A/N: hey guys sorry for the lateness of the update, I just couldn't get into this one and I had a really busy week! And I had foot surgery…
Shoutouts to:
Black Lotus13: Pitch scoffed at you and your punishment and had a nice glass of wine to reminisce on his past torturous deeds. I do apologize on his behalf.
Guest: yay! We're almost at awesomesauce levels!
Waterlemonade241: I'm so glad you're enjoying the story! Jack does appear relatively young in my mind too, not physically but mentally. Then again, he is only seven or eight mentally at this point!
Sheeijan: I loved the concept of the wind's faithfulness too! It might become more important as time goes on.
Bug349: AND THE FIRST NIGHTMARE HORSE WAS BORN! MWAHAHA!
Doubled-Helix: Ah! I'm so honored that my story was your first! Enjoy chapter 4!
REZZKAT!: AHHHHH! Hun I was like gonna go spam your wall or something cuz u didn't see this! No jk but I was wondering when you were going to jump on! You answered all your questions on your own so…I'LL SEE YA NEXT CHAPTAH GIRLIE!
Peaceful Dragon Rose: Thanks!
SerenadeInTheMoonlight: Here's chapter 4, hope it lives up to expectations! Pitch certainly takes things to a new level!
DanielleDaughterOfDeathanMagic: Well I did crack them in the space above the keyboard but then I cracked them on it so….BOTH!
I DON'T OWN ROTG! *sigh*
Chapter 4: Black Sand and Broken Things
Mother Nature visited her frost child as often as she could. Sometimes she caught a few moments after a span of two months. Sometimes it was years between visits. He hardly seemed to change from trip to trip, a little more worn but still just as obstinate as the day he splintered Pitch's armchair leg. His clothes on the other hand, did not retain his immortality. She brought him new things when his own were in tatters, snatching tunics and trousers from tree branches when in summer the boys would go down to the lake on a whim and swim. The rarely fit him but the boy didn't care. He was thrilled to be given a gift that had been touched by another who was not Pitch.
He always looked so forlorn when she left him. Like she was ripping away a part of him every time she stepped back out of that cavern and left him there to rot. Mother Nature knew that that was exactly what she was doing. She knew what Pitch did to him every time she left. She saw the evidence of his abuse every time she returned. Sometimes it was just a bruise on the side of his head, or a shaking in his limbs that hinted at heat exhaustion. Sometimes he looked better, but as time went on and desperation began to set in, she saw his injuries begin to multiply.
When he reached his fiftieth year, Mother Nature realized that he would not last much longer if she could not be there to guide him in his times of greater need. As the Overseer to all the world's physical progressions she simply could not be there for him every time Pitch beat him for transgressions he didn't understand. So she did what any good mother would do: she left him with stories for when she was gone.
She told him she had sent a little icicle nymph to watch over him in her absence. Told him that this little girl knew how to watch out for the shadows and knew how to hide from Pitch's creatures of the night. Assured him that even though she couldn't come out to help him, she would report back to Mother and Mother would see to it that Jack would be all right. All he had to do was keep an eye out for his little nymph, watch closely because she would leave little hints of her presence just for him. And those presents would be assurances that Mother would return soon to see him.
And return she did. No matter how many years spanned between visits, she never forgot about him. The wind wouldn't have allowed her to anyways.
Jack, for his part never stopped leaving presents for his nymph and seeking them in return. He caught flashes of her laughter, which sounded like the tinkling of icicles bumping together and her sighs which reminded him of the sound snow makes when a boot crunches it all down. She was his hope. His yearning for a life past his prison. She was what he thought about when Mother Nature left and didn't return for five years. And when Pitch hit him so hard in the head he couldn't move well for days, he saw her peek around the corner of the hall he lay in and give him a smile.
It was her hope that helped him get through every time Mother Nature left him to return to the surface. Her hope that kept the spark alive in him that maybe, just maybe she would take him with her next time. He just had to hold out until next time. And when next time never came, it was her hope that gave him the courage to try and escape once more.
He didn't make it very far. Not very far at all.
Mother Nature found him a few days after his final flight, lying on the stone floor of his room. Never before had she seen him so still, so lifeless. Blood had dried on the ground, caking heavily in the grout between the stones. Both of his hands lay limply over each other, flayed open at the palms where he had gripped the staff. His mouth and nose were smeared thickly with wet, black sand and greying ooze. His feet had been pegged together with an iron stake that had been driven through his heels. The wounds dribbled blood and black sand.
She had thought she had reached the pinnacle of anger and desire to remove him from this place long ago. Thought there was nothing that could make her pick him up and carry him to freedom with no regard for anyone's safety. But she was wrong, and it was the look in his empty, empty blue eyes that broke her.
