Song: Streets of Gold
From: Oliver and Company
A silky voice flowed through the air. "Why if it isn't Jack Frost!"
Jack knew that voice and groaned at hearing it. "Hello and goodbye."
"Is that any way to talk to your mentor?"
"You're not my mentor!"
A very sweet and feminine laugh came after that statement. "I was for a little while."
"That was before you tricked me."
"I've never tricked you child. You have the talent there for it was right to use it."
"No, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. I'm a Guardian now; I don't need your kind of work. I have two sets an example."
"Ha ha! So, Guardian or not, you still have the talent. You can't change that. Nicholas didn't, in fact I'll prove it to you right now."
Jack didn't have to turn to know she was gone.
"Who was that?" B. Bedbug asked.
After making Bunny promised to visit more King had flown off. Now North clapped his hands. "Right, time to locate Jack."
"Having difficulty? It's not like you Nicholas. It used to be you always got what you wanted." The silky voice seemed to come from everywhere. The Big Four looked around but it wasn't until she spoke again, calling out "over here.", that they spotted her and only cause she stepped out and was nearly on top of them. Finally seeing her, they now could tell why she had been hard to spot. There was nothing in her appearance that could make her stand out. She was ordinary and so she blended with the crowd. Her hair was average color, neither long, nor short, straight, nor curlly, and was hanging simple and plane not done in any particular way. She wasn't tall or short, and her skin wasn't dark, tan, or pasty white. Her eyes and cloths were average to. "Nicholas, it's been so long. I can still see the talent in you. Though your new shape may cause some problems."
"Sorry, have ve met?" North asked puzzled.
"Not face to face but my voice should be recognizable. Think back to when you were just starting out as a loan bandit. I would whisper to you while you slept and give you the lessons of survival you still carry to this day."
North still looked confused. The woman smiled and was gone. They didn't see her leave, one minute she was in front of them and the next she wasn't. That trick put them all on edge, so it's understandable that when North heard her silky whisper: "The only rule is though shall not get caught." He swung around grabbing his sabers as he did. There were only two problems;
1) She wasn't there, and
2) He didn't have his sabers.
Frantically he patted his belt and even his coat. "Vhere-"
"Looking for these?" There she was standing in the exact same spot as before, but there was a difference. She was swinging one of North sabers like a pendulum while she casually examined the other. "A little sloppy, aren't you? There was a time no one could sneak up on you. Then again, I am the goddess of thieves." With a cackle she threw the sabers back to North.
"Okay Sheila. I don't know what you want, but I think it's…." Bunny trailed off when he found the boomerangs he'd been reaching for were gone.
"Over here." She said, now twirling a boomerang in each hand. She sighed. "Jack at least remembered his training and whole lot better might I add."
"You know Jack?" Tooth asked.
"Oh everyone here knows Jack. However I was the first one to take an interest in him. I saw he had the talent right away and took him under my wing. But after doing his first job he ran from me. Then he returned and even doubled what he'd taken. Here," the boomerangs were sent Bunny's way. "Looks like I'm going to have to re-jog your memory a different way."
After catching the boomerangs and putting them back in their holsters, Bunny looked up to give her a piece of his mind but she wasn't there.
Sandy waved and pointed frantically, the woman was on the platform for the band.
The four of them tried to get to her, but somehow only managed to get jostled onto the dance floor.
"Ladies and gentlemen I am Laverna and I'd like to dedicate this next song to Nicholas St. North. She stood in full view and held a microphone; she'd seemed to pull out of thin air, up to her mouth. Behind her the band started to play a mix of bebop and street jazz.
(Start song here)
"We got to clean you up child and get to some on the job training." She said this pointing at North, as if she were a teacher and he her student.
The spirits and mythics around the Big Four danced with gusto. More and more of the dance floor was filling up, making it more and more difficult to get through. But the Big Four had a feeling that when she was done singing Laverna was going to do her vanishing act again. And they wanted to talk with her. She knew something about Jack that she wasn't telling them. Maybe even where he was right now. North had another reason though, as she sang memories were coming back to him.
Bunny, Tooth, and Sandy had stopped trying to get through the crowd, not because they thought it impossible but because they were staring at North. He'd gotten into a crouched position and was now navigating around the dancers with the ease of water moving around rocks. The memories of his first two years after leaving the Cossacks flashing before his minds eye. At first he lived in the wilds, like before the Cossacks had taken him in, but he'd developed a taste for the life of a thief. The thrill of the hunts and then the surge of accomplishment when the item you sought was in your hands. But he hated their lack of value for life, so he would not return to them.
He tried to be a thief on his own, but the training he had only worked with a group. That was when he'd started hearing a silky voice in his sleep, and by following that voice's advice his thieving improved. Now he put all those skills into practice, as he stalked his newest prize: Laverna. She seemed oblivious to his advance as she continued her song.
Bunny, Tooth, and Sandy had long since lost track of North. But as Laverna bowed and returned her microphone to where ever it had come from, Sandy noticed a small flash of red behind her. In a blink North seemed to have taken Laverna's place.
"I missed?" North said bewildered.
"Very good North, I knew the bandit in you was still there. Keep practicing and maybe Jack will loosen up a little." Her voice congratulated, floating through the air then it vanished.
Jack smiled as he felt up presence behind him. "I must admit it was spellbinding to watch him move like that." He told Laverna.
"You could have that skill too." She told him.
"Tempting, but I'll pass. I will thank you though. Your performance got North out of work mode."
"My pleasure!" she said.
"My lady." B. Bedbug came up to Laverna. "My wife and I would like to invite you to dine with us."
"Oh you charmer." Laverna said.
As they left Jack continue to look at his teammates. "Three down, one to go."
Laverna is the Roman Goddess of Thieves.