Disclaimer: I own nothing except Sídhe. Everything else belongs to DreamWorks.
Soundtrack: Spring Nichts by Tokio Hotel, Lonesome Heaven by Clandestine, Can't be saved by Senses Fail and a few Bunnymund tributes
Australian slang in no particular order:
Show pony : someone who tries hard, by his dress or behavior, to impress those around him
Yobbo : an uncouth person
Too right! : definitely
Sheila : a woman
Nut out : hammer out or work out (an agreement, say)
No-hoper : somebody who'll never do well
Fair go : a chance ("give a bloke a fair go")
Earbashing : nagging, non-stop chatter
Within a cooee: nearby ("I was within cooee of landing a big fish when the line broke." "He lives within cooee of Sydney.")
Make a blue: make a mistake
Ankle biter : small child
Whinger = Someone who constantly complains.
Then: World View
The Guardians watched as two of their group flew away on the wind. Minutes ticked by without their notice as they watched their youngest members disappear beyond the horizon. It was North who pull himself together first when the wind returned and began pulling him back to the workshop.
"I must leave. Bunny, take care of things," his Russian accent flared with minor annoyance as he let the wind take him to the sleigh.
"Too right, mate," Bunnymund yelled after him.
Now: Bunnymund
I shook my fur out in an attempt to think clearly. That bloody show pony had a lot to answer for once he and the little sheila came back. Tooth was flitting around Kozmotis like a love-struck ankle biter. Sandy, at least, kept his composure. He was "talking" through his sand. Snowflakes, question marks, butterflies and more popped in and out of existence over his head. I kept my distance from them. After the fight ten years ago, I didn't want to be within ten clicks of that man ever again, even if he had changed.
"Hey, rabbit," Kozmotis' voice broke my train of thought, "Grey hound got your tongue?"
"No, ya yobbo," I snapped back.
This no-hoper was starting to get under my fur. I walked up to the others, getting in his face. The fury that I'd felt over him breaking my eggs on Easter all those years ago raged in my heart.
"You're lucky the little sheila was the one who brought you here," I glared at him while the fur on my shoulders bristled, "I'll give you a fair go and try to nut out something until they get back, but if you put one toe out of line-"
"Bunny!" Toothiana cut me off, "That's enough. Let's go inside."
I rolled my eyes and backed off. It felt like we were making a blue. Still, there wasn't much I could do about it at the moment. Tooth led Kozmotis into the workshop. Several yetis stopped to glare at him and one of them, Phil, started squalling in yetish at him. I had no idea what the bloke was saying, but it sounded like he was giving Kozmotis a good ear bashing.Phil looked to us for an explanation. Tooth ended up telling the yeti everything that we'd just learned, except the truth about Jack. She knew as well as I did that Phil cared about Jack more than anything, even the toys he spent his life building. It didn't make me feel any less horrid for the whinger.
Now: World view
Phil led the Guardians and Kozmotis to the kitchen. The elves showed up shortly after with plates of cookies and mugs of hot chocolate.
"I don't understand something, Kozmotis," said Toothiana after a moment, "Why were you following Jack?"
It took a while for the former Nightmare King to reply. A myriad of emotions flitted across his pale face; fear, uncertainty and a slight annoyance that was directed at the yeti who was staring murderously at him.
"I wanted to talk to him," Kozmotis said, staring down into his mug.
"What for?" Bunnymund asked with a twinge of exasperation, "The show pony acts like he doesn't want to be within a cooee of ya."
Toothiana shot him a warning glance. Kozmotis sighed and shook his head at nothing in particular. He knew why Bunnymund was, for lack of a better word, upset with him. However, it didn't change one crucial detail.
"Because he was the only one of you that understood or so I thought," Kozmotis spoke quietly, "The Guardians ignored him for roughly three hundred years. Your little wind spirit was known to you, but she stayed with him… even though he did not believe in her. In the cave, I felt her fears from so long ago. She was terrified that he would never see her; that he would never understand. Now, I dare to hope," he stared pointedly at Bunny, "that he can fathom how she mourned those years. Her empathy is what betrays her age."
The others fidgeted; none of them had a clue what to say. Sandy was the only one kept his cool and continued to munch on his cookie. Above his tilted head, images of snow and the small symbol that had become Sídhe's trademark appeared. His eyes asked more than words ever could.
"I think he's trying to ask how you know so much about them," Toothiana said hesitantly.
Sandy nodded, then pick up another cookie. Kozmotis nearly laughed. He hadn't needed to be told, but he was certain the tooth fairy was feeling left out. After all, he knew that Baby Tooth was no longer a small fairy. The little one had been trained to direct the others since Toothiana had re-entered the field. And so, their mother was both free to do what she liked and lonely due to their absence.
"I watched their dreams and, more often than naught, Sídhe's nightmares. None of which," he added swiftly, "Were of my making. Her heart carries such fear. I've never seen anything like it. Did any of you know that she has asthma?"
Sandy and Phil nodded solemnly. They'd known since Jack had brought her to the workshop years ago after a fight with Pitch. Bunnymund scuffed the floor with his foot and stared at the table. He knew because he was the one that the wind spirit had asked to hold on to her spare inhaler. She still kept one with her all the time, but, in case she lost it, she'd trusted Bunny to be there if anything went wrong.
Toothiana went pale, "She does?"
"Sídhe is a great deal like Jack as well," Kozmotis murmured, "She's very good at hiding what scares or hurts her. She's afraid of dying from suffocation most of all; it's the main reason that she drown with Jack. She panicked and it led to an asthma attack."
