Archive of Our Own

"Oh, and shape shifting too!" Jack chirped, rocking back slightly with a smirk.

North's eyes widened in wonder, studying the sprite, "Like Bunny, no?" Jack thought for a moment before shaking his head.

It was time for the monthly meeting between the Guardians and Jack had mixed up the times slightly, showing up a few hours earlier than the others were expected. To pass the time, North and Jack had started talking while the elder worked on his ice sculptures. Eventually, the subject turned over to what each of the Guardians could do beside the obvious, especially Jack. Tales of North's youth as a Cossack and then his training as a wizard could only keep Jack entertained for so long. The boy had been quite the mystery in the two years that they had started to attempt to know Jack better. After all, it should only be fair to exchange a story with a story, should it not?

"Kinda. Not really. Bunny just... shrunk."

"Yes, but, ah, you have not seen what chocolate does to him, have you?" Now this sounded like a story that he wanted to hear, Jack thought while leaning forward. "Ah, Pooka, that is Bunny's species, are shape shifters. You saw Bunny become small, yes, but he can do so much more. Just one piece of chocolate," North mimed with a thumb cookie, dropping it into his mouth and chewing viciously, "and BAM, six arms! Or eight or twelve!" Jack blinked for a moment while the thought processed before bursting out into laughter. Oh, that would be something to see! Jack thought that it was hilarious, with arms sticking out of random places with just a piece of chocolate.

"What of you, then?"

"Hmm?" Jack tilted his head, still visualizing Bunny looking like a furry octopus.

"What kind of shape shifting can you do?"

"Oh." Jack shrugged, "Animals."

"Full transformation?" North leaned forward, putting his tools down so that he could study the boy, "That is very impressive. Very hard to do. What kind-" He was cut off by a knock on his office door. Turning away, North sat back in his chair, bracing for a yeti to come barging in with bad news. "Yes, yes, come in!" He called impatiently.

The door opened, but with a smaller, and furrier, hand than he was expecting. "Ah, bunny, come in, come in. Sit" North stood up from his desk, smiling at his oldest friend and gestured to the seating area, but not before giving the Pooka a brief, but tight, hug.

"Ta mate" Bunny grunted, trying, and failing, to be subtle while rubbing his abused ribs. Snuggling up to the fire, he was absorbed in regaining feeling in his frozen digits and neglected to look around the room. "First one here?" He asked without looking up from his project.

"No, Jack is here." North caught movement out of the corner of his eye: Jack shaking his head with a smirk and holding a finger up to his lips. "... Somewhere. You are early, my friend!"

Bunny nodded, starting to rub feeling back into his ears now. "Wanted ta thaw out a bit before dealing with Frostbite and the others." Jack smirked, grateful that the general noise of the workshop from the open door covered the sound of removing his hoodie.

Clad in nothing but what he was 're-born' in, Jack closed his eyes in concentration. Quickly enough, the familiar phantom ripple of fur standing on end ran from his head to his toes, signaling the beginning of his transformation. This particular one was quick, given how often he had used it in the past. If he was honest, this was one of his favorites aside from his natural human form. His ears changed into more of a triangle shape and his face pushed out into a muzzle. The ghost ripple spread again, this time sprouting white and tan fur over absolutely everything but the pads of his fingertips. Suddenly growing a tail was, admittedly, one of the strangest sensations during the entire process. With a shudder, his bones changed position. He had heard from his mentor that the bones were often the worst part, that he was lucky that it didn't hurt. Apparently, the pain was why most spirits with the ability chose not to, or to limit their transformations.

Settling into the windowsill cushions, all he had to do now was wait-

"Crikey, what is that!"

That didn't take long. Jack yawned, flashing canine teeth that Tooth would absolutely swoon over, and turned to face Bunny, giving the Pooka an uninterested look.

"Ah" North would have been startled, if not for knowing that Jack had been sitting there not a minute beforehand. "A dog."

"Dog my foot. That's a wolf!" Jack easily slid down from the window seat and padded over to the opposite end of the couch from Bunny.

"North?" The Pooka called warily, not turning away from the wolf for an instant, his eyes blown wide in apprehension.

"Bah, is harmless." North chuckled, easily putting two and two together. "Yeti would not let in workshop if not." Jack, not wanting to scare Bunny too badly, let his tongue hang out of the side of his mouth in a lupine grin. This was a better reaction than he had expected.

"Still. Dog. Rabbit. Not a good combination mate." Bunny tried to breathe as normally as he could, but kept hitching instead as he slowly moved himself to press against the couch's arm, away from the wolf that could bite his face off.

Smiling, North went back over to his desk, picking up his tools to continue working. "You worry too much." He dismissed, all too entertained with the byplay. In the moment that Bunny looked away to give North the stink eye, Jack jumped up onto the couch and curled up on the furthest cushion, still watching Bunny with his wolf grin and lolling tongue. "Never mind that. You are early. You usually do not show up until right before the meeting is to start." The Cossack watched his friend, curious, "do you wish to speak?"

"No. Just want to be warmed up and not shivering when Frostbite decides to lower the temperature in the room."

It was once, and it had been completely by accident, but would Bunny listen? No! Jack sulked, deciding that Bunny had dropped his guard enough to enact the next part of his plan.

Bunny nearly jumped out of his fur when a cold nose touched his thigh. Frozen with fear, Bunny watched as the wolf gently took advantage, slowly creeping forward so that its head rested on his thigh.

