Giving Way to the Light

Chapter Nineteen

Because he had made the mistake of only bringing the one snow globe, he had no way to get there, or back to the North Pole. Luckily, the ragdoll woman was kind enough to arrange a ride for him, using the very same sleigh of skeleton reindeer North (and, in turn, Phil) particularly disliked.

When he had finally arrived at the odd Hotel located in the high mountains of Transylvania, Bigfoot— a distant relative to the yetis— had informed him that the group, plus a few of the monsters from the hotel, had gone on a long trip to the mountains.

Being that he had already wasted enough time, he had no choice but to go in after them. Luckily, the redheaded human man at the front counter spoke yetish (or could at least understand it) and gave him a map to the location they were apparently in root for.

Phil was far from out of shape, but he was a rather large mammal with a fair amount of fur, that wasn't too light mind you. It was perfect for the conditions at the North Pole, but not the warmer climate of Transylvania, even at night. The trail itself, was also not fit not a person of his stature.

And so, fur heavy with sweat and clinging tree branches, Phil found himself almost to the spot on the map, when a storm had appeared out of nowhere, and he had almost been struck by lightning. The storm then disappeared as quickly as it had come, but the wind had torn the map from his hands, and Phil had been blown off the trodden path and was now completely lost.

He did hear voices though, and the loud booming voice that could only be North. So, completely exhausted, and running only on steam, Phil trudged towards the voices, breaking every tree branch on the ground and making enough noise to startle any living creatures the other direction, but he was just too tired to care. The voices grew louder and carried a sense of urgency, but he could not quite make out what they were saying.

Finally, he broke through into the clearing, only to have a screeching, skeletal bat attack his face.

Phil was not having a good day.

Bunny was the first to hear it. His ears jerked to attention, and he turned swiftly in the direction of the noise.

"What's that?" he asked. The rest of us quieted down, and strained to hear what his delicate ears were picking up on. The bat was next to pick up the noise, and must have cued into the tenseness of the situation, because she started bristling defensively. Slowly, I myself was able to pick up on the loud clomping of heavy footstep and breaking tree branches.

"What is it?" Mavis asked, also staring off in the direction of the intruder.

"Someone's makin' there way towards us. They migh' naht be friendly," Bunny said, drawing out his boomerangs. I eyed them wearily, completely aware of how much they actually hurt, and hoped that the person on the receiving end of them actually deserved it this time.

Everyone else tensed, and I almost didn't notice the little bat plop itself down on my shoulder, bristling like an angry cat.

The crunching and stomping grew louder, until finally, we could make out the silhouette of the rather large and hairy thing coming upon us. Were those horns on his head? It stopped, as if it were catching its breath, and finally stepped into the moonlight.

The moment it was visible, the bat on my shoulder zipped right into the face of the "intruder," squeaking angrily, and hitting him in the face with her wings. The surprised intruder, one of North's yetis it turned out, started panicking and waving his hands around, trying to rid himself of his attacker. She wasn't actually doing anything to hurt him (I didn't know how I knew she was a girl, I just did), but she was giving him a good scare— enough for him to crash to the forest floor with a tremendous THUD.

"Mini Bat!" Jack F. said, rushing over to pull her away from the poor yeti. "Calm down, he's a friend!"

The bat paused in her assault, and glanced up at the frosty spirit, suddenly looking significantly less terrifying. She glanced down at the yeti, then back to Jack F., and then to me, for some reason— as if she were waiting for instructions.

I nodded, and she let the yeti be, abandoning him for my shoulder once again, rubbing her face against my cheek and squeaking happily as if to say, See? Didn't I do a good job?

"Phil!" North greeted cheerfully, helping his furry friend to his feet. "Vaht are you going here?"

The yeti coughed, trying the catch his breath, and pulled a few broken branches from his thick wool hide.

"Bugga ragga rah," he puffed.

North glanced at me then back to Phil, as if making sure I couldn't understand.

"Are you sure?"

"Brarh."

North clapped his hands together. "Vonderful! Vera, you hear dat?"

"Heard it," I said. "Didn't quite understand it though."

"Christopher Robin iz finally awake!"

Hope and joy, the likes of which I had never felt before, soured in my heart, and for some reason, tears prickled my eyes. "He's awake!" I turned to Jack F. who was looking just as happy, and for some reason I felt the need to inform him again. "He's awake!"

"Yeah," he responded, sounding equally choked up, and suddenly I felt the need to hug him. I didn't know why as I certainly wasn't one for physical contact, but it just felt right for some reason, so I did. I hugged him and he flinched in surprise, but before long he hugged me back.

"He's awake," I chanted. "He's awake, he's awake, he's awake!" I let go of Jack F., who I failed to notice was blushing blue, and went to hug whoever was closest, who just happened to be Bunny. He had been smirking while I hugged Jack, but his ears perked in surprise when he saw me rushing to him next.

"He's awake," I said again, giving him a hug as well, and before moving on to hug Sandy who looked thrilled at the prospect, and held his arms open wide. "He's going to be okay!"

Later, I would look back on this event, and wonder what in the world had possessed me to go around and hug everyone in the clearing (whether they wanted it or not), but at the moment that it occurred, I seemed to have no sense of reality, so I could hardly be held accountable.

"We need to go see him!" I said finally, my wings shuffling on my back. They were itching to fly, and I needed to see for myself that Christopher Robin was going to be okay. "We can go see him, see if he remembers anything. If he remembers what the Wanderer looks like, that might narrow down where we should search! We need to go see him right now, and I—"

The wonderful moment came to a screeching halt, as a familiar shiver shimmied its way down my spine, and throughout every feather on my wings. Everyone must have noticed my sudden change in demeanor, and Dracula and Bunny were eyeing my suddenly puffed up wings.

"Wanderer..." I muttered, just loud enough for everyone else to hear. "There's a Wanderer in these woods."

  ****I DO NOT OWN DREAMWORKS, RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, DISNEY, WINNIE THE POOH, SLENDERMAN, HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA OR ANYTHING ELSE!!!!! JUST THE STORY PLOT!