Aj ch 3

I couldn't tell if I was asleep or awake. Pitch was an expert at deception. I was still in that tree trunk, this I knew was fake. That young man with white hair and blue eyes had found me, I know he was real his touch was cold. In dreams you can not feel temperature. I came out of the tree, I was still bleeding, this I could feel.

"so this is where you hid" I turned to see pitch standing in the snow. "if only I hadn't trained you so well, I might have been able to keep track of you" he came closer, and I took a fighting stance.

He was right though he had trained me well enough to make sure my subconscious didn't interfere with my dreams.

"Now Aurora, I don't want to fight you" suddenly the trees grabbed me holding me up in the air. "just tell me where Melaina is, and we can put this behind us." I just looked angrily at him. "have it your way then," I could feel the tree begin to crush me, and I struggled to free myself. "tell me where she is or ill hunt you down and torture you day and night until you break." the trees crushed tighter, I had to remember my training, control myself in my dreams. I closed my eyes to concentrate and the trees began to ketch on fire. "you little fuck, it's not that easy" the trees dropped me and I was in water. Fear began to overwhelm me and I struggled to stay afloat. I was screaming and gasping for air. I looked up and pitch was standing on top of the water glaring at me.
"I remembered when you were I child, you were curious by your light reflecting in the water. You got so close to the edge that you fell in and nearly drowned if your father hadn't pulled you out. And I remembered that since then, you've been afraid of the water, because you know, light is only on the surface." he grabbed my neck and pulled me out of the water. "where is she" but I spat the water out a him and he pushed me under. I screamed and begged him to let go. He pulled me back out "where is my Melaina!" I continued to struggle and gasp for air and continued to forced me under water. "you took everything from me, you little cunt, and I'm going to make you pay for it his grip on my neck tightened, I screamed and water pored into my lungs. Suddenly I felt a cold hand on my arm and I woke up.

I opened my eyes and the white haired man was kneeling next to me.
"Are you alright?" He said in a husky voice, "you were screaming." He looked worried, but I ignored him.

I needed to get home, I needed to get to the clouds. I saw that the sun was setting, so he didn't need to wake me up, I was nocturnal so I would have been up by now anyways. He might have been the one that had rescued me and I did reach out to him in my weakness, but I needed to get my mind together. I no longer felt pain, which meant my body's rapid healing must have regenerated the blood that I had lost. I pushed him aside and tried to stand but toppled over.

"Hey, you need to get back into the bed." He said, I wish I could speak his modern western language, but the only modern language I knew was Latin. I had heard this language, this english, so many times before that I was able to understand it, but my mouth wasn't sure how to form the right words. This had to be the most frustrating thing ever. I could understand him but I didn't know how to communicate to him. He used a shepard's crook to help me up, and I pulled the strangle tube instrument out of my arm.

"What are you doing?" he grabbed my arm. I was stunned his hands were so cold, I looked up at him to get a better view of his features. Last night I didn't get a good look at him, I was hardly conscience. He was very attractive, with thin cheeks, his skin as pail as snow and his lips were purple as if he was frozen. And his eyes, were a pale hypnotic blue, I couldn't take my eyes off them. I remembered that he kept asking me if I was human, which meant he was also an immortal, one that was in their prime, in human reference he was in his mid twenties.

I came back to my sense, no one had touched me in a very long time, and after pitch I didn't like the idea of being touched. I shouted out him to let me go, but he didn't seem to understand. I pulled myself away from him, and then I realized that I wasn't wearing my dress. Where had this boy brought me? And then I remembered he must have thought I was a human and needed a hospital. I didn't care that his hands were wonderfully cold I needed to get home. I pushed him off me and stumbled to the door. And clung to the door nob after loosing my balance.
He picked me up.

"Can you walk" he asked and I shook my head. "Come on ill help you," he took my hand and began leading me around, as if I was a child learning to walk.

"Jack what is going on?" I recognized the voice and looked up to see the familiar face of Father Christmas. I let go of the boys hands and stubbed over to the old fat man, until I clung to his belly. I didn't realize how tall he was, taller then me which was rare, so I had to look up at him.

"Christopher," I said. He looked terrified to seem me, which meant he already knew I was missing from the sky.

"Lady Boreal? Is that you?" He said in his German accent. I nodded, tears began to fall as I was comforted by my old friend, who began stroking my hair.

"Santa you know who she is?" The white haired man said approaching us. I wiped my tears away, there is no point in letting a stranger see me cry and think I'm weak. A princess must remain strong in any situation.

"Yes, she is the guardian of the night, humans call her the northern lights." Christopher explained. The white haired man looked confused.

