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As North's sleigh carried them away from their little believers, Jack sighed wistfully. Pitch had just been defeated, and he was exhausted. It had been over 2 months since the winter spirit had left the sanctuary of New Berk to bring winter, and he hadn't had the chance to see everyone, especially because the riders had to bring autumn with the dragons. He couldn't wait to come back and take a nice long sleep, even if he didn't technically need to.
The chatter from the other guardians continued on, but in the corner of his vision he saw glowing yellow versions of large snowflakes. Jack turned his attention to the guardian of dreams who was sending him a small smile. At some point, frosty patterns had started crawling across the wood freely and a golden hand rested itself on the railing next to it.
Sandy let a check mark float up above his head followed by a question mark.
Jack chuckled lowly and shook his head. "Yeah, I'm alright. Just ready to go home. I've been away for a little long already."
Sandy's brows furrowed down and he pointed at Jack. His fingers folded into a loose fist with his thumbs up and he dragged them up his chest before letting his non-dominant hand drop and his pointer finger of his dominant hand was held up as he wagged his hand side to side quickly.
"Where do I live?" Jack raised an eyebrow. "I'm gonna gloss over how confused you look at the fact that I live somewhere, it's a fair assumption that a nature spirit doesn't have a house… I guess. But uhm. I actually live in another spirit's domain. Who's actually a nature spirit too, so it's kind of unfair to assume that none of us have houses."
He kept his face serious for all of five seconds before bursting out into laughter at Sandy's slightly shocked face and frantic hand waving.
"No, no don't worry, it's chill. Literally." He snickered at his own joke and let out another when Sandy slumped with a relieved sigh.
Bunny and Tooth looked back at the two when Sandy formed a house icon above his head then a bed and another question mark.
Bunny leaned towards them and said, "Yeah, Sandy's right. Where do you live, mate? He wants to send you dreams." He laughed when Sandy rolled his eyes dramatically.
Tooth grinned at Sandy good natured-ly and turned towards Jack with a raised brow as a few of her tooth fairies flittered about from person to person. "Is your home not Burgess? I thought that you would wanna stay close when you didn't have to bring winter elsewhere, given your past."
Jack shook his head. "No, I live in another nature spirit's domain. Like how you all have your own place. Y'know. Tooth Palace, Warren."
He waited for them to agree before continuing.
"It's sort of a… frozen moment from their home before they became spirits. It cycles between autumn and winter, so it's basically perfect." His smile was warm. "He had the idea to create it when he first became a spirit and was granted control over some nature stuff, but the consequence of bringing their home with them was that they took it off the non-magical map forever."
Tooth looked surprised. "You mean he just… took it?" Sandy looked down as his dream sand shifted in a mist of confusion around his crown. "The whole thing?"
"Yeah, he scooped it out of the sea, and deposited it above a big hole in the water and then concealed them from others to keep them all safe." He looked a little apprehensive. "He was a chief in life, and now he still presides over his people in the afterlife I guess, but they didn't really die. They were just put in a stasis where they don't really grow but they aren't stuck, you know?"
Tooth squeaked to her fairies before shaking her head at them, "I'm sorry, we've just never heard of that happening before. The rest of our realms were built from belief. That's incredible." her smile was a little shocked.
Bunny chimed in, "It's bull, Tooth. No way it's not."
North chose to take Bunny's moment of surprise to shout in glee, "Hold on to your seats! Snow globe time!"
The world exploded in color when North shot through the portal and into the north pole.
Bunny turned fully toward Jack, only slightly dizzy this time, when the sleigh finally touched down. He made to argue but Jack beat him to the punch.
"I'm not in the habit of lying about my friends, Bunny. It took a lot out of them, and they were lucky it was winter when it happened because they were practically indisposed until the end of summer."
"Yeah, right, Pull the other one, mate." He rolled his eyes. "There's no way you have some mysterious friend with a stolen island as their realm."
Jack sighed, "Whatever, man. Believe what you want, it's still true."
As all of the guardians made their way out of the sleigh and up out of the inner workings of the workshop to say their goodbyes Bunny kept up his nagging at Jack's apparent 'lie'.
"I'm just saying it's never happened before, and you're 100% a liar." He shrugged nonchalantly.
"Okay, well, it definitely has. So. Also, it's not like he did it alone. I literally said there were multiple people helping in the efforts. There was six of them. And they all had magical companions-"
The dust cloud of thoughts that was previously swirling over Sandy's head stilled. He slowed to a stop in front of the two arguing guardians, and he had a shocked expression as he whipped around to grab Jack's attention with a flat handed wave, palm down. He looked indignant the longer they stood there.
