Chapter Three
They only had to wait half an hour for Ash, Sunny and the Guardians to get back to the North Pole, which Lila thought was a record of some type. Still, she couldn't help but pace restlessly in the Globe Room while they waited. Mother Nature, saint that she was, simply sat in her chair, watching the General walk around the room.
Every once in a while, Lila's gaze would flick to where John sat against the wall, looking at the ground. His grey eyes would meet her's every time she stopped her walking, and each time she saw some emotion swirling in his eyes that she couldn't place.
It unnerved her, to say the least. She was startled out of her thoughts when a yeti knocked and entered, saying that the others had returned. Mother Nature was on her feet instantly and striding out of the door, Lila hot on her heels with John in tow.
They briskly walked out to the main common room, where Ash, Sunny, Sandy, North, Bunny and Tooth waited. Ash and Sunny's eyes darkened when John entered, and the spirit wisely kept his gaze lowered.
"You have located Jack?" North demanded. Mother Nature nodded.
"John told us that Elliot is keeping Jack in Greenland, so that's where we're heading," she said.
"All of us?" Ash asked.
"Yes," Mother Nature replied. "Elliot is very popular among other summer and spring spirits, I have no doubt that he has gathered at least a small following."
"What are we waiting for?" Tooth asked excitedly, flitting to the door. "Let's go rescue Jack!" The others followed with the same amount of enthusiasm. Bunny didn't even hesitate in jumping into the sleigh, though he looked like he regretted that decision as soon as it sped off down the tunnel.
Mother Nature looked down at her feet, where John sat stiffly against the side of the sleigh.
"Where exactly is Jack?" she asked. John looked up at her, eyes full of anger and fear.
"Thirty miles South of the Pole," he said finally. They all stiffened in surprise.
"He's been right here the whole time?" Bunny demanded angrily. John smirked in answer and the Pooka's eyes lit up with anger.
"Bunny!" North called from the front of the sleigh, stopping the Guardian from throwing the boomerangs clutched tight in his fists. "Calm yourself. No good vill come from hurting him."
Bunny reluctantly backed off and sat back down, though he shot a glare at John every few seconds. The ride only took twenty minutes or so, thanks to the speed of the reindeer. Instead of landing this time, the sleigh hovered in the air.
Bunny, North, Ash, Sunny and Lila jumped out, landing in crouches on the ice while Mother Nature, Sandy and Tooth simply flew down.
Mother Nature waved her hand, warming up the air around the group. Ash smiled in thanks and they began walking forward.
"Where?" Lila spat icily at John after thay had left the sleigh far behind them. The spirit scowled but pointed to a distant heap of snow.
"The entrance to Elliot's base is in there," he said, then turned to Mother Nature. "I'm not going in with you. Elliot would kill me, best friend or not."
"You have no choice," Mother Nature said calmly back, walking over to the snow pile. "You helped create this mess, you are going to help fix it."
She waved her hand and the snow melted instantly, pooling into water that quickly froze into ice in the low temperature. Without looking back, Mother Nature stepped into the hole in the ground, letting the wind gently float her down. The drop wasn't long, and she landed silently on the stone floor.
The first thing she noticed was the heat. It was sharp and stinging, like the heat that rose from a fire. She sent the wind up to call the others down and cautiously walked forward down the hall. The farther she went, the hotter it became, until she was absolutely positive that only Elliot could have produced the heat.
She rounded a corner and came to a stop, surveying the area she found herself in. It was a huge cavern made entirely of stone. In the very center sat a huge fire surrounded by boulders. She could see a strange shape moving about in the flames and narrowed her eyes.
It was Elliot. The spirit was standing in the flames, gazing around the room with a satisfied smile on his face. Around the cavern milled dozens of summer and spring spirits, most of their powers having to do with heat.
Mother Nature could see the spirit of droughts, the spirit of sunshine, the spirit of lightning and many more. Her eyes raked across the cavern and she spotted a small opening in the rock on the far side. There were two spirits standing outside of it, the spirits of desert and steam.
Jack had to be in there.
A noise behind her made her turn her head and she saw the Generals, Guardians and John standing behind her.
"Jack is in there, I think," she said, pointing at the opening. "We'll need to distract the elementals if we're going to get him out."
"I'll get Jack," Ash said. "You guys keep them occupied."
Mother Nature nodded and waved her hand again. The fire in the middle of the room went out and Elliot dropped to the floor, landing on his ass with a fairly audible oof. He jumped up and looked around angrily, his eyes finally landing on the group by the entryway.
"So," he sneered, "finally caught up, have we?"
"Give me back my General, Elliot," Mother Nature said, stepping forward through the elementals until she was standing right in front of the spirit of fire. "You cannot go against your queen."
"Watch me," Elliot said, smirking. He snapped his fingers and all of the elementals in the room attacked. None of them dared to get too close to Mother Nature, but they all rushed straight for the Guardians and Generals.
Within seconds elementals were being thrown around like dolls. Lila had her hands up and two humongous vines had burst up through the cavern floor. They matched the movements of Lila's hands perfectly, batting elementals aside like flies.
Sunny was dashing around, using her powers to suck the heat out of the air, making the summer and spring elementals' movements sluggish and slow. The Guardians were unstoppable, using their weapons to knock out any elemental that came too close.
