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Piers had been adamant about not giving up any information on Jack. Willing only to tell the group that the youngest guardian had been in the town, he and his younger brother had clammed up when the tall rabbit had tried to get any more details. Conall had crossed his arms over his chest, the defiant stance looking particularly endearing on his youthful form. Evident in his mulish expression, the boy's obstinance mirrored that of his older sibling. The pair had faced down the immortal spirits, refusing to betray their mother's savior.
Despite numerous attempts to cajole the particulars of the ice wielder's visit to this specific hamlet, the quiet that permeated the atmosphere could not be overcome. No matter the method employed, the boys maintained their silence, unsatisfied with Bunnymund's various efforts at providing evidence of his desire to help his missing friend. In the end, the group had been forced to concede to the children that Jack had left them, not because of any act on their part, but as a result of his own fears. The revelation had startled Conall.
"He's the ice king! What could possibly scare him?"
The question had hung in the air unanswered. Not wanting to respond, the guardians had exchanged glances, grateful when a voice had called out loudly, beckoning the children to their homes. Keeping his eyes on the spirits, Conall had nibbled on his lower lip with his upper front teeth for several moments as the other children ran off. Piers had tugged on his brother's sleeve, coaxing the other boy to leave with him. Nodding his head as he came to a decision, the boy had stumbled slightly as the older boy's attempts to make him depart became more forceful.
"You want the evil witch. They call her Annis."
As soon as those words had parted the boy's lips, he had turned from them, running alongside his brother as they left the guardians.
Several hours after those parting words, the four spirits were still wandering through the English countryside, making their way to each village that Bunny's inadvertent discovery had shown Jack had entered. With his ability to travel along the wind, the mischief maker had visited numerous places over the short time they had been in Britain. The map which had revealed his friend's path was causing the lagomorph a great deal of consternation. His irritation only increased with each failed search, as did his fear that something terrible had happened to their white-haired compatriot.
Sensing the rabbit's growing distress, North insisted that he remain with Sandy outside the town the Russian had chosen as their next stop. When Toothiana had supported the tattooed behemoth, the hare had let his shoulders sag and nodded sadly. The dream weaver conjured a sofa for the pair to sit upon as they awaited their friends' return. Raising an eyebrow at the glittering golden couch, Bunnymund smirked. Showing his more comedic side, the guardian of dreams had fashioned the sand so that Jack's visage was clearly visible on one of the cushions. The façade even mimicked many of the younger spirit's mannerisms. As the lagomorph approached the piece of furniture, the image stuck its tongue out at him.
Smiling broadly, Sandy floated over and sat down on the left arm of the sofa. The fun-loving guardian's face moved to the back of the left seat, staring pointedly at the tall rabbit standing opposite. Once Bunnymund met its gaze, the eyes turned their attention specifically to the right cushion before cutting quickly back to the hare. The rapid movement of the glittering eyes as they darted from him to the cushion brought a smile to the rabbit's face. Raising his hands in surrender as the face began to frown, he moved to take the spot apparently assigned to him.
Heaving a great sigh, the pooka looked at his old friend. The golden question mark above Sandy's head was echoed in the eyes staring at him from the next cushion. Shrugging his shoulders, he stared down at his hands before answering the unspoken question.
"I guess I might have gotten a little carried away at the last stop."
A golden exclamation mark hovered directly in front of the rabbit's face, causing him to jump a bit as he looked up at the dream weaver. A sparkling sand image of himself in miniature stood before him, steam visibly being released from the long, twitching ears in puffs of dust. Wry smile twisting his lips, the hare held his hands up in surrender.
"Can you really blame me though?"
The image in front of him morphed into one of North physically restraining the sand bunny from behind, the Russian's arms wrapped firmly about the hare's torso. Toothiana-in-miniature floated in front of the pair, one hand outstretched to stop him as her sand wings fluttered furiously behind her. Taking in the image, the pooka laughed boisterously.
"I wasn't quite that bad!" Sandy's eyes widened to comic proportions. Glittering golden eyebrows raised high on his forehead as the dream weaver stared incredulously at his furry companion. Ducking his head, Bunnymund conceded the point. "Okay, well, maybe I was." The sand figures floating in front of him changed form once more, the image of a tapping foot materializing from the dream dust. "Oh, all right!"
