Present Day (800 years later)
"No freezing the fairies you hear me Jack!?" Tooth called.
Jack chuckled from where he sat on the top of his staff in a crouched position. Occasionally one of the fairies would alight on his shoulder but their feet would soon get frosted to his hoodie just from the cold he gave off.
"No promises," Jack remarked. "Especially since they're the ones starting it."
Tooth huffed as she buzzed off to see to the teeth. Jack flew over to the rafters above where Tooth worked and perched on one of the beams, swinging his staff lazily.
"Say Tooth," he remarked. "How come you stopped working in the field?" He asked. "it must have been something important if it kept you off the field for over 440 years."
Tooth had been buzzing around the patio, talking to the fairies so fast that it was hard to understand her. For a moment Jack thought she would collide with something but the moment he finished asking his question, she froze. Jack checked his staff and his hands to make sure he hadn't accidently hit her with ice for it really looked like she was frozen.
"Tooth?" Jack inquired.
Tooth slowly ducked her head and averted her pink eyes from Jack's gaze, "I would rather not talk about it right now Jack," she muttered.
Jack frowned, that was really unlike Tooth to not want to talk in general, but her reaction to his question was even more puzzling.
"Tooth..."
"I LOST SOMEONE IMPORTANT TO ME ALRIGHT!? Tooth yelled.
Jack fell off the beam and was just in time to catch himself before he collided with the ground. Tooth had never snapped, let alone yelled and now she was shaking with her hands clenched, tears streaming down her face.
"I... lost someone..." she whispered. "She was like a sister to me... She would go with me to collect teeth whenever she wasn't busy.... She would help North every Christmas and Bunny every Easter...She was the only one who understood Sandy..."
"Another Guardian?" Jack whispered.
Tooth nodded, "The fifth.... before you came along."
"There was another guardian," Jack whispered. "How come you guys never told me about her? And how come I never met her? I've been around for at least 300 years and I've been on the team for almost five decades."
Tooth sighed, "We had to keep it from you and you alone Jack.... Everyone else knows about her but you."
"But why me?" Jack insisted. "Why can't I know about her?"
"Because she is the spirit of autumn Jack," Tooth interrupted. "And she purposely asked that the spirit of winter not know about her existence... at least for a while."
"But why?"
Tooth groaned at Jack's persistence, "Because the spirits of Summer and Spring hurt her. They hurt her beyond words, so she left. She began to get distracted in her work as a guardian and as a spirit of a season. She found it hard to do her work when most of her mind and heart were concentrating on what had happened with her and the other spirits. This was long before you arrived Jack...when she left, she only said goodbye to North because she said that saying goodbye to the rest of us would make it too painful. She left a letter... where she expressed her apologies and how much she loved us... and explained why she was leaving. At the end of the letter, she asked that if there should ever be a spirit of winter, that he or she would not find out about her existence... if the spirit of winter did not find out about her existence, then he might be spared from the pain that was caused because of her frivolous feelings. At least, that's what she said."
"I don't get it," Jack muttered.
"She fell in love with the Spirit of Summer Jack," Tooth explained. "They had been friends even before they were chosen, and she had been in love with him.... Something happened associated with the Spirit of Spring and she was left heartbroken. She blamed herself for her heartbreak because she fell in love with someone whom she deemed too good for her. The truth was, he didn't deserve her or her love, but she loved him anyway. She didn't want her feelings of love towards another to rub off on you and she wanted to protect at least one Season Spirit from that kind of heartbreak, so she removed herself from the grid."
Jack shook his head, "That sounds just unfair for her... she doubts her worthiness and feels like her feelings for another that led to heartbreak were her fault! That is ridiculous!"
Tooth smiled, "Well, Scarlett was always the best of us all. She was so sweet and thoughtful, never wanting to hurt anyone's feelings. You know... you remind me a lot of her... in some cases. She would always poke fun at Bunny but in her case, Bunny enjoyed it. She was like a little sister to him. North practically adored her and doted on her to no end. Sandy would never leave her side and don't even get me started on the yetis and elves. It was a miracle they got any work done whenever she was at the pole."
Jack frowned, "I wish I could have met her. She sounds like a really likable person."
Tooth smiled and nodded, "She is the best. But we haven't seen her in five hundred years.... And that Jack, is why I stopped going to the field. It came as a painful reminder that she was no longer there with me on the trips. I could barely manage for fifty years before it became too much and I stopped."
