Alaia Skyhawk: Here's the next one!
And to answer the question from "Hannah", which was in an anonymous review, the Selkies are not Jack's Lieutenants. They're a tribe of 'mythical creatures' that live under his protection. They help Jack out with stuff around the Sanctuary, when he needs it, a bit like how the yetis work for/help North :)
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.
And a shout-out to VanRah on Deviantart, for letting me use their awesome picture of Jack Frost as the new cover for this story! Seriously, go check out their page!
~(-)~
Chapter 34: Thoughts and Tasks
Northern Spring Threshold was close, Easter was in three weeks, and the thaw was well under way. The Winter Sprites had been herded home to the Winter Sanctuary, by Yuki who also had Zuě Hu with her for the errand. Cernunnos was still enjoying his well-earned rest after his manic December workload, and even Jack was beginning to wind-down his duties as Northern Winter began to retreat northwards ahead of the warm tide of Spring. In fact the only one of the main residents of the Winter Sanctuary, who did have a lot to do still, was Marzanna.
The Slavic Legend tracked the weather carefully, cross-referencing it with maps that Jack had gotten for her from Ombric. She'd since marked numerous regions upon them, based on the times in relation to Spring Threshold, when any ice in those areas would be becoming dangerous.
She could, of course, actually sense wherever there was thin ice, thanks to her new powers gained as a Lieutenant, but for some reason she still liked having a sort of schedule written down on paper. For no more reason than it allowed her to plan ahead.
Marzanna stood in front of one of her maps, in the room Jack had made for her on the side of the ground floor of the Ice Palace. She would have had them on the walls in her personal chamber within the Lieutenants' Residence, but he'd insisted that work space and relaxation space be kept separate.
Looking over that map now, she mentally noted down a handful of locations and headed out of the palace and onto the plaza.
"I'm off to do more Warning Duty. I'll be back in a few hours."
Yuki looked up from where she was brushing Zuě Hu's fur, surrounded by a horde of Winter Sprites, and smiled as she waved.
"Ok, we'll see you then."
Zuě Hu also waved, using his tail, although he didn't open his eyes. He was too busy purring contentedly from Yuki's attentions.
Marzanna chuckled to herself at that, as she passed through the tunnel and flew up the crevasse to the outside. Jack had certainly managed to create a rather odd 'family' out of their motley collection of immortals. But after centuries of almost total solitude, with few she would regularly cross paths with or talk to, it was nice to have comrades she knew she could count on.
As for Zuě Hu. If Yuki had her way, he was going to become an oversized house-cat whenever he wasn't out during his duties for his believers. It was an amusing thought, but he didn't seem to be complaining.
Marzanna flew to the North of the World, starting her day's work in Sweden and Norway, before she would later cross the sea to Scotland. There was plenty of thinning ice in all three counties, and with the clear weather she knew that many children would be tempted to go skating. It was simply a case of overflying each place with thin ice, and stopping by any children nearby to whisper to them, unseen.
And she didn't mind being invisible, she'd had so few true believers for so long, that she was used to it. And besides, it was easier to get close to the children if they couldn't see her.
It didn't take long to find her first group of youngsters, who were having a snowball fight close to the banks of a frozen river. During a lull in the game, Marzanna drifted down and walked among them, murmuring cautions about being so close to the thin ice.
No sooner than she had passed, and was drifting up into the air again, than one of the children glanced at the river with a small frown. That young boy suggested they went further up the hill, in case one of them slipped on the sloping bank of the river and fell in. The rest agreed, they moved to a safer distance, and then they resumed their game with the same joy and laughter as previous.
She hadn't harmed their fun, she had no intention of conflicting with that which was now Jack Frost's duty to protect in children. She'd simply reminded them that fun should never come at the expense of safety.
Marzanna moved on, smiling to herself in pride at doing such important work. Most Legends would scorn her for choosing to work for a Spirit of the Seasons, but the day would come when she'd have the last laugh. Because many of those who would look down on her, would jump at the chance of working for a Guardian. But the Guardian's didn't recruit Immortals as helpers, they had their own ways... The only exception to that rule was Jack, and when the day came when his secret role was no longer a secret, she was willing to bet that all the Winter Legends that had avoided him, would clamour to work for him.