"She is the northern lights?" I looked at him and nodded. My stomach began to rumble, and I realized I hadn't eaten in a couple of days.

"Mama," shouted Christopher, "prepare a meal our little guest is hungry." I looked up at the smiling man. "How did you get here?" He asked. And I pointed at the white haired man. "Jack! What did you do to her?" So the white haired man was jack.

"Nothing, I found her in a tree trunk during a blizzard and brought her here."

"Jack?" I said, I could tell I wasn't pronouncing it the way Christopher was, and my accent made it sound like I was singing. They both looked at me surprised.

"Yes?" He said smiling and leaning closer to me. He batted his eyes as if he wanted something, but I just stared at him. "Do you have another name or should I call you 'my lady'?" He put a heavy meaning on 'my lady' as if he was implying something but I didn't quite understand.

I pointed at myself "aurora," I said.

"Aurora," he repeated smiling as if he was enjoying the sound of my name. He leaned in closer on his Shepard crook and played with a lock of my hair dangling next to my cheek. "What a lovely name, for such a lustful beauty," he whispered into my ear. My entire body tensed up, and I could feel my face become warm. I looked bewildered at the man, our eyes met and I could tell that there was desire in his eyes. I've seen men look at women like that before. I felt nervous but flattered, no one had ever looked at me like this before.

Finally Christopher smacked the boy on the back of the head and I wobbled away from him. My stomach continued to make noise, I was very hungry now. Christopher began to lead us to the dining area. I continued to stumble on the hard surface, until jack caught me by his crook and began letting me hold on to it for balance until we finally reached the large wooden table, and I made sure to sit properly in a chair, like I had been taught to do. Christopher sat down next to a red headed boy who was across the table from me reading.

"Oh, um hello," he said looking up from his book. He was of course Christopher's son.

"Nick," the white haired man said taking a seat next to me and putting his crook and bare feet on the table. "This is Aurora, the northern lights." I could tell the red headed boy was looking at me curiously but I couldn't take my eyes off the white haired boys disgusting feet that were next to my place setting. I took the fork and poked the bottom of his foot with it.

"Ow!" He shouted as he removed his feet. "What was that for?" The nick boy and Christopher laughed.

"No one wants your disgusting feet near their food." Said the nick boy. A stout blond headed woman came out of a kitchen door caring a tray that she placed in front of me. There was so much food and it all smelt wonderful. I politely waited for everyone else to be served, but the stout woman sat down next to Christopher. I had known Christopher for years, but I had never met his family before. They all stared at me, waiting for me to eat or move or talk. A yeti brought me a new fork, and Eventually I gave into my hunger, and began eating the delicious food. I could tell that they were all staring curiously at me. I was a very rarely seen person as it was, I had lived alone on the clouds for years, my only company was my crystal guards, but they were emotionless and not fun to be around. That's when I realized something, this was the first time, in perhaps a eon, that I was actually in the presence of other people who weren't my family. I felt strange, I had never realized how lonely my life had become, but I felt happy at the same time to be with an old friend.

"So aurora," jack said, and he placed the crystal that I had used in my escape on the table. "I found an abandoned cabin near the woods where I found you, and a fire nymph gave this to me. What were you doing out there?"

I didn't know how to respond, I tried to talk but they wouldn't have understood me.

"I'm sorry aurora," said Christopher. " this must be very hard for you." He turned to the white haired boy. "Jack, aurora doesn't speak our language, she's an ancient." The others seemed surprised by that, because I had stopped aging at my prime age of 18, unlike my parents and other ancients.

"Well I'll just teach her English then, in the mean time papa you will have to interpret for her." Said the stout woman.
"I can't, I don't speak the language of the ancients. But I know aurora can draw out the events that has lead her to us." I happily nodded. And a yeti appeared giving me a sketch book and paints and pens. "Now then aurora, the question we all want to know is 'how did you fall from the sky'?"

I opened the book and grabbed the paints and began scratching out the image of the mad man. I held it up to them, and i could see the terror on their faces.

"Pitch, pitch black, forced you out of the sky!" Exclaimed jack. I sad fully nodded. "No wonder you were having nightmares."
Christopher took a deep breath, "now why would he do that? Do you know of his plans?"

I turned to a new page and once again drew out the events of what has happened. I revealed that pitch had a daughter named Melaina who was his world. And how when the darkness had consumed him I was the one that had protected her and hid her away.

"He wants his daughter back?" Asked the nick boy, and I nodded. They all paused to take in this information, it was strange to think that the nightmare king had a daughter.

"So why don't you just give her back, technically you did commit kidnapping." Said jack as if joking but I just glared angrily at him, he did not understand any of this.

