Author's Note: Hello everyone and welcome back to "The Winter Child!" =D This chapter's a bit of a filler, and I just dumped a bunch of wholesomeness within it. X) Jack's twelve-years-old in this chapter and for most of the future ones. =D Other than that, I don't have anything else to say. XD
I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! =D
~ XL ~
An Odd Bunch
They were a small, unlikely bunch
Each from a place in Lunslruna
They had quirky personalities
Interesting hobbies
But Jack loved them, all the same
...
The Guardians were strange, and Jack knew that. But he didn't consider himself strange. Not at all.
Aster was addicted to anything egg-related, and he made chocolate, something that he couldn't even eat himself. North loved listening to booming Russian music and spent what Jack thought to be an unhealthy amount of time in his study if left unmonitored. Sandy could sleep anytime, anywhere, and Tooth had an obsession with teeth that Jack was still determining whether or not was concerning.
As for himself, Jack considered himself quite normal. At least, out of the Guardians. Well, he was a snow sprite, a race believed to be extinct, and could summon gusts of wind and snow whenever he pleased. Unlike most of the children in his village, he had pointed ears and deathly pale skin. There was also the white hair, but he was nowhere near old, mind you. The boy had just turned twelve a few weeks ago; he still had plenty of growing to do.
He had been living in Santoff Claussen his entire life (excluding his earliest years in Windskald, which he couldn't remember). And out of everyone there, the Guardians were by far the strongest. Everyone in Santoff Claussen had their quirks, but the Guardians were an unlikely group of friends, each with their own special backstories. Jack had told all of them when he was young, and he still remembered each and every detail.
But it's not stories that we're here for…As mentioned several times already, the Guardians were strange. And you're probably wondering just how strange they were.
At North's house in the kitchen, Aster and North were arguing about whether the chicken or the egg came first. Sandy was sleeping in the armchair, his dreamsand swirling lazily over his head. Jack and Tooth were on the couch. The Tooth Fairy was educating the young snow sprite on the importance of oral hygiene, even though she had already told him many of the details she was listening.
"You've lost all of your baby teeth, meaning that these are your permanent teeth. You only get one pair! If you lose those, it's gone forever, so make sure you're keeping those teeth of yours healthy!"
Tooth was so lost in her lecture, she didn't notice that Jack had fallen asleep mid-allocution. He awoke with a yelp when Aster suddenly yelled from the kitchen, "The egg obviously came first, North! Where do ya think the bloody chicken came from?!"
"And where did egg come from if not from chicken?" North argued. He crossed his arms. "Chicken came first. Period."
"I'm tellin' ya, North, it's the egg," Bunny snapped.
"The chicken."
"Egg."
"Chicken."
"Egg!"
"Chicken!"
Jack sighed. "Who brought up the impossible question again?" he asked tiredly. This wasn't the first time North and Aster had this argument. And every time they had it, it was more heated than the last.
Sandy, who had woken up from his nap, shrugged and produced a question mark over his head. "I don't know."
"I'm surprised they still have this argument after all this time," remarked Tooth. She flicked Jack's shoulder, to which the snow sprite looked at her in confusion. "That's for falling asleep during my lecture," she chided."
Jack flushed. "O-Oh…uh…I was still listening. Really!"
"Sure you were," she deadpanned. "Over that snoring of yours, I'm sure you heard every word I said. And wouldn't mind repeating them either."
"Is that really necessary?" Jack asked.
Tooth raised a brow. Jack gulped. When a brow was raised, Toothiana was dead serious.
"You can start from the beginning," Tooth said.
"W-Well, um…" I'm done for. Jack rubbed the back of his head. "T-Teeth…they're, uh, well—"
"Oi, mates, what do ya think?" Aster suddenly cut in. Jack, Tooth, and Sandy turned to the kitchen, where North and Aster were standing. The snow sprite let out a sigh of relief. "What came first: the chicken or the egg?"
"Both answers are possible," said Tooth. "And who knows…maybe they came at the same time."
"It's one or the other," said North. "And it's obviously the chicken."
"It's the egg!" Bunny shouted.
North shook his head and turned to Jack. "What about you moy mal'chik?"
"I think that some questions were meant to be left unanswered," Jack replied. Sandy nodded, agreeing with his statement.
North and Aster went quiet. Jack smirked. "I rest my case."
"Ah, whatever, Frostbite," said Aster.
"We will call it truce for now," said North.
But silently, North and Aster both believed that they were right, and Jack could tell. He shook his head and slipped back into his spot on the couch. Tooth was still waiting for his summary of her lecture.
Jack sighed. "Fine…I fell asleep. But I've already heard this stuff a thousand times!"
"And you'll hear it a thousand times more once you understand how important your oral hygiene is," Tooth said. She cleared her throat and started from the beginning. Jack groaned, and Snady watched the two with an amused smile.
…
"Which one's better?"
"They both look the same to me."
"No, they're not. Now pick one."
"Bunny…they look exactly alike!"
"They're not!"