The thing was, Jack might be forgiving, but he wasn't that forgiving. If Legends came to him wanting to be Lieutenants, only because he was a Guardian, they were going to get the proverbial door slammed in their faces. And that made Marzanna happy, because if there was one thing she was sure of, Jack wasn't going to gather dozens of Lieutenants like the other Spirits of the Seasons had. No... If and whenever he got his next new subordinate, that individual would be someone who would mesh well with their existing 'family'. Self-serving and arrogant individuals, need not apply.
Marzanna nodded to herself at that and continued on to her next stop. Thinking to herself that if Jack didn't 'slam the door' in their faces when that day came, she would.
~(-)~
"Sooo, Northern Spring Threshold is almost here, and Ariko is due to start pestering me if she follows her usual routine. Want to tag along?"
Zuě Hu twitched his ear at that question, still laid on the plaza where Yuki and the Sprites had left him after he'd dozed off. He cracked open one grey-blue eye, to see Jack floating upside-down in front of him with a wicked grin on his face and his cloak handing around his ears, and snorted.
"You're planning something to do with fun at her expense, something that involves me."
Jack didn't deny it, still grinning.
"Oh come on, don't tell me you've never wanted another chance to laugh in her face after she gave up harassing you to be her Lieutenant. You and I have both suffered annoyance at the hands of those three, and this is the perfect opportunity to get some harmless payback. They're going to find out eventually that you agreed to be my Lieutenant, so why not let them find out by teasing the only one of them that still gives me hassle?"
The tiger's ears folded back for a moment, before they perked forward again and he lifted his head.
"Admittedly, she was by far the most arrogant of the them when approaching me. Every time she came, the smug look on her face said clearer than words that she thought she already knew I would say yes... The raw fury afterwards, when I told her no, was always a striking contrast."
Jack chuckled, and turned right-side up.
"Let's go then. I already know what area she's in right now, so if I go start doing work in the cold region just north of her, without a doubt she'll come over to annoy me."
As Jack swooped towards the tunnel and Zuě Hu followed behind, the tiger couldn't help but smile as well. Jack's good cheer, when he was in a playful mood, was undeniably infectious. He truly was a living embodiment of 'fun', and his greatest happiness came from enjoying himself and helping others to have fun too. He was every inch the Guardian he'd been chosen to be. Zuě Hu's only concern was, how would Jack handle the secrecy in the long-term? They didn't know when Pitch would make his move. Keeping the secret was almost a game to Jack right now, the way he tended to think. But what about if things dragged on for long enough, that it ceased to be a game and instead became a burden?
Jack was a Guardian who was forbidden from fully acting as one. Limited to only the most passive of help, for those children who were outside of his valley and the town of Burgess. Jack was wearing gilded chains, and one day he would start to realise it.
Up ahead, Jack laughed and taunted him for being slow, and Zuě Hu kept his smile in place as he ran to catch up. No matter when that day came, the tiger knew that he and Jack's other Lieutenants would be there for him. They would support and help him work things through, and when the shadows of frustration were cast over him, they would be there to remind him of light and laughter. They'd keep him true to himself.
The tiger set those thoughts aside and followed Jack, as the two of them flew rapidly north. Just as Jack predicted, it didn't take long after he started work, before the Spirit of Spring made her appearance with a smirk on her face. Zuě Hu had hidden from sight, down below, waiting for his cue.
Ariko glided close to Jack, every part of her expression saying she was looking forward to taunting him.
"So, I heard gossip from my Lieutenants, who talked to Oisin's Lieutenants, that you tried to recruit Qiu Hu."
Jack paused in what he was doing, turning in the air to face her. He remained nonchalant, although his expression was amused.
"Maybe. What's it to you? After all, he did tell you to get lost, so many times that in the end he decided a nice drought would benefit your sanctuary. It was only after all your flowers started to wilt, that you took his refusal seriously."
Ariko started to scowl, before her high-and-mighty expression returned.
