Hey guys! This is such a bittersweet time for me right now, but I'm only a few chapters away from the end! I've mostly finished the story it's now just a matter of editing and tweaking as I go along before publishing the last handful of chapters. I can't thank you readers enough for being awesome, seriously! I do not own ROTGs just my OCs
If Jack had to listen to Pitch aimlessly threaten someone's life one more time, he swore he would lose his mind and shoot ice at someone, Lynx or no Lynx. The first time Jack lost his temper at the Gobi Desert during this meeting, he slammed his staff to get everyone's attention. Naturally, a little bit of ice shot out of his staff and sure enough he thought he saw the sign of the apocalypse. That was the first—and really only—time that Pitch, Mother Nature, and the other Guardians all agreed on one thing unanimously...but why did it have to be about them yelling at him over the ice from his staff?
"Honestly, Frost, it's almost as if you have a suicide mission," Pitch sneered. "Bringing any form of water into the desert. Could you be any more daft if you tried?"
"While Pitch over here needs to work on his basic manners," Mother Nature countered, sending dagger eyes to the boogeyman, "You truly do need to better control your temper...especially if it results in giving Lynx any sort of advantage on getting to you. We let you sit in on this meeting, a luxury Amberlynn Sommers was not given, and there's a reason we chose this desert - for you - to have this meeting."
"Yeah it's so great being here for the last 3 weeks doing nothing but arguing while a sociopath is on the loose!" Jack pointed out. Sandy flashed symbols over his head in disagreement, pointing out the the earth is still at its normal, appropriate temperatures for each given region.
"Sandy makes excellent point," North stated. "Jack, if you have such difficulty listening in, why don't you do a perimeter sweep of our camp? Without the staff so you don't draw attention to yourself!"
After debating whether leaving the hideout (North can call it what he wants but Jack sees it for how it really is) was worth going without his staff, Jack caved and gave his staff to Mother Nature before flying off.
Amberlynn couldn't quite decide how she felt about this "vacation/prison" of hers. On the one hand she hasn't felt so relaxed in such a long time, but on the other it was starting to drive her crazy. She hadn't seen another spirit or human in more weeks than she remembers and she almost started to feel a little sympathy for Lynx...almost.
"I'm going crazy after a few weeks alone," she muttered to nobody, "I can't even begin to imagine what solitary confinement for 11 millennia would do to a spirit."
It surely does lead for one to go mad, does it not? a voice asked. Amberlynn whipped her head around in confusion. She had not sensed any intruder at Death Valley, yet why did she just hear a voice? It wasn't the voice of the Sun either, of that she was certain. Never mind the obvious difference that the Sun had a much more feminine voice than this one, but it also left a spirit with a light, warm feeling after talking to the Sun.
This left her insides feeling twisted, knotted, and...dare she say, cold. "No, it can't be, Sommers," she assured herself. "You're just starting to lose it because you need to talk to people again, soon." Despite what she kept telling herself, she slowly began dressing in much heavier layers than her shorts and tank top.
Starting with her lower extremities, she threw on some hosiery, a pair of leggings, a pair of thick, wool socks, and a heavy duty pair of jeans before lacing herself up in combat boots. In addition to the tank she was already wearing, she added a long-sleeved t-shirt, a green, plaid flannel shirt, a white vest, and—just to be thorough—the warmest winter coat she could find. After adding on a hat, scarf, and gloves, she couldn't help but laugh at herself.
"Oh, look at yourself, Amberlynn," she groaned. "You've never been this skittish or paranoid before. Ye need to calm down, Sommers. Could you even imagine all the unnecessary attention Pitch would be giving you over the fear you are radiating right now? Why, he'd just about have a conniption if he realized he wasn't here right now with ye."
That's roughly the idea, darling, that cold, creepy voice from nowhere said. Amberlynn could feel her heartbeat in her throat as her pulse raced faster and harder. Letting one hand carry a fireball slightly larger than that of a softball, she surveyed the land around her, taking note of every living creature within her radius.
"There's nary a living thing around me with any capacity for speech," she tried to assure herself, though the flame in her hand only grew a little bit larger. "You would know if he was coming this way."
Would you, though? the voice asked. My dear summer spirit, I am capable of doing so much more than your wildest dreams could even begin to imagine.
Amberlynn felt that cold feeling in her spine, although this time around she knew it wasn't from nerves, but rather it was much more literal and physical. How is he doing this?! she wondered. There's nothing here but some old cacti, dead shrubbery, a couple of locusts and scorpions, a badger, and…"Oh no!"
She looked into the sky and, though it was seemingly so small, there was indeed a single desert cloud floating up in the stratosphere. Before everything went dark, the voice whispered - actually whispered, rather than that creepy head trick he was doing - right in her ear, "Now you're starting to get it."