"Ah… North?" Bunny squeaked, his arms raised to defend himself but otherwise not moving, for fear of incurring the wolf's predator response. "A little help here."

North couldn't help but to smile, understanding what was happening. "Wolf will not bite. Is harmless." As if to counteract the statement, the wolf reached over and bit down on Bunny's forearm, over the brace, just enough to be felt but not leaving any marks. It only held on for a moment, just long enough for Bunny's ears to plaster to the back of his head, then settled back down, crawling further onto the Pooka's lap.

"North!" No, that was not a whimper, it was a... a manly keening. Though that wasn't much better. And that was North laughing.

"See Bunny, is harmless." North chuckled, barely looking up from his work. "Play nicely, yes? Both of you."

Wriggling around, Jack yipped. If anything, his grin had gotten larger as he managed to wiggle halfway onto Bunny's lap, resting both forepaws over his lap. If Bunny had the presence of mind to push him off, or even just stand up, Jack would stop. But as it was, he kept going as far as he could. Pressing his muzzle into the fur of Bunny's stomach, he could finally scent the Pooka without looking like a creepy human. And just to up the ick factor and to cover his motives, Jack gave the fur a long and wet lick with his frigid tongue. He could feel the shudder that went from Bunny's toes up to his long ears and it made him laugh. It sounded more like a low chuffing, but it was still a laugh.

Hands still raised away from the wolf in his lap, Bunny looked over at North. "Get him off'a me North!"

"Is reaction like that which makes him not want to leave you alone." North responded mildly, getting almost as much amusement from the situation that Jack was. The boy-turned-wolf had managed to completely settle himself onto Bunny's lap, and was now partially on the arm rest as well. With one last wriggle, Jack settled himself with a sigh, winking at North and closing his eyes. His ears stood relaxed and his tail started to thump a lazy rhythm on the seat cushions.

Humming slightly, North watched Bunny's struggle for the next ten minutes while Jack seemed to be sleeping. The only tell was Jack's mouth twitching, trying not to grin like a complete idiot. Eventually, Bunny's arm tired enough that he slowly lowered it over the wolf's back. When he did so, Jack rolled onto his back, wiggling around to find a comfortable spot, fully exposing his belly. In response, Bunny stiffened once again, his arm snapping back away from the wolf. "North!"

North couldn't help but to chuckle. Now the boy was just being silly and it couldn't be comfortable lying like that. "I think he wants you to rub belly." He suggested, patting his own.

"Uhh..." Bunny looked down. Neck cricked at an awkward angle, forepaws sticking into the air and back legs stretched out fully on the couch; the wolf couldn't possibly be comfortable like that. "G-good boy." He muttered, finally lowering his hand onto the white belly. He didn't move his hand, but he could feel the thinness of the body under the thick fur. He could swear he could even feel the wolf's ribs. From what he had seen, tan ticking covered the wolf's shoulders and haunches, leaving everything else snow-white, except for a pair of grey markings that gave the wolf what looked like eyebrows. Around his -Bunny didn't mean to check, but the wolf was definitely a boy- neck and nearly buried in the thick fur was a large snowflake pendant on a delicate chain. "Huh." Out of black-rimmed blue eyes, the wolf watched Bunny carefully, its -his!- tongue lolling out the side of his muzzle.

At the door, a yeti whistled.

Immediately, the wolf turned over and gave Bunny's jaw a nuzzle. Jumping off the couch and practically prancing over to the yeti in a full apron, the wolf jumped up and planted his paws on the yeti's covered chest and whined until he got scratches. Grumbling something, he thought the yeti's name was Zach or Jeff, the yeti easily caught the wolf when he jumped up into his arms. It was almost odd, seeing the wolf easily snuggle up to the yeti, tucking his muzzle under the yeti's chin with his forelegs hanging on either of the yeti's shoulders. After a moment, the wolf perked and wiggled enough to be let go.

Trotting over to North, the wolf yipped and North easily patted his head with a smile. "Yes, yes, go have fun with Chaz." Ok, so he had been way off. There were just too many Yeti around, just like the elves, and it seemed like they were always multiplying. "Oh, and do not be late! I know you get distracted." If Bunny didn't know any better, he would say that the wolf nodded before prancing, not walking, after... Chaz. Shaking his head in amusement, North chuckled. "Yeti spoil boy, that is for sure."

"You've let a wolf in here before?" Bunny's voice didn't change, but he was not impressed by the situation.

North only shrugged, carefully working on his project. "Was first I knew of it as well. There are things that yeti keep from me, but is okay. As long as rules are not broken and toys get made, they have their own lives. I do not know everything." He gave a wry grin. Thinking about his elves and how they still managed to surprise him. The yeti less so, but every once in a while something would come up.

"But a wolf? Mate, those dingos are dangerous." Bunny was grasping as straws to make the wolf go away and for North to understand. "They eat reindeer too."

At that, North snorted. "Bah, no worry. Prancer will happily prance on anyone who doesn't behave themselves."

Huffing, Bunny gave in. North was more the guardian of stubbornness than wonder sometimes. Wolves were wild animals, and as such, were not to be trusted. "Yer funeral, mate." Sitting back, Bunny resolved to leave an ear (or two) out for the invariability of that wolf going out of control.

