The Snow Queen: Jelsa *Third Book to Frozen Love*

Chapter 6

"Being brave doesn't mean you go looking for trouble." -Walt Disney's The Lion KIng

North

"Bunny! Where'd you go?" Tooth called out, slipping down the icy tunnel that sloped inward, to a small, dank cave. North had decided to take them to The Snow Queen's last lair, and Bunny had run in without warning. North and Sandy now followed. They all shuddered simultaneously, for the room around them was more intensely cold than outside, even to Guardians. 

And when they landed on the ground,  North searched the room. The multiple layers of blue and white ice that swirled above his head refracted sunlight, resulting in multicolored rays bouncing off the walls and the other Guardians' faces. North would've stopped to admire the rainbow stained-glass window effect if Bunnymund hadn't been nowhere to be found. But he did make a mental note to integrate the design into his ice sculpting.

He couldn't see Bunny, but Sandy did point to a splatter of pastel-colored paint coating one of the dark, uneven corners.
    "Why is he running in blind?" North whispered, in the form of crisp puff of air. He bent down to rub the paint between his fingers. The chalk was freezing cold already. He didn't enjoy having his team so split apart.
"That's not like him," Tooth spoke, mirroring his thoughts.                                                                   Suddenly, a deep sound like that of cracking bones shook the ground beneath them. Sandy jumped a little, shooting a question mark above him. "Guys, that sounded like breaking ice. We should--" A solid wall of ice solidified behind the three of them, successfully cutting them off from the exit with a loud boom.                                                                                                                                                    

 "Well, that's not good," North muttered.                                                                                                        When they turned back around, the back wall had lowered to open into a much larger room. It was utterly bare and made of surprisingly smooth ice; the walls, ceiling, and floor looked like an ice rink. North set off across this ice with great care. Before he had gone even two yards, two walls of ice brick emerged from either side of him, threatening to crush him in between. Quickly, North hurled his huge body forward just before the walls slammed together, coming apart one second later. 

  Every time the walls slammed together, one of the other Guardians jumped through the opening strategically. Sandy, Tooth, and he looked ahead to a spray of sharp icicles shooting across the aisle. The whoosh of the tiny blades was inconsistent and ongoing.

"You'd think we were in an Indiana Jones movie!" Tooth cried, lowering her purple wings. Sandy spread a half-dome Sand shield around them that could be seen through, to protect them. 

"If she does not want us going this way, we are going right way," North grunted, gripping his leathery sword handles. The blades mirrored the smooth surface of the ice, displaying an infinite prism of reflections. He gritted his teeth and ran into the fray, deflecting the darts in the exposed back of Sandy's shield with his swords. 

Though there were several close calls,--North's fur coat was dusted with the frost of crushed crystals--the three of them reached the other side of the darts' path uninjured. 

"That wasn't so bad! We can--," Tooth's upbeat remark turned into a gasp once the floor fell out from below them. The two guys fell into a square hole cut into the floor about ten feet deep. 

"Nice of you to join me." Bunny's long ears rose up from a corner, but he didn't stand up. 

   "Bunny! You are okay!" North spread his arms out in joy. Sandy, however, began inspecting Bunny's leg dutifully. The furry calf was pierced with an icicle tip, staining the skin around it blue. 

   "Mostly, anyway," Bunny told them. "Just a scratch from one of those bloody darts. That's when Sandy pointed suspiciously to a puddle of thick, silver liquid pooling next to Bunny. He scooted away from it.

 "What is that?" North's eyes widened.

   "I don't wanna find out. Especially since it's growing." Even as Bunny said it, the silver liquid's metallic fingers continued to run along the wall slowly. 

   "But if it fills the entire alcove, you guys can just float to the top," Tooth pointed out. 

   "Something tells me..." North urged the other two away from the liquid, and gingerly poked it with the tip of his sword. Immediately, the goo writhed farther up the blade swiftly, bubbling and sizzling. It reached the hilt before North threw it on the floor. With that, the entire sword promptly burst into thousands of fragments. The Guardians stared wide-eyed at the remains silently for a second.

   "Sandy, get us out of here," Bunny pleaded. Tooth nodded and hovered in the air, noting Bunny's grimace of pain; that leg was badly hurt. 

   Pretty soon, Sandy had lifted North and Bunny, one by one, on shimmering clouds. "Was the choo-choo train design really necessary?" asked Bunny. Sandy just smiled. 

   Then, all five of them kept walking down the hallway, with Bunnymund's arm around North's shoulders. To their dismay, the blue veins on Bunny's leg had kept growing even when they'd taken the dart out. And Bunny himself was looking paler every minute. 

   "How can we help him?" Tooth whispered to Sandy. In response, he summoned a picture of falling snow and a crown. 

   "I hope you're right and we can get information off the Snow Queen," she said. Suddenly, Tooth bumped into North's back when he stopped abruptly. She and Sandy followed his astonished gaze to a deep, dark chasm the length of a football field filled with glacier cliffs and caves. Among the sparkling cliffs climbed winter animals of all kinds--owls, rabbits, foxes--all baring sharp teeth and glaring at them.

   North carefully passed a limp Bunny to Tooth's shoulders and whipped out his one remaining sword.

   "Get each other to other side," North told her gruffly. "I'll take care of them."