Evy Hallow-chapter two

Evy Hallow-chapter two


"You`re a…DAD?!" Jaime shouted. He was stunned, and not only him, everybody around the camp fire seemed to be too,except, of course, Bunny. The thought of Jack as a father was just…Jaime shook his head…was unbelievable.

"I may have 'sired' her but do I look a "Dad" to you?" Jack said and pointed a finger at his white smooth and wrinkle-free face. "Someone old and responsible? To make it less confusing we all agreed that I should be titled "Brother" instead."

"Why?"

Jack shrugged. "Fewer responsibilities, more fun and it's easier to be called brother than father. Not at my age."

"You're now 400 years old Jack," Bunny muttered. "I think you're ready to use the powers of a parent to scold her a bit."

"And there are a lot of teenagers who gets pregnant everyday," Pippa replied. "My mother had my big brother when she was only 19!"

"Hold on!" Jack protested, holding up his hands in defence. "It's not that I don'tlove Evy, it's just that it was, and still is, easier to see her as my sister because I have been a brother once and I was very good at it."

"You had a brother or sister?" Jamie asked and looked wide-eyed at Jack. This was just getting more and more bizarre.

"A long time ago," Jack sighed, looking deep into the flames. The memory of her made him a little bit sad and he closed his eyes a bit. "But when Evy came into my life, into everyone's life, everything changed. She's very special."

"And complicated. You should have seen North during that time when she was a small toddler," Bunny said.

"Why?"

Rolling his eyes Bunnymund replied; "Because of her lovely ability to twist him around her little finger."

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"Who's the cutest baby in the world?" North cooed, hovering his face over the small baby girl as he tickled her stomach. "Oh yes you are, yes you are!"

Evy giggled back, lying in the little newly made crib North had just made for her. Her fingers grabbed North white beard and tugged it playfully.

"I believe she's got your eyes Jack!" North smiled with a silly sheepish look on his face as he endured the slight pain in the hair roots.

"You mean the features, not the colour I assume?" Jack smirked, standing behind the cradle. "But her hair seems have a bit more difficulty deciding what colour to go."

And he was right, during daylight the Evy's hair was almost black except for a few curls of white, but when the night came it changed into complete white with black curls instead. Neither North nor Jack could decide which colour was the most suitable.

"It makes her more unique." North gently removed Evys curious fingers off his now tangled beard. Jack ran his hand over Evys soft cheeks, brushing aside a lock of hair that had fallen over her eyes.

"Thank you for let her live here. Taking care of a baby on my ownwould have been tiresome, especially when she needs new diapers every hour,"

"There is no problem, there is no place safer than my workshop, and the elves and the Yetis completely adore her."

"I can see that," Jack mumbled as he gazed over the large piles of toys and stuffed animals around the nursery.

"Oh it`s nothing really. Just some leftovers and prototypes, nothing fancy," North said casually.

"Nothing fancy!" Jack picked up a doll, dressing up as jester and inspected it. The costume was sparkling with crystals and pearls over the dark blue silk, together with pair of blue curling shoes and a blue jester or was it a sleeping hat over the dolls white rag-curls. Jack eyed closely, it looked very familiar somehow.

"Do you think she will grow up? I mean…or will she stay as a baby forever?"

North made a sigh and smiled tenderly down at the baby. "Only time we tell us, but I believe that Manny had no intentions to create a spirit who doesn't know how to use the pot."

Jack placed the doll beside Evy. The baby grabbed it and squeezed hard with her tiny little arms happily around it.

"Would you like to lay down and take a nap now Sweetie?" North said tenderly and in response, Evy gave a small yawn and rubbed her eyes with her other hand.

"Do…you think we should tell Pitch about her?" Jack whispered as he looked around the nursery, inspecting the corners and the shadows carefully to see any strange movements.

"I'm not so sure…not yet," North said as they moved slowly towards the door.

She was a child of ice and nightmares-Cold and Dark, but neither of them believed she was dangerous or evil, but she been born for a reason, but what reason? Evy was too young to tell them if she knew anything who she was and Man in the Moon hasn't told them anything about her character, powers or even her name. He had given them a sign where they should find her but that was all. There wasn't much that could be done about this current situation but if Pitch ever finds out and get his hands on the baby, who knows what he would do to her?!

