"Oh, ye'll no be spending any time indoors if I can help it!" Amberlynn Sommers called out to a group of teenagers getting ready to pack up and leave Atlantic City. Not that they actually could hear her, mind you. Nobody ever heard her, or saw her, for that matter. But it didn't matter. It would merely have been a distraction to have even one believer on that beach while she worked, let alone if everyone did.
As the summer spirit flew down to the epicenter of the hopefully-soon-to-be-crowded (if she gets any say in it) beach, an unusually cold wind for the month of July blew harshly from the northeast. Feeling the tiny little goosebumps rise against Amberlynn's pale, freckled skin, she fought the instinct to warm herself and press on with the job. Even with the stupid parka over all these layers of clothes, it's still too bloody cold out here. Curse that Frost, wait'll I get my hands on'em!
"Do ye mind calming down the winds just a bit, Mother Nature? I've a bloody…oh what's the word fer swydd…job ye assigned me to, ye know!" Amberlynn shouted into the seeming nothingness, although she knew better than to doubt whether her message was received. While the slight chill was still present at the beach—ergo the main reason so many humans were packing up to leave—the winds had died down enough for her satisfaction.
Amberlynn knelt near a small, deserted mound of sand. Carefully wrapping her wavy, hip-length, fiery red hair around her right arm, she placed her right hand—which held the excess hair—on top of the sand mound and closed her eyes. Keeping in time with the steady rate of her heart, her internal temperature steadily increased as heat emitted from her hair and pulsed into the sand. Soon (though not so soon that mere mortals would grow concerned) the temperature of the beach began to increase, starting from the sand and working its way up.
Though she refused to stop until the beach was at a temperature she was happy with, her lips turned upward into a small smile when one of the teens she saw earlier say to her friends over the phone, "I'm telling you guys, you all should come back to the shore! It's actually really warm out here now, I might even jump in for a swim." All around her, she either heard similar conversations or more people returning to the beach with their luggage clanking behind, many of them looking in hope to find the spot they previously had before someone else takes it.
Before long, the beach was filled with people swimming, sunbathing, and playing volleyball. Amberlynn looked around at the scene before her and sighed in satisfaction. Her contentedness came to a quick halt when two children ran right through her.
"Coc y gath!" Amberlynn yelled, flying up in the air as quickly as she could before someone else ran through her. "I warm up the entire beach for ye lot and this is the thanks I get? Ye lousy pobl ddiolchgar!" In a huff, she flew away from the beach on the hunt for her next destination.
The summer spirit doesn't mind mortals, honestly. After all, it's not their fault she's a minor spirit under the direction of Mother Nature. And she truly couldn't care less if she was seen or not by them. It's the freezing cold feeling at the pit of her stomach that forms after being run or walked right through that makes her redheaded temper flare.
After fleeing the scene of her success, Amberlynn glided through the air at a slightly quicker-than-leisurely pace on the hunt for one of her favorite places to relax after an assignment: Death Valley. Almost nothing rejuvenates her faster after spending time in a cold environment than resting in the hottest place on Earth. No work, no Jack Frost, is there any more a spirit could ask for?
While she gets along fine enough with the other Guardians, it was no secret that she and Frost didn't exactly see eye to eye on everything. She supposed they would get along better if Jack didn't freeze everything she tried to keep warm and alive. Honestly, he was like an annoying little brother getting in her way every single step. That, and now that he's been chosen by Manny, it's like he gets special privileges to automatically ignore Mother Nature's direct orders to remain neutral in any squabble the Guardians have with anyone or anything.
Toothiana was friendly enough, although her high-pitched, squeaky voice and fast tongue that resembles chirping more so than actual speech tends to get old pretty quickly. It's truly for the better that Tooth spends most of her time up in the palace, anyway.
She liked Sandy well enough, for the brief encounters they've had. While Sandman does his work at night for obvious reasons, Amberlynn is more diurnal in nature and they seldom cross paths except to acknowledge each other before heading off to do an assignment or to get rest after a long day's (or night's) worth of work.
Amberlynn has never met North, although she's not entirely sure that she'd want to. While he sounds like a fine spirit, she's not sure she could deal with such a loud, boisterous, spirit that doesn't seem to know the meaning of the word "no." After all, Jack Frost hated the idea of being a Guardian almost as much as Amberlynn and if he was converted over? Well, who can say what runs through that teenager's mind?