The tooth fairy looked horribly faint in response to the news. Thinking back, she recalled the night that Jack had brought Sídhe to Santoff Claussen. The Guardian of memory was suddenly sucked into her own past.
Then: World View
It was several days before Christmas and Santoff Claussen was in a mad rush to complete everything on North's detailed check list. Phil, the head yeti, was a blur of brown fur as he ran about yelling at elves, directing the other yetis and trying to get the sleigh ready. In the midst of the chaos, Toothiana had arrived. She met a distressed North in his private workshop.
"Tooth, this had better be important," he greeted her hastily.
She flittered to the fireplace with a smile and chirped, "Of course it is. I wanted to know if you wanted us to bring food to the party or if the elves have it covered."
North stashed the List in its cubby hole and straightened his desk while he thought about her question. They were behind schedule in the worst way. On top of that, several of the elves had been stepped on by the rushing yetis. He trusted Phil to handle things in the time that the tooth fairy was there.
"Do as you see fit, Tooth," he said after a moment, "We may have to put elves in the kitchen to keep them from under boot. They-"
Phil burst through the door and said something in yetish that sounded very distressed.
"Are you certain of this?" North's face hardened from the obvious seriousness of the situation.
"Yarblagh," replied the sorrel yeti.
"Come, Tooth. Jack is headed this way," North said quickly, "They think something is wrong."
The Guardians almost left Phil in the dust as they made their way to just outside the main entrance. They didn't have to wait long before they felt the wind. It's near violent gusts told them just how quickly the wind was carrying Jack. North muttered something in Russian that Tooth didn't understand. Moments later, Jack landed a few feet from them. The tears that streaked down his face shimmered like ice crystals. He ran the last few feet and stopped in front of North.
"You've got to h-help her," he sniffled as tremors wracked his frail frame.
Shock rippled across the older Guardians faces as they looked down at the young spirit in his arms. North knew that the girl was none other than Sídhe; he and the yetis had made the dress and choker she was wearing. Toothiana hadn't the slightest clue who the spirit was, but the bloodied cuts in her dress were enough to frighten any Guardian. The girl was barely breathing and what she managed was little more than half-choked gasps. A deathly pallor was beginning to settle across her features from the sheer amount of blood that the young spirit had lost.
"Jack, follow me," North said as he tried to regain his composure.
The typically jolly spirit led Jack to the infirmary with a dazed tooth fairy in tow. The place was packed with elves in various casts and yetis in nurse frocks running about. North yelled in yetish, which got the attention of two yetis. They dropped what they were doing and ran over. One of them was nearly black. The other was a shade lighter than Phil. The lighter yeti started talking to North while the black one moved to take Sídhe from Jack. The winter spirit seemed hesitant, but let the yeti take her.
When the black yeti moved to take Sídhe to the ER section of the infirmary, Jack followed him. Several of the other attempted to stop him; one resorted to trying to grab Jack around the middle, but couldn't hold the squirming spirit.
Fresh tears flowed down his face, "Let me go!"
A mahogany yeti pinned Jack to the floor and tried to speak soothingly in yetish. It did little good, but the yeti wasn't about to let the boy up. It noticed that Jack's oppositions were diminishing.
"Lemme go," he sobbed, "I promised Sídhe…"
The rest of his sentence was lost to the dream sand that had hit Jack alone. Sandy had flow in the window moments earlier to help the yetis knock the elves out. He had been nothing less than alarmed when he found Jack surrounded by the furry beings and had knocked out the young spirit to help him from harming himself.
"Sandy," North sighed in relief, "Thank Man in the Moon that you are here."
Dozens of sand images flashed above the sandman's ending in an angry puff of gold erupted from his ears like steam. North had never seen the usually passive Guardian so aggressive.
"Sandy," Toothiana placed a hand on his shoulder, "Sídhe, was it? She was attacked. Jack didn't say who did it, but she was horribly hurt."
The tooth fairy flew over to Jack and carried him to an empty bed after the yetis had cleared the way. She helped care for the winter spirit had received while North talked to Sandy. A sorrel yeti helped her take Jack's hoodie off. The article of clothing was a strange shade of crimson, but once it was removed, Toothiana realized that it wasn't Jack's blood that stained it. The winter spirit had a few small cuts and several bruises. Nothing that was life threatening. As the tooth fairy tended to the boy, her worry for the spirit under the knife increased. Not many immortal spirits could survive such damage.
Now: World view
"Sheila, snap out of it," Bunnymund shook Toothiana's shoulder.
"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry," she smiled briefly.
Bunnymund rolled his eyes. They'd been talking for over half an hour before Sandy pointed out in his way that Toothiana wasn't paying attention. It took another ten minutes of poking, shaking and nearly yelling to get her to lose the glazed look in her eyes.
"What did I miss?" the tooth fairy asked.
Kozmotis looked at her with a worried expression, "Lost in thought, were you?"
Toothiana nodded. She was somewhat surprised at his concern.
"Regardless, we came to an agreement while you were… concerned with your memories," Kozmotis continued, "Bunnymund and Sanderson are in agreement that I should be given a "fair go" until the next full moon, which is in two weeks. Until then, I'm to remain here. Is that suitable to you?"
"I suppose so," Toothiana replied, "But it's North that we have to convince now."
Note:
I apologize for being gone so long. I've had a massive case of writers block and haven't been able to do anything with either of my stories. I'd like to give a shout out to the first person to submit a review. Thanks so very much! Until next time, guys (which shouldn't be too long)… be safe and be well.