Jack was to shut the door but North shook his head. "Leave it open. It'll be easier for me to hear if she wakes up, it's a good thing that I made this storage just beside my office."

"Well this "storage" suits very decently as a nursery,"

"Jack, can't we name her Nicole? It would suit her so well."

"Evelyn is here to stay," Jack said with a clear determined voice, looking up at North pleading face. "In the honour of my sister...but-"

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"We had a lot of names to pick; Raven, Snow-white, Angelica, Veronica, Tiana, Snow-drop, Neve, Holly, Nathalia, Crystal, Rima, Lumi and Nicole." Jack rabbled while counting the names on his fingers.

"I like Nicole!" Cupcake said.

"It was North's suggestion, but then we all agreed to the name her Evelyn. Evelyn Nicole Grey. Evelyn in the honour of my sister, Nicole in the honour of North and because he insisted, and Grey because it sounded more fitting when my name is Frost and Pitch Black...Black. But in the end we all just called her… Evy."

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Walking around his hollow globe, Pitch Black tried to understand what was going on? Why were the guardians so secretive? What was that blue glowing point he saw a couple of weeks ago?

Pitch Black hated these feelings; the worrying, the anxiety and the small touch of fear. Not when making the children and adults scream in fear and shiver, he absolutely loved it. But when it was when it happening to himself... When he has no idea what the guardians were planning...

The Boogeyman had retreated to his underground lair, trying to recover and regain his strength and confidence again after his humiliating defeat last year.

He was weak and powerless thanks to those guardians again…especially Jack Frost.

The thought of the damn Snow-flake having a good laugh now at the expense of the Boogey-man was alone enough to make him seethe with rage. This would never haveoccured if this had happened in the dark ages when he was on his highest point of his career. Peasants' superstition, the Spanish inquisition, Witch hunts, the Plague, peoples fear of Hell and damnation. Making the children and adults scream in fear and shiver in terror when they are dreaming nightmares.

What a life he had back then!

And wasn't that a good thing? Fear has always been there, from the very beginning when humans were nothing than small little apes climbing in trees. Fear helped them to beware of all the dangers down on the ground. Fear helped them not cross the line to the unknown. Fear controlled them and should always be respected!

But when the guardians arrived everything changed. Now he was just the boogey-man, a spirit hiding in the shadows, only with powers to give humans nightmares and scare children from his spot under their beds or from the wardrobes.

He, Sandy and Man in the Moon and few others were the only ones that have lived more than an millennia on this Earth, because it always will be nightmares and dreams in the world and as long Man in the Moon stays up in the sky, round or crescent, yellow, white, blue or red, there will always be a great fascination of him and his mysterious powers.

But despite this guarantee of a lifelong immortality; Pitch greatest fear was not being believed and one day disappear!

Pitch had completely misjudged the Guardians. He thought they were just temporary visitors and their great plan to bring joy and protection to the children was only waste of time.

Most of the spirits lives their own lives, occupied with their own holidays and missions to really care what the others did. It was not that they didn't like each other; some of them were just too different and didn't have time. The golden rule was "I will not mess up your territory if you don't mess with mine."

But North, Sandy, Tooth, Bunny and now Jack Frost were exceptions; they acted together like a team, a family. Together they started to get more and more recognition of their holidays and missions and the numbers of children believers grown every year. They were indestructible.

Even when they all are busy with tight schedules and seasons there was no trouble to talk to each other if something was bothering them. To know that there are someone who cares and would help if you are in trouble.

And the most humiliating fact was that Pitch longed to be a part of that... family.

He didn't like their ideas or enjoyment to make small little brats happy and unafraid of the dark. Thanks to them, this was now the beginning of enlightenment, the age of reason. To reform society using reason, challenge ideas grounded in tradition and faith, and advance knowledge through the scientific methods.

This took of course a hit on adult's belief in the guardians too, but it was nothing compared with lack of believers in the Boogey-man.

But the main idea to have something than his nightmares to talk to once a while sounded… nice.

But what happened a couple of days ago when his globe were shinning!? The bright blue point had showed up in the bottom of the globe, and then suddenly it moved and appeared at the top, where North workshop laid and then disappeared. It never happened before and Pitch was curious.

