I'm sorry this chapter is so long - it's got backstory in it that's rather dark, and I didn't want to end on an entirely sad note. - Not The Milk
The next morning Annamore awoke to a perfectly normal day, compared to the oddities of last night. She felt like her dreams were a touch nicer than usual, much like her unexpected nap the previous day, but considering who had a crush on her that was probably normal.
While helping herself to a quick breakfast, she scanned a magic scroll that appeared every day with a list of names and locations. She had no idea where the scroll came from, or who or what came up with the list, but she'd been getting it ever since the day her wings grew and she became Cupid. The assumption was that the Man in the Moon had something to do with it. It was a shorter list than yesterdays, so there wouldn't be a need to be out late so long as her targets were easy to find.
She walked to the door and peeked out cautiously. No sign of the Sandman, good. She stepped out and stretched her wings in the morning sun. Glancing at the list one last time, she broke into a run and jumped off her cloud, free-falling a little ways before opening her wings and gliding off to her first target.
The day went by smoothly, and she made it through her list in record time. With hours of sunlight left to the day, she flew back to her cloud to garden. Annamore's home tended to stay in the warmer climates, although she could move it at whim. Benefits of being a magical being, she supposed. She preferred being able to grow year around. This had the added bonus of bringing an odd amount of birds and butterflies to her cloud, making it seem peaceful.
She lost track of time as she picked fruit, plucked the few weeds that somehow made it into her garden, and tended to the basic needs of the plants she cared for. She had only just registered that it was sunset when a golden, glowing butterfly fluttered in front of her face, followed by a few more. "... Seriously?" She raised an eyebrow, glancing up at the source of the pretty creatures. Sandy cheerfully waved at her. "I don't know why you want to have me hanging about while you work. It's not like I can help."
An arrow appeared over his head now. "You found it?!" She was next to him in a second, elated. He shook his head and motioned around him. "I guess you're right, it can't hurt to have another look around. No letting me nap this time, though, OK?"
He saluted her and wandered to the middle of his sand cloud as it moved away from her cloud. This time she didn't fall asleep, but after an hour or so of staring at the ground from the clouds edge, hoping for some unlikely proof that she didn't hit Sandy with her arrow, she heard the jingling of bells and a booming voice. "Oh ho! You were right, Jack! No need for Yeti's!" She spun around to see Santa's sleigh heading right for them.
"This is too much!" She dodged the galloping reindeer as they came in for a landing. "Hey, where did you get your license!"
"A license? Baah! So you are Cupid?" A very large, bearded man climbed out of the sleigh, walking heavily up to her. He held a sword out at her, in a way that came across as more habitual than threatening.
"Yes..." She reached a finger out and pushed the sword away gently. "Santa, I assume?"
"Of course, but you can call me North. So, I hear you ran into trouble with my good friend Sandy! Come, come! We will discuss at the Pole. The others are already there." He waved a hand at the sleigh invitingly. "Climb in!"
"Wait, the others?" She glanced at Jack, who was sitting on the very back of the sleigh grinning at her.
"Yeah, North felt we should gather some of the other Guardian's for this. We don't usually have a good excuse for a party." He snickered, then glanced at Sandy. "Buddy, put your dreams on autopilot and climb in!"
She felt nervous about the prospect of dealing with the entire force of guardians. She'd met Bunnymund and Jack before at separate times, had Tooth as a target once recently, but talking to the whole bunch at once was a bit daunting. Still, chance of a lifetime. She took a breath and looked at North before he could get back in the sleigh. "Can I do one thing first?"
The three guardians turned to look at her. "What is it?" North asked.
"Um... Which one is Cupid?" She pointed at the reindeer, grinning. "I mean, I've never gotten to meet my namesake before."
He started laughing, a deep belly laugh that shook his whole body. He was different in some respects from the Santa she'd expected, but not in a bad way. "Sure! But watch out, reindeer can be cranky." He led her over to one of the creatures, who tossed its head when she got close. "None of that, Cupid." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cookie, handing it to her. "Here, give her this."
She held the cookie out to the other Cupid, who happily accepted it and nuzzled her for another. She giggled and scratched the reindeer's neck for a moment. "Thanks, North."
"Any time." He turned back to his sleigh. "All right, no more lollygagging! In you go!"
She flew and landed in the middle of the sleigh, next to Sandy. He pointed to the arm rest next to her. "Hold on?"
"Hold on!" North shouted in agreement as he started the sleigh moving.
Jack leaned forward conspiratorially. "You know, Bunnymund's terrified of riding in this. He hates flying."
"You're kidding. That big brute?" She snickered at the thought of the stoic rabbit being terrified.
"Whimpers like a baby. Gets a bit wobbly and holds on for his furry life. He's not so fond of magic portals either. You can make fun of him for it when you see him, if you'd like. I always do."
"Never used a magic portal. Is it as fun as it sounds?" She grinned almost as mischievously as Jack himself often did.
