Hey guys! The reviews are coming in great! So I'm going to see the RotG premiere with my friend tomorrow. It's kind of last minute and I feel like I'm gloating but I CAN'T FREAKING WAIT! OMG, JACK FROST! Oh, and speaking of Jack Frost, my sister read this story and then looked at me and said "Frost hater."
Let me just clear this up. No, I have not, nor will I ever, hate Jack Frost. I'm just trying to make it more realistic coming from Jaenirra's point if view.
Okay, glad we got that out of the way. Enjoy!
Pan'nuck was lying in one of the multiple beds in North's vast infirmary, propped up on a plush pillow. His bloody, tattered green tunic had been removed and, as he later learned, burned. Now, his broad chest was wrapped in bandages, covering the several scrapes Jack had managed to inflict upon him in one of the many times the winter spirit had woken up.
His wonderfully gentle nurses, Tooth's mini-fairies, had flitted off after they had cleaned his cuts and iced his bruises, leaving one sole feathered fey to guard the patient.
It was now snuggled on a stack of gauze on his nearby bedside, wheezing in what could have been considered tiny snores and generally lying down on the job.
It was so adorable, Pan'nuck couldn't help a little chuckle. The hummingbird raised it's large pink eyes blearily, startled by the sudden noise.
"Sorry," Pan'nuck apologized to the fairy, still chuckling. "Go back to sleep."
The fairy shot up, remembering her duties. She began to twitter very angrily and shake a tiny finger at the partially mummified boy, while her other hand was on her hip. It was almost as if she were scolding him.
"No, I promise I won't get out of bed. After all, I don't want to suffer your wrath." Pan'nuck said, seemingly understanding the fairy's fitful chatter.
The fairy looked at him skeptically.
"If I swore on MiM, would you believe me?" Pan'nuck tried.
The feyling thought about it, wings still fluttering rapidly as she hovered in front of his nose.
To swear on MiM was a very big deal. If you made an oath, by law, you had to keep it.
She thought some more and finally nodded her feather crowned head quickly.
"Okay then, I swear by MiM that I will not leave this bed until I am told to or the building catches on fire," Pan'nuck placed his right wrapped hand over his heart and raised the other. "Or if someone is in trouble." He added for extra measure.
"How was that?" He inquired.
The little fairy nodded her head in satisfaction and whirled back to her former bed, cuddling in between the thin layers of light clothe.
"Before you go to sleep can I ask you something?" The green-eyed boy asked softly, leaning down to become eye level with the tired little hummingbird.
She yawned before nodding.
"What's your name?"
The winged sprite could barely keep her sleepy coral eyes open, she assumed it was because she usually worked over-time and hadn't slept in two months, but she managed to let out one last chirrup.
"Baby Tooth," the Summer fey mused, "What a fitting name for one of Tooth's lieutenants."
But Baby Tooth did not reply and Pan'nuck was left to explore the room with his eyes alone.
I spy with my little eye, Pan'nuck thought, playing a little game in his head, a bed.
True enough, large iron-wrought beds the size of truck beds lined the white-washed walls, as did smaller ones about the size of frying pans. Pristine pearl tile floors shone with the orange light of the setting sun that peeked through several large windows. The arched panes viewed the large splendor of the vast ice canyon in which North's palace nestled. The red sun bounced off of the ice of the surrounding cliffs, setting the sides on fire, like a warmer version of the aurora borealis that had taken up the skies only a few hours ago.
Pan'nuck sighed. Everything had changed with those lights. Normally humorous, the guard felt heavy hearted, as if Varden were taking a nap on his chest. His joke supply, he felt, had run dry.
He was worried about Jaenirra and Jack. He knew, rightfully so, how they did not, could not, get along.
Pan'nuck had to say, Jack and Jaenirra were probably the worst things to happen to him in his three hundred and eighty-two years of life.
And some of the best things to happen to him, as well.
