Rise Of The Guardians - The Life Of A Spirit

Recovery

The voice of his sister kept echoing through the darkness, urging him ever onwards. He struggled to catch up with her, desperate to reach her after so many centuries. But no matter how fast he ran, she was always just out of reach.

"Flee?!" he bellowed, fear spiking in his voice as he stared through the darkness, "Where are you? Flee?!"

"Jack! You have to wake up! Come on! Open your eyes!"

He spun around desperately as the voice changed from that of Flee to...

"Tooth?" he questioned, "What's... what's happening?"

"Come on, mate. Don't give up on us now!"

"Bunny? Where...?"

The darkness seemed to shiver then he was unexpectedly yanked upwards as blinding white light shone down into his eyes and he took a great, gasping breath. And accompanying it was an unimaginable pain in his stomach, so overwhelming that his next breath was stolen by a scream that ripped through him just as the pain did. Hands clutched at him, trying to hold him still, but he resisted, trying desperately to curl in on himself to try and ease the horrific pain.

Through the roaring in his ears, he vaguely registered voices shouting faintly, then something was shoved into his mouth.

"Bite down on this, mate."

Bunny...?

He forced his eyes open and turned to his right to see Bunny clutching his arm, keeping it pressed against the surface of whatever he was lying on. Through the tears in his eyes, he saw Bunny's fear-filled face tightened into a grimace and he said, "I got you. Just take a deep breath. You'll be alright."

Jack took a shuddering breath and nodded slightly, biting down hard on the thing in his mouth.

Impossibly, the pain in his stomach increased one hundredfold and his muffled scream was cut off as darkness once more rushed in to greet him and he welcomed it, once more escaping from the pain and noise of the world.

He was once more dragged back into the world of the living against his will by voices calling to him and he struggled to lift his eyelids enough to see who was responsible. The person hovering, literally hovering, above him was Sandy, slowly moving back down to the ground again.

His eyes drifted shut again but before he could succumb once more, he was unexpectedly tapped on the forehead and his struggled back to wakefulness once more.

"Whaaaat?" he moaned, focusing on more of the room and those who occupied it. Tooth and North were standing at his left, the former clutching his arm in a death-grip. Bunny and now Sandy were at his right, and all were wearing expressions of terror. But most unexpectedly, standing at the foot of this decidedly uncomfortable surface, were the other three seasonal spirits, all showing similar expressions.

His attention was drawn back to Tooth, who seemed to be, slowly but surely, attempting to crush his arm.

"Ow," he mumbled, trying to draw his arm back and she finally released it with a sigh of relief.

"Bloody hell, mate," Bunny groaned, "You scared us to death!"

"What?" he mumbled, attempting to sit up before North placed a restraining hand on his shoulder.

"Slowly," he urged him gently and moved his hand to his back to help him move upright. And as he did, a deep, dull pain in his stomach made him grimace, his hands going to his abdomen which was thickly concealed with bandages.