It was pointed out to me by Puella Pulchra that there was an issue with my spacing. Turns out the spaces I left between scenes disappeared when I posted the chapter. I've gone back through all the documents on the Doc Manager and sorted it, and will continue to keep an eye on this.
"Stupid! Stupid!" Penelope berated herself, pacing back and forth on a wooded hill in Scotland, just out of the shadows.
Behind her lay Jackie, out cold from the large amount of Nightmare sand that she had been exposed to and from holding up that wall. She didn't seem to be dreaming, possibly too tired to do so. Her brown hair was messy and flecked with black, while her glasses were askew on her face.
Why did you do that? She asked herself. She's not going to grateful, she probably hates you after what you did!
It had been impressive though. Only after spending time with the Descendants of Pitch had Penelope been able to appreciate exactly how powerful Jackie was. If she decided to go all out, Penelope would not stand a chance.
Rubbing her arm, she glanced back over at Jackie. The idea of getting revenge had crossed her mind, even killing the other Descendant. It might not even be a bad idea, revenge, and getting back with to the Descendants of Pitch, telling them that the opposite had happened, that Jackie had forced her to shadow travel out and they two had fought, ending up with Penelope killing Jackie. She'd killed animals before, would a human be any different?
She'd be lying if she said that it wasn't appealing, but, did she even want to go back?
Did she even want to kill anyone? The look on Jackie's face when she'd killed those Descendants had said a lot.
I could just leave her, she'd never know it was me. The Descendants of Pitch would never come looking for me, at least, not for a while. What would happen to her after that would have nothing to do with me.
She shook her head, feeling her gut roll at the idea of Samuel catching up with either of them.
We'd both die.
As she thought Jackie moved in her sleep, her eyelids flickering. It seemed that she was starting to wake up.
Penelope moved closer, and then took a step back, not sure how close she wanted to be. Firing range probably wasn't a good idea, but at the same time, firing range was probably very far.
Better get this over with.
"Jackie, wake up, Jackie!"
Penelope sat with her back to the campfire, watching the moor below, it was her turn on watch. It was just the two of them, so they were taking six hour shifts during the night. It was refreshing in a way, getting back to this, and not having to sleep with one eye open.
She'd forgotten how much she'd missed sleeping under the stars, with a small campfire crackling nearby and the fresh smell of the wind dancing across her nose. Supposedly Descendants of Pitch don't like the sunlight and prefer to avoid it, Penelope had never had that issue, she'd always preferred camping at night.
Jackie made a mumbling noise behind her and rolled over awkwardly, not able to move her arms properly. Penelope assumed it was just the muscle and magic strain that was causing the weakness and the pain that was going to come next.
"Can't sleep?" Penelope asked without looking. There was a shuffling sound that confirmed it. So far this whole thing had been a lot, quieter, than Penelope had expected. Jackie had been talkative enough back in the isolated cave in Ohio, but after the plan had been discussed, neither of them had felt like talking much.
Penelope didn't know what to say really. Jackie had apologised, which was confusing as what she seemed to be apologising for wasn't her fault.
People who actually interact with normal humans are strange. Penelope reflected, still watching the moor, and keeping a watch on the shadows behind them.
Penelope was thinking hard as she sat in the sleigh after Jack Frost and Jackie had left, going over the events of the last half an hour in her head.
Jackie had protected her, especially since the Guardians had looked ready to kill. Coming from the Descendants of Pitch, who did not dare disobey an order from their ancestor, this was bizarre. Jackie should have stepped back and let them do what they wanted, but she didn't. She stopped them, spoke in her defence.
Why Jackie? I did awful things to you, I see that now. Why would you protect me? It was odd, no one had ever really tried to protect her before, no human anyway.
The Sandman tapped her on the shoulder, making her jump. She turned to look at him as he put a question mark above his head. She had learnt to read, many years ago, but wasn't so rusty that she didn't know what it meant.
"Thinking."
The Sandman tilted his head to one side and made the symbol again, but Penelope didn't really know people well enough to recognise that he asking what she was thinking about.
"What? What are you saying?"
The Sandman let out a silent sigh and shook his head, deciding not to worry about it.
"'E's askin' ya what's on yer mind." said the Easter Bunny, which again made Penelope jump, and then frown in confusion.
"Why?"
"He's just bein' nice, I think." the Easter Bunny shrugged.
Just being nice. There's probably something wrong with the fact I find that strange. Penelope suddenly blinked, Jackie's way of speech might have rubbing off on her. She rubbed her arm nervously as the next drop off came up. The prospect of working with the exact opposite of Pitch was daunting.
Penelope had hoped to be subtle about the rescue. The Descendants of North were being watched by the Oceania base, none of them knew her thankfully. However, the Descendants of North didn't react quite so well.
