House Call ch. 1

                  I trudged through my warren angrily, following the lightly frosted trail that the winter spirit leaves behind him wherever he goes.

            “I swear when I get my paws on him…”  I said muttering under my breath. After following the trail for a few more minutes, I finally could see his figure ahead in the distance. I narrowed my eyes; I was growing tired of Jack coming and going whenever he pleased unannounced. Freezing anything he wished, and disturbing the warrior eggs; I had too many complaints to count from them relating to Frost. It was about time I set the kid straight.

            I began walking towards him, closing the distance between us so he couldn’t make a quick escape. I smirked; it was about time I finally nailed down on him.

            “Jack! We need to talk. I am sick and tired of you just wanderin’ in here whenever ya want unannounced. Not all of us have time to waste playin’ your stupid games and whatnot- Jack, are you even listening to me?”

            Jack had stopped walking, but hadn’t turned around to face me. I continued walking towards him anyways, getting angrier the closer I got.

            “Frostbite! Listen here you ungrateful-” I stopped myself midsentence as the immortal teen slowly turned around to look at me. I simply stared in shock.

            He was hunched over, clenching his right side and leaning on his staff heavily. His head lifted to look me in the eye, and I could see evident bruising all over his face, perhaps even a black eye. I saw tears streaming from his eyes, freezing half way down his face as I noticed his body shaking. The part that disturbed me the most however was the dark, deep-red spot bleeding through his blue hoodie that lay underneath his hand he was using to grab his side.

            My mindset instantly changed from punishment to concern, and guilt pushed itself into my mind. I ran forward just as Jack began to collapse and caught him in my arms. I looked down at him.

               I carried Jack to the main quarters of the warren carefully, and laid him down on the closest thing I had to a bed; an elevated patch of fresh, soft grass. I quickly called a few of the eggs to me and ordered them to gather up all the medical supplies they could find. I then turned my full attention to Jack.

            I looked at the red stain on his hoodie, and decided it had gotten larger since I first saw it. Concern and worry flustered my stature.

               The wound must be deep and new. But who could have done this to Jack? The only person who could have done it is… No, it’s impossible. He’s gone; at least he should be, for a little while longer.

               I hesitated as I went to lift his hoodie to look at the wound. What was the right thing to do in this situation?

               “Should I contact the other guardians before treating him? No, what if it takes to long for word to reach them, and Jack gets even worse?” I started to pace around the small, dimly lit room. I hadn’t needed to deal with an injured companion in so long; I had forgotten my common sense when it came to stuff like this. I quickly shook myself out of it.

           “Treat him first; see the damage. Then contact the others. Yes, that sounds good.”

           I walked back over to the unconscious winter spirit. It seemed as if he was paler then he was a few seconds ago, if that was even possible. I needed to treat and close up that wound quickly; he was losing too much blood.

           Jack may be immortal, but if he sustains enough injuries… the Man in the Moon may take pity on him. I closed my eyes and shuttered; the thought of losing Jack broke my heart. No matter how much the kid aggravated me, he really was a good person. He was like family now.

           I looked behind me at the medical supplies the eggs had gathered. It was time to get started. I hopped over and searched through the items. I smiled as I found the gauze, anti-bacterial gel, and the sewing equipment. I gathered the items in my arms and walked back over to Jack, laying the items near his head. I looked over his head; the bruising seemed to be minor, a few scrapes here and there. I decided I would come back to his head; the blood stain on his hoodie made me worry about that wound more. I swallowed and sighed nervously before taking off his hoodie.

           After I had gotten it off him, I blinked, making sure I was seeing right.

           I had expected the deep, bloody wound in his side. The stain on his hoodie had already notified me of that. What I hadn’t been ready for were the multiple cuts, scrapes, gashes, and bruises that lay across his abdomen. The skin appeared to already be scarring; how I didn’t know. The injuries couldn’t have been more than a few hours or at most a day old. I turned my head away for a moment, recollecting myself before turning Jack onto his good side. I quickly regretted it.

           On his back, the cuts and bruises were similar to those on his abdomen; except for the fact that they fit together like letters, spelling out something, or rather someone’s name.

           Pitch Black.

           I cursed under my breath before going to work attending the boy’s injuries. The scarring had to be old; we had defeated Pitch months ago. It had almost been a year, actually. Jack must have simply kept these injuries a secret, not wanting to worry us at the time. Or at least that is what I hoped.

           Where else or who else could Jack get injured like this? I heard the little voice in the back of my head point out; the question ran through my mind. Was Pitch really back so soon? We were sure he would be weakened for much longer! He had really taken a beating. But if he was, why is he targeting Jack? Because he had refused to be on the Nightmare King’s side?

           Why single Jack out? Sure, he may have a done a lot during the battle, but Sandy gave Pitch the worst of what he sustained. Not that Sandy deserves this, not at all.

            Shortly after finishing attending to all his wounds, I started to make my way out to my own quarters when I heard Jack coming around. I spun on my heels and hopped over to his side, crouching down to meet his eye level.

            His face contorted in pain, just now registering the injuries on his body before he opened his eyes partially. He looked at me and tried to sit up.

