Chapter Text
The Winter and The Hummingbird
Prologue
The Silent Enemy
The scurry of wings sounded throughout Tooth’s palace as she categorized several of the tooth canisters that had come through overnight, and over the course of the last several hours. Some of them were from the U.S with one being a girl who had fallen down the steps causing her tooth to come out, and the other was a eleven year old boy from India who had lost his last baby tooth.
It was the eleven year old boy’s canister she was currently holding. As she placed the last tooth into place, the boy’s latest memory came into her head. The last memory that he had preserved before he would become a grown up. He was walking along the street, his hand clutched tight around his Father’s as they chatted away in punjabi. It was dark in the street, the light coming from the round moon above then. They were reaching the end of the street when the sound of a wheezing auto rickshaw came from behind him. Tooth watched as the boy’s father froze and let go of his hand.
“Run.” He had told the boy.
“No!” The boy shouted.
“Haroom go!” His Father roared.
The boy had then ran down the street never to see his Father again. Tooth was thrown out of the boy’s memory and felt her heart threatening to rip out of her chest. She clutched the boy’s canister tight to her chest. Haroom Signh Khatri. He had lost his innocence at only eleven years old. That was the sad part about collecting children’s teeth, the moment that they lost their childlike wonder. It hurt Tooth to see but she understood that it was part of her role as being the Guardian of Memory.
She placed the canister down on the new pile she had started, and the rest of her fairies began to get to work storing the other teeth they had received. It looked like it was going to be another day of making sure that all her stockpiles were in order. Tooth’s thoughts drifted back to the young boy’s memory again.
Haroom, it had the same name as her Father’s. She missed her Father, and her mother but centuries had passed since they had died. She would never be able to reunite with them. She flew up from the tower where she was residing and into the middle above her palace. Some of the towers still needed repairing, there was one on the east wing that resembled a skeleton. It was only like that due to Pitch Black’s attack several months ago. Tooth made a mental note to have her night team to have a look at it. Her fairies were currently on a working shift pattern, now that the summer had kicked in the North Hemisphere. It would mean a lot more children were going to lose their teeth this summer.
Summer was always one of her busiest seasons. It involved categorizing the teeth, seeing whose tooth canisters had been completed, and to renovate her palace for more storage. Renovating took a lot of magic and involved a spell that she would have to find ingredients for. It had been a spell that Ombric had taught her long ago. She was sure that she would be able to find the ingredients in Santoff Clausen. It was going to be a very busy summer indeed.
“Tooth! Tooth!” A voice called from behind her. It was young and sounded awfully like someone who should be spending the summer in the north pole.
Tooth turned around in time to see a gangly limbed teenager flying through towards her. Baby Tooth was at his heels chirping away.
“Jack?” Tooth asked and flew over to him.
He came to a stop mid-air and shot her a grin. She gave him a quick glance over and noticed that he looked a little better than when she had last seen at the guardian meeting about two months ago. His usual eyebags were missing, replaced by little icicles like the ones on his eyelashes. He was smiling revealing his white teeth. It was taking a lot out of her not to just go and prod her fingers in her mouth. She shook her head.
“Somebody didn’t see the sign for the Guardian meeting.” Jack said with a cheeky grin and tapped her on the head with his staff. The tap was light but it still left some frost in Tooth’s feathers.
She wiped it out and looked up to the sky where the remaining trickles of the aura borealis were fading away. She frowned.
“There isn’t supposed to be a guardian meeting today, it’s scheduled for next week.” She said, recalling her memorized schedule. The guardian meetings tried to run every two full moons, and the new moon wasn’t for another week.
Jack smirked and laid his staff over his shoulders.
“North sent that about half an hour ago. It had started until I noticed that you weren’t there. We should go, it sounded like it was going to be a very important meeting.”
Half an hour ago? She was pretty sure she had been Haroom’s last memory then. It wasn’t uncharacteristic for North to schedule some meetings in between but he wouldn’t use the aurora borealis to call all of them. Something was up and that something wasn’t good.
“Did he mention what the meeting was about?” Tooth asked. She looked over at Baby Tooth who was nestled onto Jack’s shoulder.
“He said a few things along the lines of that we should be cautious of something, but then he got distracted by the yetis.” Jack replied with a shrug.
Tooth laughed. It couldn’t be that important then if North hadn’t started with something serious.
“I suppose we’d better get going but are you sure it sounded important?” Tooth rubbed her arm and gave a warm smile at Jack.
The smile wasn’t returned. Jack gave a grave nod instead.
