Chapter 4 - Why?
"Forget it, Frostbite!"
"But-"
"Not gonna happen. There is NO WAY I am going NEAR that place!"
Jack sighed, tilting his head back to the sky for a moment before dropping it forward to face Bunny again, "look. I'm not asking you to come with me, I'm just asking you to get me there. Halloween's in three months and I wanna talk to her as soon as I can. If the book's accurate then she'll be waking up soon. I want answers you can't give me!" Bunny bristled at that,
"Well I might be if you'd ask 'em!"
"No, you can't!" Jack replied, exasperated, "North explained to me a long time ago how a person has different layers. How what you see on the outside isn't always going to be all there is to a person. And yeah, maybe at first I didn't understand, but I do now. You saw that book-she told stories about creatures she couldn't see for years, then, when she COULD see them, she was terrified. Why? Why did she know about them, tell other people about them, but still be afraid of them?
"I wanna see her and make my own mind up about her. I wanna know why Manny put a kid MY AGE in charge of an entire plane of existence. I wanna know what else there is to her. I wanna learn about where she came from, and about what this gate is. I don't just want this doubt over my head that North calling her dangerous, Tooth calling her terrifying and you calling her a ratbag, whatever that translates to, may not be true, but I'm just accepting it because it's what you're saying.
"Despite the blizzards I caused you still gave me a chance, so why don't you do the same for her? You even SAID you hadn't heard from her in over 500 years! What if she was sick, or hurt? All you know about her is that she made some mistakes in who she chose as friends. Everyone does! Then afterwards, you guys didn't even give her a chance at your friendship." Bunny was silent. Both during and after Jack's little speech. He sighed again, softly, lowering his head, "I don't want prejudice against her hanging over me. I wanna see her, talk to her and listen to her and make up my own mind about this little kid you guys seem to think is so dangerous. Because there's got to be more to her than trick and treats. That's not a bad thing to ask, is it?"
Now Bunny decided to wake up, "she ain't no kid, Jack. Like it says, she's an old girl no matter the body she's in. And look, the last time I went near her land I was trying to be friendly. All I tried to do was give her an egg... I was chased eight miles by hellhounds and werewolves! That Easter, I came home and she'd left so many rotten pumpkins in the Warren that even when I got rid of them the smell stayed for weeks!" Bunny glared at the sniggering Frost spirit, "laugh it up now, it took me months to get rid of the smell enough to spend more than ten minutes down there." To that, Jack burst out laughing, the image of Bunny with a clothes peg on his nose and cleaning supplies in his hands too entertaining not to laugh at! The rabbit was visibly getting angrier the more Jack laughed, until the smaller guardian eventually had his laughter under control. He would need to bear that in mind. Imagine filling someone's room with rotten pumpkins!
"Look, it's understandable. You don't wanna go. You've been tricked more times than you'd like. But that doesn't stop the fact that I'm going with no clue of where this 'land' of hers actually is." Personally Jack thought he was being reasonable. All he wanted was a tunnel to go alone to a potentially dangerous land with a potentially dangerous spirit in charge of a definitely dangerous army of supernatural creatures. Oh, who apparently kept werewolves as guard dogs. He wasn't even making the rabbit guardian come with him! Speaking of the rabbit guardian…
"Jack, it ain't just the jokes and pranks and tricks. Hell it ain't even the wolves if you get right down to it. That place ain't in the realms of the normal." Jack rolled his eyes,
"Tooth lives in a castle in the sky, North lives in a workshop run by yetis and you like in a meadow only accessible through a hole in the ground. None of your worlds are normal. Why should hers be different? Bunny, please listen to yourself. You saw the book, and Manny would bring her back unless there was something more to her. You're holding a grudge again! It's like the blizzard of '68 except with pumpkins!" Jack rose into the air, staring down at Bunny with an almost angry expression. Bunnymund met the expression with one of his own,
"You know what, fine. I'll take you there mate. But you're going in on your own. Then you'll see what I mean" turning and hopping away, he missed the triumphant grin on Jack Frost's face, and the bright light in his eyes. He had faced Pitch. He wasn't afraid.
Even if the others hated it, Jack loved travelling through Bunny's tunnels. They made fantastic sledding courses if you iced over the ground. More than once Jack has gotten on his furry friend's nerves by icing over the grounds of the tunnels to watch the eggs slipping and sliding during Easter. They were almost as fun to watch as the elves sometimes. And when the ice defrosted the tunnels got watered! Jack had once tried to explain how he was doing bunny a favour, but…
"Jack I swear you'd better stop icing my tunnels!" he still didn't appreciate it.
"Oh come on! Jealous I can go faster than you?" he turned back, grinning at the rabbit who was trying to avoid the icy patches he was slipping on. Bunny gave a smirk,
"Cheating ain't a good look for you Frostbite. Get rid of the ice and we'll see who's faster!" Jack grinned at him, turning back to continue his skating down the tunnel. Until a grey shape darted past him. Before Jack could blink, Bunny was off. Darting ahead of him and avoiding the ice to shoot through the tunnels, shouting back over his shoulder with a grin. "Gonna have to be quicker than that to keep up!"
The two were so caught up in their race, Jack almost missed when Bunny stopped in place. (Despite what Bunny says he did NOT slam into the wall at the end of the tunnel thank you!). He looked up, "we're here?" Bunny nodded, the ground above them opening up into darkness. Jack looked back at Bunny, "you're not coming?"
Bunny scoffed, "I told you mate, I'll get you here but you're on your own from there. You're welcome to make all the impressions you want about the kid but I ain't running from wolves again and I sure ain't gonna change my mind about her. Jack simply shrugged. So be it, if the bunny was scared. He would go alone. He jumped out of the tunnel gracefully, not even getting the chance to look around before Bunny called up to him, "and mate, this is the closest I could get a tunnel. So before you complain about the eight miles walking you're gonna have to do, know that it ain't my fault that anywhere past this point only Sandy's dream sand works. You're on your own here! And with that, the tunnel closed.
Jack was alone in this strange new world. And it was alone he would face the Hallowed Lady. No backing out now then.
Next chapter (currently writing) you'll get to see her world. this chapter isn't just a filler, it does actually give you small hints and bits of information for later on, which will all be explained. And one lovely reviewer asked if you'll get to see her play any tricks, well the answer is yes, and you are all welcome to suggest tricks you would like her to play on people.