Puzzle Piece

Ever since the beginning of creation, everything needed balance. Without balance, there would be chaos and destruction. The lack of balance caused many wars and bloodshed and even the end of planets and galaxies. Many species had become existent because of this. The Pookas and their neighbors the Ostreovlases were a good example of this lack of balance.

She actually found it quite intriguing that these Ostreovlases were actually a different form of Humans. The Ostreovlase were more magically inclined than Earth's Humans. The Ostreovlases weren't as diverse as Earth's human race with all their culture and religions, but they were divided by what their abilities were. The Ostreovlases were a brilliant race of people of Warriors and Psychics. From what she read, Ostreovlases that had abilities that were physical (like powers over weapons or martial arts) were considered Ostreovlase Warriors. Ostreovlases that had abilities that were more magical (like powers over nature and energy) were considered Ostreovlase Psychics.

Mother Nature (before her planet was destroyed and the beginning of Dark Ages) was an Ostreovlase Psychic. Pitch Black (before the Fearlings corrupted him) was an Ostreovlase Warrior, as surprising as that sounded. She never would have thought that he had no powers over shadows and Nightmare Sand before becoming a spirit. Though, it wasn't hard to see that he was a fierce warrior, especially with the way he fought the Guardians and how he holds himself in public. And Jackson...

Autumn's hand froze mid-turning as she stared at the page of the old thick leather book. Jackson was said to have powers over energy. That was said to be a very rare gift in the Pitchiner family, considering they were mainly Ostreovlase Psychics with Pitch being the exception. However…

Autumn sighed as she closed the book that she was reading. She had read the history of the Ostreovlases, the Pookas, and the Lunars dozens of times, but she couldn't quite focus on it. It had been rather hard to distract her mind from the pain and depression they were all feeling.

As Elemental Spirits, they were not only connected to the seasons, but to each other. They all had to balance each other in order to keep the balance. But with Old Man Winter (or Father Frost as some humans referred to him as) gone, winter had been more harsher and unstable lately and very unpredictable, causing many problems for them when it was their season. Mother might have managed to keep the damage to a minimal, but even she couldn't be everywhere to control the course of the weather when she had her own duties to do. It had been hard trying to keep all the seasons balanced, to make sure it didn't cause chaos to the planet.

So when Mother announced that her uncle would be the new Winter Seasonal in the coming years, they were so excited. They hadn't had a Winter Spirit in centuries (considering Old Man Winter killed many of them, along with the majority of the Winter Sprites when he was alive). With Jackson, the season would be balanced once again and with that a new sibling!

Old Man Winter was never a sibling. He was too harsh in the way he delivered his season. He did what he wanted without collaborating with any of them and even ignored Mother's and the Groundhog's instructions and warnings. This had caused lots of problems with other spirits, especially Bunnymund and some of the non-Elemental Spirits.

But that was not the only thing. Old Man Winter outright hated them. The feeling was rather mutual. Autumn couldn't remember a time in where any of them liked Old Man Winter and his disrespectful attitude. The tension was always so high between them that they were always fighting. The last time they fought to that extent created the first Ice Age and every other one following that. He could have destroyed the planet if Mother Nature and Father Time hadn't intervened.

Autumn left out a soft sigh as she shifted her focus from her closed book to her two siblings. They had all felt the painful hole in their chests when Jackson died. They were connected to Mother after all and they all felt the intense pain that she was in. It was unimaginable. Autumn hadn't felt this much pain since she lost her husband when she was still human. But it wasn't just that. It was the fact that they lost their youngest sibling before he officially joined them. It was heartbreaking.

And the way it affected them was scary.

Mother had been a mess. They all were devastated and reserved from what happened. They were grieving. But it was more so with Mother. Mother's emotions had been all over the place. One minute she was calm and then the next she was summoning thunder clouds, earthquakes, tidal waves, harsh winds, and whirlwinds. It got worse when they felt a new Winter Spirit being born, but for some reason, Mother could not get to the new spirit. The spirit was hiding underground and was on the move. And also, for some reason, Pitch had closed off his current lair and left. He was on the move again. To where? They weren't sure. It was very distressing.

