Two minutes. That was the exact amount of time that Lena had been sitting in her tree. She had shuffled her wings to the side, wrapped herself in a blanket and was about to fall asleep when she heard a sound she very much did not want to hear. It was the sound of scuffling. She groaned and began praying to the Moon that it would go right on by.
"Don't stop," she muttered, "please, please, please don't stop." But the moon rarely heard her prayers and today was no exception. For within no time of the arrival of the noise there was a scratching at the bottom of her tree. She remained perfectly still, hoping that the intruder would simply leave. That also did not work.
"Lena? Lena? Lena I need to talk to you." She groaned and shifted again, adjusting the blanket as she went.
"Go away Phil. I'm not in the mood." There was more scratching.
"Lena it's important." Lena sighed and leaned forward, catching a glimpse of the obnoxious groundhog currently residing at the base of her olive tree. Punxsutawney Phil, one of the more annoying immortal beings to ever grace the world. He stood at two and a half feet tall and wore a very small yellow blazer with matching hat. She glared daggers at the groundhog, hoping he'd take the hint.
"Phil, this is my first break in three days. I would like to take a nap. What is so important that I can't take a nap?" she didn't need a nap all that badly, but she didn't want to talk to Phil. The groundhog looked slightly frightened but she knew it took more than that to scare him. He had once gotten into an argument with Death and even when the reaper was chasing him around with his scythe, Phil still refused to admit that he was wrong.
"It's Bunny." Lena moaned and leaned back in her tree. Phil and Bunny went back. Bunny had first noticed the groundhog when he had caught him using his tunnels and ever since then Bunny has disliked Phil, his dislike rivaled only by the annoyance he directed towards Jack Frost. Lena readjusted her wings so that they wrapped tightly around her and closed her eyes.
"I'm sure he was pleased to see you." There was a stuttering sound from Phil.
"No, Lena, that's just it, I didn't see Bunny."
"What, did he trash your burrow?" she chuckled, crossing her arms across her chest, eyes still closed.
"No Lena, I went looking for him. And I couldn't find him. So I went to the warren –"
"Oh, I'm sure that made him happy."
"- and he wasn't there!" Lena realized she probably wasn't going to get any sleep. Taking the blanket and hiding it in a higher branch, she jumped down from the tree and sat on the ground in front of Phil.
"Okay, well he was probably up at the pole. You know how him and North are." Phil nodded.
"Right, that's what I thought, so I went to the pole." Lena laughed. The mere thought of Phil going all the way to the north pole and then having to deal with the yetis was highly entertaining.
"How'd that go over?" Phil glared at her but continued.
"The yetis were very welcoming, the elves were less so. But from what I could deduce they hadn't seen North for a couple of days." Now that was odd. Lena had learned a lot about the old Russian from the other Guardians and had found out the man never took days off. The only time he ever relaxed was the two-week period directly after Christmas, and even then he was just lounging in his office, coming up with new toy designs and gadgets. She twirled her hair thoughtfully.
"Well, what about Tooth? You go ask her?" Phil nodded.
"There was no one there. Not even the little fairies." Lena stood, her wings rustling. She glanced upwards at the dimming sky and looked for the signs of golden sand. But now that she thought about it, she hadn't seen any dream sand for nearly a week. She looked back at Phil who had removed his hat and was now twisting it furiously around and around.
"Did you check Burgess?" Phil gave her a confused look.
"Burgess? Why?" she groaned.
"Jack Frost lives there. He became a guardian like, five years ago now." Phil squeaked.
"Really? That trouble maker. Oh, well I never thought in all my years that I would live to see Jack Frost a Guardian. What does he even guard, mischief, annoyance, scaring people?" Lena rolled her eyes at the small groundhog. She knew that those two didn't get at all. Every year, Jack would sneak up behind Phil and scare him half to death, just so that Jack could have six more weeks in the northern hemisphere. Lena laughed lightly.
"Fun Phil, Jack is the Guardian of fun. So I'm gonna go check Burgess. Meet me there, alright?" The ground hog nodded.
