[UNFINISHED CHAPTER]

[UNEDITED]

[DISCONTINUED STORY]

[IDEAS WELCOME]

Jack froze mid-squirm, his blue eyes wide. "Wha-?"

It took him a moment, but he got over his shock and blew a small piece of ice at my right eye, but I deliberately blinked my transparent third eyelid, brushing it away. He gasped and struggled, trying to touch the ground while I stared him down. "Don't mess with me, child." The rest of my sentence was implied. Or my birds will feast.

"Who- are- you- really?" he choked out, and I had to admire his courage.

"The Night Owl," the bird on my shoulder said. "And that is all you need to know. If you question me further, I will not assist you and we will all be swallowed by the endless void. Simple as that, boy." I let him go and dropped his staff. "Live eternally or die. Simple as that, just as simple." Suddenly embarrassed by my display of violence, I pulled my hood forward with the satisfying snap of crisp fabric. "Enough about me." 'My' voice was just as stiff. "Now, to explain what I know about The Chaotic One, if no one wants to interrupt."

Jack was laying on the floor at my feet, holding his throat, and I felt very guilty all of a sudden. I nudged his staff back over to him with a bare toe and skipped away nervously. Sorry, I mouthed, looking at my feet. I take after my father.

But I didn't actually say it out loud, so no one knew what I said.

"First," I began, folding my arms across my body and grabbing my elbows, pressing the bent limbs into my abdomen. "Never say his name. If you have to, call him The Chaotic One or Lord of Creation, names have power, blah blah blah, all that common knowledge. You all know that, I don't have to go into much detail?" I looked around for affirmative nods, which I received.

"Good, because I've had to explain that too many times in the past millennia. Moving on! Second, he doesn't have a physical manifestation. He is an idea, a thought, a state of being, but he isn't a creature as you may be used to battling. If he appears, he is a patch of darkness, like smoke or a shadow, extremely hard to see and harder still to touch. If he choses, however, he can touch you. Any confusion so far?" There were no questions.

"I'm going to be stopping periodically so no one has colossal headaches like I got my first time learning this. I'm fairly sure that last bit was confusing, so any questions?" Tooth raised her hand tentatively. I pointed at her. "Yes, Tooth?"

"Um, I'm not exactly sure what you meant by the whole 'you-can't-touch-him-but-he-can-touch-you' thing."

I almost smacked myself. "Right, that was confusing. I shouldn't have explained it like that, but think of it in terms of geometry. All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. He can touch you but you can't touch him, it's just a thing he can do." I paused, rethinking what I'd just said; I had a bad habit of speaking without ensuring my words made sense outside of my head, possibly my fatal flaw. Was it even possible for my kind to have fatal flaws? I shook myself out of my thoughts and apologized. "Sorry, I'm not making any sense, it made more sense in my head. Let me demonstrate."

I ran a finger down my owl's spine before sending it up in the air. Following my silent command, it dove down at Jack again, pecking lightly at his hands. "Jack, try to grab it," it instructed. When he tried to snatch it out of the air, his hands went straight through it, again and again, but it kept nipping him and leaving small marks. "See? It can touch him, but he can't touch it. Make any sense now?" The bird left Jack alone and flew near all of them, swatting them with a wing and tugging at hair, but their hands just passed through it when they actively tried to touch it.

I snapped my fingers and it flew back to my arm, resting on it lightly. "You see, even when I try to touch it-" I then tried to grab it about the middle and failed "-it doesn't work. But if I'm not paying attention, if I'm not focused on getting it away, then I can touch it." I looked over to see my hand running over it's feathers but the moment I came to the realization my fingers dropped through the bird, and I let the appendage slide off my arm and hang loosely for a moment before resuming my discussion. The bird flew under my hand and ran its spine under my finger before landing on my body again. I moved and twisted my hands and fingers energetically as I spoke. "Thirdly, he can never truly be defeated."

That was met with several loud "WHAT?!"s directed at me, leaving my sensitive ears ringing painfully, not that I'd admit it. The voices were a mixture of anger, annoyance, confusion, and disbelief, accompanied by a silent '?!' over a certain someone's head.

Jack spoke before anyone else could. "What do you mean, he can't be defeated? Everything can be defeated!"

I raised an eyebrow. "The newest level on Candy Crush?"

He looked shocked. "Two things. One, the new level's out already?! Two, how the heck do you know about Candy Crush?"

"I'll ignore that, lucky boy you are, and I mean just that. He literally cannot be killed, only beaten back and kept at bay. One day he will be free and consume everything, but we can only hope we die before then, or be very successful for very long."

"What do you mean, die?," the Tooth Fairy asked. "Spirits are immortal! We can't die." She folded her arms as if she won an argument.

