"Jack! This place is so beautiful."
Tooth and her small following of mini fairies fluttered between the ice spires, brushing their fingers against delicate translucent wall and thin blue drapes, flying through arches to come out on the other side and generally exploring the place. Jack's new headquarter was still mostly empty, but Tooth had wanted to see.
Only one of his feathery visitors didn't look too enthused. Baby Tooth had taken a good look of the place and remained apart from the other, wringing her hands. Jack knew what bothered her, but he'd rather not discuss it. Not now. The others' excitement had him grinning and he wasn't in the mood for serious talk.
"It's still a work in progress."
Keeping up with Tooth was a challenge, but she thankfully stopped to speak to him.
"You're doing well so far, Jack. It's a place worthy of the Spirit of Winter." She smiled at him, that soft smile of a mother proud of her child. Jack would be bothered by it if he didn't knew she acted like that towards the others as well. "But it must get lonely here all by yourself. It's so far from anything else."
"It's not like I'll be staying here all the time. I'm still travelling the world. I'll still spend winters at my lake. And I'm not actually alone here."
Tooth looked around at the white emptiness surrounding them.
"Uh, you're not?"
"Come on, I'll introduce you to my little helpers. They're in the living room."
Or at least, they should be in the living room. He asked Wynt to try to gather them there, but he had no idea if the three other sprites went along with it. He had told all of them that the Tooth Fairy would be visiting and they had been eager enough, but formal introductions wasn't something they ever had to deal with.
As it turned out, Wynt had succeed. Wuff and Breeze sat on the floor, playing a game of Scrabble and arguing over whether or not "Fhargt" was a word. Jack didn't want to get mixed into that one. The thing with the sprites' language was that it was so far away from any human ones that he didn't see how any particular combination of letters were supposed to be more right than another.
The two sprites still wore the white tunics they had been born in, and maybe would choose to stick to them, but they were warming up to life here at the ice village. The other two sprites, though, had accepted to let Jack make something for them. They both sat on the couch, watching the argument without taking any part in it. Wynt held Hush's hand and Jack didn't know if it was to comfort the timid sprite or to keep him from bolting. Maybe a little of both.
"Winter sprites? Oh, they're adorable."
Wuff jumped to his feet, tugging on his tunic and fussing with his hair to make himself look more presentable for the Tooth Fairy. Jack had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. Breeze stood in less of a hurry, wide-eyed. Hush did his best to hide behind Wynt's even though it was resting against the back of the couch, but the other sprite was having none of that. He stood, pulling Hush with him. Jack gave the little sprite a reassuring smile.
"Girls, meet my crew. That's Wuff and this is Breeze. That one there is Wynt and the one trying to hide behind him is Hush."
"They have names?"
"They chose names."
"That's wonderful!" She flew up to Wuff, close enough that the sprite had to take a step back. Jack knew from experience that she could be quite overwhelming to someone not used to interacting with people at all. "Hello. I'm Tooth. You're name is Wuff? Does it mean anything?"
Wuff explained with a little smile that he had picked the letters at random from the Scrabble board. Tooth laughed, patted his hair and moved on to Wynt. The mini fairy turned around Breeze, who stared at them in fascination, lifting a hand to touch the small, bird-like creatures. Baby Tooth took advantage of everyone being busy to try to catch Jack's attention.
"It's fine, Baby Tooth," he whispered. "Really."
Wynt's startled cry cut off the little fairy's argument. Tooth removed her finger from his mouth with a sheepish smile. Wynt's surprise spooked Hush, who buried his face between the other sprite's shoulder blades to hide from the Tooth Fairy.
"Sorry! It's just that I never got any winter sprites to stay still. They usually either run, attack or ignore me. I had to see!"
Between Hush and Tooth, Wynt decided he had enough. He stalked to the exit, pulling the scared little sprite with him and announcing that he was bringing Hush back somewhere quiet. Tooth with her lip, a guilty look on her face. Jack shook his head and gestured to the exit. They waited until they were out of earshot of the two other sprites to talk.
"I'm sorry, Jack. I didn't mean to upset them."
"Don't worry about it. They're not used to company, and it's a lot for them to handle, but they need it. Wuff and Breeze had each other, but Wynt and Hush have been alone for a really long time."
"It's good of you to take them in, Jack. They're lucky to have someone like you."
Jack averted his eyes in embarrassment, but he couldn't keep the smile off his face.
"Do you want to see where we're growing the candies?" he asked, changing the subject.
"You grow the candies?"
"Yeah, kind-of. It's over there."
Baby Tooth had enough of being ignored by now and she tugged sharply on Jack's ear.
"Ow! All right, all right! Tooth, I'm sure Wuff and Breeze will be happy to show you. I'll need a moment."
Tooth looked in puzzlement from Jack to the mini fairy, blinking at them, before nodding and heading back to the living room. Jack sighed and gestured to Baby Tooth to follow, flying off a short distance to the cliff's edge. As soon as they were alone, the small fairy started to chirp frantically.
"Yes, I know where we are. Calm down, Baby Tooth. I said it's fine and I meant it."
She looked at him with worried eyes. Jack couldn't blame her. Years ago, he stood on this very spot, a golden box in his hand, ready to throw it into the freezing sea where no one would find it. Jack turned around, letting his eyes trail on the crack in the icy landscape, the ravine Pitch had thrown them in after breaking his staff. It felt like a lifetime ago.
"It seemed like a fitting place, you know? This is where I realized why the Moon chose me. Why I was a Guardian." He turned back to face the sea. "I used to come to Antarctica a lot, before I became a Guardian. When I just couldn't take it anymore. When I couldn't stand being alone, ignored, invisible. I came here to scream, to cry, to rage against the whole world. But I don't need that anymore. Now, I have a family I can run to. It was time to give this place a new purpose."
She settled on his shoulder to watch the sea with him and rested her small hand on his neck. She understood. They stayed like this until Tooth joined them, a worried frown on her face.
"Jack? Is everything alright?"
He gave her a sincere smile.
"Yes."
A few people figured it out by now, so I'll confirm it: the third sprite from Children of Winter was Wynt. Jack said he met him after the fifth time he got thrown out of the workshop, which is when that third scene was taking place.
Some news: First, I've made no progress on the directory because I was procrastinating. Second, I now have a RotG art blog on tumbrl (called artoftheguardians). I may possibly do some pictures for this fanfic (something I didn't really want to do on my main blog). I've put the link on my profile. Feel free to go there to watch my random doodles.
