Jack sat up from the bed after falling asleep, his legs hanging over the edge. Everything still ached, but not as badly as they did a while ago. His head also didn't throb as much.
He stood up, and grabbed his staff from the wall near the bed, and walked out of the room. Just like when he left, the workshop was insanely busy. The winter spirit had lost track of time and day, so he went up to one of the yetis, and asked about the date. All he got out of gibberish, but Jack had been around for quite a while that he understood a bit of it.
It finally hit him what the date was, his eyes going wide with surprise. It was Christmas Eve, and they didn't have enough presents for all the children of the world.
Sandy made his way over to the boy through the crowd, and a symbol of images appeared on his head before pointing over to the door to the globe room, and Jack understood.
Instead of making is way through the crowd, he took into the air and flew over them, Sandy following close to him, until they finally reached the door and Jack pushed it open, landing on the ground and Sandy entering behind him.
Inside the room already, were Bunny, North and Tooth, who looked at him and smiled half heartedly, clearly remembering what he had told her earlier. And by the looks on the others faces, she didn't tell like she had promised.
North looked up at them grimly, shaking his head then going back to pacing. Bunny looked annoyed and ready to break something, and Tooth looked uneven. Now that he realized it, Sandy even looked a bit uneven and worried.
"What's going on?" Jack asked, the doors closing behind him and walking into the room. No one said anything, but they gestured to the Globe of Belief. This was when Jack finally realized that lights were missing.
He floated over to the huge globe, looking at it with disbelief, that so many lights were already out. Jack looked back over at his fellow Guardians, shaking his head. "This is some mistake, right?"
No one answered him, and he landed back on the ground, clutching his staff tightly. "This can't be right! There's some mistake!"
"There is no mistake, Jackson." North finally said, his voice sounding just as weak as he looked. This made Jack noticed another thing that he missed upon entering the room, was that they all looked weaker than normal, as if the belief was being sapped right out of them all, and he realized he felt weak to an extent as well.
"Christmas is tonight, Jack. We don't have presents for all children. We will lose more belief."
"Jamie, can you help me with this please?" Sophie asked, looking up at her older brother with a pleading look. She had been working on a snowman, and no matter what wouldn't lift the head up on top of the second ball of snow for the body.
The older boy laughed slightly and nodded, walking over to were the snow was and picked up what she had made for the head, gently putting it on and then packing a bit more snow around it with Sophie to make it stay put.
Her smile was wide, as she hugged him around the waist and said thanks before grabbing a few rocks and sticks to finish it up. Jamie watched with amusement, happy to see his younger sister so energetic.
"Do you think Santa will come tonight?" She asked, bouncing up and down happily. This made the boy frown slightly, and shook his head. "Now Soph, you know Santa isn't real. You're too old to believe in him."
The blond haired girl frowned and pouted, but said no more. Jamie sighed, and walked over to the house and leaned on the side, keeping his younger sister within sight.
"All this time," He thought to himself, looking up at the grey sky that made snowflakes fall gracefully to the ground, the wind cold and blowing slightly to make the snowflakes dance around a bit more, "I can't believe it was just my imagination. There's no Jack Frost, or Easter Bunny."
Jamie sighed and looked at the ground, rubbing the back of his neck.
"But, I can't help but feel as if….."
Flame walked around in what used to be her hometown, where it was summertime in this part of the world. No one could see her, and it didn't bother her too much. Over six hundred years of this, and she had gone to not caring too much.
Beside her, the girl made from nightmare sand walked beside her, her gaze lifeless and dull, as wither her expression. People passed by, and even though she was invisible, Flame went around whoever got too close to her, not wanting to have that uneasy feeling of feeling breathless whenever a mortal passed through a spirit.
"Miss?"
Flame looked around at the sudden voice, and then looked down at the black haired girl, smiling slightly. "What is it?"
"Why are you Flame?"
She blinked at this, not knowing what she meant before it finally sunk in, and smiled slightly. "Is this Pitch or Lina addressing me?"
There was a moment of silence, the girl looking as if she was thinking of an answer, when she finally replied, "Lina."
Flame chuckled and shook her head slightly. "Looks like the puppet is forming a mind of her own. A body of sand, a soul and flame and a mind and life of love."
Lina looked up at the girl made out of fire slightly, some life glinting in her eyes before disappearing. There was a few moments of silence before Flame finally started to speak.
