The Warren

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We were sliding down Bunny's tunnel. I couldn't seem to regain my balance, so I was just sliding down this endless tunnel on my back. Willow had jumped off of my shoulder and was bounding at full speed ahead of me.

Jack was skating down the tunnel, Tooth was hovering with us, North was doing the same as me, which was sliding down on his back, unable to regain his balance, along with a few Yetis and Elves. Bunny was bounding ahead of us.

After what seemed like an eternity of painful sliding, I spotted the exit of the steep tunnel. Bunny, Jack and Tooth somehow managed to land upright whilst North and the Yetis and Elves landed in a heap at the bottom of the tunnel.

I attempted to land on my feet as I fell out of the tunnel. It didn't go as planned though. I landed on my feet, just barely, then I lost my balance and landed on my stomach. My hands, that helped to break my fall, got scraped slightly along the ground.

I was about to get up when a pale hand was held out to me. I looked up to see Jack, then took his hand and he helped pull me to my feet. I smiled in thanks.

Willow crawled over to me, and sat at my feet. I picked her up and sat her on my shoulder, where she made herself comfortable.

"Ah ha ha. Buckle up," North said, sitting up, "Is very funny."

I looked at our surroundings. Most of the environment around us was green. There was multiple flowers dotted around the area we were in. Large rocks carved to look like eggs with faces were resting in the ground. Bunny chuckled, grabbing our attention.

"Welcome to the Warren," Bunny said proudly. Two large Sentinel Eggs made of rock, joined Bunny at his side. I then began to hear something. Willow heard it too. She sat upright on my shoulder, her eyes wide and her nose was twitching. It was high pitched and... I don't know.

Bunny seemed to hear the odd sound too. He sat up, alert. His ears perked up and his nose twitched. "Something's up," Bunny stated, still listening to the odd noise. I could also still hear the high pitched noise. I began to slowly pull my knife from its holster.

A horde of undecorated Easter eggs came running out of the opposite tunnel. Bunny pulled out his boomerangs and got into a battle-ready stance. Which was our cue to copy his actions and pull out our weapons. Bunny's Sentinel Eggs changed their facial expressions to look angry. The high pitched noise was getting louder by the second.

Bunny then let out a war cry and rushed forward. The rest of us followed, gripping our weapons tightly and letting out a war cry. I gripped my knife tightly, making my knuckles turn white. I was ready to slash at the first thing I see that attempts to ruin Easter.

A blonde child ran out of the tunnel with an arm full of unpainted eggs. We all stopped in shock and confusion. The child stopped and stared at all of us with equal shock and confusion.

"Sophie?" Jack asked, confused about how she got here. We all realised that we still held our weapons, ready to attack. We quickly holstered or hid our weapons, before 'Sophie' realised what was happening.

Sophie looked down at the Elves standing by North, giggled and began chasing them.

"What is she doing here?" Bunny asked, panicked. North patted down his large coat."Uhh... snowglobe," North muttered. The Yetis murmured.

"Crikey, somebody do something!" Bunny shouted. He looked around at all of us. Do something? Do what?!

"Well, don't look at me, I'm invisible, remember?" Jack said, backing away with his hands in the air. Sophie then appeared in front of us, dragging an Elf with her."Elf, elf," The girl said, excitedly. We all watched her dragging the Elf away.

"Don't worry, Bunny," Tooth reassured him. She flew up to Sophie. "I bet she's a 'Fairy Fan'" She said in a sing-song voice. Sophie gasped excitedly.

"It's okay, little one," Tooth told Sophie. Sophie dropped the Elf and looked up at Tooth."Pretty!" Sophie cooed.

"Ohh! You know what? I've got something for you!Here it is! Look at all the pretty teeth! With little blood and gum on them!" Tooth said in a gentle voice.

Sophie looked at her, then ran away sobbing. "Blood and gums? Not a lot of kids usually like that kind of stuff," I told Tooth. Jack chuckled and sat on a rock.

"When was the last time you guys actually hung out with kids?" Jack asked us. Sophie ran towards the rock that Jack was sitting on and chased some unpainted eggs into a gap underneath the rock.

"Peek-a-boo!" Sophie yelled, her voice echoing underneath the rock. The unpainted eggs ran from underneath the rock and towards a different hiding place.

"We are very busy bringing joy to children!" North told Jack, "We don't have time..." North was cut off by Sophie running past, chasing a few butterflies. "... For children," North finished. We all looked apprehensively at North. If Pitch gets stronger, we are gonna have to give the children ALL of our time.

"Hm. If one little kid can ruin Easter, then..." Jack said, he created a snowflake in his hands, then let it fly away."... we're in worse shape than I thought," Jack finished.

"Whee!" Sophie yelled, chasing the snowflake. The snowflake ended up on Bunny's nose. His nose twitches, then he smiles. What was in that snowflake?

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Dozens of hills, with dozens of flowers, with dozens, maybe even hundreds of unpainted eggs strolling down a path in the middle. Bunny was with Sophie, watching an egg emerge from a flower and run down the hill to the path.

"You wanna paint some eggs? Yeah?" Bunny asked the young child. Sophie began jumping around."Okay!" She said excitedly. Bunny took her hand and began walking down the hill with her, "Come on then."

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Willow and I had decided to explore the Warren. We were wandering around until we came across a clearing with an egg-shaped rock in the centre.

I walked over with Willow on my shoulder, and sat down against the rock. Willow jumped off of my shoulder and onto the soft grass. She simply sat next to me and observed her surroundings.

