Chapter three: We have failed a child
In the previous chapter…
"So…want to…tell us why we're here?" Tooth finally spoke up.
North, for the first time since he'd entered the room, looked up to meet his three fellow Guardian's eyes.
"We…have failed a child."
There was a horribly tense silence between the five protectors. They…failed a child? Since when? They were all lost in thoughts now with questions running a million miles in their heads. What did they do wrong? How did they fail? Which child?! After a moment they exchanged concerned glances between each other, aware of the seriousness of the situation. It was their job to protect all the children of the world, good and bad, as long as they believe.
"H-How…Who?" Tooth stuttered, unsure of what to say.
North handed a photo that he and Sandy had taken, so that the others would not have to experience the horror of seeing the blood covered ceiling in person, over to Tooth. Her eyes widened, although she didn't understand the language written on the wall, she knew what it was written with. She looked like she was going to be sick and quickly handed it across to Bunnymund who had a similar reaction. His ears flattened, obviously having no desire to see the photo anymore and attempted to pass it to Jack. Tooth reached out, blocking the photo with a stern look.
"I don't think he's old enough to see that." She said in a motherly tone.
Jack raised an eyebrow at this, clearly offended at being referred to as a child. "I may be in the body of a teenager but you seem to forget that I'm over three hundred years old."
Tooth narrowed her eyes. "You still have the mentality of a kid and-"
"Tooth, he's a Guardian. He gets just as much access to this as we do." Bunny quickly interrupted.
Jack turned to Bunny, surprised that he was actually standing up for him and acknowledging him as a Guardian. Tooth, equally as surprised that someone told off her motherly instincts, mumbled and backed down, allowing Bunny to hand the photo to Jack.
He stared at it for a moment, the Guardians waiting for his horrified expression to emerge. Instead he stared at it blankly before handing back to North. "Ok, and?"
Everyone was pretty much shell shocked by the Guardian of fun's response to the photo except Sandy and North. Sandy was often out in the world to see it change himself and North, who often got requests for some pretty mature things for Christmas, knew that both older kids and teenagers were fairly desensitized when it came to gore or scary things.
"AND?!" Tooth practically screeched. "What do you mean 'and'?!"
Jack leaned away from her fury. "What's the big deal? What is it?"
"IT'S BLOOD!"
He rolled his eyes. "I know it's blood, I'm not stupid. I'm talking about what's written in it."
Bunny and Tooth stared blankly at the youngest Guardian.
"Mate, are you feeling alright?"
Jack face palmed. "It's just blood! If I cared about the blood, I would be asking whose blood it was but I don't so I just want to know what it says. If a little blood scares you, then you'd be horrified to know the violent video games kids play today."
Tooth looked like she was about to protest to his desensitized idea of what's important and what isn't but she suddenly stopped in thought.
"North, what does it say?" She asked, turning her attention to the photo in his hands.
North sighed. "It said "A lesson, if not all of you learn, in darkness the world will soon turn." "Though you give wonder, hopes, dreams, memories, fun, and protect, a child, for thousands of years, you neglect."
All the Guardians cringed a little at that last part.
"One thing cannot change, we all have a dark side. Learn to love hers, or in black she'll reside." He continued. "Look past your differences and avoid the shadows in her wake…To not love your enemy, would be a terrible mistake." He finished.
Everyone was wide eyed at the interpretation.
"It is the ancient language of the moon people. There is only one left that we know of; Manny."
"Wait." Jack interrupted. "So he's asking us to love our enemy?"
"I don't think he's talking about Pitch mate, he was referring to a female." Bunny assured and Jack let out a silent sigh of relief.
North rose out of his chair. "Is very serious! I don't know what he was talking about with all the darkness stuff but I do know that there is a child somewhere out there that we have failed! We need to find her and make it up to her!" He declared.
"Whoa, whoa, mate! We know every child in history! Wouldn't she have come up on your naughty and nice list or with Sandy's dreams? What are the chances that out of billions of kids that we protect each day, we'd forget one? Much less neglect her?"
Sandy waved a flag, getting his attention. He showed a little girl and then a sun and moon rapidly rising and setting. North backed up his statement.
"Sandy is right! Riddle says we neglected girl for centuries so the only logical explanation is she must be immortal. There has never been an immortal child before so I never made the lists to show them specifically."
Jack, unnoticeably slumped down at the very untrue statement.
"Well, even if there is an immortal child, one of us would have at least seen or heard of her once over thousands of years." Bunnymund argued.
"Well, what makes you so sure cotton tail? None of you even knew I existed till I created the blizzard of '68' and I'd been trying to get your attention for years. If it takes that long for me to get your attention when I'm trying, think of how long it would take to get your attention for someone who's not trying or even more, hiding!" The young Guardian spoke out, not thinking.
Immediately as he processed what he'd said, he slumped down deeper into his seat, avoiding the elder's eye contact. They all stared at him, shocked by the sudden outburst. He never told any of them that he'd felt that way, then again, when did any of them ever take the time to ask. Teenagers don't just tell you their feelings unless they really aren't thinking.
"Jack-" Tooth started. "If you felt that way than why didn't you-"
"-I wasn't starting a pity party for myself! I was simply trying to explain that she, for some reason, might be avoiding everyone. The kid might just be antisocial." The quick dismiss was enough to tell everyone that it was not a relevant conversation and North stepped in, turning everyone's attention to the situation at hand.
"Alright…any idea how to find girl?" North asked.
The Guardians exchanged glances, hoping to see that they weren't the only ones who had absolutely no clue how they were going to find her. Sanderson formed a light bulb and began to sign. 'What if we followed my dream sand? It travels to everyone naturally and I always get a sense that tells me who the dream belongs to'
"Perfect!" North exclaimed, going to prepare cookies for when they found her. If Sandy searched through his dreams tonight, then they would see her by morning.
