Believe in Me

Red Flowers

The golden horse’s fur shimmered in the setting sun along the walk through the trees, its careful trotting pleasantly slow for the wounds that were stinging Jack’s skin. There was no sign of any of the others yet, neither the guardians nor anyone from Pitch’s side anywhere in sight. It was somewhat unnerving, but the forest was probably just bigger than it looked from so high up in the sky… They had to be somewhere. It was nice to have Sandy at his side, the small floating friend doing his best to stay in Jack’s sight. Despite how badly he  hated to admit it, he was still uncomfortably anxious being on his own… He didn’t want anyone to have to worry about him, enduring the pain wasn’t all that bad anyways with the bandages that Tooth worked hard to set evenly and wrap firmly. Even now they didn’t appear to be coming loose, but nothing would have made them with how slow and honestly peaceful the area seemed to be. In the distance there was a low noise, a familiar one. Rushing water. Despite the mostly silent ride, Jack had no unease with turning his snowy head to the sandman. “Do you think someone might be near there? It would be a nice place to wait, wouldn’t it?” Sandy nodded in agreement. The winter spirit knew that if he had to choice a place to wait for someone to come along, he’d choose somewhere that would be noticeable, and the pounding of what seemed to be a waterfall attracted enough noise discretely. Everyone that had been in the sleigh had been pretty smart… It was a false hope and his mind could nearly swear that they would ride there to find the area empty, but a chance was a chance. He gently tugged the reigns of the golden horse to the side and the animal gave a small snort, nodding and going on in the directed direction. Up ahead there was a break in the trees and Jack could just barely see rushing water piling down into a small spring in the distance. “That looks like it,” he exclaimed, his voice holding his usual excitement. Despite the high risk that they had wasted their time, the teen was still highly hopeful. There was something on the ground in front of the clearing too, a figure too hidden by the grass to be seen very well. Jack looked down and noticed that they were walking through a path of flowers now, pure white under the horse’s glimmering hooves. He looked forward and squinted a little… the flowers up ahead seemed to be crushed in some places, and a good number of them were a strange shade of red, contrasting with the pale petals of the rest in the area. That was strange… why were they only red around there? He didn’t quite understand but it wasn’t a question he pondered for too long. They had reached the clearing… Sandy saw it first.

The golden man’s floating quickly sped up, sparkling eyes widening as he rushed to whoever the figure was. They appeared to be on the ground.. were they sleeping? No… A sleeping person’s eyes wouldn’t be squeezed that tight. Then the smell hit Jack, the undeniable smell of blood, the flowers were red… The flowers were red. He jumped off of the horse despite the feeble cry that rushed out of his mouth in pain, the winter spirit then stumbling forward and collapsing at the person’s side, bringing the small girl into his arms and shaking her. “Ilia?!” She was soaking wet, her eyes half open but contained a foggy haze, the once radiating green dimmed down to only barely shine in the nearly completely set sun. Jack could feel the blood running down his hands and wrists, it was fresh enough to have not hardened up,  the girl’s heavy shivering, the unstable and unusually quick breathing making her stomach rise and fall erratically. Her stomach… Her shirt was pulled up and on her skin… Sandy must’ve saw the panic reach Jack as the winter spirit froze, stopping shaking the girl and just staring down at the words. “Property of Chaos” They weren’t black like the ones he had seen on both himself and Grey had been, this had been done with a normal blade… but that didn’t matter. Jack could feel fury, strong, fiery anger building up in a way he never remembered feeling before. She had a deep, large shoeprint going across the side of her face, her body was cold with the water that soaked it, she coughed and a little water ran from her lip… Sandy’s eyes were wide as he himself was frozen, looking from the girl to the pool and figuring out what must’ve happened at just the same time Jack did. But the only thing that didn’t make sense was… where was Chaos? Was this a trap, was he waiting to attack them? No, he would’ve done it already. Jack knew he was mad about Ilia burning his hand so badly but was he really this angry..? Grey had told them that Chaos was no one to be messed with… but this… this was too far. “We… need to get her back,” Jack whispered, feeling his voice shake, a stale, weak tone running from his lips. He rose, his knees quivering under him but he refused to fall, not while holding her. Sandy floated forward, taking the hem of her pale green top and pulling it down to cover the wound. She winced, but the pain of the fabric rubbing against the fresh wound would be better than risking her getting sick from the cold. Being soaking wet like she was in the night with no sign of anyone around to help wasn’t good… Sandy figured they should try to find Wind or Grey first, the two that could transport them the quickest and easiest, but Jack probably didn’t even know Wind had joined them and who knew where Grey was. Bunny or Jayna could make tunnels but those were uneven, bumpy and rough to pass through. The sleigh was gone, the sandman had seen the thing shatter into bits when they were all thrown off… Jack hurriedly laid Ilia onto the horse, who seemed to grow relaxed at her touch, then with minor difficulty climbed on himself. He looked down at the kid in front of him, her pale, shaking arms hugging around the animal’s neck even in what seemed to be unconsciousness… “Let’s go,” he quickly said, nodding to Sandy who nodded in return. Then once again they were off, except they were moving fast, the horse galloping, trampling the white flowers until all that was left in the path behind them were scattered red petals and a blood-tipped dagger they had accidentally passed up in their rush to leave.