The Difference Between Real and Pretend

Prologue

The Tooth Fairy flits beside North, and I can see her beaming, as the golden lights illuminate her face. She chats excitedly and quickly, and I catch words such as, "children", "globe", "success". North nods occasionally, not being able to get a word in otherwise due to Tooth's babbling.

I jog until I stand beside North. He sighs with relief when he sees me, because Tooth immediately breaks off from her rant to North.

"Jack!" Tooth squeals. "I was just telling North how in this month, we've had more believers rise in numbers! Can you believe it?"

"Sounds great!" I say, plastering a smile on my face so I don't hurt her feelings. She beams at me, her wings buzzing quickly.

An elf tugs at North's boots, and North gives us an apologetic shrug before walking off with the distressed elf.

Tooth flutters a little closer to me, and sighs happily. "I don't think the Guardians have ever been more successful than we are now."

"Well, Pitch is gone now, and hopefully for good. So really, it's a smooth sailing ship from here on," I agree lifelessly.

"Are you okay, Jack? You seem kinda down," Tooth frowns with concern, fluttering down until she was standing beside me. As usual, she picked up on my mood rather quickly. I'm not sure whether to be annoyed at this or not.

"Yeah. I'm great," I say, mustering up yet another smile. Tooth scoffs at me.

"You're a terrible liar," Tooth says. She suddenly gasps, excitement lighting up in her eyes. "I know what'll get your spirits up! I'm about to go round up some teeth, you should come with me! It's always so exhilarating seeing all the children's white pearlies!"

"I don't know..."

"Come on, Jack! What else have you got to do?" Her comment stings a little, even though she probably meant nothing about it.

"Alright. Fine. Where's our first stop?" I ask with a sigh. Tooth smiles smugly at my easy defeat.

"Let's start off with Europe. I was thinking Scotland. Personally, I love all the accents! It's one of my favourite parts of the job! All that culture, it's amazing!" Tooth grins. I shrug, and she grabs my arm as she begins to flutter upwards. I also begin to rise above, the ground disappearing beneath my feet.

Together with Tooth, I soar out from the window which I flew in from. We rise until we're well above the clouds. Tooth wrinkles her nose.

"I don't know why you always insist on flying above the clouds, it's so cold up here," Tooth complains lightly.

"I'm Jack Frost," I say, emphasizing my last name. "The cold is kinda my thing."

Tooth sticks her tongue out at me. I smirk, and for the next few hours, we fly together in silence. The only noise between us now is the whistling winds.

I pick up speed, leaving Tooth behind me. I can hear her sigh, but in that moment, I don't care. Gripping my staff in hand, I make burst of fluffy snow poof to the sides of me, each burst creating a firework-esque look to it. Tears race out of my eyes, and my breaths are quickened.

This feeling of adrenaline, of freedom, courses through my veins like a drug, and just like taking drugs, I don't want it to end.

But when Tooth calls my name, I slow down.

"Jack! Come down!" Tooth calls, and plummets down, making a tear in the clouds. I follow her.

We are in a small neighbourhood. There are townhouses squeezed tightly together, unlike the spacious houses in Burgess.