Alaia Skyhawk: Well, we're at the end of this arc for now. The New Golden Age stuff will resume after the next arc (and a time skip), because I'd be dragging things out if I did much more before "The Big Announcement". The next arc is one I've been waiting to read Book 4 of the 'Guardians of Childhood' for, to make sure I could do it with the right information behind it :)
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 82: Festival With a Difference
The winds swirled around him in the Hall of Mirrors, there where he sat atop the spire in the centre at the 'desk' of ice he'd now fashioned on the top of it. A tiny Etheric Turbine and electrical transformer was fused to the top of one corner of it, the disk on top of that spinning at a steady pace. Into the transformer itself was plugged the standard cable for a tablet computer, which incidentally was also plugged into the self same tablet it belonged to.
Jack's attention was focused on the screen, transferring to it the weather reports from the winds. But not as writing. No, he zoomed in and out the views of different areas of the world map, tapping his fingers on colour grids at the side of the screen before rendering sweeping lines across the map as though he were finger-painting.
The touch screen tablet was large, he'd insisted on that for the sake of ease of use. The way in which the information was being set down was crude, and the meteorologists he'd been working with were still struggling to accurately work out the translation of the measurements they were used to, and the ones that the Spirits of the Seasons used. But through studying what Jack noted down, and their own readings of what was going on, they were gradually getting there bit-by-bit.
Much as it was bit-by-bit that he finished up his 'weather report', set the mirror on his desk to a view twenty feet away from a mobile phone mast, and as soon as the tablet connected he pressed 'send'. That done, he then closed the mirror, turned the tablet off, and applied the brake on the Etheric Turbine to bring it to a halt while it wasn't needed. And then he rose up into the air above the spire, and sorted out the day's frostdust distribution.
Making the report only added a couple more minutes to his normal 'morning' routine, and he checked the world's weather patterns daily anyway. It was no skin off his nose to jot it down as he got the info from the winds, and admittedly he found it quite funny to know that by doing so and sending it off... he was rendering a whole lot of weather forecasters totally redundant. Because unlike them, he was never wrong in his forecasts.
As soon as the daily frostdust was done, Jack stepped through a mirror and directly into the Bennett House's kitchen. With most of the adults in Burgess now able to see him, in both of his guises, he had to be a lot more discrete now when going to and from the house.
Laura and Sophie were both in the kitchen when he arrived, the latter waving at him and grinning around her mouthful of syrup smothered pancakes. There were two more plates of them waiting on the table, and Jack sat himself by the one which also had a cup of chocolate milkshake next to it.
He then looked over his shoulder at Laura, who was just finishing up cooking her share of the pancakes.
"Craig already gone out?"
Laura nodded.
"He's gone to meet David at the museum. He said to ask you to stop by there, before 'arriving' at your statue. He wants to speak with you before the researchers finish setting up their cameras."
Jack sighed.
"They're not going to be anywhere in the way, are they? If they spoil the festival by tramping around the middle of it with their equipment, I will not be happy."
Jamie strolled into the kitchen from the living room, heading for the other plate of pancakes on the table, and ruffled his uncle's hair in passing. The young wizard was in town for obvious reasons... He had never missed a festival yet, and he'd had no intention of missing this one. Instead he'd borrowed one of the huge reindeer from the herd near Santoff Claussen, put a flight and invisibility spells on it, and ridden it to Burgess. That reindeer was now happily browsing around in the woods near Jack's pond.
Jamie sat down at his place setting, the nineteen-year-old favouring Jack with a wry smile.
"No need to worry about the cameras. They're to be put looking through several second-storey windows around that side of the park, and will just be left running. The researchers themselves have been told they've got to enjoy the day same as everyone else who will be there. They can use dictaphones to 'take notes', and are allowed to take still photos within reason, but that's it."
Jack sighed.
"Good. It's weird enough to be letting scientists film me. Instead of icing over their camera lenses, or convincing them they're being stalked by a ghost. It would have been freaky to have them following me around the park, scribbling away on notepads or tapping away on tablet computers."
Across the table, thirteen-year-old Sophie now finished her current mouthful and piped up.
"Mom, you haven't told him the whole message from Dad."
There was something about the way Laura twitched at that, which made Jack frown.
"Ok, what is it? You clearly think it's something that will make me freak out."
Jamie took a gulp from the cup of coffee next to his plate. He then answered for her, his tone bland.
