Author's note: Another PowerSwap AU inspired by HazuNeutral, this time with Jack and North. Turning Jack into 'Jack Clause' and North into 'Old-Man Winter', though he still prefers to be called North. Like with 'The Dream Shepard', if enough people like it, I'll consider writing more.
Also, for how Jack's going to end up as the Spirit of Christmas, I'm going to change his human origins around to make it more believable that Jack ends up at the North Pole how I intend him to. So, instead of being from America, Jack is now an Alaskan Native, partially inspired by another of HazuNeutral's AUs and a game called 'Never Alone'.
The children of the village were taught many things as soon as they were old enough to understand, the traditions of the village, the different animals of the land and how they were all connected, the importance of respecting the land and others, and the many stories that were unique to the village or shared between all the tribes of Alaska. But the most important thing that the children were taught, that they could never forget under any circumstances, was that the world in which they lived was dangerous.
To venture away from the safety of the village took a lot of courage and awareness, but it had to be done in order to hunt.
But the biggest danger wasn't the animals they hunted for food or materials, though they did pose a substantial threat. No, what they had to worry about the most was the land itself.
The seemingly endless desert of white that left little to act as land marks for the hunters and traders that were forced to travel far from the village and hid both pray and predator from sight.
The blizzards that obscured sight and threatened to bury the idle.
And the ever-shifting ice that blocked off paths and broke away underfoot to send you drifting away.
Every member of every village took these lessons to heart and never forgot. But there were times when even the most experienced members of the village would be caught off guard and lost to the dangerous land.
So, could Jack and Mary, two children, be really so at fault when it happened to them?
They hadn't meant to wander so far from the village, it had just happened without them realising while on the hunt for ducks.
"Okay, now hold it like this and twirl it around." Jack instructed his sister, showing her how to use a bola.
Mary twirled the bola, smiling when she managed to keep the spinning constant.
"Now, aim at the ducks and release." Jack said.
Mary let go of the bola, quickly shying away once released like it was going to hit her instead, and it went flying through the air. Landing no where near the ducks and sending them flying away.
Mary pouted when she saw that she'd caught nothing.
"Don't feel bad." Jack comforted her. "It takes a while to get a hang of. You just need more practice."
"Okay." Mary said.
There was a 'yip' and both children looked down to see a white furred fox near their feet, the bola in its mouth.
"Thank you very much, Anuri." Jack laughed, taking the bola from the fox.
The two children then walked in the direction of the ducks to try the bola again, their fox following behind them.
Anuri wasn't actually their fox, she lived wildly and stayed away from the village, but she would play with the children when they wandered out from the village and even help them in return for some meat from their hunts.
"Right, watch carefully how I do it." Jack told Mary as he twirled the bola and then threw it at the ducks.
He grinned when it collided with one of the ducks, tangling around it while the other ducks once again took off.
The two children and fox went over to the duck, already dead from the collision with the bola thankfully, and Jack picked it up.
"That's one duck to bring back with us." Jack said triumphantly. "Let's see if you can catch us another."
Jack placed his duck on their sled while Anuri clambered onto it as well, the boy making sure that the fox wouldn't touch his catch. The children then pushed their sled as they followed the ducks again.
"Go on, like I showed you." Jack told his sister, handing her his bola.
Mary took the bola and began twirling it like Jack had showed her.
As his sister attempted to catch them another duck, Jack took some sinew-string and heavy bones out of his pocket and began tying them.
Mary was currently using one of Jack's bolas, so Jack was making her one of her own. He had no doubt his sister would become a good hunter in time, just like him, and he planned to present her with a set of bolas of her own once she had proven him right, so that they could go out hunting together without sharing their weapons.
"Hey, Jack, I did it!" Mary exclaimed.
Jack looked up to see that his sister had indeed managed to catch herself a duck. He felt brief disappointment at not having seen the catch in action, but quickly got over it to congratulate his sister.
"Can we try and catch another one." Mary asked as she loaded her own catch onto the sled.
Jack look out over the landscape and frowned, realising just where they were and what time of day it was.
"Best not." He said. "We've managed to get ourselves a fair distance away from the village. We should head back now if we want to make it while it's still light."
"Okay." Mary pouted but followed Jack as he turned the sled around.
Thankfully, it hadn't snowed since they'd set off from the village and the wind was quite calm, allowing them to follow their trail back in the snow.
"I hadn't noticed we'd made it onto the ice." Mary commented as they walked.
Jack hummed, looking down.
