Chapter Forty-one-Not as bright, but just as bold
Jamie had been sleeping better than usual with Sandy's intervention. Sandy may not have known exactly what had happened but seeing Bunny frozen and Jamie looking frazzled even after pranking the snot out of Jack he figured the kid needed a little extra help. He had given him extra dreams recently. He had been having an especially great dream but something was wrong. The color was off, and fading.
Slowly the dream started to crumble, but he didn't feel like it was a dream. It was still so lucid that he started panicking. It was like his whole world was crashing in a snowstorm with jagged edges and too-bright skies. He started running, running so desperately in his dream that he actually started hyperventilating in his bed. He was kicking, and screaming, loudly enough that James came running.
"Jamie! Jamie wake up!" He yelled, trying to be heard over the boy's panic. As he was trying to keep Jamie from freezing the room and falling off his bed a scream could be heard from Jack's room with similar sounds of kicking and things getting knocked over with ice magic. "Come on, kiddo wake up!" He plead.
"James, what is wrong!?" He didn't know what was more shocking, that he hadn't heard North running over the two or that he heard him speaking then.
"They won't wake up, get Jack!" He called, still holding onto Jamie as best he could. He would admit it, he was terrified. He had no way of handling this situation, but he had managed when they were mortal so he could manage now. "Hey Jamie, please wake up. Everything's okay, it's just a bad dream." He tried, he really could remember this kid when he was little and easy to wake up. Oh how he missed those days.
With one last screeching cry Jamie nearly rolled out of bed and started staring wide-eyed and panting at James, unsure of what had happened. When he heard Jack and North yelling he tried to get up and nearly fell over.
"Hey, you just woke up, give it a sec." James urged. When the yelling stopped a second or two later North came in with Jack in tow.
"Something is very wrong." North insisted and Jack nodded, white-knuckling his staff.
"Yeah, Sandy's dreams never do that. I've never had one end like that unless it was a forced nightmare, and those were natural." Jack insisted, still blinking sleep from his eyes.
"How'd you know?" Jamie asked, rubbing his eyes and leaning heavily on James without really realizing it.
"We're still tired, and…" He yawned widely. "still half asleep. Groggy and the like. Forced nightmares don't do that." Jack explained, stretching in an attempt to wake up farther.
"Come on, let's go to library, we can call others and figure out what has happened. Maybe Sandy can explain." North offered, almost mumbling and holding back several yawns as he did. Rather than a conversation they all shuffled into the library and settled down on the couches while they waited for the others to show up.
Sandy, even from underground and cocooned as he was, could feel that the lights had been turned on. Part of the magic associated with being a Guardian was that whenever that lever was pulled they felt a vague urge to look at the sky that was fairly intense. It jarred him from his semi-conscious state and caused him to squirm, trying to see a sky that wasn't there to be seen.
The sticky substance holding onto him tightened again and he was sure he had made a face. Luckily and unluckily he was mute. He drifted in that mercifully dull place between waking and unconsciousness. They'd be able to stop this, whatever it was. They were coming.
Tooth showed up at the Pole almost immediately but Bunny and Jessica took a second.
"What is it mates?" Bunny asked sleepily, having only been asleep for a few hours. Jessica was stretching and trying to blink her eyes clear enough to see straight while Bunny was on high alert. They looked worried and suddenly the missing occupant of the room and his feeling before falling asleep clicked and he cursed.
"What?" Jessica and Tooth asked un unison.
"Sandy's not here, and I sensed a spike in belief somewhere I couldn't totally pinpoint, from an adult…" All eyes on him, and they were wide.
"What does this mean?" North asked, swords out and suddenly wide awake.
"I'm guessing Sandy's got a bit of a problem, he knows I can feel large spikes in hope and come fairly close to finding them." Bunny ventured. It was something he had almost always been able to do, and it had saved their butts more than a few times. They all felt their hearts drop.
"Guys, there's something out there that's too much for Sandy…" Jack summed up. The room went silent. Their hearts hurt thinking about it, and for the longest of moments no one had anything they could say that felt like it would help.
"Well we've got to go find him then." Jessica finally spoke.
"But what if we're…" James started and Jack stepped up.
"Well…there's no such thing as too late, you know." The winter spirit said as he nudged North's arm. "We can do this."
"Jack is right. Whatever happened I am certain it was surprise to Sandy, and we can handle this because we know there is threat. We can figure this out but we need to find Sandy before anything." North insisted.
"Well if we can get to him, we've got a shot." Bunny agreed. "He's our priority." Bunny agreed, not knowing what had happened didn't help, but whatever they were facing it was going to be huge, they were all sure. Sandy wasn't easily taken down, even by surprise.
"But where is he?" Tooth asked, fluttering around the globe looking for anything that might help them.
