Disclaimer: DreamWorks owns RotG, not me.

Cold cold cold cold cold cold cold cold-

…What? It had been so cold just a second ago, where did it- no!

Jack shot up, fingers grasping his suspiciously stiff sleeves, and found himself trapped in the confines of coarse, garish red fabric. A few moments of panicked struggle earned him a clear view of the mouth of the sack.

Jack did not exit the sack.

Instead, he listened, and remembered. The memory of being snatched from the woods was very present, as the was the memory directly before of being chased relentlessly, from Burgess to Grusiri and even in the forest. However, Jack was most interested in his most recent memory, dim as it was.

Blinking awake, a harsh smack to his already abused head-

"Ah, that outta do it-"

-knocked onto his back, objects digging into his sides-

"-buy us a few more hours to get everyone, at least-"

-the crack of splintering wood-

-or ice-

-dozing off without truly sleeping.

Jack listened harder and was delighted to find that he could not hear anyone nearby. He crawled cautiously out of the sack and found that his surroundings were much stranger than he could've imagined.

The room was round, the ceiling round, everything was round. The windows near the top of the roof, the door, the footholds in the wall leading to the door, the handles on the dresser, the pile of blankets and pillows in the "corner," the tunnel leading further down into the ground, it was all imperfectly round, like an egg.

Okay, Jack thought, sitting up. The tunnel was obviously not a way out, but he had no idea where the door went. He was clearly alone, the room (house?) he was in at least partially submerged in the ground. And…

And the cold was back, but nicer than it had been earlier, when he had that brief moment of wakefulness inside the sack, before he'd gotten… wherever he was. Kidnapped by those travelers-

The travelers! He was- he'd been caught— they were going to-

Jack took in a breath. He might still have a cover, he just needed to take some more of the praesidium. Yes. That would certainly help. He slung the knapsack off his shoulders, thankful that that hadn't been taken from him like his staff must've been.

The nearly-empty pouch of coins, the extra shirt, extra pair of pants, all soaked; ah, there's the bottle. Jack uncorked it and, uncaring of the burning effects undiluted praesidium created, he took a sip straight from the empty bottle.

Jack's eyes widened, and he stumbled to his feet, dropping the knapsack. A crack marred the side of the wooden bottle, widening into a chip that had taken the tiny carved fox's face by the lid. The lid itself was nowhere to be seen. Jack shook the bottle frantically; it was too heavy to be completely empty. If all else fails, he thought gloomily, he could try to extract the remaining praesidium from his soaked clothes.

He tried to peer into the bottle, tilting it this way and that so that the shadow of his head wouldn't obstruct his view. Giving up, he found a small mirror in the room, egg-shaped and hanging over the dresser. He planned to use the mirror to better see into the bottle but stopped short at the sight of his reflection.

He should've known something was wrong; the frosty-stiff sleeves, the ease with which he moved—he remembered being knocked out again before he could take more praesidium in the sack. And now he couldn't fix himself because the rest of his disguise was frozen inside a cracked bottle!

He covered his face, terrified beyond belief; here he was, captured by a group of what were almost definitely magic-hunters while his only protection—the only restraint for his magic—slowly shattered. Jack peered out at his eyes—brown, but paler than they should be. Several strands of his bangs were white, others graying.

Jack tapped his fingers nervously against the side of the now-useless bottle, accidently sending ice up the crack. His eyebrows shot up. It would only last as long as the ice inside stayed frozen, but it was still something…

The door opened.

"OI!"

Jack bolted for the tunnel.

A brunette girl peered around Bunny in interest, brown eyes searching the room. "That was him?"

"No," Bunny grumbled. "That was a bloody larrikin."

"That was him!" Tooth fluttered around Bunny, beaming. "…probably. We're pretty sure that's him, at least." She hovered at the entrance to the tunnel. "We should go after him."

Bunny hopped down into the room to stand by Tooth. The brunette climbed down after him, mindful of her yellow skirt. North was left standing in the doorway, Sandy hovering just above one of his shoulders and a wizened older man behind his other.

"I will go bring back Jack!" North exclaimed jovially, coming in to stare at the tunnel.

"Yeah, nah mate. I'm the only one who knows the tunnels well enough to find him."

Sandy floated down to flash some symbols in Bunny's face. Sack, boy-figure, large-stick-hitting-boy-figure, spark, explosion.

Tooth dropped lower in the air, shoulders sagging. "Sandy's right; he won't want to trust any of us thanks to you two!" Tooth pointed accusing fingers at Bunny and North. "I mean really, we said not to use a sack, right Sandy- Sandy? Are you-"

The old man, the only one who had not yet entered the house, stroked his long white beard curiously and thoughtfully tapped his gnarled wooden staff against the doorframe. "You think Katherine should go look for him, Sandy?"

Sandy nodded furiously. Girl-figure, boy-figure, sack-with-X-over-it, smiley-face.

The brunette girl tugged at one of her loose curls. "I don't know, Ombric. If he's already afraid then seeing a random stranger in a place that he probably considers hostile may not be the best idea…"

"Nonsense!" North boomed. "Who better to look for him then you?"

