Ok, here is the request by RizReviewer, she gave me quite a few ideas and I picked the one that appealed most to my muse. Riz, I took one of your ideas, and then I'm going to wrench and tear your heart asunder with hurt/comfort…sound delicious? I thought so…hahahahaha!
To those wondering, my muse is not a person….it is more like a separate personality that I constantly have to pet and appease in order to actually write anything… Honestly, my muse is so picky, she constantly talks at the most inopportune times. I could be sitting in the middle of a job interview, and all of a sudden get a fic idea and start talking to myself….yeah, probably why I don't have a job.
Also, I'm sure I've scarred my parents beyond repair by now. I literally live with my parents in an RV, and we live on the road traveling around the country every day of the week going between California and Illinois. We are always on the road, and in the extremely tight space, my parents are forced to watch me sit and giggle maniacally to myself as I write each chapter….it's quite frightening to witness I'm sure….
So, as usual I still do not own ROTG, and everyone enjoy this latest installment, and yes, I am planning on updating Pooka Jack next, because that story REALLY needs to get wrapped up before you all lynch me for keeping you in suspense.
"I'm telling you guys, it's becoming a genuine problem!"
"Here we go again," Tooth sighed before turning to Jack "were you at Jamie's place watching after school specials again?"
"No! Well, yes, but that's not the point!" Jack pouted.
It was once again the monthly guardians meeting where they discussed many much….stuff. Tedious, boring, piles of stuff that made Jack have to fight every teenage urge in his body not to roll his eyes and scream with the deep agony afflicting his senses over enduring such an occasion, but Jack took his new job seriously, and that included going to the meetings. Currently though, he had a new obsession, and that was the problem of global warming. For centuries, Jack knew that the weather was changing, and not for the better. He just never knew what was causing the changes, or why it was making him feel weaker, he just knew that it was bad and it was getting worse. But one day he had decided to go to Jamie's house, and just hang out with his first believer for an afternoon, it was there that he first learned about global warming, and that was when everything made sense.
Now he was on the warpath with the other guardians about how they can make a difference in this huge problem, but for some reason, they weren't listening "Why won't you guys understand me?"
"Look Jack," North said in a calming tone "we understand that global warming is bad thing, but it is not our problem, we protect children not change weather."
"North!" Jack wailed in frustration "Weather affects the children, don't you see that?"
"We do, sweet tooth," Toothiana said gently patting Jack's clenched fist "but the humans of the world are responsible for it. It's part of the rules, we can't touch or change any part of the world unless it hurts the children, we must remain apart and allow things to unfold as they are meant to."
"But what about things that affects us…" Jack mumbled his face downcast as he shuffled his toes along the grain of the wood floor.
"What did you say Jack?" North asked, leaning across the table straining his hearing for the quiet words whispered by the winter spirit.
Jack huffed a sigh, and then stood up quickly, firmly pulling his hood over his head and taking off out of the nearest window. Tooth and North stumbled to their feet, reaching out, grieved looks etched into their faces. North stood, his blues eyes wide with shock, as his mouth opened and closed with wordless pain. Tooth slapped her thighs in confusion, casting her gaze around the table to the other guardians, seeking the reason for Jack's most recent outburst.
"What was that about?" she spluttered.
"I have no idea" North answered vaguely.
"Please don't tell me that ya are that dense," a bored voice sighed from one side of the table.
Both Tooth and North turned to face Bunny, their eyes full of confusion, as they gave him their full attention. Bunny merely groaned, and ran an aggravated paw down his face as he pinned them with his most tolerant glare.
"Look," he began as he propped one elbow up on the table "if you take a minute and think about it, you'll realize just why Frosty is so up in arms about this whole global warming deal."
"What are you talking about?" Tooth asked softly hurt filling her eyes.
"Global warming affects nature," Bunny spoke slowly as if he were talking to children "Jackie is an elemental, meaning whatever hurts nature, hurts him."
"Oh…" Tooth murmured her hands coming up to her mouth as her face twisted in realization "Oh no…"
"Of course," North said slowly, his features becoming heavy with grief "How could I not realize?"
"Jack feels the affects of global warming more than anyone," Bunny sighed "and knowing him, he probably has been in pain because of it longer than he would be willing to tell us."
