Okay, I know I said this would be the next Christmas one, but in order to make the story-line fit together a bit more smoothly, I decided to upload this one first (It's not very long, but I'll make up for it...)
Before you read, I know it's a bit cliche'ish, but I love the idea of... well, wait and see, so much, I just couldn't resist :D
Oh, and seeing as how it's a bank holiday, I may just be able to get the Christmas one finished and uploaded in between revising and stuff, So I'll see what I can do to get it uploaded later today.
Till then, enjoy!
Jamie laughed as Sophie eagerly tugged on her ice skates.
"Hurry Jamie! I wanna go skating!"
Jamie was still laughing as he tugged on his own, lacing them up, and didn't notice as his little sister started jumping in circles on the ground around the frozen surface of the lake.
He was only alerted to her actions when she gave startled cry, sliding over and knocking her head on the nearest tree.
"Sophie!"
Jamie quickly scrambled to his feet, racing towards her, but before he could get more than a few steps, she had bounced back, and stumbled onto the ice, slightly dizzy.
She finally managed to shake her head and clear it as she fell over, not having been focused on keeping her balance, and Jamie's heart leapt as he heard the ice start cracking.
His first thought was to rush to his sister, but as soon as his foot touched the ice a few paces from the lake, an ominous cracking sounded, and he realised he couldn't risk going any closer.
"Sophie?"
"Jamie...? My head hurts..."
"I know. Just come over here, and I can have a look okay?"
She nodded, and got to her feet, screaming slightly when she finally heard the cracks forming in the ice.
"J-Jamie...?"
"It's okay Soph, but I need you to come a bit closer to me..."
"I-I can't..."
She seemed frozen to the spot, wobbling slightly as she tried to keep her balance, and she gave Jamie a terrified look.
"Jamie? Jamie, I'm scared..."
"It's okay, you'll be fine... But I need you to move a little closer... okay? Just a little step..."
She took a small step, screaming slightly when the ice cracked again, and started shaking.
"J-Jamie I can't..."
"Sure ya can-"
"I can't!" Frustrated tears started falling, and she gave another small scream when the ice cracked even further.
"Jamie!"
Jamie took a single step forward, and that was all the force the ice needed to start to break up.
Sophie gave one small scream before she slipped backwards and tumbled into the water.
"Sophie!"
Jamie was about to jump in after her when he felt a cold hand on his shoulder, holding him back, and felt a wooden staff shoved into his arms.
"Hold this and get to the edge of the lake!" Jack said already moving, having just landed next to Jamie as Sophie fell in, and he dived into the water, vanishing from view.
Jack had just landed next to Jamie when Sophie fell into the water, and he realised that there was nothing he could do with the ice to help.
He shoved the staff at Jamie, yelling at him to get back to solid ground, before ignoring the gut wrenching fear and instincts screaming at him to leave the water, and diving in.
His eyes caught sight of Sophie, and he swan down, managing to grab one of her hands and pulling her closer to him, letting her instinctively clutch his chest.
He mentally cursed as he realised that he had swum away from the hole in the ice, and did a backwards flip in the water, shoving against the unbroken ice with his feet.
He was rewarded with a crack, and did the same thing again, making it cracked enough for him to get a decent hold and push himself through the ice, one hand gripping it and the other clutching at Sophie.
The whole thing couldn't have lasted any longer than a few seconds, but it had felt like an age.
Jack cautiously got to his feet, balancing on the ice, and sensed the safest route back to the bank.
But he would have to be quick.
"Hold on, okay sweetie?"
Sophie nodded, shivering and sobbing into his chest, and he tightened his grip on her, leaping just as the ice beneath him cracked.
He landed on a thicker patch, and ran for a few steps before leaping onto another patch and leaping into the air, doing a front flip and coming to land on the edges of the lake.
He leapt forward again, coming to a firm rest on the solid ground, and pulled the small girl closer to him, stroking her back.
Jamie flung himself down beside them, and tried to comfort his sister, making her only cling harder to the winter spirit.
"Jamie? I need your coat... She'll freeze if we don't get her warm."
He gently prised her shivering arms from around his neck, and wrapped her in the coat, getting to his feet, still dripping wet.
"Come on, let's get you home..."
Jamie hurried alongside them, letting Jack carry her, and panicking.
"Will she be okay?"
Jack nodded.
"We'll get her home. I don't think she was in the water long enough for it to have been too dangerous. We just need to get her warm and dry soon, or else it might get bad..."
He quickly grabbed one of the spare orbs from his pocket, and opened a portal to the foot of Jamie's garden, leaping through.