"Well, I used to have black hair, and green eyes. I lived with my parents and a little sisters. No one liked me, and called me a witch for my hair and eye colour. One day," She looked down at Lina briefly before sighing.
"One day, my home caught on fire due to these kids setting it on fire, thinking I was in there. Instead, it was my younger sister, and I quickly ran in and saved her. She wasn't injured thankfully, and got out alive. I, on the other hand, did not. The flames started to burn at my clothing and hair and body, until burning wood from the ceiling fell on my, and crushed me."
Again another moment of silence, this time Lina looking up at Flame, her look still blank but in her eyes, it showed that she was curious and wanted to know more about her.
"Then, I finally woke up, my mind fuzzy. I realized I was on fire, and tried putting it out when I realized it wasn't hurting me. I looked at the moon, and it told me who I was. Flame Inferno, Spirit of Fires."
"Where you not sad?"
"Of course I was after recovering my memory, but then I noticed something. I used to watch over a girl who particularly drew me into her, and would help her whenever she was being bullied. Once getting back my memories, I realized that the girl I watched over till her death was none other than my sister. I was able to see her progress in life, and die happy and married."
Lina nodded, taking in the information that was given to her. "Was I someone before being Lina?"
Flame jumped at her question, blinking and not knowing how to answer this. "No." She answered slowly, recovering from the surprise. "You where no one before being who you are now, except for just sand."
This didn't seem to affect the girl that much, as she just nodded in understanding. Flame sighed, feeling bad for having to go and tell her that. Then she realized, why was she feeling so bad? This girl was nothing more than a puppet.
Right?
The yetis loaded the sleigh, and worked on last minute preparations for the machine. Most of the gifts would just be delivered through the snow globes, but North always made sure to deliver to the extra special children.
This year, though, there were enough presents to fit on the sleigh due to there not being much. The Guardians had to talk over where to deliver the presents to, since there was so little, and tried to make it to get as many as possible.
They agreed on going to the more populated areas, mainly focusing on there and try to keep as many believers as possible.
Jack walked around, looking at the sleigh while it was being worked on. North was to leave any minute now, the others were to go make sure their own places were safe and continue on with their work, all to meet at the North Pole after North got back.
The Winter spirit was going to see North out, to make sure there would be no issues with Fearlings. At that moment, Jack heard Tooth's voice echo in the halls behind him.
"North, are you sure you can do this without the rest of us? I mean, who knows how many Fearlings may attack!" Her voice was full of worry, as she flew next to the big Russian man, who just simply laughed slightly. "Tooth, its fine! Jack will be with me. We have to keep rest of children's beliefs up." He gave the hummingbird fairy a wide smile, as he climbed into the front of the sleigh.
Jack hopped onto the wing of the machine, and looked at the three guardians that would stay behind. Bunny had his arms crossed over his chest, trying to look calm and collected, but Jack could just tell he was just as worried as the other two, who showed it on their faces.
He tried giving them a reassuring smile, and said, "Don't worry guys, we'll be back before you know it."
"Oh, just be careful! If anything happens, come back at once!" Tooth said worriedly, causing North and Jack to laugh slightly, both giving her a slight nod.
"Are we ready?!" North called, taking the reins for the reindeer tightly in his big hands. A yeti next to him, still trying to work on something, shook his head urgently, grumbling some things.
"Alright, lets go!" North exclaimed, and with a crack of the reins and a cry from the Russian, the reindeer took off, Tooth and Sandy waving the two of them off, and Bunny just grinning slightly.
The two spirits took off through an icy tunnel, dodging icicles on the ground and whatever blocked the sleighs path. Despite the circumstances, the two daredevils smiled and shouted in joy from the ride, the tunnel echoing their voices and the pounding of the reindeer hooves.
Finally, the sleigh reached the wooden ramp at the end of the tunnel and took off into the air. Jack gave another whoop in joy, looking around. Riding in the sleigh never got old to him, which made the Russian laugh.
"Alright!" North exclaimed, giving the reins a little whip as he took out one of his snow globes, swirling it around slightly. "I say, Asia!"
In a swift and powerful motion, he threw the globe ahead of them, which opened up a portal. In an instant, the two and the sleigh were through the portal and into the destination North said: Asia.
Thus began the gift delivering.