Aaaand here is part 2 of 'Of Elves and Staffs'. Thank you so much to those of you who followed/faved/reviewed. It means a lot to me.

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Of Elves and Staffs Part II

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The elves were avoiding him. Jack knew it. On a regular day, he would have run into dozens of them by now, but so far he hadn't even heard the jingle of their pointed hats. That was suspicious enough to make him believe they were responsible for the disappearance of his staff.

They'd better hope they hadn't done something to it.

It was Sandy who found the first clue – a smashed snow globe and an open door to the cupboard they were stored in. Of course, there were no elves in sight.

"This can't be good," Jack muttered, glaring at the broken globe as if it had personally hidden the elves and his staff from him.

And so the search continued. It was hours before Phil burst into the Globe Room, a panicked looking elf struggling in his grip.

"Ah, you found elf!" North proclaimed. The other Guardians hurried over, with Jack stepping to the front.

"Where's my staff?" he asked in a deceptively calm tone.

The elf's eyes widened as it caught sight of him, increasing its struggles.

"Wrong answer." Jack reached up and lightly touched one of the elf's legs, instantly coating the appendage in frost. "Next time it'll be the rest of you."

The elf stopped struggling, seeming to sigh as it hung its head. With a weak flap of its arm, it gestured out into the hallway. Following the elf, Tinsel's, guidance, the Guardians and Phil found themselves looking down once more on the remainders of the snow globe.

"Oh dear," Tooth murmured.

"Is there any way of knowing where the portal opened up?" Jack asked.

"Is broken, so likely accident," North hesitantly replied, Tinsel nodding frantically in agreement in the background. "So… no."

Jack groaned, banging his head against the wall. Abruptly, he turned, freezing Tinsel solid on his way out of the room.

"Where are you going?" Bunny asked, as he and the others hurried after the winter spirit.

"Well, I'm not going to find it standing around here," Jack called back, not bothering to stop or turn around. "So I'm going to go and ask around – maybe someone's seen it."

"And how do you plan to get around without the wind, mate?"

Jack stopped dead in his tracks. With another groan, he turned to the wall and repeated his earlier action. Tooth quickly flew up to him and grabbed his head.

"I'll send as many fairies as I can spare to go and look," she offered.

"Right," North added. "I will take sleigh and cover big open areas like deserts."

Sandy nodded, creating a symbol of big cities above his head before taking off in a dream-sand plane.

Bunny sighed, realizing he'd been left with the anxious winter spirit. "Ah, well, we'd better get cracking." With two thumps of his foot, a tunnel opened up and he jumped down.

"If anybody finds staff, come back here and send out the lights," North instructed.

"If those elves sent my staff into the ocean…" Jack left the sentence hanging as he jumped down the tunnel after Bunny.

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Predictably, the tunnel opened up by the lake in Burgess. Jack took one look at the golden leaves of the surrounding trees and made to jump back into the tunnel. But it had already closed up.

"I thought this'd be as good a place as any to start," Bunny explained, apparently not having noticed Jack's discomfort. "How'd I get roped into this?" he sighed.

"You know, I didn't ask you to help," Jack grumbled. He would've gone off on his own if the wind would still carry him without his staff. While he'd learned that the staff was merely a conduit, he didn't seem able to fly without it. Plus, it had sentimental value. All the more reason to get it back.

"Forget it," Bunny shook his head, sniffing the air. "This is probably gonna take a while, so we'd better get started."

They searched the woods of Burgess for hours without any luck. Bunny had been unable to ascertain a scent – probably because of all the trees around that were made from the same type of wood. Jack had been exceedingly nervous, too; constantly looking over his shoulder or up into the sky. Normally he would stay far away from autumn once it was in full-swing. He and Ceres were not on the best of terms… especially after that incident on Halloween over a century ago. But as time passed without any signs of the autumn spirit, Jack started to relax until he forgot about her completely, focusing on finding his lost staff.

It was then, of course, that she decided to show up.

At first it didn't seem like she'd noticed them, and Jack was quick to hide behind Bunny – much to the Guardian of Hope's protest.

"What are you doin', Frostbite?" he frowned, crossing his arms.

"Shh!" Jack gestured frantically, peering past Bunny to Ceres, who was scattering leaves around with the wind.

Bunny followed his line of sight, his frown deepening. "It's just Ceres. What's the problem?"

Bunny had not heeded his advice of being quiet, and so Ceres, at the mention of her name, turned. Her placid expression quickly turned to anger and disbelief as her eyes landed on Jack. "You!" she raged, and Jack winced. "Jack Frost! You have some nerve coming here in the middle of autumn!"

Now Bunny just looked confused. Jack stepped out from behind the Pooka – no sense hiding anymore. And he had never been one to just take without giving. "You do realize this is my home, right?"

"Not in autumn, it's not," she glared. "And since when have you two been on such good terms?" she asked, gesturing to Bunny. "I mean, I heard you became a Guardian – Mother knows how that happened – but I didn't expect anything else to change."

"Now wait just a second," Bunny interrupted, taking a step forward. Jack was quick to cut him off, holding out a hand to placate the overgrown rabbit.

"Look, I'm only here to look for something. We'll stay out of your way and be gone before you know it."

Ceres narrowed her eyes. "Fine. But you'd better be gone by the time I get back, Frostbite." Without another word, a wind of dancing leaves picked up and carried the plump spirit away.

Jack released a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Bunny asked.

"Ah, it's better just to give her what she wants… she can get really scary when she's mad," Jack shrugged.

"I take it you know this from experience." It was clear from his tone that Bunny did not approve.

Jack grinned sheepishly. "We'd better get back to searching. I really don't want to be here when she gets back."

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