"How far are we going?" Bunny asked, following the stout furry creature deeper into the humid leafy forest.
The Groundhog shrugged and continued, trudging through the grass and over mounds of dirt, his stubby legs uprooting clumps of dirt as he struggled to move ahead all the while glancing around the forest, his nose and head nervously twitching at every unseen noise.
Bunny kept a paw on his boomerang, following The Groundhog through the forest. Bunny huffed, heat seeping into his fur like the sweat that slicked the pads of his paws. His tail twitched as he pushed a trendil of leaves away, awkwardly hopping over roots and rocks. "Where are we going?"
"W-why are r-rabbits s-so n-nervous?" The Groundhog stuttered, his tiny eyes slicing across the trees.
Bunny grumbled under his breath, adjusting the strap of leather that held several pastel egg bombs. The Groundhog glanced back, nervously clinking his claws against each other, watching the trees and the bushes.
Bunny sighed, his blue-grey fur slick and matted with sweat. He rolled his green eyes as he recalled his argument with North about him being paired with the insufferable rodent; The Groundhog was worse than Bunny when it came to situations like these and already, Bunny could hear the distinct grinding of teeth ahead of him.
The Groundhog's eyes flicked through the canapoy of trees; the humidity was sticky and The Groundhog thought bitterly back to the fact that he should have been hibernating by now, tucked in a burrow somewhere in Alaska, where it was cold and pleasant, not here where it was hot and horrid.
In the corner of The Groundhog's eyes was a blur of black amongst the throng of green; then another blur, a streak of red. Hiding among the trees and plants were flashes of red and The Groundhog's stomach flopped.
The Groundhog had stopped walking and Bunny, who had also spotted the flashes of red against the trees, ran into his short curved back, nearly toppling over him. The Groundhog's dense coat of fur stood on end as his eyes flicked over his surrondings; Bunny held his boomerangs at the ready.
A blur of black started up behind The Groundhog's back, growing slightly; Bunny was to The Groundhog's back, watching the trees for movement, for the first distinction of a fight. The blur grew into the small black form of a boy, his hand crooked in a forced position as he stood in between the two furry Guardians; the reds in the trees grew at the sight of the shadow. The shadow stopped down and its hand grabbed a fistful of frosted guard hairs near The Groundhog's back, causing The Grounghog to let out a squeak of pain and fear, turning swiftly to claw at the shadow; instead of connecting with the boy, The Groundhog's thick claws caught in Bunny's back and slashed down, painting the grey-blue fur a harsh red. Out of the thick jungle came the uproar of redskins who had been following the boy demon since its sighting at their camp.
A whisper in the wind chuckled, "I suppose that means six more weeks of winter, then, eh?"
...
Hiccup ended up catching a few fish and was burning them over a makeshift fire he and Toothless had put together; Astrid stayed with them, asking Jack to tell her everything he knew and everything he was planning on doing, where he would have to go. He waited until Hiccup had taken a seat near the two to listen in before he shot into his explanation.
"Well," He began, rubbing the back of his neck. "Last year, we defeated Pitch - barely - and I guess Manny thought we just weren't powerful enough this time. So he sent me out to go and find three Defenders and he gave me this bag of books and hourglasses and it's my job to bring them all back to stop Pitch before he gains too much power."
Astrid bit into her fish that Hiccup had passed her; she wiped her mouth on her arm and asked, "What's an hourglass?"
Jack laughed and stood up, walking over to the lake. "That's a good question," He said, shoving his hand through sheets of ice to pull the auburn figure from the water. He walked over and handed it to her; Hiccup walked over to peer at it with Astrid, their eyes wide in awe. Hiccup took it and rolled it over in his hands, the orange light highlighting his features; Jack caught himself staring and glanced down at his bluing toes.
"That one's yours, Hic," Jack said, careful not to stare this time as he glanced up.
"What does it do?" Hiccup asked, about to turn it upside down.
Jack threw a hand out and shouted, "I wouldn't!"
Hiccup's eyebrows furrowed. "Huh?"
Jack sighed in relief, his hand moving back to rest near his side. "When you turn it, the Sands swirl. When the Sands swirl, you go either back in time or forward in time, depending on the direction you turn the hourglass. When you go back in time - " (don't go back in time, get Direct TV today!)
"I think I get it," Hiccup cut in.
Jack shrugged. "I was just making sure."
Hiccup's fingers clasped around the cool middle of the hourglass. "When were you planning on telling me this?"
Jack shrugged. "Whenever it seemed logical, I guess."
"Oh, because this seems like a logical time," Hiccup rolled his eyes.
"Well, yeah - " Jack tried but Astrid interuppted them.
"What about the other two?" She asked, taking another bite of fish.
"Haven't met them yet," Jack said, shrugging.
Astrid raised an eyebrow. "When will you go?"
Hiccup perked up, meeting Jack's face. "You told my dad you were going on an expedition."
Jack nodded. "For the Will-o-Wisps. They'll lead me to the next Defender."
"That's next week, Jack," Astrid said. "Stoick and Spitelout are going; foreign affairs or something with The Bear King. They're all going on a hunting trip. They're letting some boys come, too; they say it's the 'trip to become men.'"
Hiccup smiled crookedly. "Let me guess; you asked to come along?"
Astrid grumbled and Hiccup laughed but Jack was suddenly far away from the conversation at hand; his mind wandered away to the hunting trip, The Bear King and the other two hourglasses tucked deep in his silver satchel under a pile of fur blankets.
He needed to do some reading.
...
Tinkerbell half-heartedly fluttered beside Queen Tara; she placed a hand on Tink's shoulder as Ronin discussed the current situation with The Baby Teeth, who tittered to Tooth who explained to North what Ronin was saying. North would then reply to Tooth and so forth. Their version of telephone was excruciatingly slow yet they could at least exchange thoughts.
North sighed loudly, regretting his thick coat and long beard. He glanced through the trees and vines and thought of Peter, whereever he was, whereever Pitch had taken him. North felt a burden crushing the breath from his lungs; if Pitch did anything to him ...
Tooth knew North was taking the absense of the youngest Guardian hard; she defiantly was, too. Peter was the one Guardian that she'd never collected teeth from; he'd left for Neverland long before his first tooth wiggled. That was one of the reasons for his faulty memory; for all of the memory loss within Neverland.
His memories would forever be a mystery to him.
...
Peter stared through the bars, his arms crossed over his knees. His shadow was back, once again chained in his own cage. Peter glanced lazily at the man who stared at him through the bars. The man racked his knuckles against the cage and Peter looked away.
Hibernus puffed on wintry breath, pulling a shard of ice and throwing it into the cage with Peter's shadow. It passed through him, but Peter winced, a new icy cut glistening on his cheek. Peter stiffened, his hand pressing firmly against his torn side as Hibernus gave Peter's cheek a stroke through the bars.
"Every child must grow up, Pan," Hibernus whispered. "Every child must lose his innocence."
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You're all so lovely I adore you guys
Hibernus is really creepy and NO HIBERNUS WILL NOT DO WHAT YOU THINK OKAY I AM NOT THAT CRUEL A PERSON
... or am I
((I'm really not))