He first travelled down to Antarctica to see what the blue point came from, only be meeting the destructed sculpture. There were signs of footsteps, especially North's big ones and Bunny's paws showing thatthe guardians been here before him and completely destroyed the sculpture he and Jack had created a year ago.

He remembered that he let his guard down during that moment, revealing what he truly felt about his life, giving Jack a chance to join his side so they could create a world of Cold and Darkness, until Jack rejected him and gave him the cold shoulder.

He was weak, but not weak enough to not send out a couple of nightmares (after a long time taming them again) to spy at the guardians. From them, nothing was happening in Toothiana's palace, Bunny's Warren or Sandy's usual travelling around the world mission. But when it came too North's workshop and Frosts lake there was silence. The Nightmares hadn't been able to enter the workshop because of the Yetis and there were no signs of Jack Frost.

With Jacks new position as a guardian, are they planning a new ridiculous project to make the children happier and get more believers? He couldn't help butwonder.

The answer must be in Norths workshop. If they are planning to make him more invisible and weak than he already was, he must destroy it.

Pitch was far better in hiding in the shadows then his nightmares so when he decided to take a closer look, he entered North's Workshop without a sound.

In the safe dark shadows he looked around and saw as usual the Yetis building toys and the elves "testing" them to see if they were safe or not.

Everything looked the same except for one thing; some of the Yetis were making… baby clothes!

When one of the Yetis turned his back to talk with his comrades, Pitch quickly snatched one of the blue and frilly dresses. Holding up the dress with his index fingers and thumbs at his face and furrowed his eyebrows. Is that their secret? Trying to bribe newborn babies with Christmas gifts? Could North get any lower? Maybe Jack was going to make the winters a bit longer or perhaps even a new Ice age and North was making sure that the kids was properly clothed when it happened?

With the shadows he went through a small gap of Norths heavy and very burglarproof door. Checking carefully that he wasn't there, Pitch rose up from his hiding and looked around Norths office carefully. His desk and shelves was filled with ice sculptures, tools and papers filled with sketches of new inventions and toys. Not to mention plates of half eaten cookies and fruitcakes. Yuck!

"No wonder why Norths belly is so big!"

Through the mess Pitch saw nothing that was out of the ordinary, until his eyes caught attention of a small half open door at the left side in North office.

Having the feeling that behind this door he would discover the big secret the guardians were hiding, Pitch, with an evil smile on his face, walked inside to take a closer look. But whatever his mind had been prepared to see, this whole picture was definitely not he had expected.

A nursery!

His golden eyes scanned across the room, nothing but the dying embers from the fireplace gave him light enough so he could see properly. Well…he had no problem to see in the dark either, but what he saw that the wall was painted in a light blue colour, covered in painted frosts and snowflakes. The floor, with the same colour was carpeted with soft fur. There was a couch, a rocking-chair and a nursing table, all surrounded by a toys, dolls and stuffed animals that any child would have grown sickly jealous of if they saw it.

Pitch would not have admitted it, but the whole scenery made him confused. "What-" he asked himself, "Was North and Snow-flake planning?"

…And then he saw the small cradle in the middle all of it, and found staring into two glowing eyes in the shadows of the cradle. Big golden sleepy eyes staring back at his now very surprised face.

"A baby!? How did North manage to steal a human baby? Weren't the elves good or clever enough to test-drive his newest inventions anymore? "

Carefully he moved forward and bent down over the cradle. Evy looked up at him and tilted her head to the side curiously.

Without blinking, Pitch eyed Evys small form with curiosity. He lifted up the blanket a little and checked to make sure he was seeing right. "No, this is not a human child, it`s a spirit! But what kind of spirit? A winter fairy? An elf?"

Pitch had never seen a creature like this before. Yes, he definitelyknew what a baby is, he seen a couple of thousand over the millennia's. But never eyes like this or hair white with small black curls in it.

"So this is their secret; North has turned his workshop into a daycare centre, how frightening," he thought and made a small sneer.

Evy was now definitely awake and was very curious over this newcomer. "Ga-ga-ga!" She squealed and wiggled in the cradle, reaching her arms towards him.

