The painted boomerang spun in a graceful arch, its greens, blues, and purples blurring together in flight. It curved precisely along the Warren wall and drew just near enough to clip a bough of violet blossoms from the stone before it was knocked off-course.
Jasmine caught the flowers in her woven basket in her weapon in the opposite paw, bouncing off the stone and returning to solid ground without ruffling a single blossom. Painfully pleased with herself, she sauntered back to the old jamcanda tree and presented the flowers to her sister, who sat just beyond the shade. "These the ones you wanted, Cor?"
Coralberry squealed, happily accepting the plant and cross-checking it with the illustrations in her recipe book. "Yes! This is perfect, just what I need. Thank you!"
"My pleasure." Jasmine shined her claws on her fur with a self-satisfied hm. "You know you can always count on your big sister to help you out."
Kaffir, crouched over the jamcanda's roots, rolled his eyes. Ever since her markings grew in two years before, Jaz had been unbearable. She claimed that the blue-and-white fern patterns marked her as the 'oldest' and the 'most mature,' but they didn't actually mean anything. She just wanted an excuse to boss them around.
Kaffir shifted his restless limbs, only remembering the staff he held when it paws slid over the aged wood. It felt so natural in his grip that he'd nearly forgotten. Stupid fur markings meant nothing compared to this. This, this was their dam's staff, and it hadn't just been given to Kaffir, it responded to him, calling to the ice inside like it'd been made just for him and he for it. And if he closed hi eyes he could almost imagine a familiar voice...
"Kaffir!" Jasmine shrieked. "What are you doing?! Stop it!"
He snapped open his eyes. A thick layer of ice spread around him in all directions, covering the jamcanda's trunk with frost-tendrils and the grass with frozen coats. The new chill in the air felt wonderful to him, but Coralberry had drawn away with an uncomfortable whimper while Jasmine angrily pounded her hind leg.
"You're making the ground too hard to plant and you're gonna kill Jamie, so stop it! I'll tell Dad!"
'Jamie' was her name for the jamcanda. Kaffir scowled at the implication that he'd kill a full-grown tree three times their age. He shook the frost out of his fur and kicked the trunk, knocking off ice that quickly melted as the Warren's natural heat returned. "I'm not killing it, I'm just watering."
"You were not," said Jas angrily. "You lost control again. I thought that -" she jabbed a paw at the staff. "- was supposed to make it so you didn't do that anymore."
Kaffir pulled the staff close defensively. "It will. It is. I'm just getting used to it, that's all."
"As if. You're just too much of a screw-up to use it right."
Kaffir bristled, but before he could tackle his obnoxious sister and make her take it back, Coalberry spoke up. "I wish Dammy were here."
Her siblings' fight ground to a stop. They stared at her. Coralberry shrugged. "He'd show you how to keep it under control. And I bet he'd teach you all sorts of neat tricks to do with it, too."
Jasmine and Kaffir fell quiet, their ears drooping in turn. Kaf didn't always see eye-to-eye with his sisters, but on this subject the three were united.
They weren't stupid. Though they'd never been told outright, they knew their dam – mommy, paper, other parent – was dead. If he wasn't, he would have been with them and Daddy wouldn't have been so sad the first time Kaffir made it snow. And even though they'd never met him, they never doubted that Dammy loved them just as much as Daddy did. But that didn't stop it all from hurting, and it didn't stop them from wanting to know.
Coralberry swept her front paws under her ears, trying to make them stand up, but they were still too long and heavy. They flopped back in her face. She pouted from between them and gave a soft sigh. "Do you think Daddy's really gonna tell the story today?"
"He said that he would," said Jasmine, with firm resolution.
"Yeah, but he always says that."
"Well, this time he means it. It's a birthday promise and you know how serious he is about – Kaffir, don't you lay a paw on those bulbs!"
Kaffir's hand stopped above Kasmine's basket, a few inches shy of the dozen paper-wrapped flower bulbs that covered the bottom. He scowled. "I was just –"
"'Just' nothing. Those aren't tulips, they don't need your help."
Kaffir's scowl deepened. All bulbs looked the same to him, how was he supposed to guess the difference between the ones that needed a good chill and the ones that didn't? Even when he tried to be helpful it wasn't enough for little miss bossy-butt.
Perhaps that was why he ran with the wicked idea when it came. Better to have Jaz angry and Coral laughing than both of them depressed, after all. He withdrew his hand, at first seeming to respond to Jasmine's order. Then he reached for the basket again, slower and more deliberately, making sure he sister could see.
"Kaffir no," she snapped immediately.
He inched a little closer.
"I'm warning you."
Almost there…
"Don't you touch them!"
"Fine," said Kaffir. "I won't."
He snatched the basket by the handle and took off on a two-legged run. Jasmine broke from Coral's side and gave chase, dropping to all fours right away. "You give those back!"
"Gotta catch me first!" Kaffir shook the basket tauntingly before tossing it up, grasping the handle between his teeth as he dropped to all fours and grasped Dam's staff with both hands.