Jack huffed and he stared at the two patterned eggs that Aster held in front of him. He was at the Pooka's house in his Warren, helping him paint some eggs. When he was six years old, the boy suggested that he start hiding eggs with chocolate inside of them for the children of Santoff Claussen to find for Easter. Aster was trying different patterns this year, which was what led to the predicament he was in right now. He was debating between a swirled pattern, which he had tried on two eggs with subtle differences. He liked them both, but Jack frankly didn't see a difference between them.
"You could just use both," said Jack.
"It's one or the other, Frostbite," Aster said. He wanted each and every egg to look different and unique.
Jack sighed. "Hand them over."
Aster handed the two eggs to Jack, and the snow sprite examined them closely. Even as he studied the two eggs, he couldn't pick out any differences between the two patterns other than the color. The eggs fidgeted in his palms; the young boy could tell they were getting impatient.
"Uhh…the left one looks nice," said Jack. Aster was about to take that egg when Jack added, "But the right one looks nice too."
"Just pick one, mate," Aster said, irked.
"I pick left," said Jack. He handed it to Aster, but as he did so, the egg slipped out of his hands. Aster quickly caught it before it hit the ground.
"Oi, be careful!" Aster scolded, cradling the egg as if it were a newborn child. "They're fragile."
"Sorry, Bunny," Jack apologized, trying to hold back his amusement. Aster was extremely protective of his eggs. If that wasn't strange then Jack didn't know what was.
His pointed ears allowed him to pick up the faintest of sounds. Jack couldn't hold back a snicker as Aster quietly asked if the egg was alright.
…
Jack watched as Tooth flitted this way and that, her mouth moving as fast as her wings as she spoke to her fairies, giving them orders and assigning them places to go. The young snow sprite had to turn away from her, for he was growing dizzy just looking at her. He was organizing teeth with Baby Tooth, and the two were almost finished. Jack had stopped y earlier to see if Tooth needed any help. Children were losing teeth like keys, and Tooth and her fairies had been racing to collect them.
Tooth was grateful that she had a little bit of extra help. Sometimes, her fairies didn't do what they were told, but with Jack there (and all of them wanting to earn his favor), they executed whatever orders they were given, and Jack made sure they were staying on task.
Jack placed the last baby tooth in its tooth box, and Baby Tooth sealed it shut. Jack smiled.
"Looks like we got them all," the snow sprite said. He let out a tired huff. "I didn't know how many teeth a child's mouth held until now…"
Baby Tooth chuckled, and she chirped to Tooth to let her know that they were finished. She fluttered up to the two, a bright smile on her face.
"You two are finished? Great! We'll get these boxes in the holding area right now," she said.
One of Tooth's mini fairies brought a pouch of newly collected teeth to her and placed it in her palm. Tooth peeked inside of it. Though she was tired, Tooth still found time to coo over the children's teeth.
"Aw, look at all the pretty teeth!" she squealed, pulling a few out of her palm and holding them in front of Jack and Baby Tooth. "They still have a little blood and gum on them!"
Jack pulled away, disgusted. Baby Tooth squealed right along with Tooth. As he watched the two, the winter child shook his head, wondering if they could behave any stranger.
…
It was as black as night inside of the study. North had been in here for four hours, and Jack was beginning to grow worried.
When working on large projects, North would often lose track of time, and end up working for hours straight inside of the study without eating, sleeping, or without any breaks. It was Jack who made sure that he got his daily dose of fun whenever he fell into his workaholic mindset, but the snow sprite had been upstairs doing late homework all evening, so he hadn't checked on the ex-Cossack in a while.
When was it he had gone upstairs? Three-thirty, North had just entered his study to start working. It was seven-thirty—seven-thirty one now. And Jack hadn't heard or seen North since.
"N-North…?" Jack called inside the room. He couldn't hear or see anything of the ex-Cossack. He stepped inside, conjuring a glowing icicle to light the way. He looked around warily. "North? Are you still—"
Suddenly, something pulled him inside. Jack screamed, and he was about to freeze whoever had grabbed him when a familiar voice broke through his panic.
"Jack, it's just me!" North exclaimed. The young snow sprite lowered his icicle and clutched his beating heart.
"North! I could've hurt you!" Jack cried. Before he could scold the ex-Cossack any further, he asked, "And…why is so dark in here?"
"I am glad you asked," said North. Jack could hear him smiling. "I'm about to test something I have been working on for a while. And you're just in time to see it!"
Jack heard shuffling, and the flicking of a switch. North told Jack to put away the icicle. It burst in blue sparkles in Jack's palm the instant he thought so.
At first, nothing happened, and the room stayed completely dark. But then, in the middle of the room, a light flicked on in the middle of North's desk. Jack blinked in surprise; he had expected something bigger, but this was something that he'd never seen before.
North laughed and cheered. "It works! It actually works!" Jack yelped as he was suddenly swept off the ground and spun around. He laughed.
"North, what is it?" he asked.
North set Jack down and led him to the desk. It was a glass bulb that had a curled, glowing starlight inside of it. Several wires were attached to it; the light reminded Jack of a candle.
