Tale
Chapter 6 : Allies... for now
/!\ I do not own Rise of the Guardians, only my OC.
Lía Tale
She slowly opened her eyes and blinked multiple times. The drapes weren't closed and the moonlight was illuminating the room. Lía tried to move her head to look around, but her neck was sore. Her entire body was painful. She sighed, breathed deeply and ignored her pain to slowly sit up.
She was in a bedroom in which she had never been before, in a white bed. The walls were light green, the window was as tall as her and the floor was covered in grass. Vegetation was growing on the walls. The air was cool and invigorating, like the one in the morning when the sun was just beginning to rise. There was a piano in one corner of a room, and a tall weaving loom not far from her bed. There also was a blue armchair near the window. A night table was next to her bed, with her belt and dagger placed on it.
"Where am I?" Lía whispered to herself.
She got up and winced. Her back was painful, and she had dozens of small cuts all over her body. She looked at them. They seemed almost completely healed, but they were itchy and every move tugged at her scars. She was wearing a bra and a long skirt. Her abdomen was covered in bandages. She took her belt and put it on around her waist.
Lía then started walking around. Her legs were shaking and she barely managed to walk to the window. She took another deep breath and looked though the window.
"Am I... in the North Pole?" her eyes widened. "Am I in North's workshop? But why? What am I doing here?"
Suddenly, as she watched the frozen sceneries outside, memories came back to her. Pandore had tried to get rid of her, and she had tried to escape. The fight, the white knife, Jack Frost, the pond... it all came back to her. And the terrible nightmare she had had that night... she shivered just at the thought of it.
Her instinct told her to get out of there. She had to leave, find Feather and come up with a plan to hide from Pandore. But her mind told her to stay. Ally herself with the Guardians, get rid of Pandore and get on with her life in peace.
Just as she decided to listen to her mind and stay, a pooka entered the room.
Lía turned around - jumped would be more correct - and stared at him with hostility. She had to ally herself with them, but it didn't mean that she had to be nice. The Guardian of Hope closed the door behind him, holding a tray in one hand. While doing so, he kept his eyes on her. He was moving slowly, like she was an animal about to attack him or flee.
"So," he said in a falsely relaxed voice, "you're awake, shape-shifter!"
"I am. I was admiring the view." she answered in an openly hostile tone.
"Not about to flee again, are ya?" Bunny asked.
She tilted her head to the right and looked at him intensely. He was trying to act nice and relaxed, act as nothing had happened.
"I am not running away." Lía declared. "Since you're not capable of doing your job, I'll do it for you and help you defeat Pandore."
"Why the hostility?" Bunny questioned, trying to stay calm.
Lía was getting to him, she knew it. If she could make him show his true face, she would feel better. She knew that she would.
"I don't know", she said in a calm, soothing voice, the one she often used to tell tales.
It wasn't magic or anything, but she knew that her voice could almost hypnotise people. Almost. They could easily snap out of it, but she had a gift to calm people down and get them to listen to her.
"Maybe... maybe because you took your time to come and rescue us at the pond" she continued while slowly walking to him. He was completely hypnotised and didn't move an inch.
"Maybe because I want you all to get as far away from me as possible. Where I go, pain follows. Maybe I want to save you all."
Her hands were now on his wrists, soft and gentle on his fur. She looked at the tray Bunny was holding, and then her eyes met his. Her pupils were feline, her eyes the ones of a beast. A predator. The Guardian's eyes widened.
"Or maybe", she said in a deep, angry voice, breaking the spell, "it's because you ignored me when all I needed was guidance, a friend to help me, and you turned your back on me!"
Bunny dropped the tray, which fell on the floor with a metallic noise. The fruits and the honeypot on the tray rolled on the ground.
"I... I..." stammered the Guardian of Hope.
He wasn't angry. He felt guilty. And his guilt felt like a bitter victory to Lía Tale.
"I will help you all to get rid of Pandore." she said, "But it doesn't mean that we're friends, okay? We are not. And as soon as this is over, I am out of here and I will never see you again. And if I do... you won't appreciate it. Understood?"
