Chapter 7

Billie

The figure that stood opposite me was a demon, I demon that you would see in a nightmare. I would have run away, but I couldn't. It felt like my feet were super glued to the ground. It was like being in one of those dreams where you wanted to run away but you couldn't. The sky then turned a dark murky colour, and that was when the tall, slender figure started to saunter towards me. That was when the nightmare began. I knew that I had seen this demon before, but my brain didn't register it. The demons face grinned. It was the most horrific thing I'd ever seen. I blinked without realising, and to my surprise the demon was in front of my face. I wanted to cry, scream, run, but none of that was possible now, as I knew it was the end. The demon reached its hand out and placed a cold finger on my lips,

"Shhhh," it whispered, "Don't be afraid," what seemed like a thin smile appeared on its so called face, "It's over now."

Both of its cold, hard hands wrapped around my neck, "Shhhh," it whispered again. I should have been afraid, but I wasn't. I knew what was going to happen. I knew that I was going to die. But I wasn't scared; I was calm and very still. I knew what death felt like, but it wasn't like this. The demon snapped my neck and the sky drained away, like water draining away out of a sink. I felt myself falling through the air, but that was the last thing I felt.

When I said that I felt myself falling through the air, I meant it literally. My eyes snapped open and I jumped up. My back ached with pain and my head was pounding like mad. When I got my breath back I soon realised that I had just been dreaming. Thank God. I also realised that I had somehow fell off the strong tree branch that I had fell asleep on last night. I must have been tossing and turning throughout the night as the nightmare I had was pretty dreadful. After a couple of minutes, I pushed myself up off the ground that was now covered in a blanket of pure, white snow and stretched my arms and legs out. The blanket that I had retrieved from the hospital fell off my shoulders and landed in the snow. I let out a groan before bending down and picking it up, when I immediately stopped as I noticed my arms looked different. They were covered with red fur. I screamed incredibly loudly and fell on my backside. My heart was beating really fast, and my pulse felt like it was racing at the speed of light. I quickly lifted both of my arms up in front of my face so I could examine them carefully. The fur on my arms was a fiery red, but the fur on my wrists was white. The fur wasn't very thick though, which was a relief. I let out a helpless sigh, and watched as my arms dropped back onto the ground. I yelped in shock though, as to my surprise a red fox was sitting in front of me. I cocked my head to the left, and surprisingly the fox did too. I growled at the fox and the fox growled back at me. I sat up straight to see if the fox would copy me again, and surely enough it did.

"What?" I whispered to myself. Why was the fox copying me?

The fox made a high pitched sound in its throat. I stretched out my furry arm and held up my right hand and funnily enough the fox walked forwards towards my hand and it brushed its face against it. I laughed because it tickled slightly. I stroked its head softly, and the fox started purring like a cat.

"Aw, you're adorable!" I exclaimed happily, and I think the fox might have smiled just a teeny bit, as one side of its mouth curled up. I started laughing again, but stopped when I heard footsteps from faraway within the forest. I found this quite strange though as a normal person wouldn't be able to hear something that was this far away. I felt my eyebrows furrow together with confusion, but completely froze when I heard someone talking,

"This way...this way," I heard someone say in the distance, "Pitch said the girl went in this direction."

My eyes widened at the sound of "the girl". Were these people looking for me? And who was Pitch?

"How can I hear them...?"I whispered to myself, not expecting a reply. That was why I was completely stunned when I heard a deep voice reply,

"You can hear them because you're not really a human anymore,"

"What?" I asked, "who just said that?"

"I did," the voice answered.

I turned and quickly looked at the fox that was still sitting in front of me.

"You did?!" I questioned, pointing my finger at it.

"Indeed I did," the fox replied again.

"But you're-you're a-a f-f-fox!" I shouted, "a talking fox!"

"And so are you," it told me calmly, "The only difference is that you're half human-half fox whereas I'm not a human, just a fox."