I looked next to me and saw a small, red flower, it's name I couldn't place. I touched it gently with my finger. I remember when I was 10 years old and a butterfly landed on my hand when I was touching a flower.

Almost as soon as I thought about a butterfly, my hands started to glow a forest green. I ripped my hand away from the flower, making Willow jump. She looked at me with wide eyes.

What was that? Was that the flower? Or me? I thought of the butterfly again, but this time I held the image of the creature in my mind. My hands started glowing a forest green again, but continued until they were emitting light. I cupped my hands like I was trying to hold water.

As soon as I did that, five Monarch Butterflies emerged from the light in my hands and into the air. Willow jumped on my back, up to my shoulder to get a better view of the butterflies.

"That was awesome!" I commented, a smile on my face. Willow jumped up and down on my shoulder, wanting me to do it again. I looked back at my hands, which were still glowing, and thought of a bumblebee. Almost immediately, half a dozen bumblebees buzzed from my hands to nearby flowers.

"Lets raise our game," I said to Willow. She nodded in response. I spread my hands apart like I was about to catch a football. I pictured a pug in my head. My hands glowed brighter, too bright for me to look at.

Bark! I clenched my hands into fists to get rid of the bright glow and looked at the ground. Sitting down in front of me, was a black, baby pug.

"I am so smart!" I said to Willow with a smile, picking up the pug and holding him close to me. As I picked him up, I noticed something on his chest. It was faint, but I saw a dark green, paw print pattern on his chest. I didn't notice this on the butterflies or the bumblebees, but they did fly away before I could get a good look.

Willow crawled down my arm to become eye level with the pug that I was holding. Willow inched closer to the pug, the pug took notice of Willow's approach. Willows nose twitched at the pug. The pug crawled out of my arms and walked cautiously towards Willow. The pug sniffed Willow, then began licking her face.

I held back a laugh as Willow cringed back a bit. When the pug stopped licking Willows face, he backed up a bit, admired his work, then nodded and walked back to his previous position. Willow looked at the pug with an expression that said 'Really?' Then crawled back up to my shoulder.

I picked up the pug and placed him on the ground in front of me. Are the animals that I create permanent or can I get rid of them? As I thought that, my fingertips started glowing a dark green. I waved my hand once in front of the pug and he disintegrated into dark green sparks of light.

Watching the pug disappear like that reminded me of Sandy. How he just disappeared from our lives.

"Lily?" I turned my head towards the source of the voice. It came from where I had entered the clearing. Standing in the entrance was Jack, his staff at his side.

"What are you doing here?" Jack asked, hovering over to me. When he was next to me, he sat down.

"Just exploring, found this place," I answered. Willow climbed down from my arm and onto the ground, her cheeks still wet with dog slobber. She walked over to my leg and wiped her cheeks against them, leaving dog slobber on my shorts.

"Hey!" I said in disbelief. Willow looked at me, twitched her nose and her ears at me. I couldn't help but look at her fluffy paws. She thinks that they are too fluffy.

"Awwww, the fluffy paws!" I said in a silly voice. Willow's facial expression immediately changed from one of smugness to one of anger. Jack and I laughed at her facial expression.

"Why are her cheeks wet?" Jack asked, nodding towards Willow, who's cheeks were still slightly wet with dog slobber. How am I gonna explain my new powers?

"Umm, there was a dog," I told him. He looked at me with confusion."A dog?" He repeated. "Yeah," I answered.

I held my hands together, like I was trying to catch a football, and my hands started glowing forest green and emitting the bright light. I pictured a Boston Terrier in my mind. Soon after, a Boston Terrier began to wander around. I clenched my hands into a fist to get rid of the bright light.

The Boston Terrier barked, and then trotted over to Jack. He laughed, then he held out his hand to the dog and began to scratch it behind the ears. I noticed a dark green paw print pattern on the dog's chest, so that proves that the mark appears on all my animals.

"I haven't seen you do that before, so have you just found out that you could do this?" Jack asked. The Boston Terrier walked away and sat down in front of us.

"Yeah, I just found out. Which is odd. If anything, I should be getting weaker," I replied, making my fingertips glow a dark green colour. I waved my hand in front of the dog and he burst into dark green sparks of light.

"We'll get him, Lily, he won't win," Jack reassured me. As I was about to reply, I decided against it and gave Jack a small smile instead.

Jack and I sat in silence for a couple of minutes after that. Not awkward silence, it was a comfortable silence. After a while, Jack spoke.

"Hey, Lily? Can I ask you something? A couple of things, actually," He asked. I nodded, pulling Willow onto my lap.

"What's your centre?" Jack asked. I wasn't surprised when he asked that. North probably told him about centres when Jack refused to become a Guardian.

"It's imagination," I told him. He nodded, then spoke again."How did you find out what it was?" Jack inquired. Was he having a hard time figuring out what his centre is? Thinking about it now, so did I.

"Before I died and the Man in the Moon brought me back, in school, all my teachers used to say I was really imaginative with my work," I started, "I don't know. That was the only thing I could think of. Turns out I was right."

Jack nodded, satisfied with the answer. Willow crawled onto my leg and tapped her wrist, asking for the time. The watch on my wrist was gold, with a picture of a unicorn and a rainbow on the face of the clock. Sandy had made it for me a few months after I was brought back, when I told him that I was supposed to turn 16 that night.

We had been here a while. I grabbed Willow, plopped her on my shoulder and stood up. "We've been here for ages, we should go back to the others," I said, making a pair of robin wings appear on my back. Jack stood up as well and we flew back to the main area of the Warren.

We soon saw Bunny walking with Sophie towards what looked like a path that split to meet the entrance of multiple tunnels.

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