Evy Hallow chapter eight

Evy Hallow chapter Eight

North laughed. "Believe me, that was only tip of the iceberg."

"That's nice? Can we talk about something a bit less morbid?" Bunny said as he bended over the camp-fire and started prodding it with a stick. "Perhaps about the rather dull weather we've been having lately?"

"Oh Bunny!" Jack shakes his head. "You're not seriously freaked out by North's story, are you?"

"NO! Just that she had the courage and insanity to bring home such a thing."

"It's odd isn't?" North supplies with a faint smirk. "Tell me about it. When I picked up that severed, foot I almost literary fainted and she asked me if she could keep it."

Then he tossed a marshmallow at Bunny who caught it, still gaping at North like he could not quite believe what he just heard.

"You can't be serious. What kind of guardian are you?"

"Of course I forbad it. I couldn't have Frankenstein's doctor be in my workshop, playing with all kind of gross things in her hands and accidentally placed them in one of the Christmas presents."

"Oh my god. I knew she was a one hell of a Duracell Rabbit that time, but I never imaged-" Bunny groaned, opened his mouth and tossed the marshmallow inside to lessen his anxiety.

"That's one of the reason North`s got the elves Bunny." Jack said smirking. "They got a better stomach than the Yetis. Phil wasn't very happy when Evy once showed him the big, itchy spider she had found in the Amazons."

North chuckled back, stroking his beard as he continued. "She was a very curious child, wild, greedy and energetic."

"A mini-Jack," Bunny said as he rolled his eyes. "And unfortunately it got worse when she got older, especially her appetite."

"Her appetite?" Jaime wondered.

North made a small shrug. "Although she ate, she never had a huge appetite. She loved cookies and sweets but, found most foods unappetizing. Unfortunately her other love consisted mostly of-"

Suddenly a familiar high pitched chirp caught their attention and Baby Tooth appeared, flew over and placed herself on Tooth's shoulder, chitterling, buzzing, carrying on as she explained something to her.

"What- she did? Oh my," Tooth gasped and put her hands over her mouth.

"What?"

"Baby Tooth says…she was one of her favorites."

"Best friend?" Jaime wondered.

Jack shuffled awkwardly "Not exactly Jaime."

Back in the North Pole.

"Come on Evy, you need to eat your porridge," North said, getting a little bit annoyed as he tried to read the latest report of the toy production at the table beside a sulking Evy. "Let's try to actually eat this today, not just play with it."

"Porridge is yucky!" Evy pouted and put the bowl of porridge far away from her.

"You need to eat something instead of sweets. I don't want any more grouching from Tooth again when she makes her checkups."

"There's nothing wrong with my teeth!"

"Tooth`s orders Sweetie, " He said and pointed at Baby-tooth who was watching the whole scenery from on top of his head and chirped agitatedly. Tooth had ordered her to watch over Evy (and North) to keep an eye that Evy was eating properly and North was feeding her right.

"I don't like it!" Evy said rudely and used her spoon to splash the porridge, getting the substance splashed over the table and over North's papers.

"Bah!" North said, waving his hand as to dismiss her comment and to wipe away the sticky substance on the report while Baby-Tooth was chirped back over her rudeness. "You need eat more, you're too skinny for your age. Porridge is good. It will give you big muscles like mine."

Evy`s tiny face crumpled and a loud wail filled the kitchen.

For the tenth time of the day, North made a big sigh. The Yetis and he had systematically gone through the pantry and Evy had declared she didn't like anything, except sweets and candy.

Oh, he so remembered and regretted the day when he'd first introduced Evy to the wonders of chocolate. The amount of chocolate Evy had consumed after the first time was nothing short of surreal, and just as North had started to think it was impossible for little girls to ever eat such amount.

And the older Evy got, the more work it was to keep her away from cookies, especially his cookies. Once she managed to hide in the sledge behind the big sack while he was traveling around the world to give the children their presents and somehow, quicker than a vessel, she had snatched and eaten almost all the cookies from the plates the children had placed for him. He discovered her little thievery when they crossed the Himalayas with its rocky mountains and she became sick of the thin air and the amount of cookies. In the end he went home with a empty sack and a sick green faced child with a empty stomach.

"I'm hungry!" She pointed a small finger at the cookie jar. "I want a cookie!"

"If you're still hungry, you can eat an apple."

Evy started to bang on the table with her hands. "I WANT COOKIE!"

