Alaia Skyhawk: Time for the introduction of the guy who will become Jack's next new Lieutenant :D
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 65: Solitary Howling Wolf
Jack waited until he was a reasonable distance from the Workshop before venting a quick bit of frustration on the nearby frozen mountainside. Only after that did he make an Ice Mirror to the Sanctuary of Nature, and stalked through it in a rather foul mood.
Of all the times to be stuck lecturing a new immortal about the rules of this existence, it had to be when he was tired and aching and when he really just wanted to go get some more sleep.
Jack's arrival in the Glade of Winter was accompanied by a burst of snow that buried half of it under several inches of the white powder... Causing the startled Nature Fairy who waited there, to be buried spluttering under it.
The little fellow scrambled up out of the snow, shaking it off, before wordlessly interpreting the expression on Jack's face. The fairly hastily pointed towards the exit that led to Mother Nature's personal garden, and the Spirit of Winter turned and stormed out through it.
Mother Nature, sat in her gazebo drinking tea, knew the moment Jack had arrived. She didn't need to see him dump snow in the Glade of Winter to be aware of it happening. Nor did she need to see his expression to know he was very annoyed right now. And so she waited until he'd reached her garden and gazebo, before blandly interrupting him before he could speak.
"Before you start getting irate with me, I had intended to inform you about Kiyiya after your customary two weeks rest. It's just that the conference resulted in him coming to others' attention much sooner, and I could no longer avoid it." She glanced at him. "He is presently expressing a great deal of anger and frustration, by venting it at the walls of the room where I'm keeping him. I'd rather not try vouch for his state of mind if I'd waited another fourteen days."
Jack frowned, having backed down from the tirade he'd been about to unleash. Mother Nature always had possessed a way of knocking the wind out of someone's sails.
He walked over to the table and sat down, grimly accepting the cup of cooled tea that he was offered.
"The others mentioned that this immortal, Kiyiya? They said he's new... How new?"
Mother Nature sipped her tea.
"Six weeks. He got into an argument with his father and stormed out of the house, in winter temperatures and with no coat. He would probably have been fine if the timing hadn't been so bad... But a blizzard hit the area less than half an hour after he went off into the woods. Hypothermia did the rest."
Jack winced.
"So, he's going to have guilt issues, or guilty anger issues, about leaving the house without apologising to his father. Does his family know he died? Give me some background info, so I know what I'll be dealing with."
Mother Nature set down her cup and sighed.
"As his name suggests, Kiyiya comes from a small Native American community from up in the area of the Great Lakes. He has an older brother, who went looking for and found his body, but the blizzard forced him to seek shelter. By the time it stopped and he'd returned for the body..."
"You'd already been there and turned Kiyiya into a Nature Immortal." Jack set his head into his hands. "You do realise that, when you do that, you're practically robbing the grave?"
Mother Nature sighed again, regretful.
"Jack, you know full well how it works. Far better for his family to believe that wild animals had found and taken the body, than for it to vanish from their care before they could bury it. Turning the deceased into an immortal requires that the body be taken in the first twenty-four hours, even if the body is chilled or frozen. A person's spirit won't linger on for longer than that, and without their spirit I'd have revived nothing but an empty husk."
Jack went quiet, his mind looking back to his memories of first waking up as an immortal.
"So, did you at least hang around long enough to tell him what had happened?"
She nodded, but remained solemn.
"I did, not that it did much good."
Jack glanced at her.
"What do you mean?"
She winced.
"Similar cultural issues as Tsar Lunar had early on with Peboan, combined with the present era's frustrations of youth. Kiyiya believes himself to be a ghost, and that every immortal he has met thus far to either also be ghosts or to be spirits. He's angry and wants his life back, and refuses to accept that he is still alive, just in a new form. It's all been compounded by his family and friends, who held his funeral without a body two weeks after he died... Kiyiya didn't take it well, and his powers began to act up."