"Yes yes, and he flooded the Summer Sanctuary when Achieng wouldn't take no for an answer. And then he kept Oisin in the bottom of a gorge for five months when he wouldn't accept no." She drifted closer, smirking. "I'm looking forward to finding out what he does to you, when he gets tired of you asking."
Jack remained quiet for several moments, before the corner of his mouth lifted into a smirk of his own. He then sighed in feigned regret.
"I hate to disappoint you, but I have no intention of asking him a second time... After all, I only needed to ask once. Isn't that right, Zuě Hu?"
At that call, the white tiger erupted out of cover below, and glided up to the other two immortals. He then came to a stop behind and to the side of Jack, who casually leaned against his furry shoulder while the tiger spoke.
"Indeed, Jack proved to be good company. He only asked me once, and made it clear that he accepted my refusal when I made it, and that he wouldn't bother me again. We then had a short and rather amusing chat, and when he started to leave, I decided that perhaps working for him wouldn't be so bad and changed my mind about saying no."
Jack grinned, as Ariko slowly began to gape in shock.
"You see, I actually treated him with due respect, and I got respect in return. Maybe you should try it sometime, Ariko, and then maybe I wouldn't get so much amusement out of staging things like this which make you look like an idiot."
The Spirit of Spring floated there, utterly still, and Jack began whispering a countdown from five. When he reached zero, Ariko turned and flew away leaving the proverbial smell of scorched ego in her wake.
Zuě Hu snorted as he watched her go. This trip had definitely been worth it, for that moment alone never mind the rest.
"Do you think she will take that lesson to heart?"
Jack chuckled.
"Maybe, but probably not until I've used her own stupidity to humiliate her a few more times. So it could take a few more decades, maybe a century, before she decides that treating me with grudging respect, will be far better than trying to get back at me. Madam Stiff against a master of jokes and good humour, she doesn't stand a chance of making me feel humiliated. Everything she tries, only makes me laugh."
Both of them laughed, before Zuě Hu then glanced at the surrounding landscape.
"Well, as we have now had our fun, perhaps you'd like me to assist you with shaping the snow-clouds. Just tell me what winds you need, from where, and I shall direct them to you."
Jack nodded, still grinning, and then both of them were gone in a gust of wind. Unaware of a certain unpleasant farce that was starting to unfold.
~(-)~
Birds sang and little furry critters ran about doing the business of finding and eating food, while winds that would have been warmer but for the lingering chill of winter, rustled through the trees above the clearing below. It was a perfectly normal scene, on the edge of a small town near the northern edge of Scotland, but for the sudden and unusual fact a hole that seemed to drop bottomlessly into a tunnel, opened and a pair of very large and long ears poked out.
The obviously rabbit-like appendages tilted and swivelled, checking for danger nearby, before their owner jumped up out of his magical burrow and it closed behind him leaving only a pink flower to mark where it had been.
Bunnymund fluffed his fur out, shuddering at the cold, and muttered under his breath. He hated the years when winter in the Northern Hemisphere held on for longer in the most-populated latitudes. He could never escape it completely in his work, some people just lived too far north for everything to have thawed before Easter arrived, but there were years when 'freak snowfalls' happened even as far into the year as April, in the temperate climate zone.
Shuddering again and setting off to skirt the town, the Guardian of Hope began to check all his usual areas for hiding eggs, as well as looking for possible new ones. He did this every year. The Sunday three weeks before Easter, he would make a 'practice' run to check for new settlements to include in his route, and to make sure that if all his usual places were still usable, and if one wasn't then he'd pick a new one close to where it was. It was better to spot potential hiccups in advance, than run the risk of not getting the eggs hidden in time or, Man in the Moon forbid, run out of eggs.
Of course, he had a lot of places to go in a relatively short space of time, so he never stayed more than a minute at each town, sometimes even less, but then he was very fast and could always finish up any straggler locations tomorrow if need be. Indeed, he was all set to hop back down a burrow to go to the next place, when the laughter of some nearby children suddenly and inexplicably began to come to a halting stop.
Frowning, Bunnymund sprinted in that direction to where he'd seen several groups of children playing near the frozen edge of the nearby loch. Several groups of the children were now walking up the slope away from it, and as he watched the final two groups that were playing, a woman garbed in furs and leather glided above them and floated down.
