"Kangaroo."

Bunny stuck his finger in my face and puffed out his chest, "I'm a bunny."

I laughed and slapped his hand out of the way, "Kangarroooo~!"

"Boys, boys!" North laughed, slapping one hand on each of our shoulders. We were all gathered at North's palace, supposed to be talking about current events, but that wasn't happening.

Tooth flitted over to us, smiling, "You two, I swear. Some days you get along perfect, and then other days you can't even be in the same room as each other."

Sandy nodded.

"He started it!" Bunny said this at the same time I did, and we both pointed at each other. I glared at him, and he returned it. North removed his hands, and backed up. Bunny and I stood there for a while, just staring at each other hatefully, before the awkwardness got too much and we bust out laughing. The other's joined, and it wasn't long before we were all trying to catch our breath and were wiping tears from our eyes.

Then we heard something that made us stop on a dime; a very familiar laugh. It was Pitch's laugh.

Our head's swung around, trying to find him, "Over here." The voice came from behind the others and I. Looking back, we all saw Pitch standing there with a zoo full of black sandy animals behind him. There was lions, monkeys, bulls, horses, even an ostrich.

"Pitch! What do you want?" I yelled at him, trying to sound intimidating.

"Oh, little Jack," the name showed that I did not succeed, "I guess you could say I missed you." Pitch smiled and started to walk toward us.

"Stop right there, Pitch." Suddenly, I remembered something... I didn't have my staff. I had left it in the guest room that North had made me in his palace... If this came down to a fight, I was going to be very out powered.

Pitch let out a short laugh, "How scary, Jack. I'm shaking in fear."

"Leave us alone!" Tooth yelled from the right of me.

"Sorry, sweety. No can do." Pitch raised his hand, and quickly flicked his wrist. All of a sudden, the nightmares behind him charged...at us.

A big dog ran past me, and straight at Tooth, knocking her down. I went to turn to help her, but a big mass knocked me on the floor as well. Looking up, I saw it was a Gizzly Bear, which headed straight for North. I scrambled up off the floor, just in time to see both the dog and the bear turn to loose black sand as my team mates rose triumphantly.

Looking around some more I saw Sandy was taking out the nightmares easily, over powering them with his good dreams. Bunny was taking out a crocodille by jumping on it. This made me smile, but hey, whatever worked.

I heard a growling sound behind me, and I wipped around just in time to see a wolf lunge at me and knock me back to the floor. Without my staff, I tried hand to hand combat. I struck at what I thought were weak spots; the neck, the eyes, the nose. Soon, chucks of sand were starting to fall from the beast, and then finally it caved in and covered me with black sand. I stood up from the ground and brushed the sand from me. Looking around, I saw Pitch standing on the railing of the next floor. Even though the bastard was losing, he was still smiling, "Pitch, we'll always win!"

Pitch looked down, and he pointed at me. No.. not at me.. behind me. I slowly turned and found a giant black bull fifteen feet from me. It started to paw the ground and blow air through it's nose.

"Oh, shit." I let out a quiet breath, not really sure what to do. 'I can't just take this thing on with my bare hands like the wolf, now could I? No. So what could I do? Damnit, Jack, think! I could-'

My thoughts were cut short as the bull charged. I barely had enough time to widen my eyes before the bull's forehead went crashing into my midsection. The sound of cracking bones was completely aduible to me. I was knocked a couple feet back and landed on the floor with a thump. The air was knocked from my lungs, and my body was racked with agony.

Pitch laughed in the distance.

'Damnit, Jack, stand up!' I yelled at my body, and soon found myself on my knees, panting. My head beaded with sweat, and my vision was swimming. I could hear the bull getting ready to charge again, and this gave me the adrinaline to push myself onto my feet. I wobbled on my feet, and had to rest my hand on the wall to keep from falling over. Wait.. the wall!

I smiled with confidence, "Alright, bull. Let's dance." And soon enough, the bull started to charge toward me again. At the last second, I jumped to the right, and the bull ran right into the wall. When I picked up myself off he ground again, I saw that only a pile of black sand was left.

"I'll be back." Picth yelled. His face no longer held a smile, and he looked super pissed off.

"We'll be waiting!" I yelled back at him.

Pitch looked down at me and scowled, then vanished into thin air, and what was left of the animals with him.

I swayed on my feet and put a hand to my ribs in an attempt not to jostle any broken bones. With every breath I took, my side seared white hot with pain.

"Jack!" Tooth came wizzing over to me. She looked uninjured, save for a little cut on her forehead, but the bleeding on that had already stopped. "I saw Pitch's bull charge you.. are you okay?"

I wanted to tell her that I was fine and that it didn't hurt that much, but I couldn't bring myself to lie to Tooth like that... "To be honest, I think a couple of my ribs are broken." Tooth gasped, and went to touch my side, but I pulled back before she made contact. The short maneuver made my side flare in agony, and I had to bite back a scream.

"I'm so sorry, Jack.. I wasn't thinking." Tooth hung her head down, and I could see tears well up at the sides of her eyes.

"Oh, Tooth..." I stuck out my hand and lifted her chin up, "Please don't cry.."

"Oi!" Bunny came walking up on my right with North and Sandy beside him, "Wha' are ya doing, makin' her cry?"

"I-" I dropped my hand from Tooth's face, "Um-"

Tooth flew over to the other three guardians, "He's hurt bad!" Tears were now falling from her eyes.

North looked from Tooth, to me. His eyes showed concern and worry, "What happened?"

I looked at all of the others; each showed an expression of curiosity and a bit of saddness, "One of Pitch's nightmares caught me off guard and slammed into me... I'm pretty sure some of my ribs are broken.." As if on cue, a lightning bolt of pain cut across my body, bringing me down to my knees. I laid my head on the ground, and wrapped my arms around my midsection. I was trying to keep from whimpering, but a couple slipped out.

"Jack!" North yelled.

"Frost Bite!" Bunny yelled.

I could hear Tooth crying more, and of course I heard nothing from Sandy.

I soon felt a paw and a big gloved hand on my back. The pain was started to receede, and I could breathe normally now (at least). I started to slowly lift my head up from the ground, and slightly unwrap my arms. Bunny and North both were looking into my eyes with their hands on my back, and worried expressions of their faces. To my right, Tooth was on her knees sobbing with Sandy trying to comfort her.

"Ya alright there, mate?" Bunny removed his hand, and then North.

I didn't know if I was alright so instead I said, "Can you just take me to my room..?"