Alaia Skyhawk: Someone asked where I get the names of the Spirits of the Seasons from, considering how unusual they sound compared to "Jack". "Ariko" is a name associated with a goddess/spirit of spring over in China/Japan sort of area. "Achieng" is an African name, which means something about summer although I can't recall exactly what it was. "Oisin" is a name from a myth, about a huntsman who was raised out in the forest by deer.
Moving on to Jack's Lieutenants, "Yuki-onna" is an obvious Japanese myth reference. "Cernunnos the Gifting Stag", is something I came across which seems to be European-based. "Marzanna" (and yes, she will be a Lieutenant too eventually) is a Slavic-based myth associated with winter and death :)
I hope you enjoyed this little foray into the research I did to get names, and now we shall return to our regularly scheduled story update ^_^
Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians, the Guardians of Childhood, or any related characters etc. This story is written purely for entertainment purposes.
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Chapter 29: Three Versus One
The months passed after the 'incident' and subsequent truce made with Achieng, as Oisin guided her through the new method of transitioning the Seasons and for Weather Watching. For Jack, it was a rather unusual span of time, since she was still doing her last handful of Summer work, just north of the equator, when he started his first few bits of Northern Winter work right up by the Arctic Circle. It meant that, for a couple of hours on a single day, the Spirits of Summer, Autumn, and Winter were all working in the North of the World at the same time.
It was also the day that both Achieng and Oisin came looking for him.
He was perched on the slopes of a mountain, close to the Arctic Circle, when the winds stirred unusually in herald to both Spirits descending out of the sky to land near him.
Jack turned to face them both, and leaned on his staff with a smile.
"So... What brings you to the cold north?"
Achieng glanced at Oisin, before answering that question.
"The winds will have told you, that I did my last Northern Summer work today in the Sahara. Due to differences in altitude affecting times, Summer will begin arriving in some places in the South of the World in three weeks."
Jack raised his eyebrows.
"And you're telling me this, why?"
Achieng rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"You're the one who came up with this new system, and you're the one who made the point of showing it to Oisin and then to me. I'm asking if or not I should 'intrude' on Southern Spring, or wait for for Summer Threshold?"
Oisin spoke now, somewhat wryly.
"What we're saying is, we haven't decided how to deal with her yet. Do we ask her to cooperate? If so, do we have Achieng approach her alone, or all three of us go together?"
Jack frowned thoughtfully, jumping lightly up so that he was perched in a crouch on the crook of his staff. He sat there, elbow braced on one knee, and his chin resting on one hand. He then looked towards them, head tilted.
"Well, given that I have the most experience or the three of us regarding her being angry... I'd say stick to the Summer Threshold, Achieng. Let me be the focus of her tantrum, at the transition to Northern Spring."
Oisin frowned.
"Are you sure that's wise? She already dislikes you, and if you keep winter lingering in the far north while she is bringing spring to the south of you, she may attack you."
Jack snorted, and jumped down from his staff.
"That's where you're wrong. Ariko's temper is nothing like Achieng's." He glanced at the Spirit of Summer. "No offence. No, Ariko is a master of expressing her displeasure in words, and a little cloud of flower petals when she gets really worked up. I'd have accused you two of being rule-bound, but you're nothing compared to her. I may joke that she'd rip my hair out or put my head on a platter given the chance, but truth is she'll never raise so much as a finger against any of us, not even me."
Achieng folded her arms across her chest, frowning as Oisin also did the same.
"So what has that got to do with bringing her around to the new ways?"
Jack grinned.
"It's simple. Let her get all worked up and angry at me, and then while she's still flailing around after my winter work is finished, you move in and start your equatorial summer work and catch her off guard."
"And then what?"
At that question, Jack chuckled.
"Then? Then we ignore her. Let her scream and shout, let her throw her little flower petals around, and we'll just get on with our work. She's so used to being the oldest of us, the one that set the boundaries for how she thinks we should all act and go about our duties. She only has that 'power' over us, if we listen to her."
As Achieng's eyebrows went up in surprise, Oisin started to chuckle in admiration.
"Now that is a brilliant bit of planning. It's true, we've always deferred to her as the oldest of us. If we simply stop doing that, she won't know how to react."
Jack smirked.
"That's right. Be ready, Achieng, because this is going to be so much fun!"
He soared up into the air, throwing an enchanted snowball at her in the same motion, which resulted in her breaking into a grin as she shouted after him. Whatever reprimand it was meant to be, it lost it's effectiveness thanks to the giggles that escaped her.
"Stop doing that to me, Frost!"
Jack laughed and shouted back.
"But you're so much nicer when you smile! Learn to live, instead of just existing! Both of you are way too stiff!"
The Spirits of Summer and Autumn glanced at one another as he disappeared up into the sky, the latter speaking after a thoughtful pause.
Oisin looked a little bemused.
"I am forced to admit, that the past five years are among the most enjoyable I can recall during my life as an immortal."
Achieng, still smiling from the effects of the snowball, snorted.
