Rise of the Guardians: Burning the Phoenix

Chapter 3: When Are We?

The guardians clambered to the ground, falling on top of one another in a four person heap. Tooth groaned, flicking one of Bunny’s ears out of her face. “Anyone got a clue as to when we are?”

“No,” North grunted as he stood up, causing the others o fall off of his bulky form “But looks familiar. We near Jack’s pond.”

Sandy made an image of a clock and Pith above his head.

“How far did Pitch go?” Bunny asked for the mute man. “He could have gone to any time to get rid of Jack.”

“Perhaps needed Jack not be guardian. Not know of his existence?” North suggested. Suddenly, an exclamation point appeared above Sandy’s head. He grabbed North’s arm, tugging it enthusiastically while pointing behind the group, a barrage of dream sand exploding into snowflakes above him. The gang turned around to see what had grabbed the silent man’s attention so fiercely.

There stood Jack, or what looked to be Jack. Both his hair and eyes were a shade of brown and he wore old clothing, completely different from his usual hoodie. He was carrying a basket of breads and was busy chatting with a small girl.

Without a single moment of hesitation, the guardians dispersed, hiding amongst the greenery before they could draw the attention of either mortal. They seemed to be successful in this, for neither human Jack nor the girl paid their directions any mind as they continued on their way, leaving the gathering of guardians just as fast as they had entered it.

“Guys,” Tooth whispered as she and the others slowly fled their hiding place. “Pitch didn’t just come back before Jack became a guardian.”

“He came back to before Jack as even Jack Frost.” North stared after where the mentioned by had gone. “He wants to take him out before Jack can even defend himself.”

“Of course,” Bunny hissed. “That is what that bloody bugger loves doing most; hurting those who can’t fight back.”

“We have to save him!” Tooth exclaimed.

“We need to find Pitch,” North said “We don’t know where or when he plans to strike and we need to make sure that we are not seen by any civilians.”

Sandy created a picture of jack with his sand and an arrow pointing to it.

“Sandy’s right. We need to keep an eye on Jack.” Bunny crossed his arms over his head.

“But we have to keep out of sight,” Tooth insisted. “We don’t know whether the world will be able to see us or not. We really should have gotten some answers from Grandfather Time before coming back here.”

“Too late to be talking about too late.” Bunny patted Tooth on the back. “I guess that we will just have to stay I the shadows until we find the shadow man.”

“Or you could turn around and find the ‘shadow man’ now.”

The group spun around, their hands immediately finding their way to their weapons. Tooth’s wings fluttered as she prepared to take flight and her feathers bristled. Long stems of golden dust formed a pair of whips for Sandy to hold.

Pitch held up his hands, showing them to be void of weapons. “I didn’t reveal myself to fight you. I doubt that it would aide me at all to take you out, seeing as you may just accidentally help me in my mission.”

Bunny snarled, baring his teeth threateningly. “Like we would ever help a bugger like you, Pitch!” He held up his boomerangs a little higher.

“We would never help you destroy Jack!” Tooth hissed.

The guardians were taken aback when Pitch sudden burst into laughter. ‘Destroy Jack?” he repeated. “Who said anything about wanting to hurt Jack?”

“But that is vhat you have come back here to do isn’t it?” North questioned. “To destroy the Jack of now so that there will not be a Jack of tomorrow?”

“Of course I didn’t expect such simpletons like you to understand.” Pitch started to back up into the shadows of the trees. “Only one has come close to being my equal but sadly your stupidity had already poisoned his beautiful mind before I could get my grasp on it.”

“Leave Jack alone!” Tooth shouted, soaring towards the smirking man. Pitch sent her a wink before falling into the shadows, disappearing as if he were never there in the first place.

“So now we at least know that Pitch is around,” Bunny muttered. Sandy held a hand up in the air. His sand formed an image of a snowflake and hands crushing it before a large question mark formed. “Sandy is right. Why didn’t Pitch attack Jack when he just walked by?”

“Maybe he knew that we were near and too strong for him?” North stated with a shrug.

“But he would have had the moment of surprise. In that amount of time he could have seriously injured Jack, or worse, so why didn’t he?”

“He did say that he doesn’t want to hurt Jack.” Tooth made her way over to the others.

Bunny rolled his eyes. “You can’t seriously think about talking what Pitch said to heart, right? He was just saying that to trick us into not going after him or something. There is no way that Pitch just came back here in time to take in the view.”

“Ve shouldn’t be arguing with selves,” North stated, stepping between the two and sheathing his swords. “Ve need to go to Jack. Now that ve know Pitch is here, ve need to be keeping close eye on him.”

Bunny sighed. “North is right. Let’s ignore what Pitch said for now. It is more important to make sure that Jack is safe rather than to question I what Pitch said was just a load.”

“I swear to man in moon that he will not touch a single hair on Jack’s head,” Tooth hissed, clenching her fists tightly. “Or else I am not going to be able to pay for all of the teeth that am going to knock out of his mouth.”