Fifth chapter
She took a deep breath and exited the door. Her sisters were in the middle of interrogating Jack, and he looked like he was highly uncomfortable. She couldn't help but giggle. She had no reason at all to be even the slightest bit of hostile towards him. All he ever did to her was throw two snowballs, but she had slapped him mere seconds after they met for the first time. She sighed and walked in.
"Girls, I think you've had enough boy company for one day," she said and they looked at her.
"Aw no fair!" Night whined.
"Yeah! You just want him all to yourself!" Day yelled and they both crossed their arms in annoyance.
"Well… I did kinda want to talk to you, Tempe is it?" Jack asked and she looked at him.
"You can call me that if you want to. But my name is Tempora, at least now it is," she said and he looked at her.
"Okay then, Tempe. Can I ask more questions?"
"Am I really that interesting?" she asked and giggled. The two sisters sitting beside Jack looked at each other in surprise, then at Jack and then back at Tempora.
"We'll be going now" they said in unison and vacated the room. Jack looked after them in confusion and Tempora sat down in front of him.
"What do you want to know?" she asked and he looked at her.
"Firstly, I want to know exactly where I am"
"You're in Mother Nature's sanctuary. It's a place where every flower in the world, every plant in fact, can grow at the same time"
"It's very pretty" he looked around "so, is Mother Nature a guardian?"
"No, she's not. She used to be but then… something happened and she asked the man in the moon to be allowed to step back from being a guardian. He granted that request and she's been living out here ever since"
"That sounds boring" he said and looked back at Tempora.
"Maybe it is… but she likes it here, it's nice and quiet" she smiled gently and took up a flower on the ground.
"As far as I saw, back when you were human at least, you liked it when it was noisy"
"I liked noise yes, but I also like silence. There has to be balance between the two though. Too much noise and I become angry, too much silence and I become quite the annoyance"
"I have yet to see you angry, I think"
"You have. By the way, next time you wanna catch someone's attention, a snowball to the shoulder and neck aren't the best idea" she said and he chuckled.
"I had no idea what else I could do… which reminds me, why couldn't your sister see you?" he looked at her and saw he'd hit a soft spot. She looked at the ground for a bit.
"I… I don't know. I used to tell her the stories of the guardians all the time. She liked them so much. I don't think I ever saw someone believe in them as much as she did. Well her and Jamie"
"You know Jamie?"
"Well yeah, I mean, they have class together, and sometimes Rose would invite him and his friends over to hear me tell stories. Oh how I loved telling stories" she looked up into the ceiling and smiled "but my favorite stories were never shared with Jamie and the others. No, Rose kept those stories all to herself. She always told me who to tell stories about when the others came over, but her favorite stories were those I loved to tell the most, the ones she never wanted others to hear"
"Who were they about?" Jack asked interested.
"Me" she closed her eyes and rested her head on her knees "I loved telling my stories"
"Isn't that a little selfish?" Jack asked with a small smile.
"Maybe, but there was a reason for it. Oh you should have seen Rose's smile when I told her stories about Tempora, wielder of the four seasons"
"Maybe you could tell me one?" Jack asked and she looked up from her knees.
"Maybe… would you like to hear one?" she asked and he nodded.
"It might answer some of my questions"
"Well… okay then, I'll try and think of one" she closed her eyes and tried to concentrate.
"Isn't it just your memories?" Jack asked and she looked at him.
"I have a hard time accessing my memories from when I was a human, well depending on which life I try and remember from that is"
"You'd lived three times right?"
"Yes, and my first life is the one I can remember the least from. Now be quiet or I won't remember anything" she said and closed her eyes. Pictures flashed before her eyes, multiple faces flashing before her eyes, feelings passing by along with them. Then the picture she used to talk about the most popped up and she started to tell her story.
"Maybe I should just begin with the beginning? Tempora was a happy girl, living in the outskirts of old Burgess. It was over three hundred years ago mind you, so her tales aren't many from the time. But one thing can be told, the day she died. For Tempora started out as a mere human, one who loved all seasons equally" Jack sat and looked at her as she told her story. Her eyes were nearly closed and her eyelashes lied over her skin so softly.
