Protector of Lost Children

| CHAPTER IV |

Hello, Readers! I hope you like chapter 4! Sorry that it was late this morning. I was a little busy earlier and I forgot about updating this story.

~CSP2708~

| Chapter 4 || Plan of Attack |

The first thing that returned to me was my hearing. A plethora of noises exploded in and around my head, making me feel small and insignificant and in dire need of earplugs. Then, my nerves exploded. Not really, but suddenly, I felt pain like nothing else imaginable all over my body! I groaned, shaking my head back and forth, trying to avoid the pain.

"She's awake!" I heard.

I groaned again. "Too... loud..." I mumbled, clenching my eyes shut tight. Anything to distract myself from everything.

All the voices around me suddenly dropped to whispers. The loud crunches and the grinding of gears stopped. In the absence of the noise, I sighed, relieved. My eyes flickered open.

My heart almost immediately jumped out of my chest. Where was I? A strange warehouse? No. My eyes scanned the room. There were people here. And yetis. And elves. And fairies. What?

Then, almost with an audible snap, my memory caught up with the rest of my brain. The North Pole. The Guardians. Pitch Black. That's what happened. Yeah. Pitch attacked me and that one fellow – Jack? – brought me here. Okay. My heart rate calmed from that of a frightened field mouse to that of a hyper salamander. Don't ask me how I know, but let's just say, it was a weird experience.

Jack took a cautious step towards me, while the other Guardians remained frozen. "You okay?" he asked, tipping one of his eyebrows upwards with boyish charm. My hand subconsciously went up to my hair, running through it.

Sitting up, I swung my bare feet over the edge of the couch that I'd been lying on. My hands felt clammy and I could feel cold sweat on the back of my neck. "What-" I coughed, my voice rough. "What happened?"

Jack chuckled nervously. "You uh... you fainted," he said.

If I looked close enough, I could see a slight blush spreading across his pasty white cheeks. "Is that why my head hurts so much?" I asked. "Did anyone catch me?"

The blush on Jack's face deepened, and as I looked past him, I could see the redness of the other Guardians' cheeks as well.

I focused on Jack, awaiting his answer. "Well?" He coughed, trying to avoid my eyes at all costs. "Um... well it happened so fast... We uh..."

"Didn't catch me, and I hit my head on the floor and now I probably have a concussion, if spirits can even get concussions," I finished for him.

"When you put it that way..." Jack said but stopped himself before he dug any deeper in the hole he'd placed himself in.

Behind Jack, North cleared his throat. "We'd like to ask you question."

I nodded. "Okay. Shoot."

"Can you track people?" he asked.

I tilted my head. What? Why ask that? "It depends on who you want to find and if you have anything I can use to track them. Why?"

North opened his mouth, ready to answer.

"We need to find the daughters of Pitch Black," Jack said, cutting off any response North was about to give me.

I turned to North, still waiting for him to answer. He just nodded along with Jack.

Then, what he had said truly sank in. "What? That man had children?" My eyes would've popped clean out of my head if they weren't attached so well.