A/N: This is the action chapter! There's only one more chapter after this that deals with the gruesome aftermath.


The Frost Spirit and the Honey Tree

by Anders, Kaylin, and Saph


Chapter 4

The good thing about chasing the grootslang through the tunnels was that there was no room for it to turn around to strike Jack. The bad thing was that Jack had no idea when the tunnels might open up and let it turn around to strike him.

The snake veered to the left suddenly and Jack flew after it into an open space. Sure enough, he heard scales scraping against stone just in time to dodge as the snake struck from where it had looped around behind, fangs flashing in the dim light of phosphorescent fungi.

Jack threw ice blasts and dodged, the snake doing the same, pushing him farther and farther into the cavern's wide expanse. The snake lunged suddenly, but instead of striking Jack, slithered underneath him, into a small hole at the back of the cavern, where stalactites and stalagmites had grown together like a cage between that cavern and another.

"Hey!" Jack shouted, racing after the snake again. The cavern he emerged into had no exit – only the single hole, through which the snake had already come, and it thrashed and hissed as it searched for an exit through the cagelike stalagmites, or in the solid walls.

Jack stood over the sole entry tunnel, triumphant. "Gotcha!"

The grootslang whipped its tail towards Jack. He threw himself forward with an ice blast that went wide, harmlessly coating the stalagmites with frost. The snake's tail slammed into the wall behind him, pulverizing the stone into heavy boulders that fell, piling up in a heap over the exit tunnel.

"Actually," hissed the snake. "It lookss like I've got you."

Jack sucked in a breath as understanding dawned on him.

"Trap, huh?"

"Obvioussly."

"Good trap," Jack admitted.

"Thankss," said the grootslang, baring its dripping, arm-long fangs. "I try."

"Well, listen, technically we're trapped in here with each other," Jack pointed out. "This could go either way. There's just one thing I need to know before decide whether you get to live or whether you get -"

"- iced?" finished the snake.

"'Killed.' I was going to say 'killed.' I don't do ice puns." Jack gave the snake a dirty look at the implication alone. "Look, I'm giving you one chance, right now. Will you swear never to hurt another kid?"

"Take the Enkidu Oath, and live in harmless secret?" The snake sneered. "Of coursse not. Human children are deliciouss. And let'ss face it." The snake fixed Jack with the full burning force of its one remaining good eye. "Ice never beat fire."

"Okay," Jack said nodding, slotting this Enkidu Oath thing as something to ask the others about later. "How about we put that to the test?"

He swung his staff at the snake, shooting a huge blast of ice magic with an angry cry. It wasn't so much that the snake intended to keep murdering children (although that was plenty bad) – it was that the snake was just so blithe about it. Three hundred years of an invisible life among kids, being privy to their hopes and their fears and their joy, had created in him not just a desire to protect them, but a complete lack of understanding as to why anything would want to hurt them. The idea was repulsive, unimaginably cruel, and the grootslang's careless disrespect for the six lives it had snuffed out filled Jack with rage.

He'd made many thoughtless mistakes today, but now he could do one thing right – he could make sure this monster never hurt another child again. As a Guardian, he could do no less.


Following the snake through the tunnels was more difficult than Bunnymund wanted to admit. The system of tunnels and chambers had a way of confusing and misdirecting sounds, even to his acute hearing, and every false end just added pressure to his growing frustration. The Sandman, quiet as ever as he swept along behind him in the tunnels, barely had a chance to catch Bunny's attention. He only managed when they halted (again) in another closed tunnel, where he finally was able to point out to Bunny that somewhere along the trip, Anansi had disappeared.

Bunny groaned out loud, recalling his own speech to Jack about Anansi's ways. He knew better than most that if Anansi had taken off, it was probably for a good reason, but there was always the possibility with tricksters, even with Anansi, that it wasn't. Tricksters were great fun when it came time to shake things up that needed shaking, but they weren't necessarily comforting in the midst of a crisis.

So they were down an ally – no sense counting on Anansi, because there was always the possibility that he wouldn't show up again at all – with a grootslang on the loose and the most irresponsible Guardian ever sworn in chasing it down - possibly into who knew what village - in a tunnel he couldn't quite locate.