When the time for the meeting rolled around, a light knock came from the open door, announcing Tooth's presence. "Oh, are we having the meeting in here this time?" She asked, flying in and giving North and Bunny hugs before perching on the back of the couch.

Bunny shrugged, watching the door out of the corner of his eye with his arms crossed. "Might as well. No point in moving since most of us are here already." The workshop had been silent, not completely, but none of the noises from the work floor were beyond the usual yeti yelling and tools being used. Sandy bobbed into the office as well, sending up a question mark and a check list.

"Where's Jack?" Tooth looked around after greeting the Sandman as well. "Does he know that we're all here?"

"Kids somewhere." Bunny snorted, giving North a look, "haven't seen hide nor hair of him though."

Biting his cheek, North barely kept from spoiling Jack's little game. "Jack was here earlier. He will check in soon enough. The yeti keep him busy so he could be back any time."

"What about the yeti?" Jack asked around a cookie the size of his hand by way of announcing himself. In his other hand was a silver tray filled with treats. "Oh, hey Tooth. Sandy... Kangaroo." Tooth was polite enough to let Jack put the platter on the coffee table before accosting the boy.

"Jack! How are you? You know that you're not supposed to have sweets, they're bad for your teeth. Oh! These are new." She babbled, giving Jack his usual impromptu dental checkup.

Stepping back, Jack ran his tongue over his teeth to get the taste of fingers out of his mouth. "Yeah... those will go back to normal in a few hours. It happens sometimes." He explained, taking another bite of his cookie. It was strange chewing with a set of elongated canines, let alone talking with them. It seems like he still needed practice changing back to human. Thank the moon that he didn't have his wolf ears or tail to wait out any longer. When he was first starting, he would end up spending the rest of the day looking like a hybrid after a transformation. If he didn't know any better, he would say that some werewolf stories matched him perfectly. From what he could tell, though he wasn't completely reverted, he could still pass for human like this.

"Didn't know you were into makeup, Frostbite." Jack blinked, giving Bunny a confused look. He could only hold Bunny's piercing stare for a moment before the Pooka sighed and rolled his eyes, his arms still crossed. "Yer eyes, mate."

"My eyes..." Jack absently touched his cheek in confusion before brightening. "Oh! Yeah, I guess I forgot about that. Really brings out my eyes, doesn't it?" Jack batted his eyelashes, earning a snort. Add another thing to the list. So apparently his eyes were still black-rimmed and wolf-like as well. "Thanks for watching my hoodie North." He grinned, grabbing the sweater but not putting it on immediately. He could feel Bunny looking over the boy, the gears turning in his furry little head. Good, he wanted Bunny to figure it out. Turning to face the room, Jack adjusted his ancient and stained wool shirt, making the snowflake pendant move and catch the light before he put the hoodie on over it. Another piece of the puzzle clicked into place.

"Jack, where's your staff?" Tooth asked, looking around the room. Maybe North had been holding that for the boy along with his sweater.

"Hm?" Jack blinked, then registered what was wrong with a smirk. "Oh, its here." He gestured vaguely to himself, perching on the opposite arm of Bunny's couch. "North. What you asked earlier: pretty much anything. Though Arctic animals are easier. As long as I've seen them before or have a good idea of what they look like." Jack shrugged, absently pulling the chain of his necklace out with his thumb. "I'm pretty much stuck with a limited color palette though, so it can get pretty boring. Greys or browns like earlier are hard."

"Da," North nodded sagely, stroking his beard, "So I saw earlier. No matter the color, was most impressive."

Turned away from Bunny as he was, Jack didn't see or hear anything, but he could feel when Bunny slotted that last piece of the puzzle into place. It felt as if all the air had been sucked out of the room by a massive inhale. Though it was impossible, it even seemed as if the fire in the hearth and the yeti in the workshop had even been silenced with anticipation.

"Ya bloody hoon! Ya tryin' to give me a coronary?" Bunny roared and leapt for Jack. Reacting quickly, the ice elf rolled off the arm of the couch, barely dodging Bunny's lunge. Buying himself a scant moment while Bunny righted himself, Jack bolted for the opposite side of the room, which happened to be behind North. "Get yer arse back here!"

Popping up like a gopher behind North's chair, Jack stuck out his tongue. "Have to catch me first, Cottontail!" Apparently behind North wasn't even safe, as Bunny just went around the larger-than-life obstacle called Santa. Jack stumbled, attempting to hide behind Tooth as he felt a furry paw brush his heel. Realizing that she was a significantly smaller hiding spot than North had been, Jack gave a quiet curse and looked around the office for his next move

Looking over to Sandy for help, the small wishing star only smiled and shook his head, saluting Jack with an eggnog glass. Some help he was. As Jack pouted, Bunny caught up with the miscreant, and tackled him to the floor. "Ha!" Bunny couldn't help but crow as the smaller spirit flopped on the floor like a fish. "Don't look now, but I think I win."

"Yep, you win." Jack sighed dramatically, falling lax in Bunny's hold. Because he had squirmed around enough as Bunny was pinning him to the floor, Jack had managed to get in the perfect position to make his way to freedom. Twitching his thigh, Jack was happy to find that his legs weren't restrained in the least, though his shoulders were.

"Oi." Bunny narrowed his eyes. He didn't like that smug look on Jack's face one bit. "Stop grinning like a shot fox, ya hoon. You're stuck."

