Trapped by Fear

Chapter 12

Ah, Elsa!" North greeted cheerfully, "I have for you another task. You did so good with paint the toys. Now we need you to again help paint."
Again? I thought. Jeez if he couldn't make up his mind about the colour then that was his problem. It was okay the first time, but I did not want to paint all those toys again.

"Come now, I take you to eggs."

Eggs? Since when did Father Christmas deliver eggs. Unless... oh no, not that stupid bunny!

Unfortunately, it was that stupid bunny. Before I had time to process, I was in the Easter Bunny's Warren. North had left immediately. Now it was just me and the bunny. What could go wrong?

"Ahem," Bunny began, "the, uh, paints are over yonder an' the eggs are down here. Shall we get crackin' then?"

He had a strange accent that I couldn't quite place. I had read a lot of books growing up since I had nothing else to do and no one to talk to. So I recognized the thing slung over his back as a boomerang. That must mean he was from...Australia! So that was the accent. I had read about different cultures but never experienced them for myself.

"Did ye get all that?" He asked grumpily. I just looked at him without saying anything. Silently I picked up a brush and was about to start painting but then I saw the workspace. Pausing only for a moment, I began to tidy up the workbench. Paints in order of colour at the top, brushes by size and placed neatly at the side, blank eggs to me left, and the basket for the finished ones on my right. I liked to make everything just so. It was nice to have control over little things like that. When it was all organized, I began to methodically paint the eggs.

Bunny tried talking to me a couple of times but I just ignored him and kept painting. Eventually he gave up and sat opposite me to help paint eggs. The minutes ticked by and the pile of unpainted eggs never seemed to get smaller. On the outside I was cool, distant and disdainful. But on the inside I was aabout as strong as a puddle. At any moment he could reach out and hurt me and there would be no one to stop him. He'd done it before. The difference between him and Pitch was that with Pitch, you knew what you were getting. But I had no idea if Bunny meant me harm or not, or how he would bring it about. The not knowing was possibly the worst part. Your mind could imagine all sorts of awful things and you psyched yourself out before it even started. All the things Pitch did to me, he could do it too. I was scared and could barely keep my hands from shaking. But on the outside I showed silent fuming. Maybe he wouldn't bother if I didn't look weak? But truth be told, I just didn't know.

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(Jack's POV)

I dodged another attack from the unicorns. There were holes on the ground from all the places where the unicorns had missed me and their horns slammed into the ground. If their horns could do that much damage to the earth then I definitely didn't want to find out what they could do to me.

One of them knocked my staff out of my hands and it landed across the clearing. Great! Now there were three murderous unicorns between me and my only escape. I couldn't fly without my staff. The unicorns charged and I dodged again. How was I going to get to my staff now? Thinking on my feet, I had an idea. This would either work really well, or it would end with me in unspeakable pain. Sure I was immortal, but that didn't mean I didn't feel pain. Again they charged, and again I just managed to dive out of the way. Running out of options, I decided to try it;

Backing up, to get a running start, I faced down the unicorns. I started running towards the unicorns who were also running towards me. At the last moment I used a unicorn as a mounting block and vaulted over them. In the air, above the unicorns, I reached out and just managed to cut off a piece of mane. Now behind the unicorns, I made a dash for my staff, while the unicorns were trying to figure out where I had gone.

But before I could make my escape, I realized that I hadn't picked up the piece of mane that I'd cut. The unicorns circled me, but now I had the upper hand. I didn't need to get close to them anymore so all I needed to do was grab that piece of mane and get the heck out of there. Springing into the air, I darted towards the spot where I had cut the mane. Just before the unicorns could gouge me to death, I snatched up the unicorn hair and shot into the air.

As I zoomed away from the clearing, I could hear the unicorns angrily bellowing in my wake. Finally I was done. Now to get back to the workshop where I could rant at North for that abomination of a shopping list. Boy, was I glad that was over.

And for the next few weeks, I avoided parchment altogether. Just in case North tried to stick me with another cursed quest.