Northern Lights where seen across the sky around the world. Well, only to the immortals of the world who could see it. The two had been heading for the North Pole when they started up, and the two gave each other a questioning glance. Maybe North already knew about the Fearlings.
Before leaving the pond, Jack had made sure Jamie and Sophie where alright, and even escorted them back home. "Jack!" Jamie had said, before the spirit and the invisible girl flew off. "Yeah?"
"I need advice when you get back." He said, his face turning a light shade of pink, which made Jack laugh a bit.
"With what?"
"I think Cupid hit me with an arrow... I kind of like Pippa more than a friend now.." Jamie explained, looking down at the ground.
Jack turned to face Valentine, who just stared wide eyed a bit. Jack broke down laughing at the irony that sentence had just caused without the poor mortal boy realizing it. There was quite an argument, before Jack finally agreed, made a small remark about how even Cupid was surprised to this sudden news, which got the boy confused, and the two flew off, leaving him to wonder just what on earth the spirit of winter was talking about.
They landed inside the globe room, and Valentine waved to Jack as she had to go wait outside the room for the meeting to be over. Non-Guardians were not allowed in the Globe Room at the time of the meeting, and had to wait outside or in another room while waiting. Valentine didn't protest much, she tended to help out the yetis or keep the elves occupied with something or other.
One by one, the Guardians began to enter, the last of them being the Sandman. "What's going on?" Tooth asked in between orders for her other fairies to carry back to the Tooth Palace, mainly being weather conditions or where to find a tooth. "Yeah mate, what's the matte'?" A tall, slim looking rabbit asked, with his rich Australian accent.
North looked very bad and weak for some reason, but besides Jack and Bunny, no one else noticed. The two exchanged questioning looks, and the abnormal silence made Tooth and Sandy turn to see what was going on. It took a few moments, before North let out a heavy sigh, and proceeded to say, "The Wonder in world… Is fading."
Unknowing to what was going on inside the Globe Room, Valentine kept herself occupied by playing with the elves this time around, since the yetis shooed her away not wanting anything to happen to the toys. It wasn't like she created mayhem in the shop, they just did not want to take any chances. Some didn't even let other yetis help out.
Valentine respected the yetis space and played with the elves, to keep them out of trouble and away from the yetis who were working. They were quite cute in her eyes, unlike the other spirits who found them bothersome, and "always under boot."
Two swirls of nightmare sand showed the two friends, despite them being separated and doing different things. The sand did not produce sound much to the Boogieman's dismay, but wasn't bothered by it too much. It was their location that was more important to him. The image of Jack Frost disappeared, and only the image of Valentine played in the swirl of sand now, clearly laughing and having fun with the elves that scattered the North Pole.
A smile formed on Pitch's lips, as he watched the image with his hands behind his back. "Perfect." He hissed out almost, laughing a bit. "They are making this almost too easy." Flame looked at him, smiling and shaking her head. "They are very stupid, if you have not noticed." He turned to the girl, walking away from the image. "Is it ready yet?" Flame turned back to sand she was putting light into, and nodded, the light fading little by little within the black sand, till it started to gain a form.
"Yes. This is perfect." Pitch hissed once again, his smile becoming more menacing. The sand took a form of a young girl, her skin a pale grey, her hair up in two long pigtails, and wore just a simple black dress that reached her knees. The combined powers of the two had made a seemingly ordinary child, but it was nothing but a puppet for Pitch to use, able to see through her eyes, hear her thoughts and tell her what to say and do.
The young girl made of sand stood, and opened her eyes, which where the purest black and emotionless. She said nothing. "Well, we must give her a name." Flame replied, looking at the sand-girl.
"A name? What for?" Pitch looked at the burning girl with a look of confusion and amusement.
"Well, if she is to do this, then she must have a name in order for them to fall for her more."
The man nodded, and gestured to Flame. "Why not you name her then?"
Flame thought for a second, and smiled. "Hence forth, her name is Lina. It means pure, light, the Guardians will fall for it I'm sure."
Pitch frowned, and rolled his eyes a bit. "Why something like that? What does it matter what it means?"
"A name can give a lot away about the person. Like you, Pitch Black. The name beings fear. Flame, it instinctively means fire or embers. Must I give more examples?"
"No, that won't be necessary. So, Lina it is then."
The spirit of love had flown back to the pond, forgetting something there. The Guardians meetings, even unexpected ones like these, took quite a few hours, so Valentine had time to kill before her and Jack could go do something. What she had forgotten was her quiver of her love arrows, which she had left hanging on a tree branch. It was uncomfortable to wear while trying to sit down, leaning on the trunk of the tree, so she took it off.
