FAIRY LANDSCAPER
All of the tooth fairies were buzzing. Granted, they were always buzzing and twittering about many a thing (which changed by the day), but there was a special wave of excited gossip this past week, for it was spring- which meant it was fairy garden season again!
Flying all over the place to collect teeth meant seeing a lot of different things, even if the fairies were usually too busy to stop and look well. Hence why the tiny fairy gardens that made every fairy passing by stop and investigate when they spotted them were such a buzz. The fairies would coo to one another over how cute the tiny gardens were, and compare the fairy gardens they had found to other fairies' finds. It had almost become a contest, to see who could find the most without getting distracted enough to get scolded by Tooth. It was hard in the spring, though– past the last big snow and just as the plants were reawakening was the time that the most new ones seemed to pop up!
Baby Tooth was on her way out of the Guardians' specially loved town of Burgess, carrying a beautifully flossed incisor from a little girl who was nearly too old to believe in the Guardians, but not quite. She was humming a fluting little tune to herself when she spotted a patch of white and blue under one of the trees in the park and squeaked happily, making a sidetrack to the color. She flitted around her favorite boy excitedly, stopping to hover in front of his face.
Jack Frost (for who else would it be) laughed in surprise and brought his hand up to let the tiny fairy sit on its cupped surface. "Well, hi, Baby Tooth, what are you up to?"
Baby Tooth chirruped and waved the shining white tooth at him proudly, and he grinned. "Ah, you're right, she did brush that one well! Tooth will be thrilled."
The little fairy looked curiously at the pile of twigs and bark that Jack had collected and squeaked an inquiry about them.
"Oh, this?" Jack looked down. "I'm making a fairy garden. I like to do it in public places where the kids can find them."
Baby Tooth cheeped exuberantly and took to the air again in excitement– she had guessed that Jack might have been the builder of the fairies' favorite novelties after finding one in the winter that was carved from ice and built inside a detailed snow wall.
Jack laughed and looked a little sheepish. "Yeah, you solved the mystery, a lot of them are me. A lot of them are humans, too– they're the ones who gave me the first idea. Actually, I think it was a trio of siblings who I first saw making them, and it was such a fun idea that I had to make one. I've made a bunch over the years–I started off just making little pieces of furniture out of ice in the winter, both carved and with my magic, then branched out to using more other natural materials with ice only to hold them together." He looked down at the pile of twigs and leaves he had collected and picked up an acorn and a medium-sized twig. "Eventually I got better and challenged myself not to use any ice at all for some of them. I found a few types of berries that make a good glue when mashed together, and river clay can work well too– though both of those washed off in the rain. Using grasses to tie them together usually works the best if I can avoid breaking them, which I've gotten pretty good at– finally," he laughed, using a strip of grass to tie the acorn to his twig in demonstration.
Baby Tooth flapped her hands in happy adoration at the charming creation Jack had finished making while he talked (a little dock made of tied twigs to set at the edge of the tiny puddle pond he had ringed pebbles around), but tilted her head with a curious chirp.
"Why?" Jack repeated. He started to say something before breaking off and holding up a finger in a wait gesture, a grin spreading across his face. A little girl was skipping (or galloping– it was an odd flouncing run that Baby Tooth didn't have a good name for) ahead of her mother, who was walking at a much slower pace with a baby boy– who was just getting his first beautiful front teeth in!- nestled against her hip.
The little girl laughed and rammed to a stop against a tree a few yards away from the one Baby Tooth and Jack were settled under, gasping when her eyes landed on the tree Jack was crouched next to. "Mommy! Mommy, look!"
The girl's mother laughed a little breathlessly. "Hold on, Haley, I'm coming." She jogged over to where her daughter was crouched and looked under the little girl's chubby pointing finger. "Oh, how pretty– somebody made a cute little garden!"
"It's a fairy garden!" the girl breathed in wide-eyed wonder and delight. "Can we take a picture to show Daddy, Mommy?" Haley begged, bouncing a little in excitement as she crouched next to the garden. "Awww, it's so cute!"