"Don't worry." He assured his sister. "The ice is thick enough to hold our weight."
Just then, Anuri began growling.
"What is it, girl?" Jack asked, looking around.
He was expecting the fox to be growling at a nanuq, or perhaps a ugruk that had just flopped onto the ice, but he could see anything.
"Jack, below us!" Mary cried out.
Jack looked down and gasped as a black shape passed beneath them, under the ice.
"What was that?" Mary asked fearfully.
"I think it was some sort of arvik." Jack said. "We need to get off the ice."
Jack grabbed his sister's arm and began running towards where solid land would be, Anuri running out in front of them. They left the sled behind, knowing it would only slow them down in such a precarious situation.
As they ran, they heard a chilling crack, and Jack saw what he had feared appearing far in front of them.
The arvik had managed to break the ice by being so close to the surface, and that crack was spreading in a way that was very bad news for the trio still on the ice.
"Keep running." Jack encouraged.
Finally, they reached the gap in the ice, Anuri easily jumping over it. But both humans stopped short.
"I don't think we can jump that far." Mary cried.
Jack frowned as he judged the steadily widening gap. It was definitely too big for either of them to jump by now. But there was a way to get at least one of them across.
Jack took a deep breath.
"Mary, I need you to close your eyes." He told his sister.
"What, why?" Mary questioned.
"Just trust me." Jack said. "We're going to play a little game."
"Really, a game, now?" Mary cried.
"This game is going to help us." Jack insisted. "Because when you open your eyes again, you'll be on the other side."
"Really?" Mary asked.
"Yes." Jack said, casting a nervous glance to the wider gap. "But you need to close your eyes first."
"Okay." Mary said, closing her eyes. "What now."
"Just relax and let me take care of it." Jack said.
Jack took a step back and grabbed both of Mary's arms, spinning her around so that her feet left the ice.
Mary laughed as she was spun around, feeling as though she was flying.
Once Jack was spinning as fast as he could, he let go of Mary, sending her flying as she screamed at the sudden loss of contact.
Mary was sent flying over the gap as Jack fell over from the loss of weight, quickly scrambling up to watch where his sister landed.
To his relief, Mary landed on the other side of the ice. Her feet landed in the water, but Anuri was there to grab Mary's hood with her teeth and pull her away from the edge.
Mary climbed to her feet, winded from her harsh impact with the ice, and looked around, smiling when she realised that she was safe.
But then she turned around and her smile dropped when she realised that her brother was still on the ice that was drifting away.
"Jack!" She cried out.
"Don't worry about me!" Jack called back. "Get back to the village and get help there!"
"But I don't know the way." Mary cried.
"Anuri will guide you back!" Jack told her. "Hurry!"
"Okay!" Mary said. "I'll get help!"
Mary turned around and began running, Anuri quickly following before taking the lead, taking Mary back to the village At least, Jack hoped that was what the fox was doing, the little animal was smart and looked after the siblings, so Jack had hope that she knew what to do.
Jack sighed and slumped over, walking back to the sled and sitting on it.
He looked up at the sky and saw the signs of an approaching blizzard, beginning to cry.
He had already known it when he'd thrown Mary across the gap, but it was only now setting in. No help was coming.
It would take too long for Mary to get back to the village, for there to be a search party sorted and for it to be sent out for there to be any hope for him, by the time anyone got to where they separated, his ice raft would be long gone with him on it. And the approaching blizzard would only make it more dangerous to go out and find him.
At least he had hope that Mary would be safe, so he could take comfort in that.
Jack took out his half-constructed bola and looked at.
He wished he'd had time to finish it and give it to Mary before they were separated.
Jack walked around the large chunk of ice for a few hours, watching the mainland slowly disappear as it got darker and the wind started to pick up.
"Guess I better make myself a shelter." He said to himself.
So, he piled snow on top of his sled and packed it down before pulling the sled out, creating a small snow cave for himself. And with nothing better to do, he crawled inside and closed his eyes as snow fell and the wind blew harder.
The North Pole was not the lively and wonderous place that children were told about. At least, it wasn't anymore.
Not after the passing of Nickolas Claus, also known as Santa Claus.
It had happened unexpectantly, one minute the Guardians were battling against Pitch, the next Nickolas was being cut down by the Nightmare King.
His death hadn't been the end of Christmas, the yetis could still make and deliver presents by themselves, keeping belief in the lost spirit alive. But without a director behind it all, Christmas had lost its meaning for those who lived at the North Pole, becoming just something they were obligated to do rather than something to take joy in doing each year.