"Stultus puer," I shouted, "nihil nosti!"

"Aurora, jack didn't mean anything by it. You made a wise decision. Who knows what pitch would have done to his own daughter. Now what happens if you don't return her to him?" I held up the picture of the blood red moon, the dead sun and the earth covered in darkness. They looked mortified by this, so I drew out a picture describing how darkness will always be over powered by light.

"You are a very wise young lady." And I smiled at Christopher.

"We've all dealt with pitch at least once, and if it wasn't for you and Rudolf christmas would have been ruined, more than once. You always seem to shine bright even in the darkest hour."

I perked up at the name of the little reindeer whom I had given the gift of light to. I remembered hearing a song humans sang about him which was all wrong. Rudolf's nose never glowed, it was his fur, for I had brushed it with star dust. And I held up a picture of rudolf and I, which was my way of asking to go see him.

"Yes you can In a little bit." Said Christopher, he could tell that I was getting excited to be here, which was strange since pitch was the one that grounded me. "How are you going to get back up to your domain?"

I drew a picture, "Iris," I said holding it up.

"Your sister?" Asked Christopher, and I nodded. I loved my younger sister, she was after all the only other immortal that visited me on my cloud. When ever I wasn't on my cloud it would disappear from the sky and it was invisible from the ground, but iris would be able to find it. "Where can we find her?" And I held up a picture of her domain in the clouds. "Do you know where she is?" I shook my head, the only way for me to find her would be to be in the clouds. Then I remembered jack, he seemed to be a weather spirit.

"Jack," I said and he leaned forward, I handed I'm the picture of the people iris lived with.

"Your sister lives with water spirits?" He said, I nodded, and drew out my sisters duties. "Your sister makes rainbows... Wow... Your a very strange person you know that."

"Jack!" Shouted the stout woman, "be polite to the young lady!" But he just stuck his tongue out at her then winked at me. I could feel my face getting red with angry, this boy was rude, and disrespectful. I stood up to leave.

"By the way," he snickered. "Your infirmary gown is completely open in the back." Everyone was starring at me and I could feel every muscle in my body tighten. I had a horrible temper and I had to control it before I exploded. But he kept snickering at me. "Nice ass by the way."

That was it, I turned and punched the boy in the cheek sending him off his chair. I turned and stormed off back to the infirmary.

I was glad that I had finally gotten my balance, I was humiliated enough I didn't want to fall to. Suddenly I felt something come from behind me. It was a yeti and it wrapped a blanket around me covering my exposed back. The stout woman walked up next to me.
"I'm sorry about jack,"she said, "he can really be a pain. I must admit though, I'm glad someone finally slapped some sense into that boy." I approached the infirmary door, "oh no deary, your an honored guest, we have a room for you." She lead me to a red wooden door. "This is where you can stay and recover." I entered the room, it had a large window overlooking a frozen lake, there were book shelves a desk and a bed pushed sideways against the wall. My dress lay on the bed, I picked it up and examined how perfectly mended it was. "The elves are amazing at tailoring."

I looked at her I didn't even know her name, "Christopher?" I said pointing at her.
"Yes he is my husband, but you may call me Jessica."

"Jessica," I repeated, "tank."

"You mean 'thank you?"

"Yes, thank you Jessica." This English was easy if someone could properly teach me.

"I'll teach you some more, but for now let's get you dressed and fix your hair." I didn't realize how messy my hair was, so I released it from its ties and it fell down bellow my waist. The yeti jumped back and looked amazed at me. It began calling out and more yetis appeared at the door.

I looked at Jessica, "what?" I pointed at the yetis who were stairing curiously at me.

"Oh," she said smiling, "they love playing with hair, and your is probably the longest they've ever seen. And they will be happy to brush it for you."

"Yes" I said and with that several yetis approached me and began happily playing with my hair.

We stayed in that room for a while. I changed into my dress, and began to learn how to put my thoughts into english from Jessica, who was amazed when she examined my bandages to find that I had healed. And the yetis continued to brush and play with my hair. One of them gave me a mirror and I saw that they had braided my hair and woven ribbons into it just like the Romans use to.

"I love it!" I told them smiling, and they seemed very pleased with themselves. There was a knock on the door and jack opened it.

"I'll let you two be," said Jessica shooing the yetis out. And I could see her give jack an evil look.

"Um Aurora," he said entering the room, he looked bashful and I could see that I had made his nose bleed. "I'm really sorry about what I said"

"You should be sorry," he jumped back at my sing song voice.

"You can talk?" I crossed my arms as he tried changing the subject.

"You were apologizing?"

"Yeah, sorry. I shouldn't have talked to you like."

