Barren Warren- Ch 10

Kinda short, but I’m crunched on time. What can I say, Calculus takes effort and time and it’s at constant war with Medical Terminology.

Anyways, me no own, please enjoy, and I make no money off this.

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When they arrived at the Santoff Clausen, the yetis were already on standby to take Pitchiner to the medical wing without more than a few ordering grunts and fast paced hand motions. Jack wanted to follow him, but Tooth pulled him away from the chaos that surrounded the former general.

“Jack!” Tooth hushed as she brought his fluffy head into her chest, coddling him like a child who’d had a nightmare.

“Tooth, what’s happening?” Jack whispered with as much strength as his worn body would allow.

“North said to be on standby when you landed. After all these years, we didn’t know if Pitch would be ok back in his real body.” Tooth said as she started wiping off the dirt and dead leaves from the white rabbit’s hair. Jack leaned against her warmth as his temperature sore nerves started to heat up. One better part of his new Pooka body was the lack of icy coldness. He always hated being that same temperature all year around, but the rabbit fur refused to let him freeze anymore, even after North gave him his ice powers back.

“Where’s Bunny?” Jack asked as he started to shiver from a mixture of excitement and burning nerves. Tooth gently pulled the Pooka towards the heated air of the workshop, grabbing a large blanket as they passed the stack of wool covers and wrapping it around the young buck.

“North made him stay behind. He got so agitated when you didn’t show up, he wouldn’t stop pacing. He’s still up in the meeting hall, chugging eggnog with a good dose of whiskey.” Tooth offered with a small, clearly forced giggle. Jack shivered a bit more, but managed a laugh to reassure her he didn’t hold a grudge. Tooth pushed the dingy rabbit into the favorite sofa of North’s palace as a yeti started to lean over him with a wet wash cloth. Jack watched as the large, furry hand kept removing itself from his head covered in a mixture of red-brown crust and chunks of black, dead leaves. Time seemed to slow itself unexpectedly- crawling along with the speed of a drugged sloth. Soon, the warmth of the blanket and fire combined made the white rabbit very sleepy.

“Uhngerahatrere” The yeti grumbled to Tooth.

“Yeah, I’m thinking so. Jack, let’s get you to the baths.” Tooth said as she lifted the young buck by his arm. Jack nodded as best he could as a wave of dizziness hit him. The youngster lost his footing and fell into the glistening feathered fairy.

“Uh… Ok.” Jack grumbled as his head fell forward and a wave of nausea hit him. He reached up with an uncoordinated hand, grabbing Tooth’s feathers once or twice before finding his own face, and gripped his mouth with an iron grasp.

“Jack? Are you ok?” Tooth asked as she threw her arms around the white rabbit to stop him from falling.

“Just dizzy.” Jack grumbled as he nuzzled his pink nose into Tooth’s shoulder.

“Let’s get you a bath, and then we can see about getting you to one of the medics.” Tooth insisted. Jack let himself be escorted up the stairs and into the large communal bathroom. As he entered the tiled halls, he could have sworn he heard the familiar Aussie voice of his favorite kangaroo.

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“Well, where is he?” The agitated and clearly stressed Pooka barked as he failed to control his temper. With their search for the younger buck unfruitful, his ability to cope with the situation seemed to be failing more by the minute. To make matters worse, he had to deal with North trying to quip him down with his classically annoying ‘Easter is not Christmas’ joke. The only things Bunny would admit to even remotely enjoying about Christmas time were eggnog and family time with the other Guardians. And the eggnog better be spiked if North was in his jesting mood.

“He’s getting cleaned up. Looks like he took bad spill in mud.” North assured the grey Pooka. Bunny only crouched and leaped off in a stressed out hurry, pacing around the room in angry bunny hops while mumbling to himself.

“He’s not hurt, right?” Bunny barked after a few minutes of grumbling.

“No, but you can thank Pitch for that. He-“ North was cut off by two large grey fur covered paws seizing his collar and shaking him.

“PITCH? HE TOOK MY JACKRABBIT?” Bunny yelled as he attempted to scramble the Christmas spirits brains with traumatic force.

“I-I-NO!” North barked as he grabbed the Pooka’s forearms and pushed him away. Bunny panted as he rubbed his hands over his face to dissipate the tension that claimed his nose and forehead.

“Bunny.” Tooth said as she fluttered up to see the two boys. Bunny glanced at her through a small crack between his fingers.

“Tooth?” He grumbled miserably. Somewhere in the back of his head, that little voice of reason noted that he was the Guardian of Hope and Rebirth, so things like this shouldn’t have affected him so badly. The other half of his brain told his voice of reason to go off itself until they had Jack back.

“He’s alright Bunny. Just a little bump to the head. You can see him in a few minutes.” Tooth said as she reached a tentative hand out to brush the worry worn Bunny’s ears out of his face and back to their floppy position behind his head.