Phil the yeti sighed as he finished applying the finishing touches to the doll he had been making, adding it to the pile of identical dolls. The pile of dolls was small, no where near the size that Phil could usually produce in a day, but the Yeti already felt exhausted, the work to monotonous that it sapped his energy.
The yeti stood up and stretched, telling his fellow workers that he was going for a walk before leaving.
There was a time when walking through the workshop would fill one with wonder, with the constant activity and toys flying around. Now, Phil just found it depressing. The toys didn't fly anymore, the elves didn't mess about, the yetis weren't running about to deliver materials or toys to their designated places, all colour seemed to sucked out of the workshop, and worst of all, the workshop itself was beginning to fall apart.
Sure, children still believed in Santa Clause, but without the spirit of Christmas actually there to keep things alive, magic was slowly leaking out of the workshop, allowing its age to show and become vulnerable to the elements of the North Pole. At its current rate, Phil gave the workshop a few years before it succumbed to the environment.
Deciding that he needed to get away from the depressing atmosphere of the workshop, Phil ventured out into the snow, his thick fur and hide protecting him from the cold.
Phil walked for a long time, through the snow until he reached where the ice broke off into the ocean. The dark water illuminated by the light of the moon.
The moonlight then shifted as clouds moved in, bringing Phil's attention to where a patch of moonlight continued to shine. Realising that the Man in the Moon was trying to tell him something, Phil followed to where the moonlight was guiding him.
He almost missed it, but Phil managed to spot the black that stood out against the ice under the light of the moon. Hesitant as to what it could be but trusting the Man in the Moon to not lead him astray, Phil drew closer.
He reached what looked to be a large piece of broken ice that had stuck to the mainland of ice that made up the North Pole. On the ice was a burnt sled, the snow covering it telling that the fire that had burnt it had gone out a while ago.
It was strange that a burnt sled was just on a random piece of ice and that the Man in the Moon was guiding him to it, so Phil investigated further, trying to see if there was anything else around that would tell him what happened.
Phil ended up almost tripping over the answer, a limp figure that had been buried by the snow next to the burnt sled.
With a gasp, Phil quickly uncovered the figure and groaned mournfully when he saw that it was just a young boy, painfully pale and still.
It didn't take much to guess that the boy had ended up on the piece of ice and set adrift, having set his sled alight for warmth.
Phil gathered the boy up in his arms and brought him to his chest in a hug, crying at the young life lost.
It was then that something caught Phil's eye. Looking up, he stared at the boy's pale face and blue lips, wondering if he had been imagining things.
But he hadn't, a very faint trail of condensed air left the boy's mouth.
Startled, Phil quickly put his ear to the boy's chest, hoping that it wasn't just the body being disturbed.
There were a few seconds where Phil could feel his heart getting ready to drop, but then…
Thump…thump…thump…
It was extremely faint, and Phil almost couldn't hear it, but it was there.
The boy was alive.
Gasping, Phil quickly turned around and ran as fast as he could back to the workshop, keeping a solid hold on the boy in his arms.
Phil yelled instructions as soon as he burst into the workshop, other yetis quickly dropping their tools to follow them as soon as they saw the boy in his arms.
They rushed to one of the spare rooms and placed the boy on the bed, one of the yetis starting up the fire.
Phil told the other yeti to start the fire small, they couldn't allow the room to get warm too quickly or they'd risk sending the boy's body into shock from the sudden temperature difference.
Phil stripped the boy of his caribou-hide outer clothes to allow the slowly rising warmth of the room the reach him, tucking the him under the covers of the bed.
They could only wait now.
To see if they boy would wake up.
To see if he would survive.
Phil sighed, it had been a few days since he'd brought the boy into the workshop.
On the brightside, he hadn't gotten worse.
On the downside, he'd yet to wake up.
The boy lay as still as ever in bed, breathing steadily as he slept.
That wasn't to say that there was no change.
Colour had returned to the boy's face, assuring the yetis and elves that he was recovering from the condition he was found in, despite his stubbornness to remain sleeping. But the biggest change had to be the child's hair.
The colour had slowly leaked out of the boy's hair over the course of the last few days, turning it from brown to white. His hair was now completely white, from root to tip.
Either the child's stress had resulted in the loss of colour, or the Man in the Moon had done something. Phil was willing to bet his money on the latter.
Phil patted the boy's head before standing up to leave.
But it was then that he felt the head beneath his hand shift and a small groan come from the boy in the bed.