Jack started to grimace, running a hand through his hair in rising understanding.
"Let me guess. Winds started howling in and around his home community, and they interpreted it as his spirit being angry at his body not being found and laid properly to rest?"
Mother Nature nodded.
"Correct. As a result he already has ambient belief, and that has only made the situation worse. He is only a modestly powerful Nature Immortal, but ambient belief combined with his anger gives him additional outlet to cause chaos until he accepts what has happened. He has haunted his village for the past month, to the point they have renamed him Ezhno Kiyiya... Solitary Howling Wolf. If this continues, I will have no option but to strip him of his powers as a Nature Immortal, and reduce him to being a very weak Legend. But there's already a distinct deficiency in Winter Nature Immortals, and I'd really rather not. It wouldn't be fair on him."
"Or at least more unfair than things have already been." Jack got to his feet, still bruised and tired, but his frustration had faded now to resignation. "Show me where he is, and I'll sort things out."
Her hand on his arm made him pause, and Mother Nature got to her feet. There was an unreadable expression in her eyes as she regarded him, one that gradually became solemn and grim hope.
"My Nature Fairies will show you to him, but I have something else I must do. Something I need you to help me with." She released her hold on his arm and took a step back. "Pitch has now been weakened, and he and the Fearlings have never been as weak as they are right now... This is my chance, Jack, to try and reclaim my father. I need only to be able to enter Pitch's lair, the one place I've never been able to find."
Jack eyes widened in understanding.
"But which I've been to, and can now open a portal to whenever I want... But what about your duties? You don't even know how long you could be in there."
Mother Nature smiled solemnly, and kindly.
"But I have you. And Ariko, Achieng, and Oisin. You four are capable of taking care of things for me, and monitoring the Balance of Nature for me, until I return. I trust you to do that for me."
Silence fell between the two of them, before Jack returned her smile and with a gesture conjured a large mirror beside him. One that quickly shifted to bear the image of a shadowed cavern hung with cages. He then stepped away from it, and bowed in respect.
"Then I wish you luck." He raised his head again, his eyes glinting with a hint of mischief and humour. "And if you find you need help pounding the Fearlings into a pulp to get them away from your father, don't hesitate to call for me. They don't like my frostdust very much."
She smiled at him, joyously and with hope as she approached his mirror.
"I sure they don't, and thank you. You can be sure that if I need your help, I will take you up on that offer."
She stepped through the mirror, and Jack waited only until she was clear before breaking it. He then let out a shuddering breath, unable to deny his concern for her, but at the same time he was proud of her determination. Those Fearlings were going to have a serious fight on their hands.
Still smiling to himself, he turned to seek out one of the nearby fairies. Once he had, it didn't take long for them to lead him to where Kiyiya was being kept... And by the volume of the shouting going on, it seemed the new immortal was still very unhappy.
The 'room' in which he was being kept was actually a construct of living vines, meaning that any point on its perimeter could open to form a door. Jack took advantage of that, and entered via the side opposite where the shouting was the loudest.
The inside of the room was frigid, coated with frost, and had it been large enough to house a decent breeze Jack was sure there would have been wind howling around in there too. As it was he quickly closed his entrance to prevent any chance of escape, and waited patiently for the young man to notice him.
Like many Native Americans, Kiyiya was dark-haired, broad of shoulder, yet lithe and fit. He was also at least four inches taller than Jack, meaning he likely also out-massed him by several kilos. Not that it mattered. When it came to immortals, size meant nothing. Sandy was proof of that. But his present fury made Kiyiya seem to dominate his current surroundings, like a raging bear backed into a corner, and it wasn't long before finally noticed the pale and slender 'teenager' behind him.
Kiyiya's eyes narrowed as he glared at him.
"So? Are you another ghost sent into this... purgatory? You look like someone beat you to death. Hard luck, I guess."
Jack raised his eyebrows slightly, and his expression was bland.
