Believe in Me

Fading Away

It was silent… no… that wasn’t true. The wind was howling like a stray, lonely dog might, the golden bells that the younger spirits had set up just outside the frosted window as a form of wind chime, blizzard detector as they called it, chiming loudly to the tune. Bunny was surprised that they hadn’t gotten clogged up with snow yet, though for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to feel irritated at the consistent and annoying dings rocking right beside his sensitive ears… Honestly he couldn’t bring himself to feel anything other than a strange, unexplainable emptiness. It had been a month since they had been taken. Why was it now that he was feeling regretful for always complaining about the three that had been yanked away from them? Why was it now that the chance of them not being alive grew by the day and they didn’t have Grey anymore to confirm that Jack, Cloti, and Ilia were alive at all? North was planning so intensely that Bunnymund could almost see his already snow white hair impossibly fading to a lighter shade, the strain on his mind visible simply by looking at the older man. Tooth had left for a bit, claiming that she wanted to collect teeth with her fairies for a few days, probably to clear her head. He didn’t want to believe it, but maybe he was envious at this point that her job occurred every day of the year. While it was more work in situations like these she could run out the door with a decent excuse. He however couldn’t. Easter was in months, as it was around November by now (he hadn’t kept track), and his eggs were already painting themselves without need of his supervision. For the most part he had been ‘helping’ North plan out ways to infiltrate Pitch’s lair, spending most of the warmer days hopping around from forest to city to try and find the many entrances and exits of the vast ‘palace.’ When he said ‘helping’ though it was more or less in the same way that an adult would ask a child to do something that the elder could clearly could do on their own. North was doing all the thinking, he was just attempting to clear his mind and get past the furious bitter waves churning in his gut.

They weren’t going to save Ilia or Cloti. Despite being the one who previously stated that the two shouldn’t have come to the pole in the first place, despite constantly complaining about their tricks and jokes and immaturity, it seemed like he was the one who was taking this hardest. ‘Pitch has too many spirits and if something happens we can’t help any of them. We have to help Jack first. I talked to Manny, he said that Jack is priority since he is guardian and needs to protect the world. I know this is hard… but we have little choice.’ He could nearly hear North’s voice perfectly, repeating the small speech over and over in his mind. North was only trying to do what was right, Bunny had learned over the countless years they had been a group that there was a stable head on those broad shoulders. But that didn’t mean he had to like it. The easter bunny knew that Jack would protest, he would try to refuse to leave without them, he would be angry. Damn, he himself would be angry if Tooth or Sandy or someone was left behind for his sake, why were they supposed to expect for Jack to just not care? It always irritated him when he couldn’t do anything about anything! He was excited to get Jack back but that meant completely abandoning two others that trusted them! Maybe he didn’t want to understand! But he did… it was too risky to take too much time in the lair. If something went wrong or if they took too much time then Jack would be lost as well, whether to death or to whatever other  cruel means Pitch must’ve came up with… that was a bad thought indeed.

Another noise, but like all the rest it remained in his subconscious until a voice was right up in his ear. “I’m back.” The tone was recognizable and easily snapped him out of the thoughts that were plaguing him. “Took a while, any luck? I recon Pitch’s gotta have more than three ways in to that dingy place,” Bunny heard himself say automatically, as if it were a reflex to reply when he hadn’t spoken in possibly hours. Jayna sighed heavily, running a paw over her shoulder to brush back chestnut-colored hair that was probably rubbing at her frostbitten arms. “Thought I found one, looked in, saw three baby foxes lookin’ back at me. Funny how some things can be meaningless and yet…” She trailed off, but he knew what she meant. “Hit you hard,” he finished, feeling himself sigh as well. “Yeah… I’d understand that. North’s said that we should be getting ready to head out, warm up a bit. You’re shaking like a rattler.” Then he was on his feet, his mind on autopilot as he marched firmly from the room. “Hey, Bunny, wait!” but he didn’t… he had to call Sandy afterall and, to be honest, talking only made the guilty feeling in him want to float right up his throat. There wasn’t time for that and there was no way he wanted anyone, her especially, to know that he was emotional. They had to get Jack… only Jack…