A/N: Returned from Japan and already entrenched in school, and that is why this chapter is late in coming. It would have been done earlier, but I had school obligations as well as other stories left unupdated. However, this chapter is here and that is what matters. We will be back to our normal schedule of updates soon.
Pitch had long known that his son was very curious, always asking after details in stories and the like, but mostly that curiosity never reached past comfortable, safe borders. Those borders consisting of comforting things like "what does Scylla look like?" and "do hummingbirds really exist?" with safe answers like "she looks like a giant lizard but with nine heads all with very sharp teeth" and "yes, Snowflake, but hummingbirds don't like the cold."
It was then a shock when his dear boy, who had been amusing himself by creating patches of ice underneath the feet of the parents, turn to him and ask, "Papa? Have you ever been in love?"
"What?" he asked, surprised, turning to his son.
Jack, for his part just repeated the question as if it was nothing. "Have you ever been in love? Did you ever love someone? Like Odysseus and Penelope or Hector and Andromache or—"
"I understand." He let out a breath, before folding his hands and saying, "Love, child, is a very complicated thing."
"But have you ever loved anyone?" and those blue eyes, so innocent and yet so wise and so hurt and so full of life, those eyes that could be flooded with tears and so heartbreaking or so bright and joyful, those eyes he could never deny anything to, any wish or any question.
"I…No."
"Oh." And Jack turned away, watching the weather out the window.
"May I ask why you wanted to know?"
Jack merely shrugged and said, "I was just curious."
It was worrying. Jack had never been like that before, not even in the Emperor's Palace where he spent all his days with the concubines. He never wondered about love beyond the love that Schneewitchen had for her prince, never even wondered about the hate she had to make her stepmother dance in red hot shoes.
Granted, Jack was used to hearing stories of a child being thrown to his death off of the walls of a city and Roman noblewomen committing suicide after being raped so he wasn't exactly a shrinking violet in the face of violence so long as it was a story. But that was true of most children.
"Is it because of the parents?" ventured Pitch, watching his son very closely. Jack merely shrugged. Oh curse it all, why not? "Jack, would you like to hear a story about love?"
"Like Schneewitchen? Or the Froschkönig?"
"Not quite. Once, a very, very long time ago, there were two lovers."
"What were their names?" and now Jack was nearly the same as he had been a year before, back before their small shared world had been changed so drastically.
"Their names were Hieronymus and Schwertleite. Hieronymus was a wanderer, and Schwertleite was a noble lady."
"And they fell in love."
"Yes they did. Now Schwertleite, she was a member of my court. She was a very graceful woman, and one of the best archers in the entire Unseelie kingdom. But, she was a noble, and it was tradition for any noble to ask me permission to marry."
"You granted it, didn't you?"
"I asked to see the man first. I had never heard of him before. Hieronymus was a dark elf, just as Schwertleite, but he was…he was a very strange one. His parents had placed him as a changeling, and he grew in the area of Aue in Germany, there he was called Hartmann. The real Hartmann grew in the nurseries, and when he returned, Hieronymus had gone to Ouwe, and Hartmann settled there, happy enough.
"Hieronymus, he was saved by baptism where Schwertleite was not, but the most impressive distance for all of us was that he was astoundingly human."
"Human? How?"
"He was not human, but he was still very human in the way he was. Think of your friends, and then think of the children you met when you went home."
"I think I get it."
"Hieronymus, he was filled with philosophies that no one in my kingdom had ever had. He scorned half of us as demons, he named the other half tempters of good men, but he thought Schwertleite to be the exception to our evil and our eventual fall to hell."
"He doesn't sound nice."
"Exactly. It was very scandalous that he was that way, but Schwertleite loved him anyway. But, I could not consent to a marriage of a fine young lady of my court to someone who could not see her as anything but an exception. I feared he would turn on her too. I told them they could not wed. Schwertleite and Hieronymus, they were both heartbroken. He called me a heartless demon king, but that was normal for him.
"Schwertleite was furious with me, she attacked me too, but her strength lay in archery, never in hand to hand combat. Hieronymus took it as final proof of our nature and left the Forbidden Palace. He never returned."
"Did they never see each other again?"
"For a long time, Schwertleite remained by herself, and did not leave the Palace. That she stayed and no one had seen Hieronymus told most of us that their love affair had fallen through and they loved each other no more. But then Schwertleite became pregnant."