"I won't have a sugar high kid rushing around the workshop during our deadlines. It's hard enough with the elves."

Evy stuck her tongue out.

"And do not give me that face young lady." Sticking his tongue out back at her in reply, he rose up form the table and made his way out from the kitchen.. "If I don't see the bowl empty when I come back, you don't deserve a new dress for your doll."

But before he walked out, he turned around and grabbed the large cookie jar from the counter.

"One day, your brother will have to do this, " North mumbled. "Baby Tooth, you watch over her. Make her eat her porridge and be a good girl."

Baby-Tooth chirped in agreement and left North`s white head, flew and placed her tiny feet on the table in front of Evy.

"If you see her throwing it in the garbage bag, give her a small pinch. A small one, understood."

Baby-Tooth chirped back a "yes" while Evy promptly stuck out her lower lip in a pout, scrunching her nose as she eyed at the bowl.

The very thought of taking another spoonful made the Evy inwardly gag and her stomach twisting at the thought of it.

She grabbed a spoonful to give it to the elves who were in the kitchen too, but every one of them backed away, seeming not to be fans of porridge either. Then Evy turned her eyes towards Baby Tooth and extended her spoon to her. "Want some?" To reach better, she stood up on her chair and leaned against the table for support.

Crossing her tiny arms, Baby Tooth shook her head and made a small chirp back, meaning "no".

Sticking her lower lip more out, her eyes turned into a pair of innocent golden ambers, Evy smiled sweetly to her, "Please. Just help me a little. If you take one bite, I will take the next one. A big one, I promise,"

Baby Tooth sighed; she didn't want a scene with tears, screams or glaring so she decided to just take a tiny sip. After all, her sip would be almost nothing comparing to Evy`s.

But just as Baby Tooth had her lips on the edge of the spoon, Evy grabbed a hold at her, gripping the tiny body before she can fly off and pulled her into her mouth.

She wasn't chewing her, thank God, mostly just sucking and trying out how she tasted and little Baby-Tooth was hitting as hard as she could with her small feet on Evys jaw to get out.

"Sorry, I forgot something-what are you doing?" North wondered when he appeared into the kitchen and the motion caught his attention. Realization sunk in (thank God) very quickly into his head.

"Spit her out!" He shouted, moved towards, and grabbed Babys-Tooth`s small feet that was hanging to pull her out.

With a slight growl, Evy spitted Tooth out into his hand. Wet saliva was all over her, Baby Tooth made high pitch noises at her.

"Yuck! Too sticky! Evy made a face and plucked out a small feather from her mouth. "When did you last take a bath?"

"EVVVVY!"

Present in Jaimes Backyard.

North shot Tooth an apologetic look."I'm so sorry Tooth! I was working hard during that time and keeping an eye that she wasn't biting the elves arms off or eat poor Baby Tooth was not easy. Be happy that it only happened once and she didn't like the taste of- OUCH!"

Baby-Tooth had given North a hard peck on his big nose while Tooth crossed her arms, her wings beating angrily over North`s head. "You had it coming. How could you leave her alone like that?"

"Evy?"

Again Baby Tooth gave him another hard peck. "Ouch," North moaned as he rubbed his nose. "Sorry Baby."

"Like daughter, like grandfather," Bunny muttered. "Sometimes I wonder if your mind is just filled with toys and trains, North?"

"She was only a child. She had no idea between right and wrong back then. Things that are okay to do and things that are not."

"Still she hasn't learned, you know that," Bunny replied. "I wouldn't let the little troublemaker out of my sight one single second."

"I did have 24/7 guard on her you know." North smiled easily while he poured a cup of hot chocolate for himself from a jug.

"Yeah by the help of the elves and the perfect big brother over there," Bunny said and pointed at Jack.

"Oh thank you Bunny," Jack sarcastically commented.

"Porridge is yucky." Caleb said and wrinkled his nose. "Taste like you're eating paste and rubber together."

"Agree with that Caleb," Jack said and made a small grimace. "And that girl surely has a big sweet tooth. If Evy had her choice of breakfast, lunch, dinner, we would have eaten cookies, fruitcakes and candy canes every day."

"I wouldn't complain, but our dear sweet Tooth had other ideas," North muttered.

Back in the North Pole.

That evening at the pole, Jack, North and Tooth were sitting in North's study.

"I should have known better than to take my eyes off of her," North sighed.

"And why not?" Jack shrugged. "She's eating something, isn't she?"

