Good Luck Mr. Snowman

Thirteen

Baby Tooth pulled the case containing Jack's baby teeth halfway out of his jacket pocket and looked up at him expectantly. He pulled it the rest of the way out and held it in his hand, staring at it. He lowered it to on top of my thigh and Baby Tooth put her tiny hand on it and nodded up at him.

"Go on Jack, you've waited long enough," I whispered from my seat on his lap.

He ran his fingers along the surface of it and bright light shone forth from it.

There were memories of him with brown hair and eyes, and he was with a little girl that looked a lot like him. First he was hunting Easter eggs with her, then he was swinging upside down from a tree branch, or putting antlers to his head as he told a story by a campfire. Then, he was walking out a door with the girl, ice skates hanging over his shoulder.

"Be careful," a woman said as she watched them leave.

"We will," Jack laughed and the girl took his hand before dragging him away.

"It's okay, it's okay," Jack was on his knees on a frozen pond, his arm outstretched to the little girl who was a little ways away, "Don't look down, just look at me."

"Jack, I'm scared," she said when more ice cracked under her ice skates.

"I know, I know," Jack took a step toward her but the ice cracked a bit under his foot, "You're gonna be alright, you're not gonna fall in. Uh, we're gonna have a little fun instead."

"No, we're not," the girl protested.

"I'm not gonna trick you," Jack held his hands up in surrender.

"Yes, you always play tricks," the girl cried out.

"Well, not, not, not this time," Jack held his hand out in front of him in a stopping motion, "I promise, I promise you're gonna be, you're gonna be fine. You have to believe in me... You wanna play a game? We're gonna play hop scotch, like we play every day. It's as easy as one."

He moved his right foot to the right and ice cracked under it but didn't give way. He lost his balance for a second and the little girl laughed as he purposefully made it seem funny. He moved his left foot to the right as he said "Two" and then walked lightly the rest of the way to a branch that looked like his staff, saying "Three" when he got there.

"Alright," Jack picked up the staff, "Now it's your turn. One, that's it, that's it, two... three."

He used the staff to pull the girl toward him when it looked like the ice was going to give out on her. He fell on the thin ice though, and didn't realize it until it gave out beneath him.

"Jack!" the girl yelled and disappeared from view.

Jack stared up at the hole he fell through and could see the moon through the blue water. It glowed brightly and turned his hair white and his eyes icy blue. Then the images disappeared and we were back in the ravine.

Jack gasped for air and stared down at the teeth.

"Did you see, did you see that?" he asked both Baby Tooth and I.

Baby Tooth shook her head but I nodded, probably only being able to see it due to the fact that I was so close to him.

"It, it was me," Jack picked up Baby Tooth, "I had a family, I had a sister, I saved her! ... That's why you chose me, I'm, I'm a guardian."

He looked up at the moon as he said the last bit, realization coming across his face. He moved me from his lap and stood, extending his hand to help me up as well.

"We have to get out of here," Jack looked around and saw our staffs.

He picked his up and tried to use his power to fix it, but it was no use. I picked up my own staff and stared at the splintered emerald sadly. Jack sighed and tried to fix his staff again, blue light glowed around the two connected parts but it was weak. I created what little luck I could in the palm of my hand and placed my hand around the glow, it was hard to create the luck and I only made a little, but it seemed to have worked. The blue glow intensified and Jack's staff was fixed.

"Now for yours," he spoke breathlessly at the return of his powers.

"I can't fix it, the emerald is shattered," I stared at my staff woefully.

He came over and placed his hand over mine, holding my staff with me. I looked up at his determined face and we both nodded at each other, saying wordlessly that we would give it our best shot.

His hand glowed blue where it met mine and my body felt like it was lit on fire, it felt so refreshing. I mustered up enough strength to create some luck in the hand that wasn't on my staff and wrapped my hand around the emerald. A green glow came from under my hand as ice crawled up the golden staff, stopping when it came to the emerald.

Eventually the green glow dissipated and I held my breath as I removed my hand. The emerald was whole and power rushed back into me, taking my breath away as I gasped. I looked over at a smiling Jack and hugged him while whispering my thanks in his ear. He hugged me back tightly and then we separated and looked up at the open sky. We looked at each other and grinned before taking off, elatedly flying through the clouds.

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