“Thanks Tooth.” Bunny said as started to hop around the study impatiently. North glanced to Tooth, who shrugged as she flittered over to perch herself on the back of the large, red sofa. North took his favorite worn red leather chair as he massaged his brow. Between the two Pookas, he could feel his hair growing whiter by the moment.

“Bunny-“ North called as the rabbit stopped hoping for a moment to grab more whiskey laced eggnog.

“Yeah, mate?”Bunny inquired before he threw back another glass.

“Sit. You’re making me dizzy with the hopping.” North grumbled as he relaxed his back against the heavy chair.

“…Alright.” Bunny agreed as he padded his way back to the elongated red sofa and flopped down in front of Tooth, who sighed in resignation. It took a lot of time and patience to be the Tooth Fairy, but her second job seemed to be one of the only two peacemakers in their little group.

“He’ll be fine, Bunny. He’s Jack. When hasn’t he been fine?” Tooth offered as she reached down to rub the fluffy Pooka’s belly.

“He’s- He’s Jack. I can’t help but worry about him. And the whole Pitch fiasco- it’s all just so frustrating.” Bunny admitted as a large green and red blanket was folded around his torso by the iridescent fairy.

“And he’s been on his own for three hundred years. He’s not a little kid.” Tooth encouraged as she brushed the long, stiff ears back. Bunny glanced up at her with a lost look. He didn’t want to lose his Jack Rabbit. He’d finally gotten a small family together after so long, the thought of losing his new best mate was a crushing idea.

“Bunny?” A weak voice came from across the room. Bunny shoved his torso off the sofa with a dampened alertness common only to the weary and restless. Jack stood in the doorway, leaning on the articulate wood carved frame for stability. One of the yetis stood behind him with a proud look glazing his face.

“Jack-“ Bunny groaned as Jack rushed over to the larger Pooka, embracing him as a small moan escaped his throat. Bunny couldn’t help but do a quick once over to check for injuries. The only ones he found were a few scrapes on his legs and arms where the smaller rabbit had landed in the dirt, and one rather worrying gash on top of his head. Bunny took a good look at the crusting over gash, which had been stitched together by one of the yetis.

“Ugh-gerbet-ader” The yeti mumbled to North off to the side of the room. Bunny wrapped the newly cleaned and patched up white rabbit in his blanket, pulling the smaller immortal as close to his larger body as possible. Jack pushed his pink nose into the grey Pooka’s fur, breathing in the comforting scent of the elder rabbit.

“I’m here, mate. I’m here.” Bunny comforted as he pulled the younger rabbit down onto the couch and curled his larger body around the fluffy bunny. Jack allowed himself to be tucked in between the thick backing of the sofa and the larger Pooka.

“And Pitch?” They heard North whisper. Bunny was half listening, but Jack was still too dazed to really focus on the conversation between the Christmas spirit and the yeti. Tooth glided over to the whispering pair of monolithic figures.

“Urer-durbaher” The yeti grumbled. North nodded and Tooth looked concerned.

“And Nature?” Tooth asked, slightly frightened of the answer.

“Ur-daber” The yeti hushed.

“Now?!” North jumped as Tooth hushed him.

“Don’t worry, we can handle her. She just wants Kosmotis and she can give him better care than we can.” Tooth whispered as she pushed the other two out of the room. North looked at her with a bit of concern, but she just motioned quietly to the pair of rabbits curled up on the sofa. North sighed before turning back to the pair and pushing himself past the fluttering fairy.

“Bunny” North said as he approached the cuddling balls of fur. Bunny raised his head and gave a half acknowledging grunt in response. “Let me show you two to the guest quarters.”

“M’ok.” Bunny moaned as he gathered Jack into his arms while untangling himself from the blanket.

“Right this way.” North said as he waved the yeti away and motioned for Tooth to follow them. The quartet moved towards the quiet of the night quarter wing, where the elves and Yetis would rest off their shifts during the last few months before Christmas. The hallways were oddly quiet, with only the distant tinkering sounds of the skeleton crew getting a few toy designs in at the late hour. Each step was made in awkward silence, with Tooth and North unwilling to make enough noise to wake the slumbering white rabbit.

As they reached the empty rooms, North opened the door and let Bunny and Jack into their sleeping quarters. The bed was the same plush set up that they’d rested in the last time Jack was laid up with a royal butt kicking from Pitch himself. Bunny padded his way towards the bed and set the warm bundle on the cloud soft surface. He turned to the other two guardians and smiled. North and Tooth smiled back before reaching over to the turn out the lights as Bunny climbed into the bed and wrapped the heavy covers around both of the furry forms. The wind started to pick up as the night progress, but the two rabbits didn’t notice. Exhaustion from the last week and the current calm was enough to whisk both Pookas into the realm of dreams without Sandy’s magic.


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I should say, I’m not ignoring your reviews and comments! I promise! But it does take a lot of time to respond to most of them, so I just want to say you guys are awesome for commenting, and I love you!
Happy Valentines Day!