"She's eating only sugar, that's it?" Tooth insisted. "I want her to eat good and healthy things and not cookies, candy or my fairies."

"Evy doesn't like anything; porridge, meat, chicken, vegetables, fruits. I tried everything," North said, holding his hands up to display his frustration. "I have systematically went through the whole pantry and all I ever got was "No, Bleh, No, Yuck, No and Gross. Nothing suits her except sweets. She's even eating even more than I do."

"She likes to eat jams, that has at least some fruit in it. Don't forget snow," Jack added.

"She only ate snow when she was a baby Jack. Unless it's flavored or-" North picked up a small ice, headless statue of a soldier and gazed at it sadly. He'd just started to work with the details on it when Evy discovered it took a nice bite out of it. "Designed."

"She's going to make herself sick." Tooth said as her face starting to look worried. "She is just a child."

"Evy doesn't fall into that category to get sick," Jack replied as he stood up to grab a cookie one of the elves was serving from a plate and looked at his friends. "I don't even know if Evy even needs to eat."

"Perhaps," North shrugged. He had looked through his library, searching for anything that might help. Books, papers and scrolls detailing about immortal children, but none so young and tiny as Evy. He got books on human society, but none which speak of how to care for infants without a mother who is the dominating factor in a child's life. North wasn't sure if the books could ensure that human food given to a child that's fifty percent nightmare had the same results given to a human baby, last thing North wanted was to accidentally poison Evy, but it is possible that an spirit child wouldn't need any food? Evy is only a child. Certainly she should grow and didn't children need sustenance to grow?

Tooth huffed and removed cookie from Jack`s hand. "Whether she will be sick or not she needs to be disciplined and we have to be firm on this," She said. "North, from now on you need to stop eating cookies or bribing her with sweets."

"What!?"

"You heard me, she needs a role model to follow and eating cookies and cakes in front of her is not a good example."

"Please spare me!" North begged, grasping his big hands, pleading for her mercy.

"No buts, if you want Evy to learn proper manners, you must learn how to behave like a gentleman."

"I was never born as a gentleman, I'm a Cossack."

"Doesn't matter, she lives here and she looks up to you and that's goes for you Jack!"

"Who, me?" Jack pointed at himself.

"Yes you. Try to teach her some manners and think of others."

North obviously wanted to protest, but Tooth's stern look stopped it. Instead he moaned and rubbed his big hands down the length of his face. "Fine. I will do it. No more cookies in the work shop. "

Suddenly Evy scuttled from the kitchen, her hands full of cookies and candy canes, with an expression mixed between satisfaction at obtaining her snack and then anger at being caught written on her pale face as she saw her guardians looking at her.

"Evy!" Tooth shouted angrily, but Evy had already disappeared from the room with her stolen treasures, with Tooth chasing after her.

"This should be piece of cake," Jack mumbled.

Present

"Did it beacme a piece of cake?" Jaime chuckled at the guardians, his friends joining him.

"Not really. When she heard these new rules, she complete went turmoil," North said and made a big sigh. "And the other thing was that we discovered something else she liked to eat."

Back in the North Pole again

Later, Evy was tucked into bed. North was sitting beside her looking down at her crossed arms and sour little face. Ever seens the no cookies-candy- canes-chocolate diet, North and the elves had to do a house cleaning of her entire room in search for any hidden candy, Evy had been sulking for almost five days and for Evy, sulking meant stomping around the workshop and giving North and the others the silent treatment and plenty of glares.

And North wasn't any good mood either.

"What shall we do with you little troublemaker?" he grumbled.

"Give me a cookie," Evy said stubbornly.

North sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "No, no more cookies. Eating birds and sweets is not a healthy diet. You should have thought about that before I grounded you."

"Just wanted to see if she tasted good, but the feathers tickled."

"You don't eat living things! Things especially fairies and for now we both are on a diet."

"No cookies for you either?"

In response, Norths stomach made a small rumble and Evy couldn't help but giggle a little.

North placed a plate with a small sandwich on the night table. "I brought a sandwich for you in case you change your mind. You almost haven't eaten in two days."

"Is there jam on it?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Then no."

He looked sternly at her. "You must eat something Evy."

It was true she didn't really eat today. Being watched by the Yetis, Baby Tooth, and some of her sisters, Evy had only ate half an apple for breakfast and a lot of water, salad for dinner, and that's all. The Yetis had made some kind of fish dish, but the strange smell had made Evy run away and North's face go green when they served it.