Tilting his head in response, Bunny's only warning before his world was turned on his head was Jack's widening grin. "Have a nice trip." Grabbing Bunny's forearms and drawing both legs up to his chest, Jack kicked up, hitting both sides of the Pooka's hips, forcing the larger spirit into a forward half-toss, half-roll. Using the same momentum that forced Bunny onto his back, Jack stood up, straddling Bunny's waist for the bare moment it took to leap up into the rafters. "Have a nice fall."

Crouching on a beam, Jack looked down at the other guardians, especially the stunned rabbit. Bunny blinked once, twice, before the others started laughing. After a minute, North walked over and offered Bunny a hand up. "That was a surprise, was it not?" the old man grinned, pulling Bunny up like he weighed nothing. "Is not often our martial expert is bested, da?"

"Uh, yeah." Bunny muttered, brushing imaginary dust from his thighs. Looking up at Jack, he gave the boy a dismissive wave, as if he wasn't worth the effort to chase any longer, and sat back on the couch. Though he didn't say anything further, Bunny kept an eye on Jack the rest of the meeting.

"So, Meeting!" North clapped, looking around at his closest friends. "Who's turn to start? Tooth?"

Turning away from her instructions, Tooth gave a small shake of her head and smiled at North, "I thought it was your turn?"

"Nyet, I went last time. Sandy?" The small man shook his head with an 'X'.

"I can go if-"

"Fine, I'll go." Bunny gave a great sigh and cut Tooth off. "Easter's not for a few more months, but the Googie flowers are coming up beautifully, as are the paint plants. I'm still working with an increased crop load to make up for two years ago, but nothing that I can't handle on me own. Been experimentin' with chocolate flavors again. I think I may have hit upon the next big thing if I can get the flavor to stay consistent." He held up a handful of chocolates for the others to sample.

"I hope those are sugar-free, E. Aster." Tooth gave the Pooka an expectant look, to which he held up a separate chocolate for Tooth to take.

"O' course Tooth. That's where the issue is though, the flavor isn't taking well to my usual alternate sweetening methods."

They didn't notice one of the mini teeth flying off with one of the sample pieces, heading for Jack's hiding spot in the rafters. "What's in it?" Jack asked, staring at the brown treat that had been dropped into his palm.

"It's chocolate," Bunny's ear twitched, just picking up Jack's question. "What else would it be?"

He shook his head, though Bunny didn't see it, "I mean, what's in the chocolate?" Taking a sniff, Jack didn't smell anything off, but it was better to err on the side of caution. Closing his fingers around the small confection, he was absently glad that the chocolate wouldn't melt on his skin.

"Nothin you should ask about, unless you're fixing on stealing my recipe, are ya?" Turning around, Bunny rested his hands on his hips, fixing the boy with a challenging look. Looking away, Jack shook his head, putting the chocolate in his pocket. All he wanted to know was if he could eat it or not, not how to make the small treats. He'll ask one of the kitchen yeti later to try a piece, to see if he could actually eat it. A reaction was the last thing he needed to deal with at the beginning of his season.

"Thanks for the Chocolate Bunny, I'll have it later and get back to you on it."

"That better be all. I don't need any more competition. The humans are bad enough as it is."

Turning back to the meeting, it was Sandy's turn, which always became a game of charades and show-and-tell. The golden man replayed some of his more memorable dreams, much to the others' amusement.

Next it was Tooth's turn and Bunny set an egg timer 'to make everything fair'. In reality, their first few meetings, Tooth had talked about the children's teeth for a solid two hours before a crash had come from the workshop floor, interrupted her monologue and effectively ended the meeting. It was also the first time that the other guardians had seen Jack fall asleep. Or, to be more precise, the first time that Sandy had seen Jack fall asleep in the presence of the other guardians. He debated if it counted when North and Bunny had fallen asleep first.

When the buzzer went off, Tooth gracefully ceded the floor to North, whom started with a toast with a half-eaten cookie. "Ah, yes." North stood up, brushing crumbs from his beard. "Christmas is 115 days away and everything is on schedule. Toys are being made, yeti are working hard and elves are staying out from under boot." He said, giving a particularly daring elf a warning look as it reached for the plate of cookies still on the table. "Jack! Come down here and show the others what you were doing earlier!" North waved, startling Bunny and Tooth. They had settled down for a long talk about Christmas, complete with subtle and not-so-subtle ribbing about being better than Easter. Bunny had wound himself up to defend his holiday and Tooth to separate the two if it got out of hand.

"North, mate," Bunny looked at the egg timer, merrily ticking away, "You still got ten minutes."

"Bah!" North waved Bunny aside, gesturing toward Jack, "Come on and let Tooth and Sandy see what you showed us earlier." Turning, North saw Tooth and Sandy's confused expressions and Bunny's disgruntled one and gave a wide grin. "We have another shape shifter!" He stage-whispered in excitement. "Was wolf earlier with beautiful white coat."

"!" Sandy grinned, clapping. Symbols popped up, including a repeated snowflake and wolf, but included several other animals as well. Eventually the charades slowed and stopped on the wolf, which Sandy sent up to prance around Jack, making the boy give a small laugh.

"Ok, ok, Little Man, as you wish." Quickly shedding his hoodie once again and laying it across the beam, Jack slipped to the floor, already starting the change.

"Wait a minute!" Bunny yelped, holding up his hands defensively, "You've already transformed at least once today, aren't ya tired or somethin'?"

