Guardian with claws (A RotG fan-fic)

Chapter 10

*POV Anna*

‘Do you believe me now?’ Jack asked quietly, his eyes filling with tears. Wait, what? How could Jack be crying?! He was the one who was always happy! I ignored the fact that I hadn’t even known him for twenty-four hours. I just felt like I had known him for a long time. Which was kind of odd, actually. I looked critically at him, before slowly nodding.

‘Yes, I believe you,’ I answered, seeing the desperation in his eyes. ‘What do we need to do? I don’t have experience with these guardian things.’ Jack didn’t answer. He just looked like the saddest person on the earth, lost here in the park during the egg hunt.

‘It’s got to do something with Pitch!’ Bunny exclaimed after a while. Jack immediately turned to him, a horrified, yet hopeful expression on his face. ‘He was the one who took Jamie, after all,’ Bunny continued.

        They started arguing about what could have happened. I walked over to Sophie, who was trying to get an egg from of a branch; I didn’t understand most of the guardian talk.

‘Here you go,’ I said, handing Sophie the egg. She beamed and went searching for more. Then I walked over to Jamie, hoping he was just pulling Jack’s leg – in a very mean way.

‘Jamie!’ I called over to him. He slowly turned around.

‘Yes, Anna?’ he asked innocently. I looked in his big brown eyes, and immediately saw something was wrong: they didn’t have the happy sparkle they used to have. He looked… older. As in without wonder and everything else the guardians stood for.

        Involuntarily, I took a step back, startled by the unexpected change.

‘Jamie, what… Why did you say you don’t believe in Jack anymore?’ I asked. Jamie raised an eyebrow, an arrogant expression on his face.

‘I never said that,’ he replied. I almost sighed in relieve, but then realized he didn’t look like he cared.

‘Then… why did Jack say so?’ I asked reluctantly, not sure if I wanted to know the answer.

‘Because I really don’t believe in him,’ he answered coldly. ‘I mean, come on. Who would believe in something stupid like a ‘winter spirit’?’

        For a moment, I just stared at him.

‘You did,’ a sad voice behind me answered. But Jamie didn’t hear it. It was Jack. Jamie decided he was tired of our little conversation, and walked off towards his friends. I turned around to see Jack with a heart-broken expression on his face, just standing there, staring in the distance. I still didn’t really like him, but this was terrible, even for him. Especially for him. I placed my hand on his shoulder and turned him around.

‘Come on,’ I said. ‘Let’s go find North to ask him for help.’ Jack followed me without saying a word.

*POV Bunnymund*

This was bad. This was very, very bad. Not only had Jamie stopped believing in Jack, he was now also telling his friends I didn’t exist. And the worst part was: they believed him! They swarmed through the park, telling all of the egg hunters Easter was stupid. And… No way! They believed them! How was this possible?! I saw Sophie happily running around, still looking for Easter eggs. At least one of them still believed in me. And I’m not going to lose my favourite believer!

‘Pssst, Sophie!’ I whispered when she was close enough to hear me.

‘Bunny!’ she exclaimed happily.

‘How's the egg hunt going?’ I asked, smiling. She proudly showed me her basket, with five eggs in it.

‘Wow, you’ve got some pretty ones!’ I exclaimed and she smiled even broader.

        Over Sophie’s shoulder, I could see Jack and Anna approaching. Anna had a worried expression on her face. And Jack… Well, let’s say he didn’t look very happy.

‘See who’s there!’ I said to the little girl in front of me. She turned around and waved. Anna waved back, a small smile on her face.

‘We need to warn North and the other guardians,’ she said when they arrived. ‘Something’s wrong with Jamie.’ Jack sent her an angry look.

‘Something’s wrong?! Seriously?’ he exclaimed frantically. ‘He has stopped believing in me! That’s not wrong, that’s a disaster!’

        Anna raised her eyebrows.

‘I’m trying to help you here, Jack,’ she said coldly. ‘Ever speak to me like that again and you can do it on your own!’

*POV Jack*

My worst nightmare had come true. Jamie had stopped believing. How could he?! After all we’ve been through? And now Anna’s telling me to man up. Well, not with those words, but I could tell that was what she meant. I looked at her, but she didn’t show any mercy. I sighed.

‘Fine,’ I muttered sadly. She nodded, before turning back to Bunny.

‘Do you know how we could contact North?’ She asked. ‘He doesn’t seem the type to have a cell phone.’ Bunny chuckled.

‘We guardians have way better equipment than cell phones,’ he said, a smirk on his face.

*POV Tooth*

One of my fairies flew in, to immediately start buzzing around.

‘Woah, there, little one, calm down!’ I exclaimed laughing. ‘Tell me again, but now slowly.’ She explained how she and four other fairies had traced down Pitch, like I had told them to do when Jamie got kidnapped. She told me how they had found Pitch in his hideout, before the other guardians and I got there. The smile disappeared from my face, when I heard the rest of her story.

‘I need to warn the others,’ I mumbled when she finished. Right at the moment I wanted to send some more fairies away, to gather the guardians, a hole appeared beneath me. Even though we were flying, my fairy and I fell into it.

        When I got out again, I was in North’s workshop. Bunny stood in front of my, holding Sophie’s hand in his paw.

‘Sorry we had to bring you here like this, mate,’ he apologised. ‘But we’ve got some serious trouble.’ He gestured to something behind me. I turned around, to see Jack leaning against the wall. I raised an eyebrow.

‘What did you do, Jack?’ I asked cautiously. Jack looked up and the sadness coming from him surprised me.

‘I did nothing,’ he said. ‘Pitch did.’ I gasped.

‘Pitch?! So he’s really back?!’ I asked.

*POV Anna*

‘Unfortunately, he is,’ I answered. Jamie really had stopped believing. I had decided to not take him with me here. He stayed with one of his friends. I doubted he would have wanted to come anyway. Tooth looked like she was about to panic.

‘This is terrible! What do we need to do?’ she muttered.

‘Well, first of all we’ve got to keep our heads,’ North said, walking in.

‘And we have to wait for Sandy,’ Bunny added. Everyone was surprised when Jack spoke again: ‘And we could search for the new guardian,’ he said shyly.

‘Of course!’ North exclaimed. ‘How could we forget the new guardian?!’

‘But how could we find her?’ Tooth asked worriedly. ‘We don’t know who she is!’

        At that moment, Sandy came flying in. Before anyone got the chance to greet him, he pointed up to the sky. Everyone looked up, to see the moon shining down on us. No not on us. On… me?

‘Uhm, guys? What’s going on?’ I asked suspiciously, trying to step out of this spotlight. Suddenly everyone got an understanding expression on their faces.

‘What?’ I asked, looking from guardian to guardian. When I looked at Jack, I saw he was smiling. Wow. Something really spectacular must have happened. But what was it?!