A/N: I can't believe it! Fanfiction is so great. Thank you so much to my first reviewer! Here is the next chapter, my friends!
Enjoy!
They felt it when it happened.
The last of the nightmares had been destroyed when all four of the elder guardians felt that inexplicable, crippling stab in the pit of their stomachs. It was a physical pain, but it was nothing compared to the agonizing burn of grief and fear that scorched their nerve endings. Tooth, the ever vibrant fairy, crumpled to her knees, letting out a heart wrenching scream.
"JACK!"
As soon as the pain faded just enough, the foursome limped towards the woods and what they saw stopped them in their tracks and would haunt them for the rest of their immortal life.
The youngest guardian, their baby, lay unmoving on the ground.
They couldn't bury him. No, that would be a cruel insult to the freedom of the wind he always relished as a vital part of his survival. Instead, they wrapped him in ice blue cloth after placing his too-warm hands on his stomach, over the awful wound. In the once jovial sleigh, when even Bunny gave no protest, they flew silently to the lake where he died and was born again. It was early winter, a layer of ice percolated on the rim of the pond. Wordlessly, North carried his honorary son's...body...to the very middle of the lake before allowing Jack to float down, down, down. Into the icy blackness. There had been nothing to say, and like cowards, they fled back to the pole, leaving the pond to freeze over and keep Jack away from them forever.
Present
The four were now gathered at the pole just as Bunny shot up from his hole. Tooth, roused from her sleep, fluttered sleepily thru the window, followed by a rather dull Sandy. North store in quickly. "A child is in danger!" Instantly alert, guiltily grateful to have something, anything, to focus on, the four leapt in the sleigh, Bunny not uttering a single protest. North threw his globe, opening a portal to the belly of the beast.
Burgess.