She tried to use her powers as little as possible as she ran around, untying the Descendants while the Sandman used his powers to fend off the other Descendants. Since Dream sand and Nightmare sand were equally dangerous to each other the Descendants had to keep their wits about them to avoid contamination.
Then one of the younger Descendant's of North called out to Penelope.
"Behind you!"
Penelope spun on her heel and fired a knife of sand into the attacking Descendant's right shoulder without even thinking.
The attacking Descendant, really a kid with black, spiky hair like a hedgehog, reeled back, crying out in pain. Penelope followed up with a blast of sand to send him flying, then got back to untying. Except they shuffled back from her as far as they could.
She could feel, no, taste, their fear, and it sickened her, despite the boost of energy she got from it. She did not want to have to deal with that.
"Swap!" she called up to the Sandman, and without waiting for a response she sent out black sand to attack. It was difficult for her to do large, sweeping attacks, preferring to keep to small, individual, potentially very damaging attacks, like small knives. This was a bit out of her element, but she just kept moving, trying to keep herself to a small target.
Her world became a mess of sand, shadows, and dodging, although the Sandman was good enough at multitasking to free Descendants and stop her from getting badly hurt. The Descendants of North also did some magic, but what it was exactly was lost on Penelope.
In a blur the Easter Bunny showed up, they were in a Tunnel, and then she was in the Warren.
She kept out of the way, not being too far away from the set of Tunnels that people were coming out of. She did a quick injury check, and found that other bruising and a couple of cuts, she was fine. Once this was over, she was going to be on her way again, these people wouldn't want her.
The Sandman patted her carefully on the shoulder, then moved away slightly and lowered himself into a sitting position. He then looked behind him and patted the ground beside him.
Penelope didn't quite understand the gesture, but got the gist. Frowning slightly, she walked over slowly and sat down next to him. He beamed broadly, and her face also slowly split into a shy smile.
She could see Jackie, but she looked busy, so left her to it.
It was odd sitting next to the Sandman, he didn't try to talk, which she was fine with, it was just, nice, to be sitting next to someone who she didn't have to worry about. He didn't say anything, but now she just felt calm around him. How he was acting now was almost completely at odds with the fighter she had seen only minutes before.
After a while he was called away by the other Guardians, which Penelope was sad about, but it's not as if she could stop him.
A few minutes later she heard the whinny of a horse. She stiffened and turned to look, but saw nothing. Forcing herself to relax she turned her head back around, focusing on what was happening in front of her.
About thirty seconds later she was grabbed by sand that was not her own, wrapping around her arms and torso.
She couldn't stop the panicked cry as she dragged out of the Warren and into the Tunnel by Descendants of Pitch she most definitely recognised.
They didn't bother saying anything to her, they just dragged her into the shadows.
They were spat out in one of the entrance caves to the American base and the sand dropped her. Quickly a couple of other Descendants grabbed her arms and pulled her to feet, holding tight as she struggled.
About a hundred Descendants of Pitch had shown up to watch, and Samuel walked out into the middle, glaring at Penelope. With a wave of his hand, a gag of sand wrapped around Penelope's mouth.
"Catherine Mire. You stand accused of sabotage and desertion." he said in a monotone voice. He continued to talk, he voice become more and more furious.
"You allowed a HOG Descendant to escape, then instead of returning and admitting this, you ran away and aided the enemy. You broke the pact you made in blood."
Samuel stepped back and reached into his pocket, pulling out an arrowhead made of a grey metal. Around it he wrapped black sand, forming a full arrow, then he formed a bow and slotted the arrow in.
"You should know better Penelope, I knew you had a soft spot for the Descendants of Frost." his voice was a bit softer now, almost regretful as he called her by her chosen name. "But not enough to betray us, and you know what happens to traitors."
He pulled back in preparation to fire, and Penelope felt her stomach lurch. This was it, she was going to die. She didn't want to die! She was only sixteen, she was too young to die!
As if some divine force had been listening, a shard of ice shot out of the darkness and hit the arrow, shattering the metal and disintegrating the sand.
Samuel looked to be in shock as a familiar, worryingly angry voice spoke from the shadows.
"A life for a life, isn't that how it works?"
Penelope could finally breathe once the massive cavern had been emptied of people.
Those not fighting, including Jackie Penelope was a little upset to find, had gone home, those that were left had gone to claim beds on the barracks. She should go get one as well, but she needed time to work out what on earth just happened.
Jackie had saved her, again. The Sandman and Jack Frost had shown up to help, she wasn't dead, and now she was going to helping the Human Order of Guardians of all people!
This, this was too much...
She sat down on one of the rocks around one of the openings, a lot brighter than the Descendants of Pitch base she noted, and let out a long breath. She repeated this for a few minutes.
It would take a while to get used to this, people wouldn't like her to begin with, but that could change. She had Jackie and some of the Heads on her side, it could only go up from here.