Twilight was certain she had seen a girl
hovering around the street for the last couple of days, quite literally at
times, a girl with long, blonde hair and brown eyes, dressed in greens and
yellows and with a staff not unlike Jack’s, except hers had blossoming spring
flowers curling around it. However when she brought up the presence of what she
assumed was another spirit to her friend, the Spirit of Winter had chuckled
nervously and distracted her with something new in one of her books.
She had yet to have an opportunity to talk to
the new spirit on the block, the only times she had spotted the girl there had
been others on the streets and even the children from two doors down, who still
believed in Santa and the Tooth Fairy, even if they didn’t believe in Jack, had
run straight through her, so she had not wanted to start a conversation with
what would look like an invisible friend.
When she opened the door in order to take the
rubbish out only for the girl to attempt to dart into the house by going
through her however, she felt it was a good moment to say ‘Hi.’ At least she
did after they had both picked themselves up from the collision that the girl’s
actions had caused.
“You know,” The girl stared at her, confusion
obvious as Twilight brushed herself off and then turned to look at her, “It’s
rude to try and enter someone’s house without their permission.”
The girl glanced up and down the street, saw
there was no one else around that the young woman in the doorframe could have
been talking to and asked, “You can see me?”
“You bounced off of me, didn’t you?” Twilight
snorted, “I’m Aella Rogers, my friends called me Twilight, you are?”
“But...” The spirit seemed to shake herself,
then nodded and changed what she was going to say, “I’m April Showers. I need
to talk to Jack Frost. I know he’s in there.”
“Well yeah, he’s a friend of mine. Let me see
if...” Twilight looked through the open door to the living room where Jack was
frantically shaking his head, “Sorry, he doesn’t want to talk to... hey!”
Twilight yelped as April brushed past her and entered the building, stalking
into the living room and confronting the Spirit of Winter, who had grabbed his
staff as if expecting a fight. “Oi,” Twilight protested as she slammed the
front door shut, forgetting her bag of rubbish, “No fighting in my front room.”
“You’re late leaving.” April growled at Jack,
ignoring the young woman behind her, “You were supposed to be out of England
two weeks ago!”
“I lost track of the time.” Jack actually
sounded a little sheepish at that, much to Twilight’s surprise, “But it’s not
like I’ve been frosting much over, surely you can work around...”
“I shouldn’t have to. It’s spring. Not winter.
Get out of my territory. Go plague the Southern Hemisphere with storms or
something.” April interrupted him.
“I bring snow and ice, not lightning storms,
you want Blues for that.” Jack pointed out.
“Summer Thyme Blues has promised to help me
kick your ass out of my turf if you don’t leave.” April warned him, “So I
suggest...” April trailed off when Twilight got between her and the person she
was trying to get shot of.
“My house, my rules. I like Jack, so he’s
welcome here whenever he wants.” Twilight informed her, “You, however, have
overstayed your welcome. Get.” Twilight pointed towards the door.
“As nice as it is to have someone who can
finally see us,” April snorted, looking the rather unimposing looking bookworm
over, “You’re a human, you can’t understand our world and how we work. Jack has
to leave before I can get going because while he’s still here, he’ll wreck
anything I grow.”
“That’s not true!” Jack protested, “I don’t
wreck everything...”
“1968.”
“Oh come on.” Jack groaned, leaning against his
staff. “It was one blizzard, forty years ago, brought on, I’d like to remind
you, by the fact I lost control after your friend, Blues, knocked the sense out
of me.”
“You never had any sense to begin with.” April
waved his comment off with a dismissive wave of her hand.
“That’s it.” Twilight growled, pointedly
shoving the Spirit of Spring, who seemed surprised that the human could. “Out
of my house. If you want to talk like a civilised being, than you can come back
tomorrow. Right now however, you’re being rude so you’re leaving.”
“Oh shove off.” Twilight yelped as April
counter shoved her, the much stronger being managing to send Twi crashing into
one of her bookcases. Jack let out a furious yell when his friend hit the
shelving unit hard enough to break some of the shelves and shot a blast of ice
at the attacking Spring spirit.
April narrowly dodged the attack, calling to
the wood in the bookcases around them, warping it and growing it. The tendrils
of wood slamming Jack into the wall on the other side of the room. The Winter
spirit snarled as he picked himself up. April had the advantage here. Jack’s
only friend was in the line of fire and was already hurt. He couldn’t risk a
fight happening here.
Outside he reckoned he could take her, but even
if it would not bring a lot of unwanted attention down on Twi, if he got into a
fight with April, it would bring Summer and possibly others down on his head.
Worst case scenario being the Guardians. Elena Rabbit, the Easter Bunny and the
Guardian of Spring was a friend of April’s after all. That and she had yet to
forgive Jack for the blizzard of ‘68 either, even if she did not know the reason
behind it.
“Fine, April.” Jack lowered his staff, dropping
the conduit for his vast powers, admitting defeat, “Put Twi’s bookcases the way
they were and I’ll go. I’ll get out of your hair till its Blues’s turn. Deal?”
April thought about the offer for a moment and
she got her vines to pass her Jack’s staff and considered the Sheppard’s crook
like weapon for a moment. The intricate frost patterns that formed at Jack’s
touch were gone, leaving the weapon little more than an ancient wooden stick. Jack
froze as April tested the springiness of the wood, afraid she would break it.
“Stay away till you’re due back here and I
might think about it.” April replied as she compared her own staff, which
looked younger and much more vibrant, against the old, rickety staff that Jack
had owned since before his change, “You really should take better care of...
hey!”
Twilight, looking unsteady on her feet, yanked
Jack’s staff away from the Spring spirit and tossed it back to its owner.
“Bugger off.” The human growled, “My home, my rules. If Jack wants to come here
during your stupid Spring, which I’d like to remind you is always bloody cold
and frosty in England anyway, I say he can.”
“You...” April paused and smirked slightly,
“Your home, your rules, you’re quite correct.” The Spring spirit allowed, “So
if you don’t want Spring in your garden that’s fine with me. As long as Jack
doesn’t touch the rest of my Spring, I won’t complain about him coming here,
but I won’t build your garden up for you either.”
“So?”
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