It was crazy, the philosophy of it all.
He loved them to heaven and to hell but their constant arguing was beginning to make his pointed ears ring with piercing headaches.
Jack, the soldier felt, needed to lay off the jokes and stop poking at Jaenirra, while the girl needed to take Jack's advice and cool off a bit.
Pan'nuck found them both awesome friends.
Jack was never far with his large variety pranks, winter weather and staff slinging.
Pan'nuck sometimes visited him secretly when he had the day off of guarding one of the many watch towers, without Jaenirra knowing, of course.
He and Jack usually played pranks on unsuspecting people and each other, sometimes they compared jokes and girls and shit, regular mortal guy stuff. Sometimes they just talked.
Pan'nuck had learned that Jack didn't know who he was or where he came from, so when it came to discussing backstories, they simply didn't.
The winter spirit was great guy with a good heart and an excellent character, but sometimes he joked around a little too much, which irritated Jaenirra up to no end.
Jaenirra, as it were, was the exact opposite.
She just needed to loosen up, take joke for once; it had been so long since Pan'nuck had seen her laugh. He missed it dreadfully.
It was light and tinkling, yet full and subtle, childish in it's vocals.
It was one of those laughs you couldn't get enough of, and you found yourself trying to think of new ways to hear it again, to listen to the silvery rain as you stood in a vast desert.
But Jaenirra's laugh was seldom heard.
Pan'nuck did remember a time, though, when they were children, younger in their years, when times had been full of magic and awe at the world.
He remembered at time when a smile from Jaenirra was a plentiful, everyday thing.
It was before her coronation, before she became Lady Summer.
"Ninety-eight, ninety-nine, ONE HUNDRED." The small girl shouted across the warm golden fields of papery-barked trees. She looked around, bright amber eyes twinkling in by the golden aura of the apple tree under which she had chosen to count for an exciting game of Find-A-Fey.
"Hidden from sight by a bush,
Or high in a tree,
I'll set your tush on fire
And then laugh I'll with glee." She chanted merrily as she skipped down the palace gardens, her childish face lit with delight. The incantation was not something out of a horror film but instead, the words that usually accompanied the seeker in a game of Find-A-Fey after they had counted to the customary number of one hundred.
It was an off-school day and she was determined to enjoy her time along with her friends while they were away from their studies in the palace.
Though she looked only about eight, in actuality, she was over a century and a half.
The girl enjoyed the lushes green grass that felt cool in between her bare toes, how the sun warmly nipped at her pointed ears, how the air smelled of fresh flowers, magic and a bright morning with good things to come.
She arrived at a small stream that babbled happily and shimmered in the warm Camalian breeze. Watching it skip along over rocks in a cool fashion, the pointy-eared girl wanted nothing more then to dip her toes in and taste the refreshing bite of a spring brook. She looked left and right hurriedly.
It wouldn't hurt if she let her two best friends wait just a bit longer for her to find them.
Making up her mind, she enthusiastically scrambled down the red clay bank bed, mudding her pure white dress in the process. She landed with a splash and shrieked with glee as the chilly water rushed over her feet. She watched, entranced by the way the light bounced of her bronze skin, sending ribbons dancing across the creek bed. A cheerful twittering above her head sent her gazing up at the sky. Brightly colored yellow finches danced in the high light azure heavens, singing melodies and chattering about the latest juicy bird gossip.
The girl watched as two finches zipped past her and turned to follow them. As she spun, she raised her hands in glee, her long, wavy, crimson hair flowing through the wind. The girl's white, folded dress whipped around as well, forming a cloud of white around her in a ballet of nature.
Soon she forgot all about her friends whom she had wanted to find not two minutes ago. The game was a distant memory and now she enjoyed one of the greatest things in life, the living in a moment unexpected.
She giggled and whirled, watching the world around her turn into a spectrum of the ivory of the apple tree bark, the gold of the sun and finches, the sapphire of the heavens above and the mahogany of the clay earth.