"Where you think Mother went?" Mother wasn't the only one who was affected by Jackson's death, though. With the little time they spent with him, they all came to love him as their younger brother. They saw the innocence and compassion in him within his carefree, mischevious nature. It was something that they were missing in their family, something that Old Man Winter never had. His death left a gaping hole in their chests and the outcome was clearly having an effect on them.

"I'm not sure, Flora." Flora was a very cheerful, bubbly person. She was always talking, alway smile. But now she seemed listless; it was as if the life was sucked right out of her. The flowers that were on her dress were usually full of life and colorful as if it was a fully bloomed flower on the first day of spring. But now the flowers were dull and wilted. Flora was also rather reserved. She still talked, but not with the cheerfulness that usually accompanied it.

"I hope she's okay." Blaze was quite reserved as well. Usually, he was cracking up a joke or two or trying to be the annoying brother that loved messing with his sisters. However, Blaze hadn't told a single joke all week. He hadn't tried to pull a prank on them or get them to yell at him or do something that would make them go after him when he did something that annoyed them. In fact, all he'd been doing (since coming home early from his duties) was staring longly at the flickering fireplace, while Flora looked out the window and stared at the snow listlessly.

Autumn knew that her sibling would have placed his two Summer Spirits in charge of spreading the season with the sprites for the next few weeks while he was gone. It really wasn't that uncommon for a Head Seasonal to put their second in commands in charge of directing the sprites and handling the season while they were gone. They've done it plenty of times when they had to attend the season preparation meetings on the solstice and equinox every year or when there were major parties they had to attend. Noted, their second in commands weren't as powerful as the Head Seasonals, but it got the job done.

But still, Autumn was worried. Sure, she was here with them, but it was hers and Flora's offseason. But Blaze would have to get back to work within the next couple of weeks or at least until Mother kicked him out for not doing his job.

Autumn sighed for the eleventh time that day before she straightened her posture from her spot on the green sofa chair. "I'm sure she's fine, Flora. There's nothing to worry about."

Flora glanced at her from her position near the window with a frown gracing on her delicate features. "Yeah, but…Mother's been acting strange lately." Flora twirled a black strand around her finger. "She seemed rather in a hurry to leave before nightfall."

"She's right." Autumn turned to Blaze. Blaze was leaning against the armrest of the brown sofa chair that he was sitting on. Dark orange brows were furrowed slightly as he thought. "I know she might be taking Jackson's death a lot hard then the rest of us, but her behavior is not normal, for her anyway."

"What you mean, Blaze?" Flora asked with a hint of her usual curiosity lacing her words.

"Well," Blaze started as he ran a hand through his flaming hair. "She's been very moody lately and constantly summoning odd weather patterns. I'm sure you've noticed. It was raining when I went to Africa last month." He pouted slightly. "It wasn't supposed to be raining. Rain was scheduled for this month."

"You know it was starting to snow slightly when I went to Europe after Thanksgiving." Autumn had been a bit baffled by that, considering it wasn't supposed to snow for another two weeks.

"Well, not that you mention it," Flora spoke quietly with a frown. "It was a bit too warm when I went to South America in November."

Autumn looked at her siblings in total bewilderment. All of them experienced some type of unexpected weather ever since the Thanksgiving Party. Mother was known to have unpredictable moods, but what could have caused them within the last two months? It didn't make sense. Everything was fine during and after the party. So whatever was causing Mother to be this troubled must have happened between the party and Christmas.

"What could be troubling Mother so much?" Flora asked, unknowing speaking Autumn's thoughts.

