Update! :D Hi my dear readers. This chapter has a warning! You might cry, just warning you. :P So... *hands out boxes of tissues* just in case. XD Enjoy Chapter 8: Battle and Loss!
It had took Bunny almost two hours before he finally caught Jack. Grabbing him by the scruff of his black hoodie he pulled him off the ground to where they were face to face.
"Got ya, mate." Grinning in victory Bunny set Jack back down.
Jack just pouted slightly then huffed. "Only because I ran down my sugar high, you're still slow Kangaroo."
"What ever helps you fly, Frostbite." Bunny snorts. "So I still have an hour or so to waste, what do you want to do now?"
Jack looked surprised. "You really want to spend the rest of your rest time with me?"
Bunny gave him a confused look. "Sure, why not mate?"
Jack looked down, suddenly finding the ground interesting. "Well by what I've heard your normally really busy and like to spend your rest time sleeping or something. If you are tired or something it's ok, I could find something else to do."
Bunny sighed and sat on his hunches. "Mate, if this is because of '68 I already told ya that we treated ya wrong for that. Now why don't we get out of the gloom and doom and have more fun?"
Jack looked up and grinned, which made Bunny smile back. "Oh want to play elves-bowling?!"
Bunny raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"
Jack's grin turned mischievous. "What we do is find: some elves, a bowling ball, and an empty hallway. I can do the rest."
A few minutes later Jack and Bunny had a small crowd of yetis and elves watching them as they played.
"I'm two points ahead Bunny, you better hurry or I'll win." Jack laughs as his fiddles with his staff.
Bunny rolled his eyes as he got his ball ready. "You're going to eat your words, mate, just you wait."
Jack was about to retort but a sudden blaring sound made him and the rest in the hall jump.
"What's happening?!" Jack cries as he looked around, the yetis seemed to know as they all ran out with the elves following them.
"I'm not sure yet, mate, come on!" Bunny was frowning as he brought out his boomerangs and took off down the hallway after the yetis.
Jack ran after him, his staff held tightly in his hands. Soon they made it back to the Guardian Hall to see North, Tooth and Sandy already there looking worried. As soon as Bunny and Jack came into view they sighed in relief.
"Mates! What's going on, what's with the horn its making my ears ring!" Bunny exclaims.
North looked at Jack briefly then turned back to the others. "Pitch is here, I do not know where but he is here. We must hide Jack until we either catch him or make him retreat."
Tooth and Sandy gasped, though Sandy's was silent, and looked over at Jack worriedly. "But where will we hide him? Pitch can get almost anywhere!"
"We have to try." Bunny says firmly. "I'll take him to the top of the workshop, Pitch might not look there."
Before Jack could even try to comply or protest Bunny pulled him onto his back and started down the hallways.
"What about the others, Bunny?!" Jack asks worriedly as he looked over his shoulder. When he looked he could have swore he saw a shadow down the hall move but he shook it off.
"They will be fine, it's you we need to worry about Frostbite." Bunny says not even looking at him as they took a small sharp turn to a different hall that looked completely like the others.
Jack would have been lost easily in this place, he was glad Bunny seemed to know where he was going. Soon they were going up stairs and Jack had to hold Bunny's strap in a death grip to keep from falling off.
After four flights of stairs Bunny was huffing slightly, not that much but enough to be heard. Jack hopped off his back and before Bunny could say anything Jack held up his hand.
"You need a rest.' He says like a scolding parent. 'We can start again after you have."
Bunny nodded begrudgingly and they stood there for a minute or two. Jack looked down the stairs worriedly when he heard fighting.
"They will be fine, but we still need to get you somewhere safe." Bunny says.
"Why?' Jack frowns. 'I can help!"
"No, mate.' Bunny shakes his head. 'The whole reason they are fighting is to keep you out of Pitch's grubby hands. If you're caught while fighting everything would have been pointless."
Jack sighed. He wanted to help, but he knew it was true. Plus he promised Dad he would be careful. "Fine."
Jack moved back on to Bunny's back and they raced up the rest of the stairs. When they got to a attic door Bunny told him to stay in side till one of them came to get him.
Bunny hopped over the rail and disappeared from his sight. Sighing again the 10 year old looked up and pulled down the cord.
Climbing up the stairs he walked into the attic room. It was only slightly dusty, the furniture was the same as the rest of the rooms the only difference between this room and the other was it had no windows. Jack sat on a chair and tried to zone out the sounds of battle below him.
Jack was suddenly awaken from his dozing when something hit against the ground right under the attic door. He quickly stood up, and holding his staff at the ready, moved over to the door.
"Bunny?' He asks. "Tooth? Is that you? Sandy? North?!"
Nothing replied, he could still hear the fighting. Maybe it was just that?
Without warning something throw the door open and charged into the room. Jack yelped as he tripped over his own feet trying to get back. Jack looked up to see the face of a black horse with bright golden eyes inches from his own.
"Uhhh." He says, trying to reach for his staff a foot away. "Good horse-y?"
It watched him silently, it flicked its head back and forth a few times. Just as Jack closed his hand around his staff the horse tried to jump on him.
He gasped and rolled away, but not without getting a cut on the cheek where its hoof had almost caved his face in. He stumbled to his feet and shot a blast of ice at it. I moved to the side and seemed to try to bite him but he danced away.
"Bad horse!' Jack cries out as it took a small chunk of his shirt. 'I am not horse food!"
It snorted and Jack chose it was a good time to get out of there. He bolted away and jumped down the hole, not bothering to even try to use the stairs, just as the horse pushed its head through. He blasted it with ice again and without time to dodge it was turned into a horse-icicle.
Sighing in relief Jack looked around. Great. What now?