"Oh, nothing much... It's just that in rooting through all the stuff at the museum over the past few months, they came across several mentions in diaries, of the maiden name of a certain festival founder, Emily Bennett. The museum also has a lot of records from Kirktown, which as the closest place with a proper church at the time, was the place where marriages, births, and deaths for The Village were recorded up until Burgess was founded." Jamie glanced at his uncle, who if possible had gone even paler than usually was. "You've already told a whole lot of scientists and researchers, that your full name is 'Jackson Overland Frost', and that you died in 1711 by drowning in a pond. Once they confirmed the marriage record of Emily Overland to Albert Bennett, a quick cross-reference to her parents revealed she had an older brother called Jackson."
Jack put his head in his hands, groaning.
"Who died by drowning in a pond, on the sixteenth of December in 1711." He cursed under his breath, but still hid his face in his hands. "They know you're related to me?"
Jamie poked him, forcing his uncle to look at him.
"Relax. The researchers at the museum know, since we couldn't exactly deny it after the evidence they dredged up. But they've removed all references to it from their reports, and promised not to breathe a word of it to anyone. I think they realised they could seriously wreck our family's life here in Burgess if they let that get out... That and they probably believe you'd freeze them solid if they did."
Jack frowned; his expression a mixture of anger, concern, and bemusement.
"Freeze them? No... Strand them some place in the middle of nowhere? Probably." He took a shuddering breath. "Are you certain they'll keep it to themselves?"
Jamie grinned, pulling a rather archaic-looking notebook from one of his jacket pockets. He then opened it to a specific page, and showed it to Jack.
"I may or may not have asked Ombric to teach me the 'Tattle Tale' spell before I headed back here. Guaranteed to stop any and all gossip about yourself, that you don't want being spread about. Dad sent me a letter about the researchers, a couple of weeks ago. Now, since I'm a Bennett, they can't talk about the family without talking about me. I got every one of them with the spell yesterday, while they were busy and distracted in the museum archive. I cast it specified to stop all gossip that links me to you as a blood relative. They can talk about it to people who already know, but no one else. Dad was nervous about them finding out, too. He's already locked away all the offending diaries, and the marriage record. They'll officially be stored as 'too delicate to handle', but actually will be put in our private archives and out of reach."
Jack went quiet, rattling his fingers on the table for several seconds before suddenly proceeding to eat the pancakes Laura had made for him, and drink his milkshake. He waited until Jamie was also finished, before getting to his feet and conjuring a mirror to the museum.
"Let's get this over with."
The two of them stepped through, emerging in the main foyer of the museum. There were a couple of piles of camera-bags and tripods set off to one side, but otherwise the room was deserted. Yet the sound of talking, that could be heard from the nearby classroom used for school groups, was a clear indicator of where Craig, David, and the researchers were.
Jack and Jamie walked into that room, almost instant silence falling as the former of them narrowed his eyes and glared at the researchers.
David noted that, and cleared his throat before speaking.
"It seems that my uncle has been told about the 'discovery' you made."
Jack stalked further into the room, until he was practically looming over the group of nervous men and women.
"Yes, I've been told." He pointed at them. "I want to make this very clear, right now. Yes, the Bennett Family are direct descendants of my sister, and that means they're very very important to me. I haven't kept contact with and watched over them for over three hundred years, just so you lot can mess it up after being trusted to dig through the records about me and my part in this town's history. Got that?"
There were numerous emphatic nods in response, and off to the side Craig and David had their eyebrows raised. Jamie's were raised too, and he chuckled.
"I think they got your point, Uncle Jack."
Jack turned on the spot, his manner instantly swapping from 'cold ultimatum' seriousness, to 'what fun shall we go do?' cheerfulness.
"Ok. I'll give you an hour to set up the cameras, before I come down to land on and ice my statue. See you all then!"
He was gone through an ice mirror in an eye-blink, leaving some rather startled researchers behind. One of them muttering quietly.
"Is he bipolar?"
~(-)~
Up in the sky, Jack might have wondered that for himself. If not for the fact it was his job to help people set aside their needless fears and replace them with happiness and fun. He was concerned, he couldn't deny that, but at the same time he had to admit that in this case it was needless. Craig and Jamie had already taken all the precautions needed to keep this under wraps, and well...