"I can narrow it down to somewhere around Burgess, but not entirely centered on Jack's lake." Bunny offered.
"Well we can split up when we get there and-" Bunny held up a paw, stopping Tooth mid-sentence.
"Every single solitary time we split up, bad things happen. We need to stick together." He insisted.
"Bunny, time is essential. We don't know how long we have…" James began but trailing off unwilling to finish the thought.
"Yeah, but he has a point." Jack defended.
"Then is settled, to Burgess." North pulled out one of his globes and it was then that they knew how serious this was becoming. Bunny didn't try to use his tunnels instead. The swirling portal of colors and everyone looked at each other for a second before anyone moved.
The Guardians are literally scared stiff… Jamie mused as they kicked themselves into action. They had to admit this brought back bad memories. Sandy was the one they could count on, and no one ever managed to hold onto him without him being dead or close, so there was a dark cloud of dread over all of them. They aren't sure if they want to run or hide.
This revelation was as heartbreaking as it was terrifying.
Standing in a clearing outside the forest at the edge of Burgess everyone stopped and looked to Bunny.
"Where to?" Jack asked anxiously.
"Where else?" He asked, then looked over at James, who paled.
"Fantastic." James groaned. "But I don't know if I can still find the entrance at all." He admitted at a mumble. Tooth floated over to eye-height and let a hand find his shoulder.
"That's okay, but you're going to be more likely to know the layout." She explained sweetly, ducking to try to meet his eye.
"Yeah, I know, but that's not…I mean I can…" He sent a hand over his hair and huffed. "I can feel the presence that has Sandy…it's Boogey's magic."
"Well is he reformed?!" Jessica fretted.
"No, but we don't have long, come on!" He shot off toward where the entrance was before, hoping that it hadn't moved. The rest took off after him in a panic.
"You think you know where the door is?" Bunny asked, keeping pace with him.
"I might, if it hasn't moved." He offered shortly, jumping fallen branches in desperation to get to where they were going. "Yes! It's still here, come on." He lowered his voice carefully, sprinting to the opening but being stopped by Bunny.
"Hold on." Bunny urged.
"No time!" James was getting worked up and it was more than worrying. He looked like he was about to lose it.
"What's wrong? What's happening? We can't just run in, we'll get ourselves hurt and then we're no help." Bunny explained quickly. Jessica stepped up, nodding.
"He's right, come on what is it?" She asked. James let loose a frustrated and terrified sounding grunt.
"When he possessed me there was a certain bond that had to happen. The bond didn't die because he didn't, but it was corrupted. It's one-way now. I can feel what the semi-formed version of him can, and he can feel what's going on down there. Sandy's dying and we don't have much longer!" He explained in a hushed screaming-like tone. The six listening visually paled.
"Is there anything in there that would see us coming?" Jack asked.
"Just him, and the mortals he possessed, but they can't see us because they're all adults so in theory he wouldn't be able to pinpoint us yet either but we've got to move." He was wired. He was starting to make Tooth look tame.
"Alright, come on then. Jamie, you and Jessica stay out here, and Jack can stay with them? Just in case we get into something and we need recon?" Bunny asked. Jessica nodded in agreement, Jack and Jamie looked like they might argue but realized the safety in that.
"I'll stay here too, just in case." Tooth offered. There was a group nod and James took the lead. North gave them a globe that would take them directly to the Pole that they could use to come in guns blazing if they needed to and they were off.
It didn't take long to find their friend, bright light in complete darkness and all.
"The globe…" North whispered in shock. "Those mortals, they look dead…"
"He's…getting dull…" James more whispered his thoughts than anything, and much more focused on Sandy until he caught what North was saying. His heart dropped.
As they took things in and tried to think of something to do a loud popping noise resounded through the empty space. Bunny, the only one that had been looking in Sandy's direction that immediate second, cringed violently as his golden eyes snapped open wide then drooped again. North and James looked at him in question, then to Sandy, and joined him in the cringing.
"How do we get him?" North whispered.
"I think I'm doubly invisible, I'll see if I can-" Another loud resounding popping noise cut him off and Sandy's light went out entirely. They had to watch his eyes snap open wide again, brought back to the waking world in time to fall about his height to the floor with a thud as the darkness receded, having taken what it needed.
He didn't move after that, and they couldn't see the face he was making, which was actually a good thing at this point, having one silver lining; They all bit their tongues. Admittedly it was one of the harder things they'd ever done.
"He's alive, we aren't licked yet." Bunny assured. He wasn't moving but Bunny could feel his center. "James, you were saying?" Bunny turned back but James was already on the move. North and Bunny had to settle for being on their toes, ready to act.
