Night, falls, and I'm alone
Skin, yeah, chilled me to the bone
You, turned and you ran,
Oh yeah
Oh slipped, right from my hand
'Blue on Black' Kenny Wayne Sheppard Band

Chapter 8

Even with the Time Pendant's help, it took almost a month to reach Mount Olympus. He'd tried to call the wind, to ask his old friend to carry him, but nothing happened. It was like the Wind could no longer hear him. Rhosgobel constantly mourned the loss of his friendship with the Wind. Rhos also was bewildered by his complete inability to create or use any of Aster's tunnels! For some reason, the young Pooka couldn't find any openings, create a tunnel, or any of the other Pooka's methods of travel. He was beginning to suspect that it was one of Bunnymund's special abilities as the Guardian of Hope, not something that all Pookas could do. Which sucked.

It made globe-trotting very, very time consuming to a spirit that had once circled the world several times in the span of one night.

The new Guardian had chosen the most direct route, heading straight north through the Arctic Circle to avoid needing a ship to cross the ocean. Tight close quarters with a bunch of adult humans spelled 'bad idea' to him. He'd headed towards the North Pole at his top speed, even using the pendant to speed up his time to cross the vast ice.

And upon seeing Santoff Clausen in all its beautiful glory...

He'd had to stop for a while to stop crying.

The Pooka hadn't dared tried to go any closer than the outer perimeter of the fortress, knowing that he wouldn't be able to bear the memories that this place held for him. The first time he had seen all the Guardians together, when he was chosen as a Guardian. North's kindness; the many meetings with the other Guardians; Christmases spent joyfully laughing around the only family he'd had in so, so long... Flames as Pitch laughed, Santoff Clausen burning to the ground, the ashes and soot, bodies everywhere, the broken crystal, Aster's broken body-

The former Jack Frost had run as fast as he could from the North Pole. No one else saw the tears that froze to his black fur, nor heard his sobs, and for that he was pretty grateful.

Later, when he stopped to rest for the night, he had sent a quiet thanks to Tempus for his cloak. With as many terrible memories as he had, his dreams were almost constant nightmares. The sheer amount of trauma and fear would have had Pitch Black running to find the psychic buffet, if not for the magic in the cloak that hid him from magical sight.

He used the Time Pendant to increase his already incredible speed, and the few times that he'd had to go among humans for supplies, he'd pulled out the clothes Tempus had given him. The Pooka had been shocked speechless when he's been spotted running across the ocean ice by adults not far from a fishing village in what would become Norway. That was how he'd found out that he wasn't a spirit, but a living Pooka, one that anybody could see.

One could imagine his shock, on finding that the human disguise he wore looked incredibly familiar to him. He looked almost exactly like his adult spirit form, but with brown hair and lightly tanned skin. This was also the first time that he had ever noticed that he had a somewhat striking resemblance to an adult Jamie Bennet. Hmm. Maybe this time around, he could check on that crazy rumor that the little Tooth Fairies had started, about Jaime and Sophie Bennet having been his sister's descendants.

Upon reaching Greece, he'd changed back into his Pooka form to explore and to start the trek to Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in the country. The map had directed him to the magically hidden entrance to the realm of the gods, and by showing his Time Pendant, had been granted access to the Palace of the Greek pantheon of Gods. The Guardian of Time knew that he was seriously lucky that Hephaetus even agreed to see him, let alone help repair the staves. Gods, even the benevolent ones, were notoriously snobby and stand-offish. (Apparently, Tempus had called in a favor for him, so he didn't have to pay to have the repairs done.) But to the Guardian's surprise, the god told him that the only way to do it was to combine the two weapons into one, infusing it with both of their powers.

It wouldn't take long to make, only about a week to balance out the magics. Considering that the premier god of the forge was taking that long to make something, Rhos knew that they were dealing with very powerful magics. And then, there was the rather long time required to charge the new spear with magic. According to Hephaetus, Nightlight's spear was made of a very special alloy that absorbed the light of the Moon, and some of MiM's own purifying powers. The spear had been thousands of years old, carrying a truly terrifying amount of power within it. This was how Nightlight had managed to destroy the Nightmare King's black ships, killing most of his Shadow Man Army, and helped Manny in draining Pitch of nearly all his power in the battle when they had arrived on Earth.