It was wonderful, it was real, it was magical, it was...falling?
She lost her balance twirling around in the creek and came crashing down. Her dress and hair was soaking wet.
A fit of laughter coming from the trees drew the drenched girl's attention. High in a tree, roaring with laughter, was a green-outfitted, young, orange-haired boy about her age. He held his sides, rocking back and forth on the tree bough, causing the silver leaves to shiver.
"Pan'nuck!" The girl half-spluttered with embarrassment, half-wailed with tears.
The boy continued to laugh at her but thankfully Wenda came to her rescue.
"Jaenirra!"
A copper-haired girl with crystal eyes and a dress similar to Jaenirra's but a sky blue color, appeared from behind a rock farther downstream and rushed towards the dripping girl.
"Jaenirra, Jaenirra! Are you okay?" She cried, stumbling as she made her way toward her friend.
She slide down the red bank, messing up her dress as well.
"Oh, bother." Wenda huffed, fussing with Jaenirra's white dress as she lifted the redhead by her armpits. "Why do you always have to get into these kinds of messes and why do I always have to dig you out?"
While trying to pull Jaenirra up, the strawberry blonde lost her footing and came crashing down next to her friend.
"Oh bother." She repeated, lamenting, "Now my new dress is all ruined." Wenda stood up, holding the ends of her sky dress with the tips of her fingers and wrinkling her freckled nose.
"Don't worry," Jaenirra stood up along with her, "Saro will wash it for you."
Saro was a plump nanny who watched the children with a stern but kindly eye. She was a sturdy woman as well, hands calloused from years of working at the palace, washing clothes repeatedly like the ones that now dripped on the girls' frames. Saro loved the three children so but would not hesitate to correct them.
Mostly through a wooden spoon she brandished like a sword.
Jaenirra was glad she was not here with them.
"Come on then," She gestured to Wenda. "We got to find someway to climb up without that moron." She nodded her head towards Pan'nuck.
Together they struggled up the steep incline and collapsed hard on the soft grass, breathing in great lungfuls.
"Why must we always end up like this?" Wenda puffed, cheeks pink.
"Don't ask me," Jaenirra replied bitterly, "Ask him."
Both girls turned to Pan'nuck, who was still laughing his ass off.
Jaenirra shot to her feet, placing her hands on her hips. "Pan'nuck, why do you always have to be so mean?"
"Yeah!" Wenda stood up as well and mimicked her friend.
"I'm..sorry," Pan'nuck gasped between breaths, "But...you were so...fucking priceless."
The two girls both gasped in horror, hands flying to their mouths.
"Pan'nuck, you should know better than to use that kind of language."Jaenirra scolded.
The boy jumped to the ground with ease and strode up to them, arms crossed.
"But you talk like that all the time." He defended, leaning in close.
"I'm the princess." Jaenirra crossed her arms as well and glared evenly back at him.
He was nearly two decades older than her - but in Camalian years that was only about a year - and had about three inches on her but she managed to make up for it with an attitude.
"Fair point." Pan'nuck admitted. "But bet you," he pointed to her, "Wrestle me to the ground."
"You wanna bet?" Jaenirra smiled smugly.
"Go for it, I'll give you the first shoot." Pan'nuck was confident he would win this one. Someday, he hoped to grow up to be a great general of the palace. He imagined often that he would kill a horrible monster and come home carrying mountains of treasure and a fair maiden in which he had rescued, who looked adoringly up into his eyes as they rode on a white horse into the sunset.
Cheesy, right?
But none the less, he had a dream he wanted to uphold and like a childish feeling, somehow wrestling with his future queen seemed necessary to his soon-to-be career.
Or it might have been the small crush he had harbored for Jaenirra over the years and fighting with her was how he would win her affection.
You know - regular boy stuff.
"Wenda, start us off." Pan'nuck commanded his little sister.