Katherine hunched in on herself. Ombric uncomfortably straightened the sleeves of his deep blue robe. Sandy shook his head and slapped a hand to his forehead.

North coughed into the silence. "You, ah, have experience looking for teen boys, yes?"

Bunny smacked him. "Drongo…"

Tooth flit forwards, placing a hand on Katherine's arm gently. "You look about the same age as Jack, and you're very good with… with people, in general. And Jack isn't bad, he's just afraid of magic!"

"Yeah mate, you 'n North are prob'ly the only ones here who could go after 'im, anyways, just because you look the most normal—Ombric might be able to, but-"

Ombric nodded sagely. "I am quite extraordinary."

Katherine straightened. "Okay." She breathed in eyes shutting for a second. "Okay, I'll get my coat-"

"'Ey, my tunnels aren't cold in the slightest."

"Ah, but you are covered in fluff, my friend."

"-I'll get my coat," Katherine said a little louder, "and then I'll go after him." She began climbing the ladder to the door.

Find Jack, and then we'll be able to find Nightlight.

There was a whole other hidden world made up of Bunny's tunnels, with caverns serving various purposes scattered in between. His tunnels didn't span the world just yet, which is why North smugly portaled them most everywhere. The system was truly a marvel, though, and if not for the extensive amount of time Katherine had been able to spend underground she might have gotten lost simply staring at it all.

For some reason there'd been patches of wet ground the instant she'd entered the tunnels, and following it had led her directly to who she assumed to be Jack. He was in one of the higher caverns, filled with flowering trees and thick grass (flattened in some places by the egg golems). It appeared to be open to the sky, though Katherine knew the sky was simply a special illusion the Bunny had worked on forever. Curiously, the wind had made its way all the way down through the tunnels to rustle around the trees and ruffle through the boy's strange brown-white hair.

Jack himself stood farther in, as though he'd meant to carry on but had been distracted. He was staring at the sky, cloak swirling around him.

"Hello!"

His head snapped towards her suddenly, and he moved uncertainly back as though to get away from her, though he stayed put.

Katherine smiled when he still had not moved by the time she reached him. Adjusting the book she carried so that it rested under one arm, she offered him a hand. "I'm Katherine. Sky's pretty, isn't it?"

His hand was freezing. "Yeah it's… kind of weird looking, actually." He shook his head. "I'm Jack."

"One could say the same about your hair, you know." Katherine gestured back towards the tunnel she came from. "It's magic of course."

Jack had gone paler than he'd been before. Something crackled and Katherine pulled her yellow coat (with white trim- to match her favorite skirt!) closer, noticing with surprise a fine coating of ice crawling up the nearby grass. That explains the water trail that led right to him…

"The sky," she clarified. He sent her a stupefied look. "The sky's magic; an illusion. One of my friends put it there so the plants would get the proper sunlight while still being underground."

"Magic- just to help plants grow?"

"We use magic for all sorts of things where I'm from. Art, growing plants, learning… here." Katherine offered her book to him. Jack leaped back when the pages fluttered open on their own, the glow worm on the spine waking up momentarily.

Katherine laughed at his expression. "This is Mr. Qwerty. You can find anything he knows in his pages, and he'll write down anything you tell him."

"That seems…. harmless." Jack seemed stunned at this.

"That's just how Santoff Claussen is." She shrugged, closing the book. "I'm headed back there actually, if you want to come."

The wind circled them, and Jack shifted on his feet.

Katherine looked up for a split second and sighed. "Look, I don't know what's going on with-" she gestured to his hair and the melted ice dripping off the grass "-but Santoff Claussen is safe for anybody- anybody- with magic of any kind. I promise, whatever chased you out here won't get you there."

Jack considered her. "I need to get home," he said finally, a faint note of disappointment in his voice. "My sister- she's the best- I promised her I'd be home in five days to play with her, and it's already been six." He sighed. "I hate breaking promises to her."

"We have some of the quickest ways of transportation," she offered.

One of his eyes struck her suddenly as the iciest of blues, a sharp contrast to the warm brown they'd been when she first saw him. The wind tugged at his cloak, pulling a rueful chuckle from him.

"Might be fun."

He followed her through the tunnels, forgetting completely the bottle he'd dropped.

A/N: You thought it was over. hah. (I'm dramatic now so the last time I updated was exactly 2 years ago on Feb 11, 2018 yeet). Thanks to anyone who read this while I was gone, big respect to anyone who reads a fic that hasn't been updated in that long.

Until next ti...

Actually no. I'm pretty much abandoning this for good at this point (unless I'm oddly inspired oooh) so the only way you'll hear from me is if you come find me. I'm on tumblr and Ao3 now (links and details in bio) under the same name. I don't interact near as much with this fandom anymore (though it will always be my home), so if you're interested in MCU Spider-Man, come find me he's my new fave (but also Squirrel Girl and Ms. Marvel and Ghost Spider and-)

See you around!