"But…"
"We asked her who the father was, but she stayed silent. Finally a girl was born, and she was called Yrmegard. The day Yrmegard was born, Schwertleite went to the center of the Great Hall as we feasted, and declared that Hieronymus had found a way to meet with her, and fathered the child.
"I was, admittedly, very upset, but Schwertleite vanished that night. No one knew where she went. Her parents started a search for their daughter, and we scoured every Ouwe and every Aue but still found nothing.
"I was spreading nightmares when I found them. Hieronymus and Schwertleite had ventured too close to the Seelie territory in Britain, and without it being Beltane or Samhain, they were being chased away, towards the Barrow graves and they hoped to find shelter there. But then they saw me. Caught between two perceived evils, Schwertleite took one of her arrows and stabbed herself through the throat, dying immediately. Hieronymus did the same, and Yrmegard was left there, alone."
"What happened next?" Jack was staring with frightened eyes, saddened by the fates of the lovers, and scared for what would occur to Yrmegard.
"I took Yrmegard and walked through the darkness back to the Forbidden Palace. Yrmegard was left in the care of the Al, and went on to haunt around the Barrow Graves her parents died near when she grew. Yrmegard died long ago, but those Barrows are still known to many as what used to be her home."
"Is all love for Unseelie like that?"
"No. They are simply one of our most famous love stories. You see Jack, love doesn't always end happily ever after."
"Like Othello and Desdemona."
"Exactly."
"I like happy endings better."
"And I don't begrudge you for it." They fell to silence, Jack watching the Pole go about its business and Pitch worried for the changes in his son.
Across the complex of buildings there was a meeting of elves occurring. Ordinarily they met around the same time the yetis were planning the toys for the year, when the younger elves discussed their own toys and the older elves discussed the amount of cookies they were getting. This time, it was not the normal meeting, nowhere near the normal time, and nowhere near the normal topics.
This time, the elves were discussing the Unseelie Prince, Jack Frost.
"I like him," a young elf by the name of Taa said.
"We all do," agreed Jee, the Grandfather Elf, the oldest of them all. "He learned our language and is fond of us. More than we can say of anyone else."
"He even liked one of our toys!" said Loo, one of the youngest, with unquestionably the most enthusiasm about toy making. That particular toy that Jack had laughed when he accepted it was two rubber bands tied together, but it was a collective point of pride for the elves. North had never shown the same amount of appreciation as Jack.
"And he's very kind, even when he's scared," volunteered "Little Guy." Jack's affection for him made him quite popular among the elves. Everyone had asked for the story of where he went with Jack many a time now. "He was terrified in the Forbidden Palace, but he still insisted on kindness to the fairies."
"That settles it then!" said Jee, and every elf turned to him, waiting to hear what the Grandfather Elf thought. "We will go with Jack Frost wherever he goes after the war."
"Leave the North Pole?" asked one of the adolescent elves. "But, we've never left the North Pole!"
"We used to," said Jee. "Before the last war. The Grandfather Elf when I was little told stories to us about how the Grandfather Elf before him used to travel between the North Pole and the Forbidden Palace. We lick the food that North and the others eat, but we did the same in the Forbidden Palace. Our cousins the Dark Elves lived there, and with our cousins looking out for us we were treated well. There was a whole wing of the Forbidden Palace built to our size, and as much food and drink as we could ever want! He said that the children would play with us, and that was how we started making toys, just for them!"
And that was how the elves decided that following Jack when the war was done did not sound like a bad idea at all. They appointed Tao and his family to go tell Jack of their decision, and as they left, Jee settled to telling the stories of the Forbidden Palace as he had heard from his Grandfather Elf.
Tao and Uuoo led their children through the halls and secret passages only the elves used. They looked high and low for Jack, and finally found him with the children, in the room all the children were sharing.
"Tell us a story!" he was saying, pulling his father into the room even as the children looked a little worried.
"I don't think your friends are all that happy with the idea of the Boogieman telling a story," Pitch said. Eaa ran forward at the prospect of a story, followed closely by Too, Laapo, and finally Ooaa. Jack grinned at them when he saw them, but he answered his father by saying,
"Tell the story of Okiku!"
Surprise passed across Pitch's face. "Okiku? You haven't asked for her story since before the Meiji Restoration."
"Please?"
"Very well." Jack grinned and settled with the elf children.