"Okay." She looked skeptical but in the end she took a small, blue satin ribbon from her hair and held it out in front of her, between the boy and other girl.
"On your mark."
They both tensed, eyes level with each other.
"Get set.
"You're so going to lose." Pan'nuck muttered pompously.
"Wanna bet?" Jaenirra replied.
"Go!" Wenda dropped the ribbon to the ground and stepped back quickly as both fighters surged forward.
Pan'nuck and Jaenirra locked arms while their hands pressed into each others shoulders, struggling to push the other over.
The girl in white managed to break away and she stepped back.
The orange-haired boy shot forward, thinking that she was retreating and this was his chance to knock her to the ground.
Oh, the irony.
She easily sidestepped him and grabbed his arm. Using his momentum, she placed another hand on his torso and pushed and twisted her hands simultaneously.
Pan'nuck found himself on the ground, beet red and dazed, an instant later.
"Ow." He croaked.
Jaenirra and Wenda burst out laughing.
"And that is why you should never mess with me, Jaenirra Flame, the best there ever was." The redhead peacocked.
"Oh, you sure showed me." The boy rolled his eyes. He suddenly slipped his foot behind Jaenirra's bare one and tripped her so that she came crashing down beside him.
"Ow," She rubbed her head. "You should really give some warning next time."
"You should've before you judo-flipped me." He retorted.
The girl dressed in her tattered white dress shrugged. "Touche. But I feel like I'm missing something."
"Me, too."
They both turned to Wenda at the same time, eyes glowing with child mischief.
The copper-haired girl back away slowly, hands held up in surrender.
"No, thanks. I'd rather not get my dress any...woah!" She shrieked when both of them grabbed onto her hands and pulled her down hard.
"Ugh!" Wenda picked at her blue, now brown and green stained, dress. "Saro is going to kill me."
"Don't worry about it." Pan'nuck told her over Jaenirra's giggling. "It's not the worst your clothes have seen."
"Yeah," Jaenirra agreed turning to her friend, "Remember that one time we fell into the dragon stables?"
"Don't remind me! I couldn't get the stench out of my hair for a week!"
"Shame," Her brother grinned, "Too bad you already smell like shit anyway."
"Pan'nuck! That's not very nice!" Jaenirra punched her friend in the shoulder.
"Ow! Jeez, Jaenirra, I didn't mean it."
"Apology not accepted." Wenda said poutingly.
"I love you?" He tried.
"Denied."
"I'll give you twenty Cinnamon Sweets?"
"Also denied."
"Ugh!" Pan'nuck yelled, throwing his hands into the air. "Girls will never make sense."
"We're not supposed to. Keeps men guessing." Jaenirra winked.
Pan'nuck blushed and turned to the azure sky, under which the three children lay, in order to hide his bashfulness.
They lapsed into silence, watching the clouds that dotted the sky like sheep and listening to the sound of the stream clinking over shiny pebbles like pennies against each other.
Jaenirra sighed contently.
"What?" Wenda asked.
"Nothing, I just-" She paused.
"I just what?" Pan'nuck pushed.
"I just wished that we could do this everyday for the rest of our lives, forever."
"Forever is an awfully long time." The other girl pointed out.
"Yeah," The carrot-topped boy agreed. "I mean, you'd have to die sometime, right?"
"To die," Jaenirra closed her amber eyes. "Would be an awfully big adventure."
Pan'nuck and Wenda cast looks across to Jaenirra who continued to close her eyes.
"Um, Jaenirra-" Pan'nuck started.
"You sounded kind of strange there." Wenda finished.
"Yeah, like you were gonna kill us or something."
"Maybe, I am." Jaenirra said evenly, raising her hand. A flame appeared on her forefinger. Though she had not yet mastered the art of the Flame, she still could summon it every now and then.
But the boy did not know this and he paled.
"I guess I'll just be going now, I forgot Mr. Tehrin gave us some homework." Pan'nuck began to get up but was stopped by the red-haired girl when she grabbed his tunic.
