Secret of Frost and Moon

Tooth Fairies

Alaia Skyhawk:

Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians, the Guardians of Childhood, or any related characters etc. This story is written purely for entertainment purposes.

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Chapter 22: Tooth Fairies

Jack sat upon his perch, casually viewing the village from atop the storm pole as he waited for the children to finish their morning chores. They rushed about, trying to get them done as fast as they could so they could go play, but one boy took his time. His morning task was something no-one would see as a chore, and in fact all the other children kept glancing at him enviously.

But no one but members of that family tended the shrine. Their family were the ones who first welcomed Jack Frost to the village, the first to ask him for protection, and so they were the ones who looked after his shrine, the Bennetts.

Gavin Bennett; son of James, grandson of Thomas, great-grandson of Emily. That made him, secretly, Jack's great-great-nephew, and the eight-year-old carried that knowledge with pride as he worked.

It was the first of January 1772, and it was time to clear the sprigs out of the shrine. They'd long-since been stripped of their berries by the local birds, and Gavin was now loading the remaining twigs into a small brazier at the side of the shrine. The bottom of that brazier was filled with tinder, and this afternoon as the sun set, the villagers would light it to welcome in the new year.

It was a new tradition that had only started recently, when one of the village women had commented it seemed a waste to disrespectfully throw away what was left of their offerings to the Spirit of Winter. That was when Thomas had suggested they burn the twigs on New Year's Day, so Jack Frost could greet the new year with them.

The rest, as they say, was becoming village history.

Jack watched Gavin grabbing and moving the handfuls of twigs, and drifted down to stand on the top of the shrine.

"Want me to help you with that?"

Gavin looked at him, smiled, and then shook his head.

"It's ok, I want to do it. Besides, if you helped me, that would be cheating."

Jack laughed, and now dropped to the ground.

"All right, all right, but at least let me go get the cloth and wood-oil for you. See if you can have all those twigs in the brazier before I get back."

"Ok!"

Gavin began to rapidly grab at the twigs, while Jack glided away to James' house where a bucket sat with rags and a pottery jar of clear oil inside it. The family were conscientious with the maintenance of the shrine, keeping it oiled so it wouldn't rot. Jack had initially objected to them spending money on oil when they could have used pine-tar like they did for the cabins, but he'd been ignored. And so the shrine stood out as a pale wooden structure, unlike every other wooden building in the village which was a dark brown.

He chose to walk back to the shrine, slowly, leaving deliberate footprints in the thin covering of snow as he swung the bucket to and fro. Several villagers spotted the footprints, and the floating bucket, and smiled among themselves. They took it as a sign of his approval, that he was participating even in that small way, although he still couldn't figure out why they couldn't see him even when he was blatantly carrying a bucket which they could see.

It seemed to him that their belief that only children could see him, was probably the reason behind that, because by all other accounts they believed in him as completely as the children did and should be able to see him... Which was why he'd dubbed the phenomena, and his theories about it, 'Dumb Adult Logic'.