"I call it a bioluminescent nodule," North said proudly. "It's a light source, as you can see. It took a while to manipulate the stardust so it would turn on on command."
"Wow," said Jack. "It's really nice, but…the name is a bit long."
"I know," said North. "But I couldn't come up with anything else."
Jack thought for a moment. "I know. Why don't you just call it a light bulb? Since that's what it is anyway. A bulb of light."
North wrapped an arm around Jack's shoulders. "I like it," he said with a smile. "I should put you in charge of naming what I make."
Jack smiled. "I have school, North. Besides, I can't name everything."
"Not even if I pay you?"
"Now that's a different story."
North laughed and squeezed Jack's shoulder. The snow sprite giggled, and watched the dancing starlight within the glass.
…
Sandy had a lot of things, and not a lot of space to put them. It had been a while since Sandy last cleaned since he was usually sleeping during the day and up and about Lunslruna at night. So, Jack had come to his house to help him reorganize the many items that he had.
Sandy's home was small and quaint. Some areas were sprinkled with dreamsand just to make the space shine. Upstairs, there was Sandy's bedroom, and up even further led to the roof, where he stargazed using his telescope. On the main floor were the living room, kitchen, and office. A door across from the office led downstairs into the basement, which was where the Sandman and snow sprite were currently inside.
Jack looked around at the many different trinkets and items Sandy had stored downstairs. There were jars filled with mysterious substances, items that looked like they were found in long-ago times. There was even artwork and sculptures salvaged from the Golden Age, and Sandy's old Star Captain uniform back when the Golden Age was still alive. Almost everything was covered in dreamsand.
"Wow," remarked Jack. "You have…a lot of stuff."
Sandy smiled sheepishly, and he pointed to a far corner of the basement, signaling that was where they'd start. Jack wasn't the most organized person in the world, but he did his best to place things where they'd fit better than where they were. As they worked, Sandy and Jack engaged in a "conversation," which was mainly Jack translating Sandy's images and giving a verbal response. It was like a game of charades, and Jack was one of the few people who didn't struggle to understand what Sandy was trying to say.
They moved and shifted items, moved some upstairs, and some upstairs items downstairs. They worked for about three hours until the weariness of the afternoon set it.
"I'll go upstairs and get a snack for us," said Jack. Sandy nodded, and he turned to finish moving a stack of books to a nearby shelf. Jack headed upstairs and walked into the kitchen, wondering what Sandy had to eat. After searching through the cabinets and shuffling in the fridge, Jack settled on a bowl of fruit for the both of them and walked downstairs with two separate bowls filled with strawberries, grapes, and cherries.
"I'm back," Jack announced, but he didn't receive a response. The boy looked around. "Sandy?"
Jack headed into the back and found that Sandy had fallen asleep in a nearby chair. He let out a quiet laugh and placed a nearby blanket over the golden little man. Then, he quietly left the Sandman to sleep in peace.
…
"Hold it up a bit higher!"
"Ya don't look proud of yerself, mate. Smile!"
"Look a little to the left, Jack!"
Jack groaned. "Guys…we've taken a gazillion pictures already. This isn't that big of a deal."
"Yes it is!" Tooth objected. "You're moving on to the next level of academics; it is a big deal!"
Jack huffed. He and the Guardians had just returned from the children's graduation ceremony. At the end of every school year, the children of Santoff Claussen would receive their diplomas when they graduated from their classroom level. All the children learned at the same pace, but some who absorbed information faster than others were pushed ahead. Jack wasn't one of those people, but Katherine was, and he had cheered the loudest when she was presented with her diploma.
Now, Jack was proud of himself, in contrast to what Aster had said. But he had grown tired of all the extra photos the Guardians were taking. But, secretly, a part of him enjoyed the extra attention that he was getting.
"Fine, fine," said North, waving his hand. "No more pictures."
Jack let out a sigh of relief.
"But," North continued. "We have something to give you."
Jack looked up curious. From behind him, North pulled out a wooden staff. It was long with a g-shaped hook at the end. Jack's eyes widened and his fingers twitched The wood seemed to be calling to him.
"Some snow sprites used staffs to channel their magic through," explained North. "And you need to start learning how to defend yourself. So, I asked Ombric if he could make one for you."
Jack reached out and took the elongated staff in his hands. The instant he made contact, he felt…whole. A surge of energy rushed through him, and the weapon glowed a faint blue before returning to its original state.
"Whoa," Jack whispered. He couldn't wait to see what he could do with his new staff.
"I think he likes it," said Tooth with a smile.
Jack smiled. "I love it! Thank you!"
"This calls for group hug!" North announced, sweeping everyone into a hug.
"Oi! I didn't say I wanted to take part in this!" Aster exclaimed. The Pooka wasn't a hugger.
Jack laughed and leaned into the embrace. Yes, the Guardians were a group of weirdos, but they were his weirdos.
They were his family.
Author's Note: Family, family, Guardians. =3
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you all in the next one!
Until the next chapter!
~BeyondTheMoon1203
