Chapter Seven
Jack wasn't sure why people in movies and books always seemed to wake up slowly. A twitch of an eye as you slowly woke, a huge, drawn-out yawn and a bout of eye-rubbing so intense it probably wasn't healthy; the winter sprite had never in his three hundred plus years experienced anything like it. When he woke up, he came to consciousness all at once, no lingering confusion or haziness.
That's why, when he woke up in his bed at the Nature Palace, he knew immediately that Ash had brought him there. He stretched his arms a little and slid out of bed. After brushing his teeth (wouldn't Tooth be so proud?) and attempting to flatten his hair, he grabbed his staff and flew out to the globe room.
There was no one there. Jack froze in the doorway, worry starting to claw at his insides. He had assumed, when he had passed the other bedrooms and seen nobody in them, that the others were already up and working. Mother Nature at the least should have been monitoring the globes and making sure that the Generals' work yesterday was correct.
Jack flew to the center of the room, looking around for any clue as to where they could have gone. Nothing.
"Okay, Jack," he said, closing his eyes and trying to calm his racing heart, "deep breaths. They're fine, it's fine, there's probably nothing wrong. This isn't the first time they've left you home alone, they probably had something important to do."
He opened his eyes and they were immediately drawn to one of the globes. The globe that showed the current weather patterns and overall temperatures of the world didn't look anything like the one next to it, the globe that showed how the world should be.
On the first globe, there was a small splash of bright red in the lower right side of the United States, and as Jack watched, it grew steadily larger and larger. Frowning, he referenced the other globe only to see that the area was supposed to be having a mild winter, snow and all.
A knot started twisting itself in the pit of his stomach. This was so not good. Something was disrupting the balance of nature and the Generals and Mother Nature was missing. Jack was in way over his head. Smothering down the flare of panic fluttering in his stomach, he pushed off from the ground and let the wind speed him down the North Tunnel.
He couldn't handle this alone, but luckily, he had other people-er, spirits- he knew he could count on.
… oO()Oo …
What normally would have been a long flight spent playing in the air and having fun turned out to be frantic and short. Jack had no time for goofing off, something he never thought would happen. When the Pole finally came into view, Jack put on an extra burst of speed and headed straight for the first open window he could see.
Coincidentally, it was North's private workshop he landed in, bringing with him a blast of cold air and a flurry of snowflakes. The Cossack himself was sitting in his chair, staring wide-eyed at Jack.
"Jack!" he exclaimed, bringing one of his huge hands to his chest. "Do not do that! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
"Sorry, North," Jack said, heading for the door, "but we have an emergency and I need to summon the rest of the Guardians." North's face went from surprised and amused to deadly serious so fast it gave Jack whiplash.
"Vhat is the problem?" he asked, rushing past Jack and out into the hallway. Jack sped out after him and had to fly to keep up with the Cossack.
"I don't know," Jack said, worry seeping into his voice. "I was at the Nature Palace when I woke up-"
"Nature Palace?" North parroted, eyebrows shooting upwards.
"It's where Mom, the Generals and I live," Jack said, waving a hand dismissively. "It's not important. Anyway, no one was there when I woke up and there's something weird going on in the United States."
"Vhat kind of veird?" North asked, throwing open the door to the Globe Room and striding over to the switch that turned on the Aurora Borealis.
"It's getting hot," Jack said. "Really, really hot, which is bad because it's supposed to be snowing in that area."
North turned back to Jack. "So, Earth Qveen is missing and Earth is heating up. Could this be Elliot's doing?"
Jack's eyes widened. "Mom was looking for Elliot the last time I saw her. But Elliot isn't powerful enough to take down Mother Nature all on his own. And if the other Generals noticed what I noticed and went to look for her, there's no way Elliot should have been able to take on all four of them together."
North nodded, thinking. "Ve'll vait for the other Guardians to arrive, then ve'll decide vhat to do."
"Thanks, North," Jack said, relieved. He sank to the floor, leaning his hand against the wall. He felt his eyes start to sting and blinked them rapidly. He wouldn't cry, not right now, now matter how terrified he was that he would never see his family again. Instead, he closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall.
He could hear North moving around the room, and he vaguely wondered how long it took the other Guardians react to the Northern Lights. Counting the seconds as they ticked by didn't make them go faster, so Jack settled for trying to remember the words to a lullaby Mother Nature used to sing to him when he wasn't even a hundred years old yet.