Phil gasped as he removed his hand to get a good look at the child as he woke up.
Eyes opened to reveal a striking blue.
"Wha…what…" The boy moaned as he struggled to sit up, holding his head in one arm.
"Gagaba." Phil said in garbled language.
The boy looked at his in confusion and then froze.
"Ahh!" He then screamed, scrambling as far away from the yeti as he could on the bed.
"What are you?" The boy found his voice. "Where am I?"
"Adaba." Phil said.
"…What?" The boy asked, not understanding the yeti.
Phil hummed, wondering how he could get across to the boy that he wouldn't cause him any harm.
His eyes wandered to the stew that he had brought with him, on the off chance that the boy woke up and needed something to eat, like now.
Carefully, Phil picked up the bowl of stew, which was thankfully still warm, and offered it to the boy.
"Is…is this for me?" The boy asked.
Phil nodded.
"Uh, thank you." The boy said, taking the bowl from the yeti.
Hesitantly, he took the spoon that was inside the bowl, scooped up some of the stew and paused before putting it in his mouth. The boy paused again with the spoon still in his mouth before his eyes watered and he quickly began shovelling the rest of the stew into his mouth.
Phil laughed, it was no surprise that the boy was hungry.
The stew was quickly gone and the boy was looking down at the bowl with a pout.
"Is there any more?" He asked, looking up at the yeti.
Phil nodded and beckoned the boy to follow him, heading to the door of the room.
The boy cautiously slipped out of the bed and followed Phil into the workshop.
"Woah, this place is huge." The boy looked around.
Phil nodded, wondering how the boy would react to the true size of the North Pole.
The yeti took the boy to the kitchen, where a large pot of stew was on the stove. He ladled another bowl for the boy as he sat down at the table.
"Thank you." The boy said, taking the bowl and digging in. "I'm sorry I reacted to you badly, you're actually very nice."
Phil waved off his apologies, knowing that the boy had every right to be frightened of him.
"So, where am I?" The boy questioned after he ate his fill of the stew.
"Awada." Phil explained.
The boy scrunched his eyes at him, clearly having no idea what the yeti was saying.
"I think I need to learn your language if we're going to communicate." He said. "At least you can understand me."
Phil hummed, knowing it would be hard to communicate between them if the boy didn't know what he was saying. Until he could teach him, they would just have to work things out with miming.
They'd start with the basics, hopefully getting some answers that would allow them to return the boy to his home.
Phil pointed at the boy as he spoke in yetish.
"Me?" The boy questioned. "What about me?"
Phil just pointed at the boy again, shrugging his shoulders to try and get his question across.
"You don't know something about me? Oh, my name!" Jack realised what he was being asked.
Phil tapped his nose to confirm.
"Well, my name is…is…" The boy trailed off as he came to a horrifying realisation. "I can't remember what my name is. I can't remember anything!"
Phil was startled as the boy's breathing became panicked, his hands going up to clutch his hair.
Cautiously, Phil put his hand on the boy's shoulder and motioned him to look at him. The boy looked up at him with unfocused eyes as he struggled to breathe through his panic.
Phil then began to breathe very loudly and at a steady pace, motioning for the boy to follow him. It took a few seconds, but the boy eventually caught on to what the yeti wanted him to do and started to match his breathing.
It took a few minutes, but the boy had eventually calmed down. However, he now looked completely exhausted and ready to fall over at any minute, which didn't surprise Phil.
Phil helped the boy to his feet and then guided him back the way they had come until they reached the room the boy had been staying in.
"Thank you." The boy said as he climbed under the covers. "I don't know what would have happened if I'd had that revelation when I was alone. I can't believe that I can't remember anything."
Given the conditions the boy had been found in, Phil guessed that it wasn't completely unbelievable that they boy had lost his memory. But he found it strange that the slate had been wiped completely clean, not even remembering his own name.
"Do you think I'll get it back?" The boy asked Phil.
"Grwa." Phil said, knowing the boy wouldn't be able to understand him.
"I hope that was a yes." The boy said.
The boy sighed and looked out the window to where the moon was shining in the sky.
The boy then frowned as the light shining through the window grew brighter and seemed to focus on him.
Phil's eyes widened, realising that the Man in the Moon was communicating with the boy.
The boy's eyes furrowed in confusion.
"Jack?" He questioned. "Is that my name?"
The moonlight died down as the Man in the Moon stopped communicating.
"No! Wait!" The boy, Jack, cried out. "You need to tell me more!"
Jack turned to Phil with tears in his eyes.
