Alaia Skyhawk: More Groundhog! Hehehehehe! :D

And sorry to those who wanted me to give him the nickname of 'Phil' as in Punxsutawney Phil, but I actually already had nickname planned for him. Namely "Dig" or "Digger", because that's what he likes to do, lol :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians, the Guardians of Childhood, or any related characters etc. This story is written purely for entertainment purposes.

And a shout-out to VanRah on Deviantart, for letting me use their awesome picture of Jack Frost as the new cover for this story! Seriously, go check out their page!

~(-)~

Chapter 39: Amused, Confused

The eggs were marching through the tunnels, forming up in ranks beside every one of the thousands of exits that would send them to places around the world. Time-zone by time-zone, the doors would close and then open again to new locations, once a set number of eggs had passed through and set about hiding themselves.

Bunny oversaw the operation with the eye of a master tactician, as the veritable sea of pastel-hued eggs ushered past him wearing the spiralling designs he'd chosen for this Easter. Of course, he had his baskets of eggs he'd painted by hand, to place down near children who were in especial need of hope this year. Sandy was always good about that, delivering a list of places and children who would need that extra attention. The children themselves were always easy to spot once he'd been told where to look. No one could mistake the hopeless expressions they almost always wore.

Bunny began to check through those baskets, to make sure he had enough eggs in them to account for all those children and still leave a few spare just in case. But even once he'd finished that, and checked that the magic of his tunnels was in tip-top shape and wouldn't falter under the massive stress it was about to be subject to. But none of those things worried him so much, as the thing which had him flattening his ears to his head when the time came for the doors to open onto the first time-zone of the night's distribution work.

And every flicker of a cool breeze that brushed by him once he was out and about, made Bunny flinch and look over his shoulder.

~(-)~

Jack was in his hall of mirrors, the Groundhog at his side as the two of them lounged on the top of the ice-spire, when a breeze from Japan informed him that Bunnymund had begun his Easter egg-hiding. It was then that, with a casual flick of his fingers, jack set the four Ice Mirrors anchored to the spire, to show the first four locations that Bunny was likely to show up at.

That done, Jack settled himself comfortably into the pile of snow he'd heaped atop the spire, and glanced at his newest Lieutenant.

"So, any bets on where he'll be when he finally strays close enough to one of my mirrors. Care to make a guess, Dig?"

The Groundhog tilted his head, having now been given the nickname of 'Dig' since that was what he liked to do. As evidenced by the spacious burrow he'd made himself in the Winter Garden. But for all the rapid rate in which he'd been learning things in the past seven weeks, he still lacked a lot of knowledge. After all, he'd started out as a non-sentient rodent, and was now an immortal Lieutenant of Winter.

"I dunno, I never heard of most of those places you said he'd show up at. How can I guess when you already know better than me?"

Jack grinned.

"It's a game. You guess just for the fun of it."

"Ohhhhh."

Jack chuckled at Dig's response, so far never failing to be amused by his new friend's lack of worldly knowledge. It was refreshing really, to have someone so close to him who knew so little about the world. Because teaching Dig about it, was like seeing it all for the first time again himself. It brought a renewed sense of wonder, when in some respects he'd become a bit jaded.

The two of them continued to watch the views through the four mirrors, with Jack describing and telling stories about the different placed they showed each time he changed the views after the winds told him Bunny was past the regions presently being displayed. The Easter Bunny did come into view a number of times, but never close enough. Jack wouldn't take a shot at him from long range, because he knew the Pooka would hear it coming and have time to dodge. It was close range or nothing, and getting a close shot was simply a matter of time.

It was around about the thirtieth time that Bunny had briefly come into view, that Dig said something in a puzzled tone.

"He looks worked up, doesn't he? I thought he liked his job, and Easter?"

The question jolted Jack who, now that it was pointed out to him, had to admit that Bunny wasn't showing any real enthusiasm for hiding his eggs. Instead he looked tense, and miserable, and rather distracted. He was doing his job, but the little smile he'd used to wear while doing so, wasn't there now.

Jack stared... How could he not have noticed it before now?

He glanced at Dig, who seemed oblivious to the effect of his innocent question. The Groundhog's newness meant he saw everything with unbiased clarity, and commented on it with unrelenting bluntness. It was for Jack, as if that one query had been a slap in the face.

Because Bunnymund wasn't enjoying Easter, the very festival that represented him. It wasn't fun for him anymore, and the one responsible for that was the Guardian who was supposed to protect fun in children and those around them.

