The Boy in the Tower

by Sirenfox

Chapter 8: In Which North Gets Involved


Aster wasn't sure exactly what he would do once he got to North's workshop. He wasn't even sure where to begin. All of this was so strange, and he wasn't sure his old friend would even believe him.

Jack's soul deep fear of the Guardians had shaken him, and he wasn't sure what to do about it.

He found North hiding away in his personal workshop sculpting a sample toy out of a block of ice. Not so unusual a sight, North spent most of his days tucked away from the world working on new designs.

Aster hung out in the open doorway just watching his friend work while he sorted through his thoughts and tried to decide how to go about explaining things.

North spun his chair around to grab a cookie, sitting on a tray, situated on a table just out of his reach. Cornflower blue eyes locked on the pooka, the human freezing like a kit caught with his paw in the chocolate dish.

Aster arched an eyebrow at the man's guilty reaction. He idly wondered what North had done to warrant such a reaction to his presence, but it wasn't important.

At least not right now.

North quickly pulled himself together and bounded to his feet, arms outstretched in greeting, "Bunny!" He exclaimed in his usual boisterous way. Before Aster could duck out of the way North grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him into a bone crushing hug. "It's been too long old friend, what brings you to Pole?"

He pulled back and narrowed his eyes at the pooka, quickly scanning him for injuries. "Is still close to Easter, you should be sleeping. What is wrong?" Trust North to get right down to it.

Aster's ears drooped and he closed his eyes, trying to sort through his muddled thoughts, "Ah can't jus' come ta visit me ol' friend?" He asked not at all suspiciously. North stared at him, unimpressed, "Fine. Ah was just wonderin'…You ever heard of a wind spirit?"

"Ya talking to Northwind again?" North asked with a frown. Northwind was a winter spirit who spent most of his time whipping up blizzards and white outs. He was a cold cruel man that Aster did not get along with at all. He was obviously not playing with a lonely boy locked away in a tower.

Besides despite the man's name, he was a winter spirit, not a wind spirit. Aster had never heard of such a thing before his talk with Jack. Wind was just an element that came attached to certain aspects of the weather. Seasonal spirits, such as Winter and fall, could control the winds, as well as Storm spirits

"Nevermind that." Aster grunted, It was a stupid question anyway. One he knew the answer of before he'd even posed it. "have ya heard anythin' from Pitch lately?" He asked next as North led him from the room. North paused upon hearing the name before changing his direction towards the Globe room. It was where they usually discussed anything relating to Pitch so Aster wasn't all that surprised. "E' hasn't been kitnappin' again, has 'e?" He asked. It was a perfectly reasonable question as Pitch had tried to steal their believers before.

North obviously didn't seem to think it was such a normal question if his reaction was anything to go by. The large man came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the hallway, forcing Aster to slow as well as he shot a worried look at the pooka over his shoulder. "You are hiding something." He said astutely, "What have you found and why do you hide it?" He demanded, turning to face the pooka and crossing his arms over his broad chest in a way that was meant to be intimidating.

It wasn't very effective.

Aster growled at himself, he was trying to honor his promise to Jack but he was obviously too upset to hide anything with any sort of proficiency right now.

He dragged a hand down his face in frustration. He had promised Jack that he wouldn't…but Aster was clearly out of his depth.

He needed help. That was the whole reason he'd come to the Pole in the first place, and Mim knew it had to be bad if he was seeking North for help.

"We messed up, North." He relented, "Yer rigt', ah did find somethin'. Easter Mornin' 'ah stumbled across ruins. A castle." Obviously that wasn't the big important reveal since there were a multitude of abandoned castles all over the place in both the human realm and the spirit realm. But Aster found himself reluctant to go on. He really didn't want to break Jack's trust.

"Thers a boi, livin' there. It's nau' good, mate. E's as skinny as a rake an' starved fer attention."

North was frowning now, "E's alone? Where is this castle?" He demanded, marching into the globe room and storming over to the Glove, "Show me."