Huffing, the lagomorph stood. His furrowed brow provided a clear expression of anger. Dissolving the couch, the ancient guardian of dreams used his sand to form a steam locomotive with a highly productive engine. The cloud of dream dust shaped as exhaust ran in a continuous stream from the train's smokestack. After a revolution around the rabbit's head, the dream version of the iron horse returned to its originator by way of the sand hare's ears. A giggle from behind him had Bunnymund turning sharply. Finding Toothiana standing there, his countenance became more curious than irate.
"Well?" The impatient tone to his voice ruffled the memory guardian somewhat. Left hand moving to her hip, she jabbed at the rabbit with the index finger of her right.
"Don't you take that tone with me, mister."
Stepping back and raising his paws in surrender, the pooka capitulated. "Sorry, sheila."
The fairy nodded. "That's better." Turning from the pair, she flitted a small distance away, pivoting when she realized that they were not following. "What are you standing around for? We've got to catch up to North before he finds out something more in the next town and leaves us with no trail to follow at all!" Her hummingbird wings rapidly churned the air as she took flight, Bunnymund bounding along behind her as Sandy followed the pair on a cloud of dust.
North had hoped to have more information by the time the group caught up to him. Seeing the hopeful expression fall from the face of the guardian of hope was distressing. To keep it from becoming a regular occurrence, the Russian pursued any avenue of questioning that promised answers among the children who could see him.
Having spent several hours tracking the missing member of their quintet, the large guardian of wonder felt he had finally gleaned some details which might lead them to Jack's location. When the other three caught up to him, he was handing out candy canes to the young mortals gathered about him. The disappointment that had hovered around the rabbit throughout the day threatened to show itself once again as North stood.
Clapping the pooka on the shoulder, he leaned in to whisper his news. "I may have something, tovarisch." He waved to the children, encouraging them to get indoors before the sun set so their parents would not worry. The group walked a distance from the children, their path marked only by the prints left by Bunny's paws and the Russian behemoth's boots.
Sufficiently removed from the mortals, the hare turned to the Christmas spirit. "Well?"
"There was an incident here with a girl named Bronwen. She has not been outside since it happened, afraid that the other children would attack her again."
Tooth's hand quickly covered her mouth as she gasped. Sandy's eyes narrowed, his right hand forming a fist. Boomerangs appeared in the pooka's hands with little movement on his part. North held up his left hand to halt their response.
"Jack saved the girl from harm." A silly smile crossed the rabbit's face at the simple statement. "They say he left this morning. Two of the boys saw him leave on a strong gust of wind." The Russian punctuated his last statement by pointing in the direction he had been given for the mischief maker's departure.
Not waiting for the others, Bunnymund thumped his foot once before hopping off in the direction indicated. Shaking his head, the taller spirit simply traipsed after the increasingly impetuous pooka. Hovering beside Sandy, the fairy shrugged her shoulders in response to his dust-formed question.
"I don't know, but for all our sakes, I do hope it's soon."
Silence passing between them, the pair headed for their comrades, the dream weaver creating a motorcycle to help them speed along behind the bounding bunny quickly covering ground in an attempt to get to the next town briskly. As he approached the lumbering Russian, a sidecar formed from the dream inducing dust. The opening to the front allowed the transport to scoop up its quarry. His surprised shout echoed in the air as they sped off to the next village.
Dark had come long before the group was ready. Four towns had children who had all seen the winter guardian, yet none of them could provide any particular details about the ice wielder. Bunnymund's nose had twitched when they left the last group, veering from the path they had been following steadily since North's dramatic revelation about Bronwen and her encounter with Jack. The wind seemed to approve the rabbit's change of course, calming from the nearly gale-force gusts which had threatened to dislodge Tooth from the air.
The moon was high in the sky when they came upon the next village. Stopping as they heard voices, the group did not even attempt to hide their presence any longer. Too few of the children had been able to still see them individually, much less as a collective. Almost universally the younger children could see at least one of the guardians. Without any thought to possibly causing a problem among the group they approached, the quartet made their way towards the boy speaking so casually about the evil witch they all feared would lead them to their missing companion.
"I'm tellin' ya. Tha' was Black Annis." A short boy stood with his arms crossed, nodding his head emphatically at his own declaration.
