The winter winds raced over the horizon as Wind carried Jack through the sky. He had just come back from a snow day in Burgess and causing several minor snow storms along the rest of the east coast and the few areas of the upper regions of Europe that weren't already covered in several feet of snow.

He had been with Jamie for most of the day and thoroughly enjoyed creating the ultimate sledding course and watching the setting sun cast the sky into as many colors as a watercolor painting as the light made the ice sparkle. Afterwards, the kids had gone inside for hot chocolate and he had decided to try some as well, the best, straight from the North Pole.

North would most likely humor him, with fond exasperation if nothing else, though considering how close it was to Christmas he thought the old spirit perhaps did have a right to be a little irritated with him.

"Of course", he thought as he jumped through the window and landed on the floor just in time to swipe a cookie from an elf, "North would always be more than happy to have a guest, invited or not."

He swiped a glass of hot chocolate from another elf as he passed before heading over to North's study, where he knew the spirit spent most of his time as it became closer to his holiday, pouring over sketches, testing toys, reading letters, and editing lists.

Jack nimbly dodged a few yetis carrying a particularly big present and maneuvered into the first door on the right, where he knew North's study was.

As usual, it was as harried as ever, if not more so. There were several dozen yetis in various places, all completely focused on their tasks. And in the far corner of it all was North, glasses on his nose as he poured over one thing or another. He looked up as he saw Jack come to stand by him, the shadow occluding his papers.

"Jack!" A smile broke out over his face before blue eyes narrowed. "How many times have I told you to knock, hmm?"

Jack grinned in a manner that was far from apologetic, "Sorry North, I forgot"

He snorted, "Believable, very believable. So what bring you here today, Jack?"

"Well actually I just wanted some hot chocolate… and maybe a cookie or two"

"You didn't steal my special Christmas tree cookies, did you?" North gave him a searching look, as if trying to spot cookie crumbs on him. "Those are special cookies to help us get through the night, Jack"

"Oh, come one, you have all the little kids across the world leaving cookies and milk for you"

"I am more concerned about you eating cookies, Jack. Last thing I need is hyper winter spirit causing more mayhem. On Christmas!"

"I'm not that bad," Jack moved to the side to follow North as he stepped up to deliver a few scrolls with the a giant green check mark on them. He guessed they were a list of completed presents.

"You are."

"Are not," He stepped back to avoid a yeti.

"Are too. I am not going to spend rest of night arguing this when all this work needs to be done, Jack," he waved to the hundreds of other scrolls lying on the desk, the chair, the ground, and scattered everywhere across the room.

Jack moved to reply but doing so made him bump his head against a rather long, thin scepter thing on the shelf above his head. He wondered just what kid would ask for that. Maybe they had taken a special liking to Loki or something. Curious, and wondering if it actually resembled the Norse god's scepter Jack took it in hand.

It was unlike any other object he had seen in North's lab, covered in wrappings so thick and with so many runes scrawled on it he could barely make out any of them. There were at least a dozen folds that he had to move back before he could see what the actual scepter looked like.

Pure black, he hesitated to say wood because it didn't look like any material he had ever seen, greeted him. Well, it couldn't be Loki's then, the god had a liking to gold and green as best he could recall (and was rather vicious when enacting revenge in an incident that Jack vowed to bury to his last days).

It was beautiful in a dark way, like the fire that drew a moth in before consuming it, polished to the point it shone and with beautifully crafted edges. It emitted a rather eerie feeling and he couldn't help but wonder why North had it in his study. Or with him at all.

He felt the oddest urge to touch it, to run a finger along it's smooth edge and claim it. So beautiful. He wanted it. It was such a waste to just leave it here, forgotten in a corner of a busy workroom.

Jack reached out and ran a finger along a gilded edge and nearly dropped it when he felt the scalding heat and darkness run through him. His yelp drew North's attention and the man was at his side in an instant, picking up the staff and rewrapping it, careful not to touch it, before placing it back on the shelf.

"What was that?" Jack pointed at the scepter.

North sighed, "That is, was, the Stave of Eidolon. It was the Nightmare King's weapon."

Jack jumped and his eyes widened at his compatriot, "You have Pitch's staff? Here?" He paused, "How come I've never seen it? And why do you have it?"

North steered Jack away from the scepter, as if he had sensed how much it called to him, "It was long ago, back when I was still young guardian, new to this business. After Pitch escaped his prison he left behind his staff so we kept it"

"You kept something like that?"

North shrugged, "We did not want Pitch getting it back. According to Bunny, it was terrifying weapon. And we could not destroy it," he said the last part sheepishly, as if it was a particularly embarrassing experience for him.

