Chapter seven

Falling. That's all he felt. Relaxation. An escape. Plummeting towards…

Death?

What was he thinking?

Screams ripped themselves from Jack's throat. Dawning on him that he had driven himself to suicide without thinking about the consequences.

Idiot. What am I doing? I didn't even give myself a chance to turn things around! He screamed to himself in his mind, remembering what had happened back on the sleigh.

Fortunately, the fall wasn't long. Jack fell on a soft snowdrift as he mentally punished himself for his choice.

I should have apologized. Why can I be so stupid? Now they'll never forgive me. First I offended them. Now I try to leave them without a second thought?! They probably already hate me! Oh gosh, what would the children think? How would kids like Jamie cope without me? What if Pitch gets control? WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?

"Jack!"

The winter spirit looked over his shoulder to see a human-hummingbird hybrid flying towards him, followed by three other silhouettes darkened by the blizzard.

No. They'll hate me for this! I can't see them now! I have to get out of here!

After digging in the snow for a moment, he found his staff. Tooth had gotten to him by then and quickly grasped his shoulders from behind, startling Jack. He turned halfway round and shot out aimlessly, wondering what he'd hit. He saw tooth lying feet away seconds later, and his eyes widened in realization.

"JACK! WHAT THE HELL-"

A quick glance in the direction of the Australian voice and Jack ran. It didn't matter where, as long as the sleigh was out of sight he was safe. He sprinted for god knows how long, even trying to fly at some point, but his head was spinning so hard that he knew there was no point. Finally stopping to catch his breath, he became aware of someone behind him. He clutched his staff tightly, but only seconds later did the strange feeling go away. Shaking his head, he charged to run and doubled over when he cut his foot on a shard of ice. Bending to examine it, the worst sight met his blue eyes,

Swirls of dark sand mixed in streams of crimson.

Jack's breathing hitched. His pupils shrunk until there was only a small dot left. He could feel his heart throbbing in his chest and the sound flooded his eardrums. It was the only thing that he was aware of until something hit the side of his head and knocked him to the ground.

When he opened his eyes, everything was a blur and he couldn't move. Through mass spirals of gold he could see faint silhouettes; three tall figures huddled around a dwarf-like shadow, all yelling or gesturing to each other. He blinked away drowsiness until he gave up and calming darkness enveloped him.

(Yes he's been knocked out again. I'm sorry, i'll try not to make it happen much anymore.)

Light. Bright lights. They danced across his vision and messed with his mind. He groaned a couple of times before he realized it was all one. Then it was color. Patterns. A ceiling. When Jack came to his senses he became aware of his surroundings. The wall and floor patterns were festive, red and green, complete with matching rugs. This was clearly the north pole, the workshop particularly. He was lying on a simple white bed, nothing alarming, until Jack notice his staff was missing. He began to panic. He tried to sit up, only to realize that his wrists were strapped down to the bed, immobilizing him. Thankfully his ankles weren't restrained either, but someone had stitched the cut on his foot, which set him on red alert. He struggled, eyes landing on a figure who had just cleared his throat. North was standing there, arms folded, with Sandy floating mid-air next to him, eyes half open and barely awake. Jack stopped struggling and looked back at North, who glared at him almost evilly. Jack looked away in response and stared down at the bonds.

"What did you do to me?" He asked quietly, glancing back.

"What I had to." North answered firmly. Jack winced at his tone.

"North," A voice shot back at him. Jack took his eyes off North and over to Tooth, who had just come through the door on the far side of the room. She floated over to him and began cutting away at the straps.

"He doesn't need these. You know that." She said as she went to the other side of the bed, glaring at the two. North huffed in response.

When the second strap was finally undone, Jack sat up. He looked Tooth in the eyes, begging through them for forgiveness. "Tooth, I- I didn't-"

He was stopped when Tooth wrapped her arms around him in an embrace. Jack sat there, shocked. He didn't know how to react. Wasn't she mad at him?

