Lily enjoyed her visit to North's workshop. For the most part. It was loud, bright and cheery, even on the off season. After days of begging and pleading, North finally took Lily to see her family, especially Chrissy. Lily sat in North's sleigh, watching as he only hitched up two reindeer.
"Are you sure there isn't anything I can do to help, North?" Lily called, all week long, North had refused to let Lily do anything that barely met the meaning of the word work. Resulting in a rather bored and guilty feeling, Lily. "It's no trouble." she added, then gave up, North was finished with his task and was settling into the drivers seat.
"Now, this is how it works. We fly out to cruising altitude, then I throw snow globe. We go through portal and come out right above little girl's house." North said cheerfully, Lily nodded and clenched the lap robe to keep her paws from shaking. North flicked the reins and the reindeer were off, the two reindeer easily pulling the empty and therefore lighter, sleigh into the upper atmosphere. Lily gasped, only to have her breath taken away by the sight of the Northern Lights, and the wind. Lily stared, wonder struck. This was something she had hoped to see as a child, that and Santa's workshop. North threw the snow globe and a portal opened. The reindeer needed no guidance, as they were already flying into the vortex before North could pick up the reins again. It was past midnight, in Lily's old home town, this was expected, no guardian, but Jack Frost could go around in day light. Children would mob them and they'd be at the mercy of those children. Best to avoid their most avid fans.
The sleigh touched down gently on Lily's sister's house and North helped her out of the sleigh. He led her to the chimney and both went down it rather quickly. Lily had no time to become a nervous wreck, even though she had seen the strings of Christmas light half ripped down, and decorations almost buried in the snow. What worried her most, was the Christmas tree, stripped bare and hacked to pieces, on the curb for pick up. It was only a week after Christmas and Chrissy birthday as well. Lily and North came into Chrissy's bedroom. All her home made decorations had been ripped down, little rings of construction paper and pop corn garland were shoved into a trash bag. What startled even North was the crayon on a poster board, declaring Chrissy's hate for Christmas.
"Oh no. North, what happened? Chrissy loves the holidays. Especially Christmas. She was born on Christmas Eve." Lily whispered, a paw to her mouth in saddened horror. North looked sad as well.
"She does not believe in me any longer." North said, bowing his head.
"What, no! She loves you! I had to haul her little butt to seven different stores and malls, just so she could sit on all those Store Santa's laps and tell them why they weren't the real Santa. She was banned from five of those stores Christmas villages. There is no way she'd ever stop believing." Lily said, going to the little bed on the other side of the room. "Chrissy, Chrissy! Wake up!" Lily hissed, trying to wake the little girl by shaking her gently. Her hand went right through Chrissy's leg. Lily gave North a horrified look.
"She does not believe in you either." North said in a gruff voice. "I would guess that the whole family is no longer believing."
"I want to go back to the Warren, North. Now, please." Lily said in a watery voice. North nodded and they left Chrissy's room.
Bunnymund was surprised to see the sleigh appear in his Warren, and only watched when Lily actually hopped as fast, and as coordinated, as she could, to get into the upper alcoves and away from the others. Bunnymund looked at North, confused.
"It is long story." North said with a soul weary sigh. He told Bunnymund all that had happened during Lily's visit at the Pole and what had happened with her niece. Bunnymund waited for a few hours after North had left, to try to talk to Lily. She refused to speak about what had happened.
"Look, you're gonna have to go over this sooner or later."
"Yeah, I know. But I would prefer later. Besides, what do you know about being forgotten and thrown to the wayside by your own family?" Lily demanded, Bunnymund glared at her.
"More than you'd know, if you actually asked about anything other than how you can get back to something you can't ever have again. I gave my life and became a Guardian for it. What did you do to deserve all this?" Bunnymund snapped back, temper finally frayed through with how selfish Lily had been up to that point.
"I saw you." Lily growled and closed her door on Bunnymund's face. Bunnymund growled and went back down to the painting meadow.
So, a heart breaker. Lily was severely disappointed and hurt by her family seeming to have forgotten her.
As it stands, I'm only getting a few reviews, I'm not in to mining for adoration, but I don't want to continue a story if it's not liked by more than one or two people. I won't stop writing, but it may just turn into a series of vignettes. I already have a plan for Lily finally being believed in by her family, seventeen years into the future, when Chrissy is about to get engaged. I just want some more positive feed back. Nothing that panders to an ego, just a good review or positive cronstructive criticism. I already have one great reviewer. I want to know just how many people are actually reading and not just skipping through looking for things to report. I've had that happen before. Anyway, please don't hesitate to fire off a review.