The stories of the Onryū Ghosts were among Pitch's personal favorites. They were wonderfully dark, but the revenge against wrongdoers was perfect for Jack's tastes. And so he smiled and began, his voice soft, the children listening with different amounts of fear or interest. "Once, a long time ago, there was a Samurai named Aoyama Tessan. In his home worked the beautiful serving girl Okiku. He wanted her to be his mistress, but whenever he asked her, she said no.
"Okiku was in charge of setting his table with his ten Delft plates, all very expensive. Every day she would count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten plates for the table. And then she would put away one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten plates until tomorrow. But one day Aoyama went to her, furiously angry and accusing her of stealing or breaking one of his plates.
"Okiku knew that if she was accused of stealing she would be punished with death, and so she grew very frightened, and went to count the plates again and again. But each time there was only one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine plates there, no tenth to be found. She finally admitted defeat and went in tears to Aoyama, begging his forgiveness. He offered to spare her if she became his mistress. But she still said no.
"Aoyama was furious and killed her on the spot!" the children all gasped, staring up in fear, but Jack was expectant, waiting for the rest of the story. "Afterwards, he took her body and dumped it in the well, not thinking much on it and going about the rest of his day. But that night, when the moon rose, Okiku underwent a transformation. Her spirit turned into an Onryū, a ghost desiring only revenge on the one that killed them. And in the night, Aoyama was woken by the ghost of Okiku counting. 'One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven! Eight! Nine!' and she let out a horrifying shriek!
His voice grew quiet again as he said, "This continued for a long time, until Aoyama finally went to his neighbor, an exorcist, and begged him for help. The man, having heard the shriek every night, agreed and sat awake with Aoyama that very night. Sure enough, Okiku rose up from the well and began to count. 'One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven! Eight! Nine!' but before she could scream, the neighbor shouted, 'Ten!'
"Overjoyed that someone had found the tenth plate, Okiku let out a sigh and her soul passed on to the next realm, no longer desiring of revenge or tormented by that tenth plate. For his part, Aoyama was no longer cruel to any servant, for fear that they would haunt him the same as Okiku had. And so ends the tale of Okiku."
"You like stories like that?" asked Jamie, staring at Jack. The Faerie boy merely shrugged.
"They're good stories. I like Oiwa and Iemon too. But Papa doesn't tell it often. He says it's too dark for me."
"Which it most certainly is," agreed Pitch. "Oiwa disfigured by poisoned face cream, a whole family slaughtered, seppuku? No, I would much rather tell you the story of Sukeroku."
"But that one's so boring. All he does is go see Agemaki and then talks to Ikyū. It's boring."
"I want to hear that story," said Monty. He had been the most frightened by the story of Okiku.
But before Pitch could begin, two elves ran from the wall to Jack. He greeted them in their own language as they climbed onto his knee, speaking to him with a lot of gesturing. Jack's brow suddenly furrowed and he shook his head, speaking to them with just as much passion as they were. It seemed to be an argument, but none could understand them. The one that Jack called "Little Guy" was holding onto his finger, staring at him as he spoke in his very high voice, and Jack bit his lip, looking at them and then up at Pitch.
"Is it true that there is a wing of the Forbidden Palace the right size for the elves?" he asked.
Pitch was surprised, but he answered, "Yes. They used to spend half of their time with us. The Dark Elves regarded them as cousins, they crafted that area for them and translated for the rest of us what they said. In return, they provided us with the restorative and magical properties in their saliva as they do for the Seelie now." A thought hit him. "Why?"
"Little Guy says all the elves will follow me wherever I go after the war."
That startled Pitch. "All the elves?"
"That's what Little Guy says. The Grandfather Elf decided it."
"The what?" asked Caleb. Pitch stood and walked out the door abruptly, leaving the children to their own devices.
"They were already attacked here, why stay?" John Weber asked, looking at Santa-er, North.
"Yetis are best fighters, most death spirits do not like cold, and death spirits that are must listen to Jack," North replied.
"I don't know, I just don't feel safe here. The yetis are making toys," said Duncan Johnson. "It doesn't seem like there is any quick and direct route to the armory from here. Isn't there anywhere else we could go?"
