Bunny shook his head, feeling like he was forcing his way through a fuzzy blanket over his mind, and that was bad, wasn't it? He remembered snow, and even with fur like his you couldn't fall asleep in snow, that was...that was how you died in winter, and Tooth, she couldn't...
With a gasp, Bunny came the rest of the way awake, ears swiveling as he searched for Tooth and North and Sandy. His ears picked up the sound of breathing, identified it as Tooth and North and Sandy, and some small part of him relaxed.
Breathing was good. Breathing meant alive, and they could do a lot with alive.
But what about Jack? Bunny strained but he could hear anything of Jack, couldn't smell anything of Jack, though he could smell the other three clearly.
Okay, don't panic yet, Bunny reminded himself. Jack wasn't at the Sleigh when that freak snowstorm hit, he could still be in the woods.
Bunny sat up and his ears drooped, biting back a few choice words. Then, after a moment, he let them lose anyway, because this was bad.
Tooth and North and Sandy were still unconscious, but all of them were inside a cage formed of thick ice, which explained the chill still biting through Bunny's fur even with the coat. The cage holding them all was inside a shallow valley made of more ice and snow, one Bunny didn't recognize.
"Such language!" a voice Bunny didn't recognize scolded, and he spun to find the source. "And from someone who is supposed to protect children, no less!"
Bunny's ears laid back as he turned and spotted the two spirits. The tall, dark, furry, horned one he recognized as Krampus, mostly from the pictures he'd dug up in North's books.
The other was a man – or human shaped, at least, like a fit man of middle age, his hair gone white and grey, in a severely cut, military styled uniform, like something from the old Soviet Union if Bunny had any guess, but styled in blues rather than tans.
Frost and snow had settled on the uniform in the form of epaulettes and what looked, at first glance, to be fur but was more snow covered in a layer of frost, not smooth frost but jagged, spiky frost.
The man clicked his heels together and gave a short, mocking bow to Bunny, smirking. "General Winter," he said. "I would say it's a pleasure, but we both know I'd be lying."
Behind him, Bunny could hear the other three waking, if slowly. Bunny just hoped they were going to be okay – it was cold in here, but hopefully not too cold for North and Tooth.
"Wha's this all about?" Bunny demanded. After learning about Jack and the why behind Easter of '68, Bunny had decided to try and be more patient with other spirits, but this was the spirit actually responsible for '68 and who had trapped them all in a cage of ice, so Bunny figured that resolution could bugger off.
General Winter continued to smirk as Krampus shrugged. "Eh, the usual," he said. "If no one will appreciate what I do when they have another option, simply remove that option. Children will have to believe in me and appreciate what I bring when there's no alternative."
Bunny stared at him blankly. "Don' you...bring switches fer bad kids?" he said slowly. "An' sometimes whip 'em yerself? But nuthin' fer good kids?"
Krampus straightened in pride. "See? You've already heard of me."
"...tha's not how it works," Bunny finally said, mind still blank at the absurdity of what he'd heard. Maybe if the kids had never known being rewarded for good behavior it would be more reasonable, but... "Ya can't jus' punish kids an' expect 'em ta love ya."