"No, I'm not a ghost. I was summoned to come talk, or knock, some sense into that head of yours. Since you come under my jurisdiction, and have been causing trouble for the village you used to live in."
Kiyiya started to scowl, stomping over to look down on and tower over Jack.
"Talk sense into me? You? You're a kid, and we're obviously both dead, so you can damn well get lost." He looked up at the ceiling. "You hear me? Whoever is out there, who is in charge of the dead! Either send me on to the Spirit World, or give me my life ba- Ooof!"
Kiyiya doubled over from where he'd been kicked soundly in the gut, and now it was Jack who towered over him.
Jack gave him a long look. When words fail, 'tough love' was generally his preferred solution.
"That hurt? Yes? Good. Because if you were a ghost you wouldn't feel physical pain, would you?" He grabbed Kiyiya by the front of the man's plain shirt. "And let me explain a little something to you. I'm no 'kid'... I am more than three-hundred years old. I just happened to be eighteen when I drowned and was reborn as an immortal. That's what happened to you. You froze to death in a blizzard, and were chosen to be given a second chance at a new kind of life, to be an immortal. So you can either accept that fact and start to adapt, or I rip your winter powers away from you and leave you scrabbling around existing on what little ambient belief you're getting from the people of your old home."
The new immortal was staring at him, wide-eyed and stunned, before he recovered and started to scowl again.
"Let's just say you're right, that I'm not actually dead and that it's normal for 'immortals' to unseen, unheard, and to be walked through. What gives you the right to take whatever powers I have, away from me?"
Jack let out a small sigh, rolled his eyes, and shook his head... He then let go of Kiyiya's shirt, blasted him backwards with a gust of conjured wind, and froze his clothing to the wall to hang him there.
His expression then hardened.
"Because you are a 'Winter Spirit', a Winter Nature Immortal, yet I am the Spirit of Winter. I am one of Mother Nature's Generals, and it's to me that you have to look to for authority. She doesn't have time to be messing around babysitting newcomers like you, and neither do I." He held out his arms, his tone laced with sarcasm. "Yet here I am, because you're acting like an idiot."
Jack walked forward, glaring. "Yes, I understand that you're confused and upset, but get over it. Almost every other immortal that exists on this world, died and woke up the same way you did. My own sister saw me fall through ice and drown. The last thing I heard before I died was her screaming my name. Yet when Mother Nature came to me and told me what my new purpose was to be, I accepted it and got on with it. I don't regret it, because I've seem and experienced so much that I never would have otherwise. And I promise you that you won't regret it either, if you give this new life of yours a chance."
Kiyiya was now utterly still, fright in his eyes, and rigid to the point that when Jack unfroze him from the wall he almost fell over. It was only after stumbling to regain his balance upon landing, that he took a shuddering breath and looked at Jack.
"And how am I supposed to do that, when for the past six weeks I've been alone with no one to turn to?"
Jack held out his hand, his expression softening.
"You come with me, and I'll introduce you to some people who will be happy to answer any questions you have, and give you advice."
There were several moments of understandable hesitation, before Kiyiya took hold of that offered hand. But Jack didn't give him any chance for second-thoughts, and as soon as he had the man in his grip he conjured a mirror to the Workshop and yanked him through it.
He then let go and sternly pointed at the startled new immortal.
"Behave yourself while you're here. This is the home of one of my colleagues and good friends, so don't freeze or break anything."
He'd brought them to the hallway just outside the room where he'd left the others, and now opened the door to usher Kiyiya in. The Native American man then came to a startled halt at the strange gathering he saw within, and was promptly ambushed by a blur of green and blue feathers, violet eyes, and a smiling female face mere inches from his.
Tooth's hands immediately reached for and began to inspect Kiyiya's teeth, before Jack interceded with a cough and a muttered remark.
"Tooth... Fingers out of mouth."
Her head feathers fluffed out, she blushed, and then she backed off apologetically.