Jack smiled, his blue eyes sparkling happily as the mother laughed and struggled to juggle the gurgling baby while she dug for her phone, her daughter energetically pointing out all the little details of the garden as she saw them. "That's why," he said. "Maybe I'm encroaching on North a little, but the wonder of finding something pretty and unexpected is one of the most fun things for any age, especially when it's unlooked for."
Baby Tooth melted a little at her boy's sweet heart. She landed on his hoodie and hugged his cheek (as best she could reach) to show her affection as she surveyed the tiny garden Jack had created.
It really was too adorable. Jack had used some sort of fuzzy leaves to make a carpet against the damp earth, surrounding the rock-ringed tiny pond. The front of the garden was a quaint little fence of woven twigs with a little bark gate in the middle, which was held open by a smooth rock bearing the words Welcome to the Garden! There were several lantern posts placed throughout the small space, made from shiny acorns attached to twig posts by the grass ties Jack had been telling her about. There was a tiny bark bench set near the pond, bookended on either side with little pots of vivid moss made from short lengths of hollowed out branches, the bench itself holding an acorn cap bowl filled with a few tiny wintergreen berries. Jack had the whole whimsical garden tucked between two of the old tree's tall, moss-covered roots, giving it a feeling of secrecy and excitement that delighted Baby Tooth.
And, clearly, Hayley and her family.
"Well, you've caught me," Jack laughed over the little girl's happy noise. "But! I need to swear you to secrecy."
Baby Tooth twittered in confusion– shouldn't she tell the others that she had found the source of their fairy garden treasure hunt?
Jack shook his head, smiling. "Honestly, since I became a Guardian and found out how much all of you fairies love them, I've been building these for you all as much as for the people who see them. Half the fun is in the unpredictability of discovery– I don't want to take that away from the rest of the fairies when they find it so exciting, do you?"
Baby Tooth shook her head in agreement, smiling at his reasoning as her heart melted once again. She adored his love of making other people smile. She had the best boy, and she wouldn't do anything to ruin his fun, so she gave him a thumbs up and flew to his hand (which was almost twice her size) and shook his pinky in promise.
Jack laughed again and scooped her onto his shoulder. "Alright, pinky promise," he grinned, snagging his staff from where it lay ignored against the tree before hopping into the air for the Wind to cradle them both. "Now, are you headed back to Tooth Palace? Why don't Wind and I give you a ride?"
Baby Tooth squeaked a happy thanks and clung to a fold in his hood, laughing with Jack as the Wind tossed them around playfully before whisking them back to the fairies' home.
The next the other fairies zoomed into Tooth Palace in a tizzy, squeaking about how they'd found another beautiful fairy garden in a town not far from Burgess, Baby Tooth stayed quiet, smiling to herself as her heart warmed.
She really did have the best boy.
A/N: Hello, all! I still live! The summer has been great but crazy, and I've had this sitting half written for a while and decided to just fill in the gaps today and publish it. (Meaning, it is an unbeta'd and potentially meh chapter. But it exists!)
No Mrs. Bennett here today, I'm afraid, but one of the next few chapters I hope to post (whenever I get there) furthers that arc, so it's coming!
This one was another example of me sticking Jack with hobbies I enjoy. Fairy gardens are delightful, and hiding them all over is something I've wanted to do and thought Jack would have a ton of fun with! (Fun fact, the fuzzy leaves are mullein leaves, which do make excellent nature carpeting.)
I hope to publish at least one more chapter fairly soon, but I was a fool and signed myself up for six classes this fall, so realistically it will be a bit. But thank you so much to Aphrodite433, Nahau Moondust, CaetlynoftheStars, Snowy Monday, and DuckieLuver for reviewing, and to everyone who favorited/followed! I love this world and have plans for this fic, so I'll keep coming around! Thanks to all who stick with me!
And with that signature very long A/N, I shall say goodbye until next time. Elen out!