The fur started first, rippling down from the crown of his head, at the same time his muzzle started growing. By the time he landed, his feet had already changed, catching the impact on lupine legs. Tilting his head to one side, Jack took a moment thinking about Bunny's question before shrugging and shaking his head, which is quite the odd sight on a half-wolf body. Seconds later, Jack landed on his front paws and gave a stretch to settle back into his body. Sitting back on his haunches, he gave a wide lupine grin.

Taking the silent go-ahead, Sandy came forward first, giving Jack a hug and roughly messing with what Jack could only call his mane, making it stick out everywhere. After a minute of the rough handling and absolutely loving it, Jack ducked out of Sandy's arms and trotted right up to Tooth, still with that wide grin. "Oh!" Tooth chirped, her hands flying to her face as Jack attempted to rub up against her foot like a cat. "You're just adorable!" Sitting, Jack grinned, his tail wagging as Tooth floated down to his level. "An adorable puppy!" And then her hands were all over him.

"Tooth, sharp teeth." North warned, which was promptly ignored as she delicately peeled away Jack's lips to admire his teeth.

"Yeah, don't you remember, that's a wolf. Not some little house-dog there." Bunny grumbled, well away from the others and the wolf that had all their attention.

"Its still Jack, Bunny. And look at all those shiny teeth! They're still as white as freshly fallen snow." Tooth cooed, sitting back enough to actually look at Jack.

"Yes, see, is Jack, he won't hurt you." North laughed, giving Jack a pat hard enough to draw a grunt out.

"He- he bit me, North!" Bunny exclaimed, pointing to the bracer that Jack had gummed earlier. "What do you have to say about that?" He asked pointedly at Jack, to which he just barked. "Oh, ha. Ha. Playing the 'can't speak' card huh? Not funny Frostbite."

Jack just grinned again, pushing into the petting hands absently. Though he was normally unsure about touch, for some reason mortals and animals could easily touch him like this and he liked it. It was comforting.

"One question." North spoke, not continuing until he had Jack's question. "Are you well? Bunny gets tired and sore after his transformations." North thought for a moment. "And crankier than usual."

"Oi!"

"What? Is truth."

"Still, you shouldn't go blabbering to everybody about it."

"Bah, you worry too much. We are all friends here," North waved away Bunny's ire. Whuffing, Jack shook his head, but North was expecting more. "Jack, is alright, you can speak." Shaking his head, Jack opened his mouth as if to talk, but then closed it and shook his head with a smile in his eyes.

"You... can't speak?" Tooth asked quietly, concerned.

Jack shook his head, then frowned, trying to figure out how to explain it with no words and a limited range of body language that they could understand. With a low whine, Jack stepped away just enough to have some room and started to revert back to human. "No-not really." Jack spoke as soon as his human vocal cords developed, though it sounded raspy and like he needed water. Only needing the ability to speak, he stopped concentrating on the transformation magic. "The only thing that stays human when I transform is my mind. If I did something like a parrot or raven, I could probably figure out how to speak after a while, but otherwise no."

"You can do other animals?" Jack nodded, then grimaced as much as he could with a half-sized muzzle. Stopped haphazardly like this was not the most comfortable thing he had done. Thinking for a moment, Jack closed his eyes and started to concentrate once again. Immediately, his fur clumped together and started flecking black.

Shrinking more than he was as a wolf, Jack stood as his legs and arms completely changed structure. The half-muzzle hardened and shrunk, turning into a tiny black beak. It was quite the sight, being a mix between fur, feathers and human. It was a taxidermist's warped dream. Quickly enough, though not as fast as his wolf transformation, Jack stood a fifth of his human height.

"Ha-ha, wait until I tell Ombric!" North crowed, crouching down to take a closer look. Carefully, he picked Jack up in deceptively gentle hands. "He loves owls." Flopping around and trying to regain his balance, Jack shot North a disgruntled look with luminous eyes.

"I remember that!" Tooth murmured, running a delicate hand over Jack's head and carefully inspecting Jack's wings. "You haven't met him yet Jack. He's North's mentor and Katherine's father- oh, I guess you haven't met her yet either. We'll have to change that some time, won't we? Though its a bit of a journey. They, along with Nightlight- you would like him- moved up to live with Tsar Lunar some 400 years ago. Occasionally, they come down and visit. Next time we'll introduce you. It'll be nice to have all the Guardians together again. Can you fly?" She stepped back to give Jack room.

Blinking, it took a minute to digest the deluge of information that Tooth had given him. Ombric? Wasn't that North's old mentor? And who was Katherine? Someone with a nightlight? Jack shook his head. He would have to ask later, when he had his voice back.

Extending his wings, Jack hopped up to the edge of North's cupped hands and over. "Oop!" Tooth lunged to catch Jack, but the boy pulled out of the dive before she got there, flapping hard in the low-wind environment. It was a lot harder without Wind's help, that was for sure.

Circling the Guardians' heads three times, he came in for a landing. On Bunny's head. He could feel the Pooka tense under his talons and heard the choking noises that he was emitting. "Frost! Get off!" Oh, if only he could see Bunny's expression! But it was not to be as he dodged a flailing paw, trying to knock Jack off his head.

Huffing, Jack perched on North's shoulder next. Not only was it a larger perch, but the laughing guardian didn't seem to mind.