She walked through the heart of their group, unseen by them, murmuring things he couldn't make out at this distance, and within moments of her doing so those children stopped their play and glanced fearfully towards the frozen water before turning to head up the slope as well.
Bunny stared in mounting shock and anger, as the woman proceeded to scare the last group as well, but before he could respond to her actions, she vanished up into the sky.
His 'practice' run forgotten for now, Bunny dived down a burrow and came out in a far warmer place; the garden of the Tooth Palace. He then dashed up the nearest spire, up to the heart of the complex where he gave Tooth only the barest moment of warning before taking her by the arm and pulling her down another burrow.
Their emergence outside North's workshop, as the Russian's wards once again didn't let him emerge inside, did little to improve Bunny's mood. As he waved for Tooth to follow him inside and they hurried up to where North was inspecting toys.
North was startled to see them, glancing between a baffled-looking Tooth Fairy and an agitated Pooka, and coming to the correct conclusion as to who was behind this visit.
"What is it, Bunny? Is something wrong?"
Bunny waved a paw in the general direction of Scotland, very upset.
"I just saw some woman, an immortal, scaring kids in broad daylight! They were playing games, happy and smiling, and then she comes down out of the sky and scares them into walking off back home. You need to call Sandy here, and fill him in so we can decide what to do about this! I'll keep tracking her while you wait for him."
Bunny vanished down a new burrow, while Tooth fluttered and displayed clear signs of being upset as well.
"Oh North, who could she be? Do you think she's an ally of Pitch?"
The Russian frowned, making his way to an elevator to reach the top floor and the globe, and waited until he'd activated the signal-lights before glancing at her.
"I don't know, but we'll find out. No immortal harms the children of the world, on our watch, and gets away with it."
~(-)~
Marzanna flew towards her next stop, skimming the hilltops, and smiling to herself at a job well-done. All those children near the loch, with no supervising adult in sight, had been a concerning moment. But now they were all playing in the meadow the other side of the nearby trees, a far more sheltered spot and far safer.
She sighed contentedly, a passing glance at the sky causing her to frown. The signal that summoned the Guardians was rippling across the upper reaches, but this was before Easter so it couldn't be their annual meeting. Well, whatever it was about, Jack would have to wait for the Sandman to tell him what it was after the meeting had taken place.
Marzanna continued on her way, heading for the next settlement along the shore of the loch. This one had a pond, where a spring flowed up out of the rocky slope at the village edge. It had been frozen almost solid for weeks, but now that up-flow of water was making it treacherous. Eroding the ice from below, leaving it weakened and brittle in several places.
When she reached the village and the pond came into view, her heart almost stopped. Four children were heading for the pond, carrying ice-skates, and she knew that if they went onto the ice it was almost certain to break.
She changed direction and headed for them, gliding lower and lower in preparation to land, before being forced to evade the curved, wooden projectile that came within inches of her head. She was forced to dodge several times more, being driven backwards down the slope away from the pond, before the one throwing those strange weapons at her leapt into view now they were out-of-sight of the children.
Marzanna frowned, recognising the Easter Bunny immediately.
"What are you doing? Don't you know it's rude to interrupt another immortal's work?" She shook her head, glowering in disdain. "Whatever, I don't have time for this."
She moved to fly back in the direction of the pond, but again he threw his weapons at her, this time much closer.
Bunny scowled.
"Oh no, you're not going after those kids. If you think I'm going to let you go around scaring the children that it's my job to protect, then you've got another thing coming."
Marzanna's expression hardened, while the warning ache of nearby thin ice, gnawed at her gut.
"Stay out of my way and my work, you overgrown fleabag."
She moved again, to dart over and past him to reach the children, but was forced to skid to a halt when the Pooka jumped up into her flight-path... And then he kicked her.
Bunny landed neatly and then watched in satisfaction as she thudded into the ground, dazed.
"That was your last warning. Be smart, go back to whatever hole you came out out, and never go near any kids again."
Marzanna sat up, holding an arm around her bruised ribs, and looked at him with a combination of anger and pity.