"I too am forced to admit the same thing. Until that day I confronted you on the tundra, I had not laughed even once since the day I became immortal." She paused and let out a single, willing, laugh that was nothing to do with Jack's influence. "I never realised until now, how much I missed it."
Oisin smiled.
"To quote a proverb which pre-dates the Spirit of Winter, but which I find rather apt... 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy'."
Achieng laughed.
"I get the feeling that Jack will never be dull."
They weren't aware of it, but despite being more than a hundred miles away by this point, Jack still heard what they said thanks to a gossiping bit of wind. It made him smile, to know he'd finally reached an understanding with them. He knew they would always be formal for the most part, and the snobbish way in which they held themselves separate from others would probably never fade, but they no longer condemned him for being himself. And maybe, just maybe, they'd continue to let him make them smile and laugh now and then.
He kept that in mind throughout Northern Winter, even stopping by in the South of the World on a couple of occasions to see if Achieng needed any advice on Weather Watching as she started on her second combined Summer/Autumn transition with Oisin. Normally she would have chased him away for being in the south, but this time she respected that he had brought no cold with him and that the visit was purely social. He wasn't there to be a nuisance, he was there to offer some help.
He only stayed for a couple of hours before he returned north, tactfully choosing not to push his luck. There was also the fact that Northern Spring was fast approaching, and the southern areas of the north were starting to warm.
Jack did as he'd done in the previous few years, pulling winter back from the areas where it was no longer meant to be. He even pulled warmer air up from the south, something he usually only did when he needed damp air to make big snow-clouds, and went to the effort of bringing deliberate rain in the places that Mother Nature would have begun bringing it because of Ariko's negligence. He was in the middle of doing one such rainstorm, when the immortal in question appeared at his side.
"You know, you should really leave that to me. Save your strength for your own season, Jack."
Jack turned, facing her here where they floated above the clouds, and he grinned wryly.
"I just thought I'd help out."
Mother Nature smiled, her tone mildly reprimanding.
"And you have already done that, in coming to an understanding with Achieng and Oisin. You have spared me a great deal of effort, in expenditure of time and power. Don't exhaust yourself by doing things you don't need to do."
Jack remained quiet, but then he sighed and allowed a little of his fatigue to show. He looked weary, and even with the Spring Threshold now just a few days away, he would still have a fair bit of weather shepherding to do in addition to dealing with an angry Spirit of Spring.
"Ok, so maybe I am a bit tired."
Mother Nature gave him a long, look, not fooled in the slightest as she pointed south.
"Go back to your sanctuary, and sleep. If you aren't already awake at that time, I'll come rouse you the day after the Spring Threshold."
Jack considered protesting, but for the fact that sleep seemed a very attractive prospect right now. Enough that he didn't even bother flying to Antarctica, and instead went straight through an Ice Mirror into his sleeping chamber.
He slumped into his bed without hesitation, asleep in moments. If there was one downside to the new ways, it was that there would only be a month or so during the year when he didn't have at least a little bit of work to do each week. His two-week naps might become a thing of the past, which meant that shorter naps like this one were something he'd have to start fitting in here and there. It wasn't that the new ways created more work for the Spirits of the Seasons, it was just that they spread the work out a bit more.
Jack slept for four days straight, waking only for a minute or two each time his chimes went off. It was on the chimes of the fifth day, that he heard someone clear their throat when he was about to roll over and go back to sleep.
He sat up, his head protruding up through the pile of snow, and he shook the loose flakes from his hair. It was then that Mother Nature chuckled where she stood at the side of the bed.
She smiled.
"You know, you look rather adorable when you do that. Some would even say 'cute'."
Jack gave her a flat look, taking hold of his staff from the hooks above the bed and floating up out of the snow.
"And you try looking tough and serious when you have just woken up." He sighed, whisking the snow of his bed smooth. "So, Ariko is on the move?"
Mother Nature nodded.
"She set out a few hours ago. I would be bringing a light snow over parts of Pennsylvania, and the States north of there, right now. But I felt that you might want to do it, considering yours and your peer's 'plan'."
"You know about that?"
At his question, she laughed.
"Jack, you are not the only one who listens to the winds. They are, after all, notorious gossips when it comes to anything to do with the Spirits of the Seasons. They got that bad habit from you." She made a shooing gesture. "Now go on, get going, or Achieng and Oisin will wonder what's keeping you."
Jack smirked, stepping through the large Mirror which was still in the room from a few days previous. He had it take him to his valley, whereupon he then tapped the clouds that were already above and triggered a faint falling of snow for a hundred miles in every direction. He then headed to Northern Russian, to where similar weather was also due, and waited for the inevitable confrontation.
It came sooner than he'd expected, which was saying something considering he'd already predicted she'd come at him during the first day. If anything, the fact she reached him barely an hour after he started work in Russia, meant she'd already been chasing him when he left North America. It was just that she'd been unable to keep up with him since he could fly faster than her.
