Fall was always a bad time of year, Catherine thought. Nothing bad happened in fall, but the cold was starting to creep in and kill the beauty of spring and summer that Catherine did so love.

Although, it was most definitely the cold that bugged her the most. Catherine despised the cold, hated the layers she had to wear to keep it away.

"I. Hate. The. Cold." Catherine bit out as she tugged at her coat, it wouldn't be so bad, if the chill wind didn't keep trying to steal her scarf.

"Why do you do this to me mum?" She demanded, bracing herself against another October wind as it brushed through her clothes.

Catherine mumbled to herself, tugging the shopping bag in her hand and wrapping it once around her wrist to prevent it banging into her leg. The beans inside would be nothing but mulch by the time she got home but right now that was unimportant. Getting home and treating herself to a nice cup of tea was important.

Oh, how Catherine loved tea.

It was a common British stereotype, that all Brits drank afternoon tea and ate cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off. It was completely and utter crap. True enough Catherine enjoyed tea, as did her mum and dad but in not in as much excess as the rest of the world would believe.

"Why did it have to be beans? Couldn't she have just made them the damn hot dogs?" Catherine cursed, her younger siblings didn't want hot dogs tonight it would seem.

Bloody children.

Catherine shivered as she passed into the forest, but something caught her attention. It glinted in the light, but only just barely as it lay on the autumn leaves. Had Catherine not had great attention to detail she would have missed it entirely, as it blended into the leaves.

"A boomerang?" She asked incredulous, before creeping over to it and picking it up delicately.

It was carved into ornate wood, with a few polished stones embedded into the wood. The engravings were beautiful, and Catherine wondered who would drop such a treasure.

"Gorgeous." She breathed, turning it over in her fingers.

"That's strange," she muttered, tracing her fingers along a splintered piece of wood "it's broken. Who'd mistreat something this beautiful?"

Catherine's head snapped up, her attention being drawn away from the boomerang in her hand. A sound, from in the forest.

Now, the forest wasn't exactly big, but not many people actually went in there. The little town she lived in was full of history, myths and ghost stories that the townspeople believed in far too much.

People that died in the forest, people that went in but never returned. Stories and tales that had merit, and that Catherine had belief in.

Catherine believed in a lot of things.

"Hello?" She called carefully, taking a tentative step towards the forest.

There it was again, that noise, almost like someone was…moaning? It was a frightening sound, one you read about in horror stories when the pour victim foolishly mistook it for a person in pain.

But…it could have been, a person in pain.

The next sound wasn't a moan, it was an agonising scream of pain, and Catherine dropped her bag and shot into the forest.

Catherine might not have been the strongest individual, but years of martial arts training had taught her how to protect herself and someone else if she really had to.

The leaves crunched under her feet and the twigs scratched at her skin, leaving white marks across her already pale flesh as she ran towards the horrible gut wrenching sound.

Catherine stumbled into a clearing and skidded to a stop, red faced and panting. There were two figures, one standing over another menacingly.

"Foolish rabbit, you honestly thought you'd be able to stop me?" The standing figure asked, a stocky person hidden almost completely by the shadows.

Catherine bent down slowly, grabbing a thick branch before she crept forwards.

"I will destroy them all, every guardian. They don't even realise your gone." The standing figure, definitely a woman, taunted and Catherine ignored the way her gut twisted as she approached.

Nerves, she was used to nerves, she was a performer. She'd been on stage, she'd been in martial arts competitions, nerves she could handle. The figure laying on the floor was mostly obscured from her view as she crept behind the stocky woman, bringing her makeshift club back behind her head.

"You'll die, screaming in agony." The woman squealed in delight and Catherine snarled.

"Not today bitch." She growled, swinging her makeshift club and hearing it crack against the woman's skull.

The woman screeched, but before she hit the ground her body exploded into a complete mass of dark creatures and Catherine screamed as they lashed out at her. She swung the broken end of her club until they vanished, she panted and dropped it to the ground.

"People don't do that. People shouldn't do that." She breathed to herself in shock, before shaking her head to clear it.

"Are you alright?" She asked, turning her attention the figure on the floor.

He moaned, for it had to be a he, and she frowned down at him. It was dark, and she was just about able to make out his huge shape.

"Jeez, you certainly ate your vegetables growing up." She muttered to herself, kneeling on the ground to better assess the damage.

"You…shouldn't be here…" He groaned on the floor and Catherine hushed him gently.

"Easy, I'll call an ambulance, and the police." Catherine told him, before cursing herself.

She never took her phone to the shop, it was only ten minutes walk away why the hell would she?!

"We need to get you up, somewhere warm." Catherine muttered to herself, and the figure murmured something incoherent as Catherine moved forwards to help him up.

It was only when the wind blew, and the branches obscuring the light of the moon were moved that Catherine could actually see the figure.

Her first instinct was to leap back, and her second to scream. But she remained frozen, staring at the…the thing…laying moaning on the floor.

"I just saved the life of a government experiment." She whispered, and the creature snickered, wincing at the movement.

"Damn, whatever she did, it must have hurt you bad." Catherine murmured, tentatively reaching down and hooking her arms under what she presumed was it's arms.

"Come on, I'll take you to my place. Patch you up, everything'll be fine." Catherine assured, grunting under the weight of the creature, but still just about managing to get it onto its feet.

"This'll be fun to explain to mum."

First rise of the guardians fic so please be kind. Yes it will be BunnymundxOC sorry if you don't like that but I do. It was not Pitch. It was another unnamed spirit that I will make more known later.

Read and Review guys!

Tulip Out.