"Aw, come on, Pan'nuck. Don't cha wanna stay?"
"With you? I'd rather not."
"Oh, come on, Pan. You now you want to stay with us." Wenda grabbed onto his shirt as well.
"You want to stay with us forever." They said in unison.
The boy screamed and bolted, leaving both girls rolling on the ground, holding their sides with laughter.
Pan'nuck broke away from the memory, severing the past from the present with a saw crafted from reality.
He had run like hell back to Saro, his nanny, and hidden behind her skirt with a great satisfaction when she beat down on Jaenirra and his sister for getting their dresses dirty and scaring the shit out if him.
Those were better times, better days, no matter how simple, transparent or silly they had seemed.
Pan'nuck lost himself in a daydream of how things used to be and how they could have been if Jaenirra's coronation day hadn't come so soon.
In Camalian society, the next Lady Summer, oldest daughter to the former, took over the position at three hundred years, no matter the circumstances.
Or, she could become so if the predecessor died before that time, which had occurred in this case.
Queen Alevia was loved by all except, as it turned out, by one.
The scene had been bloody.
Carcasses covered the floor, feylings massacred and tapestries torn.
And under the...
Pan'nuck's horrific thoughts were cut through by a blood curdling scream.
He knew that scream.
It was Jaenirra.
"Jaenirra!" Pan'nuck yelled, throwing back the light blanket that covered him.
Baby Tooth shot up, instantly alert and looking around with wide pink eyes.
She suddenly realized that her patient was not there, only a pile of blankets and pillows lay on the floor.
Pan'nuck raced through the long hallways of North's palace, shoving past toys, elves and yetis.
Though his side felt like a million swords stabbed at it and his lungs were on fire, he pushed on.
His mind sprinted almost as fast as he did.
Please don't let anything have happened, please don't let one of them be dead.
In his heart he already knew it had something to do with Jack and Jaenirra, neither of them could get along for more than two minutes before fighting.
"Move!" He shouted as he pushed away a yeti strumming a guitar. He heard a crash but he did not look back. Sliding around a corner, the bandaged boy came to the large oak doors that separated the rest of the building from the main workshop/headquarters.
Pan'nuck took no heed to the enormous size and instead burst through them.
The occupants in the room turned, startled, to the gasping boy.
"I...heard a...a scream." He managed to puff out.
He realized that for some weird reason, Jack was leaning against Tooth.
His eyes began to pick up what had gone down after that.
Jack's bleached face and hair was stained with blood like a crimson rain. Even his normally dark blue sweater was a dark brown color. And where he leaned on Tooth, blood matted her shimmering emerald and teal feathers.
Jaenirra stood not to far off, staring as her smoking hands in disbelief and, Pan'nuck could see a small remainder of it in her warm yellow eyes, malice.
The rest of the Guardians were all looking at her as well, Bunnymund in shock, Sandy in a mix of pity and horror, and North a look of pure rage.
Tooth remained a silent look of worry.
"What happened?" Pan'nuck asked.
"Oh, you know." Jack grinned, grittily. "Standard reunion."
"I attacked him." Jaenirra whispered. "And now he knows." She sighed.
"You mean?" Pan'nuck stopped.
"She told 'im the bloody reason 'e's 'ere!" Bunnymund yelled.
"Please stop all this yellin'" North interjected. " We've 'ad enough madness a'ready."
Sandman nodded in agreement. A picture of a bed and a question mark formed over his head.
"Sandy's right." Tooth nodded, still hanging onto Jack. "We should all go to bed. It's been a long day."
"Um, no thanks." The boy pushed away from her and picked up his staff painfully before leaning on it. "But I'd rather not. I'm afraid Jae here would terminate what's left of me."
"I would not." Jaenirra crossed her arms. Pan'nuck noticed a mini-fairy sleeping in her curls.