Aster winced. That he wasn't willing to give, "E's somewhere in Europe." He told him, "But e's nau' in the human world, nor the spirit world really. E's somewhere else."

It sounded crazy. Aster knew that, but that didn't make it any less true.

North turned to him with a frown. "What do you mean, somewhere else. There is nowhere Else."

Aster's whiskers twitched as he glared back at North, "Ah meant exactly what ah said. E's not 'ere, nor there. E's somewhere Between. Caught in a web of shadows."

"Pitch." North growled automatically. It was like pulling teeth with the man.

"Yea." Aster agreed through gritted teeth, "Boi think's 'e's is pa." Just saying that made Aster's lip curl up into a snarl.

"Pitch has only one child." North murmured in confusion, "We would know of any others."

"Yer righ'. Pitch'd gloat. So why hasn't e?"

"We must get rid of boy before he grows too strong. We must-"

Aster leapt at North, "No!" He yelled in the man's face as he slammed him against the Globe controls. "You will not hurt 'im." He growled protectively. Jack's wide terrified eyes flashed through his mind and that heavy feeling of guilt in the pit of his stomach made itself known once more.

North was unfazed, "He cannot be allowed to join Pitch. He is already too strong. We cannot allow him to tip de balance." He told Aster firmly.

"An we won't." Aster agreed, wrestling his instincts back under his control and stepping back to a reasonable distance. "Jack's nau' like 'im. E's innocent."

"He is Pitch's son." North countered harshly.

"Ahm not so sure 'bout that.'" Aster said as he turned back to the globe, missing North's knowing look. "E's nothing' like 'im. E's got hair as white as a snowflake, an' eyes cut right outta the midsummer sky. E's pale as moonlight an' small as a kit." when he turned to face North again, the big man had a strange look on his face. Aster ignored that too, he'd grown accustomed to ignoring things that he didn't want to acknowledge, or think about.

"He could take after mother." North suggested, just to see Aster's reaction.

The pooka did not disappoint. He snarled angrily spinning on his heel and stalking away from North, much to the other man's amusement. Amusement he quickly smothered so as not to antagonize the pooka unduly.

Aster snarled to himself as he paced the floor, Jack could not be related to Pitch. He just couldn't be. "Pitch stole 'im." He growled, stomping back over to North, "He stole im and is keepin' im locked away, too scared outta his mind ta' leave."

"What?" North asked baffled.

Aster huffed, "Yeah, Pitch's got 'im thinkin' we're the bad-un's. Think's we're gonna take 'is magic, 'er eat 'im, er somethin'." He was back to his depressed drooping now, his ears slicked back.

He wasn't used to people being afraid of him. He didn't like it. Except for Pitch of course.

"Why would we do that?" North asked perplexed.

"Dunno." Aster grunted, "But 'e did and Jack begged me nau' ta tell…us." Aster's face screwed up at the end of the sentence, as if his own words had betrayed him.

"He does not know you?" North asked dubiously, after all, it was hard to mistake anyone for the Easter Bunny, he was literally one-of-a-kind.

"Course not!. Ah couldn't tell im. Nau' after he started hyperventilating on me."

"Dis is no good." North grumbled under his breath turning to one of the floor to ceiling bookshelves that lined one wall of the room, "I will start checking for missing children."

"Uh…ya might wanna start about three hundred years ago."

North's alarmed blue eyes peered at Aster from over his wide shoulder. Aster just shrugged helplessly.

Aster wasn't too terribly surprised when their search proved fruitless. As alarming as it was, he'd been expecting similar results.

Somehow Jack Frost's disappearance had gone completely undetected. Pitch also hadn't been doing anything overly suspicious.

Unless you counted his lack of suspicious behavior, which in hindsight should have been suspicious.

At some point during the night North had called in the help of some of the yetis. They were spread out across the floor with piles of books stacked between them on every available surface. The added eyes didn't seem to be helping though.