"You really shouldn't have done that."
Bunny snorted.
"And why is that, small-timer?"
The clouds overhead visibly thickened, followed by the distant sound of wind shrieking, and Marzanna raised her eyebrows.
"...You just struck a Lieutenant of Winter, and the Spirits of the Seasons don't like it when other immortals get in the way of their Lieutenants' work."
Up on his rocky perch, Bunnymund barely had time to widen his eyes, before he was blown off his feet and thrown to the ground at the foot of the boulder. And when he eventually righted himself and looked up, he found a very angry Spirit of Winter stood above him.
Jack glared at the Pooka, trembling with fury. There was something to be said for the Spirits of the Seasons and the way they worked, because their Season tended to become particularly protective of their agents. The moment one was attacked with any degree of real malice or intent to harm, and the Season they belonged to would 'shudder' violently in reaction.
And, incidentally, send an echo of utter rage through the Spirit that presided over it. For that reason, only an idiot would harm a Lieutenant of the Seasons, because there was no way of knowing just how badly the relevant Spirit would pound the instigator into the ground.
This was the first time Jack had ever experienced the phenomena, and it was taking every ounce of his will not to freeze the Easter Bunny solid.
He gritted his teeth.
"What the hell do you think you are doing?! What possible reason could you have, to attack my Lieutenant?!"
Down below, Bunny actually trembled for a moment, before righteous belief had him pull himself up straight and point at her.
"She was scaring children! If you think the Guardian's are going to stand by and-"
"You really don't get it, do you?" Jack's exasperated tone cut through the Pooka's rant. "There's two kinds of fear you IDIOT! ...There's the kind that Pitch Black gains strength from, 'Unnatural Fear', which is the kind that makes children and adults miserable. And then there's the kind that teaches people caution. Marzanna's job is to pass a tiny spark of 'Natural Fear' on to children, in regions close to bodies of water that freeze over in winter. So that if they decide to go ice-skating on a frozen pond, or just mess around on or near the ice in general, they think to check if the ice is thick enough to be safe! Marzanna's not hurting the children, she's protecting them on my orders!"
Bunny's ears flattened back, and he sounded unconvinced.
"There's ways of protecting children without scaring them."
Jack's tone was rich with sarcasm.
"So, you're going to paint 'Watch out for thin ice' on your eggs, are you? No one can be there for all children, all of the time, not even Immortals like us. The best way for me to give them some protection from the dangers of winter, protection from getting themselves into trouble, is to make sure that somewhere inside them is a glimmer of caution and common sense."
"You still shouldn't scare them!"
Jack's suddenly icy voice cut the air, and the temperature dropped at least five degrees in his vicinity.
"So you're saying it's alright for me to stand back and let kids, who could have been saved by that little spark of Natural Fear, go off and play on thin ice... only to fall through it to their deaths?"
He swooped down and grabbed Bunny by the scruff of the neck, hauling him up into the air so he could see the pond. Jack then indicated to Marzanna she should hurry over.
He and Bunny watched as she stopped beside the children and whispered warnings to them, before one child paused in putting on their skates to pick up a rock and throw it onto the ice... The ice cracked, water welling up through the fractures, and the children quickly abandoned thoughts of skating and left to go play elsewhere.
Jack shook the Pooka in his grasp, for emphasis, as he watched those children go.
"If she had not warned them in time, and they had gone out onto that ice, then there is every chance that one of more of them wouldn't have come back. They would have died, and it would have been your fault for interfering with her work." He dropped his furry passenger, letting him thud to the ground before continuing. "No one deserves a fate like that. I speak from experience."
Bunny, angry and not thinking about his words all that much, glared up at him.
"And what experience would that be?"
Jack went utterly still, and then tilts his head at Bunny. In the moment after that, the Pooka found himself plunged into darkness, before the image of a snowy forest and a pond surrounded him.
He looked around in confusion, reaching out only to discover apparently invisible walls between him and the scene.
"Where am I?"
Jack's voice reached his ears, slightly muffled and definitely angry.