Sand suddenly floated up, a look of sorrow and desperation etched into his features. His small fists clenched on either side of him, he sent pictures across to the group telling them that they should find Jack as soon as possible in order to apologize to him. Bunny readily agreed, and soon all four had split up and went their separate ways in search of their youngest member.
….
Jack flew at top speed towards the coldest place he knew, the Antarctic, where he fully intended on sitting on the tallest glacier and sulking for at least a couple hours. Tears stung his eyes; the teen swiped them away with an angry fist, and then pulled his hood down even lower down his face. He was sick of feeling like this, like no matter how hard he tried, or how loud he screamed, nobody heard him. He wanted to become closer to the other guardians, and he knew that he still had issues over opening up to them, but he was trying. And now, the first time he tried to include them in something he genuinely cared about, they brushed him off like some kind of ignorant kid.
Finding a looming glacier hanging over a deep gorge slashing deep into the ice and falling into the ocean, Jack sat on the edge, and hugged his legs close to his chest. Burying his face into his knees, the boy felt tears begin their lonely trek down his face, and he struggled to maintain his composure. Hugging his legs tighter, the teen pulled his hood down so that not even the wind could offer comfort. He just wanted people to understand, to trust him and support him despite his issues, and to allow him the time he needed to learn how to trust. But once again, they wouldn't listen him, and once again he was alone crying on a glacier wishing things were different. He never told his new family, but the problem of global warming had been affecting him for a while now. When he was supposed to be making snow near spring, an early heat would hit, and make Jack sick. There were times where even during the winter season, the winter spirit would find himself fighting nausea and dizzy spells from the sheer amount of energy it took just to make a small flurry. This season was one of the worst times he has ever had, and Jack found himself often too weak to even leave the lake in Burgess. He had hoped that the guardians would help him without him having to confess to his weakness, but that plan went neatly down the toilet.
North wind picked at his hood, trying to make him lift his head so that it could check on him, but Jack merely waved it away, he wanted to sulk and didn't feel like being comforted right now. With one last howling sigh, the wind left Jack, and took off across the vast waters. Jack sniffled, feeling the loneliness of having all the ones he cared about leaving him, and instantly wished he had not ordered wind to go. Suddenly a loud cracking filled the air, and Jack felt the ice shift beneath him, causing him to whip his head up and claw at the ice of the glacier as it splintered off and began its descent into the ocean. Jack clawed at the ice, feeling his body begin to slide down and off into the air, falling down into the gorge. His body fell down, faster and faster, hitting the sides of the icy cliffs. Jack tried to slow his descent by using his staff and calling for the wind, but as he held onto the staff a boulder of ice hit him, causing his staff to fly from his hands and begin its own descent many feet away.
With a bone cracking splash, the winter spirit crashed into the frigid waters, his body stretching out as he flailed about in an attempt to swim. His head surfaced as he gulped air into his burning lungs, and he struggled to stay afloat with panicky desperate arms, his eyes wide with fear. Again and again, he strove to swim, but each time he began to sink into the waters and his mind would blank overcome by the terror filled memories of when he had drowned. Grabbing onto a chunk of ice, Jack clung to the floating piece of frozen water, his shoulders shaking violently from the trembles running through his limbs. Looking over the water, Jack saw his staff sitting on top of a thin sheet of ice floating by itself in the middle of the gorge, and with weak paddles he attempted to reach it. But it seemed that fate was against him, because just as he was only a few feet away, a large chunk of ice detached itself from the side of the glacier and crashed down on the staff. Searing pain exploded in Jack's chest as he felt the piece of wood splinter into pieces, and his vision swam as spots began to dance in front of his eyes.
His chest heaved as he gasped for breath, his hand clutching the front of his shirt, and he groaned as his limbs became numb. Slowly he slipped off the ice and sunk into the water, his eyes drifting closed as he lost consciousness, and fell down into the dark depths. It was then that a large splash was heard, and strong arms wrapped around Jack, dragging him up to the surface. With a gasp, Bunny broke the surface, Jack's limp form lying against his chest. With a harsh slap on the back, the rabbit was relieved to see Jack begin deep shuddering gasps accompanied by wracking coughs filled with gurgles of water.