Jack tilted his head. "What's up?" The question was paired with a similar flat hand, palm facing himself, and the middle finger touching his chest before flicking his hand upwards.
Sandy flickered through a few images then settling on a winged creature being surrounded by falling leaves and finger-spelling 'H-A-R-B-I-N-G-E-R.' deliberately slowing down his letters for Jack.
He opened his mouth to reply with a faint confusion, "Harbinger…?" but was cut off by North's much louder echo of, "Harbinger? The Autumn Harbinger!? He is your nature spirit?"
Jack flinched at the bellowing voice. "Uhm-" his voice gained back its confidence. "Oh! Sorry, yeah. I forgot that's what he's called..." His sentence trailed off as he was drowned out by the sounds of shifting sand and exclamations of surprise from Sandy and North.
"Who's The Harbinger? He sounds like a right wanker."
"Okay, well no need to get more Australian. He's the leader, I guess, of the Dragon Riders of Berk. They bring autumn with their dragons. Y'know. The dragons that make up the winds. Duh." he shrugged and rolled his eyes.
"I have never heard-"
"You have heard! I've told you!" North cut in. "There's a few more than the main six, but they all operate under The Harbinger. The tale I told you of the floating island in the sky held upon the backs of dragons. It's a major magical port, but no one outside of the people of New Berk has ever seen the real island. Until our Jack here I suppose!"
A small, indignant Your Jack? drowned into the background as Tooth blurted out, "Oh my god, is that why you can fly? You fly on the autumn winds?"
"Well," Jack started, "Not entirely? That is how I got acquainted with the winds so quickly. Or well, when I was alive-" The other four cringed. "-I always told my sister that I was friends with the wind, and when I became Jack Frost the dragons already liked me and loved to play."
Jack smiled. "It took me a few years to really be able to command them, but they mellowed out eventually."
He shrugged and then stumbled when a large gust of wind blew through an open window and knocked into him, Bunny getting hit with the excess as his fur covered his eyes and mouth with a Pleh! as he spat out the grey-blue fluff.
"He-e-e-ey, stop tha-at!" the guardian of fun laughed as the wind kept pawing at him. "Ruining my reputation!" He joked as the air drifted back through the window with a gargling laugh.
"Ugh, some good your command is, nearly bowled me over!"
Jack sent him an unimpressed look as he gestured with his wand and the wind came rushing back in to focus itself on the large Pooka. The younger being howled with laughter as the invisible forces threw his fellow guardian around. In his glee he was too distracted to notice when Tooth gasped and North let out an intrigued huh-.
Leaves started to pour through the window in droves, shuffling and crunching sounded just a whisper under Jack's laugh, forming a large creature with another being on its back. The roar trickled to a snicker then a stop when the guardian squinted his eyes open.
Leaves dissolving into skin and scales, Jack's breath left his lungs. One would mistake the absence of air for the work of The Harbinger, and technically it was, yet what took his ability to inhale was not magic but was infact awe. His face slipped into a wistfully dopey smile when plant was turned to human and the being threw its leg off of what he recognized as a still forming dragon.
"Jack!"
He stumbled at the weight of the impact but was held up by the strength of the embrace. The hands gripping into his hoodie shifted to his arms as he turned him this way and that to check him for injuries. "Where have you been. No! I know where you've been. Why did you do that, Jack! I can't believe how you could be so, SO-"
The lecture was lost to him as he was caught up in the feeling of his 'nature spirit's' hands on his arms. "Hi." his word a quiet puff that didn't feel anywhere near close to expressing how happy he felt to be held again.
The man's yelling was cut off with a huff. "Hi? That's it?"
His hair was distressed and clearly he had been running his hand through it with how the large braid that kept it out of his eyes was coming undone. The fur on the inside of his dragon-scale cloak was flattened the way it got when he wore it for the whole duration of his time bringing autumn and there was a couple acorns peeking through the fur near the shoulders, that was definitely put there by a squirrel, making him sigh, amused.
His face was pinched like he ate something sour and Jack couldn't help but say it again. "Hi, Hiccup."
His eyebrows twitched before turning up and the creases on his face softened. He let out his own amused sigh and pulled him back into the hug as Jack reciprocated.
"You are sooo…"
"I know."
"None of us are letting you leave again until next winter you know."
"…I know."
