Chapter VII - Alone With Wolves

Jack slowly drifts into consciousness, feeling the softness of his pillow beneath his cheek, and the warmth of his blanket surrounding him. He snuggles down further into his soft cocoon.

He opens his eyes to find Sköll sitting next to the bed, looking at the winter spirit.

"Ruff ruff." The wolf said as his eyes meet Jack's blue orbs.

"And good morning to you, Sköll." Jack stretches languidly, sighing as he releases the tension in his body.

Sköll gave a short bark and stepped back, making his way towards the door.

"I know, I know." Jack groaned in acknowledgement and took a nice, but quick shower and got dressed. He headed down to the kitchen, where Hati and Sköll were already at their kitchen mat, eating a large bones with meat on them.

There was a breakfast tray with lid on the table. The winter spirit walked up to it and found a note. He picked up the note and read it allowed.

Good morning Jack.

I've got some important business in Brocéliande*. I'll be back tomorrow morning or in the evening. Left you a bacon pancakes. Enjoy.

Raijū

Ps. Don't turn a hallway into a skating rink. Again.

Jack smiled at the last part of note and picked up a lid. The intense scent of the food filled the kitchen.

"Bon appétit, me." The crisp smell of bacon pancakes was enough to make teenage boy realize how hungry he was.

A five minutes later, the plate was a half empty, bits of bacon and pancakes was still warm. The boy however, was already full, as indicated by the small burp following the drinking of his juice.

Crooning softly, Hati crawled forwards, slowly, before laying his head in Jack's lap.

"You're really laying it on thick, aren't you?"

The wolf bowed his head, snorting his agreement.

"Go ahead. " Jack take his plate and hands it to Hati.

The wolf wagged his tail gleefully as eating the rest of the food.

"Okay, guys. I'll catch you later." The winter spirit grabbed his staff and began his day.

First, he spend some time with the Wind, flying around the forest. Then he found a place where he could practice how to shoot with frozen magic. After that he decided to head to the Hawthorne, causing snow day in village.

He came to see a foxes family, whom he had met two months earlier. And then he fly to Hawaii and freeze a few waves. And when he got tired of freezing water, he came home and sat under a great cherry tree in the garden. His favorite place to rest and get such enjoyment from doing nothing.

The teenage had just made a few tiny snowflake dancing on air for the forth time when something wet was dropped in his lap. With an suprise yelp, Jack made snowflakes turn into blue sparkle. A galaxy blue and turquoise eyes blinked at him, while the large head tilted to one side, regarding the spirit.

"Hati? What are you-," The boy stopped, looking at the object that was dropped. It was the weird stick that Hati had brought from the woods not long ago.

The teenage hellion grimaced a bit at seeing the chewed thing now resting in his lap. He gave Hati the same look, "What do you want me to do with it?"

The mystical creature gave a sharp bark and nudged pale boy's knee before giving the teenage spirit a look that looked like he was waiting for the winter spirit to do something.

Looking between Hati and the stick, Jack finally picked the thing up, wolf's galaxy blue eyes followed the movement carefully, his tail beginning to 'thud' against the ground as he wagged it. Catching on, Jack threw the bone away from him.

"Fetch." He ordered with smile, not that it was necessary, Hati was off as soon as the stick left Jack's hand.

Hati ran past by the side of the tree where his brother slept. Sköll opened a red eye halfway, like it was taking too much energy to do that simple task, look at the brother, then slowly closed it, huffed quietly.

Sköll was amused at the other wolf asking for play with him. And Jack know very well why. Sköll and Hati had the same high level of intelligence, malignant power and many years of experience in life. However, Hati shown a proclivity to behave like a puppy.

Jack resumed his snowflakes game only to have the stick dropped back into his lap five seconds later. Sometimes, he forgot how fast the large wolf was. Hati looked at him so excited.

Holding the wet stick between two fingers, making sure to keep a safe distance from clothes, Jack made his way to other part of garden throwing a "Come on, Hati." over his shoulder, even though the wolf was already following boy.

The teenage hellion wasn't sure how long it took before they lost the stick. He tossed it as far as he could and Hati dashed after it, but returned empty jawed. The winter spirit couldn't believe it.