Jack sighed, letting the last of his initial worry slide away as he mused about the future. Concern that the Bennetts would be hassled, only applied to the transitional decades as people learnt about the Immortals and gradually got used to them as part of daily life. Once the New Golden Age was truly started, and those people who tended towards being paranoid or fanatic crazies had run their course and common sense come to prevail. Well then, being known to be related to one of the Immortals wouldn't be a huge deal. Because when it came down to it, with all the generations that had passed since the earliest immortals had been chosen from among the population... Probably every person on earth was distantly related in some way to one immortal or another, or probably several.
Jack settled himself up among the scattering of clouds, looking down on Jackswood Park and the people already gathering there. Stalls were set up, games too, and one of the men who tended the park was clearing the storytelling area of its thin layer of snow. Ready for the waiting stacks of chairs to be set out for the local children. And at the area directly around the statues, adults and children alike were taking up places to wait for the Spirit of Winter's arrival. The grown-ups as eager as the children to welcome him home.
It had been a bit strange, the past two or three years, being seen by so many adults in Burgess. But it was also a lot of fun, because the adults all remembered the times when they had been the children, listening to his stories and being in snowball fights with him.
Jack kept watching from his vantage point, smiling to himself at the thought. It was a smile that faded only slightly when he saw David, Craig, and the researchers join the crowds near his statue. Laura, Sophie, Jamie, and Marie were off to the other side. Out of the way.
High above, Jack took that as his cue to free himself from the gentle hold of the wind and plummet from the sky. The air whistling as he passed, even as he whooped and snapped to a complete stop directly above his statue and landed lightly on the plinth next to his stone replica.
He grinned and threw a snowball into the face of one of the researchers, who blended in enough that they weren't obvious to the locals. The target woman's surprise, set off a wave of chuckles and laughter through the crowd, before they cheered as Jack iced over the plinth and called out.
"Hey, you all ready for another winter with me hanging around?" There was a second huge cheer, and Jack laughed. "Then let's get this festival started!"
A thump of his staff on the plinth, sent power out across the ground to conjure small piles of snowballs everywhere in the vicinity of the statue. No one needed telling twice, with a snowball fight starting up in seconds. It only lasted a minute or two, there wasn't that much 'ammo' on the ground, but it set the tone of the festival as everyone moved off to spread among the games and stalls set up around the paths through the park.
As for Jack, he flew up into the air to do his usual flitting here and there at random. Throwing snowballs at kids, giving them snowballs to throw at each other, and just generally making everyone smile. He also made a point of separating the researchers up into groups of two or three, using a few tricks and pranks. Tiny groups wouldn't spend the day debating with each other, their interpretations of the event. They'd instead get drawn in by the festivities, and that was what Jack wanted.
Off to the side, after sister, mother, and grandmother had headed off towards the game stalls, Jamie meandered through the crowds until he found the leader of the research team. Dr Patricia Yale had a degree in ancient mythology and cultures, and had been utterly entranced after learning of the existence of the Immortals. She'd been mentioned as being a true enthusiast, in almost every letter he'd gotten from his father to keep him up to date.
The middle-aged woman was murmuring away to herself, or rather into the tiny microphone clipped to the collar of her coat. Jamie rolled his eyes at the sight, and responded by picking up a handful of loose snow and dropping it down the back of her neck.
She let out a shriek of surprise, turning off the dictaphone connected to the mic, even as she turned to glare at the culprit. She then blinked when she saw who it was, and huffed in annoyance.
"James Bennett, that was uncalled for. Can't you see that I'm busy?"
Jamie laughed, much to her indignation.
"You've been invited to attend the Festival of First Snow, and you want to spend it taking notes? If I let you do that, and Jack saw it, he'd dump snow down your back, too... And it wouldn't be just a handful, either. Lighten up, and rather than 'studying' the festival, 'experience' it. You can write your notes later, at the hotel."
At the stubborn look on her face, Jamie sighed in resignation. He then rapidly muttered a string of seeming nonsense, made a gesture with his hands, and both mic and dictaphone appeared in his hands.
Dr Patricia gasped, her hands reaching for her collar and checking her pocket, and then she stared at him.
"How did you do that?"
Jamie grinned, pocketing the equipment.
"In layman's terms; I cast a belief-based magic spell. In exact terms; I used the strength of my will and belief to generate power from the Ether that I could use. I chose to use it to cause the effect I envisioned to take place. Namely, I teleported your dictaphone from your pocket and into my hands."
She was still staring, and continued to do so for several seconds until she quickly checked if anyone was in earshot. There were a few nearby adults, but they weren't close enough, and were distracted by a food stall they were queueing at.