Bunny blinked multiple times. He seemed disoriented. Disoriented, Lía was as well. She was in a strange place, with people that didn't care about her and evil forces trying to kill her. She had just woken up after getting gravely wounded and she didn't know how much more of... this she could take.
Bunny finally nodded and left the room silently. Lía sighed as soon as he closed the door. She sat on the windowsill and looked thought the window, trying to find some peace within the frozen sceneries of the North Pole.
Jack Frost
North entered Jack's room and woke him up by shaking him.
"Come on, Jack! The sun is up, we get up too!"
Jack opened his eyes and sat up. His body was painful, but a good night of sleep had made him feel a lot better. Sandy's healing sand had worked too and he knew that, soon, his wounds would be completely forgotten.
He looked around and noticed that his room had... changed. The floor was now covered in snow. Snowflakes were slowly falling from the ceiling and the air was cool. The walls were covered by a thin layer of frost. The furnitures were the same.
"What happened here?" he asked North.
"The room changes to adapt to you", North explained. "It's magic."
Jack got up, only wearing his usual trousers. He looked at the ceiling and raised his arms to touch the snowflakes falling from it. It was so beautiful...
"You need to eat." North declared. "Breakfast is in the Globe room."
He left Jack alone in his room. The Guardian of Fun stopped playing with the snow, got dressed and headed to the Globe's room. He ate quickly while talking to Tooth, who explained to him that he had slept for two days straight after his fight against Pandore.
"And Lía Tale?" he asked, worried for the shape-shifter.
"Still not awake. Bunny volunteered to bring her a tray of food in case she wakes up."
"There's a possibility that... that she won't?" Jack asked, even more worried now.
"Well... a mortal would've died for sure, seeing the gravity and the depth of the wound, in addition to the blood loss." Tooth admitted. "But Lía... she's strong. Her bones are stronger than metal, her body is resilient. She will survive this, don't worry. If you want, you can go check on her."
"I will. Thanks, Tooth!"
Jack quickly swallowed the rest of his breakfast and left the room. He walked to Lía's bedroom. As he was about to open the door, he heard the clatter of a metal tray falling to the floor. He frowned, worried. He was about to burst into the room, ready to help Lía defend herself against what surely was despairs, but he then heard a low whisper. He couldn't understand what the people in the room were saying, but he recognised Lía's voice.
A second later, Bunny got out of the room and closed the door behind him.
"Ah, there you are, mate!" the Guardian of Hope exclaimed.
He acted as if everything was fine, but he seemed confused and down.
"You okay, Kangaroo?" Jack asked.
"'course, Jack! Though you might wanna handle this one. Moon, she's too intense for me! Plus, she might be nicer to you. Felt like she was about to kill me!"
"Kill you?" Jack repeated. "Bunny, are you sure that everything's okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, don't worry about me!" Bunny assured him.
He headed to his own room and whispered: "worry about yourself, poor lad..."
Jack Frost only hesitated half a second before entering the room. He needed to see her. See Lía. Make sure that she was okay. Alive and breathing.
Lía was sitting on the windowsill, looking out the window. Her hair was loose, she was pale and she wasn't wearing her usual tunic. Jack looked around and saw that her room was covered in vegetation.
"Morning, tale-teller" he said as he closed the door. He tried to sound relaxed and to hide his worry for her.
"Hello, Frost. Nice of you to visit." the shape-shifter said, looking at him.
"Are you feeling better?" Jack asked, getting closer. "You weren't in great shape, last time I saw you."
"Never been better."
"So..." he looked around, trying to act normal.
Finally, he took a deep breath. He had to get it out.
"I wanted to thank you for saving me. Multiple times."
"It's no big deal" Lía assured him with a smile. "Couldn't let you die, could I? You're the least infuriating Guardian, I couldn't let the good one go!"
"You... you think that I'm the good one?" Jack asked.