"Sorry, I just wanted to see if they were as white as yours."
Kiyiya stared at her, clueless as to what to make of a feathered woman with fairy-wings, before Jack shook his head and began to point to people in turn. Ariko had left, meaning it was just the Lieutenants and Guardians still in the room.
"Everyone, this is Ezhno Kiyiya, to give him the Legend name his old home village have started to call him by. He's been an immortal for only six weeks, and right now he's still trying to get his head around the fact he's an immortal and not a ghost." He nudged the new immortal. "That's Toothiana, the Tooth Fairy. Beside her is Sanderson Mansnoozie, the Sandman. Then there Nicholas St. North, otherwise know as Santa Claus, and E. Aster Bunnymund, the Easter Bunny. The other three are some of my Lieutenants. Dig, the Groundhog. Lady Yuki, the Snow Guide. And Marzanna, Whisper of the Thaw."
It was Yuki who stood and came over, her gentle smile and kind nature immediately putting the startled Kiyiya at ease.
"It's a pleasure to meet you."
Once she'd taken hold of the newcomer and began ushering him to a chair, Jack ran a hand through his hair and sighed.
"I'll leave him to you, Yuki. You and the others explain things to him while I catch up with my rest. If you think he's up to it by then, we can even take him to Santoff Claussen at the weekend."
Yuki nodded, and Marzanna smiled.
"You do that, before you fall asleep on your feet."
"Thanks."
Jack conjured a new mirror and went through it, the ring of ice then disappearing once he was gone. Now left with these new people, Kiyiya's unease returned. But one thing remained forefront in his mind as he glanced at them.
"So, the Tooth Fairy and all you others are actually real?"
Tooth giggled, while the rest of her fellow immortals chuckled.
"We get that a lot, from new immortals. More so those that have been new during the past century or so."
Bunny nodded to that, his expression wry.
"Pretty much most of the Legends or Myths that are out there, about magical or mysterious beings, are true to a certain extent. Of course a lot of them overlap, calling the same immortal by different names, or an immortal may re-invent themselves when their old legend fades out and they need a new one. There's close to about three thousand of us at the moment, although some of us here are among the oldest."
Kiyiya frowned, still hesitant. His mind lingering on the Spirit of Winter, who looked eighteen but was in fact over three-hundred years old.
"So how old are you?" And um..." His eyes flicked between Tooth and Bunny. "Did both of you turn into that after you became immortal?"
Tooth giggled again and shook her head.
"Sometimes immortals will chose to change their appearance, although it's not an easy thing to do, but we didn't. My father was human, but my mother was one of the Sisters of Flight who lived in the palace of Punjam Hy Loo. I inherited the palace after they all turned into statues, and it was then that I was chosen and became an immortal." Her voice took on a note of sadness at that, and she sighed. "That was almost three thousand years ago."
"So you're one of the ones who didn't die first?"
At his question, Tooth nodded, and now it was Bunny who spoke.
"Tooth's the third-oldest in this room. Sandy is the second. He didn't die to become immortal either, but rather was made one and sent to this world after the fall of the Golden Age. The Earth had lost its moon, causing a shift in the world's weather that triggered the most recent Ice Age. Sandy arrived shortly after the Moon Clipper replaced the old moon and restored the weather balance. He's between fifteen and sixteen thousand years old."
Kiyiya gaped and pointed at the Sandman.
"He's from another world? And the moon isn't the Earth's original moon?"
Bunny shrugged.
"Yep, and yep. My people were due to arrange a new moon for the Earth anyway, but when the Lunanoffs needed a place to hide from the Nightmare King, we held off so their Lunar Ship could hide here instead. Him, Sandy, me, Mother Nature, Nightlight, and the Man in the Moon are the only survivors of that Age. I'm the last of my people, the Pookas, and I'm the oldest living thing still alive. Pookas didn't have kids often, since we're all self-sustained immortals from birth, and there were only a few hundred of us. We acted as stewards for worlds and for the integrity of Time, and fixed things that needed fixing on them. The Earth was my patch, after tectonic flaws caused it to become egg-shaped during the last million years. I had to do some serious groundwork to sort that out and make it rotationally stable again."