Sigh turning into a groan Jack looked around for somewhere to hide. Jack looked down the stairs quickly to see a elf about to be stepped on by another black horse.
"Hey!' He shouts making the horse turn. 'Leave the elf alone."
Jack thrusted out his staff and froze the horse. The elf quickly ran over to him and hided behind his leg, he bent down and picked it up. It was looking around fearfully and tried to hide in Jack's hood.
Setting it in his hood so it could hide Jack looked for any others that might need help. Completely forgetting that he was so post to be hiding him self he glided down the stairs to where a dark gray yeti was fighting off two more horses. He blasted one just as the yeti smashed the other. It nodded with a grunt, but began pushing him towards a door.
"No.' Jack says as he dug his heels into the floor. 'I am helping!"
The yeti tried a few more times to try to push Jack in but he held tightly to the door frame. Finally it throw up its hand and stormed away to a different area more then likely to fight some more of the demon horses.
Jack, with the elf still in his hood, went a different way. Jack started freezing every horse he saw, he got a few more scratches but nothing as bad as the cut on his cheek.
After what felt like hours he finally made it to the Guardian Hall and it looked like a disaster area. Every was destroyed or turned over and brightly colored.
Tooth was flying around killing horses with her fists and sharp wings, Bunny was throwing his boomerangs and exploding eggs. Sandy was using whips and every time he got a horse it would turn golden and attack another horse. North was slashing away at any horse that was brave, or stupid, enough to come near him.
Jack blasted a few that had been behind Bunny. "Watch your back, Kangaroo!"
"Jack!' Tooth cried as she stopped suddenly in front of him. "What are you doing here?!"
"One of the demon horses ran me out of my room, so I thought I might come help." Jack says as he blasts a few more horses.
A chilly air went through the room. Jack smiled brightly while the others shivered.
"Why are you happy, mate?" Bunny asks as one of his boomerangs comes back.
"I would know that chill any where." Jack says excitedly.
Frost began to grow from the ceiling to the floor and onto the horses, some tried to run away but they were frozen before they could even put down their first hoof.
"Dad!" Jack shouts happily as Johnston came in through a window.
"Hello Jack." Dad says as he hugs Jack tightly.
Letting go the two helped even the odds as the took out the remaining horses.
Soon there was only a handful left and Jack and Bunny easily turned them to shattered ice chunks.
"Some iz not right.' North blurted out, making the others look at him questioningly. 'This was far to simple. Pitch did not even go near Jack, and I know he had been here."
Dad frowned. "I flew around the workshop before coming in, I didn't see him."
"He more then likely ran off like the coward he is, mates." Bunny scoffs.
Sandy just shrugged.
"I-' Dad began to say but he was cut off by a sudden whoosh! sound.
Dad stood completely stiff, making Jack frown. "Dad? Dad, you ok?"
Dad turned slightly and the Guardians, and Jack, gasped. In his back was a black arrow, darkness seemed to be spreading from it.
"Dad!" Jack cried as Johnston fell to his knees.
Bunny hopped forward to hold him up as he pulled a small aid kit from is strap pocket. "Whoa, mate, easy."
After a few minutes Bunny was looking frustrated. "
I can't find the bloody wound!"
Jack moved forward and shook his dad's arm. "Dad? Dad open your eyes."
Johnston opened them slightly and looked at Jack sadly. "I'm sorry Jack."
Jack shook his head, tears starting to come to his eyes. "No. No don't be sorry. You'll be ok, Bunny will help you."
Johnston shook his head slightly. "No. He can't. Pitch's arrows are untreatable."
"No!' Jack cries. "No that's not true! Bunny will fix you, then we'll beat Pitch. Then we can go home, you're not leaving me! You're not leave Schnee, Moroz or Glace! You're not leaving us!"
"I'm sorry, Jack.' Johnston says as if he hadn't heard him. 'Tell them I'm sorry. Tell Glace to be strong and to watch over you, Moroz and Schnee."
Jack hiccupped as tears ran down his cheeks, stinging his cut. He turned to Bunny. "Please fix him, Bunny, please!"
Bunny lowered to his hunches as his ears folded back. "I'm sorry, mate, but he's right. There is nothing I can do. There is no wound to treat."
"North,' Johnston says as North kneels in front of him. 'promise you and the other Guardians will watch over Jack. Promise me."
North looked like he wanted to cry but was holding together for the others. "I promise Johnston, we all promise."
Johnston smiled weakly. "Thanks you."
Just as Jack lunged forward to hug him, Johnston turned into a small flurry of snow that was blown away by a sudden wind.
"NO!" Jack screamed as he tried to grab some of the snow, but it only slipped through his fingers. "Co-come back! Dad! D-dad come ba-back!"
Jack curled into a ball on the ground as he cried. The Guardians stood silently and somberly behind him. Tooth and Sandy had small tears running down their faces, Bunny still sat on his hunches with his ears folded back as he looked at Jack sadly. North's normally bright eyes were dulled as he watched the weeping child.
Bunny moved forward and rubbed his nose around in Jack's hair. "Hey, mate, come on. It's ok, we're here and we're going to get back at Pitch for this. Trust me."
Jack jumped up, making Bunny stumble back slightly and held his staff to his chest. His breath was hitched, his eyes red as tear fell from them. "No! You should have saved him! You let him die!"
Bunny frowned. "Look mate I know you're upset right now, but I couldn't help him because there was nothing I could do."
"No.' Jack hisses. "You didn't care! You let him die! It's all your fault! I hate you! I hate all of you, leave me alone!"
With that Jack quickly shot out of the window and flew away as fast as he could. Not one did he listen to the Guardians' pleading shouts to come back, or see the shadow hiding outside the window its golden eyes glowing with twisted humor.
R&R! Ta.
GWDG