Rise of the Guardians 2 - After the End

A Home

"Whoaaa" North calls the reindeer to a halt as we pull into the workshop. We slip and slide for only a moment before coming to a stop. I hop off the sleigh and walk onto the workshop floor, admiring a freshly painted set of toy planes. "Getting used to it yet, eh Bunny?" I hear North tease Bunny as they come in.

"I'll always be more at 'ome in my tunnels" he remarks, I hear him shove North playfully. But then they fall quiet, I only catch whispers amongst them.

Distracted, some elves run between my feet unexpectedly, causing me to stumble but catch myself with my staff. "Jack," North remarks.

I turn around and see everyone's eyes on me, "I'm fine, the elves just-"

"Do you need a place to stay, Jack, a home?" North inquiries suddenly, his eyes wide with encouragement. When I don't reply, he continues, "Because you are very welcome to stay here if you like. I have extra room all ready if you decide to stay, it would be no problem at all."

'A home', the words struck me. As long as I can remember, well in this life, I've always just gone where the wind took me, I never stayed anywhere; sure I returned to my favorite places often but still I never stayed long, never settling.

"Well?" Tooth prompts. I look at all their faces, North, Bunny, Tooth, and Sandy, all hopeful that I say yes, I could see it in their eyes; they all wanted more for me, and this is their way of showing it. I don't exactly have a Tooth Palace, or Bunny's Warren to come back to at the end of the day.

I let out a sigh, "Sure." And in the same second North lifts me in the air, his arms extended.

"Excellent! I'll show you there now." He sets me down and walks ahead to the elevator. I jog to keep with his stride. I step on, sending a crooked smile back to the others still standing there before we jerk upwards.

We continue up, past the workshop, to another floor. I step off into a hallway that extends to my left and right. North steps past me and to the left, "I give you a quick tour." We make our way down to the end, to a worn, chewed, splattered, burnt and dented door, "This is the elves room," he opens it to an extremely messy room, filled with mini, multi-stacked bunk beds that stretched to the ballroom like ceiling. "It's not recommended to enter there." He adds, closing it firmly.

"Next is the abominables' place," he opens the door right across the hall. The bunk beds were bigger of course but in the same high stacked formation. It was neat. Not a dust particle out of place, I'm sure.

We move past the elevator to a longer hall with more doors, "This is my room," he points out a door with a large silver script "SC-do not enter." I'm caught off guard by this, but we keep moving down the hall so I let it go. "All guardians have a room here just for them when they're visiting, Bunny, Tooth, Sandy..." each door represented who they were; Bunny's was wooden, markings on it similar to the ones on his fur and a boomerang stuck in it; Tooth's was floral, greens and purples and hints of gold streaking around the fauna and a brilliant tooth in the center; Sandy's was a glittering gold all over, and as you moved you saw things dance in the gold storm, dreams.

"And here's you Jack, welcome!" North gestures to a plain, undisturbed door. I reach for the handle tentatively; I rest my hand on the knob. I look back at North and he nods in encouragement.

I turn it and step into a pretty big room, not as big as the elves and abominable's ballrooms, but at least half the size; the ceilings still at least 30 feet high, which I'll have to graciously float around in for my own satisfaction later. A king sized bed is pushed up against the side wall, out of the way of the floor to ceiling windows, centered and taking up most of the back wall. The rest of the room is pretty empty.

"It's a 'design-your-own', you can add whatever you want to it, make it yours. Need anything built, I think I have a few guys that can help in the shop." I turn around from gazing up to look at him. "This is your home now, Jack; you may come and go as you please, but I, we, the rest of the guardians, want to see you at least have a place to come back to at the end of the day." He rests his hand on my shoulder, "You don't have to be alone anymore, we all have your back, no matter what." He pats me roughly and heads for the door, "I'll let you settle in. Just come find me if you need anything." He shuts the door behind him and leaves me be.

A home? "My home," I say the words out loud to test; they stick to my tongue like peanut butter. That's gonna take some getting used to. Here the air is dead, non-shifting, promising to forever feel thick and heavy on my body. This untouched room is just that: untouched; Untouched by any significant life for who knows how long. There's not even a healthy sprinkle of dust on anything, even the dust thought this place too lifeless to hang around.

"Well I know the first thing I'm doing to this place," I make my way over to the looming glass windows and search along the iron frames. "There you are!" I float up to the middle of the windows and release the latches there. The windows fling themselves open satisfyingly, allowing the chill polar winds enter and swirl around inside. I take a deep breath, releasing tension I didn't know I was holding.

I float down to the middle of my own half-ballroom, not quite touching the floor, I tap the crook of my staff to the smooth tiled floor. The floor is soon frosted over with my ice crystals, they even climb up the walls and meet in the center of the ceiling to create a burst of snow which floats around my shoulders.

I'm just about to start contemplating making an arsenal of snowballs when, "Jack!" The exclamation accompanied by a pounding on my door.

I walk over to my frosted over door and force it open a crack, which I look out to find Bunny angrily tapping his foot, "You rang?" I raise my eyebrows and bat my eyes.

"Do you see this?!" He stands aside to reveal his room across from mine, his door frosted over...like mine.

"That we're neighbors? Yeah, it's great, don't you think? Have you called me to give me a 'welcome' gift?" I smile widely and slam my door shut just as Bunny's about to smack me.

"I just wanna get in my room! Your bloody ice has froze it shut!" He pounds on the door.

I lean down to the key hole and call, "Then I suggest you find a matchbox." I spin around to look back inside my own room, "Now, back to decorating".