Masked (A Hat In Time)

A Fresh Take

Me, lifting Jaide above my head like Rafiki holding baby Simba proudly: She best girl.

---

Bow Kid stood outside of the carved dome-like ice structure Jaide called home. Thanks to the spell, she couldn't feel the coldness of the air around her. It was honestly quite disturbing to look around at all of the ice and to think, That's cold, but to not feel it at all. But Jaide seemed more than happy to make them feel warmer and safer.

She craned her head back to look up at the sky, wondering if she could see the spaceship. Unfortunately, there was a thick layer of clouds above. Bow Kid sighed. Her breath clouded up in the air. Which was still weird, considering she didn't feel cold.

Hat Kid had gone up to the spaceship briefly to check if the timepiece Bow Kid had grabbed had counted. What if it didn't? Had their encounter with death denied them the timepiece? Would they have to go get it again? Well, if it was in the same spot, that'd be easy, considering that the cold wouldn't kill them anymore.

Bow Kid jiggled her leg impatiently. Come on now, she thought. Hattie's gotta come back soon.

And just like that, Hat Kid appeared right in front of her. Bow Kid turned to her. "It counted," Hat Kid said, her eyes bright.

"What counted?" The two kids stiffened at Jaide's voice. Bow Kid slowly turned around to face Jaide.

Of course, Jaide had come out just at that moment. Of. Pecking. Course.

It's not that Bow Kid didn't like Jaide. If anything, Jaide was one of her favorite people she'd met already. She was kind, friendly, and helpful. But people they trusted tended to turn against them and try to kill them for their timepieces.

Though honestly, some of it wasn't surprising. The Mafia Boss- well, he literally had Mafia in his name. With the directors it was a bit shocking, especially when they learned that they couldn't leave the machine room in the spaceship until they kicked DJ Grooves's butt. And with Snatcher...

Well, Snatcher was already heehoo evil ghost snoodle from the beginning.

Alpine Skyline was a nice break, with a lack of people trying to murder them. Then there was Mustache Girl. The only thing unexpected with her was her somehow changing the entire timeline. Seriously, what the peck?! Rude.

The Arctic Cruise, like Alpine Skyline, was peaceful enough. But Nyakuza Metro was fun, yet horrible at the end. Yeah, they'd expected the Empress to try and murder them. They didn't expect her to place a huge bounty on their heads and set the whole city after them though.

So was Jaide to be trusted or not? Sure, she'd rescued them and she'd helped them, but what if she tried to kill them for the power of the timepieces? Did she even know what the timepieces could do? If she did...what would she do with them?

"Um, a timepiece," Hat Kid blurted. Bow Kid jolted, remembering suddenly that Jaide had asked them a question, and shot a glance at Hat Kid. Hat Kid looked back at her with a bewildered shrug.

"A timepiece?" Jaide asked, her eyes widening curiously. Uh-oh, Bow Kid thought nervously. She's probably going to ask what they are. And we can't just lie, can we?

"Are those shining lights that appeared around the Tundra about a few months ago called timepieces?" Jaide asked.

Hat Kid and Bow Kid shared a look. From the telescope in the spaceship, the timepieces looked like shining lights. "Yes," they answered at the same time. Bow Kid turned back to look at Jaide.

Jaide's eyes sparkled with excitement. "Oh, those!" she exclaimed. "There was one on the ice sculpture where I found you-" For a single moment, something flickered in her eyes. But it was gone again so quickly that Bow Kid couldn't tell what it was. "Are you collecting them?" Jaide asked brightly.

Before they could answer, Jaide turned and went back into her home. The two girls shared yet another confused look. What?

A moment later, Jaide came back out of the ice home, holding a yellowed paper. She bent down in front of the two girls and showed them the paper. Bow Kid looked curiously. It was a map. On the map, there were a few green markings scattered around.

"This is a map of the tundra," Jaide explained. "I've been curious about those lights- the timepieces, you call them, and I investigated them. I've marked down their locations here. Though...you already found one." She paused and then lowered a glowing green finger to the map. She dragged her finger across the map and crossed it in an x on one of the marks in the middle of the map. Her finger left green marks over the map, crossing out the already collected timepiece.

Yo she uses her finger as a pencil, Bow Kid thought, and then immediately hated herself for letting that be the first thing she thought.

Jaide looked back up and smiled at them. "If you want, you can use it," she told them warmly, holding out the map to them.

Hat Kid started to take the map, but then she paused. "Is this your only map?" she asked.

"Well, yes," Jaide said. "But I can always make a new one!" She grinned at them.

Hat Kid glanced back down at the map, then shook her head. "No, you can keep it."

Jaide's eyes widened, surprised. "You don't want to use it?" she asked, her voice containing a hint of mild bewilderment.

"No, we'll use it!" Bow Kid cut in, realizing where Hat Kid was going with this. "If we need to find a timepiece, we can always go to you to check the map." She smiled back at Jaide. "Besides, that'll give us an excuse to visit you."

Jaide's green eyes lit up with happiness. "You kids are too kind," she said, rolling up the map. Her eyes shone with joy. Bow Kid was starting to like her more and more.

Jaide momentarily disappeared back into her home to put away the map and came out again. "The closest timepiece to here is to the northwest," she told them, pointing in the general direction. "I have to warn you, though, there's quite a steep climb to get there."

Hat Kid's eyes filled with stars. "Thanks, Jaide!" she said. "Come on, Bow!" She started to run off to the northwest.

But Bow Kid stayed back, studying Jaide with concern. The hand Jaide pointed with was wrapped in bandages. The color of her hand, as she could see in the gaps of the bandages, wasn't the same as the rest of her. While her left hand was a grey so dark it was almost black, her right hand was a very light grey. "What happened to your hand?" Bow Kid asked.

Jaide hesitated and brought her hand down. She stared at it for a moment as if she forgot the bandages were there. "It's an old wound," Jaide answered quietly. "A very old wound."

Bow Kid wondered if she was lying. The bandages looked new. But she didn't dare say anything suspicious. Jaide looked troubled enough already.

"All right," Bow Kid answered, deciding to accept that for now. She took a step, starting to follow Hat Kid, and then paused. Bow whirled back toward Jaide and threw her arms around her, hugging the spirit.

Jaide gasped. Then, after a moment, she wrapped her arms around Bow Kid softly, hugging her back. "What brought this up, child?" Jaide asked, chuckling.

"I don't know," Bow Kid answered. She thought for a moment. And then suddenly, she did know. "You looked sad earlier," she said, realizing what the look in Jaide's eyes was when she mentioned the curved ice sculpture. Jaide had been sad, but then she'd covered it up immediately. "I guess I felt you just needed a hug."

There was a moment of silence. Then Jaide laughed softly. "You're too kind to me," she murmured, her voice breaking. Oh no, is she going to cry? Bow Kid wondered. That's not what I was trying to do at all. After a moment, Jaide pulled away. Yup, her eyes were definitely shining like she was going to cry. "You should go after your friend, child," Jaide told her. "Go get your timepieces." She tried her best to sound cheerful, but tears were rushing to her eyes.

Oh, peck oh peck please let those be tears of happiness-

"Okay," Bow Kid replied, suddenly feeling very awkward. She turned away and power-walked over to where Hat Kid was waiting for her, several yards away.

Hattie shot Bow Kid a quizzical look. "What were you doing with Jaide?" she asked.

"Screwing up," Bow Kid replied 100% honestly.