Chapter 11
Pitch watched as the titan planted a fist into a Dream-Eater. He was gritting his teeth in anger, wondering just how another giant has appeared out of nowhere.
"Just what on earth is that!?" he snapped, "This isn't part of my plan!"
The Titan was surrounded by 20 Dream-Eaters who were aiming at him. One of them suddenly lunged forward, but the Titan turned and took a harsh swing, punching the Dream-Eater, downing it almost instantly. Another lunged towards him, but it also suffered the same fate.
The Titan moved and hit another Dream-Eater, then turned and punched another coming up beside him.
"Okay everyone, pick your Dream-Eater now and help Eren!" North shouted as Bunny and Tooth swept pass him and into the group of Dream-Eaters.
"North, mind if I help?" Jack flew above him with his staff ready for a fight.
"Yes Jack! Where is Anya by the way?"
"She's at the gate! Don't worry, she's near the sleigh!" Jack shouted as he flew faster.
The Titan lunged itself on a Dream-Eater and punched it hard enough for its head to disintegrate into nothingness. Then suddenly its ears picked up the sound of a scream behind him.
The Titan turned around and saw the group of Dream-Eaters, under attacked by the Guardians. The Guardians fought hard as each of the Dream-Eaters disintegrated or turned back into golden sand. The Titan, with its sharp grey eyes, watched, curious on how they defeated the large beings.
His attention was still on the Guardians when the Boogeyman suddenly threw ten glass vials, all of which landed behind him and shattering upon impact of the ground.
The black liquid began to grow and grow until there were another ten of the Dream-Eaters standing behind the oblivious Titan.
The Titan, whose attention was still on the little Guardians, suddenly felt a presence behind him and turned – but it was already too late.
The Titan fell to the ground after five Dream-Eaters lunged at him. The Dream-Eaters then pinned him to the ground with their great bulk.
The Titan fought and struggled to free itself from the clutches of the creatures, but failed to budge them. The remaining Dream-Eaters began to beat into the Titan, kicking, punching, and maiming with every ounce of strength they had.
Jack flew above on a Dream-Eater and produced a hard ice- spear, harpooning it towards the nape of the neck. He was about to produce more when he heard a familiar piercing roar from the Titan.
He looked behind him and saw the Titan, still pinned by five Dream-Eaters, and unable to escape. It didn't look good.
"North! I'm going to help Eren!" he shouted as he flew towards the pinned creature.
The Titan let out a loud roar as the Dream-Eaters scratch and dug out the flesh on its back. The Titan was still struggling with all its might when Jack soon arrived, and produced an ice-spear. He threw it hard and it struck one of the creatures that was pinning it down.
"Don't worry Eren, I got you!" Jack said after he flew past another Dream-Eater, which disintegrated into golden sand.
The Titan's, feeling that its right arm was free, punched the Dream-Eater pinning his left arm as hard as it could.
Jack then flew above and produced two more ice spears, launching them towards the remaining Dream-Eaters that were pinning the Titan. The creatures disintegrated, and the Titan was free.
Jack landed at the back of the Titan and ran near its shoulder and shouted.
"Eren! You all right?!" The Titan turned to look at its shoulder. It growled at the winter sprite.
"It's me, Jack! Don't you recognize me!?" Jack, puzzled to the response, said.
The Titan then slammed its right fist on the ground and slowly stood up. Jack flew away and landed on top of a building as the Titan rose up from the ground.
The Titan looked up at to the clear night sky. The moon shone brightly on the Titan, who raised its fist up.
'Now what is he doing…?' Jack, puzzled at the Titan's action, also looked up to the night sky and saw something strange.
The clouds began to gather and blocked the moon. The sky, which was full of stars and light from the moon, was now engulfed by the clouds. which emitted a rumbling sound of thunder.
The clouds rumbled as they surged and buzzed with lightning.
The Titan then let out an ear-shattering roar, the sound echoing through the dark night.
The clouds, as if the roar was a command from the being, let out a loud thundering blast. After that, a sharp, bright light suddenly surged down towards the ground.
"What the-!?" North, seeing the incoming lightning, jumped from a Dream-Eater's neck and landed to the ground.