"I've got 'im!" the Pooka yelled "Sandy, you get his staff, I'll find us some solid ground and make a tunnel and get him back to the Pole!"
Sandy nodded his affirmative, and set about gathering the staff, his face set in hard concentration as he made sure he found every last piece. Bunny swam to the side of the gorge, his paw holding onto the side of the icy cliff, as he searched for a ledge wide enough to make a magical tunnel on. Finally a ledge was found and Bunny dragged himself and the small spirit onto it, and then stood with Jack cradled in his arms, both of them dripping water. Tapping his foot, the rabbit sighed at the tunnel, and dove in quickly wishing for a roaring fire and a steaming mug of herbal tea. Within moments, the trio made it back to the Pole, and Bunny had Phil contacting North and Toothiana about the fact that Jack had been found.
What was truly worrying though was the way Jack was trembling, and his face was flushed with fever, not to mention the fact that every few minutes the boy would clutch his chest with a pained whimper. Running a worried paw through the silver locks, Bunny snuffled the boy's temple with his nose in an attempt to comfort him, and for a moment it worked. But in no time at all, Jack was once again curling into himself, and crying out as his hands clawed at his chest. He remembered the time when he had found out about Jack's fear of water, and inability to swim. It was after that incident that Bunny became a little more protective of the kid, ensuring that he quickly derailed any ideas for pool parties and such, and also seeking the boy out when he went missing for too long. So finding him in that condition, sinking into the inky depths of the Arctic ocean, and his staff smashed to pieces Aster was bound to have a mini heart attack. At least this latest rescue attempt wouldn't result in the both of them being pink for a week, though the Pooka could already feel his own body becoming wracked with shivers, and his teeth chattered from the swan dive into sub zero waters.
Sandy saw Bunny place the winter child onto a couch, and sit on the floor next to their youngest member, his muscular frame all the more visible from the wet fur plastered against his body and the shivers causing every muscle to flex and jump. Floating to his side, the golden man waved desperate arms, alerting his friend that Bunny needed to dry off and warm up quickly lest hypothermia set in, but the Pooka was nothing if not stubborn and firmly shook his head, his emerald gaze never leaving the face of the suffering winter spirit. Sandy glared at his friend, his lips curling in a thoughtful pout, before his face brightened with an idea. Floating to the fireplace in the sitting room, Sandy set about lighting a roaring fire, and once it was crackling made firm gestures that Bunny was to sit next to it. That way he could get warm, and keep an eye on the boy at the same time, effectively killing two birds with one stone so to speak.
Bunny looked between the agonized form of Jack, and the fire, and finally with a sigh of resignation hopped over to the flames. Shaking himself, he groomed his fur in desperate movements trying to dry himself off as soon as possible so to return to Jack's side, Sandy noted this and floated over to Jack his golden eyes soft with worry over the boy's condition. Using his dream sand, the golden man brought the pieces of Jack's staff over to him, giving a silent sigh of relief that it had only broken in half, and not been destroyed beyond repair. Judging by the boy's reaction to its being broken, Sandy was sure that it being splintered into more than two pieces would cause irreparable injury to their youngest. Even though, just seeing how Jack was in pain from its current condition, Sandy shuddered to think of what it would be like should such a thing occur to his staff.
Bunny, now dry enough to be comfortable and safe from sickness, hopped over his nose twitching in anxiety as he snuffled the boy's temple causing Jack to let out a whimper and lean into the Pooka's touch. Blue eyes fluttered open, and Jack gazed at his family member, tears slowly trickling down his face.
"B-bunny" he rasped "it h-hurts, please…m-make it s-st-stop."
"Ok mate," Bunny said comfortingly "we're gonna take care of ya, don't worry."
"N-no," Jack gasped wincing as one hand clutched his shirt in momentary pain "I n-need to f-f-fix my staff, I can f-fix it, b-but I need it, the p-pain won't stop until it's fixed."
