Chapter Nine-Homeward

North and Sandy didn't really expect Adrianne to still be around. What with all that rock that must off fallen on top of her it would a miracle if they found a recognizable body, let alone find her alive. And even if she had survived the initial quake, by finding a small pocket of air, that air would have long run out by now. But while Sandy didn't believe that she was still alive, they had all promised Jack to at least try to find her.

It was just over 36 hours since they had set off to rescue Jaime. They would have attempted looking for Adrianne sooner, but they had had a problem on their hands. Jack. By the time they reached the surface he had lost an insane amount of blood, and the dagger had still not been taken out. Sandy shuddered as he remembered how Jack's crimson blood had left a splattered trail against the snow. If he had been mortal, he would have died before they reached the pole, either from blood loss or shock, or perhaps even from the dagger nicking his heart. Luckily immortals were harder to kill, and Jack was resilient.

The Sandman had inspected the dagger. It was carved from obsidian, and was obviously made with skill. Sandy suspected that Pitch may have made it himself, after seeing the little patterns of snowflakes and broken staffs that adorned the handle. Sandy had shivered at the time. Pitch had had plenty of time to plan their demises.

Sandy had already gone with the bulky Russian to visit Jaime, to ask if he had seen Adrianne, and as suspected Jaime didn't have a clue who they were talking about. He did however ask about Jack, and they were happy to tell them that he was getting better.

"Hurry up Sandy! I found blasted hole!" The Russian called behind him, and in doing so stumbled and fell on his face. Sandy let out a burst of silent laughter.

"Not funny! Now come on. We must search for the girl."

...

It was still dark. All Adrianne was searching for was the faintest glimpse of light, but it evaded her, time and time again. She knew when she was going round in circles when the rocks became slick with blood, but she didn't dare turn back, lest she run into Pitch. It had been easy to wrench the cuffs off the chain, but that had been when he was knocked out, and when she didn't have a gash across the length of her forearm, and several other minor cuts from when she repeatedly fell. Her head was sporting some colorful bruises, because unfortunately, with her hands entrapped within metal, she could rarely coordinate them in time to break her fall. She was limping- she wasn't sure what exactly she's done to her ankle, but it hurt like hell. In fact everything hurt. But she didn't dare stop- she knew if Pitch caught her, the pain would be much worse.

Pitch. His name made her blood boil, and it took every ounce of her concentration not to yell out in fury, to suppress a scream. She knew he was evil, but she had never taken it personally before he'd plunged that dagger into Jack's chest. Bastard. Jack wasn't going to attack while he was holding her, and Pitch knew it. He was doing it to eliminate opposition, in preparation for when she would become his slave. Had he eliminated the opposition, in this case, Jack? When she'd last seen him his wound was spurting blood, and he had a vague dreamy look on his face. When the weapon had sunk into his chest, Adrianne had felt a ghost pain race across her own. They were connected in some way- she was sure of it. Would she know if he was dead?

She had pretty much signed the other guardians death warrants when she had caused that earthquake though. She had no idea what dark corners of her mind the anger had come from, but when it did it was born of loathing, of hate and of fury. It was as if the earth itself was responding to her feelings. Which was just plain weird. The idea of her coming across bodies- it was almost enough to confine her to her bloody circle. Almost.

Because if they were alive, if he was alive, then she had to help, to help protect them. And with that thought she took three more shaking steps forward, and allowed her hands to navigate the way out of the bloody circle.

She wasn't really in that much pain if she stayed still, it was the moving that did it. The lengthy movements with stiff tired limbs littered with decorative cuts and bruises. She'd worked out a 'Pitch detector' it didn't take a genius to figure out that she could only use some of her powers around Pitch, or around evil itself, or just the very atmosphere that Pitch brought about. The test was simple. Every few minutes she tried to make a fireball. If she couldn't, good. If she could... Pitch was close.

Luckily, that hadn't happened so far.

One foot forward. Other foot forward. Stumble trip, forgot to brace, up again. Adrianne tugged at the chains irritatedly. The only way to get her hands out of them was to dislocate her thumbs, and she really didn't have any experience in relocating limbs. But she was certain that it wasn't she could do quietly.

She needed to get out.

She needed to find Jack.

She needed to live.

...

Stroking the rock tenderly, as a mother may stroke her child's hair, or as the little waves of the shore gently, oh so gently, wash up onto the sand, the Nightmare King grinned his toothiest grin. This particular rock was covered in blood. This wasn't very different to many of the other rocks he had passed, a great number of them were embellished with crusted blood (Jack's or Adrianne's, he wasn't sure), but this rock was different, because the blood was fresh. He rubbed it in-between his fingers, inhaled deeply then popped his fingers into his mouth, licking the blood off and savoring it. Lovely.