Now, the spear was broken, and all its reserves of power lost. Adding Rhos's former weapon helped with this. The ice staff could be broken down and used to make powerful crystals that could absorb and store huge amounts of purifying energy, and gather it much faster than the spear could originally. The crystals would be forged into the repaired staff. This new weapon would only take a hundred years to reach its full strength, as opposed to the one thousand years the spear by itself had taken. The ice staff would also grant the spear new powers, but Hephaestus told Rhos that he would have to discover those on his own. Rhos was told the exact place to take the weapon to power it, deep in the heart of the Himalayan mountains, where any light would be reflected a hundred-fold by the ice and snow. He had thanked the god for his help and set off on his quest.

And once he'd stepped foot outside of Mount Olympus-

-the map went haywire.

!~!~!~!~!~!

"Tempus? Tempus, what the hell is wrong with this thing? It keeps showing me stuff in Europe!" The Pooka paced the ground of the Black forest in Prussia, (what would become modern day Germany). "I know how to get to Tibet, but I have to get to Burgess! Its been months since I came here, and Jack's been all alone! I thought the entire point of my coming back in time was to was to help him!"

Slowly, the multitoned voice of the Master of Time spoke within Rhosgobel's mind. Rhos, the Nightmare King is already on the move in North America.

"What?!" Blue eyes went huge in shock and horror. "What do you mean, on the move? He didn't attack until after the millenium last time! If he's starting up again now-we're not ready! Nothing is ready! We have to stop him!"

And we will, Tempus said calmly. Listen, Rhos. Pitch has regained some of his strength, but he is not ready to attack yet... He is now combing through the lost items of Native American tribes, scouring the caves and mountains for anything he can use in his future scheme. This is how he learned enough about the dream sand to warp it into the nightmare sand. And in the war that killed your world, he used items from around the world to summon, create, and control his minions.

I want to send you to Jack, truly I do, but I fear that if you do not go now to collect these items before Pitch can find them, then we won't be able to stop him this time.

Rhos felt his fur stand on end, shivering in horror at the memories of his last war. He pulled the cloak tighter around himself. "How much stuff do you need me to get? When can I go to Burgess?"

Unfortunately, I need you to gather quite a bit. But! I promise you, kiddo, the things I will send you after will either hinder Pitch's efforts or help you and Jack Frost. I beg you to be patient, my Guardian.

The Pooka's ears twitched as he paced in the small clearing. "Well, why can't I just go get Jack and take him with me? I could keep him safe and train him at the same time."

You will be going all over the world! From icy tundras to some of the hottest jungles and deserts. Can you take Jack to those places?

The Guardian of Time grit his teeth. i could leave him someplace safe and just come back for him-

And leave an untrained frost spirit at the mercies of territorial animal spirits that would surely hunt him down? Be reasonable! He is safest when he is in the Wind.

Rhosgobel twitched. "I...I don't think you understand. In my life, I can't even describe how terrible those first decades were. Right now, the North Wind is all this Jack has. He has no friends, no family, not even his memories. He is completely alone. I remember crying and screaming and calling up storms that killed and hurt people, and I didn't even mean to! And then figuring out that just being upset meant that people died, or got sick, or starved because I couldn't control myself, I thought I was some kind of monster!

"Right now in Burgess, that kid has no one that can help him. He's just now figuring out how to fly. All he knows is that the moon made him and gave him a name, and then completely ditched him! It gave him all this power over winter, and then didn't tell him how to not kill everything he used it on! Do you have any idea how awful that feels?! To be abandoned like that?! How can you ask me to leave him like that any longer?!"

Rhosgobel, please-

"I know!" Rhos screamed, pulling on his ears in frustration. "I know its important to do this, but for the love of anything good, we can't just leave him like that! Tell me there's someone, anyone, you can send to give the poor kid some hope."

...I'm sorry. I wish that I could send you to him immediately, but please take heart. I have already spoken to Sanderson, and he is taking care to send special dreams to the young spirit.

"Sandy? You called in Sandy? I thought you couldn't get Manny to let them help," the black Pooka said in confusion.

I went straight to the source this time. Thankfully, the Sandman is more understanding than the Lunarian, Tempus replied. He can help guide Jack through his dreams for the minor things, which will help him for now. Hopefully, the lack of stress from those minor problems will not, ahem, snowball into something more serious. I will direct these dreams as they are needed, but I promise, I will help guide you so that this quest goes as quickly as possible.

The pack slid from furred shoulders as the Pooka slowly sat on a log. He put his head in his hands, long ears hanging down as he finally accepted the next phase of his quest. "Dreams might help, lord knows that was more help than I ever got." He sighed quietly. "Then we'd better get started. The sooner we're done, the sooner I can go to Burgess." He reached down and pulled out the map.