Evy furrowed her eyebrow, and turned her head slightly to the window, briefly glancing into the night.

"Do you want a bedtime story?"

"I'm tired, don't want to hear a story tonight!" she said, still looking at the window and made a large yawn to show him how tired she was.

North flashed her a critical look. "This early? it's not like you?"

"But I am. I'm tired being hungry all the time."

Another sigh passed through North's lips and he nodded "Well, good night then, Evy." North said, looking down at his little girl, before tucking the small child in. "You got a plate here with a delicious sandwich if you change your mind."

"Yuck."

"Christmas is just around corner and I can't have you running around distracting yetis from their tasks." he said sternly as he waged a finger. "So behave or the naughty list. I am watching."

Before turning out the light, North shot a glance out the window. Outside there was nothing but snow for as far as the eye could see and the white of the snow reflected the moonbeams from the moon that was full and bright tonight.

"Six years old? Where has the time gone?" North thought, "And probably six more years until she can learn to cook for herself."

Later, Evy was kneeling in front of the small window. H her hands pressed on the cold glass as her nose and mouth blew warmth breath over it, as she looked out over the white frozen landscape.

She had lied to grandfather; she wasn't tired at all, only hungry, bored and very, very sour.

With a smile on her lips she rose up to her knees, nudged the window open, and jumped out. Careful and gracefully, she began to walk over the roofs with easy steps. Santa Claus`s workshop roofs was rounded and covered with ice so Evy had to take slow and careful steps so she wouldn't slip, slide down and fall over the edge and down into the deep cliff that was lying just under the workshop.

The distance to the ground was dizzying, but it was as exciting as it was a little bit scary when Evy, barefooted and with only her nightgown on, walked to the other side of the workshop, where the kitchen windows were placed.

But when she reached her destination, she saw from one of the windows that North was already in the kitchen. With his is red/white striped pajamas, sitting at the kitchen table over a jar of cookies, eating them with a big satisfaction on his lips as his teeth chewed on the sweet flavor from them.

Unable to resist temptation Evy`s little head began to form plan as she watched the jolly and big grandfather having his time of his life.

Slumping back on the chair, North thought if he hadn`t had his midnight snacks he would literary kill for a cookie. It had been a hard week for Evy and him, especially him for not taking only a single bite or even lick of a cookie or a candy cane. Of course North wanted to be a good role model for Evy, he just wished Tooth could have picked Bunny. Considering he only ate vegetables and carrots for dessert, he could have persuaded Evy better to eat a carrot or two than him.

Halfway to his mouth, the cookie was suddenly snatched from his fingers by a tiny hand out of nowhere so North took a bite on his own fingers instead. It took some time for him to process what just happened. Did his mind play tricks on him, or he just eating so fast that he didn't notice?

The small shadow stood motionless in one of the dark corners of the kitchen, silent and waiting for the next action to occur.

North shrugged, thinking it must be his imagination, but before he picked up another cookie and raised it up to his lips, it happened again.

Was he going made? The lack of sweet was starting to make his mind going cuckoo, and to make it worse he suddenly felt one of the legs on the chair cracking and before he could register what was happening, the leg cracked and then the chair totally broke down under him and he fell backwards. He tried and failed to grab the table for support and fell with his feet up a almighty crash down on to the floor. Looking up to the ceiling, lost and confused, North found great trouble to believing what just happened.

"Maybe I should drop a few pounds after all," he mumbled to himself.

Outside, Evy giggled as she began walking along the rooftop towards her window, holding one stolen cookie in her hand while the other was in her hungry mouth. "That will teach him a lesson having a midnight snack. If I can`t have any cookies, nor will he."

She smirked, but suddenly she saw a couple of the strings glowing in the sky. Fascinated, she saw the strings fly down and moved inside in some of the small houses where the Yetis were living on the other side of the cliff.

With great curiosity, she leapt to another roof and then slid down from it, landed on the small bridge that lead to the village, and ran towards it.

It took her a while, but she finally found a window that was slightly open and pushed against the glass until she managed to slip inside.

Two small Yeti children were sleeping nice and very soundly in their beds. Dream sand flowed above over their heads, showing their dreams; Two Yeti kids making a snowman, and the another riding a golden reindeer around the room.

