Alaia Skyhawk: Well I've now read Book 4 of the Guardians of Childhood series (which was released yesterday), and I can FINALLY give Mother Nature her name. I've never given her one before now, since it was likely to be mentioned in Book 4, and it was! So yep, minor spoiler, her official name will be mentioned at some point in this chapter :)
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.
~(-)~
Chapter 80: Mass Employment
When the summons came, Jack wasn't especially surprised by it. But given the timing, he was somewhat annoyed by it.
It was two weeks after Easter and, despite all the additional meetings over the past couple of months, the Guardians had still held their usual annual one at the usual time. Everything that had been reported, was things they all already knew.
Tooth, North, and Sandy had been doing the rounds of the world's teenagers with special dreams and temporary loans of tooth-boxes for reminding them of their childhood beliefs.
Bunny, besides his Easter duties, had been dashing all over the place like a mad march hare. Marshalling hordes of eggbots in the workshop area of the Warren, to build thousands of small Etheric Turbines and just as many electric transformers and water pumps. He'd been taking those round the most needy countries, to isolated villages where clean fresh water was a distant dream. They'd been going to sleep on an evening, and waking up in the morning to the 'miracle' of a powered water pump seemingly having appeared from nowhere overnight. Bunny had been burying the turbines out of reach below ground, but could add a surface 'power point' to them later to give the villages access to electricity as well as clean water.
In the meantime Jack had been lumped as the primary point of contact for the various scientists and researchers. After finishing up his Northern Winter duties, it being an earlier spring this year, he'd then gotten only three days of his normal two-week nap. He'd then been dragged from bed by necessity, when Kiyiya got word from Marcia that a liaison was needed and Bunny was too busy with the final run-up to Easter.
Sufficient to say, Jack was feeling somewhat grumpy. What with all the initial excitement having worn off, and the tedious work now started. And then, right at the end of the Guardians' annual meeting, a vine gate opened in the workshop and a Nature Fairy had come through it with the summons.
Jack was not amused.
With a sigh of resignation, he waved to the other Guardians and flew through the gate without a word. It led to the Garden of the Seasons, where he'd been for every formal meeting he'd had with Mother Nature in this sanctuary. And sure enough, she was sat in the gazebo at the centre of it, waiting for him.
She frowned a little when she noted his grumpy mood, and gestured for him to sit.
"You've not had enough rest."
He sat, taking a gulp from the lukewarm tea that had already been poured ready for him, and answered.
"I've not had time to. I got a quarter of my usual recharge-time, before I had to pick up the slack for Bunny. And even with him now having loads of free time for the next eight or so months, I'm still stuck racing around because I'm easier to believe in than the 'Easter Bunny'."
Mother Nature's frown deepened, this time with concern.
"Jack, you already have two jobs. You're going to wear yourself out if you try to take on three without any extra help. You should have asked me to arrange a dedicated liaison to replace you. It wouldn't even have to be one of the Immortals. I could send a fairy to do it."
Jack gave her a long look.
"Except a fairy can't let someone who tries to grab them, pass straight through in the way an immortal can. We've not had any trouble like that so far, but I don't think it would be a good idea to take chances on that. Besides, I'm one of the best-known reasonably 'contemporary legends', and I'm the only immortal on Earth with a provable record of consistent interaction with mortals. Over three hundred years of records to be exact. There's already a research team camped inside the Burgess Museum, pouring over every single book, document, painting, drawing, and other type of artefact in the archive there. Last time I heard from David, the current curator, the researchers were so excited by the sheer volume of evidence pertaining to me that he said he didn't expect them to be finished studying it all before the next Festival of First Snows."
Mother Nature sighed. He did have a point.
"And I would guess that they've been forwarding the summaries of their findings, to be handed out to each new group of scientists added to the number already aware of us." Jack nodded to that, and she sighed again. "While I admire their willingness to accept our existence, the pace at which they're spreading word of us across the Scientific Community is clearly proving to be a nuisance for maintaining our own day-to-day responsibilities. Word has even managed to make its way to me, of a request from a weather and climate research institute that wishes to meet with me."
Jack stared at her, deadpanning.
"They're asking to meet you? How did that message even get to you?"
Mother Nature sipped from her tea before answering.
"They pasted a message written in ancient Greek, on a wall in a restricted area of the Temple of Athena in Greece, where no one from the public could access it. Athena naturally found it, translated it, and handed it over to one of Achieng's Lieutenants. They then passed it on to me."
Jack actually looked moderately impressed by that.
