My Sister's a Guardian (RotG Fanfiction)

Chapter 29: As We Return

(Content/trigger warnings for this chapter: anxiety, children in peril)

**Isabelle**

Fear has a way of stifling you, cutting thoughts from your mind. It had never occurred to me that most of my family might be in danger from Pitch, aside from Zachary during the Fear Angel attack. I'd known Ranya would be; even the mist only went after her. I'd assumed she'd win, though. And Zachary was a small child, far too young to be involved in any of this.

In that moment, I was numb. I dropped my cookie.

Dakota didn't fight Bunny being in her room and lowered her hands. Ranya and I didn't battle being taken home, either. We retrieved our coats and shoes from downstairs.

"The Watcher just appeared out of a shadow, grabbed Zachary from his bed, and teleported away," Bunny explained once we'd returned, and he directed us to the gaping mossy-patched hole. Dakota stood to the side frowning deeply. "We don't for sure know where he went, but we're assuming Pitch's lair. Just hop on in." He gestured to the tunnel.

Ranya jumped in first, and then I sat on the edge and pushed off. We slid the short way back home through the dark, slippery tunnel lit only with patches of sunlight, and then we flew out of a hole in our living room floor and crashed onto the coarse black carpet. The air smelled of nothing.

North, Mom, and Dad were talking off to the side, but North's eyes widened and a grin broke out on his face when he saw us. Mom, too. Dad frowned but quickly replaced his expression with a grin of his own. Both my parents' eyes were glazed over.

"You're all right!" Mom said, wrapping my sister and me in a hug once we'd stumbled to our feet. Dad joined us. Bunny hopped out of the tunnel, and it twisted shut behind him.

"Where were you two?" Dad asked my sister and me. His voice sounded a little off, forced; he was acting. Ranya had told me he was helping us.

"At some girl's house," Bunny said.

No one said anything after that. No one yelled, or scolded, or accused us of knocking out Tooth and Jack. They were just relieved we were safe.

"We have to save Zachary," Ranya said once the hug broke up, straightening her back. But her eyes were wide, scared. "Just teleport to the lair and snatch him." She looked pointedly at North, who I remembered had Snow Globes that could create portals to anywhere.

"We just sent one of Tooth's Mini Fairies to search the lair in secret and find out exactly where he is," North replied. "Sandy, Tooth, and Jack are still out searching for you two." He gazed at Ranya and me. "You look tired. Get some sleep in the living room where we can keep an eye on you. We will talk later, after the Mini Fairy returns."

Outside, the sun vanished, sliding uncontrollably behind the horizon.

(A/N: If you're enjoying this, please vote, comment, add this story to your library, and follow to support me! And you can still join my Discord server! Join to talk about RotG and my and other fanworks, share your own RotG fanworks, and make friends with like-minded people, including me! Copy and paste this link to join: https://discord.gg/eWxEj596 (Go to the latest chapter for a link that works; Discord disables them after a week))