"Bloody show pony." Bunny had not stopped muttering to himself since they dove back underground. "That glory-hound is going to get some kid killed at this rate."

He gathered his strength for another burst of speed, but Sandy floated in front of him, little sandstorm fireworks bursting to get his attention. The little sand image of Jack over Sandy's head had his chest puffed out and a flippant expression, but Sandy had imposed an X over the image.

Bunny rolled his eyes, his patience worn far past thin. "You think I'm wrong too? Well don't keep it to yourself, mate, spell it out."

Sandy flashed more images into being. This time, the sand Jack stood separate from the Guardians, who were angrily posturing and berating him. The dejected sand-Jack seemed to shrink in on himself as the Guardians finalized their rejection, leaving the little image all alone. Though Sandy hadn't been there, the image reminded Bunny remarkably of how they had rejected Jack once before, the first time he'd made a serious mistake, when he left them open to attack from Pitch on Easter. It reminded him of how Jack had been afraid they would do it again, when he'd caused all that damage on his little belief bender not so long after.

Bunny sighed, but it was with resolve rather than sympathy. "This is a problem bigger than his feelings. He doesn't listen, and he doesn't learn, he tries to make up for his mistakes with bigger, better victories, and someday he's not going to win. Some kid's going to pay the price for that. Which do you think would hurt him worse, if someone was hard on him now for being so rash, or if some kid died because of something he did, trying to un-bruise his ego?"

Sandy nodded, frowning, but still gripped Bunny's shoulder. The image of the puffed-up, egocentric Jack appearing crossed out again. Now the golden sanded Jack was floating unseen through generation upon generations of humans, sitting alone as a sandy spectral globe spun around him in a passage of, even to immortals like them, a long time.

Bunny's expression was half-irritated, but also half-pained. "What?" he snapped. "Like I don't know what it's like to be alone? At least I never - hang on."

They each heard it at once - a distant cracking of many rocks falling that echoed through the tunnels. Bunny took off without another word, sweeping Sandy along behind.

They emerged into an open cavern, where cage-like stalactites and stalagmites separated them from the battle that was raging between Jack and the grootslang. Bunny was about to try to force open a tunnel of his own into the battle cavern when one of the many oblong rocks around him and Sandy suddenly cracked with a hiss of escaping pressure. A jet of steam poured from the crack, which glowed with a molten, fiery light.

"Those aren't rocks," Bunny breathed, he and Sandy staring in dread for a moment before assuming fighting stances.

"Maybe grootslangs are born with more than just instinct," Bunny suggested, just the slightest touch of nervousness in his voice. The rest of the rocklike eggs cracked, the cavern filling with steam and hellish light. "Might get a chance to reason with them."

Sandy looked at him with a skeptical, dry expression that asked, 'Do you actually believe that?'

"Not in the least," Bunny admitted, as the first of the infant snake monsters burst from its shell and, true to its nature, launched itself towards the nearest tantalizing smell of meat.


Jack was wearing it down.

At least, in the beginning, he was wearing it down. The ice blasts clearly hurt the grootslang, and left it covered with scaly frost-burns.

Too bad Jack was working against two strengths – the snake's fire, and its physical strength. Every time he came close to freezing it down, the snake broke free either with sheer physical force, or by melting the ice with its fiery breath.

And the more the snake used that fiery breath, the bigger Jack's other problem became – the heat in the cavern was rising. The fireblasts left stones red-hot, the heat building into an inferno in the closed chamber. It was getting more and more difficult to stave off the heat, especially when he had to use so much of his power to fuel a direct attack.

It was becoming too much. The snake had already noticed.

"Can't take the heat, I ssee. I did warn you."

"Says the reptile currently sporting some pretty nasty frostbite."

"Ssomething you'll pay for, little ssnowflake. You-"

It didn't get to finish its sentence. Jack blasted his magic into the grootslang's open mouth, freezing its spit and venom. While the grootslang gagged on its own frozen spit, Jack flew up in the air, forming a long spike of sharp ice. He landed with it on the grootslang's back and plunged the spike in as deep as he could.

The grootslang screeched in misery, flames spewing from its mouth. Black blood bubbled out of the snake's body, hot as tar, burning where it flowed over Jack's hand.