"I'll admit that's clever. Have you agreed to the meeting?"
"I've sent a reply, which Athena kindly pasted on the same wall she got the request from. I've stated that I will hold a conference for a maximum of fifteen representatives, here in the Sanctuary of Nature, in precisely one week. They are to assemble those they wish to attend, in the passage where the request and replies were posted... I want you, Ariko, Achieng, and Oisin to attend alongside me as well."
Jack's stare became incredulous.
"Y-you want me to attend? After I've just told you about all the running around I'm already doing? You're the one who basically just told me to stop taking on more work than I can handle!"
Mother Nature set down her cup and regarded him seriously.
"Which is why I think it's about time you went out and recruited a suitable number of secondary Lieutenants." She gave him a long look. "Don't tell me you haven't noticed the very large appearance of numerous new Winter Nature Immortals during the past six years since we freed my father. Kiyiya, ten years ago, was just the first. I have since finally gotten around to redressing the imbalance with regards to the numbers of such which existed compared to those for the other three seasons."
Jack frowned.
"I won't go out there and recruit Lieutenants for the sake of recruiting them. I'd need to know they'd fit in well with the ones I already have."
"No you don't." Mother Nature sighed in resignation. "Ariko and the others, all started out with a core of Lieutenants who are highly trusted and close associates. But later, once they needed a greater number, their original ones became the ones in charge of the rest. Ariko and the others rarely speak directly to the majority of their Lieutenants, and those in that category don't resent the status-quo because they understand the reasons for it. You can recruit more, Jack, without expecting them to be as close as family like those you already have. Most will want nothing more than to be amiable acquaintances with you."
Jack went quiet, his fingers tapping on the table in thought. He didn't speak for over a minute, but when he did it was with grudging consideration of her recommendation.
"So how many 'missing bodies' like Kiyiya's, did you stage when you created all those new Nature Immortals?"
She gave him a flat reply, irritated by the accusation in those words.
"Only fifteen out of almost three hundred, if you must know. The rest were either animals, or individuals from Tribes of Myth who volunteered. You've got everything from three yetis, two Himalayan snow geese, four selkies, and an ice drake. To polar bears, snow leopards, a moose, a large selection of other alpine birds and mammals, and even a few penguins and a couple of seals."
Jack was deadpanning for the second time in the space of five minutes, until suddenly he smirked, snorted, and started to laugh. It took him most of a minute to get his composure back, and he then shook his head and looked at her.
"As if I wasn't already the Odd Ball among the Spirits of the Seasons, you've made sure I'm going to be even more of one after this. Most of their Lieutenants started out as humans. Me? I've ended up with a proverbial zoo."
Mother Nature smiled wryly.
"You can't tell me I've just made you far more pleased about the situation than you were a few minutes ago. At this early stage, the animals don't have egos you'll have to cater to and nor will they likely develop any. So long as you're fair in your dealings with them, as I know you will be, they'll be eager to work for you. I've even made sure to distribute their territories evenly across the geographic areas where Winter is most prevalent, so you can spread some of the load of your work across them. Easing your burden so you have the time for current matters. And, to sweeten things a bit more for you... If you recruit them all, I'll transform more of the side caverns of your Sanctuary into areas like their natural habitats. That way they have a home in your Sanctuary, but they won't be underfoot at your Ice Palace or in the residence of your main Lieutenants. Is it a deal?"
Jack tapped his fingers on the table again, pretending to mull over it before he grinned.
"Fine, you've a deal. Except I'll create a second residence in the main cavern, where the three yetis and the four selkies, and the humans can live. I'll even add a platform for nests to the top of it, for the two geese and the drake."
Mother Nature smiled.
"I'll summon them all here at once, and you can get the formalities sorted." As soon as that's done, I want you to go home and under no circumstances do anything but rest until the meeting at the end of the week."
Jack chuckled, putting on a 'country boy' attitude.
"Yes, Maam."
He got a snowball to the face for that, courtesy of Mother Nature, and she laughed.
~(-)~
The white tiger and white stag stared, with more than a little consternation, at the horde of talking animals that had appeared in the Winter Sanctuary without any warning whatsoever. The question now dwelling in the minds of Cernunnos and Zuě Hu, was to wonder just how they were supposed to explain this 'invasion' to Jack. After all, the Spirit of Winter had been a bit grumpy the past few weeks since his annual nap was interrupted.
The pair glanced at each other as a penguin trundled past and waved at them cheerfully, Cernunnos clearing his throat.
"Do you think we should send Dig to tell him? It's impossible for Jack to get angry at Dig?"
