AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter is dedicated to firedrakegirl, Ana-chan n.n and Fallenlily366.
So, I have exams starting on Monday for two weeks. Fun times. So I probably won't be updating for a while. I'll try my best to get another chapter up next week but I might not be able to cause I'll be studying. Wish me luck!
DISCLAIMER: Rise of the Guardians is owned by Dreamworks. I own my OC Annabelle.
Chapter 6 – Old Legends
By the time we got back to the tree the robins had cleared up the majority of the mess left by the pixies. Jack and I tidied away the few things that were too big and heavy for the birds to lift. Every time I met Jack's eyes I blushed again and looked away. Every time I did I heard Jack chuckle. Apparently he got over his embarrassment faster than I did.
Once everything was cleaned up I called Rudi and Dolly over. Nibbles and Cheddar flew over too out of curiosity.
"Listen guys, I hate to leave you after everything that just happened, but Jack I need to talk to the other Guardians about the pixies and Jacobi."
We also both needed to ask North what the Destined Spirits were, but I didn't mention that to the robins.
I was surprised when I was met by a flurry of angry chirps from all of the birds in the room, not just Rudi, Dolly, Nibbles and Cheddar. They weren't happy with me leaving them so soon after our home had been invaded.
Jack walked over to us. "Why don't they come with us? I'm sure North wouldn't mind."
I sighed. "I know he probably wouldn't, but some of the young chicks couldn't manage the flight to the North Pole."
The chicks chirped in protest, but I ignored them, knowing I was right. Jack thought for a moment before coming up with an idea.
"What about your fairy dust?" he asked. "Would that not help them get there?"
"Hmm…that could work," I mused.
I walked over to the shelf where I had sprinkled the fairy dust when Bunnymund had come to take me to the North Pole. Luckily the pixies hadn't knocked it down. I picked the dust up and flew up to the ceiling, the birds gathering beneath me. Jack flew up to join me. I had him cup his hands and I blew into them to form more of the pink powder. Together we sprinkled the dust onto the robins.
"This won't make them fly any faster, but it'll give them the stamina to get to the Pole," I explained. "We'll have to do this again for the journey back though, and the younger ones will have to rest when we get there."
Jack nodded, and Rudi, Dolly and a few more of the older robins gathered the younger ones around to brief them on what would be happened. I took the opportunity to talk to Jack about what had happened. Or at least attempt to.
"Listen Jack…" I started, and he looked up at me, causing me to blush again slightly.
"I wanted to say thank you for standing up for me to Jacobi. It was really kind of you," I said, and he smiled.
"You're my friend Anna," he told me. "I couldn't let him talk about you like that. It was all lies he was saying anyway. Except for…" he dropped his gaze, looking embarrassed again. "Except for the crush bit…"
He looked up again, and the way he was looking at me caused my blush to flare up again. But before anything could happen Rudi flew over to let us know that the birds were ready to go. I walked over to the group of robins without looking back at Jack; not to be rude, but because I knew that if I did I would just blush again.
"Okay, everyone ready?" I asked, and I was hit by a flurry of affirming chirps.
I allowed myself to look back at Jack. "Could you follow us to make sure nobody falls back?"
He nodded, still smiling, and I sighed with relief that I apparently hadn't offended him by turning my back on him.
I flew up the tree trunk followed by the pixies and Jack. After shooting out into the forest and slaloming through the trees, I turned round when we were in the open air to check that we were all accounted for. Jack nodded at me to confirm that nobody had fallen behind. I nodded back at him and smiled a thank you before taking off in the direction of the North Pole.
It took nearly two and a half hours since we couldn't fly any faster than the birds could, and a few of the younger ones had to take a break by resting in shifts on Jack and mine's hands, shoulders and heads, the pixie dust not being enough to get them through the long, cold flight.
When we eventually reached North's workshop, the birds flew right in before us, the chance of getting inside out of the cold pulling them in. The cold clearly didn't bother Jack and, although it used to, for some reason it wasn't bothering me anymore either. I could feel the cold, but it didn't hurt or make me feel uncomfortable. It just felt like I had gone outside on a spring evening and had forgotten my coat; chilly, yes, but not freezing like it would be for humans coming to the North Pole.