Bunnymund, however, was definitely her favorite. Though he seldom leaves his Warren except for official Guardian business and Easter to help distribute some eggs, he finds her love and respect for flora (and not freezing everything to the ground) as well as her appreciation for the Easter season to be a refreshing change of pace compared to dealing with both North and Frost. They don't really say much to each other, either, when in passing, but that's what makes their relationship work. Both their hotheaded tempers and mutual love and respect for all things warm (and alive) are enough for them to establish a friendship.
Bunnymund was also a great help to the young summer spirit for the uglier side of her job. The downside to her being the summer spirit is where her source of heat comes from: fire. While she is more than in control of her power and has never accidentally burned anything, the first time Mother Nature ordered her to use her power other than to provide warmth just about destroyed her.
"I trust you know how to produce fire?" Mother Nature asked sarcastically. Slightly offended, the barely-5-year-old spirit scoffed in indignation and replied, "Of course I can make fire! How else am I supposed to see at night and keep warm?" As if to prove her point, she balled up her hand into a fist as tightly as she could before immediately opening it back up, holding a ball of fire in her hand roughly the size of a softball, nothing too fancy but enough to show Mother Nature she had control of her powers.
"Excellent, Sommers. Now use it on the eucalyptus tree just over there." Upon seeing where she pointed, Amberlynn noticed the dead, poor excuse of vegetation which was truthfully better use for kindling by this point.
The summer spirit protested, "But Mother Nature! If that tree gets so much as a single spark against it, this entire forest will go up in flames!" The elder spirit gave time for that fact to sink in with her youngest nature spirit. Amberlynn's charcoal grey eyes grew wide and became a little misty as she tried pleading with her.
"Please don't make me do this! Surely I can be of use somewhere else! Maybe a polar ice cap needs melting or something. Please don't let me set this forest on fire." Mother Nature sighed and crossed her long slender arms across her chest, as patience was not one of her strong suits.
"You will complete this task before the sun reaches high noon, and that is my final word on the subject." Without further ado, Mother Nature vanished, leaving Amberlynn starting at where she in her long, forest green dress once was, to do exactly what she was ordered.
A few hours after the forest had become nothing but ash, Amberlynn still remained seated in the middle of what once was a grand cluster of trees of all shapes and sizes, with her arms wrapped tightly around her knees while she tried to fathom what she had done. She heard footsteps from someone approaching behind her. Probably just some mortal finally realizing the damage I've done she thought to herself. Wait, not footsteps, but, hops?
"Oi, what is this I come home to?" E. Aster Bunnymund asked. While the young spirit knew of the Easter Bunny, she had only spoken to him a few times in passing but never knew much about him. Mother Nature made me destroy the Easter Bunny's home?! She quickly stood up and dusted the ash off her dress as she stammered, "Bunny! I—I had no idea ye lived, I mean I'm sorry that Mother Nature—er, that I…oh blimey what's the use? I didn't know I destroyed yer home. Truthfully, I was merely following orders but I had no idea what the cost would be. What can I do to make it up to ye?"
"Destroyed my home? You think that I? Oi, that was a rich one sheila!" Bunnymund chuckled. When he saw she didn't understand, he cleared his throat and explained, "The Warren is but a good several kilometers underground…Amberlynn, right? Well, anyway sheila, you didn't destroy my home. I've been bugging Mother Nature that she remove those bloody awful trees for decades! Every time I tried settin' fire to it myself, she'd just send a torrential downpour on the whole bloody lot!"
"Wait, you mean you wanted this to happen?" If Amberlynn wasn't confused then, she was more than ever by this point.
"Oh that's right, you've not roamed the Earth long enough to know this beauty for what it once was. You see, sheila, when I first took the Warren as my home here, this place was a beauty of a meadow if I ever saw one! Unfortunately, as time went on, trees began growing in the meadow and quickly overshadowed—literally—the poor flora that once covered this land and became a forest. I've been trying to get those trees down to repurpose this land to what it once was."
Wiping away a pesky tear that had formed in her reddened eyes (I thought I was done crying), she asked incredulously, "You mean to tell me I actually did a good thing? That Mother Nature didn't just make me burn this whole forest down for nothing?"
"While I don't care for Mother Nature's personality or her means of achieving what she wants, mate," Bunny admitted bluntly, "I can't deny that she eventually gets what needs to be done for the flora and fauna on this planet. Even in spite of what humans try to do to it."
*Author's note: While my dear Amberlynn is indeed of Welsh origin, I sadly am not and I apologize for any current or future words/phrases that may have been used incorrectly or in the wrong context. For those who do not speak Welsh, such as myself, here are the phrases and their English translations (more or less)
Coc y gath: (literal translation: the cat's willy) a phrase to express shock, dismay, anger
Pobl ddiolchgar: ungrateful people