The lightning hit a Dream-Eater, disintegrating it into golden sand. Then another lightning bolt hit one.
"Oi!" Bunny hopped and landed beside Tooth and Sandy on the ground just in time before a bolt hit the Dream-Eater that he was attacking.
The clouds let out many lightning bolts and struck out at the many Dream-Eaters.
Pitch Black watched in horror as each of his precious Dream-Eaters disintegrated until there was only one left. The clouds let out a final blast of lightning and hit the Dream-Eater. It too was reduced to nothing but a pile of gold sand.
"This…isn't possible…" Pitch took a step back from the edge of where he stood, but then he heard a growl beside him. He looked beside him and came face to face with the Titan, the one who defeated his creatures.
The Titan's grey eyes looked straight into Pitch's eyes.
Pitch took another step back, frightened, and said,
"Now, now…" he took another step back, "…let's talk about this-" The Titan suddenly raised its right hand, clenched its fist, hit the building where the Boogeyman was standing.
The building, after the Titan planted its fist, began to collapse. Metal, glass, and debris began to rain down onto the ground, and dust flew in the air from the rubble.
Jack flew above and landed besides the Guardians, all of who were all astounded from what they had just witnessed.
"My god…!" North said in amazement.
"He just…destroyed a building…with one hit…" Bunny said in shock.
"Oh my gosh…" Tooth's mouth was wide opened, "His teeth were all, still, shiny…amazing." She added excitedly.
Sandman made a side-glance at Tooth and then looked at the Titan with admiration.
The Titan suddenly let out an ear-shattering roar then looked at the Guardians. The Titan slowly took a step towards the Guardians but then it suddenly wobbled and fell to the ground.
"What's happening…?" Bunny asked as the Guardians watched the Titan began to disappear.
The Titan's upper limb and lower torso, detached from its body, began to evaporate into thin air. It escalated quickly until the whole body evaporated, leaving Eren, unconscious, lying on the ground.
The Guardians rushed to him.
"Eren! You all right?" Jack touched Eren's head and saw many bruises on his face.
"Oh no…" Tooth pointed at the right arm of the boy. "More than half of his arm is missing, North, he needs medical attention." Tooth said as Bunny and Jack attempted to move the boy.
"Let's hurry then." North said as Bunny carried Eren on his shoulder.
"Is Eren all right?" Anya asked as the sleigh began to move. The Guardians flew to the night sky en route to North Pole. Anya looked at Eren, who was lying on a seat in the sleigh, still unconscious and breathing heavily.
"North, can you use your Snow-globe? Eren is bleeding…it's getting bad." Tooth said.
"Sorry Tooth, I lost it during the chaos with the giants." North said remorsefully.
Anya watched as tiny drips of blood leaked out from the boy's right sleeve. The boy was, indeed, bleeding badly.
"Mr. North, use my home. Catherine Palace. It's closer and we need lay him down somewhere as quickly as possible." Anya suggested. The Guardians all swiftly agreed.
North changed his course and flew faster towards the Catherine Palace, the home of the Guardian of Nature.
The Guardians has arrived in Catherine Palace. Immediately, they went inside and looked for a room where they could treat the boy's injuries.
Anya led them and showed an abandoned room with a bed.
"This room might do. Let's be quick, Eren is still bleeding." Tooth said as Bunny entered with Eren, still unconscious on his shoulder.
The rabbit lay the boy on the bed and Anya and Tooth immediately moved about to stop the bleeding.
"Let's strip off his jacket and his shirt, I want to see if there're other injuries in his body." Anya followed and began to remove the boy's clothes.
"Oh! There're more wounds on his back…" Anya said after she removed the boy's shirt and noticed the wounds on the back. Some of them were bruises, but most of them were scratches and bite marks.
"We need bandages on that one, there're some unused linen in that cabinet; Jack, get it for me please." Jack immediately followed Anya's order.
The winter sprite found the linen and immediately delivered them to Anya, who was cleaning Eren's wounds. Anya gently and as carefully as she could cleaned out the wounds as Tooth began to prepare the bandages, when she noticed something.
She turned and saw a shiny object glittering on the boy's neck. She moved closer to see the object, staring in shock – a key.