Not that humans could ever see North's workshop. Thanks to the guardians' magic, a special force field had been put around the workshop to hide it from the view of normal people.
Jack and I landed on the roof of the workshop and jumped down the special passage North had put in especially for us flying folks. We landed right in the middle on the platform next to the giant globe where North and Sandy were already waiting for us. I saw that most of the robins had settled down on the top of the globe. A few were flying round the elves, confusing the poor things, and Nibbles and Cheddar had flown over to North who was now gently stroking their heads and chuckling.
Sandy turned round when he heard us landing and smiled before pulling on North's coat to tell him we were there. He turned and smiled.
"Ah! You've come to tell us your decision, yes?" North presumed.
I frowned, confused by what he meant, before I remembered that North had said I was to tell him my decision about whether or not I wanted to become a guardian. I'd completely forgotten in all the chaos with the pixies.
"Actually, we've come about something else," Jack said.
North frowned, unsure of what he meant. Before either of us could explain, one of Bunnymund's holes opened in the floor and he shot out, landing on the ground next to us.
"So what, am I last to the party?" he asked, grinning a greeting to me.
Jack shook his head. "Tooth's still not here."
North looked thoughtful. "We'll go into my office, wait for her there."
We all nodded and followed North to his office. I'd only ever been in once, and that was a long time ago, so I smiled widely when I walked in and saw the train set made entirely of enchanted ice. North chuckled at my reaction.
"You like it?" he asked, and I nodded.
"This is awesome," I said truthfully, and he chuckled again, as did Jack.
Bunny sat himself down next to Sandy. "So what's all this about anyway?" he asked, Sandy echoing his query with the question mark hovering above his head.
"We'll tell you everything when Tooth gets here," I promised.
Right on cue, Toothianna burst into the room, breathing heavily.
"Sorry I'm late," she panted. "Did I miss anything?"
Bunny shook his head. "Didn't miss a thing. They refused to tell us anything until you got here."
Tooth sat down next to Bunny and Sandy, looking up at Jack and me expectantly. North leant against his desk and looked at us curiously, still not having any idea what we were going to say.
I looked at Jack and he nodded. I turned back to face everyone and took a deep breath.
"The pixies attacked the robin's nursery."
That got everyone out of their seats.
It took quite a few goes of getting all the way through the story due to Tooth and Bunny interrupting every five seconds, but with a few glares from North we managed to explain everything. We'd left out the bit about us swapping powers; we wanted to ask North about that privately.
Bunny looked nothing less than incredibly angry. Tooth looked worried and was biting her lip as was Sandy. North was frowning, the creases in his forehead looking like canyons.
"So you chased them out?" he concluded, and Jack and I both nodded.
"But how'd you manage to overpower them?" Toothianna asked. "Not that I doubt your ability or anything," she clarified quickly.
I looked over at Jack. He thought for a moment, leaning on his staff, before nodding and standing up straight. He walked over to me and held his staff out to me, Tooth, Bunny, Sandy and North following him with their eyes. He smiled at me reassuringly. I smiled back and held my staff out to him. I wrapped my hand around his staff at the same time he wrapped his hand around mine. This time instead of closing our eyes we kept looking at each other, our eyes locked. I could feel the stares of the others as the warm wind whipped up around us. I smiled as I saw Jack's appearance gradually change and, judging by the look on Jack's face, the same thing was happening to me.
After a few moments Jack and I were back to the way we looked when the pixies attacked. We grinned at each other before turning to look at everyone else. We both started laughing when we saw the looks on their faces. Their jaws were practically hitting the floor.
We looked at each other again, still smiling, and nodded. I guess we had some explaining to do.
North was now sitting behind his desk. Bunny, Tooth and Sandy had gone back into the workshop to make sure the robins weren't teasing the elves too much. Jack and I were standing in front of North's desk, and I sort of felt like a school kid getting in trouble from the principle.
"So, you'd never done this before?" North asked us.