"You tell me." He pointed to North, who was tossing a ball in front of the sleigh. It created a hole in space, and they flew right into it. Seconds later they were flying outside of North's lair at the pole.
Annamore yelped. "It's cold! Why didn't you guys bring me a coat if you wanted to bring me here?" She grabbed her wings and pulled them partly around her body, shivering.
"What, you didn't guess it'd be cold when we said we were coming here? And how would you wear a jacket over your wings?"
"It was spur of the moment! I didn't think I'd need to dress for the occasion!" She said between bouts of her teeth chattering. "Please tell me North has heating in this place."
"Of course. Hey, Sandy, get her a blanket." North called from over his shoulder.
Sandy reached under the bench they were sitting on and removed a thick blanket. He tossed half of it over her shoulders, and pulled the other half over his, scooting closer. She shook her head, not complaining because she could use the extra body heat. There was a reason she tended to prefer the tropics.
Jack stared in surprise at the two of them sharing a blanket. "Sandy, for such a little guy, I have to hand it to you, you have the moves."
"From anyone else I'd find it creepy and probably slap them." She felt her shivering subside a little. "He's just lucky he's so adorable he can get away with it."
Moments later they landed, and all walked inside while Yeti's handled the reindeer. She was relatively familiar with Yeti's, but had only seen the ones that didn't live at the pole. North led them through halls and large rooms filled with toys, hard working Yeti's, and little elves playing and generally goofing off. In what she assumed to be the center hall she was greeted by the rest of the guardians.
She winced internally. Not since she was mortal had she had to deal with talking to so large a group at one time. She nodded to the large Australian based rabbit. "Bunnymund, how are you doing?"
"Not bad, Cupid. I hear you've gotten yourself into some trouble with one of our own?" He pointed at Sandy, who was happily helping himself to egg nog.
"Hey, it wasn't like I did it on purpose. Our jobs merely... Clashed. Never happened before. Freak accident. And it ruined my perfect record." She ranted for a moment before she suddenly had the Tooth Fairy hovering in front of her, staring into her mouth intently. She paused in her rant so she could deal with the new challenger.
"Hello. Uh... Want me to open wider?" She asked Toothiana, who nodded excitedly. She obliged, only to have the feathered guardian come even closer. "You have such adorable canines!" The tooth fairy clapped, before turning to Sandy. "I approve of her."
"Calm down, Tooth. I don't think that's why we are here today. Right, Cupid?" Jack interjected on her behalf.
North suddenly looked up. "Wait. Is Cupid a title for you, or is it really your name? After all, I am not really named Santa."
"It's a family name. My name is Annamore C. Upidianalus. My dad got called 'cupid' and it got passed down to me." She responded, sitting down on a bench. "How it got to be associated with a little naked flying boy instead of me, though, I couldn't tell you. But it does make working easier. Only ones who believe in me are kids, and the kids who see me in the day don't tell their parents they saw Cupid, but that they saw an angel."
"Awww, that's so sweet!" Tooth smiled at her. Annamore smiled back, feeling she had a good friend in the pretty fairy already.
"OK. Yes, that is sweet. But what about the problem? You still don't know for sure if you shot Sandy?" North paced by, handing her a plate of cookies as he passed.
"No but... It's kind of obvious I did at this point." Everyone turned their gazes to the Sandman, who had fallen asleep with an empty egg nog glass beside him. He had a heart with an arrow stuck through it over his head while he slept. She twitched. "I swear he's doing that on purpose."
"I don't think he'd do that, Anny." Jack said in his friends defense. She blinked at his usage of Anny, she'd not been called that in a very long time.
North shrugged. "Doesn't matter. What matters is will it harm him? Or you?"
"Not in of itself." Annamore scratched her head. "But it wasn't planned, and that's a first. I've never shot someone not on my list. I don't know what might come of this."
"Now, wait a second. How do your arrows work, anyways?" Bunny asked. "You shoot someone and boom, they fall in love with the first person they see, right?"
"Eh, common misconception. Love at first sight is rare, even with magical help like me. Basically, someone starts developing feelings for someone they know, but it's not quite love. Not yet. That's when I get to go in and shoot them. I'm more of a helping hand, and not a necessity." She pantomimed shooting someone with an arrow. "After all, people still fell in love before I became Cupid. Love just decided it needed a little help at some point. I also don't always have to shoot both people in a couple. Often as not, if I do, I have to shoot them at separate times."
"How did you become Cupid?" Tooth asked, taking a moment to nudge Sandy awake. "If you don't mind me asking. No one really knows much about you, since you tend to..." She trailed off, probably realizing what she was about to say could be considered rude.
"Be a loner?" Annamore finished for her, not minding the implications. "Back when I was..." She hesitated, pondering word choice. "Human. Mortal. I was the daughter of a pair of matchmakers of renowned ability. People all over the kingdom came to them, and they never matched people over what they considered to be petty things, like money or land. They had a gut instinct for the best reason of all."
"Love?" Tooth whispered, enthralled already.