"Good, good! Splendid!" North congratulated, petting Jack's head with one beefy finger.

"Wait a minute..." Tooth looked closer at Jack, looking at his marking pattern. "There was an owl harassing my girls a few years ago. That was you, wasn't it?"

"Hoo! Hoot?" Jack leaned back, fluffing his feathers in surprise.

"Slow down, Jack. It has been a while." North murmured, drawing Jack away with one of his hands and away from Tooth's immediate reach. "Now, start from the beginning." Jack just blinked at North. "What? Was old hobby in Santoff Claussen to learn to speak the language of the animals. Whole village was doing it."

"Oh." Jack muttered in Owl-ish, "I thought this was Santoff Claussen?"

"Later, later, for now, speak." North instructed. Nodding, Jack turned to Tooth. "Yes. Me yes." North started, hesitant at first with his translation. "Ah, I am a bit rusty. Something about great snow. Oh! Blizzard and white sky? Cold small birds. Freezing death or... quick death? Sorry me sorry. Yours health yes. No again. Me sorry. Is that correct?"

Jack ruffled his wings in a parody of a shrug. Close enough. He would have to apologize to Tooth and the girls that he had dive-bombed properly later. He had honestly thought that they were hummingbirds that were way out of their element at the time. Knowing how that blizzard was acting, he thought it was merciful for the birds to die a quick death, rather than slowly freezing to death. It wasn't until he got a long, sharp beak in a soft spot that he realized that he has accosted Tooth's minis and promptly let them go. He was glad that they were a sturdy lot, otherwise he may have crippled them. He still had probably hurt them though.

Wobbling a little on North's hand, Jack decided that he had enough charades. Besides, Four and a half transformations in such a short time was starting to wear on his body. He might as well make this last one count and put on a good show. It wasn't holding the transformations that was so tiring, but the process and stages between the two shapes. His master, despite his claims of aching bones and fatigue in phantom limbs, had turned shape changing into an art worthy of the theater. Jack could only hope to be half as graceful after nearly a thousand years of practice.

Silently winging down to the floor, Jack turned so that everyone, especially Tooth, could watch. Taking his transformation slowly, Jack held out his wings as he shot up like a weed. His beak melted into his nose and lips and the feathers of his face faded into pale marks on his skin. As soon as he could, he gave Tooth a smile, which included more eyes than temporarily paralyzed lips. His legs were bare human skin from the hem of his pants down, ending in the owl's claws. It looked like he was wearing a pair of feathered breeches.

While the breast and back of his shirt were divested of feathers, his arms were at that oddly-beautiful half-arm/half-wing that vaguely reminded Jack of some descriptions of angels. His hair, while it could normally be described as feathery, had taken the description to a whole different level. "Ta-da!" Jack smirked, stretching out what was left of his wings and flaring his diminished tail. Giving one, two, three large waves of his wings, he let them drop as arms to his side, completely normal poet's sleeves instead of wings. The last to change back was the disappearance of his tail, to which Jack grimaced. "Its always the tail that feels the weirdest." Rubbing his fingers against his leather-clad thigh, Jack gave a silent sigh of relief. As far as he could tell, the transformation was successful.

"Jack, that was wonderful!" Tooth gave the sprite a hug, absently preening Jack's hair-feathers.

Giving himself a faintly annoyed look, Jack absently ruffled his hair with a hand. Yep, feathers. Mixed in with his normal hair, but feathers nonetheless. "Yeah, that'll fade in a bit." He muttered absently, making his way over to the couch and falling into it bonelessly.

"Tuckered yerself out there, didn't ya?" Bunny smirked, his arms crossed. Jack didn't bother to respond, but leaned more into Tooth's working fingers. While the preening wouldn't matter in a few hours, it was the touch that counted. And if it came from Tooth the ever-moving, how was he to complain?

"Now," Jack cracked his eye open and saw North leaning forward in his chosen chair, hands clasped and clearly enthralled with Jack. "What animals have you done? We have seen owl and wolf. Do you have others?"

"That was a Snowy Owl and an Arctic Wolf." Jack gently corrected. "Though sometimes I go for a Tundra or a Kenai if I need the size." He shrugged, moving his head so that Tooth could get to a different section. "Depending on what I need or want to do, I've also done a White-tailed deer, Lynx, Ermine, Arctic Fox... A raven that one time. I was stuck with feathers for a week after that one." Jack had started absently ticking animals off on his fingers. "Uh... the Grey seal was fun, though I'm probably not going to do that one again now that I..." Jack closed his eyes and reminded himself to breathe. "Yeah, probably not again. Same with the Beluga." He shrugged. He actually enjoyed swimming before his memory came back, but now it had become too much of a mind-over-matter situation to be any fun.

"And, uh-" Jack looked at Bunny out of the corner of his eye, trying not to make eye contact. "Yeah." Was that a blush he was feeling? Oh moon, it was. "I've done a Snowshoe maybe, kinda, once or twice as well. Any other questions?" Jack rushed to change subjects. That wasn't nearly all of the transformations that he had done, but North had only asked for what animals he had done. Cryptids, yeah while they were technically animals, as much as humans were, was not something that he wanted to get into. He had only known, and become, the Guardians for not even two years.

"Just the one," Bunny narrowed his eyes and gave Jack a warning look, "What're your limits? Wouldn't do to depend on something we don't know what you can do."

