Tale
Chapter 2 : Pandore
/!\ I do not own Rise of the Guardians, only my OC.
Jack Frost
"Lía Tale." Jack Frost repeated. It tasted weird on his tongue. Somehow... familiar. In his head, he could see the young woman he had encountered, her eyes, her hair... he was almost certain that she had some special abilities. Otherwise, how could she have vanished into thin air after noticing him? And the fact that humans couldn't see her, her loneliness... she was like him before he had became a Guardian.
Lost in his thought, Jack Frost was staring at his cup of hot chocolate and wasn't paying attention to what the other Guardians were saying. They were still talking about Lía, sharing informations about her, describing the few times they had met her. North, Sandy, Bunny and Tooth were so focused on their own conversation that they didn't notice the shadows at first.
Jack was the first to notice them. They were lurking in the corners of the Globe's room, under the sofas, behind the Guardians... At first, Jack thought he was just seeing things. After all, it had been a long day and he was tired. Yes, immortal beings could get tired too. But then, Jack saw them move. They were small balls of shadow, but it seemed like they all contained a blue spark, surrounded by dense darkness.
"Are you seeing this too?" he asked to his friend. He put his cup of hot chocolate on the coffee table and took his staff, holding it with his two hands.
"Seeing what?" asked Bunny. The four Guardians looked at Jack, surprised.
"I saw shadows. They looked dense and it seemed like they were containing a spark. They didn't resemble Pitch's nightmares."
The Guardians all frowned. They thought Jack was seeing things. Maybe he was becoming paranoid. But then, North saw a shadow creeping on the surface of the Globe, covering multiple dots with its shapeless, strange body. It was the size of a football, not really big, but disturbing, alarming.
"I see it too" said North.
Tooth, Sandy and Bunny looked at each other. They couldn't ignore the warning of two of their friends. They all got up and readied their weapons. Suddenly, multiple shadows emerged from the dark corners of the room and charged at them. They could levitate above the ground and, when they flattened, forming some kind of disks, their edges were as sharp as razors.
The Guardians brandished their weapons and charged back. Jack pulverised two shadows with his powers, but a third one managed to cut his right cheek, and little droplets of blood fell on the ground. North was cutting the shadow disks in pieces with his swords, and Bunny did the same with his boomerang. Whenever a shadow was defeated, it turned into black dust and then vanished.
The Guardians were quick and strong and they got rid of the shadows quite quickly. Jack took care of the last one, turning it into dust with one blast of his staff.
"What are those?" he asked to the other Guardians when the last shadow disappeared. "I had never seen anything like them."
Bunny and North exchanged a quick glance.
"Well..." said North. "It looks like the shadows of..." he couldn't finish his sentence, like he was afraid he was going to conjure some kind of ghost.
Bunny sighed and whispered in Jack's ear: "The shadows of Pandore."
"Pandore?" repeated Jack out loud. North got tensed when he heard the name.
"Who is this?" asked Jack. He was the youngest of them all and didn't know as much as the other Guardians.
"Me? Oh, I'm not an evil lady!" exclaimed someone behind them.
They all turned around, startled. A tall, thin woman with a dark skin, wearing a long, black dress and black belt, was looking at them, levitating a few centimetres above the ground. Her long black hair was untied and fell onto her shoulders. Her eyes were blue, the same shade of blue as the ocean during a storm. She had golden earrings and a golden necklace with a silver pendant shaped like a square. Tattoos of snakes ran down her bare arms.
"My name is Pandore", she said with a smile. "I'm a few milleniums older than you, Jack Frost. You may know my name: humans turned my story into a legend. A myth." she seemed displeased with this.
"I'm sorry", answered Jack, "but I don't think I know your story."
"Well, it's a long story, but I will sum it up for you, dear : I was made to be the perfect, flawless woman. But perfection doesn't exist, and I had flaws : curiosity, jealousy, the will to disobey... I got married, received a box as a gift, but was forbidden to ever open it. And, one night, driven by curiosity, I decided to open it anyway; in doing so, I released evil spirits that caused sickness, war, anger, poverty..." she told him. "But I managed to trap hope inside the box."
"So what happened to hope?" Jack asked.
"Oh, I kept it for humanity! I helped it survive and thrive in this ruthless world!" said Pandore.