Tooth must work them over-time, he thought.
"And my name is not Jae." She added.
"Does it look like I care?"
Jaenirra growled.
"Aye!" North's voice shattered the tense air and everybody jumped. "We're all gonna go ta sleep and not," He sent a glare at both Jack and Jaenirra. They seemed to wilt into themselves. "Kill each otha. Is tat clear?" His Russian accent was extremely hostile and commanding. There would be no room for a no.
The teens both nodded.
"Good," North clapped his hands as if the incident had never happened. "We'll all sleep in da guest si' o' da 'ouse. Tooth, take Jack ta the infirmary an' get 'im some bandages. Bunny, Jaenirra, Pan'nuck, Sandy," He said turning to the others. "Follow me ta ya rooms."
They all nodded and Tooth helped Jack to the place where Pan'nuck had just come from.
Once they were gone, the rest of them followed North through another pair of doors. Night had fallen and the group walked along a narrow corridor that was dark except for several gas lamps that reflected off the windows in frequent intervals.
They were lined up like this:
North in the front.
Bunnymund hopping along beside him.
Sandy floating peacefully.
And Jaenirra and Pan'nuck with Varden in between them.
"I thought I told you to stay in bed." Jaenirra whispered to her friend, leaning towards him so that the others would not hear them.
"I made a promise to Baby Tooth that I would only leave if I heard someone in trouble."
"Who?"
"Baby Tooth. She's one of Tooth's little fairies."
"Oh yeah, her!"
"You have no idea who I'm talking about do you?"
"Nope."
Pan'nuck sighed. "So what happened back there?"
"Nothing." Her tone was quick and it was one meant to cut off all other questions. She then grabbed the fairy from atop her head and whispered to her: "Hey, why don't you go down to the infirmary and help Tooth with Jack?"
The feathered creature nodded blearily before flinting off.
"You can't get away from me that easily." Pan'nuck tugged her to a stop.
"Pan'nuck, let go!" She cast a look down the hallway, where North and the others continued to walk, oblivious to the fact that they were leaving the two teens behind.
"I don't want to get lost in here in the dark."
"You have fire powers and you've been here a million times. Now tell me, what happened in there?"
She glared at him and her eyes blazed with fury. They seemed to burn with hatred and malice like the kind he had seen when he had burst through those doors.
"I told you," She said, twisting her arm away. "Nothing."
Jaenirra turned and stormed away, her red hair looking like it was burning in the firelight.
"What has happened to her?" Pan'nuck wondered aloud.
Varden grunted as if to say, "How should I know?" And trotted after his master.
What was wrong with Jaenirra? She had never acted this way before, not in front of him at least.
What was causing her to act like this? Like a little bitch had possessed her?
Pan'nuck knew it couldn't be based all on Jack.
Or could it?
Pan'nuck sighed. His head throbbed and he felt like he was about to crash and burn.
Hard.
He decided to wait till morning to figure everything out and, hey who knows, maybe Jaenirra would be her regular self again.
The boy hoped and hoped with all his heart before following after Varden in the dark.
Okay so I didn't use the dialogue that I said I would.
(See endnotes for Chapter 5)
But they will be coming.
Hope you liked it and found no errors.
And review. REVIEW! REVIEW! YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO!
Okay, I'm just gonna go lie down now and read Mark of Athena and cry because of Percabeth and the fact that Rick Riordan is a motherfucking troll.
*Cries hysterically because of the beauty of a shipping*
Yeah, I have issues but who doesn't.
Also, I have a friend call That Girl Who is Awesome and she wrote a story called 'One Crazy Summer'
It's a work in progress but she is in desperate need of reviews. So if any of you have any amount of loyalty to me, you'll be dears and go read it. It's really funny and is a major crossover between Teen Titans, Kim Possible, Gravity Falls, Legend of Korra, Kane Chronicles and Heroes of Olmypus.
I think that's everything.
Review, please.