The Boy in the Tower
by Sirenfox
In Which Aster is Ambushed by a Snowball
Jack blinked down at where the foreign creature had vanished, mouth hanging open in surprise. Did that really just happen?
If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes he never would have believed it. It wasn't every day that the earth yawned open and swallowed someone whole.
Wind gently set the boy back on his feet, ruffling his hair affectionately as Jack dropped to his knees where the stranger had vanished. In the their stead was a bright red flower, which was extremely out of place and as obvious as a drop of blood on snow.
Two possibilities remained clear to the boy; either something nefarious had befallen the human and this was left as a marker of the tragedy, or this was the human's doing.
It seemed impossible, and he knew human's seldom had magic of their own. Yet, there it was. The beautiful drop of crimson left to mark the human's departure. And magic would certainly explain the stranger's presence. He'd lived in this same Tower for over three hundred years and no one had ever visited before. The only possible way for someone to locate him passed his father's protections was through magic.
Strong magic.
The thought excited and frightened him, a strange combination of emotions that left Jack a little dazed. His father had always stressed how dangerous the outside world was, but how could someone evil make something so…magical?
It was confusing to think about, so Jack pushed the thoughts away and went about collecting this new addition to his growing collection.
When morning came the next day, Jack was almost bouncing off the walls he was so excited. Sure, if his father ever discovered what was going on he would flip. But that was why he wasn't going to find out.
He'd come to a few conclusions during the night, the first and foremost among them was this: If a flower showed up every time that man left then that meant he'd been here before...multiple times. Which meant he might come back. Today, even.
Lightning sparked through Jack's veins as he contemplated everything that meant. It was new and fun, and Jack wasn't about to let anyone ruin it for him. Even himself. He wasn't going to sabotage this; he wasn't going to jinx it. He was going to enjoy it for as long as it lasted.
He would have to make sure the stranger was long gone by the time Pitch returned, but Jack wasn't too worried about it, he still had six days until his father's next visit. Plenty of time.
He still didn't know who - or what - his unexpected visitor was (although he strongly suspected he was human in origin), but that hardly mattered. All Jack cared about right now was that he was different.
If the man was capable of creating something as amazing as those flowers then what else could he do? Jack was brimming with curiosity as he impatiently awaited his unwitting guest.
The stranger did not disappoint, and in no time at all Wind was pulling Jack in the direction of the man's entrance. It didn't take Jack long to locate the man, he had chosen to reappear almost exactly where he had vanished from not even a few hours earlier.
Jack sat back and watched as the ground split open and Jack's unnamed guest hopped out, tall ears held erect and nose twitching busily. He stood to his full height as he surveyed the area with sharp green eyes as if he expected to be attacked any moment.
It was such a ridiculously heroic pose that Jack couldn't help himself. He lobbed a solid white snowball in the human's smug, pompous mug. One moment the stranger was standing all straight and noble like a knight straight out of a fairy tail, and the next his head jerked back as he was attacked by a fistful of snow.
Jack's breath caught in his throat and he promptly dove behind the nearest possible cover, a tall crumbling pillar that looked more likely to fall on him than protect him. Wind howled with laughter, whispering to the boy colorful descriptions of the stranger's reaction.
Jack wasn't hearing a word of it; his breathing was coming in short gasps- he couldn't get enough air into his straining lungs. Why would he do that? He would be so mad!
Jack's eyes wouldn't focus on anything in front of him giving everything a fuzzy sort of quality, and there was a rushing in his ears, was that what was making Wind hard to understand? All his muscles clenched painfully in his growing distress and he was distantly aware of the sharp sting of his fingernails biting into the palms of his hand. He couldn't really concentrate on that though, not with his mind racing, trying to process his incredible stupidity. What had he been thinking? The man would hate him for sure. He'd find Jack and he'd make him pay. He had no reason to curb his anger, like Father did when he was angry. Jack would deserve it. Father had told him over and over to control himself. He knew jokes like that only got him in trouble, but he'd done it anyway.
He had chased off his new companion before he'd even had a chance to meet him. Tears gathered in the boy's wide blue eyes as he stared blankly into the distance completely lost in his own mind.
