Part 2

Next year

Jamie couldn't get to sleep. He was so excited for tomorrow, all day family had been arriving, cars now parked in the driveway so tight that they were bumper-to-bumper. And more were due to arrive by plane late this evening, Jamie's father was already on the road to the airport as their pickup. The refrigerator was now stocked full with premade meals that would be warmed up for tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner. As well as pies, custards, crumbles, and just about every other kind of baked good.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and once again the whole family together, including many greats uncle Jack Frost! Jacket visited Jamie throughout this year as often as he could. He also heard, through email, post mail, and phone calls that he'd been doing the same to various other family members. He promised them all the same thing every time he left, "I'll see you on Thanksgiving!"

Thanksgiving was only a few hours away and Jamie could close his eyes and actually sleep, as far too wired with excitement!

Jack groaned as he asked wind to take him to Russia. A last-minute blizzard, category six, had been called and he is not happy about it. These kind of things happened every once in a while, it wasn't a surprise or anything, but it couldn't have happened at a worse time. He had been working extra hard to make sure all of his duties, winter and guardian, were taken care of so that he could spend all of tomorrow with the Bennett's, his family! Now he was almost on the other side of the world with a duty that was going to take him quite some time and a whole lot of energy.

"Nothing I can do about it now, just get it done and hopefully have time and energy to get back to America without any trouble." He told the wind.

In situations like this, where his winter duties and is guardian duties seemed to contradict each other, he had created a system so that he could do both. When he got to the area were in the blizzard was supposed to happen he did a preliminary search for any villages, towns, settlements, or cabins that might have occupants in the blizzard's path. No towns or settlements to be seen but there was one cabin with a family of four. Finding them he put his plan into action, Jack created small almost minuscule ice pieces that blew on the wind with ease. These pieces were similar to his magical fun snowflakes, but they gave the receiver a sudden burst of caution. When they were hit with the small ice they got the feeling a storm might be coming, regardless of if there was a cloud in the sky or not. That caution caused them to start battening down the hatches.

Jack then began to build the blizzard to its height in slow increments, the building storm plus their already perceived caution made sure that the family was square and ready by the time the snow started to fall. Once the storm was in full swing and would hold its own, Jack then used a trick he had learned from Tooth, Baby tooth, and the other mini tooth fairies, to slip inside. Once there his center started to do it's job. North and bunny had instructed him in this skill, though their centers came out through the gifts they gave on their holidays they also have such a strong presence that their centers seemed to fill the air around them. It only took a little while before the family, who were huddled together in fear of the storm, to bring out the board games, sit around the warm fire, swap stories, sing songs, and even play charades.

Jack left the family in high spirits, and took off for America. The only problem was that the storm and the release of energy to create the atmosphere of fun had completely drained his energy reserves. He nodded off in the air and almost dropped his staff, if the wind hadn't given him a sharp jolt of motion he probably would have done so. If he lost his staff he would plummet plummet to the ground, he still needed his conduit in order to fly on the wind's currents. They had already left the Russian forest of the blizzard, but wind knew Jack would not make it to America exhausted as he was. She turned them to the West from their current course and brought him to the closest forest she could find. There she set him down on an evergreen tree where he promptly curled up, his staff tucked close to his chest like a teddy bear, and fell asleep.

The Thanksgiving sun came over the horizon and Jamie awoke with it. In truth he had really been asleep but he figured he'd be to ramped up with today's activities to really notice until late tonight. He got dressed quickly and walked downstairs and into the kitchen. Already food was being taken out of the fridge and the oven was preheating. Jamie didn't ask if he could be of help, he knew they would just tell him to stay out of the way for now, so he went to the table where he saw a stack of steaming hot pancakes. He had no sooner put all the cakes he wanted onto his plate and lathered them in syrup, then his sister and cousins came in to get their share. As he ate he eyed the pastries and other Thanksgiving dishes.

When lunch came everybody was there and ready to enjoy the festivities, except Jack. The kids were ushered out of the house, the adults talked as they went and played. They had the usual activities and even went and made a scare crow like Jack had shown them last year. As the hours passed though Jamie and several others started to get worried. Where was Jack?

Inside the adults were wondering the same thing, many were itching to hear more about Jack's past, their family history. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett continue to look out the window, as did great gramdpa, and many aunts and uncles, all hoping to catch a glimpse of the blue hooded figure as he came to join them.

Jack gave a small yawn as he awoke. It was a crick in his back and when he rolled over he found out why. One large pine-cone sat right where he had been laying. Arching his back and rotating his shoulders Jack cracked and stretched his muscles back into work function. That done he looked up to the sky to find the sun and see what time it was. When he located it he scrunched up his face confused. He'd been sleeping longer then he wanted to. It was almost nine or ten in the morning if his guess was right.

"I'm going to be late. Wind where are we anyway?" When he received the answer he nearly fell off the branch. "Oh no, oh no, oh no!" It may be the morning here but in Burgress it was late afternoon. He had so far to go, if he was lucky he'd make time for dinner, but more likely he wouldn't arrive until after they started the story telling.

He'd made a promise to be there, and he never broke a promise, he was already partially breaking it because he hadn't arrived early that day. With out further thought he leapt into the air, wind and Jack combing their power to rocket toward America. In his haste he neglected to notice the northern lights, guardian single flashing in the sky.