"She's lying!" shouted Bunny. "She's my nemesis, the one that takes hope away and turns it into despair."
Jack's hands clenched onto his staff. He was about to believe Pandore, but Bunny's intervention made him realise that she wasn't what she wanted him to believe. Pandore saw the tension in the Guardian's body and sighed.
"Fine, I lied." admitted Pandore. She seemed more amused than angry. "I won't try to trick you, because apparently it doesn't work. I am the evil spirit that takes hope away to turn it into despair... but it's to make this!"
She waved her hand and one of her shadows appeared. Jack understood that it was a sparkle, a glimpse of hope that was trapped inside the shadow.
"Every hope anyone has can make this. A child hoping to get a specific present for X-mas, a student hoping for a good grade, an adult hoping to get a job... when these hopes are disappointed, I get a new shadow! I call them my despairs. When my husband... died, they were my only company. Now, I'm their queen. Their mother. I collection them."
"But why attack us?" questioned Jack. "We didn't do anything!"
"Yes you did!" answered Pandore, suddenly furious. "When you defeated Pitch, the children got happier. It's harder for them to lose hope. They keep hoping, no matter what happens, and I can't get new despairs! Plus, with every year that goes by with Jack Frost as a Guardian, despair becomes harder and harder to achieve! You are keeping me from getting more powerful, more loved! And I can't let you do that!"
She clapped her hands together, and more shadows appeared.
"I will end this here and now!" she exclaimed before disappearing, letting her shadows fight for her.
This time, there were more shadows. Defeating them was harder than before, but the Guardians fought bravely and managed to destroy all the shadows summoned by Pandore.
"That's the last one!" said Jack, relieved, after blasting one last despair. "Do you think the sparkles turn back into hopes after we destroy the darkness around them?"
"I dunno", answered Bunny, "But I hope so. I hadn't seen Pandore in a long time and, honestly, I had hoped that I would never see her again. But it seems like she is rising again."
"She's... well, desperate." remarked Tooth. Jack smiled at the irony of the situation.
"And desperate times call for desperate measures." he added.
He sat on one of the sofas, and the other Guardians did the same. They were all tired after this long night. The sun was now high in the sky.
"We eat lunch now" decided North. "Then we'll rest, and tonight we will decide what to do about this... problem."
They all nodded.
"I'm way too tired to eat", said Bunny, and the others agreed.
"Then we rest now, and eat later. You can sleep in the guest rooms. The yetis will show you the way." said North.
Four yetis entered the room and led the Guardians to their own rooms. They were all tired and didn't talk during the whole walk.
Jack entered his room, locked the door behind him and looked around.
It was a medium-sized room, with a tall window overlooking the frozen sceneries of the North Pole. A single bed was pushed against the back an left walls. There was a wooden cupboard near the back right corner, a desk next to the door and an armchair near the window. The walls were pale blue, the bedspread was ultramarine blue, the armchair was white... the room was decorated to please Jack, it was obvious.
"So I guess North had planned my stay here all along" said Jack to himself with a smile. North was a nice man with a warm heart, always generous, and also a bit eccentric.
He went up to the window and watched the view for a few minutes. He yawned, realised he was extremely tired and left the window to go sit on the bed. He laid down without even realising it and, a minute later, he was sleeping soundly.
Jack woke up as the sun was beginning to set. He sat up, stretched, ran a hand through his hair and got up. He grabbed his staff and left the room. He easily found his way in the multiple corridors of North's workshop. The Guardian of Fun arrived in the Globe's room and saw Tooth and North, already up, eating dinner. He joined them.
"Sleep well?" asked North when Jack sat down next to him.
"Like a stone" answered Jack before grabbing a bowl of soup.
He used his staff to cool the soup down before drinking it.
"So", he said after a few sips, "what now?"
"Well... we were waiting for everyone to wake up" admitted Tooth. "We don't know a lot about Pandore. Bunny's the one who knows her best."
"I do", confirmed the Guardian of Hope, who had just entered the room. He sat down next to Tooth, facing Jack, and took a plate of vegetables. He started nibbling on a carrot. Sandy arrived right after him.
"Everyone's here" stated Jack. "Now we can decide what to do."
And so, they started thinking about what they would do.