This, Jack sighed with a grimace, was something that he didn't want to talk about. It was bad enough that they were trying to dig into his personal life, but weaknesses too? "Only if you go first, Cottontail. Y'know," he gave a smirk that he wasn't feeling, but ticked Bunny off enough to garner a response. "So I know what you want to know."

If he had to describe Bunny's expression, it had to lie somewhere between 'sucked on a lemon' and 'an inch of snow on Easter', but he eventually relented. "A'ight, fair enough. Where do you want to start?" What Jack did was little more of a twitch than a shrug, but he didn't say anything with his little smirk. "The chocolate then."

"This," Bunny pulled out an egg-shaped chocolate for Jack to see. "Is one of my special chocolates. Near pure cacao bean with only a splash of sugar to make it palatable. The thing about Pooka is that we are allergic to chocolate. Normally, we are very proud of our control, over both our minds and bodies. Chocolate, much like alcohol in humans." Bunny sent a side-eye to a giggling North.

"Oh, you should have seen Bunny when we first met him! More high-strung than fiddle!"

"Thank you North. While humans loose control of their facilities, Pooka loose control of their emotions, and in extreme cases, their physical shape as well."

"Is that where the Octo-bunny comes in?"

Octo... Bunny shook his head. "Yes, and no. Depending on how much pure chocolate I ingest, I have a tendency to only grow two or four temporary arms, here," He gestured to his sides, below his two natural arms. "And there is also a proportional all-around growth and a... mild loss of higher brain function."

"What he means to say," Tooth interrupted, checking to see if she missed any of Jack's feathers, "is he becomes a bit feral."

"Oh." Jack grinned, his eyes maybe a little wider than usual. "That I can understand. I've been called feral before too."

Bunny snorted. "Yer definitely not tame, that's for sure." Making a gesture to bring them back on subject, he continued. "Once again, depending on how much I ingest, the effects can remain from a few minutes to a few hours on one dose. Then I experience what North has so kindly termed 'a hangover'. A sensitivity to light and sound, exhaustion and pain, mild nausea, what could be expected from consuming too much alcohol. Any questions?" He knew it was a mistake to ask as soon as the last word had left his mouth, if Jack's expression had anything to do with it.

"So... do you sample your own wares?"

Sputtering, Bunny leaned away from Jack and turned his head in mild embarrassment. "Its come to be a bit unavoidable, over the years. Cocoa powder is a fine dust, after all, and gets into the air when I'm working on my chocolates. Especially working in mass quantities."

"Yes, and it has helped Bunny mellow, especially with the increase in his belief base when Easter chocolates took off!" North was enjoying this talk. Reviewing specifics were good for everyone, not just Jack.

"The downside is, I don't work so much on my mechanics. Many of my stone golems have fallen into disrepair in the past centuries." He made a mental note to work on them after this upcoming holiday season. It wouldn't do to be completely helpless once again. Settling back and out of his 'teacher mode', Bunny motioned for Jack to start talking.

"Yeah, well..." He didn't know where to start, or even where he wanted to start. "It started with, ah." The expression on his face was something that didn't quite have a name before giving in with an apologetic shrug, "Honestly, I learned because of the Yeti."

"But Yeti cannot shape shift." North objected.

"Yeah, but I still learned because of the yeti. It was kinda a... a defense mechanism at first." Really, it was because of a stupid attempt at making a certain pair of Yeti mates happy after the passing of their son, but the others didn't need to know that. Let the others believe what they would, Jack and the Yeti of the workshop had a... complicated relationship when it came to involving outsiders. "I had no clue what was happening or how to control it, but that was, hmm... about two hundred years ago?"

"Crickey, how long have you been trying to get in here?"

Getting a faraway look in his eye, Jack mentally tallied up the years. "I must have been ten? 25?" Jack shrugged. It had to be sometime after he learned how to fly from the geese, but before he lost his first cape. "Definitely more than 250 years ago."

Bunny had grown still. "Jack..." he was tallying up the numbers, "Just, how old are you?"

"What, as a spirit, or a human?"

"Spirit, human, both." He was afraid to find out the answer, but needed to know. "Together."

"Three hundred and fifteen. No, wait, I guess that would be sixteen. Does it really matter?" Yes, it mattered. It mattered more than Jack could possibly know. North, at barely scraping his fifth century, was still practically considered an infant in some circles. A thousand was when a spirit reached majority, despite whatever their physical appearance happened to be at the time. And Jack's... He looked young. Not a child, in the strictest sense, but still at the edge of their protective umbrella.

"North?" The large Russian nodded and left the room.

"What? Did I say something?" Jack asked, startled when the atmosphere of the room completely shifted.

"No, Jack. We just realized something." Tooth cooed, giving the boy a light hug. Tooth herself had only just reached her majority a handful of decades ago, realized what Bunny had. "Why don't you continue while we wait for North to come back?"

Unsure, and frankly a bit uneasy, Jack continued. "I've been friends with the wolf pack around Burgess since the beginning, so that was the first transformation I tried to control. Now, its just my go-to because I've had so much practice with it. I change into a wolf and stay with them for a few hours, or days... years." Jack shrugged. "I've tried whatever animal I felt like being at the time, and the more often I change in and out of that shape, the easier it becomes. The first time or two," he couldn't help but grimace, remembering many, many failed attempts. "It can get a bit ugly. And takes forever to change."

