Author's Note: Augh, the guilt! It burns! I'm SO sorry that it took me so long to update. Especially when my last update was a teasing interlude. To make up for it, I give you a chapter that is almost 3100 words, without the author's note. It's not terribly actiony, but it does explain more on what's going on with poor Neve and Neva, our two Winter Sprites in trouble. Actually, I really want to do my Party Plans Interlude now, so once plot is done getting in the way and there's time for some fluffy moments, that'll pop up. I'm also working on writing another chapter for Jamie's Ghost/UFO Hunting Adventures, so that'll be the next fic that gets updated, hopefully by this weekend? I won't say for definite though.

Now.. at long last, the next full chapter!

Chapter Fourty-Six: Sprites in Need

A few days after Pitch had tea with Bunny, two winter sprites left on their journey. They knew they had to get somewhere cold quick, but they also needed help. Neve looked at Neva worriedly. She was so pale and he thought she was starting to look a little transparent. Since the world was going through horrible weather changes, places they thought would be cool were actually very warm.

They needed to head to someplace magically cold.. Such as a Seasonal's home. His first thought was of Mistral's old place, but that was the first place that the dark spirit would look for them, he knew.

He thought of the other Seasonals he knew of. August, the Summer Sprite. There had been Leif, but.. no..

Neve shook his head to rid himself of the terrible thoughts. Leif had been kidnapped by the dark spirit long ago, along with the other Spring Sprites. At first the other sprites were excited, since they thought that surely a Seasonal could escape, but it turned out that Leif simply wasn't strong enough.

The worst part had been when a new Spring Spirit was chosen.. No one knew that Leif was still alive.

Neve tried to block out the memories of Leif's cries, when Leif lost all of his power. Seasonals, Sprites and Spirits thrived on their magic power, and to have it all taken away like that..

Of course Leif hadn't stood a chance.

And like so many others, he faded away in anguish.

It was such a cruel way to go.. Neve hadn't thought that Mother Nature would give up on a Seasonal so soon.

With a sigh, Neve wracked his brain, and then he came up with the Fall Spirit. What was his name..?

Jas.. Jasper! That was right. Neve glanced back, and with a voice that sounded crisp as a winter wind, he explained to Neva his idea of visiting the Fall spirit for now. He could put them in touch with the current Winter Spirit, or perhaps transport them to Mother Nature's.

Neva nodded absently, looking very tired. No matter where they went, she wasn't certain she could make it there. She had used up so much of her energy on just trying to escape.

The weather outside wasn't helping either. It was so hot out. Even if they did make it to the Fall Spirit's place, would the other Winter Sprites be able to hold on? So many of them had looked to be on the verge of disappearing.

Even she was starting to feel a little faded. If they didn't get somewhere cool, she knew she wouldn't last.

She shook her head and tried to muster up some determination. They were the only two that knew exactly what was behind the strange weather, and where he was. They had to make it.

They had to.


Bunny had since given both Jack and Lillian his special herbal remedy for colds, and while Jack was feeling a little better, Lillian was in bed feeling miserable. The cold wasn't as bad as it could have been, but that still didn't stop her from sneezing quite a bit.

Without her bracelet to help her control her powers better, one sneeze was a disaster. The worst had been when she sneezed five times in a row and accidentally created a small thunderstorm in her room.

Who knew she was so powerful without her bracelet?

Lillian had problems getting the storm to go away too, so she had been moved out the room while the Guardians had tried to deal with it. Pitch was the one who actually made it go away, after he suggested that Jack use his powers to have the Wind blow the storm out the window.

Pitch had raised an eyebrow at the panicking Guardians at this. They really couldn't have thought of that themselves? Bunny had tried saying that he was just about to suggest that Jack do that, but Pitch wasn't fooled.

Honestly, didn't anyone ever think anymore?


It was a few days after the storm incident that an apologetic Bunny finally got back to Jamie about his letter to North. Jamie was disappointed that Jack didn't show up himself, but Bunny quickly explained that they'd all been very busy, and Jack was just getting over a cold and didn't want to give it to Jamie.

Jamie was very interested in this.