"Shh." She whispered. "Relax. You'll be okay."

"But the blizzard-"

"Calm down." She interrupted. "It's fine. I know you didn't mean to hurt me. "

"But the ice- it-"

"And we saw the blood."

"What? Oh, no…"

"Hey, hey." She silenced him again, pulling away but still grasping his shoulders. "We can sort this. None of this is your fault. We're not mad."

"THE HELL WE AREN'T! AFTER WHAT HE SAID, BY MANNY, TOOTH! YOU THINK WE'D BE MAD AFTER THIS?!"

When bunny burst through the doorway, Jack flinched. Tooth pulled him further into her arms as a defensive gesture. "It wasn't him. Believe me."

Sandy had awoken by then and floated towards Tooth and Jack in agreement.

"Wait…" Jack said, "What I said? Oh…" He remembered when he'd confessed back in the sleigh. "I didn't mean… I was just scared."

"No, Jack, it wasn't that." Tooth explained. "We'd already forgiven you mentally the moment you jumped out of that sleigh. What happened afterwards was not your doing."

"Afterwards?"

"Don't act like you don't know, you little-"

A slap sounded throughout the room, and everyone's eyes widened. Sandy walked away from the astonished bunny, dusting his hands off. Jack broke eye contact, confused.

'What the heck… Sandy?'

Tooth shook her head and continued. "Soon after Sandy knocked you out, the dreamsand blew away. We thought it had something to do with the sand in your blood, but…" She flinched as if remembering an unpleasant experience. "It was so weird. It's like, you weren't even dreaming, you talked with so much expression and meaning that we even considered you were awake, if it wasn't for your eyelids being closed we would have been convinced. When you stopped, North almost swore he would never let you speak again."

' Wait, so, I was sleep talking? I didn't even remember dreaming… I don't even remember Pit- him. Oh boy, what did I- it must have been bad… if it was the thing that made North and Bunny so timid?'

"What did I say?" He simply asked, trying to hide his worry.

"Yes, Tooth. Tell Jackson what he said." North sneered. Jack cringed at his full name.

Tooth released Jack and looked into his eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but sighed sadly and looked away. "I can't tell you here." She said. "Come with me. I'll take you back to my palace. The trip to asia takes a while from here, but flying will get us there reasonably fast. Unless-"

"You can forget asking me for a globe." North delayed her efforts.

Tooth nodded without looking. "Come on. I know where your staff is. Sandy, you want to come?" She looked over at him, as he smiled shook his head no. She gestured Jack to follow her out the door, when someone muttered "coward" under their breath. Tooth gasped slightly, but after a pause she held her head higher, changing her facial expression to a strong one. "Come on," She ordered without looking back. Jack took one look behind him fearfully before obeying, worried that one of the guardians would charge forward and strangle him.

'I need to man up. Actually, screw it. I can't grow up. I just need to be strong.'

After coaxing the Yeti's to unlock Jack's staff, (they gladly obeyed, not knowing about Jack's 'confession' yet) and opening the door did Tooth talk to Jack again.

"Do you think you can still fly?" She asked him.

He nodded, grasping his staff tightly and dreading what was coming.

So, yeah. Long chapter, 'cause I know you deserve it, but I can't tell if it sucks. I'm still just a kid. Like Jack. Always a kid. Huh…

I didn't originally plan the emotional change in the guardian's behavior, but it came to me and I thought it'd be cool to create some more tension, because, face it, there's not much plot… yet.

Also, about asia… according to dreamworks wiki's Toothiana's palace was set in southeast asia, but i'm not sure where. I think I read somewhere else that it was in Korea in particular, but i'm not so sure.

Anyways, that's the setting for the next chapter! Be prepared, it could be sad.

Please share, favourite or follow this story, It really helps and I'd really like this story to be a bit more popular. *call me selfish*

Thanks.