He handed her to Jamie just as they reached the back door, and stroked Sophie's hair.
"Hey, Jamie's gonna get you inside okay? I'll be waiting upstairs."
_
Jamie rushed her into the house, calling for his mother, who gasped as she caught sight of Sophie.
"She fell through the ice. J-I got her out, and she was only there for a few seconds..."
His mother took Sophie, and quickly set about getting her warm, and grabbing fresh clothes.
After about half an hour, his mother seemed to lose some of her tension as she realised that Sophie had avoided the worst, and smiled at Jamie.
"You did good Jamie... Any longer and I might have had to take her to the hospital."
"So she'll be okay?"
"Yes, she will be fine. I have to say, that lake doesn't seem to like our family..."
Jamie blinked.
"What? Why not?"
His mother gave him a sad smile, as she wrapped Sophie tighter in a blanket, carrying her upstairs, Jamie trailing behind.
"Well, over the last few hundred years, a lot of our family and ancestors have fallen in there, some very nearly dying because of it."
"Did anyone actually die?"
"Yes, but it was a long time ago. A young boy, Jackson or something, I think my nanna once told me, died whilst saving his sister. The story used to make me sad when I was a child."
Jamie had frozen as he heard that, and blinked.
Luckily, his mother didn't seem to notice as she tucked Sophie in, and kissed he on the cheek.
"There ya go, sweetie."
Sophie mumbled something about Jack, and his mother frowned.
"Jack?"
Jamie blinked.
"Err, yeah. One of Sophie's friends from over the other side of town. Ya know, Jackie Wilson?"
"Oh, yes."
Jamie gave a sigh of relief as his mother brought the excuse, and they both stay for a while until Sophie fell asleep, at which point his mother got to her feet and gently told him that if he wanted to stay, he shouldn't wake her up, and that she would be back up in a little bit with some hot soup for him.
He nodded, scooching closer to his sister as his mother closed the door, leaving it slightly ajar, and his sigh was met with another, causing him to spin and see Jack.
"She okay?"
Jamie nodded, moving a little to let Jack sit down, and Sophie opened two bleary eyes as Jack sat down.
"Hey Sweetie, you okay?"
"Mhm. Just tired..."
"Then you get some sleep, eh? You'll feel better then."
He kissed her lightly on the forehead, as she drifted off, then raised an eyebrow at Jamie, who was looking at him weirdly.
"Y'alright kiddo?"
"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Just thinking that, now that I know what to look for, I can kinda see the family resemblance..."
Jack blinked.
"What?"
Jamie gave small grin.
"Yeah. Hello great, great, great, great, great, great, however many more greats', great Uncle Jack."
Jack blinked again.
"C'mon then Kiddo, this I have to hear..."
_
Jack flew in the window of Santoff Claussen, and North and Tooth stared as they realised his clothes had recently been wringing wet, and he looked worried, shocked, amused and confused.
"Sweet Tooth? You okay? What happened...?"
Jack blinked as he looked at her, then opened his mouth to speak.
He closed it again.
This happened a further three times before he managed to speak.
"Long story short. Sophie fell into the lake at Burgess, I got her out. She'll be fine, and I'm more than fine because I just discovered that Jamie and Sophie and their family are related to me, and, what's more, are descendants of my sister. So the adrenaline is still going down, the panic is still there a little, I'm worried for no good reason, but I like being able to worry which makes no sense at all, I need to get changed and I'm ridiculously happy as well. Oh, and I'm tired, so do you both mind if I just explain properly later? Because I really need to get some sleep."
Tooth and North were both staring at him, and North was the first to respond.
"I- Yes, you go sleep. We shall talk later."
Tooth nodded, before giving him a hug.
"Well done, and good for you Jack."
"Cheers Tooth... Later North..."
He yawned as he flew out, and the two older guardians shared a look before sighing.
"It's gonna be a long story, isn't it?"
"Da... But is something I much want to hear."
"Definitely."
I know, I know. I'm pretty sure the idea had been used before... Countless times most likely, but I really wanted to use it. I think it's a sweet and totally awesome idea for them to be related, and the family resemblances are too strong to ignore.
Anyway, do not fear, this is the first and last cliché...ish chapter I'll be doing, and it's back to my usual random shizzle next chapter :D
(Though this may be coming in handy in further chapters... Okay, shutting up now :D)
And yeah! Jack faced one of his worst fears... I know I didn't make much of it in the actual chapter, but I figure I didn't need to, because you guys would all get it :D
.. You did get it right?
And yeah, I know you're not supposed to sleep and what-not after stuff like that, but details... details...
Please review and let me know what you think!
Raven xx
