"Pit, Pittoo-"
"Don't call me that."
"Well if you'd think of a name for yourself I wouldn't have to."
As Pittoo grumbled something, Pit spoke up. "What is it, Lady Palutena?"
The woman smiled. "We will be having a guest shortly. Treat him with respect."
"Who's the guest?"
Palutena smiled again. "His name is Jack Frost, and he'll be staying with us for a while at the very least."
Pit blinked. "That ice guy you've been watching?"
The green haired goddess nodded. "Yes. His proper title is Spirit of Winter however, so do try and remember it."
A bright flash of light erupting from the dais in the center of the room prevented her from further elaboration.
"And here he is!"
Jack blinked away spots and looking up, found the source of the voice to be a green haired woman that appeared to be vaguely Greek, at least in dress. Like him, she carried a staff, though hers had a large blue orb sitting between two opposing arches. The symbol he had seen in the sky was actually floating just behind her head, and followed her as she moved.
She approached him, sandals tapping softly on the marble floor. "Greetings, Jack Frost." She smiled. "I am Lady Palutena, the Goddess of Light." She gestured behind her towards two people that Jack thought looked like inverse twin angels. "This is Pit-" The brown haired one stepped forward, wings flaring out. "And Pitto." This time the raven haired one let out a grunt of some sort and waved half-heartedly, looking put upon.
Lady Palutena extended her hand to him.
After a moment's hesitation, Jack took it.
"Jack Frost, Spirit of Winter." He bit his lip. "But I suppose you probably already know that, huh?"
Palutena laughed. "Yes, I did." The orb on her staff lit up as she thumped it on the ground. "First things first. We need to see about getting you proper accommodations." She looked pensive for a moment before brightening. "I believe we have an unused island that could be turned into something."
Jack blinked. "An island?"
The goddess smiled. Then she waved her staff. A floating image appeared in the air of a series of loosely grouped islands. Gesturing at the largest, she said, "We are all on the center island of Skyworld, which is our home and base of operations. I've expanded it quite a bit over the years, not that it wasn't fairly large to begin with. Obviously I have more islands than I can really use nowadays, so it'd be easy enough to convert one into a place for you." She glanced up at him. "Or I could bring that lake of yours up here if you'd prefer. I've seen you return to it quite a bit, so I'm guessing you're rather attached to it."
Jack stared at her for a moment, feeling speechless and with a lump seeming to have grown in his throat. Finally he managed to swallow the lump and said, "Is it even safe to rip a lake out of the ground?"
The goddess frowned. "No, probably not. I'd probably never hear the end of it from Viridi either." Seeing Jack's expression she added, "Viridi is the Goddess of Nature, and is sort of a liason between Mother Nature and Gaea, though she's technically over Mother Nature. It's a little complicated." She waved a hand. "You'll meet her shortly. We'll need her help if we're going to find Gaea."
Jack blinked. "Find Gaea?"
Palutena nodded. "She's the Spirit of the Earth, mistress of the entire planet. If anyone can help you with your powers, it's her."
That strange lump was back, Jack found. This time it seemed to have become larger. If she noticed, Palutena didn't say anything. She simply smiled and thumped her staff on the ground again. One of the islands in the image shifted, and glided over to the largest one, the other islands moving around to make room. She thumped her staff on the ground again. This time snow started falling gently over the island.
Looking pleased, the goddess stepped back. "There. We can draw up some designs for a temple for you tomorrow. It's quite late, and architecture requires thought. Besides, you look like you might benefit from some Skyworld cuisine."
Jack felt his cheeks ice over slightly. "Erm, food doesn't really have an effect on me. I tried it with a few apples and stuff over the years."
The goddess raised an eyebrow. "A few apples? Have you actually tried it with full on meals?"
Jack winced. "Uh, not really. I tried cooking something once, but apparently I don't do so well around fire, so I ended up burning it to charcoal. And I've never had meat."
Palutena's lips twitched. "I see. That being the case, we'll try you out small with something light, pardon the pun." She twitched her hand and her staff disappeared, bursting into beams of light. "I'll whip something up!"
As her back was turned, she missed the twin looks of horror from Pit and Pittoo. Pit jumped forward, waving his hands. "Lady Palutena, the chef's already made most of tonight's meal. It won't take him more than a minute to make one more dish."
The goddess shrugged. "I suppose you're right. Send an order in to the kitchen."
Behind her Pittoo looked relieved. To Jack he muttered, "The last time she tried to cook, she brought the vegetables to life and they revolted. Took us three days to hunt down all the mutant carrots."
Jack blinked. "Mutant carrots?"
The black haired angel nodded. "Nasty little things led the revolt. I'm still not convinced we got them all."
Lady Palutena caught Jack's attention before he could say more. "While Pit's running that request down to the chef, Pittoo and I can show you around the main temple, and I can get a room set up for you for tonight."
What followed was a whirlwind tour of the imposing building that left Jack's head spinning. When they reached one of the bedrooms, Lady Palutena caused her staff to re-appear and drastically lowered the temperature.
"This'll do for tonight I suppose. We'll do the heavy building after breakfast tomorrow, after you've met Viridi."
"You don't need to go through all this trouble for me."
The sharp glance from Lady Palutena caused Jack to blush blue again. After a moment she smiled. 'The thing is, I want to, and it really isn't that difficult."
Jack had no response to this.
Dinner, for Jack, consisted of a large assortment of leafy looking greens with chunks of something white and drizzled with a sauce. According to Lady Palutena, it was called a chicken salad.
Jack found it absolutely wonderful.
Lady Palutena looked pleased. "We'll try you out on heavier foods once you get used to regular intake." The goddess herself was eating a slab of meat that she said was a steak.
Pit was eating what appeared to be a slab of meat on a bun, although there were a few greens showing. "Wait until you try a hamburger!" he grinned ear to ear, indicating the meat on a bun. "They're awesome!"
Pittoo was eating what he said was soup, and was doing it much more sedately than Pit, shaking his head at his twin.
Later after he'd been led back to his room for the night, Jack found himself to still be in awe of everything. As he slipped under the covers of his bed, he supposed that the best part was how permanent Lady Palutena made things sound. In minutes he was drifting off to sleep, dreaming of smiling goddess and flying angels.
AN: Palutena can not cook, search for the short, "Palutena's revolting dinner" to see evidence of this. Sorry this took so long but real life got in the way. Also please excuse the the big lines, but is being a butt and won't keep my formatting of them in