They all smiled at this seemingly flawless plan and went on their way, agreeing to come back in the morning to see her. Sanderson left to go spread dreams and locate the girl. He felt a deep obligation to apologize to her for them leaving her so long and after that…he was going to apologize to Jack. It was perfect, he would find her by morning light with sweet and happy dreams above her head or…at least he thought he would.
Night fell and the child gazed up into the air from her shadowy corner, her long messy black hair gently being blown in front of her face by the wind. Eyes like coal watched as the sky filled with golden streaks, twisting and turning to find their owners. Dreams were always such delicate things, not that she would ever no what one felt like. Though she only took the form of a poor, dirty, and homeless six year old girl, she had decades upon centuries of wisdom hidden beneath her small thin frame.
The one thing that was lost, was her past. Who she was, if anyone. It was a mystery that she gave up on long ago. No one would ever care anyway; why should they?
The moon, the only light she was ever able to gaze upon for extended periods of time, was slowly climbing into the sky, gracing her pale face with moonlight. It was, apart from the darkness, her only friend and her only comfort. It never talked to her aloud but when she was truly alone and unheard, she would have half of a conversation with it, as if it really were answering her.
A simple dirty and tattered white dress covered her like a blanket, barely hanging on by one of her shoulders. It ruffled against her skin in the gentle breeze, almost as if it thought that one touch might shatter her.
As she walked, barefoot, through the harsh dark forest, she heard a small noise. It was a distressful kind of sound, almost making her want to curl up and cry for the poor creature which was in such pain but, after thousands of years, crying became like a pointless exercise for the weak and lonely. Instead, she followed the painful cries and howls echoing through the forest.
Coming closer to a large trunk in the middle of a ring of trees, a small grayish silver creature was laying, whimpering as it's life was slowly abandoning it. A crimson red liquid was slowly flowing and seeping into the white snow as well as staining the small creature's fluffy fur.
She walked up to it silently so as not to scare it but as soon as the small bunny laid eyes on her, it whimpered in fear, unable to move and escape. The girl knelt down to it softly, removing the rope that was cutting into the poor animal and lifted it into her arms, not caring that some of it's blood was running onto her dress. She cradled it close, gently stroking it's ears back and the little bunny, though still terrified, cuddled into her arms for some comfort in it's final breaths. The suffering was clouding around her as she smiled down at the creature.
"Do you want to be my friend?" She asked in a whisper.
It weakly moved it's head up to meet her dark eyes, a glint a terror mixed with the dark hope of being saved from death's cold clutches.
Her eyes grew completely black as she hugged it closer, black smoke beginning to flow from her fingers onto the bunny as she stroked it. The creature's eyes turned a milky gold as it gazed up at it's new friend's smiling form. The once gray fur was bleeding a shadowy black and the bunny snuggled into the embrace of darkness surrounding it.
After a moment, the smoky bunny jumped out of her arms, hopping through the air around her, as if it had never been hurt in the first place but it was different now. The eyes that used to rapidly glance around at every sound, were now focused and ready to chase away anything that threatened it's child, making it more predator like. Several other similar creatures came up, inspecting their new friend.
The girl gazed down at the snare and tore it to pieces to ensure it couldn't be used again and gazed back to the moon. It probably didn't approve of her friends but it never said anything about it.
It was then that she stood up, turning to come face to face with a golden streak slithering its way towards her. She moved out of the way to let it go to whoever it was connected to but when she did, it turned, heading towards her again.
She backed away with fear as it came closer and tripped over the root of the tree behind her. The golden substance lightly settled on her skin and she let out a blood curdling scream as it burned her. The Nightmares, immediately sensing their child's distress, rushed over, dissolving the dream sand into black dust.
Tears flowed down the girl's face as she inspected the burn on her arm. It was in her very nature to repel light but when certain kinds of light that she could not stop came, they burned her. A horrifying realization struck her; the only way dream sand would come to her is if Sanderson had willed it to, which meant he knew about her. She quickly got to her feet and started disappearing into the shadows to stay as hidden as possible, knowing that Sanderson would have been close enough to hear her scream and come to investigate.
She waited there, breath slowing to remain as silent as possible, and waited. Why was he trying to give a good dream anyway? Was he being sent to finally kill her?! The thought nearly brought tears to her eyes….nearly.
A glowing light began to move through the darkness and she manipulated the shadows so that she would stay out of sight and sure enough, the friendly little golden man that most spirits loved and knew came floating through the forest with a concerned expression that should have made it quite clear that he'd never meant to harm her. He looked down and leaned to pick something up. Her breath hitched in the back of her throat; it was a piece of her dress that had ripped of onto the root of the tree that was sticking up out of the ground. He inspected it carefully, not quite sure yet what it was. One of the leaves cracked beneath her feet and much to her dismay, Sandman had heard it. He stepped forward towards her, extending his hand to the darkness.
Her fear of being discovered was beginning to stir the dark creatures around her, enough so that one of the Nightmare wolves leaped out of the darkness, growling at Sandy. He jumped back, obviously not ready for it, and extended his whips, expecting the light inside him to scare the creature off like it did most Nightmares but instead, the creature only snarled more in warning.
It jumped to the other side of the clearing, into the trees, and Sandy followed it. The girl let out a sigh of relief and turned to run in the opposite direction. This had never happened before; she'd always been left alone. Why would they come looking for her now? She abruptly stopped, eyes widening in terror. Were they going to do to her the same that they did to Pitch?! The child breathed heavily at the thought, true or not, that dwelled in her mind. They were going to kill her.