Zuě Hu's ear twitched.
"As tempting as that is, it would be a bit cowardly. Should we just drive them out?"
A gust of wind from nowhere was the only herald, as Jack came through an ice mirror and landed at the centre of the plaza. He then looked around at the animals wandering everywhere, while his nearby Lieutenants went utterly still with breath held, before he turned to them and grinned.
He then laughed at their expressions of surprise.
"Say hello to all of my newest Lieutenants... all two-hundred and eighty-three of them. Mother Nature has been busy making new Winter Nature Immortals the past six years, and she made a deal with me so I'd recruit them all."
Zuě Hu now began to look rather indignant.
"Wait a moment, these are now all Lieutenants of Winter? What happened to only recruiting those that fit into our 'family'?"
Jack drifted over to the tiger, and ruffled the fur between his ears in brotherly affection.
"Hey, don't worry about it. You guys are family, this new lot are just employees and acquaintances. Most of the year they won't even be here, but rather off doing their own thing. That was made clear to them when I took them on." He turned. "Now I need to go build a new residence near yours. I'll be back in a bit."
He found himself facing Marzanna, who was walking over in their direction, and she called out.
"Why don't you just add a new wing onto ours? Only four of us really spend time in their anyway, and we won't mind sharing."
Zuě Hu, as one of those who did take his naps there, went wide-eyed and used his tail to point at the massed formerly mortal animals.
"With all of them?"
Marzanna regarded him flatly.
"No, with the ten new Lieutenants who are not animals, who instead come from Tribes of Myth. They're over there. I was just talking to them. Mother Nature is changing some of the side-caverns into habitats like the Winter Garden, for the animals. The non-animals are what we're used to. The four Selkies are even people we already know, and they're more than smug that they were able to hide their new immortal status from us until now."
While Zuě Hu remained speechless, Jack chuckled.
"Yeah, they had a good laugh at me, too. As for a new wing, I'd do that bit there's fifteen former humans as well that should be here soon. Most of them were winter sports enthusiasts, caught in avalanches and 'never found'. There's also two guys who were attempting to hike to the South Pole, but who strayed off track and fell into a glacial fissure. Mother Nature's been keeping all fifteen at the Sanctuary of Nature, to give them time to adjust and learn rather than risk the problems she had with Kiyiya. A couple of them are still a bit freaked out, but I'm going to ask him and Yuki to show them the ropes. That and I'll promise to help them contact their families, once the Immortals become public knowledge. They should get used to thinks quick enough."
Cernunnos favoured Jack with a rather bland stare.
"And you think housing them with individuals from various Tribes of Myth, will help with that?"
Jack shrugged.
"The selkies will look human except when they change into seals, the yetis are as friendly as big teddy-bears to anyone who isn't after a fight with them. Himalayan snow geese are equally as friendly, and I figure the ice drake will just keep to himself." He set off again. "I've got a conference at the end of the week, so I'm going to catch up with some of my lost sleep once I've made that new residence. I trust you guys to help this lot settle in."
They watched him go until he was out of sight. Cernunnos rather philosophical about the situation, Marzanna equally un-fussed, but Zuě Hu let out a resigned sigh.
~(-)~
A week later, Jack arrived in the Sanctuary of Nature in a far better mood than the previous visit. With a full week of sleep under his belt, and a breakfast fit for a king that one of his new yeti Lieutenants had made for him, his stride was jaunty as he arrived in the Garden of the Seasons through the gate that had opened inside his palace for him.
He paused after he came through it, surprised to find that Mother Nature had relocated her gazebo somewhere. And that on he raised area in its place had been set an ark of five chairs, facing an arc of three rectangular wooden tables with five chairs set behind each.
Oisin was sat in the first chair to the right of the more ornate one that could only be for Mother Nature, and he waved casually to Jack when he saw him.
"Hello there, Jack. I hear you've been busy."
Jack flew over and took his seat on the end of the row, next to the Spirit of Autumn. The Spirit of Winter had put his silvery-blue cloak back on for today, but had swapped his hoodie underneath for a crisp white colonial-style shirt and grey waistcoat.
Setting his staff across his lap, he then let out a small sigh.
"Busy, but in a good way. The research team that deals with new ways to generate electricity, have announced their 'ground-breaking, one-hundred percent eco friendly, new generator design'. A worldwide patent application for the design was submitted two weeks ago, in the name of one 'E. A. Bunnymund'. There's already been interest from the place I predicted would want them first... The Japanese just love any kind of useful new technology. They've already ordered enough of the Etheric Turbines to completely replace half of their existing power-stations. No sooner than the Western Nations notice the huge benefit Japan gets from their super cheap electricity, than they should start ordering some themselves. Japan will get their delivery once the design 'goes into production', and the profits are to be ring-fenced to help in the needy in Third World Nations. To improve farming methods and healthcare for them."