They stayed in the moment for a little longer before they pulled away and Hiccup looked down at his hoodie disdainfully.
"You need to stop wearing these clothes. They look horrible and cannot be anywhere near insulated enough to keep you warm."
"Right, because I can feel the cold and it's such a big issue for me." Hiccup rolled his eyes at him before looking down to where his boots would normally be.
"And where are your shoes?" It was said with the tone of someone who had been asking this question for as long as he'd been alive.
"You know where." Jack replied, and Hiccup did. They were 100% back on New Berk tucked under the bench next to their front door, hidden just under the edge, likely commandeered by a pair of terrible terrors that decided they were a nice place to make a nest.
He opened his mouth in a futile attempt to argue, but was cut of with a bewildered, "Hiccup? Your name is Hiccup?"
The man in question jolted in surprise registering for the first time their audience. "Oh, wow. Uhm… Yes?"
His unsure sentence was punctuated by a rambunctious dragon tired of waiting. An impatient growl was followed by the two nature spirits being tackled to the ground groaning. The other spirits pulled out weapons at the perceived danger. Hiccup, having dealt with this since he was 15, just grunted, "C'mon bud…" and Jack being attacked with dragon slobber.
"Uhu-hu-ugh! Toothle-e-ess! Grooosss!" He laughed through his protests. Toothless warbled an imitation of human laughter even before the four guardians behind him had started to let go of their fighting stances when Sandy had scrambled to recall a shot of dream dust. Jack covered his face with one arm and gripped his staff with the other.
The Nightfury backed off slightly to wiggle his body in excitement when delicate chains stretched from the hook-end of the shepherd's crook and formed icicles on the end that clinked together.
Jack waved it around and blew a bit of frost infused with magic at Toothless. The mid-sized dragon sneezed to the side of the two as the blue sparkles shimmered in front of his nose.
"You want the stick? Want the stick, Toothless?" Hiccup said in a puppy voice. Jack made an affronted noise as Hiccup reached over to grab the 'stick' from him and waved it around before throwing it with scary accuracy out the sliver of window across the room from them.
They all watched as the dragon scampered after if with a catlike pounce and burst into autumn leaves that slid through after the frosted over shepherds hook. Hiccup got up and reached to help Jack up as well, ignoring the slimy feeling of dragon saliva on fabric where a bracer should've been. They would surely need to get rid of it now. He tried not to be proud of that fact but found that he couldn't hold down the smug smirk.
Jack huffed about the oily stain that it would leave if it dried and lamented that he couldn't just freeze it off without damage if he didn't have his staff. Leaves burst back through the opening again holding it aloft but was playing a game of keep-away with him.
Hiccup laughed but was cut off when a large hand slapped his back. He would've lost his balance but stood firm as he had learned to over the centuries spent with his father sending the riders off every autumn.
North responded with his own unrestrained guffaw. Hiccup chuckled a little and turned to greet the group.
"Sorry about barging into your workshop like that." He scratched his neck sheepishly. "I had to find out about Jack almost dying from a flock of Messenger Terrors who had got stuck in a snowstorm." He turned to the Sandman with furrowed brows. "And you too. The Night Terrors missed you when they didn't see your dream sand last night. We were worried about you Sandy."
Sandy waved away his concern with a grin. He pointed at himself then drew his fists up near his shoulders then brought them forward and down, a bit like he was flexing, with a triumphant look on his face.
"You two know each other too? You must be quite popular, Hiccup." Tooth joked with a giggle.
Hiccup raised his brows. "Right. Of course I am." he replied seriously.
Tooth laughed in surprise. Hiccup could only hold his expression for a few more seconds before joining in.
"No, I am sooo popular. Everyone knows me. Right Bunnymund?" his voiced saturated in sarcasm.
"Oi, don't bring me into this!"
Hiccup started to laugh again but was hit with the full force of a wind dragon taking him back to the ground. He shouted in surprise as Jack was flung in as well and barely missed Hiccup. Now with his staff back, Jack held the crook to Hiccup's chest.
"You and me! Let's go! We're havin' it out!" he punctuated every sentence with a little jolt of frost sliding across Hiccup's armor.
Hiccup yelped at the bursts of magic creating fern patterns on the dragon scales. "Jack!" he couldn't get another word out as the wind-made Nightfury blew leafy gusts of air at him and lifted his body into the air.
Toothless carried them away and all the guardians could hear was the warbling grumble of a draconic laugh making its way through the snowy landscape.