She wanted to scream and rage at the monster that did this. Wanted to sweep this child up and carry him home. But she could do nothing but sit and stare at him as her heart broke. He didn't reach out to her. Didn't call her by name and beg her with those big blue eyes to give him a moment's reprieve and tell him a story. He just lay there and bled. He had given every last ounce of hope he had left to drive him forward to freedom. And he lost. His icicle nymph had melted and her wintry kiss on the tip of his nose didn't bring reprieve; it stung.
When Mother Nature finally found her voice again she babbled on for almost an hour as she worked, demeaning herself to kneel beside him and rip her dress to wrap his wounds. He screamed once when she pulled out the peg. Hoarse and heart wrenching, it didn't even sound human.
Mother Nature whispered on to placate him. "Hush now, Jack. I'll make it better. I swear it."
But after the anguish passed from his eyes they returned to their dull, grey stare. After a time, there was nothing more she could do for him so she settled for maneuvering him gently into her arms and holding him until he passed out. That was how Pitch found them hours later.
Of all the questions Mother Nature could have asked him, "why" seemed to be the only one that even came close to conveying her emotions.
The nightmare king just smiled. "For many reasons," he replied. "I warned him not to run again and he ran. I sensed the hope he felt so I squashed it. I told you half a century ago that I would break him to release his power, so I did it."
Mother Nature's retort wasn't without its own bite though her tone remained even so as to not disturb the slumbering spirit in her arms. "He may never walk again. In your mad desire for another's power you have locked it away forever. He has shut down and there will be no opening him back up. The power is gone, Pitch. You destroyed it."
"The power is still in him, along with enough of my own to control whatever resistance remains. I broke him and now I will mold him into what I want him to be. His legs are of little concern to me, the bones broke cleanly and I didn't snap any tendons. They will heal up fine. If you have no other concerns, I would be pleased if you left. Your visitation services are no longer necessary nor requested."
Mother Nature glanced at the boy in her arms. "He will be the judge of that when he awakens," she murmured quietly
"As I said. He stopped crying for you days ago. You are unwanted."
Mother Nature caught him in a feral stare and Pitch sighed.
"As you wish."
Pitch let them be. Mother Nature sat with her sprite for hours until he woke, running her reed-like fingers through his white hair and trying to wrap his wounds tight enough to keep the blood inside him. She smeared the injuries with poultice and tried to wipe the blackness from his mouth that had stained his lips and teeth grey. It wouldn't budge.
He woke without warning and without a sound. She smiled at him kindly when his eyes opened, but there was no recollection in his gaze. He saw a stranger but didn't try to untangle himself from her arms.
"I am so sorry, Jack," she whispered. "I should have been here."
His eyes roamed lethargically around the room.
"Jack?" There was no response. "Jack can you hear me?" Mother Nature shifted him so he could easily meet her gaze. A low, thready whine was her only response. "Jack," she tried. No reaction. "Jökul."
The boy's grey eyes snapped up to meet hers.
Mother Nature's throat clenched as tears wet tracks down her ivory cheeks. Her Jack was gone.
He blinked at her twice before letting his eyes have their way across the room. She allowed sobs to shake her for only a few moments before composure set in. Dropping a kiss on his brow, she set him down on the floor—his straw pile long since removed—and left the room. She found Pitch in the study.
"He doesn't know me anymore," She stated.
Pitch looked up from his book and nodded once. "No, he doesn't. It's better that way—"
"This doesn't mean I won't come to see him." Mother Nature cut in.
Pitch merely nodded again. "I hardly thought a lack of recognition would be enough to get you to leave. I've done far worse over the years yet you still find your way back every so often."
"He isn't yours to keep, Father."
"That is irrelevant. Whether he is mine to keep or not does not change the fact that he is mine now. I won't need him forever, but for now things are finally going my way." Pitch stood slowly and purposefully, locking his yellow eyes on her ebony gaze.
"The surface needs me. I must go back to it soon."
"Then return to it, I have no interest in stopping you so long as you return alone."
Mother Nature looked as though she wished to respond, but fell silent instead. It took her quite some time to gather her thoughts, and when she spoke again it was with a child's voice. "He is broken, Pitch. You will have no cause to beat him any longer, his obstinacy is gone."
"His mental status changes nothing in regards to my actions. I will deal with him as I please." He snapped. "You aren't his mother and you aren't mine. Go give your orders elsewhere."
Seraphina turned and left without another word. She knew they would only bounce off the cavern walls and come back to her. No one here would listen.
The moon shone down brightly on her as she stepped out of the ground. Moonbeams carried quiet questions on their wings.
How is he, Seraphina?
"Our Jack is gone," she said to the sky. "Only Jökul remains now."
Erg. I'm not totally satisfied with this chapter but oh well :(
REVIEW MY LOVELIES AND I'LL GET WORKING ON CHAPTER 5!