"Nothin." Aster growled, slamming the book he'd been searching closed.

North sighed, setting his own material aside. "No missing children match boy's description." He agreed. "And none of the winter spirit's are unaccounted for. It's like the boy doesn't even exist." It was both frustrating and disheartening to discover.

How had no one missed him? It didn't make sense. Surely someone somewhere knew the kid had disappeared.

And that thought brought up even more concerning questions. Such as why that person hadn't reported it.

"We will find answers." North told him comfortingly, "Tomorrow we will continue search. Starting with Snow Queen."

"Good idea." Aster agreed heavily. The boy was a winter spirit, so he should fall under her jurisdiction. If anyone knew him, it would be her. He was already going over the conversation in his head when Jack's hopeful face drifted though his mind, causing Aster to hesitate. "Strewth." He bit out, "Ah promised the kid ah'd be back tomorrow." He paced across the room, torn between his promise to go back and his growing determination to rescue him.

"Course we go back." North's booming voice interrupted Aster's train of thought prompting him to spin around in alarm, "We cannot just leave him with Pitch. We will bring him to Pole."

"No!" Aster yelped frantic, "Ye aren't seeing him. Not yet. An' ya aren't kitnapping him either." When North puffed up indignantly Aster continued to drive the point home. "E think's Pitch is 'is pa. Course 'e would think it's kitnapping. We can' just take im. An ya will need te' stay away from him 'er he'll never trust us again. This is too complicated, we have te' take things slow."

North deflated, "You are correct. I will prepare for visit to Winter Palace we will leave when you get back."

Aster was hesitant to leave Jack alone for the four days the Journey would take, one day there and one back, and that's not counting however long it would take to talk to the Queen. Hopefully they would be granted an audience and have their answers in just a couple hours. He didn't want to waste anymore time then absolutely necessary. He couldn't just send North either, he was the one who found Jack, he would need to make the inquiries himself. Besides he'd have better luck than North with his patchy knowledge.

He said goodbye to North and headed directly back to the tower. He needed to get this over with as soon as possible.

When Aster showed up at the shadowed courtyard below the ice tower, Jack was nowhere to be found.

Not that Aster was expecting the kid to be waiting impatiently for him to return or anything. In fact, Jack was probably still up in that tower, tucked in his nice comfy bed. So, Naturally, Aster headed up the stairs to go look for him.

Only, the tower was just as empty as the courtyard. No Jack anywhere in sight.

He wasn't in the sitting room of the tower either, but that wan'st unexpected. So Aster started poking around trying to locate the kid. There were two doors leading off the main room as well as an open archway that led into the small kitchen. The kid had to be in one of those two rooms. He didn't want to disturb the kid's sleep, but he also couldn't wait too long so he settled for gently knocking on the doors, hoping the sound would alert Jack to his presence.

When nothing happened Aster slowly creaked open the first door. The room on the other side was not what Aster had expected. As he stood there gaping at the walls and walls of shelves covered in old dusty toys the door swung open the rest of the way and allowed the pooka to see that this trend continued on into that part of the room as well. Bunny had wandered into the room as he glanced around. This room spoke volumes about Jack's life in this tower, and it just seeing it tugged on his heart strings.`

It was a creepy, less colorful copy of Norths entire workshop contained in a single room. Most of the toys, Aster noted, were designed for a child much younger than Jack. Obviously selected by someone with no idea of what would keep a teenage boy entertained.

That was how Jack found him, ten minutes later as he sauntered back inside with an armful of colorful flowers, staring dejectedly up at all the toys in the spare room.

He froze seeing Bunny waiting for him before dropping the flowers and leaping at the human. "You came back!" He cheered, causing Aster to turn just in time to catch the spirit around the middle.

"Ah said I would, didn't I?" He answered with a crooked grin before catching sight of the items spilling across floor. "What's all this?" He asked as he set the excitable young man back on his feet.

