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.”
