With Spring turning to Summer in the Northern
hemisphere and Autumn still clinging stubbornly to the Southern half of the
world, there wasn’t much for Jack to do. It didn’t help that it was still too
warm for him to work even though Winter was fast approaching down south and
even if he had not been chased away the sprites of Spring, up North the
temperature was starting to reach the far too uncomfortable levels as April
Showers, the Spirit of Spring, prepared to Handover to Summer Thyme Blues, the Spirit
of Summer.
This left Jack with a few choices of places to
go and people to see. Anywhere high enough for it to have permafrost was a
choice, but one Jack wasn’t fond of. They either tended to be too crowded since
every Winter spirit who hated the heat as much as he did headed for the coldest
places possible at this point of the year, or they were completely empty
leaving Jack with no one to talk to or play with, meaning that he got bored.
The other two choices were the North or South
poles. The South had penguins but would probably be heaving due to the Winter
spirit migration as he joking called it while the North appealed much more due
to the presence of a certain large man in a red coat. Nicholas Nowell or, as he
was more commonly known amongst the mortals, Santa Claus, was always in the
middle of something. It could be anything from making toys for the good little
mortal children around the world to building and testing out some improvements
on the sleigh.
Between the ever present ability to have some
fun, the consistently low temperature and the fact that Nowell was one of the
very few spirits who didn’t think Jack was too young to get a say in anything,
Jack was seriously considering dodging the sprites and spirits of Spring and
Summer and hanging out at the Pole for a while, if only to avoid frosting over
something he shouldn’t out of boredom.
Avoiding the land routes was probably the
easiest option, Jack considered as he gathered what little he owned, literally
just himself and a lightly frosted backpack which contained a few things his
human friend, Aella, also known as Twi to her more normal friends, had given
him and thought about the best way to go.
He did not fancy running into the Summer
sprites who would already be subtly starting their work with only a couple of
weeks until Handover. Most of them had a basis in fire or heat of some
description and Jack was not fond of the idea of being turned into a puddle,
not that he was certain he could melt, but he had been threatened with it enough
times that he wasn’t entirely ready to take that risk. If he took the ocean
routes he could avoid them easily. Even if they were out there, which he
doubted since most ocean loving Spring and Summer spirits tended to hang around
the many beaches of the world, he had a way with the winds that no one else
seemed to be able to match. It wouldn’t be hard for him to avoid them at best
or escape from them at worst.
Making up his mind, the snow sprite left his
cold but very boring mountainside hideyhole and managed to get the attention of
the winds swirling around. Though he was fully aware the winds were the domain
of the Star Podium, those who ruled over that was in the skies above, not once
in his ninety-three years had he run into a single member, nor had he been told
not to play with the wilful breezes that encircled the planet. He didn’t demand
anything of them, if the winds were unwilling to carry him, he was generally
willing to wait to either they were or another one came along that was, and in
return they were willing to help him pull pranks, do his duties and carry him
from place to place.
Luckily for him there was a breeze willing to
get him to the coast at least and from there he could easily get a strong sea
breeze to help him the rest of the way to the North Pole. He was halfway to the
coast when he felt like a rug had been pulled out from under him and he tumbled
in mid air, falling a couple of feet until he righted himself. He glanced
around, trying to recognise what the feeling was and whether he had passed
another spirit, maybe one of the darker aspects of nature and that had been
what had caused it.
It took him a moment, then it sank in. It was a
feeling of foreboding and disaster hitting that had caused his brief fall
towards the world below him along with a distinct feeling of being drawn
towards the north, north east in fact, towards the home of his mortal friend.
Jack let out a soft hiss as the pieces came together in his head. Nowell had
helped him make a bracelet for Twi that would allow her to let him know, no
matter where he was or what season she was in, if she was in trouble and needed
his help.
Twi was calling.