"Inside a box made of my Ice Mirrors... On them I can show any place I have been, and any thing that I can remember." The image changed, as all but one of the mirrors went dark while the remaining one showed a little girl eagerly sliding out onto the pond wearing ice-skates. "My sister, Emily, back in the year 1711. December the sixteenth, to be exact. The image you see is my memory of it. You're seeing it as I saw it over a century ago, through my eyes."
Bunny thumped at the walls around him, but whatever tiny fractures he created, immediately froze over again.
"Let me out of here this instant!"
Jack's image appeared briefly on one of the other walls. He was scowling.
"No, not until you understand why Marzanna's role is very important."
The image vanished into blackness again, as Bunny struck out at it, and he railed against his confinement until he heard a girl's shriek of fright and the snap of cracking ice.
His gaze went immediately to the mirror that showed the girl, who was now stood utterly still, her eyes wide in terror, with cracks forming in the ice under her feet.
Bunny stared in horror.
"Don't tell me, she dies? Are you going to make me watch your sister die! Are you sick in the head?!" Jack remained silent, letting the memory speak for itself as it unfolded, with glimpses of his hands at the peripherals of the image, a desperate tilt in the view as he looked towards a distinct wooden staff, and then rather reckless move towards it despite ice cracking under his own bare feet. After glimpse of tattered leggings, which Jack still wore to this day, Bunny suddenly started to realise what was really going to happen. "Oh no... This is... You don't need to show me any more of this!"
Jack's voice echoed out of the image.
'One. That's it, that's it... Two... Three!'
The staff hooked Emily, and the view became momentarily chaotic as Jack himself was thrown flat. Then the view turned back to Emily, lifting her head and smiling, safe, before there was a resounding crack as the ice under him gave way and he plunged into the icy water.
The mirror showed his point of view, as he tried to surface only to be unable to find the hole he'd fallen through, and it was now that the Jack of today, spoke.
"...Can you imagine the terror of falling into water so cold that it feels like it burns, and then finding yourself trapped under the ice you've just fallen through, unable to find the way to get out?"
In the image, Jack's hands could be seen hitting the underside of the ice in desperation, while above could be heard Emily's muffled screams of his name. Then the blows started to become frantic fumbling, the edges of the image started to blur, and he began to sink.
"...Can you imagine the agony as the air in your lungs runs out, and the cold drains away the strength that might have saved you? Can you imagine the horror, when your limbs can't keep you up anymore and you start to sink into the darkness?"
The image went totally black, leaving Bunny with no light inside the box.
"...I know exactly what it is like, and for that reason I will do whatever is necessary to prevent as many others as I can, from suffering the way I did."
The box shattered, and Bunny found himself face-to-face with Jack again. So close he couldn't help but cower backwards.
"I...I-"
Jack glared at him, his fury as a Spirit of the Seasons now replaced with his fury as a Guardian, that one of his peers would be so utterly clueless and stupid.
"That I was raised from my icy grave, to a new life as the Spirit of Winter, is no consolation for what I went through. And so I warn you, E. Aster Bunnymund, that you need to re-evaluate whatever distorted interpretation you have, which makes you think all fear is bad for children. Because if things had continued the way they have been, we could have ended up with whole generations of youths, who do incredibly dangerous things because they don't know better... All because they never developed the instincts to know when something wasn't safe. That's what Natural Fear is, you idiot. It's the innate survival instincts that all living things should have, that the Balance of Nature requires, and which with your over-the-top pampering of the world's children, you and the other Guardians were eroding! There has to be a balance, you can't have one and not the other, or the children and this world will eventually suffer the consequences. So think on that, before you object to my Lieutenant's work again."
He threw Bunny off his feet with one more gust of wind, before heading to where Marzanna waited and ushering her away.
Bunny watched them go, utterly shaken and thoroughly chastised, before heading down a burrow to return to North's workshop. He was still trembling when he got back inside and up to where North and Tooth waited. But not only that, but both of them looked decidedly sheepish, and beside them Sandy was frowning. It was obvious that he'd scolded them, and once Bunny reached them, North explained why.