"We have my Tooth Palace," said Tooth. "But my fairies are trapped in the Forbidden Palace. They would be my warriors, but it is not possible. Sandman's sand cannot support anyone but a fae, and the Warren…"
"The Warren might not be a bad idea…" Bunny muttered, entirely focused. Children had to be kept safe, and war had to be taken into account. "But with the tuurngait and tupilaq on our side, they may not survive…"
"North!" barked a voice, that of the Bogeyman. They turned to him, storming towards them, yet not quite angry. "All your elves have threatened to follow my son."
"What?"
"Apparently the Grandfather Elf has decided that they will follow Jack wherever he goes once this war is done, that they will live in the Forbidden Palace in the wing their cousins built them. I expect you know what can be done to stop that?"
"Wouldn't you like elves back in your court?" asked Tooth. "You have not had any for you or your court since the war."
"While I would not object to elves, I would not the entire population of Common Elves living in my palace. Fix. It."
"And why can you not fix it yourself?" asked Bunny.
"Because they will not listen to my authority. You, however, they will listen to. Jack doesn't fight decisions already made, he will not fight this!"
"The elves that have been running around here eating and licking all the food?" asked Anne Bennett.
"It has magical properties that are very useful to all Fae. But there are too many of them to live in the Forbidden Palace. Our rules are very different from yours, and after so long away from us they will likely insult someone. I refuse to play diplomat to the Common Elf, whether or not their cousins are there."
"I will see what I can do," said North.
"Thank you." And he was gone, sliding into shadow and vanishing.
"God that's creepy," muttered Abigail Weber.
"That is the point," said Tooth. "Everything he does is somehow inherently frightening. The question is if you acknowledge the fright. Jack doesn't, he listens to the stories and songs and doesn't fear anything Pitch has to tell him. He loves him, and Pitch loves him too, which is why they are such a good family. Cold and Dark, what goes together better?"
"Do you acknowledge that fright?" asked Anne.
Tooth frowned and said, "Even just last year, yes I would have. But so much has changed in this last year that I cannot in any good faith say that I do. I recognize him as Unseelie King, I respect him and I acknowledge everything we have put him and his people through, but…there are lovely things that can come out of the darkness. You should hear him singing Jack to sleep. I heard him singing once. He really does care for his son."
"Lullabies aside," said Ella Newark, "how do we keep our children safe?"
"How their home was joyful, with a son to call their own," Pitch was singing, soothing his son who had been agitated by the elves' sudden unshakable loyalty to him. "But soon they saw the years that passed would never make him grow. The faeries would not answer her, the stones were dark and slept. A babe was all she'd asked for, and their promises they'd kept. Wind blows low and mournful through the Strath of Danalcreich, where once there lived a woman who would a mother be. For fifty years she rocked that babe, it's said she rocks him still. Mother of a changeling child beneath a faerie hill. A mother of a changeling child from 'neath a faerie hill."
"Papa?" asked Jack from where he was settled in his father's embrace. "Why did they decide to follow me?"
"I do not know, Snowflake. But I can guess. You have been extremely kind to them, accepting their gifts and learning their language where only the Dark Elves have bothered in the past. You have accepted…Tao? as your companion, and have always kept your kind heart even when scared. I could always tell when you were frightened. I could feel it but I could not do anything. It does not surprise me that they have chosen to love you, but it doesn't mean I like the idea of all of them crowding the Palace." Jack smiled at that.
"How long will this war be?"
"I do not know. There is much we do not now. The old ways are changing, that much has become glaringly obvious."
"What?"
Pitch sighed. He had often imagined how Jack would fill the role of Prince in his court, but the more that Jack was faced with politics and war tactics, the more Pitch believed that Jack should never have to face them, that he should just live a life free of worry of these things. "The Man in the Moon and I are both working for the same end. The Seelie and Unseelie kings have never done anything more but war against each other, or live in a ceasefire. We cannot go back to that, not after this war."
"I'm sorry."
"You have nothing to be sorry for, Jack. Do you understand that? Nothing to be sorry for. You are helping us, you are listening to the gods and doing what is right." Jack nodded, and they fell into silence, tucked into a corner of the Pole that few passed by, away from the yetis and the Guardians and the children and the parents and even the elves. Outside, Pitch could sense the Tupilaq and the Tuurngait patrolling around the complex, keeping it safe. This war looked like it might not even be a real war, at times.