With the wind carrying his every jump, Jasmine only managed to catch up again once Kaffir ducked into one of the hundreds of tunnels that branched from the Warren. Since it wasn't Easter, the passages all doubled-back into a twisting maze that eventually returned to the Warren, so Kaffir felt securing in rebounding off walls and taking corners with reckless abandon, even after he lost track of exactly where they were. Though muffled by the basket in his teeth, his laughter echoed through the tunnels, followed closely by Jasmine's threats to tell their father of his mischief.
Finally, she closed the gap enough to pounce him from behind, dragging him to the ground with her arms wrapped tight around his waist. Before she could even complete her victory cheer it turned into a yelp as ice sprayed from the staff, coating the tunnel with ice right down to the rocks beneath their feet. Coralberry – who'd abandoned her flowers and paint kit to make sure her siblings didn't hurt each other – couldn't stop before she hit them. The combined momentum sent all three kits careening over a sharp downhill slide at top speed, which only got faster as the ice spurred them on.
Jasmine screamed, now clinging to her brother for dear life. Kaffir laughed out loud, dropping the basket into his lap and throwing back his head with a whoop. It was just like riding North's sleigh at the Pole! Only it last much too short and they didn't fly at the end, they only hit solid earth and were sent tumbling over each other in a pile of limbs and fur.
Kaffir found himself on the bottom of the sibling pile, still laughing though the weight of his sisters made it tricky. Coralberry rolled off the top and bounced excitedly in place, tossing her ears back out of her eyes. "Again! Let's do it again!"
"No!" Jasmine shoved away next, shaking and keening in distress. "Nuh-uh, no way, I am never, ever, ever – aaah, Kaffir! My basket! My bulbs!"
The basket had been smushed on impact, its egg-shape now resembling a slightly wilted watermelon. Chuckling sheepishly, Kaffir offered it to Jasmine so she could re-collect its oh-so-precious cargo of bulbs, which lay scattered in the dirt around them.
While she hopped ever-more-furious circles to collect them all, Kaffir turned his eyes to their surroundings. They'd landed in a turn-around, a wider, circular bulge in the tunnel meant to enable just what the name implied. This one had been formed at the intersection between three tunnels, two level and one forming a sharp angle – that would be their entrance. None of it looked familiar. Kaffir squinted down the other two, trying to figure out where they led, but they were too dark. Normally, bioluminescent flowers lined the roof of the tunnels to guide their way, but here only a single tulip-shaped blossom grew. The rest was only mud, rocks, packed earth, and moss.
Coralberry sniffed the air, drawing close to her brother out of instinct to keep together. "Where are we?"
"Dunno," said Kaffir, wishing he'd thought to hang a light from Dam's staff as he turned a slow circle in the center of the nook. "Must be one of the older tunnels, the ones Dad doesn't use anymore."
Jasmine, having triple-checked her basket to make sure she'd gotten every last one of her bulbs, stopped her hopping and straightened to her hind legs only. "We shouldn't be here. Daddy wouldn't like it, he'll worry if he can't find us."
She drew herself up to her full height, standing taller than either of her siblings in an attempt to take command. She took a deep breath of the air from one tunnel, then the other, and pointed to the second. "I smell grass this way. It'll be the fastest way back. C'mon."
Coralberry nodded and hopped to join her. Kaffir, swallowing his pride to admit that Jaz was right for once, moved to follow, but something stopped him. An odd feeling. A shiver that had nothing to do with the cold. It ran from his scalp up the length of one ear, almost like phantom fingers.
He turned around, but there was nothing there; only the rounded wall of black earth. Kaffir scented the air, wondering if he'd imagined the touch. But no – he was sure. There, along the dirt. Something moved.
"Hang on," he said, stepping towards it. "There's something here."
Jasmine whined again, but Kaffir ignored her, leaning close to examine the wall. He thought that…yes, there. A crack, long and jagged, ran for good three or four feet along the wall. How strange. The earth here, this thick clay, shouldn't have been solid enough for something like that. And if he leaned a little closer, he thought he saw something liquid dripping from its edge, black and iridescent at the same time. Had Dad accidentally struck oil?
"Kaffie," said Coral, backing closer to Jasmine and grasping the larger sister's arm. "I don't like here. It's go."
"We will," said Kaffir. "Just…give me a sec."
Licking his muzzle, he lifted Dammy's staff and carefully negotiated it so that the very tip of the hook hovered just above the odd crack. He hesitated only a moment, then prodded the strange phenomenon with the aged wood.
An iridescent, black liquid something oozed from the earth. It dripped over wood and clay, slow as sap drawn fresh from the tree. Kaffir pulled the staff away, but before it'd gone more than inch, the black became a hand. It snagged the crook in an iron grip and refused to let go.
The shadows took that as their cue to attack.
"DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
E. Aster Bunnymund's ears shot up at his daughter's shriek, followed by the quickly by the rest of him. For a split second his body stood frozen. Then he bolted, abandoning his egg-herd to become a gray blur that raced across the Warren's green.