They argued. A lot. Bunny thought they had to find Pandore and defeat her immediately, before she could get more powerful. Sandy and North thought she wasn't a real threat. Tooth wanted to wait and see. Jack didn't speak.
"Tell us. What is on your mind?" asked North when he noticed Jack Frost had stayed silent.
"When Pitch rose again, four years and a few months ago, what did you do? How did you react?" asked Jack.
"When we saw Pitch's nightmares, Man in Moon immediately helped us. He chose a new Guardian to assist us, and we... recruited you." explained Bunny.
"Recruited. Right." ironically said Jack. He remembered vividly how yetis had caught him and tossed him through a portal, trapped in a bag. "What a great and warm welcome it was, this recruitment."
"Will you ever forgive us?" asked Bunny, annoyed.
"Eh, maybe" teased the Guardian of Fun with a smile.
Sandy attracted everyone's attention by banging his knife and his fork together. They all looked at him and he pointed at his head. Above his hair, multiple shapes appeared. North translated it: "He wants us to focus on our current problem and decide what to do."
"I say we wait" said Tooth.
"We forget about her", replied North.
"We act. Now." insisted Bunny.
Jack rolled his eyes. They weren't getting anywhere. He personally thought that they should ask some advice to the Man in the Moon, but the other Guardians just wouldn't listen to him. He had noticed that multiple times during the past four years; he wasn't as old, as experienced as the other Guardians, so they payed less attention to what he had to say. It wasn't because they were mean or self-centred. It was just normal for them, and Jack didn't blame them for this. He just wished they would listen to him more.
Finally, after enduring at least an hour of pointless arguments, he grabbed his staff and brandished it above his head. It emitted a blue light and snowflakes started falling from the ceiling.
"Do I have your attention now?" he asked. The other Guardians, surprised, nodded.
"Good. I think we should ask the Man in the Moon to decide what we should do." The other Guardians looked pensives. North was about to answer when a light distracted them all.
It came from a stone tile near the Globe, carved with an elegant "G". The stone of the Guardians. A ray of light illuminated it and it started to rise.
"The Man in the Moon is choosing a new Guardian!" squealed Tooth, excited. "I wonder who it will be!"
"See?" Bunny said to North. "Even the Man in the Moon think the situation is bad."
"Shush!" exclaimed North. "This moment is rare and solemn. We need silence."
They all gathered around the stone and waited for the Man in the Moon to reveal the identity of the new Guardian. And, after one entire minute of suspense, the moonlight formed a silhouette. North, Tooth, Sandy and Bunny didn't recognise it at first, but Jack Frost immediately identified the person chosen by the Man in the Moon.
"Is this..." finally said Bunny.
"Lía Tale", whispered Jack Frost.
They all stayed silent for a minute. It was a lot to take in. An old enemy was back, and a lonely, elusive immortal almost impossible to find was chosen to be a new Guardian.
"Well..." said Bunny. "I don't know if it is good or bad news."
"Man in Moon only chooses people with pure hearts to be Guardian" answered North with conviction. "She has to be good."
"Maybe we don't just now her yet" added Jack Frost. "But when I saw her, I felt like she wasn't evil. Just different."
"Different from what?" Bunny scoffed. "I'm a pooka, you're a three-hundred-and-four years old teenager, North's the oldest toymaker ever, Sand'y made out of sand, and Tooth is part hummingbird. We're all different!"
"I don't know" said Jack with a shrug. "It's just an impression I have."
"I'm sure she's nice." said Tooth. She was always seeing the best in everybody.
Sandy nodded.
"Now, we need to find her!" declared North.
"Ri-right now?" stammered Jack, surprised. "Shouldn't we... I don't know, me... plan, before? Maybe? Because, as we've established before, this girl is quick and elusive. We need a plan to know how to approach her and explain the situation to her."
"Well, we didn't plan before catching you!" answered North.
"And remember where that got you all last time?" countered Jack Frost.
"We go now." decided North with a firm voice. His tone was clear: there was no questioning his order. He was a sweet and kind man, but as the leader of the Guardians, he was the one who made the call. He left the room, one hand on the handle of his sword, and headed to the sleigh room.
"But..." said Jack as Tooth and Sandy followed him.
"You'll get used to it" assured Bunny as he passed next to the Guardian of Fun, pressing his shoulder.
"Fine" sighed Jack before following the other Guardians.
