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It was her voice that first drew Aster’s attention. A whisper, faint and desperate, curling past his ears on a chance breeze. He couldn’t make out the words, but even so he moved to investigate, leaving the eggs to prepare themselves to hide. The whisper of a voice had come from the north, past the edge of the park he’d arrived at and further into the woods, and so north he walked.
He didn’t hurry as he stepped into the deeper, uncleared snow past the park’s boundaries. Dangerous things often hid in the deep forests of the world, and he didn’t fancy being taken off guard by one of them.
After several minutes of walking, a quick pace, though still slow enough for him to carefully observe the path ahead, the whisper reached his ears again.
"Help..."
Immediately Aster broke into a sprint, darting towards the source of the sound. The voice. He heard more whispers of it as he approached, each louder than the last. He could tell, even from here, that it was a little girl calling out into the forest.
Within minutes he had reached the source, sliding to a halt just before a ledge of ice. A hole in the earth. The little girl’s voice came from within.
“So hungry…”
The girl sounded desperate, and Aster hesitated only a moment to send a signal to the nearest guardian before descending. A Magic-powered request for aid, in case he was walking into a trap. It wouldn’t surprise him, really.
Still, he couldn’t ignore a child possibly being in danger.
He slid down the icy slope. Safe enough going down, but he doubted anyone without proper climbing equipment, or at least claws, would be able to get back up. The cavern at the bottom of the hole was surprisingly large, light and snow leaking in from yet more holes in the ceiling further on.
Below the largest, almost like a forest clearing in appearance, with even a few small trees growing in the light from above, sat a small silhouette. As he stepped closer, into a circle of light from above, the form shifted. The girl looked up at him.
“.... Easter Bunny?”
Aster nodded, but didn’t speak. The closer he got to the girl, the more he could see. And what he saw as the shifting sunlight fell upon the girl’s face chilled his heart.
“Help…. please…”
He knew it was a bad idea -Terrible idea even- to approach. He knew, intellectually, what was happening. What he was walking towards.
But all he saw, all he heard, was a little girl in torn clothing begging him for help. And despite his common sense screaming at him to back away, that this was a trap, he could feel the sincerity in her request. The desperate hope in her poor little heart that maybe he could save her.
And as he stepped closer, carefully, lest he startle her into action, he hoped that he could help her. That he wasn't too late, that he'd found her before she'd crossed the point of no return.
Snow crunched beneath his feet. Another step closer.
He saw the bloody skull at her feet a moment too late.
The little girl launched herself towards Aster, his only warning the sudden modulation in her voice as she roared and stretched emaciated arms towards him. He jumped backwards, but she was quick to adjust; Kicking off the snow and flying towards him, unnaturally sharp teeth bared in an attempt to get at his neck.
He reached for the blade he kept strapped to his bandolier, but his movements were slow. He tripped, and as he looked into the blood-red eyes of the approaching once-child, he prepared himself for the inevitable pain.
The pain never came.
An arc of light, and the girl was thrown away from him, shards of ice falling from the air where she had been. The girl recovered quickly, turning herself mid-air and landing on all fours. Again she roared, and glared at the source of the attack that had just struck her.
A blur of blue shot past Aster, and another arc of icy light struck the ground at the girl’s feet, causing spikes of ice to surge towards her. The girl jumped to the side, avoiding the ice, and grabbed onto one of the small trees that dotted the clearing. The wood creaked, then snapped as she ripped the poor sapling up.
Icy light arced towards her as she made to throw her new weapon, and ice bloomed out her back. The sapling fell from her hand, landing off to the side as she staggered. Blood, a sickly amalgamation of crimson and yellow that churned Aster’s stomach, spilled from the wound as the girl, the creature, tried to pull the ice out. She failed, the ice splintering under her hands and cutting through skin.
Jack Frost stepped towards her, his staff held above his head.
Then, almost too easily, he brought it down upon her.
The girl’s dying scream was a horrible thing, a monstrous wail that echoed through the cavern. Aster saw Jack flinch as he pulled the end of his staff out of the disintegrating body she left behind, frozen bits of blood falling away from it. He didn’t need to read the young man’s mind to see the sadness there. It was in his posture, the way he stepped away and sat down in the snow in front of where the girl had been.
“You okay, Bunny?”
Jack’s voice was quiet. Tired. Aster shifted where he had fallen in the snow, pulling himself to his feet to move towards Jack.
“I’m fine,” he said, kneeling down next to his fellow guardian. Where the girl had once been, the snow was stained in the sickly crimson-yellow of her blood, and a small, broken skeleton lay almost peacefully at the foot of the jagged stump left behind from the battle. If it could be called that.
Jack nodded, but didn’t respond, staring at the once-child’s remains.
Aster placed a paw upon Jack’s shoulder, before standing once more and walking to where the girl had been when he’d first arrived. He stepped carefully, the snow looked fresh, and likely covered what he suspected was a gory scene.
And sure enough, after only a few moments of looking, he spotted not one, but two skulls on the ground, covered in dried blood and snow.
“There was no saving her, Jack.”
Behind him, he heard Jack stand up. He heard Jack walk towards him, the crunch of snow underfoot unsettling in its presence. Jack Frost walked, danced, across the top of snow, never leaving a single sign of his passing save the Frost that was his namesake. And yet now he heard the footfalls.
A gust of wind blew past, pulling up the fresh snow at Aster’s feet and revealing the blood-stained scene beneath. Two human skeletons, one male, one female, lay together in the center. The clothing they once wore, the remains of jeans and two heavy coats, lay around them in scraps. to the left of the woman lay a shattered cellphone.
“Who do you think they were?”
Aster looked over at Jack, then back to the skeletons. “Her parents, probably,” he responded.
Jack sighed behind him. “We were too late then.” Aster didn’t blame Jack for the relief in his voice. Them being too late meant that he hadn’t killed an innocent child, he’d killed a monster in a child’s shape. Aster didn't say that the girl had still be capable of begging for help. It didn't matter, in the end. The knowledge that there was nothing they could have done, that the girl had already passed the point of no return and tasted human flesh, would ease them both through the pain of having failed her as Guardians.
That didn’t mean it hurt any less.
Aster felt Jack’s hand on his shoulder, and turned to look at him. Jack looked back, concern and what looked like curiosity hiding beneath the sorrow in his eyes. “You sure you’re alright, Bunny?”
Aster sighed. “As well as I could be, I suppose. You got here before she managed to actually get a hit in.” Which was good, the resulting wound may not have been fatal, but it would have healed slowly. Jack had saved him from a few weeks of being in pain. “Thanks for getting here so quickly, mate.”
Jack nodded, “I was in the area already.” He looked towards the remains of the girl, and after a moment spoke again. “So how do you know about Wendigo?”
Aster hummed. “I’m old,” he responded, “I know a lot of things that you might not expect.”
Jack laughed, a subdued sound, seemingly satisfied by the answer. Aster smiled back, before sighing. “Right. I need to get back to…” he waved a hand in the direction he’d entered the cave from.
Jack caught on near-instantly. “Oh, right. Easter. I was wondering why you were this far out.”
Aster nodded, then kneeled down next to the skeletons before them. He held his paw above them, and after a few moments pulled away. He repeated the action for the girl, ignoring Jack’s questioning look until he finished.
“No time for a proper burial. It's still a bit to cold for flowers, but when it warms up...”
Jack slowly nodded, and he closed his eyes.
Both stood in silence for a minute. Then, their respects paid, they walked together to the exit, Jack even helping to get Aster up out of the hole in the ground. He was behind schedule, so when Jack offered to help him with what remained of his run, he accepted.
As much for the help, as for the presence of another.