Placing herself on the other edge of the bed, Evy looked curiously at their dreams. This was the first time she ever seen dreams like this. She knew what the dreams were and where it came from, but she never seen it like this until now. North had always put her to bed very early and Jack and she always traveled in daylight, and the only times she ever saw one was when Sandy came to visit or she woke just in time to catch one of her own dreams by its tail.

A sudden movement from under the bed caught her attention and she looked down. The edge of the blanket was moving slightly, like there was a wind blowing under the bed.

Looking out to the window, she stared at other strings of dream sand coming towards the village. They were long and seemed to be endless when she couldn't see the other edge of it. She knew it was coming from Sandy, but where was his golden cloud?

There was a feeling in her heart and mind, whispering in her ear while she watches the bright golden sand that she needed to find him.

Walking out through the window, she grabbed one of the thin streams of sand, slipped out onto the wind and started to climb or rather flow back up to the source. She was still not a good flyer so it was a long journey, but her efforts were paying off when she saw her target at the horizon.

As she was climbing nearer and nearer, dream sand spiraled out in hundreds of different directions; some of them were shaped like dolphins, unicorns, butterflies, birds, toys, moving along the golden threads seeking out sleepers to give them good dreams and when she finally was up, she jumped down into the soft and golden cloud.

In the center of it, on a bed piled high with soft pillows, laid Sandman, fast asleep and dreaming. Moving slowly forward, Evy placed her hand to his golden forehead; his hair was very soft and warm so she couldn't help gut to take a sniff of it.

He smelled really good.

Whilst ridding her fingers over his the golden locks, Evy sang softly, just under her breath,

Then she sat beside him and watched as the sand danced around them with wide, fascinated eyes, then she grabbed one of the threads, opened her mouth and started to suck it.

Gurgling spit came of her mouth until her chin was shiny with saliva but she didn't care. As she leaned back on one of the soft pillows she enjoyed every piece of sand that moved down into her tiny, hungry stomach.

Sandy woke up to the sound of her sucking and the air of changing dreams. "What the-?" He thought, before he looked down at Evy`s small form, laying on the cloud with her eyes closed, sucking a string of dream sand. Her face and hair was covered with glittering sand like she was a bumblebee high with pollen, but around the sand had turned into a dark-blue color, long, twisted spirals with combination of dark-blue and gold like in a candy cane was swirling over them.

Pouting his mouth, Sandy putted his hands on his hips. This scene in front of him was both gross and disturbingly adorable at the same time, but this needed to stop so he quickly moved over to Evy, hauled her up, and pulled the thread away from her drooling mouth. It created a small plop when the thread removed from Evy`s lips and she immediately awoke and exclaimed, making grabby hands from where she sat, trying to grab the golden thread again. When Sandy refused her to eat any more of his delicious sand, she began to wail.

Sandy remained unaffected, his sand forming a series of images above his head.

"You should be asleep."

"But I`m huuunnngggrrryyy!" Evy wailed. "Why can't I eat the sand? You've got plenty of it," she shouted but Sandy just shook his head together with a golden sign said "no" and was rewarded with even more glaring and wailing.

"Do you want be to starve? Is that what you want!? Fine, then it`s your fault if I end up like a skeleton in my bed. Only bones and hair left and nothing more."

Sandy rolled his eyes and created more signs, a sandwich, a cup of milk, and bowl of warm soup.

"I can`st eat that, it's disgusting."

Sandy frowned and then he lowers himself until he at eye-level with Evy.

He created more images, a sausage, carrots, grilled chicken, but Evy continued to shake her head saying "No, no, no and no."

Then he formed the sand into a small pony. He held the pony out to Evy. She gave a big smile at the little present. "Preeetttyyy" she said, but Sandy pulled the sand back quickly when Evy`s teeth chomped it closed with a snap.

He shook his head and with his small finger moving "No, no, no" After he made clear that it wasn't a snack Evy got to hold the horse in her little hands and just as it was placed in her palms it, started to change, but it seemed the sand didn't know what color it would turn into. Then the little horse changed into a tiny grey moth. The moth was grey, but the antennas were golden and its back was covered in golden stripes and the wings was also covered in gold, but the moth quickly melted away and the sand ran between her fingers as Sandy called it back.

Conjuring a small bit of dream sand, he blew it right in Evy`s face before she realized what happened. Closing her eyes beacuse of the sand Evy fell forward and slumped against Sandy, golden and black moths started to flutter in circles over her head.

Smiling tenderly at this sight, Sandy carefully lifted Evy up into a small bed of golden sand and then with a small turn, they headed back to the North Pole.