"But then the day of her demise came. She was going home, after playing all day with the boy she loved. She could hear something or someone following her, but she thought nothing of it. She just thought it was one of her friends, playing tricks on her. But the thing following her came closer, and she could hear that the footsteps were far too heavy to be from a human. She turned around to look, and stood face to face with a hungry bear. It was a big ugly one, and it looked directly at her. It had been hibernating all winter, and had only emerged from its cave a few days prior. She started running away from it, and was succeeding in it too. But nature would want it otherwise. A root sticking up from the ground caught her feet and she fell. The bear caught up to her, and it got it's first meal in three months" Jack was a bit horrified that she would tell such a story to a ten year old, but brushed it off.
"When she woke up, she was changed. Her skin had become paler, and she was wearing a dress of patched up clothes in brown and orange colors. She looked up at the moon, because it was talking to her. Telling her why she was being turned into what she was now. Telling her, that she was now in control of the four seasons. She didn't believe in what she heard at first, not until she heard someone cry a little away from where she was. Two persons were standing over a grave, the smaller of them crying. She reached out for them, but caught nothing. Then she realized that she was indeed a ghost. She was nothing to those who didn't believe" she finished her story and looked at Jack. She felt her body shiver at the memory, and held her stomach.
"Wow… sounds harsh" he said and looked at her "are you okay?"
"Yeah… Hnnnnngh" she said and leaned forward "I'm… Just… fine!" she said, obviously in great pain.
"You don't seem fine…" he said and she took a deep breath. It helped a bit and she took another one.
"Just phantom pain… sometimes when I think about how I died the first time, the pain from that stupid bear's claws come back" she sat up and Jack stared at the upper part of her dress.
"Are those… scars?" he asked and she looked down.
"Yeah… they appear when the pain comes… looks pretty frightening, right?"
"They do, man… that must've hurt pretty badly" he reached out his hand and traced one of the three scars.
"Maybe you shouldn't do that…" Tempora said and he looked at her "I mean, they are on my chest after all"
"Oh right" he retrieved his hand quickly and looked at her "sorry"
"AW COME ON!" someone yelled in the hall way. They both turned their heads and Tempora sighed.
"I told you, you're both lousy spies!" she yelled and her two sisters poked out their heads.
"Sorry… but you two seemed to get along so quickly!" Night said and smiled.
"Go away" Tempora said and sighed "please?"
"Okay…" they said and flew away.
"What is it with those two?"
"Let's just say there aren't all that many spirits like us, on our age. So they want to make sure I get a boyfriend"
"So they're gonna try and hook us up?" he asked and she giggled.
"Definitely" she looked directly at Jack "so don't falling for any of their tricks, okay?" she said and winked.
"Sure thing" he replied.
"Is there anything else you want to know about me?"
"This is like your house right? So do you have your own room?"
"Actually, I do. Wanna see it?" she asked and got up from the ground.
"Sure" he got up too and looked at her "you're suddenly a lot more welcoming"
"I decided you hadn't done anything wrong, except throwing snowballs at me"
"Yeah, but you slapped me three years ago, remember?"
"That was also one of the reasons I decided I should be nice to you" she took a right turn and jack followed. Every time they passed a room he had to look inside, and each time he looked into a different world.
"Are these rooms like portals?" he asked and Tempora shook her head.
"No, they are just rooms in the cave. Mom does have pretty green fingers, so the whole cave, well the part we live in at least, is filled with green scenery and flowers. But my room is different from all the others"
"Really? How?" he asked and looked at a veil in front of him "that looks like spider web" he said and she giggled.
"It's dusted, so it won't stick. You do realize that the silk a spider uses for its web, is the strongest and finest in the whole world, right?"
"I know… but aren't most girls afraid of spiders?" he walked through the veil and looked around "wow"
"Welcome, to the Garden of Seasons" she said and bowed "I can change the season in this room whenever I want"
"Really?" Jack looked around a bit "hang on… this isn't far from the lake in Burgess…"
"I know… I have no idea why it looks like this exact spot though…"
"Actually… something's missing" Jack said and walked t the center of the garden "there should be a stone, right here. A big one too. Li-like a gravestone or something"
"You've seen that?" she asked and looked at Jack.