Jack let out a yelp of pain and jumped away from the tar-hot blood, and accidentally threw himself into the line of its thrashing head. The grootslang slammed into him, knocking him back down onto the stones. He bounced several times, his staff landing out of his reach as he came to a stop.

"Sscuttling inssect!"

Jack rolled and grabbed the staff, forming an ice shield around himself just in time as the snake poured on the fire. The rough wood grated against his burnt fingers, but he didn't dare risk holding it with just the one hand. His staff vibrated with the force of the cold and heat, forcing him to brace it against the stony floor of the cavern. The outer layers of the shield were melting fast, filling the room with steam, and it was becoming clear with every moment that the snake had been right to be arrogant – it could put out more fire than he could put out ice.

Plus, it still had its tail. It came smashing down, shattering the last of the ice shield. Jack barely dodged the direct blow himself.

A sudden yell echoed through the cavern.

"Hey, Joe Blake!" called Bunny. He and Sandman were barely visible, unable to squeeze through the stalactites and stalagmites to come to Jack's aid, but also a little preoccupied with their own battle with a whole throng of baby snakes – baby being a relative term, because even in infancy, the grootslangs were huge. "You've got one chance. If you're willing to take the Enkidu Oath, we'll let you and your brood live."

"Never!" yelled the snake.

"Then you might want to get your carpet grubs under control before we do."

The grootslang didn't even bat its good eye, its gaze still focused on Jack. (And there was the Enkidu Oath again. What was that?) "If they're weak enough to be killed by a rodent and sand, they deserve to die young."

Jack winced. "Wow. Motherly love's not big with you giant fire breathing snake monsters, is it?"

"Lagomorph!" Bunny shouted. "Rabbits aren't rodents."

The snake shook its head, its body language as close as it could come to a scoff. "I'm not going to argue taxonomy with a - ahhh!"

The scoff was just enough of an opening. Jack fired his ice at the snake's remaining good eye, the strike landing sure and hard.

"Thanks for the distraction!" he called to Bunny.

"Do you think I need to ssee you to kill you?" the snake hissed, flicking its forked tongue. It struck, lightning quick. Jack jumped out of the way, kicking off the stony wall of the cavern to give himself some momentum. It wasn't enough. The snake's sharp teeth - thankfully, not the venomous fangs - dug into his bare ankle and whipped Jack from side to side. The snake worried him like a child waving a rag doll, and flung him against the far side of the cavern. He slammed into the wall and slumped slowly, far from his staff and desperately overheated.

Across the cagelike stalagmites, Bunny and Sandy looked up a moment from their own battle in time to see Jack crumple against the far wall, the grootslang pulling back for an imminent strike.

The shot had to be perfect - perfectly aimed, and timed. It had to be the sort of shot that only someone who'd spent hundreds of years throwing things could make.

With a fraction of a second to aim, Bunny threw one boomerang in an arc that whirred through a slot in the stalagmites, curved an arc a hair from scraping the side of the cavern, and connected – slamming into the grootslang's snout as its strike brought it into the boomerang's path.

Bunny had barely released his throw when one of the baby grootslangs delivered a strike of its own, perfectly aimed at the giant rabbit's exposed shoulder. When Bunny turned the snake was still there, an inch from striking, straining against the sand whip holding it in place. It gave Bunny just enough time to throw his other boomerang, striking yet another baby snake as it made for the Sandman, who yanked the sand whip, snapping his captured grootslang against the bars of their earth cage. The two shared the briefest companionable smile before throwing themselves back into the shared battle.


Jack scrambled to his feet while the grootslang hissed and reeled in pain. The strike from the boomerang had shattered one of its venomous fangs besides bludgeoning its snout, and molten hot blood seared its mouth and wounds. Blind, damaged, frost burnt, the proud creature went into another wild thrash of fire and bodily bludgeoning. Jack, weakened and wilting in the steaming heat, could do little more than dodge and land heavily on the stone floor.

"You don't want to eat him," a voice suddenly called from off to the side. There, standing where had been empty space only seconds before, was Anansi. "There is no meat to him, only slush and ice where his bones should be."

