I hope this will hold you guys over until I can edit and upload the next couple of chapters!
*To any who practice archery (which I do not): if I have incorrectly labeled some part of the bow or arrow, or misused a term, please tell me!
XxTMRxx
Chapter 5: The Bow, the Arrow and the Archer
(One hour since the Guardians left to fight Pitch and Jack was left at the Pole…)
"Aaaaannnnddd back again." Jack sighed, watching from the Globe Room as the the sleigh's icon on the globe went instantly from Burgess to Belgium, then darted up to to England, before finally reappearing back to Burgess. "They must've travelling through snowglobe portals." Jack muttered to himself. He got worried, however, when after another forty-something minutes; the sleighs icon hadn't moved a millimeter. "Sera, Baby Tooth, it's not moving. That means they're either grounded or too busy fighting Pitch to bother flying!" He said, turning to face the two mini-fairies. Sera and Baby didn't quite know what to do, because though they could fly to Burgess to see what was happening, Jack couldn't. And even if he used a snowglobe to get there, he still probably didn't stand a chance against Pitch .
"But I can't stand staying here and DOING NOTHING!" Jack leaned on the controls with his elbows, watching the globe spin and spin and spin. Just then, a furry hand touched his shoulder. Jack nearly jumped out of his own skin surprise. But it was not a foe that tapped his shoulder, it was Phil.
"Hey," Jack greeted, but he was stopped from saying anything further when he saw what Phil was holding.
"Why are you holding the bow and arrows? I'm not great with dangerous weapons in the workshop, remember? I took out the entire armory once by accident, and I didn't even use my staff for that one."
Phil disagreed. In yetish, (Phil had taught Jack how to understand it,) Phil told Jack, "You knocked over one row of weapons, which knocked over all the others, so of course the whole armory was disrupted. But this time, people's lives are at stake. In fact, wasn't I teaching you a little about how to shoot straight with a bow and arrow almost every time I threw you out of the Workshop?"
Jack nodded as memories of the friendly yeti who taught him how to fight with and without magic came to the forefront of his mind. Phil only acted like he didn't like Jack, and they both knew it. "So you remember this then?" Phil asked, holding up the bow and quiver of arrows. The feathers on the arrows were a bright royal blue in color (courtesy of a disgruntled parrot,) the shafts were jet black and made from carbon. The metal arrowheads were sharp, thin and fast. He knew the arrows felt very light to hold. He also knew they could kill a creature from quite a distance away, although he had never used them for that. He would only ever use them for self-defense, or in this case, to stop Pitch from taking over the world. The bow, made with wood from an elm tree, was stained a dark chocolate brown, and the bowstring was made from dyneema.
Of course Jack Frost remembered the bow and arrows; he had made them.
He still could see himself, learning how to shoot at different objects, memorizing the different parts of the arrows, the many kinds of bows, and in his mind's eye, Jack saw months it had taken to pick the wood, choose the fletching, decide on arrowheads, and eventually make his own bow and quiver of arrows. How could he have forgotten all about them!
Phil handed him the bow first, letting Jack run his hand over the wood and bowstring before giving him the quiver. The arrows seemed to gleam, catching the light and glimmering magically. "Thank you." Jack breathed, his eyes sparking with hope and determination.
Phil looked at him with a small smile, and then held up a snowglobe saying, "So, you know what to do. And I wish you all the luck in the world to do it."
Jack took that as Phil's cue to "go kill some nightmares for me". He slung the quiver over his shoulder and gripped the bow tightly in one hand. With a final nod at the yeti, he took the snowglobe, threw it on the floor and commanded, "Take us to Burgess, Pennsylvania!" And with that, he, Baby Tooth and Sera were swept off the Burgess, Pitch, and the Guardians.