"Why would he just tell me my name and leave?" He questioned the yeti.
Phil couldn't answer and was only able to pat the boy on the back as he started to sob, soon finding Jack in his arms as the boy looked for comfort.
Eventually, the boy tired himself out and fell asleep. With a sigh, Phil tucked the spirit back into bed.
Because there was no doubting it now, for the Man in the Moon to be able to talk to the boy, he had to be a spirit. A newly born one if how Phil found him and the lack of memory was anything to go by.
The yeti wondered if the Man in the Moon had assigned Jack any domain or duties as a spirit, the fact that the boy had only been given his name suggested that he didn't. Meaning that he had no home to be taken back to.
No matter. Phil would have to confer with the other yetis first, though he was pretty sure that none of them would disagree with allowing the newly born spirit to stay at the North Pole, at least until the child was able to figure things out for himself.
"Hahaha!"
The yetis couldn't help smiling at the laugh that echoed through the halls of the workshop.
It hadn't been that long since the new spirit had taken up residence at the North Pole, but the child had already wormed his way into the hearts of everyone there. His presence providing some much-needed levity to the workshop.
With Jack there to race through the halls and play with the toys, the workshop seemed to be that little bit brighter, and the yetis found the making of the toys to be just a little less exhausting.
"You can't catch me!" Jack called to the elves as he was chased.
This served to spur the elves on, the small army determined to catch the child, causing a small commotion in the workshop as they went, getting under the feet of the working yetis.
"Oof!"
Jack slammed into a hairy body, falling to the ground.
He looked up to see Phil staring down at him with his hands on his hips, the elves that had been chasing him quickly made themselves scares.
"Hi, Phil." Jack waved.
"Wa diga." Phil told Jack of wagging his finger at the boy.
"Sorry." Jack pouted as he apologised. "The elves and I were just playing, and I guess it got out of hand."
Phil smiled good naturedly and picked Jack up, setting the boy in his feet.
"Ataga." The yeti said.
"I've played with all the toys, I needed something to do." Jack answered.
Phil hummed, then got an idea, motioning for Jack to follow him.
They travelled through the workshop until they reached a door that hadn't been opened in quite a while. Phil pushed it open to reveal a large room, wooden sculptures and toys lined the shelves with a large cabinet full of tools to one side and a desk at the back.
"What is this place?" Jack asked.
"Asada." Phil said.
"The toy room?" Jack questioned.
"Benique ataga soswu, quatara zwe." Phil explained.
This had been Santa's workroom where he would come up with the toys that the yetis would then replicate to make for the children. It was filled with everything a crafter could need, materials to tools, fabrics to wood, etc.
It hadn't been used since the spirit of Christmas' death, the yetis just working off the designs that had already been created, but it could provide some entertainment for Jack, all children loved to create, even spirits.
"Wow, I wonder what I could make." Jack said, excitedly.
Deciding on something simple, Phil grabbed some fabric and a sewing kit, placing them on the desk, Jack eagerly sitting at it, the yeti then grabbed one of the dusty books off of the book shelf and opened it up in front of Jack, the pages showing step-by-step instructions of how to make a rag-doll.
"Okay, that doesn't look too hard." Jack said, understanding what he was meant to do.
He grabbed some of the fabric and began cutting out the pattern pieces as according to the book. After cutting out one of the arms he frowned at it and then compared it to the book before showing it to Phil.
The piece was very messily cut out, the edges far from straight.
Phil chuckled, knowing that the boy would make plenty of mistakes as he started out in each type of craft. He then reached into the sewing kit and took out a pencil, pointing to the fabric with it before giving it to Jack.
"Oh." Jack said in realisation. "I should draw the pieces on the fabric and then cut them out."
Phil nodded.
Jack started again, carefully drawing out each of the pieces as shown in the book onto the fabric before cutting them out, which he then proudly held up to Phil, the Yeti smiling and giving the boy a thumbs-up, prompting him to continue.
By the end of it, the doll Jack produced didn't look too bad for his first try.
Jack, however, wasn't satisfied.
"It doesn't look much like the one in the book." He complained. "Everything's wonky."
Phil laughed and patted Jack's head, reassuring the boy that he just needed to practice.
"I guess you're right." Jack agreed.
He grabbed another piece of fabric and immediately started working on a second doll.
Phil smiled as the boy before leaving, he needed to get back to his own toy making, and Jack would be fine learning to make dolls on his own.
As it turned out, Jack was quite talented.
It didn't take long for the young spirit to master sewing.
