Tale

Chapter 4 : To Catch a Crow

/!\ I do not own Rise of the Guardians, only my OC.

Jack Frost

"No! Please, stay!" Jack exclaimed.

Lía Tale had turned into a crow. He couldn't wrap his mind around it, but he had more important things to worry about right now. He had to calm the crow down and reason it... no, her, to convince her that the Guardians needed her. To keep her from running away again.

"Close the window!" he told Jamie as the crow flew to the window.

The boy was even more astounded than Jack, but he still obeyed the Guardian. He ran in front of the window, keeping the bird from fleeing, and closed it with one hand. Lía croaked, furious, and turned around, barely avoiding a painful encounter with the glass. She also managed to avoid Jack, who had jumped to try and catch her.

The Guardian tried to catch the crow multiple times, but she was just to fast for him. His multiple jumps bothered Ow, who perched onto Jamie's shoulder. As he was trying to catch Lía, Jack Frost couldn't help but admire the bird she had turned into. It was a huge crow, with a larger wingspan than normal crows, shiny, pitch black feathers and one single multicoloured feather under each wing. Her talons looked sharp, her black beak too. Even in her animal form, you could recognise her, thanks to her particular features.

"Lía! I promise I won't hurt you! The Guardians need your help!" he shouted.

The crow circled above his head, barely managing to manoeuvre in such a cramped space.

"The world needs you, Lía Tale!" Jack insisted. He was standing near the window and near Jamie's bed.

She stopped circling and managed to land near the other side of the bed, close to the door of the bedroom. Then, suddenly, she turned back into a human. She looked fierce and a bit scared, her left hand on the handle of her dagger, ready to flee or fight.

"What do you mean?" she asked, cautious. "Why would the world need me?"

"Do you know the myth of Pandore?" questioned Jack, not immediately answering her questions.

"I'm a tale-teller, of course I know this myth." she answered abruptly. A second later, her eyes widened. "Wait, do you mean that... that she is back?"

"Yes" confirmed Jack Frost, somber. "She is back and she wants to bring despair to this world."

"And why would you need me?" Lía asked.

"The Man in the Moon chose you as our new Guardian. He thinks that you are able to defeat Pandore and save hope."

"And don't you guys have a Guardian especially for that? You know, a pooka, grumpy, big ears... I think he is more fitted for the job, being the Guardian of Hope and everything!" she sounded annoyed.

Jack was so focused on her words that he didn't notice that she was slowly walking backward, getting closer and closer to the door.

"I... I don't know." he sighed. "I haven't been a Guardian for a long time and the others won't tell me everything. I don't know as much as they do."

"Oh, poor you, your family won't tell you everything." Lía mocked. "At least you have a family to complain about."

"Listen, I know it's hard to be alone for centuries, invisible and forgotten, not accepted by the other Guardians but... you have to give them a chance."

"After they ignored me for three centuries?" she exclaimed, furious. "I was a lost immortal who knew only her own name, completely invisible! I was completely lost, completely alone, and the Guardians did nothing! They refused to even talk to me because I wasn't a 'chosen one' or whatever. You may be over it, you may have forgiven them for they behaviour, but I can't! I don't owe them anything!"

"Lía", Jack called softly. "I..."

"You don't get to call me like this." she said sharply. "You don't get to call me at all. I swear, try to find me again, and I will kill you. Understood?"

"I'm immortal", Jack reminded her with a smile. "You know, Jack Frost, bringer of winter, the spirit that played pranks on the other immortals for centuries? Remember?"

"You may not be the worst of the lot, and I often found your pranks really fun" Lía admitted, "but you still are a Guardian. And I keep my promises: try to find me, and it will be the end of you."

"I'm immortal." Jack repeated with an even wider smile, leaning on his staff.

"Wanna bet?" the tale-teller replied.

Then, with moves so fast Jack could barely see them, she pulled her dagger out and threw it skilfully. It stuck in the wall, a few millimetres from the Guardian of Fun's throat.

"Whoa!" said Jamie, distracting the two immortal teens He had gotten past his surprise and was extremely curious. He didn't feel threatened by the immortal who had just thrown a dagger at his friend. "What a great shot! How do you know how to do this?"

"When you have three centuries to train, it's hard to miss your target." Lía answered with a smile.

"I have to admit, it's impressive." said Jack. He pulled the dagger out of the wall, frowned when he saw the mark it had left. "Your parents will wonder about what happened here, Jamie.

He then threw the dagger, but slower than Lía, and the tale-teller caught it. She looked at him, surprised, as she put it back into it's scabbard.

