Lol- just when I said I would take longer to update, my little man decided to take a three hr nap. He's a bit sick and it's going to come back and bite me tonight, but it doesn't matter.
Congrats to ObsidianLove who guessed Gretchen's identity! I'll send Jack to deliver your price in person tonight. I will warn you that he may nuzzle at your neck, it's quite an annoying side effect from Ania. I keep telling him that I'm engaged but he doesn't listen ;p
Jack flew over the ocean, following Baby Tooth's directions. Tooth was rescuing the fairies caught on fires, for obvious reasons, while he was going after the ones caught in the storms. He flew as fast a he could, because he didn't want any of the tiny fairies to get hurt. He had grown very fond of the cute little pieces of Tooth, each of them showing him a different aspect of her personality, each of them representing one of the million things that made her special. He smiled. He wanted to get this done soon and go back into her arms again.
Tooth did look really scared, but surely she was just reflecting the little fairies' panic. There was no way that all of them were in danger. Or so he thought, until he saw the big coastal town destroyed.
"Wind! What are you doing! Stop this! Now!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.
The murmur of the wind told him that it couldn't stop.
"Wind, the kids, the little fairies! Please..." the winter spirit pleaded.
The wind slowed down just a little, and the breeze caressing the Guardian's face told him it was all the wind could do.
The narrow roads were flooding with the pouring rain, the wind tearing off the roofs from the little houses, people crying in desperation, looking for their loved ones.
Jack helped whoever he could, as he frantically looked for the trapped fairies. It was really hard to follow Baby Tooth's instructions amidst the noise and the heavy rain. The story of the sisters of flight kept repeating in his head. Tooth's mom, was one of them, and when she died... they all died. That's how Tooth inherited her Palace. She was part human, part sister of flight and these little fairies where a part of her. What would happen if one of them died? What would happen if enough of them died?
The winter boy found ten little fairies trapped under a fallen roof. The wind helped him free them. They were shivering, and most of them were bleeding, but none looked seriously injured. Jack sighed in relief. He carefully placed them in his hoodie's pocket and flew away. He thought he was heading towards the Tooth Palace, where he would drop the fairies and come back to help these people, but Baby Tooth was guiding him somewhere else, following the never ending storm. What the heck was happening?
Jack took the blue sphere North had given him and the other Guardians last Spring to communicate in case of emergency.
"North" he said.
Bunny, Sandy and North were still at the North Pole, oblivious to what was going on outside. They were still talking about Jack and Tooth.
"Is that it?" asked North incredulous, looking at the image above the Sand Man's head. "But Jack sort of already..."
Bunny chuckled so much he had to put his paw in his belly.
"Sheilas! How on earth was Frostbite supposed to figure that one out?! That's why I don't have a girlfriend!" said Bunny laughing out loud.
Sandy said no with his index finger, Gretchen's face appearing over his head. Bunny didn't see it, but North did. The Guardians of Dreams and Wonder shared a glance. They both knew that the reason Bunny didn't have a girlfriend was because he hadn't realized- or didn't want to admit- that he was in love with the Groundhog.
Speaking of which...
"Let me go, you stupid hair ball!" they heard Gretchen's voice scream from another room, followed by a yeti's groan.
Bunny's laugh stopped suddenly as the girl entered the living room where the guardians were sitting, followed closely by a bleeding yeti.
She was almost as tall as Bunny, her shinny brown fur frosted with grey highlights, big green eyes framed by long eyelashes and a long, lean body, almost human in shape. Her black hands looked like gloves, adorned by long, feminine claws. Her paws were also black, giving the appearance of boots. And of course, she was a groundhog.
Bunny knew she was beautiful, though he'd never admit it. She was easy on the eye, yes but she was also outspoken and stubborn. And annoying. So annoying! And so full of herself...
"What are you doing here?" said Bunny between his teeth. He might as well had been talking to Pitch.
"None of your business, Peter Rabbit. I need to talk to MiM" said Gretchen.
Bunny laughed.
"Only we get to talk to MiM. What do you want?" asked the pooka.
Gretchen resorted to ignore him and talk to North.
"There's no time! Pitch has Gaia, he turned her into... I don't know what he turned her into but this is bad! Her eyes... her eyes are terrifying and her body is made out of black sand" Gretchen winced "she said MiM would know what to do!" her voice had a mixture of fear, sadness and desperation.
"What?!" asked Bunny.
"A fearling. Pitch turned Mother Nature into a fearling. But how?" asked North, more to himself than to anyone else, his eyes lost somewhere far, far away.
Sandy made a picture of the Algae above his head. Pitch was more powerful now.
"I want to help" said the Groundhog.
"Oh, no! This is Guardians business. You'll just get yourself in trouble and we'll bloody have to go and rescue you!" said Bunny.
"Excuse me? Let me take you back two springs ago when you tried to stop me from doing my job and I kicked your ass." she said.
Sandy smiled. North was still far away, thinking of another time, when Pitch was so strong it was rumored he turned children into fearlings. Obviously it was more than rumors.
"I only let you win because you're a sheila!" said Bunny defensively, his nose inches from hers.
"Keep telling yourself that, rabbit." she said. "Don't worry, even if I do get in trouble, I'd rather rot than being rescued by you!" she said, getting even closer to his face.
"I don't bloody care! I'm not planning to rescue you anyway!" he said, their noses were touching now.
"North" came Jack's voice from North's red sphere, bringing the elder back from his trance.
"Jack, good, I need you to come home immediately for a Guardian meeting." said North.
"Can't do. I need your help. Look!" The winter boy moved his sphere around, showing North his surroundings. "It's the end of the world out here. Some spirit is messing up with the elements, I can't make the wind stop! Tooth and I are trying to rescue the Tooth Fairies but we're going to need help."
"We're on our way!" said North, closing his sphere.
"North?" called Jack "w-what happens to Tooth if a little fairy dies?" he was almost whispering.
"We don't know, Jack" said North, his dark eyes telling the boy that his suspicions were not good.
Jack closed his sphere and went to rescue more fairies as fast as he could. He was scared, but there was no point in going to Tooth, he'll faint from the heat and put her in greater danger.
"You've heard Jack. Sandy, please find Tooth and help her. Whatever you do stay with her. We don't know what may happen. You two" he said, pointing at Bunny and Gretchen, " go together, we'll cover more ground if we separate, no?"
"Why do I have to go with him?" asked the Groundhog.
"Because if you are going to help, you two have to learn to work together, no?" said the Russian man.
Seraphina didn't look like herself anymore. She was completely made of black sand, the only dash of color coming from her big, yellow eyes. She was sitting on her throne next to Pitch, when she started laughing uncontrollably.
"Ahh, Frost!" she said as the laugh faded.
"What is it, my dear?" asked Pitch.
"Oh, father! It looks like we should go and help the Guardians solve a little mystery." she smiled devilish.
Thanks to OinkyThePiggy, Alexia04, ObsidianLove, MagicGold34, Alex, RJguzman318, shawna, THE NIGHTS RAGE, TheAngeloflego, Guest, creatorX33, and Everlak-forever12 for your reviews!
