Miles To Go Before I Sleep

Guardian Of Funny Tasting Eggnog

May blinked and turned her hardened gaze on Ceres. "Ceres..."

"He's drunk!" the autumn spirit groaned. "That sorry excuse of a Guardian let a fourteen year old drink alcohol!"

"Noooo," Jack protested. "I'm not fourteen! I'm three hundred and fourteen. Duh."

"I should skin North alive," Ceres seethed, ignoring the younger spirit.

"I think I might help you with that," May said, glancing at youngest person there. "So what do you expect me to do with him?"

"I don't know, I just didn't want him turning the season too quickly."

"So you thought it would be a good idea to bring him here?!"

"What do you want from me?!"

"Stooooop! Don't fight!" Jack intervened, pushing them apart. "Fighting's not good. It hurts people's feelings. You should be happy to talk to each other."

The two women said nothing.

"You know what we should do?!" Jack gasped.

Ceres and May were pretty sure they didn't want to know.

"We should swap seasons!"

...

...

"LLEU!"

Lleu lazily opened one eye at the twin cry of her name. The voices sounded awfully familiar but what would those two be doing all the way out here?

"We know you're in there! Get out here right now or we'll force our way in!"

Lleu sighed, pushing herself up from the hammock she'd been lying in and walked around the side of her beach house until she could see three spirits standing in her doorway. She really didn't want to have to get a new door.

"Are you guys looking for me?" she asked with a raised brow.

The other women of the group looked beyond relieved and a little bit manic upon seeing her and hurriedly grabbed their younger brother and shoved him forwards. Jack looked a little disorientated at the sudden movement but his eyes lit up when they caught sight of the summer spirit.

"It's Lleu!" he cried, happily staggering his way towards her with his arms open like he was going to hug her.

Lleu hastily dodged the 'attack', moving over to the two other seasonals while Jack looked around as though he had absolutely no idea where his target had gone.

"Does someone want to explain to me what, exactly, is going on? Why in Mother's name did you think bringing a winter spirit to Hawaii would be a good idea? And what the heck is wrong with him?" she pointed to Jack with concern in her voice, who was currently having a very animated conversation with a tree.

"He told me he drank some funny tasting eggnog," Ceres deadpanned.

"In other words he's drunk."

"You're so smart," Lleu jumped as Jack suddenly threw an arm around her shoulders. His awed face swiftly morphed into a frown and he looked for all the world like he was thinking very hard. "Can you smell something burning?"