Imagination Is Everything

Castello D'Ambrosio

The wind rustled the leaves as we made our way through the forest, thin branches of trees towering above our heads. I led them on the dirt path leading towards the home of the Mistress of Despair, where my dear friend Daphne once lived.

But she's gone now.

The walk was silent, with only the sounds of the forest to converse with. No one had said anything ever since we got here. Especially Bunnymund. But then, it was a possibility that the forces that protect and keep this place going had taken a toll on them. Me, I was used to the damp air here; the scent of depression, the very main essence of despair.

I had unsheathed my dagger and begun cutting a shortcut through the path me and Daffy used to regularly take. The path that had been abandoned when none of us had the time to hang out together. I took a deep breath before I swung my knife downwards, cutting through the very last vine, revealing the palace walls.

Castello D'Ambrosio.

We're finally here.

I looked back to check on how the others were doing, and saw that their facial expressions showed nothing but sadness. Here, at the land's centre of life, at the heart of the realm, was where despair hung the heaviest. We'd better make this visit quick.

I beckoned for them to follow, and they trudged along behind me, dragging their feet against the ground.

"I told ya. Ya shouldn't 'ave come," I shook my head. I hadn't expected an answer, thinking that they'd want to save their energy by not talking. But North shook his head while the others looked at me. "We said we wanted to help. And we don't ever go back on our word," Tooth said, determination flashed in her violet coloured eyes as well as in the tired eyes of the other Guardians. I turned away.

So they wouldn't see the small smile that had lifted the corners of my lips.

I hadn't smiled a real, genuine smile at anyone other than children in so long. It was a weird feeling. The tingling sensation wrapped itself around my heart, lifting my spirits a little. It was an odd feeling.

But I found myself liking it.

But I scoffed at the thought, amused. Smiling in the birthplace of despair, a very unlikely thing.

But I turned back to take another glance at them again, and saw that they all had small smiles on their faces.

Okay, it looked very out of place compared to the environment that surrounds us.

We reached the edge of a garden of thorns that surrounded the stone brick walls, indigo coloured roses peeking at us from among the deadly venom-filled spikes. I raised two fingers up to my mouth and let out an ear-splitting whistle, the wind helping to carry it over the tall castle walls. I repeated the same whistle two more times before the drawbridges started lowering themselves down.