Of the Northmost Winds and Skies

Chapter 10: Jack flies

Belief was the solution to all of this.

If it was anything Jack had learned, it was that he just had to believe things would be alright in the end. He had to believe he would find out who he was; he had to believe that he wouldn't be invisible forever – and even when he was at his absolute lowest, he had to believe that he could fix his staff and regain his powers.

And that's exactly what he was going to do. He had to believe, once again.

So while Jamie was busy in the forge, Jack allowed himself to take a stroll. Back into the woods, because the woods always made him feel at home. It didn't exactly look like home, but if he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine he was back in Burgess – or even Hawthorne... or whatever that place was called at this point in time.

Jack had asked Baby Tooth to stay with Jamie, because while Gobber seemed trustworthy – if not a little bit eccentric – he was too paranoid to leave him alone without supervision he knew he could trust. Baby Tooth would find him and alert him if something happened.

Villagers had seen him head towards the woods, so he didn't know how long it would take before someone came looking for him. Even if he understood their caution, it was still annoying. He'd already gone through this with the Guardians. Was he bound to be mistrusted by every new group of people he met? At least the Guardians' wariness had been partially Jack's fault – he was a bit reckless and a bit irresponsible and maybe even a bit rude sometimes, especially towards Bunny before they became friends – but it wasn't Jack's fault that he and Jamie had appeared here under mysterious circumstances.

...Well, at least he hadn't meant for it to happen.

He sighed, pushing those thoughts away for now. This wasn't the time to blame himself.

For the first time in three days, Jack was completely alone. No people, dragons or tooth fairies to watch over him. True, Baby Tooth had been there the last time Jack had regained his powers by mending his staff in Antarctica, but it wasn't like he had performance anxiety. No, the problem was that Baby Tooth would probably try to stop him from doing what he was about to do.

He retraced his steps back to the cliff Jamie had fallen off. Tentatively, he inched closer to the edge and looked down. The ocean looked peaceful from here. The sun shone through the dim cloud layer, making the water look somewhere just between beautiful and merciless.

Even if Jamie was a good swimmer, he wouldn't have survived the fall form this height.

Jack swallowed thickly and decided to move further away from the village, and further away from this place that already harbored bad feelings. That was the last thing he needed right now.

He continued walking until the ground started sloping downwards. He didn't know how far away he was from the village now, but far enough away to give him room to think. He faced the cliff, looking up at the sky. To his right, the hill winded down towards the water before beginning to slope upwards again. If he wanted to be on the safe side, he could go down there. The fall wasn't lethal, but then there was still the question of what would happen if he went underwater.

But that didn't matter. He wasn't going to fall, and he wasn't going to take another unplanned swim.

North had told him about a man he used to know before he became a Guardian. How long ago that was, Jack wasn't sure, but the way North talked about it both made it seem like a thousand years ago, and just yesterday at the same time. Jack also didn't know what had become of that man, but according to North, he hadn't been just any ordinary person.

He had the power of belief. If he believed in something, it would become real. He would believe it into reality. And so, one day, he went out into a field, closed his eyes and imagined that his feet left the ground. He imagined that the wind carried him up into the sky, and he believed that it was possible.