I felt like I was going to pass out. How could I be half human-half fox? It didn't make any sense!

"I don't know what you're talking about!" I yelled at the fox.

"Look at yourself! Half of your body is covered with fur, you have ears on the top of your head and you have a tail! Just like me!" It shouted back at me.

I touched the top of my head and felt my ears. I let out a loud gasp and I let out an even bigger one when I saw the red bushy tail on the ground next to my leg.

"What the-" I began to scream, but the fox covered my mouth with its paw and whispered,

"Do you hear that? Those people that you can hear are trying to find you, Billie," it whispered," and when they do, they will rip you to shreds! So shut up otherwise you'll be dead, understood?!"

I nodded slowly, and then the fox took its paw off my mouth. I let out a small breath.

"Good girl," he said quietly, "OH. I have some clothes for you, you must be sick to death of wearing that hospital dress."

Before I could say anything, he pushed a black skirt and a pair of black tights with his paw towards me.

I looked at them for a second before saying,

"Thanks, but what about a top?"

He laughed, "You don't need a top when the top of your body is covered with fur!"

I didn't say anything. He looked at me, but stopped when he remembered something.

"Ah!" He exclaimed before turning around and pushing a pair of black boots towards me. They had buckles going up the sides of them, and they had a tall, solid platform at the bottom of them.

"Wow! I love them!" I cried, happily.

He smiled.

"Well you better get changed," he told me, and turned round so his back was facing me.

About 10 minutes after I had finished getting changed, I asked,

"Who are you?"

"I'm Myrnin," he replied with a friendly smile, "I'm a friend."

I smiled back at him, but froze when I heard the footsteps I heard earlier getting closer. Myrnin must have heard them too, because his ears twitched upwards with alarm.

"We need to get away from here,"

He murmured to me. He turned and padded over to a tree where my silver bow was lying, and picked it up with his mouth and ran back to me. I gently took the bow out of his mouth.

"Follow me," he said.

We didn't get far though because I tripped over a branch that was lying on the ground, and I fell face first into the snow. I was about to get up but I instantly stopped when I heard a voice from behind the trees. My eyes met Myrnin's eyes, and I felt my whole body tremble with fear.

"Oh little girl," a man's voice sang through the trees and it echoed in the air, "we have something for you.

Bunnymund

No one spoke after Jack dropped the cup, I don't think anyone knew what to say. All you could hear was the crackle of the fire and the clock work sounds of the toys that the Yeti's had made in the toy factory. Apart from that, there was just an eerie silence. I was leaning against a wooden table, polishing my boomerangs with a cloth that Sandy had given me, when I saw Tooth flying over to the smashed glass on the floor. Baby Tooth and the other mini fairies followed her. Tooth flew down to the ground and knelt on her knees, looking at the mess with an upset expression on her face. She let out a sad sigh and started picking the pieces of glass up. I hopped over to her and said,

"Whoa, careful. You might cut yourself,"

I carefully removed the sharp pieces of glass from the palm of her tiny hand, and wrapped them up in the cloth I was using before. Tooth looked up at me and smiled. I smiled back and carried on picking up the pieces of glass.

"You don't have to do that," she told me softly.

"I don't mind," I said back to her. She gave me a curious look, so I added, "honestly."

She nodded her head slowly,

"I'll clean up the eggnog," she said, and flew over to get some tissues.

I got back up and poured the pieces of glass out of the cloth into the bin under a table. Tooth knelt back down on the ground and started wiping up the eggnog off the floor. I was about to go back over to help her, but I stopped as I saw Jack sitting on the floor in front of the grand fireplace, cradling his staff in his arms. I felt sorry for the poor lad. I was just about to go and ask him how he was, but there was no time. North came storming in. His footsteps sounded like thunder. Everyone, including me, jumped and looked up at him.

"We have serious situation!" He bellowed, sounding extremely stressed, "Pitch's minions have encountered Billie."