Jack stared at his hands, a sudden sense of guilt washing over him. Yes, sure, he'd been freezing Bunny's ears because the Pooka had refused to apologise to Marzanna and the others, but that was no excuse for making him miserable on his biggest day of the year. It just... wasn't right.

It was at that moment that Bunny came within a few yards of one of the mirrors, and Dig nudged Jack and pointed at it.

"Look, he's close! Aren't you going to freeze his ears?"

Jack turned his head, blinking at the close-up view of Bunny's agitated state, and then shook his head as he closed the views on all four mirrors.

He then remained silent for several moments, before at last speaking.

"I... I don't want you learning bad habits." He glanced at Dig. "I've been freezing Bunny's ears every year, because I've felt he's owed Marzanna and the others an apology but he's refused to give one... But I never really thought about the fact that I've been ruining his fun for Easter all these years."

Dig tilted his head, still so innocent. He still had no understanding of the concepts of anger, bitterness, or revenge. He was really, so much like a young child, and so very impressionable.

"So, no fun freezing?"

Jack dismissed the snow from the top of the spire, and stood, thinking. There were ways of getting back at Bunny, what would be fun, but which also wouldn't involve making Bunny unhappy.

"Well... It's April 1st today, April Fools..." He started to grin. "New plan for getting fun. We're going to confuse him!"

Dig began to jump up and down.

"Oooooooo! How?"

Jack's grin widened, and he waved for the groundhog to follow him out of the Hall of Mirrors.

"You'll see!"

~(-)~

Bunny watched the last of his eggs, darting to their hiding places, and he placed the last of the eggs from his baskets of special ones. All the while watching over his shoulder more in puzzlement than nervousness. He then darted down a burrow, to check on regions where the sun had been up for hours. Children ran about in those places, with baskets or any container they had to hand, filling up with the eggs they laughed and cheered about as they found them.

And there was still no sign of Jack, or of the blast of ice that for all these years had always come seemingly out of nowhere. That it hadn't come during the hiding of the eggs, now made Bunny worry that Jack intended to target him now during the daytime of Easter. But then, would he risk it when there were so many children around?

In the end the tension became too much, and Bunny returned to the Warren rather than watch the eggs being gathered.

He sat under one of his eternally blossoming trees, trying to make sense of the fact he'd not been ambushed this year. Was Jack just busy somewhere this time around? Or maybe he planned something worse than ear-freezing? The Pooka's mind began to churn over the possibilities, getting him more and more worked up, until a firm but polite knocking came from the direction of the main Warren entrance.

Bunny raced to it, but then hesitated before opening it, half-expecting a face full of snow or some other frigid substance. Instead what he found was a pouch of coarse cloth hung on string from the tunnel roof, so that it was exactly at his eye-level. And on that pouch was pinned a scrap of paper, with just two words written upon it.

'Happy Easter!'

Bunny cautiously unhooked the string from the ceiling and opened the pouch, and then tipped the contents into his paw. What it was made him blink in surprise, for it was certainly not what he'd expected in his present frame-of-mind.

It was a polished egg made of blue lace agate, with an ornate little three-pronged stand for it to sit in for display. It was slightly smaller than a hen's egg, and had swirling patterns cut into it in ways that enhanced the natural patterns of the stone.

It was an exquisite work of art, one that Bunny would normally have been thrilled at being given to add to his egg collection, but he couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy.

He closed the door, completely unaware of being watched through an invisible portal, and unable to hear Jack and Dig's howling laughter at how confused he'd looked when discovering the stone egg. Bunny spent the next several days examining and mulling over the object, and who could have given it to him. He also couldn't help but to continued to wonder why he was spared getting his ears frozen this year.

He was still baffled when the day of the annual meeting came, and he had the egg and stand in a pouch with him when he went.

The reports from the other Guardians were the usual ones, with only himself having something different to add, and that being to mention there was a new immortal, The Groundhog, whose duty it was to inform Spring Legends when the Spring Thresholds were going to be each year.

It was after all that had been done, when the Pooka asked the question that had been on his mind since Easter.

"Was Jack Frost on the Naughty List this year?"

North raised his eyebrows at that, and shook his head.

"No, actually, he not on either List right now. First time he's been off Naughty List after Easter for thirty-nine years. You wondering why he no freeze your ears this year, hmm?"

Bunny nodded, his ears folded back.

"Yeah, I half expected him to do something else, worse." He tossed the pouch to North, changing the subject to the other thing that had puzzled him. "New question. Do you know anyone who's into doing crafts, who could have made that? It was left outside one of the Warren entrances for me to find, along with a note that said 'Happy Easter'. I expected the pouch to be a trap left by Frost, but that thing is a work of art. It can't be him."

