Chapter 7: The Big Four

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC.


Mother Nature and North ride an elevator, bearing the resemblance of a Christmas ornament, down to the factory floor. She tells him, "It's nothing personal, North. What you all do, it's just, I don't know if I can do it."

"Man in Moon says you can do it. We will see!" North says with a chuckle. North storms through factory floor, Mother Nature trying to keep up. It is an amazing place. North charges ahead. North's factory is bustling with activity: Yetis are building toys, moving packages, while Elves are test piloting the various flying toys.

As Mother Nature walks behind North, surveying the factory, a duck toy suddenly flies over her head. Mother Nature ducks just in time and continues after North. "Whoa!" she says before saying, "I always thought the elves made the toys."

North leaned down and whispered, "We just let them believe that." Mother Nature looks over to see a group of elves eating Christmas ornaments and another electrocuting himself with Christmas lights. North smiles and calls to them. "Very nice! Keep up good work!" North continues through the factory floor. He passes a yeti putting the finishing touches on a blue toy robot. "I don't like it. Paint it red." North speaks to the yeti. The yeti reacts in dismay as we reveal hundreds of finished blue robots. "Step it up, everybody."

As North and Mother Nature move to the opposite end of the chamber, we finally glimpse the orchestrated chaos of the entire workshop, in all its magic and splendor. Mother Nature follows North into his office. There are shelves filled with toys. Sketches and prototypes everywhere. North dusts his hands and turns to Mother Nature. His sleeves are rolled. Mother Nature notices that on one of North's forearms is tattooed the word 'Naughty' and on the other, 'Nice'. North grabs a plate from a nearby elf. "Fruit cake?" North offers to her.

Mother Nature replies, "Ah, no, thank you."

North hurls it over his shoulder before pausing to look at her. "Now we get down to tacks of brass!"

To herself, Mother Nature mumbles quietly in a confused tone, "Tacks of brass?"

As North cracks his knuckles, Mother Nature stands silent. The wind suddenly slams North's office door behind them. She looks to the door, it locks itself, and she turns back. North moves in close to Mother Nature, backing her up against the door. "Who are you, Mother Nature? What is your center?" North pokes Mother Nature in the chest.

"My center?" she inquires with an arched brow, unsure of how to respond to that.

"If Man in Moon chose you to be a Guardian, you must have something very special inside." North stands up straight and begins to stroke his beard as he gives Mother Nature a curious look. "Hmm?" He ponders for a moment before moving so that he is standing in front of a shelf of Russian nesting dolls. One is carved to look like North himself. "Here. This is how you see me, no? Very big, intimidating. But if you get to know me a little. . ." he hands the doll to Mother Nature. "Well, go on."

Mother Nature gives North a curious look, then takes the doll. She twists the doll in half, and inside is another carved North doll, this one is a more typical Santa Claus, red-cheeked and cheery. "You are downright jolly." Mother Nature observes, smiling up at him.

"Ah, but not just jolly. . ." The dolls get progressively smaller as she twists them open, all versions of North, but all slightly different. "I am also mysterious." She turns the doll. "And fearless." Mother Nature turns the doll. "And caring. And at my center. . ." Twist.

As North approaches, Mother Nature looks down and drops the final Russian doll into the palm of North's hand. It's the size of a jelly bean. "There's a tiny wooden baby?" she asks in confusion, pushing her hair out of her face to better look at it.

"Look closer. What do you see?" North presses, hoping she gets the picture.

Mother Nature holds it up closer to her face to better examine it. "You have big eyes?"

"Yes! Big eyes. Very big. Because they are full! Of wonder! That is my center. It is what I was born with. Eyes that have always seen the wonder in everything!" North raises his hands, and the toys on the shelves suddenly spring to life. Jack-in-the-boxes pop, toy trains speed around the room, soldiers march about, toy planes fly overhead. An elf gets carried aloft by a balloon. A flying toy plane glides by and we follow it as it makes its way around the room. A Christmas tree is ablaze with bright lights. Two double doors suddenly open as the flying car enters the factory floor. "Eyes that see lights in the trees, and magic in the air!" As it crosses the frame, dozens of other toys are now flying around the massive chamber. It's a truly magical moment. North now stands outside his office, with Mother Nature at his side. "This wonder is what I put into the world, and what I protect in children. It is what makes me a Guardian. It is my center. What is yours?" North asked, his point having been made.

Mother Nature looks at him and says "I. . . I don't know." Mother Nature looks down into her open palm, the wooden baby stares back at her. North closes Mother Nature's hand. They exchange a look. "Thank you," she whispers, clutching the baby tightly.

A beat later Sandy and Bunny all run into North's workshop. "We've got a problem, mate. Trouble at Father Time's."