I hope everyone's read the other stories connected to this, Especially 'A blackened memory' because If ya didn't this will not make sense :D
Anyway thanks for being patient and I hope you like the next chapter. Sorry about the lack of action to come :(
Reviews appreciated.
Chapter 15: Candle that goes out, Leaves that grow out
The forest was closing in on him, tightening ever-so slightly each time he managed to push through the sharp branches and prickling, dry leaves. Black silhouettes of trees spiralled in a daze around him; the grey between them that was the sky darkened like burnt ash.
But on he pressed like a half-conscious solider; wounded and tired but still trying to move on. He had given on finding out what it was he searched for. He just blindly climbed through the squeezing trunks and winding bases that curled around him like brambles.
Curious, mortals are.
Mortal? No, Jo thought, as he pulled himself through more branches, batting them aside slowly, as his whole body was made of sludge.
One's mind can never become immortal. Not really.
Jo didn't pay much attention to the voice. He kept going. Vaguely, other thoughts prodded at him like the branches and twigs catching onto his clothes, but he couldn't face them. He batted them away.
He did not want to believe that they where there.
"Joseph."
He froze. The light seemed to brighten; but not like the sun. More like sharpened. He turned his head upwards and listened again.
The voice came calling again, and he tore through the compressed area of bramble-like branches, and found himself on a trail- an open space. He ran through it; black lining of trees flying by him in a dizzying manner. He ducked under branches; the forest floor, black as ink, becoming colder under his skin. He shivered and came to a halt; in a clearing. Before him lay an even more tangled landscape of trees; like a horrible twisted thorn bush.
"Ja-ack!"
He turned slowly, in a circle in the circular clearing.
"Joseph..."
"Ja-ack!"
More voices rippled; echoes overlapping each other; blurred. Some things he recognised, others he did not.
"Jack, I'm scared..."
"Daddy...Daddy, they've got me..."
Jo's chest tightened at the frightened voice. His mind was blurry and dizzy; he felt bewildered yet alert. Something in his screamed for him to find the voice, find it and rescue her...
"Daaa-dy..."
This, the voice suited none of the others. Not calling, not frightened, not warm and playful. It was mocking, bitter...and...
He turned around slowly. A cold breeze rushed past him and the clearing stretched beneath his feet. Meters away or perhaps more, there she stood.
The girl that may have been ducky; with her dark blue feathers; black dress and darkened head feathers; bare face as pale as his and eyes as yellow and sharp as a fearlings. Head bent, staring upwards through dark, knowing, hostile irises. Her black dress seemed more ragged; black dust-like wings gone from her back. She stared darkly at him; pursing her lips just a little. Her voice was simple, but low.
"Do you like my forest, Jo?"
The candle Tooth placed on the markings did nothing to warm her. In the shadows of the North Pole; surrounded by her friends and their workers, she knelt beside the plate in the ground where the Sandman's image stood; Silent and calm, golden sand raising off his palms. Bunnymund's candle joined hers as he knelt beside her; then North's, then the yeti's. Not a word was said.
Above in the rafters, hidden in the shadows, Jack Frost watched them with his hood up; staff in hand, face blank as the ice he spread.
Tooth's head lowered and she felt Bunnymund's hand in hers, and North's as well. But it did nothing to quench the ache she felt deep inside her...and she doubted it did for any of them.
Jack left quietly.
Jo was gone; by the looks of things Pitch had taken him...or more likely, he'd disappeared into the darkness, too. Jack vaguely recalled hearing that Hal yelling that he hadn't seen him and that he'd go searching for him.
I must have imaged seeing him fall from the sky. It might not even have been him...
He felt...numb. Never in any of his years did he feel something like this.
One thing was for certain, though. He'd never forget Sandman's face.
Jack found a small corner somewhere in the base-like Pole; staring through the glass at the dunes of snow below. The sun was hiding behind the clouds.
The memories don't really seem worth it now. I just...
He rubbed his forehead, screwing his eyes shut. Sandman was gone. Jo was, probably...gone, too. He hadn't known the two of them that well...but if he had just been a little quicker...
"Are you alright?"
The accented voice of North ran out behind him as he touched the glass. Appearing on the smooth surface came frosty figures of Sandman and Jo.
"I just...wish I could have done more, you know." His head rested against the cool glass.
"Done something? Jack...you stood up to Pitch. North moved around to lean against the wall with a shake of his head; red, usually overly jolly face taking on a comforting look, "You saved us..."
Jack was quiet. North titled his head as the silence drew on.
"He would have been proud of what you did."