Behind him, on the other side of the safety pillar, he could hear the deep timber of a low voice muttering obscenities under its breath. It was a strange sensation to Jack, the voice reaching him through a great distance, or perhaps it was all underwater? He couldn't seem to concentrate on it properly and although he heard every word: "Ah, crikey. Tha's cold." His frayed mind couldn't seem to put meaning to the syllables.
Despite him not being able to understand the stranger, Jack latched onto his voice automatically, using it as an anchor. It wasn't much, but it was enough for Jack. He focused all his scattered attention on the low continuous growl of words. Listening to the human's soothing voice and strange accent finally allowed Jack to begin to relax, his breathing evening out. Soon the meaning of the words were even beginning to filter into his tired mind.
Once Jack was back in control, he couldn't help but pivot and peek around the pillar. Heart racing he took care that he stayed well out of sight, unsure if the human would lash out the moment he laid eyes on him or not.
The human was brushing snow out of his fur, bright green eyes blazing with inner fire. Jack swallowed heavily as he felt the uncontrollable urge to stoke that fire. He wondered what he would do, it couldn't possibly be as bad as when Father was angry.
Was it a good idea?
No.
Was he going to do it anyway?
Hell yes. It would be loads of fun. Even if it ended in pain he'd already managed to chase the guy off already, so what was the harm?
While the human was distracted trying to dust the snow off his ruff, Jack summoned up his ice waving it forwards into battle.
Slow and steady was the name of the game and the stranger never even saw it coming…literally. The man went to step forwards only to have ice encase his feet pinning them to the ground. The human flailed wildly, pin-wheeling his arms to keep from face planting into the harsh ground.
Jack couldn't have stopped the burst of triumphant cackles from escaping even if he had wanted to. It was just so funny, even when the man regained his balance and his ears drooping slightly with his utter relief.
The stranger's whole body went rigid at the sound, his ears twitching as his head snapped up. Emerald eyes pierced through the gloom and stared directly at the place Jack was attempting to hide.
Jack swallowed heavily as he was pinned in place by those eyes. The human was staring so intently that Jack felt his breath catch in his throat. The man seemed surprised to see him, as if he had expected someone else to be standing there. The world seemed to have slowed to less than a crawl before it all came crashing down.
Jack sucked in a gulp of air, eyes almost painfully wide as he stared back into the stranger's face. This was it, he was going to blow up at Jack and then leave. The human opened his mouth to speak, but Jack couldn't take it.
With a quick leap into the air, Wind was whisking him away, back to the safety, the normality, of his tower. He landed lightly, at the top of the stairs immediately begins to stalk across the expanse of the balcony as he spat abuse at himself. "Coward." He hissed as he paced on the balcony. He was so stupid; you never run from a punishment. That only made it worse when Father caught you.
Maybe the man had given up? It wasn't worth the trouble of climbing the entire tower just to get at him, right? Father only did it because Jack was his son. Jack was his blood. He was duty bound to take care of Jack, even if that meant punishing him.
Jack had no such connection to the stranger. And why was he so disappointed with that thought? The man hated him. Jack didn't need to suffer two punishments in as many days.
It was better for everyone if he left before Jack could get attached.
***Aster***
A boy.
It was a boy, barely in his teens. His cheerful expression and laughing azure eyes were burned into Aster's head, and so was his obvious fear.
What in Mim was a boy doing here? There was no way he could be with Pitch, not with a laugh like that. It was pure joy. Full of innocent and life.
That begged the question: was he here under duress? Aster wouldn't put kit-napping passed the boogieman, but that didn't quite fit either. Not when they boy could simply fly away.
Aster had more questions than answers and only one way to get those questions answered. He would just have to ask the boy.
First, though, Aster would have to catch him. Not an easy feat when the boy had fled to the top of a massive ice encrusted tower and Aster was stuck to the cobbled floor by three inch thick ice boots.
Aster heaved a put-upon sigh as he stared down at his already numb feet. Normally he would open a tunnel, but that was impossible with his feet immobilized. He couldn't use his strength to break free since there was no way to get the leverage to just break out. His next choice of action would be to melt the ice away, but he didn't think that was possible in this place where the sun never touched.