Jack glanced over his shoulder, mildly confused before spotting his abandoned flora scattered all over the floor.

"Ah, bloody hell." Jack cursed, darting forward and leaving Aster to watch him. Had Jack slipped into an English accent there? Aster shook himself, of course he had. Three hundred years with only Pitch for company, the kid was lucky that was the only thing that had rubbed off on him.

"What are all these flowers for?" Aster couldn't really see Pitch decorating the tower with bright pink and yellow flowers. Where had Jack even found them? Aster hadn't seen even a hint of a wilting blossom, much less such vibrant patches of color such a fully bloomed flower would provide.

"I found them in the castle. I couldn't just leave them there for father to find." Jack explained as he scooped up the flowers. "They're so pretty, I couldn't let him just destroy them. Hey, Wind, do you mind sweeping this up for me? Thanks."

The wind ruffled his hair affectionately before swiftly blowing the remaining dirt back out the open door.

Bunny followed Jack through the archway into a small kitchen and watched the boy stuff the flowers into any empty container he could find.

"Here." He said as he shoved a couple chipped teacups full of dirt and red petals into Bunny's paws. "Carry those for me." He collected the remaining makeshift planters and headed out…the window.

The kid just wiggled right out the window and scurried up the outer wall like a squirrel.

Aster didn't move for one long moment, gaping at the open window in surprise. Jack's head popped back into view, hanging upside down on the other side of the window, "What are you waiting for Bunny, hurry up."

Grumbling to himself, Aster wormed his way out the window, mildly concerned he would get stuck halfway out. Luckily that didn't happen and he was able to follow Jack up over the lip of the roof and onto a small balcony that had been hidden from below.

Jack had been making his own little garden out of sight of Pitch. It wasn't much and the older flowers were already beginning to wilt, but it sparked a warm glow of affection for the lonely boy in Aster's chest.

He set the flower-teacups down with the rest. "It's amazin' Jack." He trailed a furry finger over a wilting yellow bloom, he could feel it's thirst as if it was his own and it occurred to him that Jack might not know how to take care of them.

"Do ya' have some water for 'em?" He asked.

Jack looked confused by the question, but didn't let that slow him down. Beaming the boy held one pale hand out, palm up. The boy's fingers began to ice over, frost crawling down to center of his palm where a slightly blue ice cube quickly took shape.

Aster's green eyes floated up to lock with dancing blue diamonds. "Nau' really what ah had in mind, mate. But it should work." He plucked the tiny blue ice chip and set it inside the fist china planter. "Wanna magic me up some more?"

Jack did so with no complaint, and in no time at all he had a handful of glittering ice sitting in his hand.

Aster set a single piece with each flower explaining to the boy as he did so. "When the ice melts the' flowers'll drink up the' water. Ye'll need ta' do this every day."

Jack nods, bright eyes tracking every move Bunny made as he soaked up the information as if he were one of those thirsty little flowers.

Bunny glanced up at the gloomy sky, a sigh slipping from his lips. "Jacky, it wont help fer long." He admitted reluctantly. Jack blinks in confusion, the smile slipping from his face.

"What do you mean?" The boy asked, concern painting his voice as he looked over his carefully crafted garden.

Aster stood and moved to the boy's side placing one large paw on the boy's shoulder prompting him to look up. "Ahm sorry, mate, but plants need sunlight ta live. That's how they make their food."

Tears collected on the boy's lashes and Aster's heart ached for him, "So they're starving?" He asked innocently, "But…the water?"

Aster shook his head sadly, "Water will help a li'l. But without the' sun they'll die. Ahm real sorry, Frostbite. Ah wish there was something ah could do ta change that."

The boy sniffled, but the tears Aster could see swimming in his blue eyes never fell.

The boy looked away, turning his back on his guest. He shrugged his shoulders in a forcefully nonchalant manner that really fooled no one. "They're just flowers." He said drolly.

