"Nope, no way. I ain't some mother hen or anything." Bunny shouted when everyone turned towards Bunnymund.
"Aw Come on now, Why'do I gotta do it?" Bunny whined when no one said a word, unless you count Jacks humorous smile which spoke thousands. After Alice finally calmed down and accepted the fact that all had been forgiven, North offered Alice a chance to train. But there was only one problem:
Finding a trainer. For some odd reason all eyes had floated to Bunnymund who was now desperately trying to wiggle out of it.
"Ya know Easter will be here anytime now, I don't got time for that!"
"Well," Jack reasoned as he began to walk in large circles around North and bunnymund, "There is still 4 months until Easter-"
"Five if you consider the Julian calendar " North chimed in cheerfully. Bunnymund threw a glare at North, knowing very well that the Julian Calender was replaced with the Gregorian calender over four hundred and thirty years ago.
"Good point," Jack mused with a bit of humor, trying to irk Bunnymund as much as possible, " and Christmas is next month, so obviously North has his hands full." Alice and Sandy sat on the window sill with their arms crossed and watched with smiles on their faces as the pandemonium unfolded in front of them.
"And Besides, we all know I have no particular fighting style, unless you consider freezing your way out of a fight an art-which I do. I don't think my power over frost is something I could really teach though."
"But sandy-" Bunnymund started, his mouth twitching in annoyance as the odds turned against him.
"Is busy." Jack said quickly and Alice noticed his tone take a slightly more serious tone. Bunnymund ignored his response and groaned as he quickly racked his brain for more ideas.
"How about Tooth? She's an expert with them swords of hers!"
"We still have to contact Tooth and let her know whats happening. There's no time to wait around as we explain it to her." North clarified.
"Whose Tooth?" Alice whispered to Sandy without turning her head. She didn't want to miss a second of the scene in front of her but she also didn't want to be in the dark. Sandy held up a hand and a small figure of a feathered woman quickly appeared and disappeared which was followed by a tooth. The images passed to quirky for Alice to really understand what they meant, but she quickly lost interest and decided to ask another time. Bunnymund looked at each guardian and his desperate disposition quickly vanished and was replaced with anger as he muttered something under his breath. Alice noticed with a smile that he had been defeated and held up a fist. Without looking at each other, her and Sandy shared a brief bro-fist before Bunnymund suddenly turned to them and twitched his ears back in anger.
"Fine, but don't expect me to baby ya." He said quickly and pointed to Alice. 'Great.' She thought with resentment. 'Maybe him teaching me wasn't such a good idea in the first place.'
"Excellent, all is settled then." North said and held his arms out as if all the problems in the world suddenly disappeared.
"What?" Alice suddenly chipped in, "No its not. When do I start? What kind of fighting will I be doing? Will I be-"
"We start tomorrow." Bunnymund muttered and thumped a foot on the ground. The floor beneath him opened up and he dropped down into the hole.
"Wait!" Alice shouted after him and stood up as if to run after him. She stopped suddenly when her head grew light upon standing and bright lights suddenly flashed across her vision. After staggering back a step she rubbed her eyes before composing herself and his head popped over the edge and he raised an eyebrow.
"Now what'ya want?" He snapped and Alice could hear his foot tapping impatiently. Alice quickly ignored her now aching head and casually pushed her hair behind her ear.
"Uh..Thanks for coming to my rescue " It felt a little cheesy saying it, but Alice felt it needed to be said. After all if it weren't for him she might not be breathing right now.
"Yeah, yeah, just try to stay outta trouble." He said with a wave of his paw.
"Where do I meet you?-For training that is?" She asked before he could disappear again.
"Same place-early." He said this last part in a very serious tone and with a quick salute he ducked back into the hole. Alice watched with an empty feeling as the hole was replaced with its previous brown flooring before slowly settling back down next to Sandy. 'Same place? Where would that be?' Alice thought tiredly and could only imagine he was talking about frozen stream where they met earlier.
"So now what?" A loud yawn briefly followed her question and Alice stretched her arms out in front of her. "Sorry." She muttered and pulled her legs up onto the window sill and crossed them. Seeing the opportunity, an elf quickly climbed up onto her knee and happily munched on a candy cane.
"Well, I think we should take sleepyhead here home." Jack offered, making the elf sitting on her knee whine in disagreement. She chuckled and flicked the elf bell. Although Alice didn't want to really leave she didn't feel like putting up much of an argument. Home did sound nice at the moment.
"And just how are you gonna do that? I think my ride just bailed on me and there's no way I'm flying home with you." She uttered and shivered at the mere thought of being stuck thousands of feet in the air with Jack. She figured the survival rate of that situation would be extremely low granted she didn't kill him before the fall would kill her. Alice smiled and she silently giggled at her thoughts. Jack watched her odd reaction and narrowed his eyes and raised an eyebrow in amusement.
"No, we have much faster method of transportation." North said and rummaged through his pocket. A wide array of noises came from his pocket as he shuffled his hand around in it and after a minute of searching he finally pulled out a snow globe.
"Whats that?" Alice asked with a tone of genuine curiosity. She hopped up, much to the elf's dismay, and wandered over to get a better look. It was rather large and quite shiny, but it didn't really look much different than any other snow globe.
"Now where was it you said you live?" North asked and Alice noticed a very suspicious smile on Jacks face.
"I didn't." She said in disinterest as she cocked her head in an attempt to see the figure inside the snow globe.
"She lives in the U.S." Jack said casually. "Nevada right?"
"Um, yeah." Alice said awkwardly. 'You'd think Id be getting used to these kinds of questions.'
"Yup, I think she lives right on the edge of Spring Valley." He finished and leaned against his staff.
North Whispered what almost sounded like coordinates into the snow globe and threw it out in front of him. Suddenly a huge portal of swirling colors opened up in front of them and the room became even colder when winds suddenly came through.
"I think you can take it from here Jack!" North yelled over the noise of the winds.
"What did you do?!" Alice shouted and struggled to keep her footing as some unknown force pulled her towards it like a magnet. Her hair blew out in front of her making it difficult to see what was happening.
"Remember that brief conversation about tearing holes into the fabric of space and time?" He shouted back.
"Yeah?"
"Well this is one of them!" He answered and laughed almost manically.
"Is going around and poking holes in the fabric of the universe even safe!?" She yelled in disbelief.
"Yes...well no. It's just a little one, but I am sure as long as it is not used constantly it is safe."
"And just how often do you use it?"
"Ha! all the time!"
"You guys are crazy!" Alice shouted with a laugh and Jack suddenly grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards it.
"Whoa whoa, isn't there another way to get home?" She asked, not to fond of being shoved through a wormhole. There was no telling where she would wind up. She could wind up stuck in the middle of an ocean for all she knew.
"Nope! Going our way Sandy?" Jack yelled over his shoulder enthusiastically and Sandy threw him a thumbs up. As they grew closer to it Alice felt the pull on her get stronger. One more step forward was all it took and Alice felt herself lifted off the ground and pulled through
"Until we meet again Alice! North bellowed after her and any warmth that surrounded her suddenly disappeared as she was flung out into the open air and the portal snapped closed behind her. Alice squeezed her eyes shut and braced for the fall but oddly enough the wind continued to rush past her. After a couple of tense moments her eyes fluttered open upon the realization that she was falling through the sky.