He couldn't help but stammer and his pale skin was probably the same colour as cotton-candy. He wanted to hit his head against the wall. Why was he stammering? Why couldn't he act normally in front of her?
"I do" said Lía Tale. "You never ignored me, you're nice to me, you have an owl as a friend... and I know that owls are often grumpy and lonely birds. If the owl thinks you're good, then I trust you."
"Thanks."
"The others, on the other hand..." she sighed.
She wrapped her arms around her knees and looked at the colourful flowers growing on the floor. Jack sat in the grass in front of her, put his staff on his legs and said:
"What exactly happened between you and the Guardians?"
Lía Tale
What had happened? How could she explain to him how much pain she had felt, how lonely she had been, how hard those centuries had been... But then she remembered that he had been as lonely as she was before joining the Guardians. If anyone could understand, it was Jack Frost. But she couldn't talk about it. Not yet. So she cleared her throat and decided to change the subject. Plus, she had questions for him.
"Do you remember how it was before you joined the Guardians?" she asked.
He nodded, and she could see his sadness and emotion at the thoughts of all those years spent alone, invisible and forgotten, on his face.
"And do you remember the day that the Man in the Moon gave you life?"
He frowned.
"Gave me life? What do you mean?"
"Well, you know... the first day of your life, when you woke up under the moon and the Man in the Moon gave you your name!" she explained.
"Oh, Lía..." he whispered. He then saw her face and exclaimed : "Sorry, didn't mean to say your name! I know I'm not supposed to, but..."
But she raised a hand to stop him and said: "What's the problem? Isn't that how you were born?"
She didn't understand what was happening. The Man in the Moon hadn't given his life to Jack? Then how was he alive?!
"The Man in the Moon didn't make the Guardians", Jack explained with a soft voice. "He cannot create life. We were all humans before."
"Wait... what?" her voice was barely louder than a whisper, but it was already too much. She couldn't take it. What was he saying? Did Jack Frost mean that...
"You had a family, shape-shifter", Jack told her. "Friends, a home, maybe brothers and sisters... and the Man in the Moon gave you your powers and your immortality."
"So... I wasn't always a shape-shifter?" she asked. "But why can't I remember?"
"I don't really know" the Guardian admitted. "I couldn't remember anything either when I first woke up. I got my memory back during the fight against Pitch."
"I was a mortal..." she whispered. She was shocked. Confused. Tired. Nothing made sense anymore.
Jack Frost
She seemed lost. He almost got up to comfort her, but decided not to. He didn't want to be rejected.
"So... what's the first thing you remember?" he asked, curious. He also wanted to get her mind off of the breaking news she had just learnt.
"I remember the Moon... feeling its light on my skin, illuminating everything even if my eyes were closed... I opened my eyes... and I understood that I was lying in a thin snow cover in a clearing in a forest. The trees had bright red leaves and... and I think that the snow underneath me was red too? There was a dagger, my dagger, stuck in the ground near me. I... something pulled me and I... I levitated above the ground. I heard the Moon whisper a name, my name, and then I landed on the ground. I picked up the dagger... I didn't understand what was going on but... I started wandering in the forest. I remember, at dawn, I saw a crow perched on a branch. I envied it. I wanted to be as free as it. And then... I turned into a crow. That's how I discovered that I was a shape-shifter. I flew above the trees, so glad, and I saw a village. I landed and turned back into my human form. I was so proud... I tried to talk to the inhabitants, who were already working. But... someone walked through me and that's when I understood..."
She stopped talking. Her fist was clenched around the handle of her dagger. Her eyes were full of tears, tears that she refused to let go.
"And..." Jack started. He wanted to distract her from the painful memories. He knew how horrible those were. The moment when he had understood that he was invisible... it had been awful.
"Could you tell me more about your powers?" he asked.
"Why would I?" she replied.
"If we are to be allies, I need to know exactly what you can do. Plus, I want to know if you could help me pull some pranks..."
She smiled.
