Disclaimer: I don't own rise of the guardians or guardians of childhood

Attempts

"I don't understand why you're their emissary." Bunny huffed.

"Because I've communicated with you before," Jane said as though that was obvious.

"Once."

"More than other reapers have," Jane said rolling her eyes. "Where's Jack?"

"With his daughter." Bunny said, "It's still Christmas, and Jackie has a mortal family to visit. Or have you forgotten that those exist?" He glared.

"No." Jane was quickly becoming exasperated. Bunny had yet to supply anything helpful. Instead, he opted to knock down everything she said; the other 4 guardians weren't doing much in the way of help either.

It didn't help that she had a reaping in an hour and things wouldn't look so good to the guardians if she left in the middle of this discussion to handle it.

So… here she was, talking to guardians trying very hard not to lose her temper, which Bunny was doing his best to make her.

"As I was saying." Jane started, "The Grims are staking out…"

"What makes you think you know anything about Krampus."

Jane rolled her eyes, "Because it was the Grims that defeated him last time."

"Splendid job you did at that," Bunny muttered. "He escaped."

"Yes… he escaped. Tell me how long was it after you defeated Pitch until he was back causing havoc?"

Bunny glared at her. "Well, how did he escape from you. And how did he get access to the fearlings?"

"Do you actually want to know?" Jane asked. "Or are you just looking for more reasons to hate us?" She asked crossing her arms and looking cross.

"I don't need any reason to hate you. Your kind has done nothing but cause problems."

Jane looked at Bunny stone-faced. "Was right about Jack, wasn't I?"

All four guardians looked at each other surprised and guilty.

"Wow, whoop dee do. You were right about one boy." Bunny said. "Changes nothing in my opinion, especially when you would have reaped him if the Man in the Moon hadn't gotten to him first."

"Bunny," North said while Sandy tried to communicate via sand pictures above his head, but they were going by so fast Jane couldn't understand.

"Well…" Jane said, "As we told you, we believe Krampus is hiding somewhere devoid of light. If you can think of any places that are like that… you may want to try starting, there." She said taking a step back. She bent down to pick up her cloak and put it back on.

The Guardians blinked at seeing her disappear. "See you later, Guardians." She said before she slashed her scythe through the air and jumped through the rift.

She had reaping to get to. In Burgess. Where Jack and her niece likely were.

She hoped Jack didn't try to stop her.

Will glared in the direction he heard Krampus's voice Krampus, even as his stomach clenched. The way Krampus had just grinned when Will had told him that Sarah wasn't suicidal didn't sit well with him.

She couldn't have been right? Like yes, she had been depressed, sad and uncommunicative but she wasn't that depressed, was she? Not so depressed she was planning on end-

There was a sound. Footsteps from just outside this cavern.

Krampus' footsteps stopped, Will was half tempted to call out but before he could decide on the matter, Krampus came forward and whispered low in his ear. "I bet you want to escape, don't you?" He whispered. "Go ahead. Call out. It will do you absolutely no good."

Will was sorely tempted to call out, and scream. But the way Krampus said it told him that he had something awful planned, so instead he squeezed his mouth shut and looked away.

After a moment they heard footsteps hurrying away, as though they'd just caught wind of something.

"Happy?" Will asked disgustedly. "They didn't find us."

"Oh Will, you simple naïve boy." Krampus said, "They have, and it's given me a great idea." He laughed and suddenly the room grew darker and tighter, and he heard the sound of thousands of fearlings buzzing around the room.

Sorry for the late update. I was feeling ill last night, I didn't have the energy to do the final editing, to update.

(Fun fact. I was going to try and make the last scene with Will and Krampus it's own chapter, but I decided against it.)