He sniffed the air for fear, and to his dismay could find none. But he could smell the fresh, fragrant blood. He drifted forward, visualizing the expression on the girl's face when he found her, when he found her- there was no 'if' about it. He was so looking forward to breaking her, to branding her, to turn her creamy pale skin into a blotchy, mottled mess of black and blue. He shouldn't have killed the boy, he should have done all of that to her in front of him. In fact he could use both of them to break each other. Why hadn't he done that? That would have been a more terrible revenge, a prolonged one. He cursed himself silently.

His hand passed over another patch of blood. He was getting closer.

...

Tooth and Bunny shot each other worried looks as Jack started to turn restlessly and mutter in his sleep. Bunny leaned over to wake him from his nightmare.

"Bunny look!"

"He's having a nightmare, I know!"

"No... it's not nightmare sand, or dream sand it's something else." Bunny thought she'd gone mad, but when he looked she was right. It wasn't golden and softly glowing like the sand Sandy was famous for creating, nor was it the black corrupted sand which only glistened with a midnight purple or blue hue. It was sand, but it was white in color, and instead of softly emitting light, it let out a harsh glare, so harsh that neither the fairy nor the Pooka could determine what he was seeing in his... well if it wasn't a dream or nightmare, then what was it? A vision?

"Ree, Ree, closer, run, blood, trail, light, help, coming, Pitch." He was pleading, begging- he was sending out a warning to Adrianne.

"Seems like a nightmare to me mate."

"It can't be. Look at the color"

"It could be a new trick, from Pitch." Tooth shook her head, there was a step missing from the logic in that.

"Why would Pitch bother? He thinks Jack is dead."Bunny grimaced, because that did make sense.

"But what else could it be?" They sat in uneasy silence as they watched the mutterings of the boy become more violent and fevered.

"No... run... light... help... mark... break... torture...Pitch... RUN... ESCAPE... GET OUT... GO!"

A light bulb suddenly went off in Tooth's head.

"What do you relate the color white to?"

Bunnymund blinked. Twice.

"Just answer the question." Tooth demanded breezily.

"Well... purity, birth, light... truth-"

"Exactly." Bunny stared at her blankly.

"You've lost me." He said flatly.

"White signifies truth. Gold sand is for dreams, because it is better than the truth of life. Black sand is for nightmares, because it is worse than the truth of life. But white is simply what is, nothing more, nothing less."

"Okay..." Bunny said slowly.

"So if Jack is seeing something in his sleep, it isn't a dream, and it isn't a nightmare, but it is the truth. It can't be a memory, because he would remember it either positively or negatively, making it a dream or a nightmare, so it must be a vision of the present, what is happening now."

Silence.

"You think that Frostbite is having a vision. With Adrianne it it."

"I know so." Tooth whizzed the other side of the room where Baby Tooth was.

"Baby Tooth!" She snapped to attention. "I need you to find North and Sandy in Pitch's lair. Tell them that Adrianne is alive, but Pitch has almost found her. Understand?" Baby Tooth nodded her head. "Now go!" The little fairy whizzed out the window.

...

"Sandy, take a look at this..." Just then Baby Tooth crashed into Sandy, and began chirping her message.

"Alive?" North was stunned. "We must find her then." Sandy nodded and let loose around ten tendrils of dream sand which meandered outwards in all directions to find Adrianne. North looked back to the blood he had been examining. It was too fresh to be Jack's, which meant it was probably Adrianne's, as he was pretty sure the Nightmare king didn't bleed. A rustle of noise caught his attention. He stopped and waited. There it came again, the sound of weary feet clumsily making there way forward. He rounded the corner and there she was.

She cried out in relief, and hobbled her way towards him. He swept her up into his arms, and smiled softly as she fell asleep, and snuggled into his arms. She was looking worse for wear. The skin around her shackles was rubbed raw and bleeding, and her ankle appeared to be fractured. There was a particularly nasty gash on her left forearm, but other than that it was only minor cuts and bruises. She'd live.

"Sandy! I've found her. Let's go." The guardian of dreams nodded, and propelled them upward with Baby Tooth into the sleigh. The guardian of wonder laid his charge down, and cracked the whips before opening a portal. At last, they were complete.

They were finally homeward bound.