Billie

"Get down," Myrnin whispered quietly. I army rolled over behind a thorn bush and lay down on my stomach, gripping my bow tightly in my right hand. Myrnin jumped over the bush too, and landed silently next to me.

"Don't make a sound," he murmured to me.

I nodded. Myrnin quickly covered my mouth when we both heard the voices again.

"They're here," Myrnin whispered very quietly, "don't make a sound."

I did as he said.

"Did we have to wear these masks, Draco?" A female voice groaned.

"Stop complaining, Darcy!" A male voice replied back, "you know we have to, stupid!"

"Hey! Don't call me stupid you-" the female voice shouted, but was interrupted by the male voice.

"Be quiet! The girl will hear you, and you know what will happen if Pitch finds out we've scared..."his voice trailed off meaning that I couldn't hear what he was saying.

I could feel myself trembling with fear, and I knew that Myrnin had noticed this as he gently put his fury paw over my hand and mouthed,

"Don't worry."

"Hey Darcy, can you smell that?" The male voice asked the female apparently called Darcy.

"Smell what?" Darcy questioned. I could hear the confusion in her voice.

"Fear," the male named Draco answered, "I can smell fear."

I heard Darcy gasp with excitement,

"You know what that means, Draco!" Darcy explained, "It means the girl is here! And she's afraid of us!" Darcy finished.

Draco chuckled,

"Looks like we've found her, sis."

I felt my eyes widen, and I could feel my heart racing. I started to panic. I started to panic really badly, and I felt like I was going to be sick. I started to take deep breaths, but it didn't help, and worse of all it didn't help calm me down. I gave Myrnin some sort of desperate look, but he mouthed,

"Shhh."

I shook my head and mouthed back,

"I can't."

Myrnin gritted his sharp teeth together. I could tell that he was getting angry and impatient.

"Sorry," I mouthed to him before standing up and surrendering,

"Yeah!" I shouted to them, "you've found me."

"No!" Myrnin hissed at me, "you fool!"

Standing in front of me was to people. They were both wearing what looked like animal masks. One of them had a panda mask on, and the other one had a dog mask on. They looked very strange though, as it looked like they were made out of black sand. The person with the dog mask was holding a scythe that looked like it was also made out of black sand, whereas the person with the panda mask wasn't holding anything. They both gasped in unison with one another.

"Billie Valentine!" The person with the panda mask cried. It was Darcy, meaning that the person with the dog mask was Draco.

"That's me," I said to them, trying to sound brave, but instead my voice sounded scared and vulnerable.

Draco, without hesitation, ran towards me. He was going to take me, I thought, I'm going to die. I closed my eyes and waited to be taken away, but then I heard sleigh bells ringing and a silvery voice shout,

"Look! It's Billie!"

I opened my eyes to find a sleigh in front of me, surrounded by a large man in red, a small sandy man, a grey rabbit and a fairy fighting off Draco and Darcy. But there was no sign of Myrnin. I was about to go and find him, but I was stopped in my tracks by a boy with snow white hair. He looked at me with a scared expression on his face. I was about to push him away, but I stopped as I felt the world spinning around me. I fainted and fell into his arms.

Jack

"Those people were Pitch's minions," North told us when we arrived back at the North Pole. They had gotten away before we could defeat them, but they had gotten away empty handed, which was a relief. I sat on the edge of a desk, holding Billie in both of my arms. The Billie that I used to know was dead. However, the Billie that I was holding right now wasn't. I didn't know if I should have been happy or sad. I looked up and saw Bunny sitting on a chair. His arm had a bandage around it because one of Pitch's minions had struck him, leaving a bloody wound on his upper arm. He saw me looking at his wound and said,

"Jack, I'm fine. It's Billie you should be worrying about, mate."

"I know," I replied, "and I am."