"No you really shouldn't have." I could see that he was nervous he wouldn't look at me directly and he was rubbing the back of his neck. "Your arrogant and rude. You act as a womanizer as a way to cope with a broken heart." He looked shocked at me, "Jessica told me to say that." I felt pity for the boy now, and somewhat envious, I had never fallen in love and the only people that loved me was my family. The girl that he must have fallen in love with must have been very lucky. He looked very ashamed now, I stood up and walked up to him, he refused to look at me. I was surprised at how tall he was, I was tall like my mom and he was still a head taller than me. I put my hand against his cold cheek, and he looked at me. I could see it in his eyes that he was truly sorry, he for trying to show off like a child. "And I'm sorry, I lost my temper." I kissed his bruised cheek and smiled at him. His cheeks were turning red and became very cold. I lowered my hand and turned to leave the room.

"Aurora," he said grabbing my hand. I looked at him in surprise.

"Sssorry," he mumbled and released me. "i just wanted to say that I think I might be able to find your sister."

"Really?" I was excited by this news. "How?"

"Father winter talks a lot with the other weather entities and might be able to track her down." I threw my arms around him excitedly. His body became like ice as he hugged me back.

"Oh thank you jack." There was a knock at the door and I released him.

"Aurora?" Nick poked his head threw the door, I smiled at him. He seemed like a very timed boy. "My dad wants to know if you wanted to see Rudolf?"

"Yes of course." I hadn't seen the little deer in so long, I missed him. I ran passed nick and jack through the door and began searching for the deer. But I had to stop, I had gotten overly excited and I didn't even know where Rudolf was. I waited and the boys caught up to me almost out of breath.
"Your pretty fast" said nick. He bent over and wheezed. "The stables are over there." With out another word I ran off.

I flung open the stable doors and ran around until I had found my beloved friend. I embraced him and he made sounds excitedly. His coat glowed as brightly as the day I had brushed him. He had grown up since the last time I had seen him. He nuzzled me affectionately. I heard the stable doors open and the boys found me.

"You've got stop disappearing like that," said jack. They seem annoyed by the fact that I had ran off with out them. But I only smiled at them as I played with my reindeer friend. Suddenly a wave of exhaustion hit me and I stumbled forward.

"Are you all right?" Ask jack. Rudolf caught me as I stubble. I looked to the window, and the sun was coming up.

"No, not yet" I stubble forward, my futege was kicking in.

"What's wrong?" Jack caught me by his shepards crook.

"I'm nocturnal" I mumbled grabbing my spinning head. I felt the cold hands hold me close and picking me up "No I can't sleep."

"I'll keep you up," he whispered caring off as if I was a child. Every thing was getting blurry.

"I'm never awake during the day time." I moaned. My body was falling me, and my eyelids felt heavy.

"You've just had a long couple of days, your tired and need rest."

"No I can't sleep, I don't want to deal with pitch."

"It's ok ill stay with you. We can talk which will help you stay awake." He brought me back to my room and sat on the bed with me in his lap. "Why are you nocturnal?" He asked. I opened my eyes and looked up into his kind face.

"I've just become so use to the night that its become my duty."

"What do you mean?"

"I assist my father by bringing light to the darkest nights, and my sister assists my mother by bringing joy to the rain."

"Who are your parents?" I could tell that he was keeping his questions short so I would do most of the talking. But I couldn't stop yawning and dozing off. "Aurora, your getting to tied to stay awake."

"I know," i groaned rubbing my eyes. "I just don't want to face pitch again. He will keep torturing me until I tell him where Melaina is."

"He's been torturing you! I know he is the king of nightmares but I didn't think he would result to torture...Aurora?"
I could no longer pay attention so I rested my head against his soft blue sweater. I loved the cold, that was why I made my home in the clouds above the arctics. He rapped his arm tighter around me, lifting me up to his chest. The cold from his body was comforting, I clung to his sweater pulling myself closer to the comfort. I could hear his heart beating and I couldn't help but smile.

"This was the best day I've had in a very long time..." I was now mumbled.

"Why's that?" He whispered, stroking my cheek with his free hand.

"It's been a while since I've been in the company of others."

"That can't be true, don't you live with nymphs or spirits?"

"Uh uh," I mumbled and I nuzzled his chest. I heard him sigh. "I have crystal guards, but they don't have personalities."

"That sounds quite lonely. But don't worry your not alone anymore." He seemed like a completely different person than earlier. I opened my eyes and gazed into his bright blue eyes.

"Thank you jack, you are very kind." He smiled at me and took my chin in his hand.

"And you are very beautiful," he said, pressing his wonderfully cold lips gently against mine in a kiss.