Jack opened his mouth, about to ask more about the girl when Baby Tooth came buzzing into the patio and smacked right into Tooth's face.
"Baby Tooth!" Both Jack and Tooth cried.
"What's up?" Tooth inquired of the fairy.
Baby Tooth panted and held up a small scroll which she had been carrying close to her body. Tooth took it and slowly unrolled it.
"It's from North," Tooth replied. "He's hosting his century ball!"
"Ball? Century?" Jack inquired. "You lost me at the beginning."
Tooth smiled and her face lit up, "North holds a ball every century for all the guardians and the spirits! Everyone gets together at the Pole for a week! It's in two weeks and he invited the guardians to come early to help prepare! OOH!"
"How come I didn't get invited to the last one?" Jack inquired, crossing his arms.
Tooth snorted. "If you had, it would have been a disaster... but North hasn't hosted one since...."
"Since Scarlett left?" Jack finished.
Tooth nodded, "Just like going into the field was a reminder of her absence to me, the ball was a reminder to North..."
"How come?" Jack inquired, "Was she the belle of the ball or something."
Tooth smiled fondly with tears springing to her eyes, "Exactly... she was always the most beautiful one there... and every hundred years North tried his hardest to hook her up with one of her many admirers but even after existing for over six hundred years, Scarlett was still single... but it goes deeper than that.... The last ball North held was five hundred years ago... and that was the day that Scarlett told him she was leaving."
"Oof," Jack cringed. "Then that's gotta hurt. Why did he decide to host it this century then?"
"Because of you Jack," Tooth chirped. "You're so dense sometimes!"
"JACK!" North called as he barged into the office.
Tooth and Bunny were at present trying to rescue Sandy who had found himself in a mix when he had attempted to help set up Christmas lights but had only succeeded in getting tangled. Jack had been assigned to help North address invitations especially since North's huge fingers made his handwriting a little wobbly and he wasn't as skilled at loading the invites into envelopes as Jack.
Jack glanced up from his work, halfway through licking an envelope shut when North burst in, carrying a large cardboard box. North set it down with a thump and it shook the neat pile of envelopes that Jack had stacked.
"I FOUND IT!" North hooted.
"Found what?" Jack asked, rising to his feet to peer into the box.
Inside was what appeared to be a thousand little sheets of paper, most of them barely bigger than Jack's palm.
"The addresses!" North cried, "Of all the spirits of the world!"
Jack glanced at North for a moment before looking back into the box, "How many spirits of the world are there!?"
"Oh, some hundred and fifty-three... not counting you," North replied.
Jack sighed, "Just as long as Tooth's fairies take care of delivery, I won't complain."
"You've got a deal!" North cried, grinning.
Jack grinned with his perfectly white teeth as North began to carefully lay out each of the addresses so that Jack could read them easily. When he finished, North removed the box from the table to give Jack more room. After that, both were swallowed into silence as North began to tinker away at ice cubes.
Jack had just finished addressing the last envelope when he noticed that something was missing. Looking under the table, he smiled the box which had held the addresses. Picking the box up, he noticed that it was empty... didn't North have Scarlett's address? He tossed the other addresses into the box before leaning his bare feet on the desk.
"Aren't we going to invite Scarlett?"
North had been whistling happily to himself while chiseling away at a block of ice when he froze, mid whistle. Jack raised his jet-black eyebrows and peered at North. That definitely brought the reaction he was expecting.
"How did you hear about her?" North asked, his voice slightly shaking.
Jack sighed, "Tooth told me when I asked her why she stopped going out into the field for so long."
North gently set down his ice creation and sat back, leaning his head back on his chair and let out a deep sigh, "I want to invite her... but I'm afraid that she will not reply."
Jack shrugged, "Either she doesn't reply, or we don't invite her. Besides that, you haven't hosted a ball since she left. Don't you think she would be a little hurt if you didn't invite her to the first ball in almost five hundred years?"
"You don't understand!" North cried, his eyes filling with tears. "You don't know what kind of pain that poor lass had to endure! It was beyond anything I have ever seen and... I don't want her to even be reminded of that pain."
Jack shook his head, "But if she is anything like Tooth described, she is in pain. If not as much, more so than you lot. I have never seen this side of any of you until Tooth told me about her and right here and now, I know that the very thing that all four of you need is her to be here. We might be immortal North, but that doesn't mean life goes by faster for us. Five hundred years away from someone you care about."
"Besides," the boy remarked, leaning against his staff. "Coming here doesn't necessarily mean that she'll be seeing the other two season spirits. Besides, I would really like to meet her. It's not every day you meet the spirit of autumn."
