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Chapter 19: To be immortal

They both flew across the world. The wind tossed them playfully around in the sky, earning laughs from the two immortal teens. Both feeling as if, a heavy weight has lifted off their shoulders. They flew across the pacific, reaching the shores of North America. When they reached the state of Pennsylvania, Tooth thought that Jack wanted to show her something in their hometown Burgess but instead they landed in a small town not too far from lake eerie. They hid in some nearby bushes giving them a clear view of the small park in front of them.

"Jack what are we doing here?" Tooth asked with a confused expression on her face "Visiting" he stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. As if on cue, a group of children came into view all of them happily chatting as if they didn't have a care in the world, they probably didn't. However, there was one boy who a short distance away. He was fretting nervously on his feet, looking at the children with a longing and slight hint of fear on his face. This caused Tooth to look even more confused and she was about to fly over to the boy when Jack suddenly put his arm on her shoulder.

"Stay out of sight, okay?" she just nodded slowly in response, not sure what to make of this. Jack, seeing this sighed "that boy most likely still believes in the Tooth fairy. If he does he'll be able to see you, which will make what I'm about to do that much harder." He let out another sigh, not really able to explain it without showing her first "Just stay here and watch, okay?"

Tooth watched him fly over to the small boy, before landing right in front of him. He crouched down to be closer to the boy's face. He held out his hand and on top of it, an ice crystal shining in a bluish light formed, in the shape of a snowflake. Tooth couldn't help but look at it in slight awe and wonder, at its beauty. Before she knew it, Jack blew the crystal snowflake towards the boy's face, hitting him right between the eyes.

The reaction was immediate, a bright smile on the boy's face as he rushed off to join the kids in their game. Jack flew back to where Tooth was hiding. He sighed "a few weeks ago, I was flying around when I saw a group of kids playing in the snow and I decided to join them for a while and make their game a bit more fun." Tooth couldn't help but chuckle in slight relief at that, Jack was still Jack after all. She had been a bit worried that being the winter spirit had changed the boy she knew and knowing he was still the same made her smile.

"After a while I noticed a boy sitting on a nearby bench looking completely crushed. I couldn't stand to see him suffer like that." he paused and added in voice almost too low for Tooth to hear, but she caught it "I've seen enough of that already" Tooth couldn't help but agree, knowing he had seen how his own death had affected those he held dear. "I used one those 'special' snowflakes the wind taught me, to make to cheer him up a bit, even if it's only for a while, so far it seems to be working, though he is still a bit insecure and shy. I later learned that his father was killed in an accident and well I couldn't help but feel I should try and help him, even though he can't see me. Hopefully, with time he will be able to smile on his own again, but I still hate to see children like him look so miserable, but that's the best I can do for them."

"Shortly after I became the spirit of winter the wind told me about the concept of belief, if I can make someone believe in my existence, they'll be able to see, hear and even touch me. I had you hide because I know for a fact that there are hardly any children in the world who aren't firm believers of the Tooth fairy, which means those kids there would most likely be able to see you."

"Then what about you? Shouldn't they be able to see you too?" Jack just shook his head firmly. "No, all stories related to the spirit of winter died out a long time ago. It's part of the reason why Jakul Frosti chose to fade. The few stories that did remain died out with him, at least that's what the wind told me. There are two kinds of immortals. I'm what is known as a nature immortal, I gain my power from nature itself and I can live as long as I want to. Which means I don't need to rely on belief like legend immortal, such as yourself. Even though I don't need belief, it doesn't mean I'm not willing to try and gain it, I just haven't figured out how yet."

"Enough about that, that's something I have to deal with on my own after all." Tooth just remained silent as Jack went on "the reason why I brought you here, is to show you the importance of immortals, why we're here." He paused and gestured towards the boy from before playing with the other kids. "There are a lot of kids out there who lost someone dear to them, just like that boy and… Emily… or suffering in some other way that makes their lives miserable. Part of our jobs involves helping those children, in whatever way we can, to insure that they at least some happy memories to help them through the hardships of life."

"While my season can be very deadly, it's also a time to bond with your family by the warm fireplace, build snowmen or have a massive snowball fight. So… while it's deadly, it's also a time for fun. Nothing is completely black or white. You have to take the good with the bad… but most importantly, you need to remember that you can't save them all, no matter how much you try, there is simply too many. However, don't let that fact stop you, embrace it and do what you can to help. It's something you have to accept or you won't be able to help anyone."

He let out a sigh and turned his back to her "you doubted what you had become, because you were afraid, confused and remained unaware of your own worth… your importance… that's why I brought you here… and have a bit of fun of cause" he added with a slight chuckle. He turned to face her looking at her with a solemn but serious face "you said you were the guardian of memories, your job is to remind them of long forgotten memories when they need it the most, you heal their scars with their past… so tell me Tooth… do you still doubt your own worth?"

Tooth just stood there wide eyed, gaping at him, trying to make sense of his words. Noticing this, Jack couldn't hold back a chuckle at her flabbergasted appearance. "What? You didn't expect me to say something like that?" he did an overdramatic hurt expression and clutched his heart feigning hurt "aww Tooth you wound me!" Tooth couldn't help it… she burst out laughing at Jack's antics.

After she collected herself she couldn't help but ask "Jack, you mentioned something about me being legend immortal." Jack chuckled "so you caught that, huh? Well legend immortal are a bit different from nature immortals. Nature immortal are born with their powers over nature, a base power you could say, we use belief to increase power but we gain very little from each believer. Unlike nature immortals that will never get below their base power, even if they lose all their believers, the legend's power depends solely on belief. Without belief a legend will be little more than a regular human in regards to power. They will then have to rely completely on their own belief to sustain their life… or fade."

"Both Nature and legends have ranks. The nature immortals, though they are reborn by the man in the moon, aka Manny, they follow the command of Mother Nature. However, she rarely gets involved beyond what involves the balance of the earth. She relies on her four… Generals, for the lack of a better word, the four seasons, spring, summer, autumn and finally myself, winter. On which the minor nature immortals most follow depending on which season they belong."

"The legends follow the commands of Manny himself. However, just like Mother Nature he hardly ever gets involved. He like Mother Nature relies on his generals, the guardians." That caught Tooth's attention and got slightly worried if he had meant what she thought he did "the guardians?" Jack chuckled "yes, the guardians. There are four of them, they protect the Wonder, Hope, Dreams and Memories of the children of the world." Tooth looked stunned at this information "memories? You mean that I'm one of the four Guardians?"

"Yes Tooth, you are, but you shouldn't worry yourself about it. It's not as hard as it may sound, though it's a big responsibility you have your Tooth fairies to help you out whenever you need it. Which reminds me, I should probably let you get back to work… it wouldn't do any good if you lost believers because of me now would it."

A/N: I know it wasn't the most exciting chapter but it's important for where I'm going with this story so it had to be done. besides it kind of fitted in here because of what happened in the previous chapter, where Tooth doubted herself, then what would be better than show her the importance of their job.

anyways... sorry for the long wait, i'll try to upload faster but i'll propably wont upload again before sometime next week.