When Kiyiya remained silent after that, North chuckled and patted him on the shoulder.
"There's whole long story tied to that, but to tell you main thing, Bunny has been our kind of immortal since the fall of the Pooka Brotherhood. That is since shortly before Sandy became one too." North pointed to himself. "As for me, I've been immortal for about four-hundred and fifty years. I started up as 'Santa' about ten years after I first became this, when I was mortally wounded and then saved by Tsar Lunar. So strictly speaking I did not die before becoming immortal, but I almost died."
Yuki spoke up now, drawing attention to the three Lieutenants.
"I'm over a thousand years old, although I'm not sure exactly when I became immortal since I never kept track of it. Marzanna's slightly younger than me."
The Slavic woman nodded.
"Although, like her, I've never bothered to keep track." She pointed at the groundhog who had now ensconced himself in one of the chairs. "Dig was created from an actual groundhog, during the year 1866. He's one-hundred and forty-seven years old." Marzanna faced Kiyiya again, smiling softly. "And now, if I may ask, what's your original name? Mine was Marzanna Siroky."
Kiyiya looked at her, and them all, and after several moments took a deep breath. As strange as all this was for him, coming from the viewpoint that he'd believed he was a ghost, the normalcy of being asked his name seemed to ground him.
"Kiyiya Ojibwa, and I'm twenty-six years old."
Marzanna reached out to shake his hand, still smiling.
"Then I welcome you, Kiyiya Ojibwa, to the start of the rest of your life."
~(-)~
When Jack got out of bed, eight o'clock Burgess-time on Saturday morning, he was feeling considerably less sore than he had three days earlier. The majority of his bruises had also faded, courtesy of an immortal's ability to rapidly heal from injuries, and he was in a far better mood with some decent sleep under his belt.
However, after sending out the day's dose of frostdust, his mind strayed back to Kiyiya. He didn't doubt that Yuki and the others would have been doing a good job of helping him settle into an accept his new life, but one factor remained that prodded at him. The cultural aspect behind Kiyiya's belief that he was a spirit of the dead haunting the world of the living. He was going to have trouble come the start of next Northern Winter, if his home community were still treating him as a ghost."
Jack sighed in resignation and summoned a breeze from the region of the Great Lakes. It would be easy enough to ask it where the new immortal had been hanging around during the past few weeks.
Surprisingly enough, the 'territory' that seemed to have been assigned to Kiyiya seemed to be the region that had once been Peboan's. It had been just over a century since that old Legend had chosen to fade, and a 'vacancy' had remained for a Winter Spirit in the myths of the area. And actually, in light of that, Jack shook his head to himself at realising it wasn't all that surprising. Vacancies were always filled. One way or another, sooner or later.
He arrived at the edge of the small Native American community at about mid-morning, with a few hours still to spare before it would be time to take the Bennetts to Santoff Clausen. Walking through the community, and occasionally being walked through, he searched for any clue that would lead him to Kiyiya's family. It didn't take long to spot the small memorial that had been set up on the porch of one of the houses. It took less time still after that to learn which of the people nearby or in the house were his father, mother, brother, and grandfather.
It was the grandfather that Jack took the most interest in, since the man was sat among the trees outside the back of his home. If there was one thing the Spirit of Winter was glad about in this situation, it was that the Native American's culture was going to be the cure as well as the cause for Kiyiya's problems.
Belief in spirits of nature, was never a bad thing when one of them needed to have a word with you.
Jack landed beside the ageing man, and called forth a cold, frostdust-laced breeze to blow past and around him. It caused the old man to turn his head and frown.
