9 years has done the boys looks and even personality justice. His brown hair and grown darker with a few light streaks here and there, and has grown longer, but not by much. He also was much taller, and a bit muscular even. The only thing that did not change about him, however, was his belief in the supernatural, and the Guardians. In fact, the teenage male was making his way through the powdered snow to the pond him and the Guardian of Fun usually met up at. In front of him, was his younger sister, only 11 years old. Her once messy blond hair was now straight, her hair still covered her right eye though, and her body was starting to form curves.
She turned around to face her older brother, smiling widely. "Come on Jamie! Jack is probably already waiting!" Jamie laughed slightly, shaking his head at his rather energetic sister. "I'm coming Sophie." He said, and once again the girl ran off, giggling and laughing to herself.
Without warning, the girl was suddenly air born, not noticing the spirit of winter had snuck up behind her and grabbed under her arms. Sophie laughed in joy, which made Jack smile widely and laugh to himself as well. He carried her the rest of the way to the pond, which was not very far to begin with. Sophie turned around once on the ground, and threw her arms over Jack, smiling even more. "Jack! I'm so happy to see you!" She exclaimed in joy, and Jack had to basically pry her away from him in order to get her to let go of her embrace around the older spirit. "Hiya Soph. How have you and Jamie been?" He asked, ruffling her hair slightly. "I've been good, and I recently got honor roll in school!" Sophie felt proud of herself, as Jack praised the young girl for her hard work in classes.
"Hey, did you forget about me already?" Jamie chuckled, appearing in the ponds clearing. Sophie ran over to her brother and took her ice skates from him, wanting to show Jack some new moves she had learned on the smooth ice. Jack leaned on his staff, trying his best to look innocent, which the mortal boy had learned to look past and know he wasn't so innocent. "Forget you? How can I possibly do that?" Jamie bent down to help tie Sophie's skates, smiling and shaking his head lightly. The young girl was practically bouncing on the log she was sitting on, telling her brother to hurry up because she wanted to skate. Jamie had learned to be patient with her, and not snap at her whenever she got hyper or constantly annoyed him. After learning about Jack's death years ago, and how he saved his sister, he did not want to make the mistake of being a horrible older brother to his sister, and swore that day to Jack to take care of Sophie, as if he where he guardian as Jack was his sisters.
After lacing up her skates nice and tight, Jack took the girls hand, and the two went out onto the ice, trying to get the youth used to being on ice once again. She was shaky, of course, at first, but after a few minutes, she was gliding on the ice all by herself, with the careful watch of Jack and Jamie of course. Jamie laced up his own ice skates, and made his way out onto the ice, and lazily skated around. The ice of course would not crack, Jack had made sure of that not to happen. He always made sure the pond was nice and frozen every year, as to not let history repeat itself. This time, of course, the said person would not be brought back for a second chance like Jack had.
"How is Bunny, and Tooth, and the others?" Sophie asked Jack, and Jamie was naturally curious himself. "Oh, well I guess. I don't see them often though, except for maybe North." Jack explained to the two, and Sophie looked a bit heartbroken. "Has Bunny forgotten me?" She asked sadly, causing Jack to stop what he was doing, which was skate alongside Jamie, and just laugh. Sophie crossed her arms, looking angrily at the spirit. "And what is so funny?!" She practically shouted in anger. Jack shook his head, and made his way to Sophie, bending down so the two where eye level. He reached into his hoodie pocket, and took out a brightly coloured egg, which caused Sophie to gasp in amazement, hugging it once she took it out of Jack's hand. He laughed, and said with his voice rather low, "He hasn't forgotten Soph, he is just busy. Wait till Easter, I'm sure he'll leave you a nice surprise." She nodded happily, and Jack stood up, ruffling her hair again. Sophie continued skating, holding onto the decorated egg as if it were a precious jewel, and to the young girl, it was. It was a sign that their friendship was still there, even if they couldn't see each other.
Jack started to show off some moves, and Sophie attempted to do a few, with Jamie laughing in the background at the two acting so childish. Jack eventually got him to join in along, and somehow it all broke out into a snowball fight on the ice. On a tree overhead, Valentine sat there, looking down at the three. She had been there since Jack arrived, and he knew she was sitting there. It was as close to human contact as she could get, even if she wasn't seen. Just watching the three laughing and having fun brightened her mood a bit, and Valentine just sat there silently, as if she were to do anything it would disrupt this.
Valentine smiled to herself, and sighed, looking up at the sky. Jack noticed this, and looked at her with brief concern on his face, to which Jamie noticed and asked, "What's wrong Jack?" The white haired boy looked down at the two, and shook his head, weighing the chances with trying to get these two to believe in her right now. Jamie might be much too old to see her, it was rare someone at his age was still able to see the Guardians and believe in them. Sophie, on the other hand, might not just get it. She grew up knowing the Guardians and playing with them. It wasn't like with Jamie where he had to go spark belief in him. At this moment, Valentine had turned her attention back to them, and shook her head to which Jack could see. "Go, carry on. I'm fine." She said, smiling, and Jack sighed at her stubbornness.