He stared down at his feet for a long moment before sighing heavily as he pulled out one of his boomerangs and crouched down to work.
It took a few minutes just chipping away at the ice but he did manage to shatter it into pieces. He kicked the sections of ice away from his numb paws and headed towards the long, winding stairs.
Frost clung to each step but Aster could hardly feel it at all, which he considered to be both a blessing and a curse. About halfway up the tower the frost turned to ice, it hadn't completely masked the stairs but it did make climbing them more of a challenge. Aster quickly took to all four paws, his claws gripping the ice more securely.
Each step he took brought a shiver to the pooka, sure that this would be the step that would turn the whole staircase back into a slide. Therefore it came as a surprise when his head rose above the stairs and he came face to face with wide blue eyes and a shock of wild snow-white hair.
The boy yelped, falling back on his bum; his staff automatically slashed forward accompanied by a flash of blue-white light that struck the ice covered stone beneath their feet.
Aster's green eyes darted down just in time to see the stairs disappear under a thick slab of ice similar to the one he'd encountered the day before. "Ah, crickey." He gasped right before gravity took hold and he went sailing right off the edge of the tower. His paws scrambled for the balcony edge, but it was too late and the pooka found himself taking the fast way to the bottom of the tower. And this time there was no ice-net to catch him.
There was no possible way this would end well. This was it. He was gonna die. The ground was racing up towards him and there wasn't anything he could do to stop it. A terrified sort of acceptance filled the pooka, this wasn't the way he'd imagined going.
Then something unexpected happened, it felt as if someone had grabbed him around the middle and yanked backwards. It was very disorienting for the pooka, the magic that had grappled him from his impending embrace with the earth was the complete opposite of his own and so powerful it was almost suffocating.
He was jerked backwards hard enough to give him whiplash, but he was no longer falling to his death. In fact, he wasn't falling at all. He hung a good three feet above the ground, still strung up in the magical net that had stopped his fall.
He assumed the magic belonged to the boy, it had the same cool winter feel as the icy tower and the frosted stone, but there was something about it that felt...off. He couldn't explain how it was different other then the fact that whatever it was had allowed him to levitate a good distance off the ground.
He'd never heard of that type of magic before and it was as intriguing as it was terrifying.
Then whatever invisible force had snatched him from certain doom, promptly dropped him. He fell face first into a pile of fluffy white snow that he would swear had not been there seconds before.
He was shivering violently when he crawled out of the snowdrift and stumbled back onto his numb paws. He couldn't have told you if he was shaking because of the cold, or his near death experience.
A quick glance around showed the boy, he was hovering not far from Aster, concern plastered on his elfin features and his pale fingers were wrapped so tight around his shepards crook that the pooka was surprised it didn't snap right in two.
"It's awrigh', mate. Ahm fine, lil bi' shaken up, sure, bu' no damage done." He stuttered out. He was aiming for comforting, but he wasn't too sure he'd managed that. The boy certainly didn't look any less worried, but he was a little too shaken up to really deal with that properly, "Ahm gonna head back ta me Warren fer a bit 'o rest." He informed the boy, "We'll have a bit of 'a chinwag tomarra' awrigh'?"
The boy blinked slowly, his bright blue eyes still impossibly wide, before nodding his head. It was a jerky movement and looked almost painful, but it was an agreement so he'd take it.
Okay, so I know someone somewhere is going to be confused by this. I'll explain: Aster is a Pooka, I've not changed that, but Jack doesn't know that, he thinks pooka are monsters so naturally his first thought isn't pooka he defaults to human not really knowing that humans look...well...like him. He's never met another human, Just Pitch and Pitch isn't human either, not exactly.
I hope that explains some things. I'll admit, this isn't my favorite chapter, but it is really important. And with the next chapter we will see some actual interaction between our pairing. I'll try to update in a couple weeks and I'm sorry for the long wait but as I'm sure your aware that when it rains...it pours.
Review! Because I love hearing from you.