"Aah," the grootslang flicked its tongue, tasting the air, "if it issn't the Great Ananssi again. What do you care what happenss to thiss little ssnowflake? Hiss death is hiss own fault. He chosse to throw himsself into the fire."

"He is a fool and I could care less about him. No, I am here because I heard tales of your giant mouth. I was told that you could swallow a grown man the size of myself in one gulp but after seeing you myself, I do not believe it."

"I'll sshow you when I sswallow the child. Perhapss that will ssatissfy your curiossity."

"Oh, he's hardly grown. You would take the easy way out, wouldn't you - because you can't do it. The reputation I have heard of the mighty grootslang is just a myth. How disappointing; I will be sure to correct the stories."

"Fine! You want a demonsstration? Here'ss one up closse and perssonal!"

The grootslang struck, closing its entire mouth around Anansi and swallowing him in one gulp. A large bulge moved slowly down the snake's body.

Jack shuddered and gasped, but the gasp was almost a sob. He knew Anansi – didn't like Anansi – but knew him and he'd just been eaten alive. Trickster or not, there was no way that getting eaten alive could have been his plan.

And it was his fault. Anansi was dead and soon he would be, too. Bunny and Sandy would be lucky to get out alive after fighting the baby snakes. They couldn't possibly be lucky enough to escape the adult grootslang as well.

I didn't mean for this to happen.

His answering thought followed immediately:

Just like you didn't mean to run off and get Sandy hurt by Pitch? Just like you didn't mean to run off and get tricked by Pitch into destroying all the eggs at Easter? You never mean for this to happen - so why does it keep happening?

He had no time left to figure it out.

The snake darted in. Jack crawled backwards, dragging a trail of blood from his bleeding foot until he was pinned against the wall, quivering like a Christmas pudding being poked by children that were too easily entertained. The grootslang's tongue flicked in and out, greedily taking in the scent of Jack's fear.

"Killing the great Ananssi and a Guardian in one day? I wish I had the capacity to wear hatss just sso I could put a feather in my cap. Now sshould I jusst eat you, or burn you to a crissp, or sssqueeze you until your insides wind up outsside firsst?"

"Please, just - just -"

"Pleasse jusst make it as misserable as posssible? Certainly."

The grootslang's tongue flicked against Jack's chin. He cringed, shutting his eyes, hoping against hope that he would just pass out rather than be conscious during his gruesome end in the creature's gullet.

"Bottom'ss u-uck. Ggckt."

The grootslang gagged.

"Kkkcft."

It gagged again.

Jack opened one eye. The snake had reared back and the bulge that had been Anansi was about one-third of the way down the snake's body. It was getting...bulgier. Eight points pressed against the creature's throat from the inside, stretching the snake's flesh to the breaking point.

The grootslang let out one last gasp that was probably meant to be a scream and then its flesh practically exploded, black blood gushing out in rivers, its body completely bisected. A figure tumbled out into the hot sludge, eight spider's legs spread to brace his fall.

"Oh, that's hot. That's very, very hot," said Anansi, dancing in place. The smoking black blood covered his body, but he seemed more uncomfortable than injured. Under the blood and guts, Jack could see flashes of a chitinous exoskeleton covering Anansi's human shape, in addition to spider's legs. The spider covered himself with webbing, then tore it off and the black blood came away, soaked into the web. Even Anansi's clothes were clean, though very seared.

"You," he said, pointing to Jack as the exoskeleton over his human shape softened back into skin, "You're lucky I don't go sound you! You owe me big time, you little tok. That was not pleasant."

Jack struggled to his feet and limped a few steps to Anansi. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm s - I'm -"

"You're about to faint is what you are."

Sure, enough, Jack fell forward, eyes rolling up in the back of his head. Anansi caught him just in time. The last thing Jack heard before the world went black was Anansi sighing.


"Fool boy."

The spider gathered the boy into his arms and scuttled over to pick up Jack's staff, as well as Bunny's boomerang. He carried all three to the cagelike rocks separating the chambers, braced his spider's legs against two of them, and shoved until the stone cracked and fell. He slipped through as the last hatchling hit the dust, dead.