            “S-Sorry for coming in un…unannounced. Y-Your warren was closest…” I put up my hand to stop him and gently pushed him back down.

            “Never mind that, I overreacted. You shouldn’t talk, ya lost a lot of blood. What happened? Were you attacked? Nod if yes.”

            Jack nodded.

            “Do you know who it was?”

            The winter spirit looked up and to the right for a moment before shaking his head. I sighed. He must have gotten hit from behind.

            “Alright, now you just rest, okay mate? I’m gonna contact the others. If ya need me, just, uh catch one of the egg’s attentions. Okay?”

               He nodded before settling back down. I looked at him and sighed before walking out. A feeling of dread loomed over me, and I looked back in at the winter spirit. He was already asleep, a look of peacefulness on his face, and I could see his chest rising up and down steadily. I shook it off. I was getting worried over nothing. Jack was going to be fine, and I needed to go contact the others. But first, I wanted to get an idea of what or who had attacked the boy.

               I headed to another part of the warren, following what was left of Frostbite’s trail.  Perhaps if I follow this, I’ll find what attacked him. I followed it for a couple of hours; Jack must have really gotten lost. Not that I could blame him, it must have given him a splitting head ache trying to focus with his injuries. As I walked, I contemplated who could be behind this again.

               I hoped dearly that it wasn’t Pitch. We didn’t need to deal with him again so soon. I continued to walk, following the thin layer of frost that covered the ground before coming face to face with a side of the warren. I looked around, trying to see which tunnel Jack had probably come out of. I shrugged and tapped my foot on the ground.

               I opened all the tunnels and started to examine them when the feeling of dread returned to me. I lifted my foot to try and shut the tunnels when a dark shadow swept past me, menacing laughter echoing throughout the area. I grabbed my boomerangs and got in a fighting stance, just as the shadows began to come together and form a black swirling mass I could only guess to be the Nightmare King. I narrowed my eyes and raised my arm to throw the first boomerang, only to find that the figure wasn’t attacking. Actually, the dark sand had stopped swirling, and I still couldn’t see the figures features.

               Well, it’s definitely Pitch. He must be too weak to completely reform his body. Good. I stared at the dark figure, waiting for it to speak.

               Ah, Bunnymund. How’s Australia been? The weather good now that you finally have that winter spirit as an ally?

               The grip on my boomerang tightened at the fact of Pitch even daring to talk about Jack right now. “What do you want, Pitch?”

               The shadow fazed a little as laughter rang out again. What do I want? I do not want anything, from you anyway. I simply came to finish what I started. That boy is mine, Bunnymund. I marked him the day you “guardians” thought you protected all the children and defeated me. It seems you forgot to protect one child, however.

               I tensed up; Jack had been with us almost the entire battle. When could have Pitch possibly marked Jack? “What do you mean ‘marked’?”

               Do not pretend you don’t know. You must have seen it while you dressed his injuries. I scratched my name on his back, letting my nightmare sand seep into his blood. Sure I could have simply let the sand dissolve into him, but that would have been too painless. I got to see him suffer, and yet he doesn’t even know the full extent of what that really did to him. Alas, he’ll know soon enough. The shadow seemed to straighten itself out before lifting off into the air, returning to a swirling dark mass. I bid you farewell, Bunnymund. All of a sudden at least a dozen nightmares appeared around us, seeming to form out of nowhere. I turned around sharply, trying to think of the best action to take. Before I could get a word out, the swirling mass of black sand zoomed away from me in the direction of my quarters.

               I cursed under my breath as the nightmares began to swarm and attack me. I was so furious with the Nightmare King and with myself for leaving Jack unattended that pushing through and destroying the creatures was a breeze. As soon as I had cleared a path through Pitch’s creations, I made I break on all fours for the warren. I could still see the black mass of swirling nightmare sand; Pitch being weakened and split in two areas at the moment must have taken more out of him than he had anticipated. I thanked Mother Earth for that and raced past him inside, dodging the eggs as they ran around in a panic. I stood up and turned into the room I had placed Jack. My heart began to race as I realized he was tossing and turning in his sleep, kicking out at nothing.

               Nightmares; Pitch must already be trying to work the sand in his system. I need to wake him up and get him out of here! I jumped over to his side and began shaking him as gently as I could.

               “Jack! Jack, mate it’s just a dream! You need to wake up!” He didn’t respond to me at all. He began to yell out, flailing his arms. I sighed and slapped him across the face; his eyes shot open. He looked at me in a daze before putting his hand to his cheek. I grabbed his staff and shoved it in his hands before lifting him up in my arms.

               He was startled and tried to get out of my grasp before grabbing his side; he probably was going to be in pain for the duration of the ordeal. “Wha-”

               I twisted around and began to run back out. “No time to explain; I gotta get you outta here. We need to make it to the surface.” Thankfully Jack stopped moving and nodded, confused. I ran through the halls of my quarters before turning on my heels again to make a sharp turn out the door when the shadow appeared in front of me. I could now see Pitch’s bright yellow eyes staring at us. I stopped and stared at him and the sand began to engulf the exit.