"Where are we going?" asked Cupcake, her voice pitched with terror as the sleigh rocketed into the air, the nightmares barely attacking them for Pitch and Jack being aboard, the armies below sending arrows and occasional bursts of fire that dissipated in the cold before it could reach them, at best scorching the wood.
"Away," Bunny answered over North's shouts to the reindeer to go faster! Faster!
"Is it always going to be like this?" whispered Monty from where his mother held him gently yet tightly.
"I think so." Tooth was flying with swords in her hands, deflecting arrows and other projectiles, shouting out directions to dodge some larger stones flung up. Soon though they were too high up, and they breathed a sigh of relief.
"Bunny! We go to Warren!" shouted North.
"But I thought you said Papa destroyed Easter," said Jack.
"Easter, not the Warren itself," said Pitch. Tooth crashed in among them, and there was a snowglobe flung and there was a loud thunk and a scream from a reindeer and then they were in a very quiet, very green place.
Immediately Bunny was gone, leaping out of the sleigh and bellowing orders to rock golems to "seal the tunnels" and hopping down passages at high speed, leaving the others alone. North was releasing the reindeer, pulling one of them to check on them.
"An arrow," he said, having knelt and looked at the reindeer that even still made pained noises. "Pitch! What arrows were your army using?"
"I don't know. Let me look." And the Bogeyman knelt, looking. And then he cursed in a language that none of them had ever heard before. "These are nasty weapons. We have not used them in many, many years. Those hit with them rarely survive. You cannot do anything but cut them out."
"Is he reindeer going to be okay?" asked Pippa.
"We cannot say yet. Lay it on its side, I might be able to do something. Haven't had to do this in ages though." North maneuvered the screaming deer and held it down as it struggled against the pain. "Jack, I need you to numb the area."
"Me?" asked the boy. "But—"
"Jack, I need you to try. This reindeer could die." Jack looked frightened, but he did hurry over and blew onto the bloody area, bits of frost collecting on the fur. Now Bunny was there, soothing the frightened and pained animal, and with the level of cold, Pitch began to speak a strange incantation. It was lost entirely on the humans and on Jack, but the Guardians looked at each other, Sandy and Tooth exchanging worried glances as North and Bunny openly gaped at each other.
That particular spell they had seen performed in the midst of war. A cornered Unseelie would often shout it out, and they had seen what it did. It sliced hunks of flesh away from a body, and killed many a Seelie in that way. To see it being used for medicine!
Perhaps, Sandy pondered. Perhaps we are as blind as Jack insists.
But as it was, the arrow was quickly removed, its barbed head coated in blood and Jack, for his part, looked disgusted and horrified and turned and ran as soon as he was done numbing the wound again as Pitch continued to work on healing the wound.
Anne Bennett watched as the icy boy ran down one of the tunnels and followed, Sophie safe in her arms even as she cried. As she walked, she looked around. Everything here was overwhelmingly alive, filled with flowers (some were normal, but some even glowed, she noted) and curling vines, a little stream that seemed to be made of iridescent purple paint (well this was the Easter Bunny's home after all), as well as a normal river. The tunnels were all egg shaped and made of moss covered stone, with some carvings visible behind the thick vegetation.
There were hills and ridges as far as she could see, but she could tell that this place had boundaries and did not entirely destroy all logic. Still, she was in the Warren of the Easter Bunny. That alone pushed her suspension of disbelief.
She found Jack sitting curled around his staff, tucked between two rocks, hidden in the shadows. He looked up at hearing Sophie cry. "Is she alright?" he asked.
Anne smiled at him. "You ran away from helping save a reindeer's life and you ask after my daughter?" he shrugged, and said,
"Well I want her to be alright. We're related."
"What?" He looked up at her and opened and closed his mouth a few times before he apparently decided telling her would be alright.
"I used to be human. I was Jackson Burgess then. But I drowned. The moon brought me back to life. Papa took me in a century later, and I was sick then. But I had a sister when I was alive, and she had lots of children. You're related to her."
"Really?" she had heard stranger things already since coming into this company. This seemed the most plausible. Burgess was an old town, after all.
"Mm-hmm. Juokshakka told me. She's the protectress of children and a goddess. She taught me about balance too, that's what this war is being fought about."
"Does that mean that we are on the side of the angels?" she asked, smiling.
Jack just shrugged. "I don't know. I've never met an angel. I don't know where they are in this conflict." Right. This was all possible for him. Angels could very well exist and they could have their own opinions on this.