He smiled a little once he remembered, and sang quietly under his breath.
Sleep, little winter child
Don't you fret
For you are not alone in this this world
Don't you forget
That you have me and he and she
And we will never let you be
So when life seems too much for you
Remember that we will help you pull through
Know you're loved as you fly through the sky
Feel the coolness of winter, know you'll never need to cry
For we will always be right here for you, my dear
Just as every snowflake is unique, so are you
And just as love's eternal so is mine for you, it's true
So sleep, little winter child
Don't you fret
For you are not alone in this world
Don't you forget
That I love you more than life itself and that will be true no matter what you do
He could feel North's gaze on him, but Jack didn't open his eyes. He stayed on the ground, ignoring the restlessness in him that told him to get up and pace, fly, do something.
It seemed like forever before the other Guardians finally got there, though it couldn't have have been more than ten minutes. Jack was on his feet as soon as Bunny's tunnel opened, and when the Pooka shot out and landed in a crouch above a small purple flower, Jack was already by his side.
"What's the emergency?" Bunny asked urgently.
"We should probably wait for Sandy and Tooth," Jack said. "I don't feel like explaining it more than I have to."
Bunny looked at him suspiciously but sat down on a chair, placing his chin in his hand. North patted him on the back as Jack went back to his spot against the wall. Sandy and Tooth arrived together a few minutes later, ready for battle.
Jack left it up to North to explain that there was no threat that they knew of, and the Guardians all turned to Jack for an explanation.
"Mom and the other Generals are in trouble, I think," he said, worry making him very abrupt and impatient. "Something's wrong in the southeastern United States and I have a feeling that they went to investigate it. But whatever's going on, it was too much for them to handle."
"So, what?" Bunny asked. "Motha Nacha's one of the most powerful spirits in the world, and if she couldn't handle it, what can we do?"
Jack felt a little of his hope die out, and Bunny must have felt it, too, if the way he shot Jack a perplexed glance was anything to go by.
"I don't know," Jack answered honestly. "But I have to do something. They're my family."
The Guardians were silent for less than a second as they thought.
"Of course ve vill help!" North said, grinning down at Jack. Tooth and Sandy nodded enthusiastically, and even Bunny agreed to help.
"So, where exactly are they?" Tooth asked as they piled into the sleigh.
"Arkansas," Jack replied, gripping the side of the sleigh to prevent himself from falling out when the reindeer started to move. "That's the center of the heating phenomenon."
"Then to Arkansas ve go!" North exclaimed as the sleigh shot out of the tunnel and into the open skies. Jack didn't really pay attention to the ride like he might have normally. He was lost in thought, wracking his brains to try and figure out what could be causing the States to heat up so drastically and take down Mother Nature and the Generals, assuming that they actually were in Arkansas.
The only thing Jack could think of that could possibly be behind this was Elliot, but that was impossible. The spirit of fire wasn't nearly powerful enough to defeat Mother Nature. Then again, he had managed to take down Jack pretty easily, and while Jack wasn't as strong as his older siblings or his mother, he was more than capable of holding his own against an elemental.
It was unlikely, but it was the only explanation he had.
"Jack!" North called from the front of the sleigh, breaking him out of his thoughts. "I am going to land the sleigh a few miles avay, is too hot for the reindeer."
Jack looked around and noticed that it was really hot, almost unbearably so. He twitched his staff and the air around him became cold, just how he liked it. The sleigh started to descend, tilting downwards at such an angle that they had to grip the sides tightly to avoid being tossed out of the sleigh by the wind.
The landing was a little bumpy, and they emerged from the thicket of trees that North had landed in a little tousled up.
"Where do we go, now?" Tooth asked, fluttering her wings.
Jack closed his eyes and turned in a small circle. He stopped facing west, and pointed. "That way. I can feel magic coming from that direction."
He took to the air, looking behind him to see Sandy and Tooth right behind him. Bunny and North were running behind, though the Cossack was falling behind a little. Jack focused on the sky in front of him and he sped up, urging the wind to push him faster.
After a few minutes they came across a large field filled with dead, yellow grass. There was a large, dark smudge in the middle of the field, but Jack was too far away to see what it was.
"What is that?" Tooth asked, flying up to hover next to Jack.
"I don't know," the winter sprite answered. "But I'm gonna find out."