"What do you mean you couldn't destroy it? Just chuck it into space or something,"

"No, no. I mean could not be destroyed. We tried, nothing worked. And we thought better to keep it under our eye than not know where it went and Pitch finding it"

"Oh,"

"We tried to give to Mother Earth for safe keeping but she did not want it,"

"Why Mother Earth?" He backtracked hurriedly in case she was listening. "I mean, I know she's really powerful and all, but why give it to her?"

"No one better. Even Pitch will not go against her, too powerful. Though partially because even he won't harm his own daughter,"

"She's his daughter?" The loudness of his shout gained the attention of the yetis and a few elves even peeked in from outside. He gave them a sheepish smile and a wave to get back to whatever they were doing before focusing back on North.

"How come I never knew?" He couldn't deny that not knowing, especially if all the other guardians knew, hurt a bit. It was like they were back to not trusting him again.

North apparently picked up on his turmoil since he laid a hand on his shoulder, "Mostly because never came up. Mother Earth refuses to get involved with our conflicts with Pitch and will not choose a side. But she has rather temperamental personality and we would prefer not to anger her by bringing it up constantly,"

"Pitch has a daughter?" Jack repeated, completely dumbfounded. He had always assumed that the Nightmare King had just appeared one day and done evil. He had never thought he had a past, or a daughter.

"Yes, Jack, Pitch has daughter," North sighed as he looked at the open mouthed winter spirit. A corner of his mouth crinkled up at the sheer befuddlement on the boy's face.

"Mother Earth is Pitch's daughter?" Jack's hands went to his head. "That explains so much. I mean she was always a bit scary, and she has a weird temper, and she-" his words cut off as North slammed a hand over his mouth.

"Shut up," North hissed, glancing worriedly at the window where the snowstorm had started to pick up. Jack's eyes widened in understanding, "I-I mean, Mother Earth is amazing, you know, being so powerful and all."

North slid a hand over his eyes at the embarrassing display but eased his grip on Jack, "I would have thought you would have better apologies, being so used to giving them," he grumbled.

"Shut up," a pale blue hue flushed Jack's cheeks, which North guessed was the equivalent of a blush for a winter spirit. "She's scary and you know it." Since there was no complimentary flash of lightning North guessed Mother Earth found his fear amusing. He assumed anyway, that woman was as hard to mercurial as her father.

"So anyway, about itch having a daughter, how is that even possible?" Jack asked. North rubbed his temples, "Did last few seconds teach you nothing, Jack?"

"Yeah, but I'm still curious," the immortal pain in the neck as Bunny and several of the other spirits had taken to calling him, rose a few inches off the ground so he could stare North in the eye.

"Puppy look not going to work, Jack," the staring continued.

"Fine," he sighed. "I don't know much. Pitch is old, older than Manny. If you really want to know, ask Bunny,"

Jack's sudden increase in height vanished as he fell back to the floor in surprise. From the way his gaze hadn't left North, the Christmas spirit wondered if he had even noticed in his surprise.

"Pitch is older than the Man in the Moon? How old is he then? And why would the Kangaroo know?" Jack leaped up again, swirling around him in a burst of speed that made North dizzy and the yetis swerving to get out of his way. "Is he older than Sandy, too? Is he even from Earth?"

North held out his arm and forced Jack to pause, "Pitch is older than Man in Moon. I don't know, but Sandy and Bunny might since they lived in Golden Age." Ombric might too, but the last thing the old wizard would want was an energetic winter spirit messing up his experiments, or his home.

"Bunny and Sandy lived during the Golden Age? How come they never told me?" Jack paused for a moment. "What was the Golden Age?"

Just then a bullhorn sounded three times, the long held signal for the arrival of new letters. North scowled, thinking of how far behind schedule they were already, and he didn't even want to think of how much a single batch of letters would put them behind schedule, much less three. "Okay, time to go Jack. I need to work," and pushed him to one of the yetis who immediately started herding the still questioning Jack out the door.

Jack scowled as he was unceremoniously tossed outside, with a complimentary bag of cookies landing beside him in the snow. "Well, time to go bug Bunny, then. He's not going to be busy right now," and flew off in search of the Warren.

At least the cookies were good.

Part two of the Cupid's Lesson Series; I've been meaning to put this up for a while now and it just happened.

As for Cupid being a badass, well I thought the comment was funny so I looked back over the text and can see how you got that idea. Actually, I mostly just drew from mythology for that one. In myths or one myth in particular, Cupid is described as a 'monster whom even the gods (sometimes replaced with Zeus) feared', same with his mother and why Zeus forced her to marry Hephaestus.

I'm thinking about uploading one more part in this little set where Jack goes to Bunny to find out a bit more about Pitch.

PS- stay safe during COVID-19 guys