Chapter Six

Jack, Ash and the autumn army were in Paris, France when the Guardians found them. Jack had just finished setting up a small snowstorm when he was grabbed from behind. Acting on instinct, he grabbed the person's wrist and flipped them over his shoulder.

He barely registered a familiar flash of blue and green as it sped by his face, and then Tooth was staring up at him with an expression of shock on her face.

"Whoops," Jack said sheepishly, pulling her to her feet. "Sorry, Tooth."

"It's fine, Jack," Tooth said, giving her wings a few test flaps. "We have more important things to worry about anyway."

"We?"

"Yeah." Tooth pointed to something behind Jack and the winter spirit turned to see the rest of the Guardians standing a few feet away from Ash and the autumn elementals. "There's something important we need to tell Mother Nature. It's about Elliot and John."

"Mother Nature's actually tracking those two down now," Ash said, coming up to stand beside Jack. "We know they're planning something big and she's gone to find out what."

Tooth blinked in surprise. "Oh," she said. "Well, in that case, I guess we don't have anything to tell her."

Jack chuckled. "Do you guys wanna come with us?" he asked. "We just have to do Greenland and then we'll be done."

"Da!" North boomed excitedly, making the closest elementals to him jump a little in surprise. "I've never seen you vork before, I vould love to come."

Sandy flashed a few sand signals over his head, nodding enthusiastically and Tooth squealed and fluttered into the air.

"I think I'll pass," Bunny said, crossing his arms. "I'm not really a fan a the cold."

"Aww, come on, Bunny," Jack wheedled. "At least come with us to Greenland."

"Sorry, Snowflake," Bunny said, face remaining a mask of indifference. "I have to prepare for Easta. Not all of us," he glared pointedly at North, "have minions to do the work for us."

"Suit yourself," Jack shrugged. He raised his staff a little and rose up into the air besides Tooth. "Shall we go?"

Sandy created a small hot air balloon from Dreamsand and he and North climbed in. Tooth and the Generals took to the air while the army ran below them. The journey to Greenland took a little over an hour. Jack created an ice bridge for the elementals to use to cross the ocean, which Tooth thought was amazing.

"Ready to be amazed?" Jack asked when they finally reached the coast of Greenland, flashing a huge smile at Tooth. The fairy nearly fell out of the air from the sight of Jack's teeth, but managed to keep herself airborne and nodded her head eagerly.

Ash rolled his eyes, but stood back while Jack flew up closer to the clouds, raising his staff high above his head. He slowly waved the shepherd's crock in a small circle and the others watched as the clouds followed the movement, swirling around and growing darker.

Soon, small flurries were falling, sticking to the ground and the glacier already present. Furrowing his brow, Jack pushed more of his power out and watched with satisfaction as the flurries turned into heavy snowfall.

He flew off, leaving the rest of the group to follow. Everywhere he went, he created some type of snowstorm. He worked his way around the coast first, then started to move further inland. Some parts of the country got nothing but light snowfall, while other places got full on blizzards.

It took about eight full hours to finish, and all of them were exhausted when they finally finished. The Guardians had left hours before, needing to get back to their duties, but the elementals had stayed with Jack, not wanting to leave him alone.

When he finally finished the last storm, Jack flew tiredly over to where Ash waited. The winter sprite landed clumsily and stumbled over to his brother, leaning on him heavily to stay upright.

"That took a lot more energy than I thought it would," he mumbled into Ash's shoulder. The General chuckled and wrapped his arm around Jack's thin waist.

"You're lucky I sent the army home an hour ago," he said in a teasing tone. "We wouldn't want them to see the winter General so vulnerable, now, would we?"

"Mmm, definitely not," Jack said, letting his eyes slip shut and his body fall limp. Ash lifted his sleeping brother's body into his arms, letting the wind carry them both back to the Nature Palace.

… oO()Oo …

Sunny was frantic. She was pacing a in a circle around the globes and had been for two hours. Lila sat on a table, watching her little sister wear a hole in the floor. The spring General was just as worried as her sister was, but Lila had more control over herself than Sunny did.

Sunny passed her again and she reached out with one arm, stopping Sunny's erratic movement.

"Calm down," she said firmly, looking into Sunny's wide green eyes with her cool blue ones. "We don't know for sure that she's in danger."

"Lila, it's been almost twenty-four hours since she left," Sunny said, voice tense. "She's never gone that long without checking up on us first. Not willingly."

"I know," Lila said, letting some of her own worry seep into her voice. "And we'll find her. But pacing isn't going to help."

"I just feel like we should be doing something other than waiting." Sunny sat down next to Lila, dropping her head into her hands. "I've never felt so useless in my life."

"I know how you feel, but there isn't anything we can do," Lila said, wrapping an arm around Sunny's shoulders. "If Mother Nature really is in trouble, then the two of us definitely don't stand a chance against whatever it is she went up against."

Sunny sighed unhappily, but sat still. They both kept their gazes trained on the entrance to the tunnel where they knew Ash and Jack would be using to get into the Palace. They sat there for an hour, neither one of them wanting to move from their silent vigil.

Eventually, quiet footsteps alerted the Generals to the arrival of their brothers. Ash walked out of the tunnel with a sleeping Jack in his arms.

"Hey, guys," Ash greeted, not noticing the tension in their shoulders or the worry in their eyes.

"What happened to Jack?" Lila asked, hopping off the counter and walking over to the other Generals.

"He's just tired," Ash replied. "He's never had to create winter on such a large scale before." Ash looked up at her, then at Sunny, and frowned. "What's wrong?"

"Mother's missing," Sunny said bluntly from her perch on the counter. "She left almost a full day ago and she hasn't checked in once."

Ash's eyes widened and he tightened his grip on his smaller brother.

"Have you started searching for her?" he asked. Lila shook her head sadly.

"You know as well as I do that we'd be no match for whatever took her. We were waiting for you two to get back."

"We shouldn't get Jack involved," Sunny said firmly, reaching out a hand to brush back a stray lock of white hair from Jack's forehead. "If we can spare him the worry, we should."

"I agree," Lila said. "Ash, can you take him to his room?"

Ash nodded and let the wind sweep him up, carrying him to the hallway that contained their bedrooms. Sunny turned to Lila expectantly.

"How will we find her?" she asked. "We can't ask the elementals for help and our access to the underground root system isn't as full as Mother's is."

"I don't know, Sunny," Lila said, running a hand through her blonde curls. "We'll just have to split up and search the old fashioned way."

"That'll take too long," Ash said from the doorway, surprising both Sunny and Lila.

"There's nothing else we can do," Lila said. Ash sighed angrily but followed his sisters through the tunnel.