The two siblings exchanged looks of concern for the spirit, but he just smiled and pelted Jamie in the face with a snowball, to which he started calling out that as cheating and foul play.
Back at the Pole, North couldn't help but turn his attention to the globe, to which some of the lights started to go out. This normally didn't concern him too much, but right now he couldn't help but feel dread fill up inside him.
"I see them too, North." A voice came from behind him, which made the man turn around startled. He sighed a breath of relief, and relaxed. Flame entered the room in a ball of fire, to which North did not notice till she said something. "I would not be concerned, but I feel dread." North explained to the girl, who nodded. She gracefully walked over next to North, and they both looked at the slowly rotating globe. "Is it Pitch?" North finally asked the girl, knowing quite well she had connections with the Boogyman.
"Well, I don't think it would be fair to say." She smirked slightly, not taking her gaze off the globe. "But, if you must know, it is just his Fearlings and not him. He is still trapped in his little prison, the Fearlings just get hungry every now and then, you know?" Flame took a cookie from the plate the elves had carried in the room for North and his unexpected guest, and the cookie burnt in her hand slightly. It did not bother her much, in fact, she loved burned cookies more than anything.
North glared at her, his eyes showing warning and danger, unlike when they normally look cheerful and full of wonder. "If Pitch hurts Jackson or Val, he answers to me." The burning girl chuckled lightly, as the crumbs on her hands burned away and left no mess. "I don't know his plans. He is quite the hermit at times, dear Guardian. I may have contact with him, but he does not trust me, similar to you and the others." North flinched slightly at this, unaware that she knew so much, even though she barely showed her face unless it was summer in a certain part of the globe.
"I've felt like I've given you too much information." She smiled, looking at North briefly, before turning into a ball of flame and disappearing. "Information? Girl hardly said anything!" North thought to himself angrily, but his attention was soon taken away from the urgent call of one of the yetis who stormed into the Globe room, who managed to say something about a malfunctioned toy. North groaned, and turned, shouting, "Yes! Yes! Be right there!" to his yetis. The feeling of dread did not loosen up, even after Flame's report that it was only the Fearlings. But, then again, Pitch controlled the Fearlings, so their amount in activity was strange. The Guardian of Wonder was far too busy to deal with it at the moment, and hoped another Guardian would soon realize this, and take action to see what was going on.
Valentine, being one of the few spirits that existed on the Earth to have never seen a Fearling, did not know what it was when she first spotted one while in the tree, listening to the 3 still having fun. It moved in the shadows, watching them on the iced pond. Suddenly, it stomped a hoof, and she watched as a dark shadow slithered on the ground, onto the smooth ice, and stop right underneath Sophie, none of them noticing it except for the invisible girl.
There was a loud crack that came underneath Sophie, and everyone froze, looking around to see where it came from. "Ice under Sophie!" Valentine quickly yelled down to Jack in a short sentence, who instantly saw what she was talking about. The ice under the girl had begun to crack, and the icy water from underneath was already being shown. The girl followed Jack's gaze, and her eyes widened in fear as she saw the cracked ice. "Don't move Soph!" Jamie yelled to her, and she did as told, not moving.
"Jamie, get off the ice, now." Jack said calmly, and Jamie did as told, reaching the shore and stumbling down onto his knees in his haste. The white haired spirit took to the air, and went behind Sophie. "Now, stay still. Trust me, you'll be okay. I promise." He said, and carefully put his arms under hers. Carefully, he lifted her off the ice, and took her over to Jamie, who instantly hugged her as soon as she reached the ground. "Are you okay Soph?" Jamie asked her, clearly shaking a bit from the sudden fright, as well as Sophie shaking just as much. The two trusted Jack with their lives, and knew it wasn't him who made the ice crack.
Valentine flew down from her branch, and pointed to the Fearling for Jack, who shot a lightning bolt of ice at it before it could run. The two spirits went over to investigate, Jack making sure to tell the two young mortals to stay on the ground and away from the pond till he got back. Valentine looked at the figure trapped in the ice with a confused look, bending down to examine it more.
"What is it?" She asked, looking up at Jack, who shook his head in disbelief. "It's walking out in the sunlight.." He mumbled to himself, and it only made the pink haired girl to look at him with even more of a confused look on her face. "Jack, what is it?"
He looked at her, his eyes either showing concern or worry or maybe even fear, Valentine could not tell, but she could tell that it wasn't good.
"It's a Fearling, something that works… Works for Pitch. Come on, we need to go tell the others. I think Pitch is back.."