Jack stared on though the glass, and cold, empty feeling in his chest and stomach. Something nibbled painfully at him. It would not leave him alone- like a quilt you cannot get rid of.
"He needed me."
North looked up at Jack in surprise. He cocked his head to the side again, and reached a hand over to lay on the boy's small shoulder. "Who, Jack?"
"Jo. He needed me..."
The snowy youth's voice became little more than a husky at those words. North straightened up and sighed deeply, eyes closed, as if thinking over what to say.
Then, those blue eyes opened and he lifted Jack's chin up with a large, strong finger. Gently, he said:
"That is why you are Guardian. It does not matter who you were in past. What matters now is who you are now. And you are Guardian."
Jack stared at him; eyes unmoving. Then, he slid down his hood and turned away, hands in his pockets. "How can I know who I am if I dunno who I was? and besides..."
He glanced over his shoulder at North, "Two Guardians are already gone because..." He sighed and raised his hand to his forehead again.
"You will see, Jack. I feel it."
Jack, despite the circumstances, couldn't help but feel a small upward tug at his lips as he turned to look at North.
North tapped his stomach. "...In my belly!"
Bunnymund's skidding feet alerted them back to the seriousness of the situation. He appeared around the corner, frowning. "Betta come look."
"Look at how fast they're going out."
The lights flickering out on the globe were distressing enough- but Tooth and Jack could not help but feel the same way about how they reminded them so of the last light of Sandy's that went out mere hours ago. Jack's lips twisted as he tried to think of something else.
Jack raised into the air and hovered upwards. Everything that was light and cheerful on the globe was ebbing away.
"He's tipped the balance." Tooth murmured below. North's grave face nodded in agreement.
"The one rule between light and dark. And he's disobeyed it..."
Bunnymund strode forward; a small smile playing about on furred lips. "Buck up, sad sacks."
The three looked at him in surprised. The now smirking pooka hopped onto the control panel and turned to face them, "We can still turn this around...Easter...is Tomorrow."
Something leaped in Jack's chest at the sound of it, but it instantly melted away when he thought of something.
"An' a need your help. I say we pull out all the stocks and get those little lights flickering again-"
Tooth seemed to have read Jack's mind. "But Bunny...there's still alot of snow left..." Bunnymund glanced sourly at Jack when this remark came about. He was almost about to apologise- but then, slowly, like an avalanche, a smirk spread across his face.
"This ain't funny, you."
"Oh, no, no, no." Jack lifted up his hands in mock surrender, "I just may know a guy...that will make everything nice and spring-y for ya."
As if on cue, Ayver hopped up onto the control panel beside Bunnymund. The much bigger rabbit-like creature rose a brow at him. He smiled nervously in return.
Ayver's larger form hadn't been in use for a long while.
The snow-covered landscape of spring-time America flew by him as he ran along like a gust of wind; green cloak flying backwards. He jumped into the air and landed on a flying river of green sparks; and as fast as he could, he began tossing out green sparkles everywhere he went.
As he brushed over the land like a painter; the cold, frosty snow melted away as if the sun had burned brighter than ever. The grey skies began to part as the pooka-like form of the Spring Spirit leaped though the air, spinning once and brewing up a mild spring breeze that shook icicles from branches.
Jack stood beside Bunnymund in the North Pole, arms crossed as they watched the image in the crystal, the once used to seek himself out earlier. He gave the pooka a smug look.
"Told ya Ayvie would get the job done." North nodded in acknowledgment, looking impressed.
"Aaaan he is?" Bunnymund gave Jack a slightly suspicious look. Jack shrugged, trying to hide the spark of anger appearing on his face.
"Not that he'd be important like you guys." He muttered, "He's just the bringer of the Spring, guy you makes your season for ya, Bunny."
Bunnymund crossed his arms stubbornly, not willing to give up on a glare of his own, "Neva' heard o' 'im."
This was mostly said to spite Jack, but the words felt a little emptier. Jack hid a smirk.
Maybe the big-shots needed to get to know about the little guys a bit better. When he was a full Guardian, he'd make sure they were all...
Wait. Since when did I say I was gonna be a full Guardian...?
Miles away, Ayver ran across the city Jamie lived in slow, long steps, every time his large foot tapped the ground it sent ripples of leaves and little budded flowers into the open air.
Jamie Stared out of his window in awe, the night moon glinting off the dew appearing on the grass. His mouth fell open in wonder as the snow melted away and the grass grew before his eyes.
"Wow...wonder who does that..." He whispered.
Bunnies be badass.