Hati's eyes seem to say, 'I tried, but I lost it.'

Jack wanted to continue the game. But he couldn't just breaking off the biggest stick he could find and use that instead. Raijū loved this garden. So, every plant here were untouchable.

Then he got an idea. He grabbed his staff and focused on the magic. A magical glow started dancing in his hand. The teenage boy had a fleeting thought that told him that Raijū wouldn't be happy with this kind of play in garden. But Jack just shrugged the thought off, creating a ice ball and used the wind to make it fly.

Hati just ran after it, his tail continued to wag happily.

It worked well enough, even if Jack had to repeatedly make new ice balls to throw seeing as how Hati kept breaking the ice ball in pieces after the third or forth throw.

But then the accident happened. The wind was a bit too strong, ice ball fly too fast. It fall between the flowers before Hati got a chance to catch it. The ice ball exploded and the ice magic from inside it... freeze all nerine flowers.

"Whoops."

Hati squealed before cowered silently on the spot where he stood. Then suddenly Sköll appeared directly right next to Jack.

A growl escaped fire wolf's throat, though it was significantly different than any of his normal growl. It sounded just scolding.

"It was an accident." Jack replied, "Can you fix it?"

Sköll frowned at him and walked up to flowers. And as he got closer, the light of his fire tail bounced and dance and flashed on frozen plants. The wolf was standing over them, breathing really loudly and slow as his eyes were glowing red.

"Bark. Snarl. (I'm sorry. I can't help. The flowers are too fragile for me to use my fire.)" Sköll said as his eyes stopped glowing.

"Great!" Jack groaned, sitting on rock as Hati sat on the ground beside him. "All right, so then, what do we do now?"

Hati disappeared for a split second and then he came back with a Jack's staff between his teeth.

"Sometimes we do fight ice magic with ice magic." Jack said Hati as the magical canine set down the staff on the ground before him. "It couldn't get any worse. Right?"

~•~

The sky was just beginning to turn an exquisite shade of violet when Raijū went into the cave. The werewolf was tired wanted to have a warm bath.

His meeting with the Lady of the Lake* was more tiring than a military campaign. They spent fourteen hours discussing (arguing a one third of this time) new rules for use of the resources of enchanted forests that were under their protection.

"Home, sweet home."

The man attempted to open the iron door only to find a 2 feet wall of snow blocking his path. The werewolf come inside and froze soon after the second steep.

His home look like the land of ice.

Maybe under other circumstances, Raijū would take a moment to admire the view in front of him. But now, he was just staring at the three persons: the winter spirit and two wolves.

"Hi, Raijū."

Jack barely give him a glance. Hati and Sköll, meanwhile, were both giving their Alpha pitifully fearful looks.

Raijū's eyes went wide and he looked up at cave, his face betraying that of shock and disbelief. "How did you even do this?"

"Well," Jack started. "It began as a simple frozen flowers, and then things kinda progressed from there."

"Ugh." The werewolf pinched the bridge of his nose. "You are impossible."

"But I don't turn a hallway into a skating rink." Jack called over with a happy tone and a shy smile.

"All right, clean up this mess and we'll talk about it later." Raijū soft growl, his voice was firm, hard and filled with parental authority.

Walking past them, Sköll used his fire breath to make a path between section of garden, Hati begin dig up the decorations of garden, and Jack caught his staff to shake the snow off trees.

Raijū paused in the doorway out of the castle and looked back over one shoulder with the hint of smile. "And another thing, I think you should start training with your powers. You've so much potential, Jack. "

Author Note and other information:

Thanks for reading. I'm open to constructive criticism if you have any.Feel free to leave a comment

*Brocéliande, earlier known as Brécheliant and Brécilien, is a legendary enchanted forest that had a reputation in the medieval European imagination as a place of magic and mystery. Brocéliande is featured in several medieval texts, mostly related to the Arthurian legend

* The Lady of the Lake is a name or a title used by several fairy-like enchantresses in the Matter of Britain, the body of medieval literature and mythology associated with the legend of King Arthur. They play pivotal roles in many stories, including providing Arthur with the sword Excalibur, eliminating Merlin, raising Lancelot after the death of his father, and helping to take the dying Arthur to Avalon.