North let out a deep sigh and nodded. Striding across the room, he opened a cabinet where he kept his little wooden doll that depicted his center. Reaching into a small wooden box he drew out a velvet bag. He placed it on the table in front of Jack before heading towards the door.
"Give Tooth's fairies those envelopes when you're done. I'm going to help Bunny."
Jack caught a faint glimpse of Bunny grinning evilly as he plugged in the Christmas lights that were still wound around Sandy. Sandy had a huge grin on his round face as he lit up like a Christmas tree and Tooth looked shocked.
Jack smiled as he sat down at the desk and grabbed the velvet bag. Opening it, he dumped the few contents onto the desk and stared. There was a piece of neatly cut paper folded into a perfect square: her address. The other was a small key which looked like it was designed to look like an autumn leaf. Jack guessed immediately that it opened her room that she had here at the pole. Since Jack had become an official guardian, he had been given a room he could use whenever he was at the pole which was, honestly, most of the time since he didn't really have his own palace, ward or kingdom. He spent equal amount of time with each fellow guardian, but he slept most of the time at the pole. Pocketing the key, he looked at the other objects. There was a small brown paper package tied up neatly in brown paper and tied with string. It was barely bigger than Jack's palm and had a little note attached to it. There was a photograph in the bag, an arrowhead.
Picking up the arrowhead, Jack saw that it looked like it was made from an autumn leaf and had an orange tint to it. Engraved on one side of the iron arrowhead were two initials: A.H. Jack pursed his lips. That wasn't Tooth, Sandy, North or Bunny's initials and they couldn't be Scarlett's... they must belong to the Spirit of Summer. Jack felt a deep pain in his chest. He had never met the girl, nor even laid eyes on her but yet, he felt suddenly guilty for the happiness he had felt the past few decades while the girl had been living for five hundred years with the pain of a heartbreak. Frowning at the initials, Jack pocketed the arrowhead as well before picking up the photograph.
He jumped back slightly in surprise at the photograph. It was of the four guardians... and Scarlett. North was standing with his huge hand on the girl's shoulder while Tooth was practically squeezing the life out of the petite girl. Bunny stood behind them, a paw on the girl's head, ruffling her hair playfully with a huge grin on his face. Sandy was beaming where he stood in front of the girl, making shapes above his head that made no sense whatsoever. Jack squinted at the picture. It was old that was for sure: fuzzy and grey. There was no color in the black and white photo. He could barely make out the girl who was smothered by the guardians. He did however see the long straight hair that fell about her shoulders, but he couldn't get a good look at her face for Bunny's huge paw had mussed her hair over her face, obscuring a good view of her face. Jack could tell just by how the girl barely came to North's middle that she was petite. Probably barely reaching Jack's shoulder if that. On her belt she had a quiver full of arrows and a huge crossbow on her back.
Jack smiled as he gently placed the photo on North's desk where he would see it when he entered. Finally, he picked up the paper package and read the little note: To the Spirit of Winter.
Jack's eyebrows shot up and he lost no time in tearing the package open. Lying in there was a small crossbow arrow.... And the tip looked like a snowflake point and the feathers were crystals! Next to it was a small note.
Dear Spirit of Winter,
I honestly don't know what else to call you because you have not yet been chosen. I hope that one day this finds you, but I have a feeling I will not be there to give it to you. This arrow I specially crafted with some help from North and Sandy, has the ability to freeze things into a block of ice. Please try not to use it on a human because it can actually turn them into an ice cube, and no one likes having to thaw out in chicken soup! Believe me, I tested it on Bunny, and he refused to speak to me for a week! I know that whoever you are, you are exactly what the guardians need, and I hope you find your place on the team. What's more, I know that you will find your center and bring it into the world. Good luck on your work as Spirit of Winter!
Sincerely, Scarlett Autumn the Spirit of Autumn.
P.S. if you could, freeze Bunny's ears one of these days? That is one thing I haven't managed to do!
Jack smiled and found himself chuckling at the letter especially the parts having to do with Bunny. Picking up the arrow, he gently tapped the edge of the letter with it and at once the edge of the letter frosted over. The grin on Jack's face intensified till his face almost split in half.
"Sweet!" He whispered.
He stuck the note and arrow into his pocket before grabbing the address and labeling an envelope to Scarlett. Finished, he grabbed all the envelopes and headed out to give them to the fairies to deliver.