Mother Nature focused all of her attention on Elliot. The spirit was almost as old as her and nearly as powerful. But, where he could only control heat and fire, Mother Nature had mastery over all elements. It was a stalemate, Mother Nature throwing a blast of ice at Elliot and the spirit reflecting it with a wave of heat, and vice versa.
In all of the chaos, no one noticed Ash slip to the side of the cavern and dash into the crack in the wall.
The hallway was a lot cooler than the main cavern, though it was still much too hot for him or Jack. He barely noticed the temperature change, though. His main focus was getting to the end of the tunnel and finding Jack. He ran as fast as he could through the dark, until at last he could see something piercing the shadows.
Sliding to a stop in front of a huge cage, he knelt and looked inside. His eyes widened when he took in the appearance of the winter General. He was covered in bruises and small cuts and there was blood matting his white hair on one side of his head. He was unconscious and didn't stir when Ash rattled the door, though that wasn't what worried him the most.
Jack was sweating. Not a lot, not even enough to be considered fully sweating, but it terrified the General. Jack's usually pale skin had a pink flush to it and Ash could feel the tiny waves of heat coming off of him. For a winter spirit, a fever could be deadly.
Cursing under his breath, he looked around the small room for something to help him open the door. His eyes landed on a key hanging by the door. Ash grabbed it and jammed it into the lock, relief filling him when it turned and the door swung open.
As quickly as he could, he lifted up Jack's still form and exited the room. He paused when he came to the door leading back to the main cavern. The sounds of battle were still bouncing off the walls, though it wasn't nearly as loud as it had been before. Ash peeked into the cavern and saw most of the elementals strewn about on the floor. The remaining few were being held back by the General and Guardians, and Mother Nature was still fighting Elliot.
The fire spirit was so engrossed in the battle that he didn't notice Ash sneak around the edge of the cavern with Jack in his arms. When he got to the tunnel leading out, he stopped and turned.
"Fall back!" he called, deep voice reverberating around the large cavern. Everyone stopped and stared at him in shock, but it was exactly what the Generals and Guardians needed. They, along with Mother Nature, broke away from the fight and dashed over to him. Together the nine of them raced back up to the sleigh, hearing pounding footsteps behind them and Elliot's angry bellowing.
They piled into the sleigh and sped off, using a snow globe this time so that Elliot wouldn't be able to track them. When they emerged from the vortex, they found themselves rapidly approaching the stables. North pulled hard on the reins, stopping them enough that the impact from their landing didn't do worse than jolt them all a little.
They immediately jumped out and raced to the medical bay, where the yetis working there got to work right away. The Guardian were shooed out, but Mother Nature and the Generals wouldn't budge from their spot by Jack's bed.
It was a stressful ten minutes for all of them. All the yetis could do was clean and dress the cuts and smear a salve on the bruises. Nothing they had would put a dent in Jack's fever and Mother Nature knew it. So, as soon as the yetis were done, she grabbed her General and strode out of the room.
The Guardians jumped to their feet and followed without a word. No one was surprised when Mother Nature led them to Jack's room. Ash pushed open the door and Mother Nature set Jack down gently on the bed.
He looked completely fine except for the pink flush in his normally white cheeks and the bandaged wrapped around his head. Mother Nature sat down on the chair and folded her hands neatly in her lap, obviously not intending to move until Jack woke up. The Generals and Guardians copied her, lounging around the room and keeping their eyes glued firmly on the winter sprite.
The wind swirled around the room, bringing icy air and snowflakes into the room, but no one complained. The cold would help Jack, though the others, minus North and Mother Nature, wouldn't be able to stand it for long.
No one spoke a word, each lost in their own thoughts. So they sat and waited for their winter sprite to wake up.
… oO()Oo …
High above a small town on the East coast of the United States, a single streak of light flashed across the sky. No one could see it, because no one believed that the spirit of fire existed, but it was there nonetheless. In Elliot's arms was John, both of them smiling deviously.
"How did I do?" John asked, looking up at his best friend.
"You did perfectly," Elliot replied. "They don't suspect a thing."
"They will when you just give up," John pointed out. "After all, they know how much trouble you went through to gather followers and they'll guess that it wasn't just for torturing Frost, which you also didn't do."
"And that's why you're going to distract them. When they notice that you're missing, they'll know something's up, if they don't already. And when they do, they'll hunt you down. You'll be all the way in China, and I'll be-"
"Luring Mother Nature to Arkansas so you can work on the thing."
Elliot huffed in annoyance. "It's not a thing. It's a conduit."
"Whatever," John said flippantly. "It's still a thing. And while you're finishing it, I'll be playing hide-and-seek with the Generals and those Guardians."
"Ya know," Elliot said thoughtfully, "this may work out even better than I had originally planned."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, Mother Nature and the Guardians were so busy finding Frost that they neglected their duties. Emily and the Big Gs haven't been giving orders, so the elementals have been doing what they think the Earth needs. The Guardians haven't been preparing for their holidays or whatever it is that they do."
"If we can keep them busy long enough, they'll destroy themselves," John realized. "The Guardians will lose their believers and the Earth will die if Emily doesn't keep order, so she'll die, too."
"Exactly," Elliot said proudly. "And then we'll be free to redecorate the planet as we want."
The two spirits smiled as they thought of what they'd do once the world was theirs and sped off into the night, an invisible trail of fire the only thing marking their path.