"Were you frightened about the reindeer?" she asked, changing topic from theological grounds.
Jack nodded. "I understand that Papa saved it, but it was still scary." Oh he really was nothing more than a boy, even if his voice sounded like it deepened before the rest of his body caught up. "I…I could see inside the reindeer."
Sophie was quieting now, and Anne sat down on one of the rocks that Jack was tucked between, gently rocking Sophie as she said, "I remember in high school, I had to dissect a frog. I ended up making my partner do most of the work. I couldn't look at it without crying and I nearly failed biology because of it. But I understand. It's frightening and unnerving. It takes a special sort of person not to be frightened or disturbed the first time."
"I will have to do it again?" it seemed the wrong thing to have said, for now the child looked more frightened, staring at her with his blue eyes filled with fright.
"I have no way of knowing. I had to dissect a pig in college, and that time I could do it, even if I got a little queasy. There may come a situation where you have to help with the arrows, we don't know yet, do we? I'm sure your father would protect you from having to do it in anything but an emergency though." It seemed to pacify him, and he even climbed out of his hiding place, and looking at Sophie.
"Is she alright, though?"
"She was very scared, with us having to flee the Pole and then the business with the reindeer…but she should bounce back, she always does." He looked at her, then took his staff and gently tapped it against the rock, where ice formed into a little rabbit. Anne was surprised, she hadn't thought that Jack paid enough mind to her daughter to know who her favorite among the…fae? was, let alone that he could make her a little ice toy.
Sophie, seeing it, started to smile and declared, "Pretty!" before picking it up and beginning to play with it. Anne smiled, and then turned to Jack, asking,
"So we're related?"
Jack shrugged and said, "I'd be your great-great-something uncle."
"Well, great-great-something uncle, maybe when the war is done you can come over for dinner?" Jack grinned and even laughed as he said,
"I'd like that, great-great-something niece!"
The reindeer was alive, but was put into a healing sleep by Bunny, who then ran about to make sure the defenses were secure. As it was, the children were allowed to explore, climbing onto rocks or running along the river of water or iridescent paint.
As they did, it was Pippa and Monty who found a glen full of trees and flowers, but they did not enter it, for they heard a sweet chorus of women's voices singing. Pippa peered around a pear tree heavy with fruit and gasped quietly, pointing Monty to look. In the glen was a host of lovely young women, some more undressed than others, but all with flowers or laurels in their hair, which was pinned up into styles Pippa had only ever seen on old statues at the art museum in the Greek and Roman sections. Monty looked suitably amazed and embarrassed and Pippa was proud of him even if she too was a little embarrassed to be staring at these women when some of them were entirely naked.
"In the woods there grew a tree, a fine fine tree was he!" sang half the women while the others danced. "On that tree there was a limb and on that limb there was a branch and on that branch there was a nest and in that nest there was an egg and in that egg there was a bird and from that bird a feather came. Of that feather was a bed! On that bed there was a girl and on that girl there was a man and from that man there was a seed and from that seed there was a boy! From that boy there was a man and for that man there was a grave! From that grave there grew a tree!
"In Sumerisle! Sumerisle, Sumerisle, Sumerisle, Sumerisle!
"On that tree there was a limb and on that limb there was a branch and on that branch there was a nest and in that nest there was an egg and in that egg there was a bird and from that bird a feather came. Of that feather was a bed!
"In Sumerisle! Sumerisle, Sumerisle, Sumerisle, Sumerisle!
"On that bed there was a girl and on that girl there was a man and from that man there was a seed and from that seed there was a boy! From that boy there was a man and for that man there was a grave! From that grave there grew a tree!" It was then that one of the women, playing a lyre, looked up and called something out in a language neither of the children had ever heard. They all turned to them and regarded them curiously, a few looking close to tears.
Two, who were wearing dresses of purple and green, came forward and spoke to them excitedly. But upon seeing their confusion, one said, "Shall we speak the Common Tongue of the Seelie then? Can you understand us now?"
"Yes," said Monty in a small voice, looking up at them. "Are you nymphs?"
The one in green laughed, her voice clear as a bell. "Yes, we are! I am Eunoste, and I am among the Alseids, we are of the glens. This is Cretheis, she is of the Epimeliads, the protectors of apple trees and sheep."
"And goats," said Cretheis with a laugh.
