Survival

Chapter 7: Missing

It seemed like a fairly normal work night collecting teeth despite the festivities of the mortals. Halloween was not Tooth's favorite holiday. It was too full of sugar! And the children stayed away longer than usual cutting down the retrieval time. Ever since Pitch's return over 100 years ago Toothiana had been spending more time out in the field instead of just supervising. It was great to feel the wind in her feathers. Flying over Oaxaca, Mexico Tooth suddenly felt here energy drain. Dropping onto the roof of the Basilica of Our Lady of Solitude she tried to catch her breath. What was going on? This was not normal. There was no reason she should be so tired! The last time she had felt like this was when Bunny had gotten fatally wounded when they first defeated Pitch to bring an end to the Dark Ages. Nothing had happened to Bunny had it?! 'I have to check. Something is wrong. The baby teeth should be okay for tonight.' With that thought she left for The Warren. Flying was a struggle, but she had to make sure.

In The Warren, Bunnymund was waken from his sleep by a deep seeded sorrow and pain. 'What in the dingo in budgie smugglers* is going on?!' He twitched his ears trying to make out the sound of anything amiss, but could pick up nothing. Not even the faint wisp of a breeze. Everything was dead silent. Eerily quiet and unnatural. Something somewhere was not right. While going through a mental list of where this strange feeling could be coming from a buzzing was heard. 'Tooth? What is she doing here? It's the middle of the night!'

"Aster! Are you all right?! I got this terrible feeling!" she said in a rush while trying to catch her breath landing next to the object of her worry.

"I'm fine sheila! Wha's goin' on? This dark, depressin' feeling woke me up. Never felt anythig' like it!"

"Of course! Last time this happened was when you took Pitch's scythe to your abdomen and were nearly torn in half." She shuddered at the memory. "This only happens when one of us are fatally wounded. Our energy gets drained and channeled to the other for healing. It's how you made it out of that situation alive."

"Oh. I never put much thought into how I got healed after I woke up at Santoff Clausen. Figured it was just my amazing stamina."

"No. Sandy, North and I each gave up some of our energy and magic to bring you back from the edge of Death. It's the only time one of us has been injured so badly."

"Well, if it wasn't me this time, and it's not you, who is it?"

"Let's go to Santoff Clausen. If it's not North then we can call the others with the aurora borealis."

"All right. Let's head out. You don't look so good. Get on my back and we'll take the tunnels."

"Okay. It took a lot out of my just to get here." Climbing onto Bunnymund's back and holding on to his soft fur Tooth braced herself. Bunny thumped on the ground and down they went. The travel was fairly swift bounding through the underground. They came out in the snow a few feet from the main entrance. 'Why would ANYONE want to live somewhere so cold and desolate?' was all Bunnymund could think as he knocked on the giant mahogany doors. Two yeti's opened them admitting them into the warm entry way. The yeti's looked nervous.

"Tooth! Bunny! Vat is going on? Something is wrong! I can feel it, in my belly!" North was leaning over the banister above them with a worried and confused expression on his normally jolly countenance.

"Don't know North. Tha's why we came. Seen Sandy or Jack recently?" questioned the Aussie.

"I saw Sandy few days ago. He seemed vine. Haven't seen Jack in couple months dough. You Tooth?"

"I saw Sandy two days ago when we worked an area at the same time, but I haven't seen Jack in a few months either. What do we do! Something has to have happened! Someone is hurt!"

"Calm down sheila. We'll just summon the others and go from there. If either of them don't show up we know who to look for." He tried to infuse as much calm into his voice as possible to try and calm the over protective fairy. Her heart was in the right place but they needed to be rational.

"I send signal. You two can vait in meeting room. I'll join once it is done." He ushered them into the comfortable, cheery looking room to await his return. The fire was glowing but the warmth did not seem to reach either of the occupants.

"It's Jack. It must be. How could I not have checked up on him more often? It's my fault! I shouldn't have left him alone for so long! How long has be been in pain? What if we're too late when we find him?!"

"Tooth. Calm down. If I know that show pony, 'e probably just got hurt from a prank gone wrong. Besides, we don't even know if it's 'im yet or somethin' completely different is wrong!" Trying to be the rational mind was never E. Aster Bunnymund's strong suit but he was good and looking at multiple possibilities. Supposedly it came with the artistic mind.

In lumbered North to settle into an overstuffed couch. "Is done. Now ve vait." The intense silence did not last long as a golden airplane flew by the window. North rose to open it so Sandy could enter. He stepped of a shimmering cloud with a question-mark followed by a tragedy mask above his head.

"Sandy, we think Jack is in trouble. He's the only one not here and we've all had magic and energy drained. Any idea where he could be?" St. North inquired. A picture of a tree by a frozen pond formed and they all nodded. "Of course! He vill most likely be in Burgess."

"But he could be in Antarctica mate. It is still October."

"Bunny is right. We should split into twos and check both. Tooth, let's take the sleigh. Sandy, you and Bunny check the arctic. Meet back here in one hour." With that they dispersed and embarked on their missions.

Aster couldn't help but grumble. "Why do I get the coldest place on earth? North must be chuckling to 'imself right now. Bloody bandit." 'At least Sandy won't make fun of me.' They took the tunnels with Sandy paddling a canoe to keep up with the Easter Bunny. They made quick time and came out in the middle of a blizzard. "How on earth are we supposed to find anyone or any clues in all this blasted snow?!"

Sandy just shook his head and created a solid dome of gold to shield them and a portion of the surrounding area from the onslaught. At lease this way they could search a section at a time unhindered by the natural elements. "Thanks Sandy, you're a doll mate." Sandy scowled at the endearment but focused nonetheless. It had been 45 minutes of searching in the freezing cold. Bunnymund was only surviving because Sandy made glowing boots for the pooka. There was lots of gashes in the snow and rock from what looked like Frostbite's training. "Intense. Remind me never to get the bloke TOO angry Sandy."

Sandy just gave an exasperated shake of the head in response. 'There has to be something! I hope the other's are having better luck. Haven't seen the lights yet so they haven't found him and returned yet.' Suddenly something large and black was looming inside the shifted dome. A shimmering sculpture of frozen nightmare sand.

"What on earth is that? Pitch was here?! Can't 'ave been. We defeated him over 100 years ago! Just look at how deep it's buried. This seems pretty old to me. Any thoughts Sandy?"

An arrow formed pointing at a fairly fresh blast radius nearby. An hourglass followed by a snowflake and sun formed in succession.

"Snowflake did this yesterday? I guess you're probably right. It's not too buried so it's relatively new. It's a lot bigger and deeper than the other ones we've seen. Think he was defending 'imself from an attacker?"

Sandy reached out with his sand blanketing the area to feel out clues. There were no pleasant feelings lingering in the snow so it was not just normal training that caused this. 'There!' Reaching down into the snow with a golden tendril, a few grains of black sand emerged.

"Oh no, Sandy. You've got to joking. Pitch? You sure it's not from that bizarre sculpture?"

He nodded. This was definitely from a dream had just given two weeks ago. Apparently it had not remained a tranquil dream, but been transformed into a nightmare somewhere along the way. Pitch was back.

A/N Trying to get the accents down.

*dingo in budgie smugglers means a dog in a Speedo. :)