North was now examining the agate egg and stand, and after a few minutes he whistled over the quality.

"This not carved with normal methods. There are no tool marks, and some of the details are far too fine to have been cut with one. I would say done with magic, but I sense no trace of any from it. Tis just a very unusual stone egg."

Tooth fluttered over to look, and North passed it to her. She then gasped in awe at the delicate details that covered it.

"It's beautiful."

Sandy waved, in obvious request to get a look at it as well, and Tooth flew over to hand it to him. And once he had hold of it he blinked, reached inside his clothing, and pulled out a trinket that Jack made him some time ago. A little lace agate mermaid, detailed down to every last hair, fin, and scale.

Bunny stared at it, as did the others.

"Whoa, you have something made by the same immortal? Who is it?"

Sandy gave him a long look, then drew an image of Jack and pointed at it.

North visibly jolted in surprise.

"Jack made those? How?"

Sandy, knowing it would be difficult to describe with his images, puffed dreamsand into their faces to induce a 'daydream'. One that showed them Jack sitting on a chair holding a rock.

He ran his hands over it, and it split open revealing it was a geode made of blue lace agate. Using the same effortless means, he cut a smaller piece away from the larger whole. He then worked away at it, turning it over and around in his hands repeatedly. As he did so, little pieces of stone fell away to form a pile between his feet, until he got to a stage where only minute amounts of dust were falling. When he was done, he held out the agate mermaid to Sandy, who had appeared in the daydream beside him.

They were released from the daydream, and Bunny was as stunned and confused as Tooth and North.

"He does that so easily, but... How does he do it?"

Sand wrote a single word above his head and pointed to it.

'Ice'

North let out an exclamation of understanding, starting to nod.

"Ah! It's like the freeze and thaw in nature, that cracks open rocks. He makes ice inside the stone, yes? So that it breaks away?"

Sandy nodded, then he looks at Bunny. He then began the painstaking process of writing his exact words above his head.

'I told you to apologise to Jack, about the gossip you started that caused his Lieutenants trouble, but you refused. He's done what you wouldn't. Called a truce.'

Tooth turned to the Pooka, indignant and scolding.

"Sandy told you to apologise, but you wouldn't? Bunny! How hard would it have been to show some sympathy and understanding? It wouldn't have cost you anything to say 'sorry', nothing except a blow to your pride."

Bunny flinched, and North added to how small the Easter Bunny felt at that moment.

"And now Jack has made you gift, to show he knows you like to collect eggs, and that he has called a truce. He's shown perhaps that, in this case, he more mature than you."

Bunny's ears shot up in irritation at that statement, almost as if he intended to object. But then he settled down onto his haunches and sighed.

"Alright, fine... I admit that getting my ears frozen the last twenty-seven times was self-inflicted, because I refused to say sorry. You happy now?"

North having had the egg handed back to him by Sandy, inspected it once more as he spoke.

"So, you not going to give a token of truce to him in return?"

By this time Sandy was watching all this with some considerable amusement, as Bunny then began to frown.

~(-)~

Two days later, Sandy arrived through the mirror from his island, carrying a small box. He gave it to Jack, and lets fly a rapid series of symbols and combinations, which the Spirit of Winter interprets with ease.

Jack raised his eyebrows, and began to open the box.

"A peace-offering from Bunny? You serious?" He looked inside the box, which contained an egg that had been painted pastel blue with gold and silver snowflake designs all over it. There was also a little silver stand, so it could be displayed, and Jack let out a single laugh. "Sure, I gave him that egg to confuse him since Easter was also April Fools this year, but I guess it paid off... This might not be an actual apology, but it's so close to one that he must have really sucked in his pride to make this."

Sandy smiled, silently chuckling, before he used more of their symbol language.

'What about Easter next year? Will you freeze his ears again?'

Jack responded with a wry smile.

"No, no more ear-freezing. I can still get plenty of laughs at Bunny's expense, just from watching Dig deliver the Threshold date each year. And there's nothing Bunny can do to complain about it."

Sandy's scolding wag of a finger was playful, as he silently laughed along with Jack. It was good to see the worst of the feud between Spirit of Winter and Easter Bunny, be set aside. But still, Bunny wasn't going to be getting off without jokes at his expense, not for a long time.

But still, that had to be preferable to getting his ears frozen.

~(-)~

Alaia Skyhawk: I did a bit of research, and for the year 1866, of the two possible dates of Easter (depending on the calendar used) one really was April 1st. That combined with Dig causing Jack to question if what he was doing to Bunny was fair, gave rise to the April Fools Easter Present :)