"Is that you, Kiyiya?" When there was no apparent answer, the man sighed. "We will keep looking for your remains, and ask only that you be patient. We will do all we can to see you set to your proper rest, my grandson."
Jack sent the breeze around him again, but this time murmured quietly.
"This isn't Kiyiya, although I'm here on his behalf... I am the Spirit of Winter."
The old man stiffened at those faintly-heard words, his expression becoming one of surprised awe.
"The Spirit of Winter had sought me out? You honour me." He turned to face the source of the voice, even if he could not see the one who had spoken. "So you have come to speak of my grandson? Tell me. Can you reveal to us where his body may be found? We do not wish for him to linger in this world out of anger or regret."
Now was the awkward part, and Jack took a deep breath to steady himself. There was no subtle way to tell someone that their loved-one was not dead, but was invisible to them. The best he could do was play along to the cultural beliefs of his family.
"I can't tell you, because there is no body to find... Kiyiya died, but he is not dead. He was chosen by Mother Earth, Isanaklesh, to serve as a Winter Spirit, and he has struggled to come to terms with it while his family still grieves for him. You need to take down the memorial, and replace it with something to celebrate his new life as a Spirit of Nature in her service."
The old man rose to his feet, awed.
"My grandson has been chosen to serve Isanaklesh?"
Jack nodded, although he knew he couldn't be seen.
"That is correct. You need to tell this to the rest of your family and community, that Ezhno Kiyiya is now a Winter Spirit to preside and watch over this region. Take down the memorial to his death, and in a few days I will bring to you a totem of his new appearance to add to your village shrine."
Kiyiya's grandfather nodded, solemn yet determined.
"It shall be done at once, Lord of Winter. Thank you for telling us this, for Kiyiya's sake."
"You're welcome. Farewell."
With a little theatrical gust of wind, Jack darted up into the air and stopped a short distance above. From there he watched as Kiyiya's grandfather hastened to the main street of the village and began telling everyone of his visit from the Spirit of Winter, and of Kiyiya's new status as a Winter Spirit. There was naturally some scepticism, but Jack knew that would be dealt with once he'd delivered the totem to the village in a few days.
And if anyone among the Immortals complained that he'd set up belief for Kiyiya in this way, well then they could just go sulk in a corner somewhere. There was no rule anywhere that said one immortal couldn't help another get started with believers if it was within their ability to do so.
Jack flew off and headed for Burgess, arriving there to a very enthusiastic greeting from Jamie and Sophie. A step through a mirror soon brought the family to Santoff Claussen in the early hours before the Siberian dawn, but Ombric was already awake and waiting with hot chocolate and cookies to tide them over until the celebration began after sunrise.
And when the Guardians arrived along with all the Lieutenants of Winter, and a rather uncertain Kiyiya, Jack couldn't help but be amused at the new immortal's reaction to be being seen by so many mortals after six weeks of being seen by none.
But there was one thing Jack definitely looked forward to seeing, at the start of the next Northern Winter when Kiyiya could return to his old home... And that was the look on the young immortals face when he would see the totem of himself for the first time.
Because Jack was going to have some fun being creative with that, to help begin a new legend in this new era. And a small smirk came to his face when he thought of how he could rope Ombric into helping. After all, every immortal eventually needed a change of attire once they got going. And Jack knew the wizard would be more than happy to help make the clothing that would make the image of the totem into a reality.
Kiyiya was definitely going to be in for a pleasant surprise.
~(-)~
Alaia Skyhawk: And there you have him, Ezhno Kiyiya, the guy who will be Jack's next new Lieutenant (But not for a few more chapters). Also, I'd have done more for the party, but it just didn't fit with the overall chapter. However, to make up for it there will be a load of fun in Burgess in the next one :)
Oh, and as for the Native American names etc. If they're wrong in a technical sense, I apologise in advance to anyone who knows the culture better than me. I kinda just used Google to get random bits of info for Kiyiya's name, background etc.