"What's this…?" Anya's right hand moved and touched the key.
It was gold…what is this-
"Don….t-" Eren suddenly spoke to Anya, who looked at him. "T…touch my key…" he continued.
Anya, puzzled from what he said, said. "I must remove it; it might get in my way." She touched the key again and was about to remove it when the boy suddenly shouted.
"DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME?!" Anya was taken a back from the reaction.
"But—I must treat your wound-"
"Which you had caused," Eren thundered and continued, "Why did you let your Goddamn guard down!? We were on a Goddamn battle field!"
"I'm sorry!" Anya said without looking at Eren's eyes.
"You're…weak and useless…" Eren looked at her with a piercing glare.
"I'm very sorry…I truly am…now please control your anger," Anya said as she dipped the linen in a hot water from a bowl sitting on a table, and gently wiped at the wound.
Eren, feeling the pain rushing through his body, screamed in agony.
"STOP! IT HURTS!" he protested and attempted to shove Anya away.
"I told you to calm down and hold still! I'm treating your wounds!"
"Which, again, you had caus-"
"Which is why I'm treating it!" Eren only growled, and looked at her. His eyes were narrowed and his teeth were gritting in a scowl.
Then he sighed and rested his head on the pillow.
Anya, seeing that Eren had calmed down, said, "Please…hold still."
Eren closed his eyes and gasped as Anya began to wipe of the blood on his wounds. The Guardians watched in silence as Anya worked on the his wounds.
"By the way…Eren." Anya said.
"What?" Eren answered in a lower tone.
"Thank you…for saving me." Eren, with his back still facing the girl, turned and looked over his shoulder. He was surprised from what the girl said. As far as he could remember; after landing in this world no one had thanked him and after so long a time, someone had.
Eren looked away and rested his head on the pillow again and slowly said. "You're welcome."
After the Guardian left the abandoned toy factory, the whole place was silent again.
The buildings stood proudly and menacingly against the clear night sky, except for building B, which had collapsed during the battle of the Guardians and was reduced to ruins.
Suddenly, a small rock fell from the top of the rubble tumbled down. And then a pale, skeleton-like hand burst out through the rubble.
The rubble collapsed and showed a figure standing.
"Damn him!" Pitch Black cursed under his breath.
"I should've prepared more!" he slowly walked away from the rubble and looked up to moon.
He hissed and scowled at the moon. "I guess I should pay a visit to him…" He grunted and kicked a small rock from the ground.
"But first…" The Boogeyman then pointed his right index finger on the ground where black sand suddenly appeared. It spun around and formed into a black cobra snake.
"Come on fear…come on…" he smiled and giggled as the snake climbed on his right hand.
"I have a job for you…I want you to search every corner of St. Petersburg, find the Guardians…and the boy travelling with them." The snake hissed and jumped from his hand and slithered away at a blinding speed.
Pitch Black smiled. And then he, too, disappeared.
North, Tooth and Sandy went out of the room after they called it a night. Anya, Jack and Bunnymund were left with Eren, who was silent and calm.
Anya was almost finished with cleaning a wound when she noticed something.
"Hmm…? Jack look at this." Jack who was looking at the window turned and move to Anya.
"What is it?"
"His wounds…" Jack looked at the wound that Anya was cleaning earlier and noticed it too.
The skin, or more like the wound, was closing.
"What's this…?"
"I don't know…but I think…its closing by itself."
"It's healing, mate." Bunny, who got curious on what the girl has discovered, also observed.
"How about his right arm." The three of them looked on in startled bewilderment.
The boy's right arm…was emitting a smoke and healing itself. They watched in awe as Eren's arm started to re-grow and regenerate itself into a fully formed arm.
"Even the bones and nerves…they're regenerating." Bunny pointed.
"How can he do this…?" Jack's hand move closer and was about to touch it when Anya stopped him.
"We shouldn't touch it. Eren might get angry again, it's better that we apply a bandage to it so it will not be infected." The two looked at Anya, who wasn't sure of what she was saying.
"Right…let's got with that then." Bunny said as Anya applied a bandage.
Chapter 11 is up! It's Pitch versus the Titan! Special thanks to Sumi-sprite for a wonderful beta-reading :)