Aster gave a heavy sigh, and propped the winter child up until he could slip in behind him on the couch and cradle his shivering body his arms. Jack clung to the fur, and buried his face in Bunny's broad chest, every childish instinct that had been preserved within him since his untimely demise crying out for an adult to hold and comfort him, to take away the pain and reassure him that everything was going to be ok. Biting his bottom lip, Jack struggled against the pained sobs crawling up his throat over the sheer amount of agony afflicting his senses, and scooted further into the Pooka's embrace. Aster merely gathered him up into his lap, the way one would for a small child, and hugged him close.
"Jackie," Bunny murmured after a few moments "are ya ready?"
"Yeah" Jack sniffled giving a weak nod of affirmation.
"Good" Aster cooed comfortingly "now, I'm gonna hold ya, and we can tackle this here thing together, ok?"
Once again a nod from the head currently buried in his fur signified Jack's cooperation and Bunny held out one paw for Sandy to place the pieces in his waiting hand. The golden man solemnly handed the broken wood over, Aster nodding in thanks, before the Pooka gently detached Jack's trembling hands from his fur, and nudged the broken wood into his fingers. Sniffling, the pained winter spirit wiped his eyes with on hand, the broken staff barely gripped in the other. He felt so weak, and tired, and the pain from his staff breaking is only making the problem worse.
"Jackie…" Bunny said softly nudging the boy's temple with his muzzle "What's wrong mate?"
"I…I c-can't hold it…" the boy choked out "My h-hands….they're too w-weak…they're always weak…especially t-these days."
Bunny felt surprised mixed with stark realization explode in his mind and let out a sigh, lowering his voice to a whisper, he asked gently "Is this why you're so up in arms about Global Warming, are you being affected more than you're letting on?"
Jack bit his bottom lip, tears streaming faster down his cheeks, and with a nod he buried his face into Bunny's chest in shame. Bunny wrapped his arms tighter around the winter child, snuggling the white head beneath his chin, and rubbing his back soothingly. "How long has it been like this Jackie?"
"It started a-almost a century a-ago." Jack sniffled, one hand wiping his eyes free of tears only to be covered by more of the falling liquid "b-but it's been g-getting worse."
"Don't worry boyo," Bunny soothed snuffling the winter spirit's temple as fear and worry battled with Hope for the future "you will become stronger, and you're getting more believers every day. With more believers, comes more power, and soon ya won't even feel the strain of having to control the weather despite Global Warming."
"H-how do you kn-know?" Jack shuddered.
"Because," Bunny smiled fondly "when I first started as a guardian, I barely knew how to properly hide eggs, and often found myself in the smaller version of mahself. It wasn't easy, but I became stronger, and so will you."
Jack snuggled as close as he could possibly manage, gripping Bunny's fur, his tear stained face turned into the Pooka's chest. He sat like that for almost ten minutes before once again reaching out a shaking hand towards the broken pieces of wood. Once again, weak fingers fumbled with the now heavy wood, and Bunny caught them. Holding the wood and Jack's hands in his capable paws, Aster breathed deeply and let it out slowly; waiting till the boy began to copy his breathing pattern before continuing the process towards fixing the staff. Finally Jack seemed prepared, and the duo brought the two ends of the broken staff together, Jack gritted his teeth as a pained whine began building in his throat. Light slowly flickered and grew, enveloping the broken staff, and Jack's whines grew from whimpers to full out screams. Energy poured from the child, his voice growing raw as scream after scream of pained agony ripped through his vocal chords, causing his body to tense and back arch as his eyes glowed bright white blue from the sheer amount of magic he had to force behind forging his staff back together. Aster grit his teeth, his ears ducked low as he fought to keep his paws steady, and not tear the staff away from the child and cease his torment.
Finally the light dimmed, leaving Jack convulsing in Aster's arms, his staff now fixed lay forgotten on the floor. Bunny held Jack, one paw keeping his head steady so that he would not hurt himself, while the other paw pinned his arms to his sides. After about five minutes, the boy finally calmed slipping into unconsciousness, and simply lay limp and gasping in his family member's arms. North and Tooth came bursting through the door, their eyes wide with fear, and their weapons at the ready. Looking between Bunny and Jack, the duo dropped their arms, and sighed with both confusion and aggravation.
"What is wrong?" North cried "We come back after hearing you found Jack, and hear screaming."