"Such a shame these creatures are a slave to their natures," he said, looking over the corpses of the dead newborn grootslangs. "It pains me when only some children can be saved from themselves."

Bunny and Sandy hurried over, eyes wide with alarm.

"Is he -?"

"He lives," said Anansi, tossing Jack's staff to Sandy, and Bunny's boomerang back to its owner. "I will not say he is fine because I don't think it's true, but he lives. He's overheated though. We must get him outside and cooled down."

"He's lucky!" Bunny exploded, entreating Anansi for agreement. "He was within cooee of dying. Not to mention getting the rest of us killed!"

Sandy shook his head, pointing to Jack.

"I'm not spewin' for nothing here! He's so blind to -"

Sandy shook his head again, grabbing Bunny's arm. He pointed to the tunnels, and the general direction of "out of here." Then he pointed to Jack again.

"Right," Bunny grumbled, stowing boomerangs away and hopping towards the tunnels. He couldn't give Jack the talking-to to end all talking-to's if the heat killed him down in the tunnels.

Sandy swept all of them up on a cloud of sand, to spare Jack the turbulence of following Bunny through the tunnels. They soared through the earth, Bunny calling out directions to the surface.

Sandy cast an inquiring look at Anansi. A snake appeared over his head in sand, followed by a plus sign, another snake, eggs, and a question mark.

"I saw the bones of its mate in another chamber," said Anansi. "That particular family has at least been eradicated. If there are others that have been freed, I will dispose of them, now that I know of the tunnels. The services of the Guardians are no longer required."

"Left here, Sandy. I smell fresh air," said Bunny. They turned into a cave that opened out onto a plain beneath the night sky. The stars were bright in the clear sky, and they could see the thick dusting of stars that made up the galactic center of the Milky Way.

"Should we find a lake or a mountain or something?" asked Bunny, peeking over the edge of the cloud. "To cool him down?"

"No, just set us down in the grass below," said Anansi as he bandaged Jack's burned hand and bloody ankle with his webs. "I can take care of this."

Sandy set them down, and picking up Jack, Anansi turned to the two of them, "I wish to speak with him alone. You can stay nearby. It will only be for a few minutes."

"Why?" asked Bunny, his hackles suddenly raised. If anyone was going to give Jack what-for after all this mess, it was going to be him.

Though, if he were honest with himself, he was torn on the timing. As furious as he was, Jack looked very pale and small in Anansi's arms. His face was still touched with fear even in unconsciousness.

"Shouldn't the eldest have his time to speak with the youngest?" Anansi said, his teeth flashing in the light from Sandy's dreamsand.

Bunny paused. "Alright. But remember -"

"'Don't break him,'" Anansi repeated the warning. "No, the problem here is that he's breaking himself."

Bunny and Sandy put distance between themselves and Jack and Anansi, leaving the two comparatively alone on the plain. Anansi sat on the ground, getting comfortable, settling Jack in his lap. Then he looked up at the sky, hummed an ancient little tune, and just like that, rain fell on them both. There were no clouds, just rain out of nothing, pouring down and soaking the green earth.

In the distance, Sandy erected an umbrella out of his dreamsand over his and Bunny's heads, and the light from it cast the world around Anansi and Jack in a warm, diffusive glow.


The rain was cool. That was the first thing that registered in his fuzzy head, the coolness around him. Coolness and wetness, like those mornings after the frost he put down started to turn into dew instead. It was a little too wet, though, alarmingly wet, and Jack didn't like when his face was wet. It had always unnerved him, though it was only recently that he'd finally understood why.

Jack opened his eyes, gasping, thrashing in a slight panic, but strong arms were wrapped around him, not letting him flail hard enough to hurt himself more than he was already hurting.

He saw Anansi's now-familiar face above him, bright teeth shining in dim golden light. Through the blurring effect of the rain falling down, somehow he saw a cloudless night sky, the stars distorted by the falling water, the light caught like silver in each and every raindrop.

"It's alright. Ssh, it's alright, my young friend. You're safe."

"Bu- Bu- n' San-" Jack gasped out raggedly.