We both shook our heads. We hadn't had the chance to change back to normal yet, so we were still in out alternate clothes and appearances.
"Um…Jacobi mentioned something about 'Destined Spirits'," I piped up, causing North to look up sharply.
"Did he call you that?" he clarified, and we both nodded.
North stood up quickly and walked over to a bookshelf next to the door. Jack and I watched him closely as he pulled out a huge, very old looking book. He blew the dust off it and gently placed it on his desk so it was facing us. There was a title on the cover but I didn't recognise the language.
"What does it say?" I asked.
Jack looked at me weirdly. "What do you mean? It says 'Myths of the Guardians'."
I frowned. "You can read that?"
"You can't?"
North was chuckling again. "Annabelle, you won't be able to read it. It's a language only guardians understand."
Jack's eyes grew wide. "I didn't know we could do that!"
North smiled before opening the book about half way through. One page was taken up by a picture of a girl and a boy walking hand-in-hand in a forest. They looked very similar, almost like twins. The other page was full of the strange writing again. Jack started to read it silently. I folded my arms impatiently, tapping my foot and waiting for him to finish so he could tell me what it said.
I watched his facial expression change from curious to confused to shocked, before he looked up at me, his mouth slightly open, his eyes wide.
"What is it?" I asked, and he started to shake his head.
"Anna…it's us…" he whispered.
I frowned and turned to North. "Care to translate?" I asked.
North walked over to sit on one of the seats to the side of the room. Jack and I moved to sit next to him, Jack still looking a little flustered.
"There is old legend," he started, "about two ancient guardians. They protected the children of the world long before any of us were born into this life. No guardians were needed for Easter or Christmas, as there weren't any holidays like that back then. One of the guardians, the girl, was the day spirit, and the boy was the night spirit. The girl looked after children during the day, making the sun shine and the birds sing. The boy protected them at night, bringing the moon and stars out and keeping them free from nightmares."
"What were their names?" I interjected.
North shook his head. "Their names have been lost over time."
I nodded and motioned for him to continue.
"One winter day, the girl realised that she was finding it hard to work when there was only a few daylight hours. She spoke to the boy about this, and he admitted that he'd thought the same thing about the short summer nights. They agreed to go talk to man in moon about this, but man in moon said they already had the power to do this. They were confused, until Pitch Black launched an attack on the children. During a fight with his nightmare minions, they somehow managed to transfer their powers to the other for a short period of time. Nobody knows how they did this."
Jack and I looked at each other, and I knew we were both thinking the same thing: that's exactly what had happened to us.
"After they defeated Pitch, they realised the girl could now be responsible for all of summer, while the boy took charge of winter. The worked together to change the seasons and everything was well. Until one day they disappeared."
North stood up and walked back over to his desk to pick up the book.
"Nobody knows what happened to them," he concluded, answering out silent question as he walked back over to us.
He flicked through the book until he found the page he wanted. He read to us from it.
"No-one knows what happened to these early guardians, but their legend remains. They were known forever more as the Destined Spirits. The last thing they've known to have done was to promise that they would come back one day; that they would send their power into two others when the children of the world needed them most."
He closed the book and looked up at us meaningfully. I met Jack's eyes again and he looked as shocked as I felt.
"So…you're honestly telling us that we…we are the reincarnations of the two original guardians?" I clarified, and North nodded.
"The pixies are bigger threat than we think," he sighed. "The children of the world will need us now. They need both of you."
I stood up and paced around the room. "If this is true then why didn't it surface when Pitch attacked?" I asked. "I would have been more help then."
North shrugged. "I do not know how these things work. But I do know that we need you. And not just one of you."
He placed one hand on Jack's shoulder and one hand on mine, looking at both of us intently.
"If you are the Destined Spirits, then we need both of you to fight. But first," he continued, looking at me, "we need you to become fully fledged guardian."
I locked eyes with Jack. He looked scared. I imagine I did too. But still, he reached his hand out to hold mine and smiled reassuringly. I smiled back, took a deep breath and looked at North.
"Where do I sign?"