"I didn't know Jack could catch cold! Can Lillian too? What about the Guardians? Or Pitch?" Jamie asked excitedly. "And what was up with that frozen waterfall? Did Jack do it for fun before he got sick?"

"Whoah there!" Bunny said, putting up his paws to signal Jamie to stop. "One at a time, mate."

Jamie looked a little sheepish and stopped asking questions.

"Now ta answer the waterfall question, Jack was.. er.." Bunny hesitated. The Burgess kids didn't really need to know about Mother Nature, did they? "..Yep, he was playin' alright. But we had a talk with 'im. Well, Pitch did most of the lecturin'," Bunny said, as he thought about all the yelling when they had gotten back to the Pole. "As for yer other questions, yeah Lillian can get sick too. The rest of us? We're a little tougher since we're older. It's possible, but it takes more'n a cold ta take us out."

Jamie nodded his understanding.

"So Jack and Lillian are ok? We were really worried when we saw the waterfall with Pitch's shadow on it."

Bunny ruffled Jamie's hair affectionately.

"Everything's fine, ya anklebiter."

Bunny was about ready to take his leave, when Sophie toddled into Jamie's room.

"Bunny!" she shrieked and immediately latched herself onto Bunny's leg.

Bunny gave her a soft smile.

"Hey there." he said gently to her. "Guess I could stay a little longer, yeah?"


A few days after that, August was at Jasper's place, trying to sort out the mysterious weather patterns. Actually, August was ranting at Jasper, who was listening patiently while he painted, occasionally nodding and saying things like "Mmhm," while he painted.

The Fall sprite that liked Jasper's painting was perched on his shoulder and kept shooting August annoyed looks for daring to interrupt Jasper while he was painting.

Jasper was taking it all in stride, although August's rants were having an effect on his painting. Jasper had originally started out painting yet another fall scene, but August kept ranting about how too hot the weather was in his favorite places, or else too cold, and before Jasper knew it, his poor painting didn't know what season it was in. Jasper frowned as he realized he'd been zoning out a little (honestly, was August still ranting?), and now instead of a lovely fall scene, his painting had somehow gained a frozen lake and the sunlight was much too bright, like it was summer.

Hmm.. Forest with a frozen lake..

He looked at his panting some more and realized with some tweaking, he could easily make it look more like Jack Frost's lake.

He shivered a little as he recalled that Pitch lived nearby. That meeting with him had been pretty scary.

"..Even Florida is too cold!" August complained. "FLORIDA! I think even Texas has frost warnings, isn't that unbelievable?!"

At the total lack of response, August narrowed his eyes at Jasper, who was looking at his painting and nodding to himself.

"Are you listening to me?!" August demanded harshly, feeling that Jasper was not being a good friend at the moment. Honestly, all Jasper ever did was work or paint at home! The man was in desperate need of a social life!

"..Huh? Oh! Yeah," Jasper said awkwardly, while his cheeks heated up.

"What was the last thing I said?" August said, totally not convinced.

"Uh.." Jasper listened as his sprite discreetly whispered in his ear, and quickly replied. "Texas has frost warnings?"

"Hm.." August said suspiciously, but was cut off by the frantic cry of several Fall Sprites.

Jasper looked around at that and was surprised to see a few of his sprites surrounding two sprites with.. white hair? They were wearing white and blue, which were definitely not fall colors.

Wait..

White and blue?

That sounded familiar..

His Fall Sprites were practically carrying the other sprites in and gently set them down on the table with Jasper's paints.

His Fall Sprites were all frantically talking at once and gesturing at the two new arrivals when it suddenly hit him: They were some of the missing Winter Sprites!

He hadn't seen any of them in hundreds of years!

"..Wha.. How..?!" he exclaimed.

August looked at the two new sprites disinterestedly, until he took in their color.

"Aha!" he said, pointing at them. "Rogue Winter Sprites! I'll bet they have something to do with all this strange weather we've been having!"

Jasper shot August an annoyed look at that. These two sprites looked very ragged and not capable of summoning a single snowflake, let alone making entire states far too cold.

He turned his attention to the two sprites. The male looked to be in better shape than the female and he was holding her protectively and glaring daggers at August.