"Very well. I will –" Lena never heard the end of his sentence for she was already zooming through the air, headed for the land mass of North America. It took three minutes, her best time yet. She rocketed over towns and major cities and soon found herself soaring over Burgess. With a couple adjustments she was flying straight for Jamie's house. She had been there twice in total. Once with Jack when Pitch had kidnapped her and wiped her memories, and once recently. Jamie was now almost 15 years old and even though he still believed in all the immortals, he was still growing up and that meant that he had matters of the heart.
Lena had felt the tug roughly two weeks early and had come immediately. After observing the situation, she determined a light dust of love magic would suffice. Jamie was mature, but he wasn't quite ready for the arrow. She hovered outside his bedroom window and saw the young man lying on his bed, reading. She took a deep breath and tapped lightly on the glass. The window pushed open and Jamie looked up, a smile on his face when he saw her.
"Lena!" he dropped the book and walked over to the window as Lena stepped inside. She smiled and gave the teen a hug.
"Hey, Jamie, how ya' been?" the boy nodded and offered her his desk chair as he sat on the end of his bed. She sat down, carefully spreading her wings to the side and looked at Jamie as he spoke.
"Oh, ya' know, school, winter break, that sort of thing. Speaking of winter, have you seen Jack?" Lena's face fell. She had been counting on Jack to not have disappeared. This was turning out to be a very difficult day.
"Actually no, that's why I came. I wanted to know if you had seen him around. The others, we, I," she was trying to word it so that she didn't mention Phil, "I haven't seen them for a bit and was wondering if you had." A worried look crossed Jamie's face.
"Are they in trouble?" Lena shook her head.
"I don't think so, probably not." I hope not, she thought to herself. She stood slowly. What was she going to do? She walked to the window, her wings dragging slightly. There was a pull on her shoulder and she looked over at Jamie.
"Can I help?" she laughed. He was so devoted, so willing. She shook her head.
"No, it's fine. I'm just gonna go talk to some people. See if they know what's up." Jamie waved goodbye as Lena flew out the window. She headed for the park, and sure enough, under a pile of snow, she found Phil grumbling in annoyance about the weather. Lena landed softly and waited for Phil to notice her. After a moment she cleared her throat. The groundhog literally jumped a foot in the air as he let out a shrill girlish scream. Lena laughed, realizing just why Jack loved doing that so much.
"That's not funny! You're worse than Frost. Did you find him?" Lena shook her head and began walking towards Jack's lake.
"I'm gonna go check his hangout. Maybe there's a clue or something. If not, I'm gonna call the others, or at least, anyone who's not busy." They walked slowly through the streets and Lena noticed that Phil was getting a little antsy. She looked down at him and found him twirling his hat again.
"Is there something wrong Phil?" he looked up at her and gestured.
"The town, aren't you worried about people seeing you?" Lena glanced around and saw no one as they headed away from the houses.
"No, why would I be?" She had never had a problem with believers. None of them actually believed in her and so she could roam and wander and do as she pleased without ever having to worry about people seeing her. But Phil was a different story.
"Well that's expected. People think you're not real. They see me once a year." His tone stung Lena as they rounded a corner towards the lake. Lena focused instead on the whiteness of the area. This was by far the coldest spot in all of Burgess. Jack lived her for roughly six months and then followed winter south, where for the first time ever, Bunny had offered him a place to sleep. Jack had yet to actually accept the offer, but Lena doubted that he would turn down a place to rest. She looked around and could see all of Jack's work, her tried to make this place special, especially when children came to skate on the lake. She walked, without thinking onto the lake and was halfway across when there was a loud crack. Her wings responded carrying her back to the safety of shore and she watched as the crack spider webbed out.
"He's not here. Hasn't been here for a few days at the most. We need to get some help." As she spoke she twirled her right hand, a bronze arrow forming. Raising the arrow to her lips she began to speak.
"This is Philena, bearer of True Love's arrow calling anyone who can spare a moment. We have an emergency situation. The Guardians are missing. Please come immediately to Jack Frost's Lake, located in Burgess, USA. Please hurry." She finished the message and shot the arrow straight into the sky. It rocketed up and vanished behind the clouds. Phil had begun to pace on the ground and turned back to look at Lena when she had finished.
"Everything is going to be fine, right?" Lena looked down at the groundhog, and felt the first tendrils of doubt creep into her system. She swallowed and nodded her head, looking into the sky where the arrow had vanished.
"Yes, everything will be fine, it has to be."