Believe in Me

United

Before I start this chapter I wanted to say something in case people were wondering. I haven’t watched Rise of the Guardians since probably January or late December and I’m going off memory to how the characters act. Because of this, they may seem weak in personality or do or say things they wouldn’t seem to normally. This also sort of explains why I use the OC characters somewhat more than I do the actual ones, since I know their personalities generally well and have less of a chance of messing them up. I’m really sorry, I’ll buy the movie as soon as I can afford it, until then I’m really grateful for yall who read my story. I never thought it would get as many reads as it has, and it’s a crazy confidence boost no matter how many times I see the comments, stars, views, all of that that are left. Thank you so much. For now, sorry this update took so long, I started this chapter and neared finishing it before my computer shut down unexpectedly and I lost it all, but I’m retyping it and hopefully making it better than it was before. Once again, thank you so much for reading, have a good night.

The pain didn’t hit until a few seconds after she felt herself slip back into reality from the darkness of sleep she hadn’t realized that she was in. Her skin burned, irritated by a pounding that rushed up her body every few seconds… She was on… a horse? She vaguely remembered wavering between a dream world and the real one, barely recalled Jack picking her up and running to some form of large animal… Yes, it was a horse. She could hear its thoughts, it’s nervousness that came with the anxiety from the figure that was keeping her from falling off the animal in her daze. She could tell it was Jack by how the teen gave off no body heat at all, something she could easily sense from nearly anyone else.

Ilia could tell the horse was rushing, pushing itself slightly to hurry through the trees that she occasionally felt scrape against her arms or claw through her hair and across her cheeks as they flew past. She figured that Jack was probably getting scraped up as well, why was he rushing? She was okay, it hurt badly but she could stand it, they had both been through far worse before. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder what Chaos had written… at the time she was too weary from blood loss, too desperate to care about what the words he had dug into her skin said… but now she wondered. She remembered the words on Grey, the words on Jack… did hers say something about Pitch as well? Chaos had muttered something about not having the right tool to make the scars blacken, she faintly remembered, but there were no doubt scars with how agonizingly deep the engravings were. The air from the horse’s fast movements pressed and slightly rubbed her vest-like shirt against her wounds, the worn and soft fabric feeling more like sandpaper against her stomach rather than the smooth, light texture it was made to have. But her mind was too foggy, her focus too drifting to kept concentrated on anything that might make her forget the pain that was renewed every few seconds in a deep, throbbing system. The horse continued on, the pounding of hoofs and the rustling or cracking of branches behind the only noises that reached her ears, her once unnaturally high senses now muffled to seem weak. Was this how everyone else heard things? Smelt things? She had never considered many advantages to being partially animal, barely noticed them after so many years of it, but if human senses were this weak all the time… well, she was glad she was born how she was.

The horse was slowing; Did it need a rest or had it noticed something that she couldn’t in her condition? Then voices, not from the snow spirit behind her, but from just a few steps ahead, reached her white-furred ears. She couldn’t make out the owners of the voices though, she couldn’t tell who they were, exactly where they were… just that they were there. Despite this, Jack seemed to note the speakers’ identities and deemed it to be safe, and she felt the fabric of his hoodie that had been pressed against her back slide off as he slowly pulled himself down from the animal that had finally made its way to a stop. She felt him reach up and help her unresponsive body down as well. As Ilia opened her eyes for the first time in what felt like hours she noted that the nearly set sun was completely swallowed up by the horizon now, the moon in all of its glory gleaming through a gap between the thick overhang of leaves above them. Her brilliant irises locked onto the sandman, who had made his way to the golden horse and floated up to give the animal a soft pat between the ears. It was amazing to her weary eyes to see two figures so brightly glittering in the darkness of night, a light in the pitch black maze they were trapped alone in. As soon as the thought crossed her mind, the horse turned towards her, bowing its head before literally shattering into golden dust. She should’ve known that it was just a creation of Sandy’s, but she couldn’t help but feel a weak, dull knot in her throat at seeing the thing that she had just thought resembled a light of hope just vanish like that. Maybe it was a sign? No, she wouldn’t think like that. Jack was moving, carrying her forward, not realizing that she was looking up at him in silence. The voices went quiet as well, stopping in what seemed to be midsentence at noting the winter spirit and the sandman coming near to them. Sandy reached forward, holding a branch aside for them to pass through without getting scratched by the pointy, thin piece of wood… then they walked out into a clearing.