But Aster could see passed the unconcerned mask to the hurting boy beneath. Jack may pretend like he didn't care, but care he did. And very deeply.

"I'll see if ah can find anything that could help." Aster promised, unable to help himself. He hated how the boy was withdrawing from him and would do anything he could to change that.

Jack turned to smile thinly at him, "Don't worry about it. It's not that important."

Aster let it go, for now. He followed the frost spirit back down into the tower, dreading the conversation he knew he had to have with the boy. He couldn't delay it much longer. But he really didn't like the idea of being gone for so long. He was also not looking forward to explaining his extended absence to the boy.

But he couldn't keep putting it off and the sooner he left the sooner he could get back.

"Ah gotta get going, Frostbite." He told the boy sorrowfully. Just as he'd expected, the winter spirit wilted, turning large sad eyes up at him. Aster had to take a steadying breath before continuing. "Ahm not gonna be able ta' get back fer a couple days."

"You're not coming back?" Jack asked, his voice small and broken. The exact opposite of what Aster wanted. He didn't want to heap this on the kid's shoulders so soon after telling him all the work he'd done trying to save all those flowers was a waste and they would die anyway. He could see it all dragging the boy down, a heavy weight that he should never be forced to bear.

Aster was by his side in moments, kneeling down in front of him and resting a heavy paw on the youth's bony knee. "No Jack. Ah'm coming back. Ah just got some business at take care 'a until then. If ah could get out 'a it ah would, but it's important. As soon as I'm back ah'll come see ya. Ah promise. A week, at most."

"A week? Really?" Jack asked skeptically.

A week really did seem like a very long time, especially when they had only just met and he was the boy's only link to the outside world. It was obvious the boy didn't think he was coming back. There wasn't much Aster could do except prove him wrong.

"Promise. Sooner if I can manage it." Aster assured him.

"Alright." Jack said, plastering on a fake smile that made Aster's heart hurt to see. He bounced to his feet and led the way back down the stairs.

Aster followed him down with a heavy heart. Part of him was afraid of leaving Jack alone for so long. What if Pitch moved him again?

It was a ridiculous thing to worry about. Jack had said he'd been there for three hundred years. Pitch wasn't going to just move him without warning. But what if Pitch learned he was visiting Jack? There was no telling what he would do, and moving Jack would be the least of their concerns if that were to happen. Pitch could lash out at Jack and that was the last thing Aster wanted to happen,

If Pitch did move Jack, Aster silently vowed, he would never stop looking.

But that wasn't going to happen because the boogieman had no idea Aster knew Jack even existed. Aster would come back and Jack would still be there, waiting with that mischievous little half smile on his lips.

"I"ll see you when you get back. I guess." Jack said once they reached the ground. The boy was feigning nonchalance pretty strongly, but Aster could see right through his thin masks to the lonely scared boy within.

The urge to hug the boy was strong, and he only just restrained himself. Jack was by no means ready for that amount of physical contact, no matter how much he needed it. "A week." Aster agreed. He hesitated a moment longer before opening a tunnel to North's workshop. "Don't forget ta' water the flowers." Then he dropped down the hole before he could change his mind.

Jack's large sad azure eyes haunted him all the way to the North Pole.

Aster steadily ignored the fact that he hadn't felt even a sliver of Hope from the boy, who thought Aster was abandoning him.

Aster stormed into the workshop cursing like a sailor and in a mood so foul even the happy-go-lucky elves stayed well out of his way.

He found North puttering around one of the Ice rooms and growled out a terse, "Let's go."

He wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.

He didn't even argue as North led the way to the stables. "A week." Was all he said and even he didn't know if he was talking to himself, North, or that small pixie like boy trapped in a cocoon of shadows.


I hope you all enjoyed this, and I'm sorry, again, for the long wait. I will try to get the next chapter out in the next week or two.

Please Review! I love reading about what you think about the story and all your idea's about where it's going.