It didn't take him long to master carving either. Or painting. Or anything he was introduced to.
Soon, the toy room was overflowing with Jack's creations, doll and carvings were packed on the shelves and drawings were piled up in one corner.
And Jack's creativity seemed to leak out into the rest of the workshop, the yetis now producing the toys with the same effort and glee they used to, the monotonous grind from before Jack's arrival having disappeared.
"I think I made a bit too many." Jack commented one day, looking around his toy room.
It was getting very crammed in the room, not just with Jack's attempts into all the different forms of craft, but his experimentations that he had made outside of the books explicitly taught, such as different clothes and expressions on the dolls or poses with the wooden toys.
Phil just smiled, seeing no fault with Jack's creativity.
"Actually, you guys make a lot of things too." Jack said to Phil. "What do you do with it all?"
In response, Phil went over to the bookshelf and pulled down something wrapped in a very dusty cloth, he unwrapped it to reveal a handbound book, which he handed to Jack.
"Wonder of Christmas." Jack read the title.
It was a story book with hand-painted pictures in great detail, showing a man traveling around the world to deliver toys to children. The story book showed many different versions of the man, changing what he looked like, how he travelled and how he delivered the toys, each a different perspective of the man to the children of the world.
"So, you give the toys you make to children." Jack said. "That's really nice."
He then looked at the man in the story book again.
"But where's the guy who delivers them?" He asked. "I've only seen you guys and the elves around."
Phil suddenly looked very sad and Jack quickly caught onto what it meant.
"Oh, sorry. I didn't realise he was gone." He said.
Phil just shook his head and patted Jack with a smile, reassuring that he had nothing to be sorry for.
"So," Jack decided to move on. "When do you deliver the toys?" He asked.
Phil hummed and walked over to a calendar on the wall, flipping one of the pages to point at one of the squares beneath it.
"In a month?" Jack questioned.
Phil nodded.
"Hey," Jack suddenly realised. "You can give the toys I made too."
"Gadbwa." Phil said.
"Sure, I don't mind. They're taking up a lot of room and I want to try making some new things now that I've learned what I can from the books, so I'll need the space to work." Jack insisted.
Shrugging, Phil left and quickly returned with a sack, allowing Jack to choose which of his toys were suitable to give away to the children.
"What should I do with these ones?" Jack asked, looking at the toys that had been created while he was still learning to make them, meaning that were a little messy and weren't exactly suitable to give as gifts.
They ended up going back onto a couple of the shelves or put inside draws, as a reminder of how far Jack had come in his craftsmanship.
The toys put in the sack were taken down to the wrapping room, ready to be packaged and delivered to the children when the sleigh took off on Christmas Eve.
By the end of it, the toy room was once again mostly empty, save for Jack's first attempts at toys, his tools and the books.
Jack wasted no time in making some new toys, experimenting with his knowledge to push outside what the books had taught him.
Christmas Eve was looming ever closer.
Thanks to their newly restored productivity, the yetis weren't having any issues in meeting the deadline.
Still, they were a little sad that they couldn't offer anything new to the children, just the same toys they delivered last year, and the year before that, ever since Santa had died. The yetis were very good toy makers, but they worked best when following instructions and weren't that good at coming up with ideas of their own.
Of course, like he seemed to be doing constantly, Jack was there to help out on the issue.
"Phil, look what I made." Jack emerged from the toy room with one of his toys in his hands, eager to show the yeti.
Phil bent down to look at it.
It was a toy fox with white fur and buttoned eyes. It was a very cute toy and Jack had somehow managed to imbue it with a sense of mischievousness.
Phil quickly praised Jack for his work and other yetis set down their tools to get a look at the toy for themselves.
Phil took the fox into his hands and gazed at it like it was a hot drink in the cold wasteland outside.
"Wadana sowo." He turned back to Jack, the other yetis nodding their heads eagerly.
"You want to make it too?" Jack questioned. "You mean for the children."
The yetis nodded.
"Well, I don't see why not." Jack smiled.
The yetis cheered at the fox toy was quickly carried away to the section of the workshop dedicated to sewing.
"You're really that happy to make something I made?" Jack asked.
Phil nodded, explaining that the toy was something new after so long creating the same toys for years.
"Then I'll make more." Jack said determinedly. "I have a lot of ideas I want to make, and then they can all go to the children."
Jack made to go back into the toy room but was stopped by Phil, who wagged his finger and pointed towards where Jack's bedroom was. The boy had been in the toy room for a long time and the yeti could see how tired he was.