Scoffing in disbelief, a girl standing slightly taller than he discounted his claim, waving her hand as though to discard the statement entirely. "Pshaw! You're wonky if you think –"
"Then you tell me, Aggie, why Iris would scream like that. She's not one what scares easy, you know." His hands had moved to his hips in his anger. The pair had taken no note of their observers, leaving that task to the third of their party who had been gawping at the guardians throughout the exchange. "Oh, what is it, Bernard?" Tugging on the sleeve of the older boy, the dumbstruck child pointed. He turned his head, intent on rebuking the younger boy for wasting his time when he was in the middle of arguing his point. The admonishment left him instantly, his jaw falling slack as he took in the blue-tinged fur of the incredibly tall hare looming over them.
"Evenin', mates." Gasping for air, the most intelligent response any of the three could muster was a monosyllabic grunt of incredulity. "Which way did this witch happen to go?"
Looking avidly between the two older children, Bernard swallowed noisily when he realized that they were too shocked to be able to respond to the query. He simply pointed, earning a smile and nod from the rather imposing rabbit. Tossing an egg to the boy as he bounded off into the darkness, Bunnymund left the others to offer more verbal thanks if they desired. The three remaining simply shrugged before following in his wake, his paw prints in the snow making him very easy to track.
Using his nose to help direct him, the pooka bypassed the obvious scene of winter merriment that remained. Shaking his head at how out of place the phrase was in June in the Northern Hemisphere, he simply continued on his path. Concluding that either the witch did not walk on the ground or that more snow must have fallen to cover her tracks, the lagomorph paused as the scent he had thought was on the air suddenly stopped.
The shock of hearing Jack's voice consumed with pain immediately after he had halted nearly caused the hare to hyperventilate. His ears flattened against his head as he heard the tell-tale buzzing of Toothiana's wings approaching.
Without even slowing, the fairy scooped up the much larger guardian, carrying him as though he weighed no more than the teeth her fairies collected nightly. The bellow that had rung out in the night had not abated, its tortured undertone distressing them. Increasing in volume as they approached the source, the shouts of agony caused them both to grimace. As Tooth turned the corner, the pair could clearly see their nemesis hovering over their obviously injured compatriot.
His shouts of anguish leaving his throat raw, the ice wielder barely knew the pain had abated. Ears ringing from the volume of his own screams, he did not hear the comforting words North whispered to him before rushing into battle alongside the others. Finally able to open his eyes, the winter guardian looked about, finding only blackness greeting him. Shaking his head in an attempt to clear his vision, he stood, extending his hand outward and calling his staff to his side from where he had dropped it once the nightmare king's scythe had been removed from his flesh. Hearing the battle slightly in the distance, Jack used his ears to help direct him. Jabbing the butt his staff onto the pavement for the third time that evening, he brought forth a torrent of icy weather once more, aiming it in the direction of the malevolent laughter.
Knocked from his feet by the tidal wave of ice and snow that had dissipated as suddenly as it had appeared, Pitch snarled at the guardians as he lifted himself from the ground. The fairy hovered directly in front of him, once again passing a quarter between her fingers. Unwilling to fall to her feet twice, he sneered at the guardian of memory, taking the opportunity to flee the scene before they could regroup and attack him in earnest.
"That's right! Run!" Sheathing his boomerangs, the pooka bounded over to the white-haired guardian, wrapping his arms about him in a crushing hug. "Ah, good ta see you again, mate." He closed his eyes as the younger guardian embraced him. Feeling the tears falling into his fur, the rabbit shushed his friend. "Hey, there. What's all this? 'S not like we'd ever leave ya to the likes o' that drongo."
Shaking his head, Jack lifted his face from the rabbit's smooth fur, using his hands to try to pat the wet spots dry, unknowingly rubbing several patches of fur in the wrong direction. "It's not that, kangaroo."
"Feelin' better already, I see." The lagomorph's dry tone caused the other three to simply smile at him, knowing how much he had missed the most mischievous of their number.
"Ha." The ice wielder's tone was far less forgiving in its irritation.
"What is it, Jack?" The sound of Tooth's lilting voice had him turning from the hare, trying to locate the fairy. Certain he was facing the right direction, he forced his eyes open. Still unable to see, he could feel the tears forming once again.
"My eyes are open."
"Well, yeah, mate." Bunnymund's confusion was echoed in Sandy's glittering golden question mark.
"Yeah." The forlorn quality of his speech could not be mistaken. "But I can't see you." He turned towards the direction of the barely audible gasp followed by a very Russian curse. "Any of you." Pivoting once more so that he would have been looking directly at the long-eared companion whose opinion had come to be more valued than any other, Jack let his shoulders slump. "I'm broken."