"Hey there," Jasper said softly to them. "It's alright. You're safe now. I thought all the Winter Sprites were gone! We haven't seen any of your kind for a very long time."

Neve nodded gravely, after shooting August one last glare. He remembered a few Summer Sprites giving him trouble in the past, and how their leader didn't seem very interested in stopping them at the time.

Neve spoke gently to Jasper, but Jasper cocked his head in confusion. The Sprites all had a language of their own, and their respective Seasonal could understand them perfectly, but..

"Ah.." Jasper said hesitantly, "I'm sorry, but.. I can't understand you. I guess only the current Spirit of Winter can understand you."

Neve had stopped speaking and looked dejected at that. He didn't feel up to even more traveling, and he wasn't certain how much more poor Neva could take. She was so pale, he swore he could almost see right through her. The trip to the Winter Spirit would be too much for her.

Neve looked at the Fall Sprites. The various Seasonal Sprites could all understand each other to a certain extent, but really only their Seasonal could truly understand them.

He spoke to them in his crisp voice, explaining Neva's dire situation. They cocked their heads at Neve as he spoke the foreign language of Winter at them. They could understand a little, but it had been so very long since they had heard a Winter Sprite speak. In fact, the various Seasonal Sprites that were about didn't really talk to one another anymore, which meant they had lost a lot of their ability to understand one another. The Fall Sprites were too used to only hearing their own language of Fall and nothing else.

The Sprite on Jasper's shoulder spoke up, and explained how those two Winter Sprites didn't really look up to much travel, and Jasper had to agree.

Jasper turned to August, who still wasn't looking very happy.

"August.." he said, a pleading note in his tone.

August stopped frowning at the Winter Sprites to look at Jasper. Jasper was giving him his most pleading, sad look. The look that made Jasper look so utterly pathetic that it instantly made August want to help him.

So with a sigh, August asked Jasper what he wanted.

"These two Winter Sprites obviously aren't up to any sort of travel, and you know how remote it is out here. It would take me some time to try and bring them to Jack's lake, and you know how warm it is there now. I'm not sure where Jack is staying at this point."

"..And..?" August prompted.

"And I need to stay here and take care of them! I have to try and lower the temperature for them, without making it too uncomfortable for my own Sprites. These are the Winter Sprites, that have been missing for centuries. You know how close Jack Frost is with the Guardians. I think you should go to the North Pole and speak with North. He should probably know where Jack Frost is and then Jack can come here for his Sprites."

Jasper finished this with an especially desperate look, as he knew August wouldn't be thrilled at all to go to somewhere else that was cold. Very cold.

August frowned at this, having missed out on Jasper's recent misadventure involving Pitch, the Winter and Spring Spirit and Mother Nature.

"Why not go to Mother Nature about this? Surely she would know more about where Frost is than North."

"It's a long story," Jasper sighed. "But I really think you should go to North. Please?"

August crossed his arms and grumbled. Not only was the cold so.. so.. cold, but he didn't particularly like yetis either. Jasper was so going to owe him for this.

Jasper sighed in relief as August disappeared in a bright flash that only a Sun God could top. He hoped that his friend hurried..

August wasn't particularly the most reliable when it came to doing things he didn't like, and Jasper knew that August really didn't like going to cold places.

Hopefully August wouldn't get sidetracked by surfing someplace.

Jasper let his thoughts trailed off as he scooped up the two Winter Sprites in his hands and went to go take them to a smaller room, away from his precious paintings and further away from his Sprites.

He only hoped he could keep them cool enough until Frost arrived. He looked down at the female sprite worriedly as she seemed to grow more translucent before his eyes.

Hurry, August...


It had been around four days since Jack and Lillian had arrived at the Pole and been given their medicine. Much to their complete annoyance, Bunny still wouldn't pronounce them healthy enough to leave their beds, even though Jack's temperature seemed mostly normal now and Lillian was back to her old self, although she still had bouts of solemnness, when she thought about the disastrous meeting with Mother Nature.

But it wasn't in Lillian's nature to be sad for long, and she grown quite attached to her Seasonal painting party idea, and it had grown to not only include the Seasonals, but also the Guardians.