"But I want to make more stuff." Jack whined, failing to stifle a yawn.
But regardless of his protests, Jack was marched back to his room and put to bed, where he quickly fell asleep.
The only downside to Jack's toys being made in the workshop was that the yetis weren't able to make that many due to there being less than a month to make them. So, most of the toys loaded into the sack on the back of the sleigh were still the same old ones they had been delivering for years. Still at least some of the toys were new this year, and the new toys could still be made for next year's Christmas.
"You're going to deliver the toys soon?" Jack asked.
Everyone was keeping an eye on the clock in the workshop, which was counting down to the time that the sleigh could leave to deliver the presents.
Phil nodded.
"Can I come?"
Phil contemplated the question and found that he had no reason to say no.
Besides, Jack hadn't seen anything outside of the North Pole yet.
Jack cheered as he was told yes, running off to his room to retrieve the caribou-hide clothes he had been found in to make sure he would stay warm for the trip, since the clothes the Yetis had made him were only really suitable for inside the workshop.
Jack remained excited all the way to the stables, at which point he spotted the sleigh as it was being loaded with the sack-full of presents.
"Uh, is that safe?" He asked unsurely, looking the sleigh over.
It looked rather old, with the paint starting to chip off and the metal starting to rust, making the boy worry that it would fall apart.
Phil assured him that it would as he hopped into the sleigh, checking the mini-globe that was at the front, lit up with lights like the huge globe in the workshop.
The last of the wrapped gifts were loaded into the sack, which was apparently bigger on the inside considering how small it was in relation to how many presents had been loaded into it, while some other yetis saddled up the huge reindeer in front of the sleigh and the elves nailed new shoes into their hooves.
Hesitantly, Jack climbed aboard the sleigh too, quickly grinning again.
The yetis around the sleigh then called out as they and the elves backed away, one more yeti climbing aboard after Jack, signalling that they were ready to go.
The second yeti sat down, pulling Jack to sit with him as Phil took the reins and snapped them.
The sleigh started off slow at first as the reindeer began to pull, quickly building up speed as they began to move down an incline that was becoming steeper, until they were going fast down an ice slide.
"Whoo!" Jack cried out enjoying the speed.
There was a light at the end of the tunnel, revealing the world outside.
It was then that Jack realised something.
"Wait, there's no ground!" His eyes widened. "We need to stop!"
But Phil only cracked their reigns again and the reindeer-pulled sleigh shot out of the opening as Jack screamed and clung to the second yeti for dear life.
It took a few seconds for Jack to realise that they weren't falling, opening his eyes to see that the sleigh was effortlessly moving through the air.
"Oh yeah," He said. "This thing flies."
Both yetis laughed.
"It's not funny." Jack pouted.
Phil then pulled out a snow globe from a smaller second sack in the sleigh and said something before throwing it out in front of the sleigh, causing a swirling vortex to appear which they then flew into.
For the first few stops, Jack stayed in the sleigh while the yetis went into the houses to deliver the presents, but then he started accompanying them, going through the doors or somehow fitting down the chimneys. It was a quick process, getting in and out before moving on to the next house.
Then, once a town was down, a snow globe would take the sleigh to the next location.
Halfway through, Jack was eventually trusted in going into the houses himself.
"So, where do I put these." Jack mumbled to himself as he held two presents in his arms.
He was suddenly startled by the sound of someone moving, turning around to see a man walking towards him with a candle to light his way.
"Uh…" Jack said. "I have a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why I'm in your h-"
His fumbling for an excuse was interrupted by the man walking straight through him, causing the boy to gasp and clutch at his chest with his free hand.
"What was that?" He asked himself. "He…he couldn't see me."
Numbly, Jack completed his task of delivering the presents before going back to the sleigh.
"Ashada?" Phil and the other yeti questioned Jack on his return, wondering what had taken him so long.
"There was this man…" Jack explained. "He walked right through me, he couldn't even see me."
Both yetis looked at each other before comforting Jack about his discovery and explaining that humans couldn't normally see spirits without believing in them first, and that it was for the best anyway as it meant they could deliver presents uninterrupted.
"I suppose." Jack agreed.
Jack spent the next few deliveries in the sleigh, contemplating his revelation that he couldn't be seen. Eventually, he managed to muster up enough energy to join in on the deliveries again, trying to take his mind off the matter.
Sandy was doing his usual rounds, making sure all the children were asleep and having happy dreams.
