Rise of the Guardians 2 - After the End

Forgotten History

"Alright, I'm 'ere. I came as soon as I saw the message." Bunny bounds into the room. "What's the problem?"

Sandy arrives a second later, question marks forming above his head.

North steps forward to explain, "You know how there was attack on Jack's room?"

"Yeh," Bunny responds cautiously, eyes darting to me for a second.

"Well," he pauses to gather his thoughts, "there is reason to believe that Mother Nature is the one to blame for the attacks."

Both Bunny and Sandy don't respond for a moment. Sandy looks down. Finally Bunny speaks up, "You, you can't be serious." He points at me, "Has she even met Jack, ever? I've barely met her a handful of times. Why in the world would she be involved?" he babbled.

"You just have to trust us." North instructs.

Sandy still is silent. I go up to him, noticing him starting to drift to the side. "Sandy, do you believe us?"

He looks up. After a moment, he nods. Images begin flashing above his head, too quickly to tell what he's saying. I call everyone else over. "Okay, Sandy, take it slow this time."

An image of a clock turning backwards appears. "Oh, yes!" North interjects, "Sandy is much older than us; he may have more background on Mother." Sandy nods in agreement. Another image begins to form... It's Pitch.

My heart skips a beat,"W-what, this still has to do with Pitch?" I stammer in disbelief. "He's gone, for good." I state.

Sandy then flashes an image of Mother and Pitch next to each other.

"So they had some kind of connection?" Tooth thinks aloud.

"Of course!" North begins pacing, "Pitch and Mother are oldest of us all, they've been around since very beginning," he stops, "they share a past."

The room is silent, even Sandy stops. The words sink in. I ask, "How much of a past?"

North's eyes widen, "Follow me." he says and suddenly starts walking away. We follow hence.

He leads us through the workshop, yetis look up from their work as we pass, but not paying attention further than that. We begin to wind through hallways I never knew were there till now. I look to Tooth as we turn down an even more obscure hall, she shrugs as the walls get plainer in appearance.

I'm about to speak up when North beats me to it, "I can't believe I completely forgot about this. It's been thousands of years..." We round the corner and meet an ornately carved wooden door, greatly contrasting the plain surroundings. He grabs the handle, but doesn't pull or push it. After a moment, it begins to glow with a golden light, only then does North push open the door, letting us in. We follow single file through the door into a high ceilinged room, the walls completely lined with filled book shelves, floor to ceiling. We gather in the center of the room. North turns to Sandy, "It's been awhile since we found ourselves in this room, eh?"

He nods in agreement, gazing around the room and smiling nostalgically.

I look up from the center of the room. In the ceiling is a perfectly circular window, from which you can only see sky. The setting sun bouncing rays of orange, gold, and purple into the otherwise dim room. "What is this place?" I have to ask, my eyes trailing down from the window to the thousands of books lining the walls.

"Is this what I think it is? Are we where I think we are?" Tooth begins to flit around excitedly from shelf to shelf. "It is, isn't it?"

"Wow," Bunny smirks, "'ow come you never told us about this being here, North? You, dag."

He shrugs, "It was a secret more or less, Sandy and I were only ones that knew, besides Manny of course."

I plant my staff on the ground, causing some frost to spread, "Can someone please tell me what's going on?" I demand a little too loudly for the space we're in.

North laughs, "Ah, of course, of course!" he claps me on the shoulder, "Jack, welcome to the 'Hall of the World'. It is gift from Man in Moon." he guides me to one of the shelves, "Books contain story of the world," he picks the first one off the shelf, the cover is faded so much that it's hard to read, "and we need the very beginning."