Frozen Chains

Chapter 5

Tooth crept quietly through Pitch's lair, shivering. She didn't like it there. It smelled of fear, misery, and strangely enough, blood.

The Guardians had been searching for a while now, but Pitch seemed to have made a few changes to his home since the Guardians had been there last. 

The tunnel had led them to a large cave in the ground, as usual, but it was much bigger. There were many different hallways, which branched off into smaller caves, all filled with Nightmares. 

Anytime a Nightmare confronted them, they had had to destroy any of them that were nearby, so they wouldn't report back to Pitch, who seemed to be out for the day.

"Why do they just not come out?" North asked, "Do they not want to be rescued?"

Bunny sniffed the air, and then frowned, looking troubled.

"What's wrong?" Tooth asked concernedly, a question mark appearing over Sandman's head.

"Crikey. I smell something here," said Bunny reluctantly, "Something that doesn't belong."

"What?"

"It smells like... It feels  like... Hopelessness." Bunny's green eyes reflected worry. "Maybe this is a little more serious then I thought."

"We must hurry." North agreed.

Tooth bit her lip with worry, and continued to fly, moving closer to Sandman. 

"Hello?" She called, "Um, hello? We're here to help you?"

No answer.

"I don't think that they're in here." Bunny said, "I bet ya they're in a cage or somewhere else hidden away."

Tooth ducked under a low opening and resurfaced in an entirely different place. There was a globe that looked exactly like the one at the Pole, only it was black. Nightmares swarmed in the high ceiling like bees in a hive.

Dried blood covered the floor.

"Duck!" North pushed her head down, saving Tooth from a hit from an attacking nightmare. Bunny hit it with a boomerang, and it dissolved into dark dreamsand.

The other Nightmares, sensing the destruction of one of their numbers, lunged for the Guardians.

Sandy hit them with golden dreamsand, turning them into good dreams, also making a shield for the rest of the Guardians to hide behind.

Well, Bunny and Sandman usually attacked from a distance. Sandy could shoot blasts of dreamsand, and Bunny attacked by throwing his boomerangs.

But Tooth? And North?

Well, North used swords, so he needed to be close. Tooth though that she had the best weapon of all, though, which was hand-to-hand combat. Unfortunately, this meant that they couldn't get behind the shield, because they needed to be up close.

Tooth didn't remember mush of the fight. Just that she did a lot of kicking and punching, and also the feeling of dark dreamsand getting in her feathers and digging into her skin. At one point, she looked down and saw that one of her toes was broken, but didn't really feel it because of the adrenaline rush.

Before she knew it, they were surrounded by piles of dark dreamsand that had once been Nightmares, and golden butterflies and birds that had once been the beasts.

"Now... What...?" Tooth gasped, her chest heaving.

"Take a minute... To catch your breath." Bunny said, leaning against the wall.

Sandman sat down, the quickly got up again, stepping around the dried puddle of blood. 

"How fresh is this?" Tooth asked, touching it with her foot.

North inspected it. "Maybe two or three days."

"By the smell of it," Bunny agreed, "I'd say the same as-" Then he stiffened, his ears sticking straight up, swiveling in different directions.

"Bunny?" North asked quietly.

"Shut up," Bunny hissed, "Stay quiet, will ya? I found who we're looking for."

North glared at him but stayed quiet. Sandman scanned the room.

"I can hear their breathing bouncing off the walls. There's a small crack in the wall that they're hiding in." He explained, "They don't wanna be found for some reason."

Another question mark popped up above Sandy's head.

"What do we do?" North translated.

"Maybe... Let me talk to them. Stay behind me so they know you're there, but don't move to suddenly or anything. Just in case." Tooth suggested.

They nodded.

Bunny pointed in the direction of the two boys' hiding place, and she approached it quietly.

The crack in the wall was small, but you could see easily into it. The only thing was that if Bunny hadn't told them where it was, the Guardians never would have seen it in all the darkness and shadow.

Peering inside, Tooth saw two forms.

She had to stifle a scream.

Both of them were skin and bones, covered in blood, and obviously terrified. One of them had black hair and a tattered black hoodie, covered with burns and deep cuts, some of which were bleeding. His face was bruised, marked by angry hands. One arm was broken, hanging useless at its owners' side. 

The large blue eyes were lifeless, pale in the darkness, devoid of feeling, and dead.

The other looked exactly the same, save that his hair was silver and his hoodie was blue. It was easy to see that they were brothers, twins even. Both of his eyes were bruised black, small cuts littered his face, the tips of his hair red with blood. He had as many burns and cuts as his brother did, his own arm also broken. 

His eyes were brighter then his brothers', though with panic and fear.

"Oh my God." Tooth whispered.

The boys jumped. The one with dark hair slowly pushed the other behind him.

Both were trembling. Both were barely breathing. And both were terrified out of their minds.