knew each other and yet here they were, waiting in the darkness for the Boogeyman to show himself.
Pitch smiled from the shadows as he felt the Guardians' guilt. The feeling was vague, but the Nightmare King could feel the faintest of negative emotions, even when one tried to cover them up.
"You have nothing in common and barely even have a clue as of to why you're even standing here together right now," said Pitch. "If I was Tsar Lunar, I probably would disassembly this little group that you call 'The Guardians' right here and now."
"THAT'S IT!" Bunny shouted. He lunged for a shadow and Pitch revealed himself, knocking away the boomerang that Bunny propelled at him. But even with one weapon, Bunny was still able to fight Pitch. The other Guardians soon joined the Pooka and began to fight Pitch side by side.
But then the nightmares made their entrance. The three nightmarsish horses sprung from the darkness, knocking the Guardians to the ground. They quickly stood up and began to fight the trio of nightmares off, but the nightmares were extremely good fighters. The Guardians had way too many close calls than they would have liked. Pitch then joined the fight, which made things even more harder. The Guardians fought with all their might, knowing that only had to fight the nightmares off just a little bit longer until the sun broke through.
"The sun's coming up!" Tooth exclaimed. The Fairy pointed to the sky and to the Guardians' relief, the sun was, indeed, inching its way up the pink tinted sky. Rays of sunlight shone through the trees, but the small amount of light wasn't enough to force Pitch back into the shadows. Pitch charged at the Guardians and struck Tooth out of the air. Tooth quickly regained herself and managed to ge tone of her wings to scratch at Pitch's face. The Fairy fluttered to join the rest of her friends and watched as Pitch scrambled to his feet.
"This isn't over!" he shouted. A beam of sunlight shined on Pitch and the Boogeyman instantly stepped away. Pitch glared at the Guardians one last time and then retreated to the the shadows, bringing all of the darkness that he had brought with him as he disappeared.
The Guardians stood there, breathing heavily. The battle was fierce and rough and Pitch had even attempted to get into their heads. Bunny sighed and picked up his boomerang that laid in the dirt and dusted it off; Tooth's wings fluttered with less enthusiasm and the fairy sunk downward slightly; Sandy's pale, golden glow dimmed; and North's grip on his swords loosened.
"What do we do now?" asked Tooth after sometime. "Pitch is much stronger than we thought he was. And now he has two days to do whatever he wants without us interfering."
"Who said we had ta listen ta 'im?" asked Bunny. "We can just go ta his lair and attack again."
"But we can't go to his place without a plan," said Tooth. "Besides, there's way too many fearlings and nightmare men. We can't fight them all off at once."
"Toothy iz right," said North. "Ve need better plan and better strategy."
Bunny crossed his arms and frowned. "Then what do we do? Because for all we know Pitch is back in his lair plannin' on giving the children nightmares so bad that they'll probably be awake for days! We can't just stand around here and do nothin'!"
Tooth laid a hand on Bunny's shoulder. "Bunny, we're all just as frustrated as you are, but look at us. We're tired, exhausted, and can barely keep ourselves standing."
Sandy nodded and dreamsand weaved over his head, creating the image of a person drinking a warm drink while sitting on comfortable chair. "We need to rest."
"Rest? Rest?! At a time like this?!" Bunny exclaimed.
"I think rest would do wonders for us right now," Tooth said.
North nodded and then turned to Bunny. "Ve vill come up with plan after we rest a little."
Bunny huffed and crossed his arms, but he followed the others to the sleigh. North cracked at the reigns and the Guardians were silent the entire trip to the Santoff Claussen, but it was in the silence that the most was being said. The Guardians weren't only thinking of another way to stop Pitch, but they were wondering why. Why had the Man in the Moon chosen them? And why hadn't they taken the time to get to know each other sooner?
And it was this feeling of guilt and shame that Pitch could feel. Even from the shadows he could feel the shame rubbing off of the Guardians in waves. The Boogeyman tapped his fingers together. It was only a matter of time until he would defeat this group called "The Guardians of Childhood" and usher in a new Age of Darkness. An Age of Darkness that light would never be able to enter.