"I'm still not following you." she said, suspicious.

"Even to save the children of the world?" Jack asked.

"I would be completely useless in a fight against Pandore." she answered. "The Guardians understood that, and you should, too. They saw that I was useless."

"I'm not so sure about that." replied Jack Frost with a smile. "It was an impressive throw you made. And, since you managed to stay hidden for so long, I bet you have other tricks up your sleeve, don't you? Are they linked to your tattoos?"

"Well, I see that your brain isn't as frozen as I thought it was!" Lía exclaimed with a smile. "I do have a few tricks linked to my tattoos. Actually, as a shape-shifter, I can turn into five animals, each one linked to one tattoo.

She pointed at her right shoulder, focusing Jack and Jamie's attention on the tattoo of an orca that she had there. She had her left hand on the knob of the door, and Jack and Jamie still hadn't noticed it.

"As a shape-shifter and a talented tale-teller, if I do say so myself, I can also understand most animals, and they appreciate my presence."

"Incredible." Jack whispered.

"And now, for a demonstration of those skills!" she turned the knob and, at the same time, screamed:

"Fifi! Now's the time!"

Jack's eyes widened. What was happening?

Lía Tale

Feather flew to the window and started scraping the glass with her talons, distracting Jack Frost and the kid. Lía used this distraction to turn into a black cat and slipped through the doorway. She ran in the corridor, using the night vision granted by her cat's eyes to find her way in the dark. She needed a way out!

As a cat, she knew that her disguise wasn't perfect. Her black fur had colourful streaks on the tail and the chest; her left eye was green and the right one was blue; she was medium-sized for a cat, at least, so that wouldn't give her away. But right now, being identified was the least of her problems. She was stuck in a house with no way out.

"I could have chosen any form," she thought to herself, "but I had to choose this one! As a wolf, I could've threatened to eat them if they didn't let me out. The orca would've just destroyed the house, so getting out wouldn't have been a problem, though it wouldn't have been really nice either. Hmm, maybe the..."

She stopped in her thoughts as she had just arrived in front of the entrance door. She almost bumped into it and used her cat's claws to slow down. Behind her, she could here Jack Frost running around in the house, looking for her. Thanks to her excellent sense of hearing, she could tell that the kid - Jamie, was it? - was still in his room. He probably didn't want his parents to wake up and ground him for being up that late at night.

Lía Tale decided that this door was her only salvation. She didn't have time to run to another window or look for another way out. So she turned back into her human form, turned the key, still in the keyhole, to unlock the door and...

She heard a noise right behind her. Jack Frost, holding his crooked staff in one hand, was looking at her. He seemed sad and desperate, but kept his distance. Lía felt sorry for him. He really wasn't the worst of the lot.
Of all the Guardians, he was her favorite, because he knew how to have fun. He wasn't a hypocrite, like the others, ignoring her until they needed her. He genuinely didn't know that she existed until that night when they had met. He was fun and appreciated freedom, like her. He wasn't as serious and boring as the other Guardians. But, most importantly, he knew what she was going through.
He respected her, keeping his distance because she didn't want to be touched.
He didn't ask anything about all those decades all alone, because he knew how hard it was, how hard it had been...

He was like her. A bit. But now that he was a Guardian, she knew that they could never get along. So she had to stay hidden. No matter what he said. It was for the best. For everyone.

"Please... don't go." Jack Frost whispered, holding a hand out to her.

She turned her head, just enough to be able to see him. A small smile appeared on her lips. Then, she opened the door, turned into a crow and flew into the night.

Jack Frost

Jack sighed as he saw her fly away. He had found her, just to see her flee again.

"Well, the others didn't lie when they said that she was elusive." he muttered to himself.

He didn't know what to do. He could warn the other Guardians, inform them on his failure and tell them where they could find her -approximatively-. As a crow, she couldn't be that fast, right? But then again, she had other transformations.
He remembered seeing a tattoo of an orca of one of her shoulders. So she could fly and swim fast. She could also turn into a cat, which was probably linked to the green eye on one of her ankles. On the other one, there was a tattoo of... a sea serpent, maybe? Those legendary creatures were extremely fast and could live in the deep, so as soon as she would reach the ocean, Lía Tale would become impossible to find.

He had to warn the others. Jack closed the door, still open after Lía's escape, and locked it. He then climbed the stairs and went back to Jamie's room. He wanted to see the kid before having to leave again. With Pandore rising, the other Guardians needed him more than ever and he wouldn't be able to go see Jamie again before... probably a long time.