It would be the absolute most funnest day ever.

If only Bunny would let them leave their beds!

Bunny however, refused to budge. He insisted that they both stay in bed until they were completely well, and he wouldn't take no for an answer. Even though Lillian claimed to be feeling completely fine, she hadn't stopped her random sneezing just yet, and Jack still sounded a little stuffy, so he knew their colds weren't completely gone just yet.

The only real problem was that Jack was bored.

Very bored.

And so it was an annoyed Bunny who stomped into North's workshop, completely covered in snow. He was about to start ranting when Phil burst in, arms waving around in complete panic.

He ran up to the snowy Bunny ranting in yetish and looking frantic.

Bunny looked startled at Phil's urgency, since the last time Phil had been so frantic had been when Jack and Lillian had first arrived at the Pole after being rescued. He had just checked on them, so that couldn't be it.

Maybe the last time had been all the time ago when they learned Pitch was up to something? But Pitch was sort of not completely evil now..

So.. what?

Phil finally noticed that Bunny wasn't understanding him, so he grabbed Bunny's arm and dragged him off to the globe room.

Bunny was both surprised and completely embarrassed to see that August was there.

"What are you doin' here?" Bunny asked as he tried to brush some of the snow off himself. Of all the times to have a Seasonal Spirit show up! This was so unGuardianlike.

August was still wearing his greek Sun God outfit, and dearly regretting that he had never added anything warmer into his wardrobe. He had has his arms crossed, looking very uncomfortable, despite the fact that the temperature was normal inside North's place.

It might have seemed normal to a non-Seasonal, but to the Summer Spirit, it was far too cold. But sadly, as it was far warmer than California at the moment..

"I need to speak to North," August said as he eyed Bunny, and then smirked. "I didn't realize you were a snow bunny off-season," he said, sounding amused.

Bunny was not happy.

"Look here, you," Bunny snarled. "You got any problems, you can take 'em straight ta Mother Nature! We have enough ta deal with on our own without yer kind comin' here and - "

August cut Bunny off in mid-rant with an eye roll.

"Believe me, the last thing I want to do is visit the North Pole," he said with a shudder at the end. "But Jasper insisted that North would know better where Jack Frost is, and - "

Now it was Bunny's turn to cut August off as he eyed the Seasonal warily.

"What do ya want with Jack?" he asked suspiciously. "Did Mother Nature send ya?"

"Hello," August said snarkily, "Were you listening? JASPER said I should come here. Fall Spirit? Ring any bells?"

Bunny glared at the Summer Spirit. He always thought August seemed a little pompous, and he normally had very little to do with the Seasonals (except for Jack and Lillian of course).

Bunny opened his mouth to retaliate back, but North wandered in.

"Phil is telling me, we have guest!" North boomed out happily as he took in the sight of Bunny and August glaring at one another. "Now, what is Summer Spirit doing in North Pole?"

August turned his attention to North.

"As I was trying to say, Jasper seemed to think you know where Jack Frost is. A couple of Winter Sprites showed up at Jasper's and Jack Frost needs to get there right away to help them recover."

Ha, take that Easter Bunny. Throw accusations at him, will he?

Bunny was about to respond, when he noticed the shadows behind August becoming more prominent.

"I don't think so," a voice hissed out dangerously behind August.

Bunny's smirk grew as August gave a very unmanly shriek when he turned around to find himself face to face with none other than Pitch Black.


Author's Note: I hope you don't mind me tossing August in there. I figured he hadn't interacted enough with the other characters and wanted to see him interact some with the Guardians/Pitch/Jack/Lillian. I also wanted to get the ball rolling on the plot since I've been teasing you with it for long enough now. Plus now this also gives a good excuse for Jack and Lillian (since there's no way Lillian is letting Jack go alone) to interact with Jasper too. I'm trying to figure out if August has any.. um.. non-annoying qualities at this point, since he's incredibly vain and self-centered right now. He used to be a good guy so very long ago, so I'm curious if he'll have any moments where he can grow as a person. Maybe some plot will happen and we'll get to see his good side!

As always, if you guys have any suggestions or anything (or just want to yell at me for my lack of updates for over a month), feel free to let me know!