As it was, he was messing around building a snow-fort on a remote cliff when she found him, and she already had her little cloud of petals up.
She glared at him venomously.
"What are you doing?! It's SPRING now, not WINTER!"
Jack glanced at her, before resuming adding more walls to his little fort.
"It's spring in the south of the North of the World, and the low-lying areas and coastal plains. This far north, and this high up in the mountains, winter isn't due to end for another five weeks. I still have work to do up here."
Ariko darted towards him, kicking a chunk of his snow-fort to pieces in the process.
"And this is work?"
Jack pointed at the clouds overhead, which were shedding a thin mist of snow over the mountains.
"No, that is work. This is just me passing some time, while I wait for summons to another bit of work." A wind swirled around them, bringing news of unstable snow-pack on a mountain to the south. It needed shifting, lest the spring thaw cause it to give way when someone was below. "Which would be right now."
He was up into the air before she could react, and already soaring away by the time she set off in pursuit. But no matter how much she yelled at him, he didn't bother answering any of her accusations after that. He set off the avalanche, made sure everything was stable afterwards, and then spent the rest of that day 'sledding' down the slopes of an adjacent mountain. During all of that, he flat-out ignored her, until she was forced to fly off because her own duties were calling.
Over the following weeks, she came to scream and shout at him in every spare moment she had, but she might as well have not bothered for all the response she got. At most, she got a bland 'Can you leave? I'm working'.
When he finally headed back to the Winter Sanctuary, it was a rather agitated Spirit of Spring who was left behind in the north. She fluttered around doing her duties for the following month, still worked up after all that time, when the winds told her Achieng was on the move in Africa.
Ariko headed there immediately, seeking out she who had been her most long-time supporter, and upon finding her came to a halt at her side. The Spirit of Spring then began to wave her arms around in angry distress.
"That Jack Frost, he ruined spring in so many places, saying that winter hadn't left them yet! I know it usually snows in those places for a few more weeks after Spring starts, but that's no excuse for him to loiter around getting in my way!" She turned to face the Spirit of Summer. "He is impossible! He should never have been chosen to be one of the Spirits of the Seasons!"
Achieng remained silent as she regarded the Spirit of Spring, and then she sighed, shook her head, and gestured at the skies.
"I don't see what the problem is, personally."
Her power reached out, shooing some clouds away while pushing others southwards in prelude to the rainy season which would begin in parts of Africa in a few more weeks. In the meantime Ariko gawked at her, looking between her and the sky several times before taking a deep breath.
What then came out of her mouth wasn't so much as a shriek, by a shocked, whining squeal.
"What are you doing?"
Achieng glanced at her, and replied blandly.
"My job... Summer is now moving into this area, and it called me. If you're going to keep being a nuisance and disturb me, I'm going to have to ask that you leave so I can get on with my work. Don't make me complain to Mother Nature."
Ariko stared at her for a few moments more, before flying off radiating such emotion that one of the nearby clouds released a bolt of stray lightning.
As soon as she was gone, Achieng took flight and turned southwards to the Summer Sanctuary. And upon arriving at the oasis, which looked like a combination of a tropical forest merged with a savannah plain, she landed beside a narrow stream in the lea of one of the larger trees.
Underneath that tree, sheltered in the shade, Jack and Oisin were sat on a log waiting for her.
The Spirit of Winter grinned in anticipation.
"So she confronted you? How did she react?"
Achieng looked at him, her expression serious, before without any 'help' from him her façade cracked and she burst out laughing.
"She... She... Oh for the love of little sprites, she looked so bewildered when I told her to stop interfering with my work. Up until that point, she was ranting about how you had 'ruined' spring in several places. I think she expected me to sympathise, and assure her that yes, you were a terrible person to have been chosen to be one of us."
Jack's grin widened.
"So, how long do you think she'll hold out, before she goes crying to Mother Nature and gets the shock of her immortal life?"
"I'll save you the trouble of placing any bets." All three of them turned their heads to look, to where Mother Nature stood beside the stream looking rather amused. "It has barely been an hour since she left you, Achieng, and yet she was calling out my name within minutes of taking to the skies. I told her, most firmly, that I was very pleased with the cooperation and good work you three have displayed in recent times, and that I expected her to defer to your experience in the new methods and seek tutelage from one of you regarding it."
All of them were stunned to silence, until Oisin quietly remarked.
"But the only one who could teach her, would be one of us who shares a seasonal boundary with her. Achieng is still learning all this for herself, so it can't be her."
There was a shocked splutter beside him, before Jack toppled off the log and began to howl with laughter.
"Oh, this is so hilarious! She's going to have to ask ME!"
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Alaia Skyhawk: Now I know you'll all probably want me to write that scene, but after doing all these other funny ones, I'm going to let you all picture for yourselves how that goes. But there will be some Sulky!Ariko next chapter.
Also, on another note, that proverb Oisin says really does pre-date Jack in the time-line. It first appeared in written form, in James Howell's "Proverbs in English, Italian, French, and Spanish" in 1659 :)