"Bunnymund and the Sandman are safe as well. The grootslangs are all dead. You were wounded and overheated. I've bandaged your wounds with my webs and they should heal cleanly, though you may have scars on your hand where you were burned. The snake's blood burned with more than heat, because there is magic in the grootslang's fire. Let your scars be a reminder of this day and the mistakes you've made."

Jack lay there in Anansi's arms, letting the rain fall on his face, blinking blearily to get the rain out of his eyes. He opened his mouth a little so that the water fell on his mouth and lips and dried out tongue.

"You saved me," he eventually croaked weakly.

"Yes."

"You got eaten to save me."

"Yes, and it was as unpleasant as it looked."

"Why? You don't even like me."

Anansi's expression shifted to one that was gentler than any Jack had seen on his face so far.

"Poor little frost spirit, you try so hard. Too hard. You tried so hard today that you refused to listen at every turn. You flew ahead, alone, every time you were told not to. We could have pinned the snake's tail so that it couldn't haven't gotten in through the child's window, so that you didn't endanger his life when the roof caved in. We could have tracked the grootslang through the tunnels and faced it together, rather than fighting it so clumsily that all our lives were at risk."

Jack's innards twisted with an emotional dance that could have made a contortionist weep with jealousy.

"I was just - I just -"

Jack trailed off, his expression miserable. Some of the water in his eyes might not have been just rain.

"Let me tell you a story," said Anansi gently. "Once, very very long ago, there was a greedy fool. This fool had heard about a young girl who went into the bush every day to gather food, who was known far and wide for finding the very best food in the bush. She found the largest plums and the ripest bananas and the fool wanted all this for himself. So he found her and asked her to show him where she found her food."

Jack listened. He listened like he hadn't until now, letting the story flow into him the same way the cool rain was flowing over his bare skin.

"He was very charming and seemed very kind so she told him she would only show him if he promised to tell no one else where she found it, and if he promised to only take what he needed. He lied to her and made this promise, even though he didn't plan to keep it, so she led him into the bush. First, she went to a plum tree deep in the bush and told him 'This is where I find my plums. They are always huge and juicy.' The fool then showed his true character, which was one of greed, by climbing up the tree and eating every. Single. Plum. The girl now knew that he had lied to her, but rather than stop, she decided to teach him a lesson."

Anansi raised his eyebrows at this.

"'Now show me where the bananas are,' the fool demanded and she showed him. 'This is where I find the best bananas in all of the bush.' The fool devoured every single banana as well. By now, his belly was swollen many times it normal size and he could hardly walk, but he still demanded to be shown the next place she found her food. 'Would you like some honey?' she asked him. 'For I know the biggest, best place to find honey in all the bush.' The fool told her that yes, he wanted the honey, so she led him to a tree that had a great gap in its trunk and inside was a honeycomb filled to the brim with honey. And do you know what the fool did?"

"He...ate all the honey?" Jack tried, wondering where this story was leading, and if it was leading anywhere at all.

"He climbed into the honey tree and ate every single drop! But when he was finished, he found that his stomach had grown so large, he couldn't fit back out through the hole in the tree. 'Please,' he begged the girl. 'Please, go get help right away. I'm trapped now and I can't get out!' But the girl just laughed. 'You are a greedy fool,' she said, 'and this is a just punishment for that greed. You will have to wait until you are small again to leave.' So the poor fool was left stuck in the honey tree in the dark, until he was eventually small enough to get out through the hole in the tree. When he finally left, he was smaller in everyway, because he was wiser now, and knew not to make the same greedy mistake again."

"What does - what does this have to do with -"

"You're a greedy boy, Jack Frost."

Jack frowned. "I'm not greedy. I own, like, four material possessions and one of them just got eaten by a giant snake."

"You are not greedy for the material. You are greedy for the immaterial. Now that you have found the plum tree and the banana tree and the honey tree, now that you no longer want for belonging and companionship and friendship, you are afraid to lose them. You are afraid to go hungry. So you are greedy. You want attention, you want recognition, you want glory. You want to fix every mistake yourself, because you fear that if you cannot, you will be rejected. Cast out. Alone again, as you were for three hundred long years."

Jack's face twisted into another miserable grimace. The contortionist act going in his chest was at the point where any bystanders would be cringing - and maybe gagging - if it was an act in the real world.