Cautious in case it really was Elliot, Jack let himself plummet to the ground and landed lightly on his feet before starting forward. Bunny caught up to him just as he reached the edge of what Jack could only describe as a burn on the Earth's surface. It was about a mile wide and completely charred, no life growing anywhere in the circle.
Jack stopped at the edge, crouching down in the long grass. Bunny sidled up to him, into the cool bubble of air around the winter spirit.
"Jack, look at that," he said, pointing towards the center of the circle. Jack squinted and then his eyes widened when he finally realized what he was looking at. Mother Nature and the other Generals were sitting in the center of the circle, trapped in a giant glass dome. The whole thing was covered in wires and cables that snaked across the ground and connected to a seemingly harmless metal rod stuck into the ground.
Jack looked around and, after seeing no one else around, sped off towards the nature spirits. He landed a few feet away and sprinted to the dome, pressing his hands against it and peering inside. The Generals were all slumped on the ground, pale and breathing shallowly. Mother Nature, too, didn't look good, but she was at least still awake.
"Jack!" she cried, eyes widening. She stumbled over to the side of the dome and lined her hand up with his. "How did you find us?"
"The globe," Jack answered. "This place is supposed to be covered in snow, but the globe showed it to be hot. Mom, what's going on?"
Mother Nature's eyes darkened. "Elliot," she hissed. "It appears that kidnapping you was just a distraction so he could finish this."
"What is this?"
Mother Nature gestured to the rod set up a few feet away. "It's a conduit, like your staff. This," she tapped the glass, "harnesses our energy. It's transferred to Elliot via these cables, and he heats it up. It travels to that rod and is released into the air as heat."
"What's he trying to do?" Jack asked, pressing his hand harder against the glass and slowly covering it with a layer of frost.
"I'm not sure, but I think he's heating up the globe," Mother Nature answered, adding her own ice to Jack's. "Accelerating global warming, but I'm not sure when he's going to stop, if he does at all."
"Jack!" A sharp cry from Tooth made Jack whirl around, and he saw the Guardians standing a few yards away, battling with some summer elementals. The Guardians were good, but there were many more spirits than they could handle.
"Jack, go help them," Mother Nature said sternly.
"Can you get out?"
Mother Nature nodded. "I may be weakened, but I can still destroy the glass. I need you to keep Elliot busy, if he shows up."
Jack nodded and shot one more glance at the still forms of his siblings before taking to the sky and flying over to the fight. He landed hard in the middle of the fray, slamming his staff down on the ground. Immediately, ice began covering the ash-covered land, spreading quickly. The elementals jumped back and focused their full attention on him, ignoring the Guardians.
"North, can you and Sandy go help Mom?" he called, dodging a blast of heat from the spirit of the sun. North nodded and he and Sandy raced towards the globe. Tooth and Bunny jumped back into the battle.
Jack focused most of his power on cooling the air, attempting to at least slow down the summer spirits, while using the hand-to-hand combat Bunny had taught him to take down spirit after spirit. He dodged a punch from a particularly tall elemental and jumped back to assess the situation.
Mother Nature and his brother and sisters were still trapped, but the ice had weakened the glass enough that North's and Sandy's attacked was cracking it. He, Bunny and Tooth had taken out at least half of the elementals, and there were unconscious bodies littering the ground.
Jack frowned down at the ground. A light fog had started sweeping over the charred dirt, thickening to the point where Jack couldn't even see his own bare feet anymore. He lifted his legs and flew a few feet off the ground, looking around for the source of the unnatural fog.
No one else seemed bothered by the fog and the battle below him raged on, so his gaze was immediately drawn to the one person in the whole field that was standing still. Jack narrowed his eyes and could just barely make out a familiar silhouette.
John Haze, the traitorous little weasel, was cloaked in thick fog that was slowly turning into black smoke. He had his hands held out in front of him, palms facing downwards. Red clouded Jack's vision and he adjusted his hold on his staff before shooting off towards him. Just before he slammed into John, the spirit turned and smiled at him, an unnerving smirk that clearly said 'I know something you don't'.
A flash of doubt flickered through him, followed immediately by the very real weight of something heavy slamming into him. He slammed into the ground hard and all the breath left his lungs in a painful oof! He curled up protectively around his staff for a second before finally mustering up enough energy to look up at what had hit him.
Smiling down at him, looking for all the world like they had just won every lottery in the world, were John and-
"Elliot."