Hearing the opening of a portal and jingle of sleigh bells, he realised that the yetis were out delivering presents for Christmas, which made his slightly sad as he remembered his former teammate.
He wasn't able to think about it for more than a second though, as the laugh of a child quickly caught his attention.
Turning around, he saw that the yetis weren't alone on the sleigh, a boy with white hair was with them. Said boy was also at the helm, leading to the sleigh to land rather roughly rather that gracefully like it usually did.
Confused and interested, Sandman floated his way over to the sleigh to investigate.
"What do you think?" The boy asked, looking at the yetis who seemed rather queasy. "Not bad for my first time flying."
While the yetis had to relent that Jack wasn't the worst at flying, especially for his first time, they didn't plan on letting him fly again until he'd had some lessons, preferably with someone who wasn't them.
They looked up as they spotted the golden glow of Sandy floating over, a question mark appearing over his head.
"Hi." Jack said. "Are you a spirit too?"
It wasn't exactly hard for him to guess, considering the short man was made up of golden sand and floating.
Sandy nodded.
"Can you not speak?" Jack asked, cocking his head to the side.
Phil explained Sandy to Jack so that the golden man wouldn't have to explain himself through his sand images.
"Oh, okay." Jack said, turning back to Sandy. "I'm Jack."
Sandy shook Jack's hand while making a moon and question mark appear above his head.
Phil nodded, confirming that Jack was a spirit created by the Man in the Moon.
Sandy didn't recall seeing the spirit before, meaning that the boy had to be a newly born spirit. He wondered what Jack was the spirit of, as most spirits were tied to something like a season, day or concept.
"I'm helping deliver the presents." Jack said. "Speaking of, we should get back to that."
Jack grabbed one of the presents out of the sack and hopped over to the nearest house.
Sandy once again raised a question mark about his head while the other yeti joined in on delivering presents, Phil answering that Jack had been found and was staying at the North Pole and so was helping out.
This made Sandy's nose scrunch up in thought.
Jack and the other yeti returned, grabbing more presents to deliver, this time Phil joined in.
Seeing nothing better to do, and since the deliveries coincided with his route, Sandy stayed with the group as they delivered the presents, moving from one area to the next.
Jack yawned, slumping down in the sleigh as it took off.
"That's the last of them, right?" He asked.
Phil nodded.
The sack was empty, meaning it was time to return to the North Pole as light began to peak over the horizon.
Sandy sat beside Jack in the sleigh, yawning himself.
Technically speaking, he should be continuing his rounds as his job never stopped, it was always night somewhere after all. But he wanted to test something first.
With one last snow globe, they were back at the North Pole with the workshop in sight.
Rather than entering the same way they had left, the top of the stables were opened up for a quick and easy landing.
Everyone expected the landing of the sleigh to be as it usually was, uneventful. The sleigh would land, the reindeer unbridled and taken to their enclosures to eat and sleep while the sleigh itself would be put back into storage until the next year.
But as the sleigh touched the ground, a pulse of magic enveloped it, which then spread across the ground and walls, traveling through the entire workshop. The yetis and elves watched in awe as the dirt was cleared from the corners, the rot in the wood disappeared, the metal shined brightly once again as the rust was cleared away, the left-over toys began to move on their own and fly into the air, and the lights on the globe shined brighter than they had in years, illuminating the entire building. The workshop was back to its former glory.
Back on the sleigh, which now looked as good as new, Sandy and the yetis jumped for joy as they climbed out of the sleigh, or floated in Sandy's case, marvelling at the restored building around them.
Jack, however, just yawned louder and lay down in the sleigh.
"I'm tired." He complained.
Phil chuckled and reached in, picking Jack up.
Sandy floated over and sprinkled some of his dreamsand over the boy, sending him into dreams.
The yeti and dream spirit looked at each other and then at Jack, both understanding what this all meant.
Jack wasn't just any spirit, he was the new Spirit of Christmas.
Author's note: Please comment
I would continue, but I want to keep this story as a one-shot and it's already much longer than I intended it to be
I hope I did alright with the Native Alaskan parts, I tried my best to understand their culture and not be offensive. I wrote that part using the 'Cultural Insights' of a game called 'Never Alone' which was made in association with Alaskan natives and is based around a few of their stories, with the Cultural Insights being little collectables through the game which are videos about different aspects of Alaskan culture. I recommend the game to everyone, its controls can be a bit frustrating, especially if you don't have someone to play it with and have to rely on the AI to be your partner, but it's still a fun little game and the look into the Alaskan culture is really fascinating
Merry Christmas