Jack knew his friend. She wouldn’t use the
bracelet for anything petty. She was fully aware that he wasn’t supposed to be in
England or indeed most of the Northern hemisphere once the eastern or Spring
part of the Crystal Compass had taken over from Winter, so for her to be
calling him now, two weeks from the Spring to Summer switch it had to be pretty
urgent. If Twi needed him badly enough to activate the magic he’d given her, he
was not going to let her down.
He managed to convince the wind that was
carrying him to change direction, dropping him much closer to the English
coast. Luckily for him Twi’s home was in a small coastal village, so the sea
breeze that took him across the channel was able to drop him on her roof where,
as predicted, the skylight was open.
Jack took advantage of the fact to drop into
the attic and into the room that she had converted into a bedroom for him in
order to give him somewhere to stay when he was allowed in the UK. There was no
sign of the human girl there, but it was blissfully cool compared to the
outside, probably because of the fans that he could hear humming away merrily.
Silently thankful to his friend for thinking to turn on her air conditioning
before he got there, he slipped through the trapdoor and into the house proper.
“Twilight?” Jack called, worried, as he
carefully and cautiously moved through the house. He could hear movement
downstairs which boded well, but he couldn’t be certain of who it was or
whether they were an ally.
The movement stilled for a moment, suggesting
that whoever was moving, could in fact hear him, meaning that it had to be
another immortal or his friend, since there weren’t many others who believed in
him enough to see or hear him. Then Twi’s voice floated up the stairs. “In the
living room, Jack.”
Twi sounded tired and sore, causing Jack to
frown as he darted down the stairs and into the front room which was less of a
living room and more of a library with all the bookcases and their contents
that filled the walls.
The moment he stepped through the door, Twi
latched onto him. Hugging him tightly and whispering, “Thank God you’re here.”
It took a moment for Jack to respond, then he
recovered from the shock of Twi’s actions and gave his friend a quick hug
before pulling her away slightly in order to get a proper look at her. What he
saw caused a rare flare of boiling hot rage to flash through him as he took in
the blue/black bruising on her cheek that looked fresh and painful, along with
the cuts and scrapes that marred her arms and the same cheek as the bruise.
“What happened?” Jack demanded, tone icy as he
put a cold hand against Twi’s bruised cheek, feeling her press against the
soothing coolness even as warm brown eyes flickered away from icy silver ones,
shame obvious. “Twi?”
“The local children have been vanishing.” Twi
replied quietly, almost sounding ashamed, “I found out who’s been taking them.”
“Who?” Jack demanded, missing the way
goosebumps were rising on Twi’s skin as his anger continued to bubble away.
"Jack...” Twi hesitated for a moment,
then, “We’ve got a bogeyman in town. Calls himself Bloody Bones.”
“Bloody Bones?” Jack stared at her for a
moment, “You’re certain?”
“He’s the one who gave me this.” Twi indicated
her cheek, “I tried to stop him taking the child who went vanishing out of the
local library and...well, you can guess how that ended.”
Jack could and if anything he was glad that it
wasn’t worse. Not that the disappearance of a child was a good thing, but he
was less than a hundred years old and still he had heard the horror stories of
the former King of Fear who had been knocked off of his throne and his place on
the Shadow Compass just over nine hundred years ago. If Twi had gotten into a
fight with Bloody Bones over the child the bogeyman had been trying to kidnap,
it could have ended much, much worse for his friend.
“You’re alright?” Jack tried to check her over
more thoroughly, “Nothing serious?”
“I’m fine.” Twi promised, teeth chattering slightly
as she noticed the way the temperature was dropping rapidly. Mentally grimacing
since it hurt to grimace for real, she tried to reassure the snow sprite before
her, “Just my cheek and my pride. Honest.” The temperature continued to drop
though as Jack started pacing the living room. “I thought the Podium were
supposed to get involved if a spirit harms a mortal.”
“They are.” Jack allowed, still pacing, “The
nearest member should have gotten a boost to their powers that would allow him,
her, them, whoever, to kick his ass.” Jack glanced out the window, “But it’s
nearly Handover. I doubt there’s anyone in the local vicinity. Probably why
he’s operating here. No one around to mess with him or whatever he’s up to.”
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