He smiled and nodded. I jumped with surprise though when I felt Billie moving in my arms. I looked down and looked at her face. Her eyes snapped open instantly. Her eyes were the colour of the moon. They were so bright! Her pupils looked like a cat's pupil, and this surprised me a lot. When she saw me looking at her, she yelped and jumped up. She nearly fell onto the floor, but I quickly grabbed her before she could. She took a step backwards and stared at me with a scared expression on her face. I was about to say that everything was okay, but I didn't have time to because Tooth came zooming in and engulfed Billie in a massive hug. Billie stumbled backed slightly, and pushed Tooth gently back at arm's length.

"Billie!" Tooth cried, ecstatically, "I'm so glad you're safe!"

Billie's face crumbled with confusion.

"How do you know my name?" she asked, with a slightly stressed tone.

Tooth bit her lip and didn't say anything. It was good timing when North came in through the big double doors.

"Ah, good! You're up!" North said, while rubbing his large hands together. Tooth let go of Billie when she saw her terrified face, "welcome to the North Pole, Miss Valentine!"

Billie took a large step back, and picked her silver bow off the table, "Who are you people?" she questioned.

"We are Guardians!" North replied.

"Guardians?" Billie asked, sounding very confused.

"That's us!" Tooth cheered happily, "We are the Guardians of childhood."

Billie rubbed the sides of her temples with her fingertips, "I don't understand a word you're saying."

North came forward and nudged Tooth out of the way.

"Okay, no more wishy-washy," North started, "I think it's best we introduce ourselves first. I'm-"

"Santa Clause!" Billie blurted.

North looked at Billie, surprised, but he gave her a grin, "call me North," he said back to her.

Billie looked at Tooth, "You must be the Tooth Fairy!"

Tooth smiled at the sound of her name, "That's me! Oh, but just call me Tooth, it's easier that way."

Billie smiled and nodded. She turned to face Sandy, "The Sandman?"

Sandy flew into the air and put both of his thumbs up.

"You must be the Easter Bunny!" Billie asked Bunny, who looked up at the sound of his name. He nodded.

"The names Bunnymund, and thanks for not calling me a kangaroo," he gave me a sarcastic smile when he said that. Billie laughed, and finally turned around to face me. I wondered whether she would remember me, I hoped she did.

"I'm Jack," I told her, "Jack Frost."

I saw her eyes widen, and I thought that maybe, just maybe she remembered me slightly, but I figured that she didn't have a clue who I was.

She nodded slowly before saying,

"Thanks for saving me."

"What?" I asked her.

"You saved me," she replied, "from Draco and Darcy."

A cold shiver went down my spine. I had never saved her. Well, maybe from Pitch's new minions, but not from the vehicle that crushed her.

"You OK?" She asked me.

"Yeah," I said. I knew that I hadn't convinced her into thinking I was okay, but she didn't say anything else about it.

"Now," North began, "I think it's best we tell you what we do-"

"STOP!" Billie shouted, "Where's Myrnin?!"

"Who? "Bunny questioned.

"Myrnin! He's a fox!" Billie cried, "where is he?!"

Tooth's face dropped from happy to sad. Bunny slumped slowly back in his seat. Sandy sadly flew back down onto the ground and North looked down at his boots with an upset expression on his face. Billie saw everyone's sad actions and expressions, and turned around to face me. I clenched my staff tightly in my hand and said,

"Myrnin's dead, Billie."

What did you think? :D I hope you guys liked this chapter. I know I said I would get this out at Easter, but at least it's here! This is quite a long one even though there are only 4-5 paragraphs in it, oh well haha. This chapter was really hard for me to write. I was really unmotivated for a while because I didn't know how I was going to word it and what not, but I'm really glad that I got it finished! ROTG came out on DVD over here in the UK on the 25th March, and guess what? I GOT IT! WOOP WOOP! Okay, enough with my fangirling haha, anyways I hope Bunny gave you guys lots of eggs for Easter heh. Have a good day! And sorry for any typos and errors! Bye! x