"Come, come join us! You are the first humans in nearly three thousand years to truly see us, you must dance with us!"
And so they did, the nymphs singing song after song, dancing with a few and helping keep beat by clapping for a few others. Why the nymphs were celebrating, they weren't exactly sure, but still they enjoyed it.
"The merry are dancing, the children play in heather! The river is flowing with love and joy forever! This is the melody of victory today! Hopeful and happy we must be on our way! This is the melody of mortal bliss and light! Sunrise will vanquish all eternal night!" they were singing now, Pippa and Monty laughing as they were spun through the dance, Monty holding hands with a nymph called Semestra, and Pippa whirling about with Aora.
"Dance happy people and join with this glory, we are as one and this is our story!" a singular nymph sang, her voice rich and deep. "What of our sorrows, when we were in torment? Now we are blissful and misery is dormant!"
It was then that they all heard noise, and a few turned to look. Coming from behind the greenery were the Guardians, who were greeted immediately by all the nymphs, rushing to them and exclaiming in a mix of languages.
The children had heard an attempt at explaining the complicated mess that was occurring around them, and eventually just settled to letting themselves be hidden from those that wanted to kill them and trusting that they would be kept safe.
The nymphs flocked to the Seelie Seconds, thanking them again and again for this sudden influx of power where they had once been so helpless as to keeping their beautiful trees and flowers alive, and demanding to know where the power had gone in the first place!
"All of you calm down!" North was saying even as each continued to ask their own questions. "We can only answer so many questions at once!" As he proceeded to explain that it came from the belief of both children and adults (yes, there were eight adults who believed in them now) and that it had gone away by the campaign of the Unseelie King Pitch Black to bring his court back to power in retaliation for what had been done to them during the Seelie War, it was Tooth who saw the children and flew her way over to them.
"I see you found the nymphs," she said, landing before them.
"They're very beautiful," said Pippa.
"Yes, that is why so many heroes have loved them over the years. Heracles especially."
"Why are they here?" asked Monty. "Why didn't they just stay with their trees and flowers and rivers and sheep?"
"It is because they know what is happening. You six are still the only children that believe in us. But with your parents…when an adult believes, that is more powerful than a dozen children. That is why in the old days, all Fae had power enough to trick humans and let them curse us, we had enough power to revel through the night and the Unseelie could switch children, we could haunt Barrow Graves and there were fish that lived in churchyard wells that talked and people declared them holy! We lost most of our power, people could not see us. And then suddenly all of it was gone entirely. But when you believed, some of that power returned to us. They felt the shifting tides and they know that something is happening."
"So they came here?"
"Nymphs live in trees and rivers and springs. Did you think they would go somewhere made entirely of ice?" Monty laughed a bit, shaking his head.
"So it is war then?" asked Pippa.
"They will expect us to return fire on the Unseelie, yes. However, we are a third party in this war. We will be getting both sides to agree to balance, and then we will be reminding everyone in the world about us. Perhaps even the adults!" She was so happy about the possibility, and even the children smiled.
But then Pippa asked, "Do the nymphs know that yet? Do they know Pitch is here? Or Jack?"
Tooth looked at her a moment and finally said, "No…no they do not…" and she then turned and flew back, trying to explain to the nymphs before they found out and grew angry. For she knew that nymphs were dangerous in their own way when they grew angry.
A/N: We needed a change of scene anyway.
Schneewitchen and the Froschkönig: fairy tales. Their names in English are Snow White and the Frog Prince.
Aue and Ouwe: These are two extremely common names of places in German speaking lands, in the middle ages. They are both pronounced very similarly to ow-a. Both of them are valleys between two mountains. There was a famous knight author in the middle ages named Hartmann von Aue, and he wrote the book "Der Arme Heinrich" which is one of the most famous pieces of middle ages German literature. It is the story of Heinrich von Ouwe.
Beltane: Beltane is a traditional celebration before May Day in the British Isles, and is now more commonly celebrated in Ireland and by Wiccans and Celtic Neopagans. It was a celebration of the coming summer and growing season, and the fae were allowed to wander the land during that celebration.
Samhain: Samhain is better known than Beltane, and it takes place exactly six months earlier, and celebrates and commemorates the dead. Fae were allowed to wander the land on that night, between the two celebrations, those were the most active time for the faeries, despite their activity any other time of the year.