“Yeah. It’s probably best if we both go to the meeting. North can explain it a lot better than I can.” Jack replied, moving his staff back in front of him and clasping it tightly.
“Did you bring a snow globe?” Tooth said looking at his hands.
Jack rubbed his neck.
“Yeah about that, I kind of rushed out of the meeting. I was...worried about you.” Jack said, looking down at the floor.
Tooth noted the hesitation but it was nice to know that even after only the last few months, Jack had come to trust the Guardians. There was still some apprehension, Tooth was pretty sure but she was going to let Jack trust them completely in his own time. After all three hundred years of isolation wasn’t going to be healed with the click of a finger.
“I should have one lying around somewhere.” Tooth flew up to her one of the largest towers and headed towards her bedroom.
Her bedroom was in a circular tower that overlooked the whole palace. She had a round balcony that she hung up small mirrors from that faced towards every direction. This was so she could keep an eye on the flow of tooth fairies coming through and whether they would need any extra help. Her bed was a giant pile of cushions and feathers that she nestled into, it had many trinkets she had collected over the years such as the gifts children left her.
Tooth moved a couple of her silk thread cushions and began to dig around. She found various types of change ranging from nickels, dimes, rupi and pounds. She threw the pillows behind her in a desperate attempt to find the snow globe. Instead she only found more money and even some feathers that must have fallen off her in her sleep.
She heard the wind shift behind her and footfalls that padded towards her.
“Did you find it?” Jack asked from behind her.
She turned to look at him and shook her head. It was a bit worrying that she couldn’t find it. She had always kept the snow globe for emergencies. When she had returned from the Pitch Black fight back in April, she had made sure that she had it on her, in case another attack ever came.
“Looks like we’re going to have to fly there then.” She felt Jack’s touch on the back on her shoulder. His touch was cold but not unpleasant.
“North is going to complain that we’re late.” Tooth replied as she stood up.
“Well he’ll have to wait! Come on Tooth!” Jack launched himself into the air with his staff and Tooth began to follow him.
Jack’s laughter filled the air behind them as they left the palace behind them. Tooth found herself laughing too as they headed through the sky, the wind blowing through her feathers. There was something about Jack that could always make someone laugh, it was like he had another special brand of magic that was all of his own. He had been chosen to be the guardian of fun after all.
The land underneath them began to blur into the ocean, the blue rippling underneath the weak sunlight. Tooth felt a shiver running through her body as they got closer to the north pole. Jack flew quicker than she had come to realise as he was already a good distance ahead of her.
The ice caps were coming into view where the waves were crashing against the sides, water spilling and churning creating a deafening roar that Tooth could hear as she flew lower. She shivered again looking at the snow on the ground. The sooner she got to Santoff Clausen, the better.
She looked up at Jack to see that he had stopped midair. He was looking around, his staff clutched into a defensive position. His head was looking in the direction of Tooth.
“What’s the matter?” Tooth called as she also stopped mid-air.
“There’s something here,” Jack began to reply but then his eyes widened. “Tooth look out!” He cried and aimed a bolt of frost towards her.
However it was too late, Tooth turned to see a black cloud behind. It was nothing like Pitch’s black sand, it seemed to be a void of blackness that swallowed her whole.
She tried to move but couldn’t see anything, everything was black. Images flashed to her, of her father, of her mother, her village that she hadn’t thought of for so long. The children she used to play with her, her friends as they held hands and had sung songs. The adults had been delighted with her back then as well until she had sprouted feathers.
Those damn feathers, they had ruined everything. The adults had become afraid of her, they had wanted to kill because she was a monster. Only her friends had liked her even with the feathers, the adults hadn’t listened to them because they were just children, what did they know.
She was the last sister of flight but she didn’t want to be, not if it meant she lost everything, and she had hadn’t she?
So that’s it. That is your deepest desire. A voice. It echoed around her, in her head through the entire darkness.
“Who are you?” Tooth tried to ask but it came out warped and wrangled, like it didn’t belong.
Someone who can grant you your desire. The voice said. It was ageless, and sounded like a million voices at once speaking and trembling.
More images flashed into Tooth’s mind, of when she had first sprouted feathers. They had come in dribs and drabs over the course of a week but back then she had only been surprised at them. Sometimes she was angry about them.
That’s it, think.
The feathers, if they were gone? What would she be like? It was that thought that caused the darkness to disappear behind her. The sky was clear again and blue. As the rest of the darkness disappeared, Tooth began to fall.