Grinning, Jack leaned on his knees, lost in his memories, "You should have seen me the first time I tried to change back to change back from an animal. It takes about a day and, woo, talk about 'Hollywood movie monster'!" He chuckled.

Catching Sandy out of the corner of his eye, he turned to give the wishing star his full attention. Man, arrow, woman, question mark, baby, arrow, old man, question mark, thin man, arrow, fat man

"No," Jack shook his head, still chuckling, "Though it would be cool. I'm still me, no matter what animal I've changed into. White hair, blue eyes, male and the same skinny frame. As for changing into another human? Doesn't work." Jack shrugged. Pretty much anything that was purely genetics-based was unchangable, so long as it was compatible with the animal he was changing into. "Age, though, that's relative. If I was the same age in all my transformations, I could be dead since the age range is so small." Or an infant, if the age range was like something like the Yeti. He knew Phil had been around the workshop since Jack had started to break in, but her was no spirit, nor did he seem to have aged very much. The elves, on the other hand, some of their faces looked ancient.

"So what's your limit of animals in one day?" Bunny asked, watching Jack for fatigue. There was a little strain around his eyes, but that seemed normal for the boy.

Jack shrugged. "I haven't really tested it out. No reason to. And its not the number of animals I do, but how many times I have to shape change. Changing is hard, but holding the shape is as easy as staying human."

Bunny nodded. "We'll have to test that then. And your powers, are you able to access those in your other shapes?"

Jack held up his hands and gave his thumbs a wiggle with a little smirk. "Need these to hold the staff, otherwise things don't work."

"I remember when we fought Pitch," Tooth chirped, "you dropped your staff and started falling that one time." More than once. Jack winced. It had been a pure miracle that he hadn't had any serious damage after all the crashes he had in those three days.

"We'll need to work on that." Bunny narrowed his eyes, "It doesn't do for you to have a magical crutch when you get in a jam."

"Found it!" North announced from the doorway, holding up a larger-than-life book and a light layer of dust powdered his shoulders. "Was is back, back room."

"Ah, good! Bring it over here, North." Bunny started clearing the coffee table, moving the plate of cookies off to the side.

"Wait a minute, guys. What's that?" Jack asked, watching as the other four Guardians knelt by the book.

"This, is list of child spirits." North gestured, cracking open the book and rapidly flipping through the pages.

"What?" Bunny smirked, "Thought North only kept the Naughty/Nice lists, didya? Nah, mate, he has all sorts of lists tucked away."

"Early 1700's North."

"Yes, Tooth, I know. This, young Jack, has every spirit born in the past thousand years.

"And their assigned mentors!" Tooth chirped.

"And their assigned mentors." North nodded. "Here is me!" North patted the page, throwing up a cloud of dust.

"Each spirit, before they're born or directly after, is assigned a mentor based on their powers and abilities. They help guide the new spirit and help them grow into their abilities while teaching them the ways of the spirit world. Oh, speaking of, I should probably visit Jnana some time." Tooth twittered as North continued to flip pages.

"Then Ombric was your mentor then?"

North nodded. "As with Katherine, since Ombric adopted her before we became spirits. Atlantean, he was, and very fond of owls. Ah, here we... are?"

They looked at the page, but where where the mentor's name was written under Jacks, it seemed like the original name had been scratched out angrily with foreign lettering underneath written in a nearly illegible scrawl.

"That's... not normal, is it?" Jack peered closer at the handwriting. It looked familiar. "Did you do that?"

"Nyet, I have not seen it before. Book writes itself."

"I have." Bunny looked closely at the scratched-out name. "Frostbite, did you ever meet a," he tried to read the lettering, "Jokul Frosti?"

Letting out a low hiss, Jack leaned back, wanting nothing to do with the book any longer. "Once. I'd rather get kicked by lord Burgess' cow again before talking to him one more time."

Bunny nodded. "Then have you met a... Hikke?"

"Hiksti." Jack relaxed, "it was by accident though. From what I know, he's more of a recluse than you, Kangaroo, so I've only seen him a few times." There was no way that he would tell them that he spent the summer with his mentor every decade or so. Hiksti enjoyed his privacy.

"Then he's doing a piss-poor job of being your mentor, if he couldn't even knock some proper manners into your thick skull."

He had manners! He just decided it wasn't worth it to abide by the rules unless he needed to. They were too much work and cut into his fun most of the time.

"Bunny!" Tooth hissed and Sandy gave the Pooka a warning look.

"That's why," Bunny stood tall, crossing his arms and peering down his muzzle at Jack. "I'll work with you. You need to work on your shape shifting and weaning off of that staff 'o' yours. I've had enough anklebiters to train up over the years, it shouldn't be too out of the way to help you too."

"Jack, that's wonderful!" Tooth buzzed, giving Jack a tackle-hug, which the boy belatedly returned. Sandy shot up sand-fireworks with a giant smile and North patted Jack on the back 'gently', sending him stumbling forward.

"Good, this is good." North nodded, glancing at the book. The second name had not been scratched out and replaced with Bunny's, but sometimes things like this took time, so he was not worried.

"Ya see me once a month already, I don't see any difference from before. An extra hour after our meetings wouldn't inconvenience either of us, so it's settled."

"Yeah. Settled." If Jack was less than enthusiastic about his new mentor, the others didn't pick up on it. Something like this, it would either bring them all together...

Or break their tentative friendship completely.