"Jack?" the boy said as soon as the Guardian entered the room. "Who was that?"

Jack created an ice-crow with his staff and made it fly in circle above Jamie's head.

"That was Lía Tale." he answered while watching the kid play with the crow. "She's a tale-teller and, apparently, a shape-shifter. She's immortal, and elusive."

"Why did you follow her? Why do the Guardians need her?" Jamie asked. He tried to touche the crow, but Jack's creation avoided him. It turned around the boy a few more times before exploding an turning into little sparkles of blue, shiny ice.

"It's... complicated." Jack sighed. "And I don't want to drag you into this. The only thing I can tell you is that the Guardians and I have a difficult battle waiting for us. We will need as much faith as you can give us. You and the other children."

"Of course. But... Jack... you said 'the Guardians and I'... but you are a Guardian!"

"Yeah, of course, I..." Jack looked a bit lost. He ran a hand through his silver hair and tried to smile. "Anyway, I need to go and find Lía. I'll come back to see you in a bit."

He put his hand and Jamie's shoulder, where Ow was still perched, and the owl climbed on his hand. He installed his friend on his shoulder and, with a smile, ruffled Jamie's hair.
Jack then opened the window and, silent like a breeze, slipped outside.

He perched on a roof and took Ow in his hand.

"Could you do something for me, Ow? I need you to track a crow down. You know which one I am talking about?"

Ow hooted and shook his head in what seemed to be a nod before taking off. Jack smiled, glad that his new friend agreed to help him. Now, he had to warn the others.

He took a snow-globe out of the pocket of his hoodie and examined it, while being carried by the wind and following Ow from afar. North had given this snow-globe to him before leaving the North Pole.
It was, according to him, one of his latest inventions. A small red button was present at the top of the snow-globe. When Jack pressed it, a small portal appeared, the size of a smartphone. This portal allowed the user to converse with the person of his choice while being able to see them, and could be reused many times.

"North" he said, and the portal showed him an image of Santa Claus, driving the sleigh with a sleigh-sick pooka next to him. They were the last one on the sleigh, which meant that Tooth and Sandy were already searching on other continents.

"Jack!" North exclaimed when he saw the portal in front of him. "Did you find her?"

"Well... I encountered her, to be more precise. We- we kinda bumped into each other." the Guardian of Fun answered.

"You're lucky, mate!" Bunny teased, trying to see Jack even though North kept pushing him aside. "Would you... ugh, North! Let me just..."

The pooka pushed North and managed to look through the portal.

"Was she to your liking? Last time I saw her, I remember that she was quite pretty, no, Frostbite?"

"Hey!" Jack exclaimed, realising what Bunny was implying. "I think the altitude is bad for you, Kangaroo, because you are going crazy! She hates us all! She... she tried to kill me!"

"She did?" North shouted. He was still listening to the conversation, though he was annoyed by the behaviour of the two other Guardians. "Did she hurt you?"

Jack rolled his eyes in response to North's fatherly reaction.

"I'm okay. But she managed to flee. Again. I sent Ow to help me find her, but you guys need to warn the others and focus on North America for now."

"Ow?" North repeated. "Who is... don't matter. Where are you, Jack? We can help you better if we now where you are!"

"Burgess!" Jack answered. "Though right now we're heading to... I think it's the forest. It's not far from the pond!"

He could see the pond where the Man in the Moon had turned him into a Guardian, three-hundred and four years ago, shining in the distance.

"I need to go guys! Come as soon as you can, please!"

"Wait! You said she tried to kill you." said North. "Is it not dangerous to face her alone?"

"I'll be okay." Jack assured with a smile.

"And Jack?" Bunny added, "do you know the expression 'who loves well chastises well?' You know, since she tried to kill you, maybe..."

"Ugh, Bunny!" Jack exclaimed, annoyed, before ending the communication.

He noticed that Ow had flown past the pond and was now flying in the woods, avoiding trees and heading to a clearing.

"I hope I can find you, Lía Tale!"

Lía Tale

She transformed back into her human form as she was preparing to land, and she landed gracefully on her feet. She was in a clearing in the woods. It wasn't the one where she had had her meeting with the animals of the region, a day and a night ago, but it was a bit similar: pine trees and bare trees normally covered in leaves, red, brown, orang and yellow frozen leaves covering the ground, and the moonlight illuminating the clearing.
Feather arrived a minute after her, her one eye looking attentively at her shape-shifter friend.

"Thanks for the diversion." Lía told her with a smile. "I don't know how I would've escaped otherwise."