Barrow Graves: Barrow Graves are burial mounds, really, and within them are said to be Barrow Wights which will drive anyone insane if they break in. The myth of the Barrow Wights is in the British Isles alone, but Barrow Graves exist all over the world.
Schwertleite: Schwertleite is the name of one of the Valkyries in Wagner's opera "Die Walkure". Her sister Brunhilde disobeys Odin and is therefore turned human, where she marries her half-nephew and throws herself onto his funeral pyre, sacrificing herself for the one she loves.
Hieronymus: Hieronymus is a name from the medieval times, but is better known as being the name of Hieronymus Colloredo, the archbishop of Salzburg that Mozart hated so much.
Onry ū Ghosts: They are ghosts who are usually female and seek revenge on those that wrong them when they were powerless when they were alive. Often their hauntings can be nothing more than misfortune at every turn for their tormentors, or they can cause disasters like earthquakes, floods, fires, storms, pestilence, and famine. Ghosts have been known to drive husbands insane, behead the new brides of their husbands after they swore to never marry again, and in one memorable case, curse her beautiful kimono so everyone who wore it after her was soon dead.
Okiku and the Nine Plates: This is a very familiar folk story in Japan, and the version Pitch tells is the traditional version. It has since been turned into Kabuki plays and Puppet Shows. In all versions, however, she breaks the tenth plate and is dropped in a well, either to die or after she dies.
Oiwa and Iemon: More commonly known by the name Yotsuya Kaidan, the story of Oiwa and Iemon is a Kabuki play. It is very long and convoluted, but it is known as the most frightening of the horror Kabuki shows. Oiwa is married to Iemon, but he wishes to marry another woman. Her face cream is poisoned, disfiguring her beautiful face and making her hair fall out. Iemon asks his friend to rape her so that he may divorce her, but he does not, instead shows Oiwa her reflection and tells her what has occured. Oiwa attempts to kill Iemon but accidently slits her own throat. Her ghost torments him until he is so mad that he was killed out of compassion.
Seppuku: Seppuku is the act of dying with honor in Samurai class. It was a ritual suicide that often had witnesses. It involved stabbing yourself in the stomach and moving the blade back and forth until death. It was often the only way to preserve honor. Women had their own version, Jigai, which was slightly different. The Seppuku that Pitch references is within the story of Oiwa and Iemon, in which a man marries a lovely woman until he realizes that she is his younger sister. Shamed, he kills himself.
Sukeroku: The story of Sukeroku is another Kabuki play. This one's name is actually "Sukeroku the Flower of Edo". Sukeroku, a handsome and beloved Samurai, has received word that his father was dead. But he kept visiting Agemaki, the courtesan in Yoshiwara he wanted to marry, much to the displeasure of his mother. Ikyu is the villain, and reveals himself as such at the end when he talks to Sukeroku and his brother of working together to find their father's murderer, as a stool with two legs cannot stand. He cuts a leg off a stool to show that, but in doing so reveals his sword as that of the killer, allowing Sukeroku to take vengeance on him.
Pitch's lullaby: This time, Pitch is singing "Changeling Child" by Heather Dale.
The Nymphs' songs: The nymphs are singing "Sumerisle (The Maypole Song)" and "Sunrise" by The Mediaeval Baebes
Alseid Nymphs: Alseid Nymphs are the nymphs of glens in the forest, and are distinct in that from any other nymph. they are mentioned three times by Homer in three works, but never any other time.
Epimeliads: the reason they are both protectors of apple trees and sheep and goats is due to the word. The word for apple in ancient Greek (μηλον) is the same word for sheep. Thus, they protect both.
Eunoste: Eunoste was the nurse of Eunostus, the son of the River God Cephissus
Cretheis: A nymph mentioned in a Byzantine text called the Suda, a giant text about the ancient world of the Mediterranean. It draws on ancient texts that are now gone, has over 30,000 entries and was compiled in the 10th century
Semestra: Semestra was the nurse of Keroessa. Keroessa was the daughter of Zeus and Io, and in legend founded the Byzantium (a Greek city, not the Empire) with her uncle Poseidon
Aora: Aora is the eponym of the town of Aoros in Crete.
Fish in the wells: Holy Fish! They are also called Easg Saint, and were said to live in church wells with a hazelnut tree above it. The nuts would fall in and that was what the fish survived on. they could talk among other things, and to kill them was said to have divine retribution fall on your head.