Secret of Frost and Moon

Solitary Howling Wolf

Alaia Skyhawk: Time for the introduction of the guy who will become Jack's next new Lieutenant :D

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.

~(-)~

Chapter 65: Solitary Howling Wolf

Jack waited until he was a reasonable distance from the Workshop before venting a quick bit of frustration on the nearby frozen mountainside. Only after that did he make an Ice Mirror to the Sanctuary of Nature, and stalked through it in a rather foul mood.

Of all the times to be stuck lecturing a new immortal about the rules of this existence, it had to be when he was tired and aching and when he really just wanted to go get some more sleep.

Jack's arrival in the Glade of Winter was accompanied by a burst of snow that buried half of it under several inches of the white powder... Causing the startled Nature Fairy who waited there, to be buried spluttering under it.

The little fellow scrambled up out of the snow, shaking it off, before wordlessly interpreting the expression on Jack's face. The fairly hastily pointed towards the exit that led to Mother Nature's personal garden, and the Spirit of Winter turned and stormed out through it.

Mother Nature, sat in her gazebo drinking tea, knew the moment Jack had arrived. She didn't need to see him dump snow in the Glade of Winter to be aware of it happening. Nor did she need to see his expression to know he was very annoyed right now. And so she waited until he'd reached her garden and gazebo, before blandly interrupting him before he could speak.

"Before you start getting irate with me, I had intended to inform you about Kiyiya after your customary two weeks rest. It's just that the conference resulted in him coming to others' attention much sooner, and I could no longer avoid it." She glanced at him. "He is presently expressing a great deal of anger and frustration, by venting it at the walls of the room where I'm keeping him. I'd rather not try vouch for his state of mind if I'd waited another fourteen days."

Jack frowned, having backed down from the tirade he'd been about to unleash. Mother Nature always had possessed a way of knocking the wind out of someone's sails.

He walked over to the table and sat down, grimly accepting the cup of cooled tea that he was offered.

"The others mentioned that this immortal, Kiyiya? They said he's new... How new?"

Mother Nature sipped her tea.

"Six weeks. He got into an argument with his father and stormed out of the house, in winter temperatures and with no coat. He would probably have been fine if the timing hadn't been so bad... But a blizzard hit the area less than half an hour after he went off into the woods. Hypothermia did the rest."

Jack winced.

"So, he's going to have guilt issues, or guilty anger issues, about leaving the house without apologising to his father. Does his family know he died? Give me some background info, so I know what I'll be dealing with."

Mother Nature set down her cup and sighed.

"As his name suggests, Kiyiya comes from a small Native American community from up in the area of the Great Lakes. He has an older brother, who went looking for and found his body, but the blizzard forced him to seek shelter. By the time it stopped and he'd returned for the body..."

"You'd already been there and turned Kiyiya into a Nature Immortal." Jack set his head into his hands. "You do realise that, when you do that, you're practically robbing the grave?"