This takes place after Guardian of Fun.
"Jack! Jack, I'm back!"
Jack threw away the small branch he had been picking his toes with and twisted around on his branch to look at Jamie. The kid had gotten quite a tan on his little cruise, but he ran through the snow, his coat unzipped, like he had never left the freezing weather behind. Jack smiled when he saw the pair of ice skates slung over his shoulder. Jamie said his mother had promised him to buy him a pair on their return. Jack flew down from his perch to land in front of Jamie.
"Welcome back, kiddo."
Jamie threw his arms around Jack's waist and hugged him. "I couldn't wait to come back! I hope you guys didn't have too much fun without me."
Jack ruffled his hair. "We had plenty of fun. I guess we'll just need to have even more now, eh?"
"You'll teach me to skate? You promised you would."
"Sure, I will. But first, zip up that coat, before I decide to nip at your nose."
Jamie laughed, hid his nose in his scarf to be safe and did as Jack told him. He then sat in the snow, pulling off his boots to pull on the skates instead. Jack helped him back on his feet and onto the ice. Jamie almost fell face-first the moment he placed the blades on the lake's frozen surface, but Jack held him up.
"T-that's harder than it looks."
"Don't worry, you'll learn fast enough. C'mon, ready to move?"
"I'm not sure."
"Just concentrate on keeping your balance, alright?"
Jamie nodded and gripped Jack's hand with both of his. He was still unstable on his feet and he kept looking at them, as if it would help him keep them steady. Jack slid backward a few steps and Jamie pitched forward.
"Whoa!"
"Don't look down, you'll fall. Look straight ahead. That the way you want to go."
Jamie took a deep breath and pulled his gaze from the skates to look at Jack in front of him. The scene was awfully familiar to the new Guardian. This wasn't the first time he taught someone to skate on this very lake. His memories of his previous life were hazy, at best, but he remembered that part well enough. It might be just his imagination, be he thought that Jamie looked like her.
"The ice is solid, right? Mom always say I shouldn't walk on the lake in case it's not frozen enough."
"It won't break, not as long as I'm here. That, I promise."
Jack picked up speed, still sliding backward on his bare feet over the frozen surface of the lake. They moved in a wide circle around the lake, Jamie's face progressively loosing its worried frown. By the end of the second turn, Jamie was grinning.
"I think I got this!"
"Alright, try moving your feet, now."
The first few strokes were awkward at best, but Jamie learned fast. He was almost skating on his own in no time. The kid's smile widened. Jack smiled back.
"You're good at this. Care to try on your own?"
"I, uh–"
"Just let go of my hand when you're ready, alright?"
"Alright."
They went half of the way around the small lake again before Jamie let go with one hand. They completed their turn by the time he let go entirely. He waved his arms around to keep his balance, but he didn't fall. Jack watched him skate on his own with a proud smile, much like he had with his little sister three hundred years ago. He had time to teach her, before disaster struck. Right here, on this lake.
But this wasn't only the lake where he died. It wasn't only the lake where the Moon had given him his new life as the Spirit of Winter. It was also on that very same lake that he had sworn his oath as a Guardian. To protect the children.
"You have no reason to be afraid, Jamie," he whispered. "I've sworn I would protect you, and I will. No matter what."
"Uh? Did you say something, Jack?"
"Nothing. Now, how about we have a little fun?"
Ideally, I'd start my new arc next chapter. But that won't happen unless I can completely outline it in the next two days. Which I doubt, since I barely worked on it at all (mind you, I never really outlined my arcs ahead of time before, but that's not one I want to improvise on). So, we'll see.
In other news, I started the directory (finally). There's only the first 10 chapters, right now, but at least it's started.