"Don't you see?" Anansi asked earnestly. "If you let this fear consume you, you will only find yourself trapped in the dark in the honey tree. Fear is the only thing that can drive you towards the bad ending of the story that you are trying to avoid, towards the mistakes that could cause true harm. Because fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering."

"...you just ripped that off Star Wars."

Jack had - proudly - seen the original trilogy in its original run in the seventies and eighties. When the newer trilogy had come out, he'd shouted at the screen in such a loud fit of nerd rage that he'd almost gotten himself believed in by some members of the audience.

Anansi shrugged, and smiled wide. "It was my story first."

Jack almost laughed but found that he just couldn't muster up the energy or spirit to.

Anansi gently pushed Jack's wet hair out of his eyes and Jack found himself wondering who Anansi really was behind the trickster façade, who he'd been before, and if that person had ever been a big brother or a father. Normally, he'd have felt awkward to be like this, shirtless, held against a stranger like a small child, but he just...wasn't.

He felt comforted and cared for, in a way he hadn't felt in a very, very long time. It called to something in him, something that felt like a voice calling him in for supper, or felt like that annoying thing parents did where they got spit on a handkerchief to dab at their kid's dirty face.

(He'd always wanted someone to dab at his face with spit.)

Anansi looked different in this light, the harshness and guile all gone from his face. Whether that was a calculated move on Anansi's part or not, he couldn't tell. He was a trickster, after all.

"I keep messing up," Jack said plaintively. "Even with Pitch, we got lucky, because of the kids, because of Jamie. I keep messing up, I've always messed up, and - and -"

"And you wonder," said Anansi, "if that can ever change. You wonder if you can master your fear, if you can stop yourself from making the same mistakes - or new mistakes."

Jack nodded miserably. His voice was thick as he said, "I don't know. I don't know...myself well enough to know. I know I'm not a bad person, I know now that I was chosen for a reason, but I don't know if I can do the things I need to do. I know who I am but I don't know who I can be."

"Do you think anyone does? Do you think anyone goes through this world always knowing, for absolute certain, the right choices to take every single time? I certainly didn't. I still don't - and I am much, much older than you and have had much more time to figure it out. You must learn many things, not the least of which is how not to be greedy. That's one with an easy solution though."

"Oh yeah? Lay it on me."

"Don't starve yourself," Anansi pointed out, like it was perfectly logical.

"Don't starve my - what does that even -"

"You'll figure it out."

Jack frowned at him, obstinately.

"I'm not handing them all to you on a silver platter," Anansi said, just as obstinately.

"So, what I'm getting from all this is that I'm a fool. I'm an idiot. Vague advice on how to fix it. Got it."

"Yes," Anansi said, nodding. "That's about right. But. But there is one more lesson in the story I told you that you don't yet understand."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

"You see, the fool in that story," Anansi said slowly, "was me. After that, I was never that greedy again, never that unwise, never so afraid to go hungry that I damaged myself and trapped myself in the dark."

Jack looked up at him with wide eyes.

"In that story, the most important lesson of all is this: Fools can learn."

The answers came to him slowly under the starry Ugandan sky. Anansi helped Jack to a sitting position, a gentle hand on his shoulder. Jack sat in the wet grass, gingerly holding his side, looking at his bandaged hand and foot.

"I really did the 'damaging myself' part pretty spectacularly, huh."

"Yes, you did," said Anansi, "but I expect that you'll do the 'fixing yourself' part just as spectacularly."

That got the smallest of smiles out of the frost spirit, one that transformed slowly to a guilty look.

"By the way, uh, I'm really sorry about the blizzard thing. With the Serengeti."

"Apology accepted," said Anansi. He added, "As long as you never bring your winter there again or I'll beat you so hard that I'll suddenly remember one of your distant African ancestors in the earliest days of the world wondering why he's in so much pain. Do you understand?" Anansi held up his hand in a way that suggested that it was his beating hand, his face deadly serious. "It will be a beating that will travel backwards through time."

Jack's memory sparked with a sudden image of a much-hated hazel switch wielded by a particularly humorless school-master. Even now, with many of his memories missing, it put the fear in him. He wasn't particularly keen on anything resembling a repeat.