"Jazzy!" The name ripped from his throat, strangled and hoarse. "Coral! Kaffir! Kits!"
Over the years, he'd heard his children call him many times. He'd heard them whine and tattle and bring him boo-boos and ask for just one more story, Daddy, please. But he'd never once, in thirty years, heard any of the kits so terrified.
He galloped through the Warren, catching only enough breath for a bush cry that summoned all the sentries within earshot. Googies scattered to make way for their stone brothers, diving into protective nooks and crannies. The sentinel eggs thundered across the fields, their top halves spinning to faces ready for war.
Bunny's ears twitched and darted to follow every sound, honing in on his daughters' continued frightened cries. Too many echoes. They weren't in the Warren. He dove into the first tunnel he saw, his sentinels scattering to find their own entrances or to take up post against invaders. The tunnels responded to his pounding, narrowing and straightening to lead him where his children called.
An acidic scent he'd hoped never to sniff again hit him full-force. A Fearling. No, Fearlings, a dozen or more. The first distant glimpse of writhing darkness with faces twisted in horror nearly stopped the heart in his chest. Fearlings had lost much of their ferocity over the centuries, but still Aster's mind was thrown back to the dark past, to memories of ravaged warrens and raging battles and a people slaughtered to a man.
And then he saw three writhing, clinging Fearlings baring down on his Coralberry and Jasmine, and he saw red.
Just as Coral tripped, taking her sister down with her, twin boomerangs sliced through the air, cutting down the Fearlings where they flew. The dark creatures let out howls of pain and fell to black sand the scattered the dark earth.
Aster snatch his weapons on the backswing and swept the girls into his arms, clinging with all his strength. Coralberry sobbed against his shoulder, trembling in fear. Jasmine tried to keep up a brave face, but there were tears in her eyes as well, and she was running funny – her left foot had been twisted in the flight. But Bunny smell no blood, no hint of Fearling venom or claws. They were safe. His girls were safe.
His girls.
"Where's your brother?" he demanded, perhaps a bit harsh in his fear. Coralberry sobbed harder, in no state to give a coherent reply. "Jazzy. Where is Kaffir?"
The self-proclaimed eldest of the litter rubbed her puffy eyes and pointed back down the tunnel from where they'd come. "We, we told him not to. We told him but we couldn't…"
Darkness lay in that direction, darker and colder than these tunnels were ever meant to be.
Bunnymund took a deep breath to steady his pounding heart. He nuzzled each girl once and herded them behind him, pointing down the well-lit, familiar and dry tunnels they all knew. "Back to the Warren, both of you. Stay with the Guards. Go."
Jasmine nodded and quickly herded Coralberry away. Once they were off Aster bolted again, diving through tunnels too small and closed for his sentinel eggs. He had not carved this route, never seen it before in his life. Someone else had brought this here, something else invaded his home.
Fearling claws tore from the darkness, raking at his shoulder and ears as he shot by. Any foolish enough to cross his path directly met with boomerangs and egg-bombs that tore them to shreds. Bunny swore beneath his breath that he would clear ever last one of the nasty beings from his home, but now was not the time. He had to find Kaffir. His son needed him.
Ahead, he finally caught wind of Kaffir's voice, shouting not to him but at an enemy. "Let go!" he yelled. "Give it back! Let me go!"
Bunny burst onto the scene to find Kaffir fighting with a wall that was not a wall. Black tendrils coiled from a plane of liquid night, holding Jack'sstaff hostage and threatening to swallow it whole. Kaffir had a tight hold with both hands, his feet braced against the wall to pull back, but it was useless. Already the darkness had swallowed his feet, and now the tendrils were working their way up his brilliant white fur.
"Kaffir!" Bunny shouted, tearing through the Fearlings who tried to bar his path.
His son twisted, his blue eyes wide with terror. He yanked a hand off the staff and stretched for his father, groping against the air for a grip. "Dad, I'm stuck!"
"It's going to be okay, buck. I'm gonna get you out of here, I'm gonna –"
Aster's words caught in his throat. The grasping tendrils from the wall of night had taken form, revealing a gaunt gray face and pale eyes that he knew glinted gold when exposed to light. A smile like serrated knives cut through the darkness as gray fingers fisted in his son's white fur.
Pitch Black, the King of Nightmares, laughed. Bunnymund leapt at him, his weapon drawn, the other arm outstretched to snatch Kaffir away from the proverbial monster, the Boogieman.
He hit the wall. His hand found only packed earth and moss.
"No…" Bunny gasped, momentarily too stunned to move. Everything was gone. The darkness had retreated. All that remained was the normal tunnel's gloom. There were no Fearlings. No Pitch. No Kaffir.
Bunny tore into the earth, putting all of his skills as tunneler extraordinaire to work. In moments, he'd hollowed out an extra twelve feet of tunnel…and realized, like a blow straight to the heart, that it would do no good.
Kaffir, his Kaffir, his only son, Jack's only son…was gone.