They all arrived in the sleigh room. North's sleigh was there, big, red and shiny, ready to fly.
"Oh no..." said Bunny when he saw the sleigh. "Not again! I just ate!"
"C'mon, Kangaroo! It'll be okay!" teased Jack with a smile. He loved the sleigh.
"Everyone loves the sleigh." said North. "Lía will love it too."
"Did you ever encounter her?" asked Jack as he climbed aboard with North, Tooth, Sandy and Bunny. He sat next to North on the front row, letting the other Guardians sit behind.
"Once or twice." answered North. "Once in my workshop, where I design the toys. I don't know how she got in. She ran away. And the second time, I think when I was delivering, a century ago. She was on a roof, watching me."
"And? That's it?"
"Yes." North nodded. He took the reins and exclaimed: "Now we find her!"
And the sleigh took off.
Lía Tale
She was sitting on the highest branch of a tall and old tree. It was raining, and her face was turned to the sky to enjoy the little droplets of water.
"I love rain, Feather. Don't you?" she asked to the bird perched on her shoulder.
It was a big, black crow with only one eye. It cawed and shook it's feathers.
"I know, your feathers are wet, but still, rain is magical! I mean, water falling from the sky! Water is life, so technically, rain is life falling from the sky."
The crow shook his head, disagreeing with her.
"Always negative, Feather!" the girl laughed. Her eyes sparkled with joy. The left one was as green as a leaf and the other one as blue as a glacier. She got up, smoothed her cloak and tunic with her hands and started climbing down the tree. When she was a meter away from the ground, she jumped and landed softly on the ground. The crow was still perched on her shoulder. She walked for a bit and reached a clearing on the woods, with a flat rock in the middle. The girl stood on it and said to the bird on her shoulder: "You know what to do, Fifi!"
He cawed loudly, calling the other animals of the pine forest they were in. Squirrels, rats, mice, birds, foxes, two wolves, cats, wild boars... they all ran to the clearing and gathered around the young woman.
"So, what news do you bring me tonight, dear friends? What is new in North America?"
The animals all started chattering, snorting, chirping and so on.
"One at a time, please!" exclaimed the young woman.
And, one by one, she listened to all of the animals in the clearing. She could understand them, particularly the wolves and the birds. She had a really good memory and could remember everything that they told her.
Thanks to birds and social animals, she could get news from all around the globe in just one meeting with her animal friends. And that was how she could create her stories. Her tales.
She was a tale-teller. That she knew. But, apart from this and her own name, she didn't know anything else about herself. She was Lía Tale the tale-teller, and that was it.
At the end of the meeting, when the last mouse had told her everything she knew, she sighed and sat on the stone.
"You know, Feather, I love animals. You know I do. I'm part animal myself! But my job is hard and lonely, and I miss... humans. People like me. Well... not exactly like me, but you get what I mean, right, Fifi? Right, girl?"
The bird, standing next to her, croaked softly.
"Last night I met a boy on a roof. He tried to talk to me. He could see me, Feather! I didn't know what to do. I ran, of course. As always. He's probably a Guardian anyway, and Guardians want nothing to do with me. I should stop telling their tales to children. That way, they'll see what it's like to be invisible, not believed in!"
Feather pinched her on the hand.
"Ow! Feather! You know I would never do anything like this! I don't want anyone to go through what I'm going through right now."
She stayed silent for a moment.
"This boy... now that I think about it, he's probably Jack Frost. Recently, kids have been asking his story a lot. He's getting famous. I wonder why I had never seen him before. Do you know him?"
The crow shook her head.
"Of course you don't. I've been roaming the Earth for more than three-hundred years, and I had never met him before! So how could you, a five-years-old crow, know him?"
She sighed again and buried her face in her hands. She stayed like this for a few more minutes, rain pouring down on her, and a few rays of moonlight illuminating her. Then, she stood up, a fierce look in her eyes.
"Enough complaining. I better get to work if I want Jack Frost to still be believed in at the end of the week!"
She put her hood on, covering her black hair streaked with locks of different colours. She readjusted her cloak around her shoulders and Feather perched on her right shoulder.
"There's a town I haven't visited yet, "Burgess", I think it is. We'll go there tonight, okay?"
She smiled and started running in the woods.
Chapter three coming soon...
Did you know? Crows can live up to twenty-one year!