"So, as you may have guessed, I am a shape-shifter", she told him. "I can turn into five different animals: crow, orca, cat, wolf and sea serpent. I know that I can choose two more shapes."
"How do you know?" Jack wondered.
"Just instinct, I guess" she answered with a shrug. "Apart from that, I have a soothing voice, I'm good with knots and threads, handy with a dagger, I'm resistant to cold and heat... and I can do this."
She raised her head and grabbed one of her hair, a purple one. She gently plucked it and pulled on both ends of the hair. It grew longer and longer until it was as tall as her.
"Magic hair" she explained to Jack, who was amazed. "Really useful for a weaver, to be able to turn your hair into threads."
"This is definitely pranking material" Jack declared. "If you agree to help me, shape-shifter."
"Maybe... if you're nice!" Lía teased.
"I'll behave, ma'am, I promise." Jack swore with a smile.
"Something tells me that you won't." she answered, smiling as well.
She was fidgeting, already full of energy despite the recent events and her wound. She got up and started walking around. Even with her wounds, she was swift and agile, and she began climbing the vines that grew on the walls.
"Isn't it a bit early, with your wound?" Jack asked, worried.
"i'll be find", she assured him.
But suddenly she screamed and fell. Jack ran and managed to catch her before she hit the ground. The walls were tall and the fall could've been dangerous, since she had climbed quite high.
The Guardian made sure that she was okay, but kept her in his arms.
"Let me go!" she said, annoyed.
She wasn't fidgeting, probably because her wound was hurting, but she glared at him angrily.
"I have one condition." Jack said. "Take your promise back."
Lía Tale
She looked at him, puzzled. What promise was he talking about?
"Earlier, you swore that you would kill me if I called you Lía Tale. But I can't keep calling you shape-shifter. Since we're.. kinda friends, I guess? I want to be able to call you by your name."
Oh, so that was what he was talking about.
"First, it's allies, not friend, okay?" she corrected. She saw the disappointment on his face when she said that. "But", she added with a softer voice, "I allow you to call me Lía."
"Thanks!" he exclaimed with a smile. And she couldn't help but smile too. They stayed like this for an entire minute, him looking at her, holding her against him, and her looking at him, one arm around his shoulder. But finally, they heard some noise and snapped out of... this.
"Do you mind?" Lía asked with an annoyed voice. Really, she just wanted to hide her confusion and her cheeks that had turned pink.
"Yeah, of course... sorry..." Jack muttered, embarrassed. His cheeks were pink too. He promptly put her down and took a step backward.
Lía turned her head to face the door of the bedroom. She had heard another noice coming from there, she was sure of it. Jack didn't notice her disturbance and stammered:
"Well, friend... ally, Lía... I should... I should get going, yeah. Gotta... gotta go do... something."
"You owe me the memories of your first moments as an immortal" Lía reminded him while still focusing on the door.
Her hand on the handle of her dagger, she was ready to face whatever was hiding behind that door. Jack still didn't notice anything and, while rubbing his neck, pointed at the door.
"So... see you later. I'm leaving now. Bye."
He quickly left the room and closed the door behind him. A minute later, Tooth entered.
"Oh, so she was probably the one making the noise." Lía realised. Her grip on her dagger eased, but she was still ready to spring into action. She didn't trust the Guardian of Memories.
"Good morning, Lía." Tooth greeted. She was doing her best to seem relaxed and at ease, but her wings were nervously fluttering in her back, showing her nervousness. "I just came to check on your back and see how you are feeling."
She noticed the tray on the ground and became even more nervous. She probably was wondering what had happened here.
"Please turn your back on me" she politely asked while getting closer to the shape-shifter.
"The same way that you turned your back on me?" Lía asked bitterly.
Tooth didn't answer. She breathed deeply and said:
"Turn around, please."
"I won't. Not until you've apologised." answered Lía.
Tooth sighed. She took one step, but Lía growled and showed her teeth. She was animal as much as she was human. Tooth saw her teeth and squealed. She couldn't help it.
"Wow, your teeth are so white! And your canine, they're so long and sharp! Do you floss often?"