James was quick in getting to the newly-constructed cage Sandy now lay in, doing his best to be quiet and go unnoticed. It almost worked until he came within arms length of the door of the cage. The swirling mass was taking its sweet time solidifying, but it still had the power to knock him off his feet.
Instead of going down and staying there, they watched him shatter the dark magic sent his way.
Sandy's eyes opened to see a wonderful view of the floor, hearing the roaring of dark magic being ripped apart and being sent on the offensive, and the dull throbbing that he assumed was due to the state of shock he was, mercifully, in. He could feel his head spinning, his heart pumping and the acute feeling that he was going to vomit.
Then his head cleared a little and he could hear voices, far off and underwater-like, but friendly and familiar. You guys have this, right? He thought sarcastically as he slipped closer to unconsciousness again.
"Distract it! I'll use my influence to try to make dream sand out of it and you can get him!" James screamed.
Sandy only caught about half of that, but it sounded promising. Gold light flashed and tried to squirm up to see what was happening, but he only managed to hurt himself. Thank Moon I'm mute.
He could faintly hear North slashing at things and a large booming voice he couldn't quite place in his groggy mind screaming obscenities. However the thing that really caught his attention was when the door swung open and a set of fury paws entered his swimming vision. His stomach was still churning and he silently begged said stomach to hold down dinner for the pooka's sake.
Bunny, on the other hand, had similar thoughts when he finally got a good look at the poor guy. He looked awful, and moving him was seriously going to stink. He checked behind him and saw that between the two of them North and James were keeping things going pretty well, but he still wanted out of there as quickly as possible. He sat beside Sandy and got down to eye level so he could keep his attention.
"Sandy? Mate can ya hear me?" He asked, brushing the poor guy's hair out of his face.
Sandy nodded slightly and squirmed, trying to gather himself up and sit, but to Bunny it just came across as a slight shuffle and a pained expression.
"Easy, easy, do ya think anythin's broken?" He asked quietly. Sandy's skin color made it hard to tell where bruises or swelling would form. He could tell he was obviously in pain, but what was causing that was up in the air.
Sandy tried to use his language of sand but it just sparked over his head once and shattered, a dull, lightless sand that couldn't hold its shape. He was trying to tell Bunny that he wasn't sure, but after a second he couldn't figure out what he was doing and his eyes were heavy again.
"Come on, mate. Don't do that, wake up come on. Look right here." He urged, trying to block out the scene behind him. "Can ya move anything? Move your fingers?" Bunny asked quietly. He watched his gold eyes shut and a concentrated look scrunched up his face until the look fell and he opened his eyes with a minute shake of his head. "Alright, I'm gonna-"
"Can we move him? We're swamped, we can't keep this up!" James called, closer to the cage than Bunny had thought he was. He jumped but Sandy didn't seem to notice. Bunny sighed.
"I don't know yet, give me a minute." He offered, not taking his eye off Sandy. He puffed a little chuckle. "You're all loopy arentcha?" He asked playfully. The little grin that spread on his friend's face gave him hope. He knew if he could have Sandy would have given him the "little bit" sign.
Not that he could tell them, but they all sounded like they were underwater and his head was pressurizing to the point that he was almost certain it would explode. He was trying to pay attention to his limbs and chest, was anything broken? He forgot that question a couple times but he felt like at least something was, and it was probably his rib. He couldn't tell Bunny that though.
"Okay, let me check and see if I can find anythin' broken. It sounded like somethin' broke there a minute ago." Bunny offered, rambling more for the tone than anything else. "This might hurt, and I'm sorry, but I need to make sure everything's in place." Bunny warned. Sandy nodded, closing his eyes and waiting.
He ever so gently shifted the little guy off his side and on his back. It was fine until he settled his weight back down and suddenly breathing was very, very hard. Oh yeah, that's broken. Sandy realized. Bunny had been paying an intense amount of attention so that when his breath caught and his eyes shot open in what could only be called panic Bunny was already in motion, picking him back up. He started coughing which really wasn't helping anything and at this point Bunny had him leaning on him, full weight in the Pooka's lap so he made a decision.
"Okay, hold on mate, we're getting' outta here." Bunny offered calmly, instinct making him absently nuzzle his head and that blonde mop of hair. He took a second to make sure his arms and legs were secure and he stood with him, finally paying attention to the chaos around them.
"Alright, get him out of here, I'll be right behind you!" James yelled, slashing and kicking for his life. North smashed an attacking tendril right from in front of Bunny's face.
"James, here!" He tossed him a globe. "We will be right outside until you meet us. Bunny will take Sandy to the pole, and a group will wait here." North offered quickly. James nodded and North wasted no time smashing one of the glowing portals.
Sorry for the cliffie, but I'm trying to break this up so you can keep getting updates in quality. Thanks for the wonderful reviews, they're making my day! As always let me know what you think!