"Pitch maybe," Blaze suggested with a shrug. "There has been a lot of issues with the Guardians lately. Have you heard about that? I heard from Eve that they have caused some inconvenience for some of the other holiday spirits."

"I heard about that too," Autumn said with a nodded. "There's a rumor going around that they are locking themselves in their palaces."

Flora nodded, clearly showing that she had heard about it. "What about this other Winter Spirit? Maybe Mother finally found him or her."

Autumn poised her lips up in thought. "That would explain why she's been agitated all week. Though, she usually doesn't bother with new spirits unless they did something to disturb our work. Besides, I figured Mother would be trying to figure out where Pitch went. I've talked to Minerva and she told me no one has seen him since Christmas. She was actually worried when he didn't show up to the Annual Christmas Ball with his guests."

Blaze frowned as he got up and began pacing. "We didn't go either for obvious reasons, neither did Pitch, but the Romans don't know that. Not since they lost their Greek halves. However, I'm not sure that's the whole reason for Mother's behavior. It could explain half of it, but not everything."

"What's the other half then?" Flower asked, looking slightly confused, but was trying to follow along.

Blaze stopped to face them with an uncertain look. "And that, my lovely sisters, is the missing puzzle piece we do not know. But I will tell you this: whatever Mother is hiding is big. And I have a funny feeling Father Time knows what that thing is. Mother was pretty upset that day after Father Time left."

"This is just getting more confusing by the minute," Flora said with a heavy sigh. "I wish she would tell us what is going on. I mean you were here in November, Blaze, and me and Autumn were here in December. Why didn't she say anything to us? We could have helped."

Silence fell between them as they tried to figure out what was wrong with Mother Nature. "What if…"

"What if what, Autumn?" Blaze asked when she started to speak out her thoughts. She really hoped she was wrong.

Autumn looked at the flame flicking around in the fireplace. "What if…Father Time told Mother something?" She paused as she tried to put her thoughts into words. "Something that shook her so badly that she…couldn't speak it...Something she might have wanted to change...or prevent." Autumn shifted her eyes to her brother. "There's only a few things that could rattle Mother to this extent: Pitch…" She pointed to the three of them. "us…the balance of this planet…and…"

Blaze and Flora looked at her in horror. The truth was right there in front of them this whole time. The missing puzzle piece. "Jackson."

The weight of the truth as their voices said that one name made it all too real. Blaze stumbled back into his chair, his tan skin turning pale at the implication of what must have been going on and Flora had tears slowly leaking from her eyes. "No—you—don't—think…?" Flora started to ask through her sobs.

"That Father Time saw Jackson's death and Mother tried to prevent it?" she asked gravely.

"The Guardians!" Blaze shot to his feet in that instant. "That's the only thing that makes sense," he said frantically, his voice lacing with anger. "Father Time must have seen Jackson being killed because of those reckless Guardians! Mother told us what the trees showed her!"

Autumn couldn't make a comment to that. Suddenly, everything seemed all too real. Yet, it all started to make sense. Mother would have gone after the Guardians herself. She would have summoned storms and other natural disasters to stall them or change their course. Mother would have been driving herself crazy because of this.

It explained her behavior.

It explained everything over the past two months.

But there was one thing that didn't add up.

"Where is she now?"

No answer came, not that she was expecting one.

But what she really wasn't expecting was the sudden power that filled her chest, right to the depths of her center. They all gasped as they felt their elemental centers reacting to the newly made center. This new center being added was their missing element, their missing link, their new brother.

Mother had chosen a Winter Seasonal. But what their centers told them of their new brother greatly confused them, but brought happy, shocked, tears to their eyes.

Winter Seasonal. Elemental Spirit. Jack Frost. Formally: Jackson Overland Pitchiner.

The tears she'd been holding finally fell. How was this possible? Autumn didn't know. But all she could say was: "He's alive." And that was all that seemed to matter to her. Jackson was alive. He was alive and he was their new brother. How it happened didn't seem to matter.