Valentine went over to it, and picked it up, slinging it over her shoulder under her cape. The way it was made, made it tilted so it stuck out to the side from under her cape so she could grab her arrows easily.
She saw a shadow moving towards the pond from the woods, but didn't move. It was possibly a kid coming to ice skate on the pond, so Valentine didn't worry too much. A girl, with rather pale skin, and long, black hair in two twin pigtails came out and stepped onto the ice. For some unknown reason, Valentine watched, not moving.
The spirit flew down to the little girl, who looked around with wonder. Valentine noticed that this girl, she had no shoes or any protection from the weather on, just wearing a simple black dress, and her eyes where so grey, but they shined with the brightest curiosity.
"Little girl, why are you not wearing any winter clothing?" Valentine asked, mainly talking to herself since she knew the girl could not hear her, but, she did.
The girl turned to Valentine, and smiled. "Pretty." She simply said, and Valentine froze.
"She... She can see me?" Valentine said to herself. "A-and hear me?!"
The girl nodded, confirming what she had just said. The girl pointed at the shocked spirit, and said, "Cupid! Pretty!" She smiled brightly, but yet, Valentine had a hint of doubt in her.
"If she can see me," Valentine thought to herself, "then why do I not feel any power? Isn't that what happens?"
Valentine shook her head slightly, and pulled herself together. She then knelt down next to the girl, who had put her arm down by this time, and smiled gently.
"Little girl, why aren't you wearing proper winter clothing?"
"No time."
"No time to put some on? Won't your parents be worried?"
The girl shrugged. "I dunno my mommy and daddy."
"So, you are an orphan?"
Once again, the girl shrugged.
Valentine sighed, and un-clipped her cape, and draped it over the girl like a blanket. "You are lucky that it is still early winter." The girl hugged the light teal cape to herself, but showed no signs of being cold. "Odd." Valentine thought to herself.
"Where is your home?"
She shrugged.
"Do you have an adult I can take you back to?"
She shrugged.
Valentine sighed in frustration, but remained calm. She couldn't do anything, but maybe one of the Guardians knew who she was, and could take her back. The Guardians knew almost every child on the Earth, or had seen them at least. "Would you like to come meet Santa, the Easter Bunny, and Tooth Fairy with me?"
The girls eyes brightened up, and she smiled widened. "Yes!" She said happily, and Valentine couldn't help but smile more at the girl's excitement. "What is your name?" Valentine asked the girl.
"Lina!" She exclaimed happily, and Valentine nodded. She carefully picked up Lina, and held the girl gently but tightly. "Okay Lina, hold on tight." Lina tightened her grip on Valentine and her clothing, and small pure white wings came from her back once more. The little girl gasped in amazement, which made Valentine laugh a bit, and carefully took up into the skies, holding onto Lina tightly.
She showed no fear in the flight though, and also managed to hang onto Valentine's cape as well, much to her relief.
At the pole, Valentine landed in front of the doors of the workshop, and knocked hard to be heard over the noise from inside. Within a few seconds, the doors opened up by a yeti, and let her and Lina in, but not before pointing to Lina, and said something in his yeti language which Valentine had learned from North and Jack. "This is Lina. She is lost and I need the Guardians help to find out where she lives."
Lina giggled and reached up to the yeti, petting it gently. "Fuzzy." She said through giggles, and the yeti let the two in.
To Valentine's dismay, the meeting was still going on in the Globe Room, so she decided to take Lina over to where the elves had been waiting for Valentine to return, and played with them along with Lina, who chased them about and kept exclaiming them being cute.
An odd feeling did not leave Valentine though, as this girl seemed rather strange. In all her immortal life had she never seen a mortal with such black hair, or such grey eyes. It was indeed even more odd, was that the girl can see her, yet Valentine felt no power gained from the belief. Jack had told her that is what happened when you gained a believer, that you just felt it in you. But Valentine felt nothing. She also seemed to have not felt any coldness while outside in the winter, even nearing the North Pole, where at this time of the year, it was very cold.
"I best keep an eye on her.." Valentine thought to herself, watching the girl and the elves run around having fun. Jack would get jealous if he saw how much fun the girl and the elves where having right now and not being included.
(Sorry guys for the constant change in how the text is formatted. I'm experimenting with it in a way in order to make it so it's not so scrunched up together, but doesn't have too many spaces.)