Pitch just looked at the baby and made another small sneer on his lips. So the little brat wasn't scared of him? Well there was only solution of this problem.

Moving forward he rose up his hands like claws, covering his face with them and leaned down at Evys small face, then without any notice he pops up with a haunting look on his face into Evys view.

"BOO!"

But instead screaming at the top of her lungs, Evy only did this; "Boo!"

Pitch was for a moment stunned over her reaction, but controlled himself.

"Booo!" Pitch hissed, moving his claw like hands over Evys little head.

"Boo!" Evy repeated again and she moved up her small hands and mimicked Pitch big ones.

"BOOO!"He screamed and this time at the top of his lungs.

But that didn't help either; "Boo!"

Pitch growled and moved his hands up to his forehead. "AAAAAAAh….Are my powers that weak that I can't scare a baby anymore?"

As two adoring liquid amber eyes starred his furious state, Evy kept giggling. All she could think that the man in black was very funny. The other one with the white beard would sometimes play this funny game with her to, but he mostly cooed "Where is the baby!" and "There she is!" instead of "Boo!".

Shaking and clenching his teeth together, Pitch looked back at the giggling baby with fire in his eyes. "You are not going to live long if you don't learn what scary and really life threatening is!"

Suddenly, hearing a pair of heavy footsteps coming towards the door, the Boogeyman turned his head up nervously. Instantly he moved into the shadows seconds before North busted in, and trailing behind him; Jack.

"And look who is up!" North exclaimed happily and waved a bottle of warm milk in his hand. "Who is huuunngryy!?"

"So you think that Evy has the gift to create snow and frosts like me?". Jack said behind his back.

"She has no problem to burp out thick fog when she has eaten too much milk or snow," North said and picked up Evy from her cradle.

From the shadows Pitch was listening eagerly. It seemed that he has found himself ears dropping in a middle of an interesting conversation between Jack and North about this baby. This could be very interesting!

"She likes to eat snow?"

"She loves it!" North said, smiling wide as he carried the baby with his big arms and took a seat on the chair to feed her. "But warm milk is best for her little stomach!"

Evy grumbled at first, her tiny fists pushed at the bottle for a moment before seemed to realize just how hungry she was, and began to suck eagerly, while, unnoticed by North and Jack, still keeping an eye on Pitch lurking in the shadows.

When she wasfinished, North rested the wriggling Evy on his shoulder and patted her back gently.

"Good girl!"

"Wow, you know how to handle babies!" Jack said with wonder in his eyes.

"It's both easy and not so easy, want to give it a try?"

"Well I need to start somewhere," Jack snickered as North handed his daughter to him. "Just rub her back gently until the air comes out. Piece of cake!"

Gently, Jack placed Evy over his shoulder like North did, rubbing her back softly while holding her butt with the other hand. "It's amazing that she can absorb my cold so easily without getting any... colder?"

"You mean Fever?" North smiley said. "But having no problem crawling naked outside in −89 °C, you're probably very warm and cozy."

Jack smiled warmly as he cradled Evy. "Oh I can't wait until I can take you out and show you the world! We are going to have so much fun! Ice-skating, throwing snowballs, making snowman's and travel with the North wind. You're going to love it."

"She must be a some sort of a winter fairy, but where did Jack and North find this child? Pitch wondered. What was her connection with Jack and North? Man in the Moon wouldn't possibly choose a guardian that young?! Especially someone who isn't aware of danger when it's standing right in front of baby might have not understood who he was when he approached but eventually she will. Pitch promised himself that next time they meet, the haunting memory of him will be staying inside her frightened mind for the rest of her life. But before he traumatizes her, he needed to know if the baby could be any use for him. She may have some potential, because after a few minutes when she burped, something else also came out, and Jacks eyes widened when he felt it down on his back.

"Noooorth, please tell me she didn't do what I thought she did."

Holding his stomach North laughed out loudly; "Didn't you just say "Piece of cake"?".

And in the shadows, Pitch was doing his very best not to laugh to. Having his hand to his mouth he turned away and was snorting quietly. Jacks shocked face was priceless. Yes, she might have some great potential! Especially when Jack feels from his other hand on Evys butt that the throw up wasn't the only thing she decided to relieve herself from.