"I have… for some reason, I often find myself there when I'm down… I have no idea why though…" he said and looked at Tempora. She looked a little lost, but that look quickly disappeared.
"I go there often too… I just like the forest surrounding it" she said and Jack heard a bird chirping.
"You've even got birds in here?" he asked and looked around.
"Yeah, lots in fact" she whistled and a flock of birds came towards her.
"Wow, you have a lot of birds! How can they even live in here? I mean, what about food?"
"You're walking on soil Jack; there are plenty of worms in the ground there. Plus there's berries and stuff like that the birds can eat from" she smiled one bird landed on her finger and started chirping a melody. She hummed along with it and started dancing. Jack just stood and looked at the little scene. He noticed how she moved, and found the moves strangely familiar. He held his head, trying to remember where he'd seen them before, but it slipped him just when he thought he'd gotten it. Suddenly she stopped and looked at him.
"Sorry…" she said and the birds flew away "but… I really need to be alone now…" she said and Jack looked at her. Her face was suddenly filled with that feeling you get when you remember something really good, but then remember it's gone. He walked out of the room and left Tempora to herself. She looked after him while he walked out and then all the birds flew away. The room suddenly got cold and it froze, turning into a winter landscape. It was a drastic change from the summer room it had been just before, as to match the rest of the cave. She could hear something moving around quietly. Like a shadow on a wall. A voice sounded in the room and she gulped.
"My dear Tempora…" she turned around and widened her eyes, both in horror and anticipation.
Jack walked around in the halls and looked at the plants. It almost looked like the walls were made out of vines and not rocks as he walked around. Even though nothing of it was frozen, he thought it was truly magnificent to look at. He felt like he was walking around in a dream, mostly because the whole atmosphere in the cave was so dreamy. He hadn't noticed it before, but the cave had a faint orange glow to it, like it was always the ending of dawn. He could hear bugs buzz all around him, and it felt like everything was alive. Everything could breathe in here, even the trees. Their branches and leaves swayed ever so slightly the whole time, making it look like there was wind in the cave. But suddenly he felt something was wrong. Something was off. He looked back at room he'd left a few minutes earlier.
"Tempe" he said to himself and started walking back. Night and Day had sensed the same thing and he met them half way back.
"you still here?" Night asked and looked at him. Then she felt that uneasiness again and ignored him. Day was the most scared of them all and kept rushing them both. They reached the veil and Jack could hear a voice speaking.
"… but I'll need something in return Tempora. You know what I want" he knew that voice, and he'd hoped he'd never have to listen to it again since he'd defeated the owner with the help of the other guardians.
"Pitch" he said to himself and the two girls gasped beside him. Then he flung open the veil and looked around. There he was, Pitch Black. He had noticed Jack coming in and smiled. Tempora was looking at him too, a shocked expression on her face. Pitch looked back at Tempora and smiled.
"Please, think about my offer Tempora" he said and disappeared in the shadows. She fell to her knees and looked into the ground. Jack hurried over to her and looked at her.
"What did he want?" he asked and she looked at him. She was silent for a few seconds before she answered.
"He wanted my globe…"
"Your globe?" Jack asked and she nodded.
"My weather globe… I can control the weather of the entire world with it…" she sounded like she was dreaming or something, and Jack got a little worried.
"Listen, you can't trust him, okay? Whatever he told you, don't trust him" he held her shoulder and she looked him in the eyes, like a silent prayer. But he didn't understand what she meant by it, and just smiled "promise me, that you won't do whatever he asked, okay?" she nodded and looked away from him.
"That's quite enough…" the voice of Seraphina said behind them "Tempora needs to be alone… leave at once"
"One problem, I don't know how to"
"I can help you with that" Seraphina said and pointed at him. She mumbled a few things at Jack felt like he was being sucked into something "Burgess" she said and suddenly everything went blurry for a second, then he was standing in the middle of the lake back in Burgess.
End of chapter
So, what do you think?
And i apologize for two long chapters in one day, but i hope you like it anyway :D
Please review? *puppy eyes*