The tooth-fairy flew and grabbed Lía's face to look at her teeth. She was so nervous that she relied on her instinct. And her instinct told her to inspect the teeth of the shape-shifter.
"I've never seen anything like them! You truly have unique teeth!" she exclaimed, excited.
Lía growled again, pushed the fairy away and took one step backward. Her back hit the windowsill and she cried before falling one her knees, her arms wrapped around her stomach. Her teeth were clenched and she did her best to hold the tears in her eyes and keep them from rolling on her cheeks.
The pain in her back was unbearable. Like a thousand white-hot knives were plunging into her flesh, burning her blood. Like liquid fire was penetrating her veins.
Suddenly, the shape-shifter felt a fresh hand on her shoulder. It was Tooth. She seemed extremely worried.
"Breathe", she whispered in Lía's ear. "You have to breathe. Slowly, try to lie on the stomach, okay? I'm here to help you."
Lía ignored her anger and resentment toward the fairy and lay down gently. She felt the fairy untie the bandages around her back and look at her flesh.
"Oh no."
Tooth's words were filled with despair, fear and worry. The pain was slowly easing in Lía's back and she didn't understand what the problem was.
"What is it?" she asked Tooth.
The Guardian of Memories got up to grab a mirror and used it to reflect Lía's back in a way that the shape-shifter could see it. And she gasped when she did.
The cut was long and had been deep, though it was now sewed. But what was worrying were the edge of the wound, as black as coal. And the veins around the wound were slowly turning black as well.
"There was poison on the despair's edges." Tooth said.
"Is it lethal?" Lía asked. She was trying to hide her fear.
"I... I don't know." the Guardian stammered. "I'll collect a sample and I'll try to find an antidote. I won't let you die."
Tooth used one of her feathers to collect a drop of poison on the edge of the wound. She then bandaged Lía's back again and helped her to get back on her feet.
"I'll help you", she promised. Lía nodded, unsure. Something told her that no one could help her.
"Hey, colibri?" she said to Tooth. "Please, do me a favour: don't tell anything to the others."
"I..." Tooth saw the will and strength in her eyes, along with panic and fear. "I won't. But right now, you should come and eat something. You slept for two days, you know? Your body is weakened."
"Okay, I'll eat breakfast" Lía agreed. "Just lead the way."
And Tooth led her to the Globe room.
Lía couldn't help but gasp softly when she saw the Globe. It was so huge and it glowed so bright! Each of these dots, these children, believed in the Guardians. And there were so many of them!
She turned her head to the right and saw a table with armchairs and sofas around it. Santa Claus was quietly conversing with the Sandman on a sofa while the Easter Bunny was teasing Jack Frost, who was sitting in a blue armchair. When the tale-teller approached, they all went silent.
Finally, after a long minute, Jack stood up and said: "Nice of you to join us, Lía! There's still some fruits, toasts, and a few cookies left for your breakfast. You must be starving right now!"
He walked over to her, took her arm and led her to a purple armchair next to his. He helped her to sit down and handed her a plate of cookies. He seemed at ease, relaxed and charming, and cheeky as usual.
"Thanks, Jack. I am starving." she said. She didn't reminded the Guardians that someone was supposed to bring her food but that someone had dropped the tray.
"Well well well" said Bunny in an amused voice, "first name basis already ey?"
A simple look from Lía made him shut his mouth and look quite sheepish. Lía tried to eat, but she could feel everyone staring at her. Finally, she put her half-eaten chocolate-chip cookie back on the plate and got up.
"Guardians, I am here today because Pandore is rising. Despair threatens us all. I have no choice but to help you. We have to become allies. But it does not make us friends. We are simply allies... for now."
The Guardians all nodded in agreement. Bunny looked relieved, North seemed sad, Sandy as well, Tooth was half-relieved, half-disappointed and Jack Frost seemed sad and disappointed.
Lía sat back in her chair, picked her cookie up, took a bite and said:
"Now that this is clear, what's the plan?"