Feather croaked and began cleaning and ordering her ruffled feathers with her beak. Lía sighed and sat directly on the ground. She was annoyed and angry, because she didn't want the Guardians to meddle with her life. But, she was also sad, because she had had a chance at not being alone anymore. She could've been part of a family, loved and believed in by the children and the Guardians... and she had turned that life down.

"Because it was just hypocrisy. The Guardians would've never accepted me." she said to herself, and to Feather. "They needed me, but I know that they would have dismissed me as soon as they didn't need me anymore. It's for the best."

Feather looked at her, skeptical.

"Okay, maybe throwing a knife at Jack Frost wasn't the best idea of the century, but... yeah, I went to far. But still! He needs to leave me alone! I know he's nice and all, but he's a Guardian! I don't do well with Guardians. That's just the way it is."

Feather croaked.

"Even if it means... spending the rest of eternity all alone." Lía sighed. "I can't accept their offer. I'm not that..."

"Desperate?" suggested a voice behind her. "Oh, but dear, I think that you are!"

Lía jumped on her feet, startled, and turned around quickly while pulling her dagger out. Behind her was a woman whom she had only encountered once but whom she hated to the core.

"Pandore." she said, and it sounded like an insult in her mouth.

This woman destroyed everything that her tales brought to the children, making them forget wonder, hope and dreams, courage, strength and compassion, to turn their world into a fog of disillusion and disappointment.

"Lía Tale, my dear tale-teller." Pandore said with a smile. "Or should I call you 'Guardian' now?"

"Leave me alone." the shape-shifter growled. Wolf teeth started growing in her mouth.

"Such a wild beast, this one!" Pandore continued with an even wider smile. "But even animals bring me despairs. Oh, the look on your face when you talked to Bunny for the first time, and when he told you that you couldn't be a Guardian! Priceless! And when the Guardian of Hope himself dashed your hopes, I got one of my brightest, strongest despairs ever!"

"I said leave me alone!" Lía screamed.

"This won't be happening." Pandore said. She had lost her smile and her voice sounded as cold as ice. "You're either with me or against me. If I can't count on your support, then you need to be... destroyed."

She clapped in her hands and dozens of despairs appeared around her. The blue and purple sparkles of hope caught inside the dense darkness of despairs shone diabolically, illuminating Pandore's cruel, yet beautiful face.

Lía didn't stop to think. She saw Feather, frightened, take off, and she started running.

She was running faster than ever before. She managed to put her dagger back into its scabbard and ran even faster. Behind her, she could hear Pandore encouraging her despairs and the evil lights following her, floating with a small whistling sound above the ground.
The floor underneath her feet was covered in snow, leaves and frost. It was slippery and unstable. After a whole minute of sprinting, she understood she had to go faster and turned into a wolf.

Her black fur didn't reflect the light of the moon. Her big paws and strong, sharp claws kept her steady on the icy ground. Her powerful lungs and heart brought oxygen to her muscles. Her green and blue eyes could see in the darkness of the night. She could make it. She could escape once more. She would survive this.

She arrived near a frozen pond. She thought that she had lost them. But her powerful sense of smell indicated her that she was surrounded. The despairs smelled like tears and shadows. And they were all around her.

Jack Frost

He caught up with Ow as the owl was turning around and flying back to the pond. The small lake was surrounded by trees and Jack couldn't see well, but he noticed a black wolf running toward the pond. It had multicoloured streaks on its tail and around its ears.

"Is that... Lía Tale?" he asked to himself.

But there was no doubt. It was the shape-shifter, running away from... from what? The Guardian squinted and saw a multitude of despairs following the wolf, already flattening to form sharp disks.
Jack didn't hesitate. While Ow decided to flee, he asked the wind to carry him even faster and reached the pond at the same time as Lía.

The wolf growled when she saw him, before realising who he was. Lía turned back into a human and pulled her dagger out. Jack clenched his fists around his staff. They were standing next to each other on the edge of the pond, surrounded by despairs.

Lía smiled gratefully to Jack when she saw that he was going to help her.

"I might not kill you after all." she said jokingly, but Jack could here the tension in her voice. He was happy to hear this, but was also tensed as well.

"Glad to hear it, shape-shifter." he answered with a smile.

The despairs got closer, moonlight reflecting on their sharp edges. Automatically, without thinking about it, Jack and Lía got closer and ended up back to back, ready to defend each other.

"... and now?" Jack said as the despairs got closer and closer.

Lía readied her dagger. There was no trace of fear or tension in her eyes, just determination.

"Now we fight."

Did you know? Wolves can run at speeds up to 60 km/h = 40 miles per hour.