"Yes, love." Annamore smiled at the fairy. "In those days I looked much as I do now, without the wings, of course. Life with my family was amazing, and I was learning the family trade. I must have been 19 or so." She sighed, lost in memory, then continued.
"Unfortunately, I was considered beautiful, and word spread. Many men visited us in attempts to get matched with... Well, me." The Cupid started poking at a toy distractedly. "My parents refused to match me with any of them. They had trained me, and they wanted me to choose for myself. And of all the men that visited us, I could not find myself loving a single one."
"Picky, eh, mate?" Bunnymund questioned sarcastically, arms crossed.
"Picky? How is it picky to want to find someone you really love?" She sent a glare at the oversized rabbit. His ears dropped slightly. "I guess you're right."
"Of course I am. This is my job, after all." She let a slight smile cross her face to let him know she wasn't angry with him. "Anyways, one day a few boats washed up near the edge of our kingdom. The survivors were starving and weak, and people stepped forward and offered to take them in as they could. My family took in one man, a few years older than me. He could barely stand from being so weak."
"At first all the survivors acted grateful, helping us in return as they gained strength. The man we took in, Kirai, was particularly helpful. He turned out to be the leader of the ships survivors, and a great hunter. We grew close. He even taught me how to shoot a bow, and gave me one. I was honored to have him as a friend. As time grew on, he decided that he wanted more from me, and when I was away visiting friends he asked my parents for my hand." She paused and took a deep breath.
"They told him no, to ask me himself. As I said before they wanted me to choose for myself." Annamore looked at the ground, willing herself to keep things under control. "I almost wish they hadn't been so kind about that for me. Then things may have turned out differently. He got angry, and murdered them."
The Guardians nodded quietly, as if such awful occurrences had happened in their own histories too. She decided she'd have to ask about that later, and continued. "He didn't end with my parents either, rallying his men, he started tearing through my people murdering and burning their houses. I'd returned that night, and seeing the houses burning, hearing screaming, I rushed back. That's when I saw him standing, backlit by burning houses, bodies surrounding him. He was laughing. He told me what he'd done, and that he was going to take me as his wife."
"I was appalled. He expected me to be the prize for his murderous rampage. My hand dropped to my bow, the same one he gave me. He stopped laughing, telling me he didn't think I could do it. I proved him wrong and shot him. Only hit him in the arm, because I was shaking so hard. He became enraged, spoke a curse, told me if I wouldn't be with him, I could never be with anyone in this life." She took a deep breath, gathering her thoughts while pondering how some memories could be so painful even after hundreds of years. Tooth reached over and put hand over hers, nodding to continue.
"I took aim and shot again, this time getting his shoulder. He yanked the arrow out and, grabbing me, stabbed me deeply with it." Her hand instinctively reached for the spot over her ribcage at the memory. "I didn't scream, I think he was expecting me to. After he saw my blood something changed, he just walked away. I was in shock, and wandered back into the woods. I could not bring myself to walk into my town, burning as it was, knowing my family was dead. Eventually, I felt myself growing tired, sat down against a tree, fell asleep... When I woke up I was as you see me now. I grew wings in my sleep, and the moon gave me this job. Not sure how long I slept there, or what happened to Kirai."
Jack winced. "So, now that we know all of this, what does that let us do? You don't have a way to reverse your arrows effect?"
"Never needed a way to." Annamore shrugged, glad to be out of the sore subject of how she gained her powers.
Bunny tapped a foot on the floor, thinking. "Then how does divorce work? Isn't that the reversal of love?"
She shook her head. "Nope, those are usually people who weren't meant to be together in the first place. Humans are stubborn, you know."
North held his hands up. "Wait, you said that your arrows only encourage feelings that are already there?"
"Yeah, basic- Oh! Why didn't I notice that before?" Everyones eyes flashed back to Sandy, who'd been listening to her history, but unable or unwilling to add anything to the conversation. "But I'd never actually met you before!"
He held a hand up and waved it in the universal "sort of" motion.
"Is the answer why an easy one to give?" He shook his head at her question.
Tooth gave her a sympathetic look. "I guess we can't really do anything then. Maybe you can try to get more information out of him later, but I need to get back to work, and so do some of you." She winked at Jack. "Planning any frosts tonight?"
"I can think of a place that needs some frost." He smirked before turning to Annamore and Sandy. "Need North to take you two back? Maybe Bunnymund should join you..."
"Aint happening, buddy. Good luck, Cupid." With that the large rabbit slapped a foot on the ground, and jumped down the hole that appeared.
Sandy looked at the Cupid and the little plane appeared above his head again. He pointed at it and nodded. "Sure, sure. That's just as fun as the sleigh." She replied, honestly not caring how she got home at this point.
"Here, before you go, take this. You can contact us if anything weird happens." North handed her a small globe.
"Thanks. I appreciate it." She grabbed the blanket again, climbed into the plane, and waved at them, suddenly feeling incredibly weary. "If I nap on the way back, don't judge me." She told the pilot before leaning back in the seat. He nodded an affirmative and started flying into the now late night.