I corrected myself. "That term wasn't quite right, I apologize, but I was serious. Spirits can die, but it's more of a, of a fading of sorts, if you will. Slowly your powers leave you, and then you turn mortal, and then you die soon after. Not a pleasant experience, all in all." I bit my cheek and quickly added more onto my sentence. "Or so I am told." I shifted my weight, and everything tipped sideways with a flare of pain from my foot, my fall only stopping when I put out my scraped hands. I winced within my hood and sat back, inspecting my hands. A few fresh scabs had peeled off, nothing much. I checked the bottom of my foot as they closed in on me, hands outstretched and saying small things meant to help me or something. The strip of cloth was totally soaked with my blood and I ripped off another piece, wrapping it tightly around the first.

Bunny's words were the first to actually make sense. "You alright, Kneeth'ah?" He mangled my name horribly, but I appreciated the effort.

I waved him off, and he pushed the others back a little. "I'm fine, just a bit... tired. Being kidnapped will to that to you." I brought a hand up to the back of my head and felt around for one of the sore spots. I gasped when my fingers hit something warm and wet, pulling my hand away immediately. I looked at my bloodied fingers and swallowed before sticking them in my mouth to clean them off. I felt like I was going to be sick, but I flexed my fingers stiffly, my chest heaving silently. I was thankful my cloak hid my whole body. The blood left a disgustingly sweet taste in my mouth, like bitter honey, not helping with my nausea. "Please, try to avoid banging me around like that next time, it wasn't exactly fun. And do wash that sack, not everyone likes the smell of old peppermint." I gripped the hand- er, paw- offered and pulled myself to my feet.

Taking a deep breath, I got back into lecture mode. "Lord takes great pleasure in twisting your thoughts, wishes, desires, and surroundings to make you susceptible to his influence."

Jack raised his hand, if tentatively, but it meant he was paying attention, so I gladly nodded at him. "Why do you keep referring to it as a guy? You've been using male pronouns."

"Thanks for the question, Frosty. It's because he is The Father from which we were all born. We could not exist without him, but we have to have balance. We refer to him as a man because it is both easier and 'Lord of Creation' isn't a female's title in most cases. Also, if you ever have the misfortune of hearing his voice, it's so deep it might even be out of your hearing range." I internally shuddered at the memory, remembering the horrific sights he'd shown me with his rumbling voice, making the earth shake as he taunted me. "He is evil as only a male can be."

"Hey!" the walking popsicle exclaimed, believing I was targeting him.

I waved my hand in the air nonchalantly. "Nothing personal fellows, but this isn't my first century. I've seen things that would leave you with nightmares for millennia." Like they gave me. I opened my mouth to continue, to rip their soft hearts to shreds with my tales and harsh words, but I gently closed my lips, not even mouthing the words. Even as adults, immortal adults, they were as innocent as any child. Except maybe Jack; he had a look about him that shook me to my very core. No one as young as him should have seen anything remotely like what I'd seen. "I won't trouble you with my extensive memories. There- there's not much more to say about him. If I recall anything more I'll- I'll let you know," I finished lamely, sliding my grip to my wrists and covering the signs of new feathers.

"How do you know so much about him?" Tooth inquired.

I swallowed multiple times and tried to repress a flashback, only partially succeeding.

"Don't leave me Papa!"

"I love you 'Theena!"

I shook my head violently. "I can't talk about it." My voice wavered, then hardened. "I will not talk to you about it. If you feel the urge to pry into my past, ask Manny." That dumb substitute for Artemis.

"We will ask him then. We won't work with someone we don't know." Jack crossed his arms and walked over to the moonlight, silently demanding an explanation.

"Is that the royal 'we' or are you just speaking for everyone?" I murmured, genuinely puzzled. The feathers receded into my arm again, but itched horribly just beneath the surface.

I grew impatient and stalked over to him, poking him in the center of the forehead with more force than necessary. Jack stumbled back in shock, his eyes wide, but when he tried to say something his airflow choked off. I watched impassively while North yelled at me to leave him alone.

"It's not me," I stated truthfully. "I can't do that. It's the consequence of learning who I am; you can never speak it unless I formally allow you to. Jack will now be stuck with the knowledge of who I am and probably all of my past, but he can't ever mention a word of it." I looked at him sorrowfully. "You should have just left it alone, child. I was only protecting those around me," I whispered. Another touch to the forehead and he passed out. I almost didn't catch him, expecting his friends or my magic to grab him, but I had to lunge and almost toppled over when my hands latched themselves under his arms as he dangled in front of me. Damn side-effects. "Jeez, what do you feed him? He's as heavy as a boulder!" I grunted from under him. "Doesn't Wind normally carry him?"