Oisin looked suitably impressed.
"You have been busy. So who is paying the fees for the patent processing? Not the research team, surely?"
Beside him, Jack smirked.
"I offered to pay for it... Stone artworks by 'J Overland', the large ones, can sell for hundreds of thousands of US dollars. I had the Bennetts put a few new ones up for auction on my behalf, and they're due to sell next week. The sale of just one of them will more than cover the bill, and I'll donate the rest towards the farming and healthcare stuff."
A female voice interrupted them, the pair turning their heads to look at a new gate that had opened into the garden.
"Trust you to be so altruistic, Jack. Are you trying to shame the rest of us into contributing as well?"
Ariko smiled in greeting, Achieng following along beside her. The pair took up their seats on the other side of the central chair, and Jack chuckled.
"Nah, I'm not. I know you three don't have the same cash resources that I can drum up. I just figured that since I could help in that way, I would. A few hundred grand doesn't mean all that much to me, I have a private personal goldmine up in an inaccessible part of Alaska. Not been there for gold in over a decade, but I do know that no mortals have found it."
Achieng and Ariko both rolled their eyes at his smug tone, before the former remarked offhand.
"Did you know that Nightlight has been out and about lately? It seems he's been going around all the Legends, giving them instructions from the Man in the Moon."
Jack blinked.
"He has? What instructions?"
It was the Spirit of Summer's turn to look smug. Jack had been so caught up with acting as a liaison with the mortals, that he'd failed for once to hear the recent gossip.
"All Legends that specialise in getting ambient belief from adults, have been instructed to take actions to gain as many true adult believers as they can 'now that it has become possible'. But at the same time, they've been told to tell any adult believers they get, not to tell anyone about it outside of their territory. The 'proven existence of their Legend', is to be kept a secret among just their believers."
A sly smile came to Jack's face, and even Oisin had his eyebrows raised.
"Now that is sneaky. What Tsar Lunar has ordered, will create large pockets of people all over the world who will believe and be able to see one or a few specific immortals, but who won't know about the rest. It's like making us public knowledge, without making us public knowledge. We're talking at least half of the world's population already being believers to a degree, before any big announcement is made."
"That's right." Mother Nature's voice intruded on their conversation, startling them even as she walked over to them to take her seat. "You and the Guardians, Jack, are working on things at the more modern and scientific end of the population scale, while Tsar Lunar and Nightlight have begun working on things at the other end where faith and traditions are the strongest factor to consider. There will still be a tiny minority of scaremongers, fanatics, and hypochondriacs who will panic or try to denounce our existence, but all going well they should be little trouble."
She sat down, glancing to either side at them. "Are you ready for the meeting? Athena has informed me that the representatives are waiting at the place requested, and that my message has already primed them to believe in and see all five of us when they arrive here."
All four of them nodded, and in response she gestured with a hand and a gate opened just behind the arc of tables opposite them. Within moments, fifteen assorted men and women came through, clutching notebooks, writing implements, laptops, and a couple of camcorders to their chests. They gazed in awe at the garden, where all four seasons co-existed at once, before their gaze settled on the five immortals sat waiting for them.
As soon as she had their attention, Mother Nature then rose to her feet. Resplendent and grand in her gown of green gossamer, verdant leaves, and tiny pristine flowers. Even before she spoke, there would be no doubting who she was.
"Welcome to my home, the Sanctuary of Nature. These are my associates, the Spirits of the Seasons; Ariko Blossomsinger, Achieng Sunblessed, Oisin Leaffall, and Jack Frost." She smiled. "And I am Emily Jane Pitchiner, formally known as Mother Nature. But for the purposes of this meeting, you may call me Lady Jane. If would like to set up your cameras and take you seats, we can begin."
As the representatives scrambled to do so, Mother Nature once again glanced at Jack and the others. All five of them knew certain things were going to crop up at this meeting, and that more than a few hard truths were going to have to be driven home. Nature wasn't fair, and was never going to be, no matter what favours these guests might try to ask for.
~(-)~
Alaia Skyhawk: Yep, Mother Nature's official name is Emily Jane. As you might guess, I'll probably put in a convo between her and Jack, where he comments on finding out her first name is the same as his sister's :)