After confirming that, Dr Patricia hooked her arm through his and proceeded to steer him towards the storytelling area, which at present was unoccupied. As soon as they were further along the paths towards it, she then let go and glanced at him.
"You're one of those 'wizards', aren't you? That have been remarked on in some of the transcripts of meetings with Aster Bunnymund. One called 'Ombric' is mentioned in the transcripts several times."
Jamie's expression was wry and amused.
"He's my teacher. I came home from Santoff Claussen, which is in Siberia, to be here for the festival. I used to spend two weeks there every summer as a kid, with my sister, and magic always really interested me. When he saw I had a natural talent for it, he offered to tutor me. I wasn't about to say no, and there was nothing I wanted or needed to study at university. I'll be given a job at the Burgess Museum once my studies are finished, and will be curator of it one day. Knowing that left me free to pursue my own interests."
Dr Patricia straightened up, indignant once more.
"Don't sound so assured of being curator, not without holding even a single degree. The museum governors wouldn't possibly choose someone so under-qualified."
Jamie snorted.
"I became one of the museum's governors, by default, the day I turned eighteen." He grinned at her. "Did you never think to look into the history of the museum and its founding? My family traded the fifteen acres of prime real-estate in The Village district, that the school now there was then built on, in exchange for half ownership of the museum. Over half of the records, and artefacts on display in there, are also on permanent loan from my family's private archives. The Bennetts have been the local historians, and experts of all things about Jack Frost, ever since Jack first became known to The Village in late 1711. The time when his sister Emily Overland became his first believer and the first mortal to see him after he became immortal. She was the one who introduced him to the rest of the village children, who in turn told their parents. Things just went from there."
Beside him, Dr Patricia's tension eased and her frown faded. As though something had just occured to her, or she'd begun to wonder about something. It was several moments before she spoke, by which time they'd reached the chairs of the storytelling area and sat down.
Her tone was now thoughtful.
"Your family have known the truth, about the existence of the Immortals, all this time. You've known, while the rest of the world was blind to it."
Jamie sighed, understanding how she must feel about that.
"I wouldn't say that everyone was blind. If they were, then how would people have known the stories about those immortals important to their culture or area? Just because they couldn't see them, didn't mean they couldn't sense that they were there. Legends are immortals created to fill a 'need', one that exists within the people they are picked and appointed to watch over and guide. Some are portrayed as gods, others merely as spirits, but it amounts to the same thing. The idea that there's someone there who will listen, and look out for you, even if it's in ways you can't see." He glanced at her. "Not that I'm debunking religion as a whole. Not even the Man in the Moon knows everything, so not even he can say if or not there's some higher power out there. All he can say is that he and the Immortals are separate from it, if it does exist. After all, what he would have us learn and believe, is that just about anything could be possible. That we should never let doubts hinder our dreams. My family have lived by that principle, for seventeen generations. That's why we're so content with life, and what we have. Can you imagine how it will be, when everyone in the world can look at life that way?"
Dr Patricia nodded, her expression wistful.
"It would be a utopia."
Jamie patted her on the shoulder.
"And just think... You may get to see it before the end of your lifetime, if you believe. Belief is the greatest magic of all." He turned, noticing the crowd of youngsters heading their way, and the figure of Jack Frost gliding towards the big log that was his traditional perch for what was coming. "We'd better get up and let the kids have the seats. It's story time with Jack."
Dr Patricia allowed him to lead her to where they could stand a listen, with the rest of her research team also gathering to stand here and there about the perimeter. Because it wasn't just the children who were listening as Jack began to spin a tale about the Guardians, but all of their parents as well. A gathering that, to a non-believer, would seem to be a group all staring at empty space. Gasping, laughing, and smiling at nothing at all. And yet, there was something there, someone. A person who took it as their purpose, to bring light into the lives of these people. To guide and teach with his stories, to cheer up and make them smile with his games.
It was a festival steeped in long tradition, which was unlike any she had ever attended or studied before. Because this time she could see the one that had inspired it, so long as she believed.
Jamie watched her as she listened to Jack's story, Patricia as drawn in by the tale as everyone else here. Somehow, he doubted she'd write many notes tonight.
~(-)~
Alaia Skyhawk: Hehe, even Jamie is getting in on the act, in his own way. And yeah, I added that the link between Jack and the Bennetts was discovered. Because let's face it, anyone who went through all those records and stuff, would have to be blind not to find something that linked up and revealed that :)
Next chapter, the start of a new arc...