"Jack is fine," Bunny sighed "we just had to fix his staff, and it took more out of him than we intended."
"What do you mean 'fix his staff'?!" Tooth exclaimed as horror filled her features.
The Pooka let out a groan, knowing he would have a long story to tell, and situated himself into a more comfortable position so to hold Jack and allow him to sleep more soundly. "Look" he said lowly so as not to wake the child "I was right when I said that Global Warming has been hurting Snowflake. Apparently, he's been feeling it's affects for over a century, and the ankle biter is running out of strength to do his job, much less live. He went to Antarctica to think for a bit after we scared him off, and because the Polar ice caps are melting, he ended up falling into a gorge and nearly drowning in the ocean with blooming boulders of ice crashing around his head and breaking his staff. Just fixing it caused more strain on the poor kid's heart, and to be perfectly honest, if we don't do something right quick he might not survive the next century!"
Tooth felt a sob lodge in her throat, and she and North cast guilt ridden eyes to the floor "I'm so sorry," the fairy began to weep "I should have listened, should have taken more time to understand just why Jack felt it was such a big problem."
"Indeed," North nodded solemnly "we have said that we are family to Jack, but we are still acting like old guardians. Set apart, and cold, without really caring about anything besides ourselves. It is big problem, one we must fix."
Bunny opened his mouth to assure them that yes, they were idiots, and yes they definitely needed to apologize to the winter spirit, but was silenced when a soft whimper sounded from his arms. Azure orbs fluttered open to look upon Bunny, and Jack gave a weak smile at his brother, his chest heaving from the shallow gasps of breath being dragged into his lungs. Aster dipped his head, and snuffled Jack's forehead, heaving a relieved sigh when he noticed that the fever he had originally had, was already beginning to fade. Jack groaned in playful irritation, but did not push him away, merely allowing the rabbit to fuss over him. North knelt next to the couch, and Tooth accompanied him, both looking at Jack with faced etched in grief.
"Jack," North spoke softly "we are sorry, we should have listened to you."
"It's ok North" Jack croaked.
"No, it's not sweet tooth" Toothiana sighed "we were wrong by brushing you off, please forgive us."
"I forgive you" the boy yawned with a soft smile.
"Good," North smiled as he tenderly ran his hand through the boy's white hair "we do not want to lose you Jack, I hope you know that."
"I do…" Jack mumbled his eyes drooping closed as sleep slowly overtook him.
The next day, all were still tired and recovering from their adventure the previous evening, but Jack was on a mission. The Yetis were watching in confused amusement as the child dragged box after box into the meeting room. Finally after hours of work, the Guardians reconvened in order to finish the meeting that had been cut short the night before. Walking in, all four were struck dumb in slack jawed amazement as they took in the sight that Jack had worked so hard to prepare.
Maps, graphs, pictures, and countless other things were set up around the room, and the table even had pamphlets neatly written with all the research done concerning Global Warming. Jack stood in the middle, a metal pointer in hand, and fake glasses on his face so to look more professional while lecturing. Bunny fought back the guffaw crawling up his throat by covering it up with a cough, and sat down, his green eyes slowly reading the leaflet before him. Sandy gave a silent chuckle, and North and Tooth exchanged looks of tolerant amusement before they took their own seat. Jack thus began his lecture, pacing up and down, and reciting his learned knowledge of the problem.
To say that the Guardians found a solution to Global Warming would be wrong, but nonetheless, Jack found that by the end of his lecture he was happy to discover that they had not only stayed awake for the entire thing, but Bunny was even taking notes…or maybe he was doodling…. either way though, he was able to show them the problem currently plaguing the world, and they even discussed possible counter measures. Of course those had more to do with how to protect Jack from feeling the effects of Global Warming, and little to do with fixing the problem itself, but at least it was addressed and Jack was able to leave the meeting room feeling accomplished.
Such is the story with Jack and his obsession with Global Warming and how it managed to affect the guardians, but not in the way he expected.
Hope you are happy Riz, because I think that may have been one of my longest chapters yet!
We are at 442 reviews, meaning that if you guys work extra hard, with the next chapter I should be able to announce the next winner of the One Shot request contest. So READ, and REVIEW…and let's see who the lucky winner is THIS time!