"Um, did you find her? Because..." North glanced at Sandy, who folded his arms across his chest, and winced. "When Sandy got here and we described what you saw, he told us that Marzanna, one of Lieutenants of Winter, has job to warn children away from thin ice. Told us that there are two kinds of Fear, one that Pitch gets power from, and one that he doesn't. Marzanna's job is to teach the good kind, Natural Fear."
Bunny grimaced. Sandy's glare was almost as bad as Jack's had been.
"That's what Frost said, after I found out I'd just roughed up one of his Lieutenants of Winter. You won't catch me griping about it again, not after what he did to me."
Tooth brought her hands to her mouth in concern.
"Did he hurt you?"
Bunny shook his head.
"He shook me up a little, but he didn't hit me. He didn't have to. He used some 'ice mirror' trick to shut me in a box and show me one of his memories, so I'd understand his reasons for pushing so hard on making sure children have more caution when it comes to frozen ponds and lakes... He showed me what it looks like, to fall through the ice on a pond, be trapped under that ice, and drown... From his experience of it. It's how he died, before he became an Immortal."
Tooth's expression became horrified, North was speechless, and Sandy regarded all three of them with disappointment. He scolded them all one more time, for interfering with the sanctioned work of another immortal, and left while radiating his anger at them being so foolish.
Once clear of the Workshop, Sandy headed south with all haste, going directly to the Winter Sanctuary. When he got there, he found Yuki tending to Marzanna's bruised ribs, Cernunnos and Zuě Hu pacing angrily, and Jack sat off to one side radiating such a chilling presence that even the sprites were avoiding him.
Sandy got as close as he could before ice started forming on him, and waved to get the Spirit of Winter's attention.
Jack turned his head, immediately noticing the frost that had started to trace over Sandy's front, and reined in his power apologetically. He then sighed.
"So did you give them a good telling off? I gather that Bunny took off after Marzanna, before you'd arrived at the Pole."
Sandy nodded, the two of them retreating to Jack's library as the Guardian of Dreams explained he'd told them about the two kinds of fear. Once they were there and settled either side of a table, Jack propped his chin on one hand and mused aloud.
"I'm just surprised really, that there isn't any Immortal dedicated to teaching instinctual caution to children. Marzanna will only be able to help those who stray near waters that freeze over, which leaves a large number of children out there who aren't helped at all." He paused, thoughtful. "If only Pitch could see that there is a need for fear, but the right kind of fear... Maybe then he could be freed from the Fearlings' grasp, and redeemed."
Sandy went rigid and stared at him in shock, before Jack gave him a wry smile.
"I serve Mother Nature, remember? Kosmotis Pitchiner is her father, who she still wishes to save if at all possible. I promised her I'd help, if she found a way to free him. And if she does, wouldn't that be a better end to the conflict? Fear can never destroyed, which means the Fearlings will always exist, but that's not to say we can't find a way to tame them. To put Unnatural Fear in its place, and let the kind that protects people come forward. I'm hoping that Marzanna will be an example of that, for Pitch and the Guardians. And maybe, when the time comes that he strikes and is struck down again, the Fearlings' grasp on him will be weakened enough to give Mother Nature an opening."
Sandy looked rather stunned, until the import of those words sunk in and he started to smile. He then nodded, agreeing with Jack's wisdom. That if you can't end a war by fighting, then perhaps it is best to seek a peaceful solution... It was something to keep in mind, even if they both knew that North, Tooth, and Bunny would object to the proposition most vehemently.
But then, if they could succeed in freeing Pitch and bringing him to that different purpose, then convincing those three couldn't possibly be anywhere near as difficult by comparison.
The utterly chastised expression on Bunny's face, after his scolding from Jack, was proof enough of that.
~(-)~
Alaia Skyhawk: Foreshadowing and all sorts of plot-goodies in this one, and also the start of the little 'grudgematch' between Jack and Bunny. I hope you guys enjoyed it :)
Also, while I never said as much, for those wondering how Jack got there so fast, it's heavily implied he used a Mirror. As for why Zuě Hu wasn't with him, Jack doesn't tend to make mirrors for portals, bigger than is needed for himself to get through. Mr Giant House-cat couldn't fit through to follow Jack hehehe :D