"Yes, sir," he said immediately. "Understood, sir."

"Good, because the elephants there are endangered, you know, and they're not built for cold." Anansi's severe frown gave way to a cheerful grin. "Let's get you up and over to your friends. You need to go somewhere safe to rest. I recommend somewhere cold."


They decided to return to the North Pole by sand cloud. Bunny was not happy about it, but the ride would be much smoother on the injured Jack.

Anansi bid them farewell under the open sky.

"So long, old friend," he said to Bunny, while Sandman loaded Jack onto the sand cloud. "You still have the knack for a good ploy, just like old times. It felt good to share in a bit of mischief again."

"Ha, yeah," Bunny agreed with a slight, but genuine, chuckle. "Ah, it was never my center, but yeah, it was fun." About the only fun anyone'd had on this messy venture.

"But no one is only their center," Anansi prompted, "and the past is meant to be remembered, not escaped. What are you doing to amuse yourself these days?"

Bunny's grin had faded sharply. His tone dropped, so that Jack and Sandy were less privy to their conversation. "Amusement's not my priority, mate, but maybe I'll see you again soon."

Anansi shrugged, and patted Bunny briefly on the shoulder. "Who can say?"

"You probably could," said Bunny, returning the gesture, "but I don't expect you will."

Anansi grinned his brilliant, wide grin. "Sometimes, old friend, I believe you might know me too well."

Bunny chuckled again, dryly this time, hopping onto the sand cloud. "You'd like me to think that, wouldn't you?"

"I'll never say," Anansi responded.

Sandy produced a sandy hat to tip at Anansi, who saluted back.

Jack sat where he was on the cloud, clutching his staff pensively and looking back at Anansi.

"The weird thing is...is I can't tell whether I like you or can't stand you, but in either case, thank you," he said quietly.

"Oh, don't worry, you'll never figure it out," said Anansi cheekily, "but you're welcome."

Sandy spread his arms, raising the cloud into the night sky. Anansi shrank beneath them, into a tiny figure soon lost in the dark of the plain. The great expanse of Lake Victoria, reflecting the stars, briefly took up Jack's vision and then they were up, up, far above the continent, heading north.

Jack looked at Bunny, expecting the lecture to start soon, but Bunny just looked away without a word. Part of Jack hoped Bunny was taking pity on him and saving the verbal lashing for a time when he was less banged up, but another part of him said otherwise. That part was sure that looking away meant "you're not worth the trouble."

They'd never been what you could call "friends." It only really hurt now, when he kind of wanted to be, to think that it was starting to look like they never would.

Sandy's expression was more sympathetic, at least, and taking comfort in that, Jack curled up at the back of the cloud with his back to the other Guardians and spread a thick layer of frost over himself.

Clutching his staff like a small child might clutch a much-loved teddy bear, Jack fell asleep to the sight of the stars above and the glow of the dreamsand creating a golden haze over the view of the world below.


Sandy looked back at the sleeping Jack, whose body was curled in a tense ball. The dream guardian flicked his hand, sending a trail of sand to curl around Jack's head, taking the form of a little boy and girl playing in a field.

Jack relaxed just slightly. Sandy turned back to Bunny, pressing his lips together, as if to say, 'Well, that was a mess.'

"You said it," Bunny agreed, his arms still crossed tightly, also tense, but too wakeful for the comfort of dreams.

Sandy raised his eyebrows at Bunny, looking back at Jack.

"You were expecting me to rip into him already?"

Sandy nodded.

Bunny took a deep breath, and exhaled a long sigh. "Later. Someone has to talk to him, but not right now. He's been beaten up enough today." The rabbit's angry expression faded, sympathy creeping into his voice. "He's a good kid at heart, but if he doesn't learn – "

Sandy shook his head.

"You don't think it'll be a problem?"

Sandy shook his head again.

A picture appeared again over his head, like earlier, of Jack slamming into a cliff. Then, the sand-Jack looked up and flew over the cliff.

"We can only hope," said Bunny, and he looked back at Jack, who was breathing evenly as the golden figures rollicked over his head. "For his own good as much as anyone else's."