#that's another good little jacqueline and ya jack one lmao

[safyresky]

Shadowy Snippets: Lil' Jacqueline + Big Bro Jack

I thought y'all might appreciate these lil snippets from Into the Shadows ft. tiny Jacqueline and a much younger Jack lol. Fun Fact about ItS: It is seemingly becoming a tscs fix-it fic (sorta) lmao. Anyway, enjoy!

---

“Again? You said again, Jack,” Santa said between pants. “What do you mean?!”

“Sixteen hundred years ago, we created the Legate Law. Do you know why Santa? Do you know what prompted us to unanimously agree it needed to be done?”

“Just in case something bad happened to you guys, right?”

“Because something bad happened to us, Santa.” Jack slowed down, stopping off to the side to let the frantic kits hop by. “The Council was very different then. Roy and Asim, our Tooth Fairy and Sandman, weren’t on it yet. But I was. And I was there when it happened.”

Santa’s mouth fell open. “No.”

Jack’s face fell, uncharacteristically serious. He nodded. “Yes. I was much younger, of course,” he said thoughtfully. “Smoother face, maybe a bit of baby fat, still,” he said with a shrug. He looked off to the left, deep in thought. A soft smile crossed his face. “I was out with Jacqueline,” he said warmly. “We’d sneak off at night for practise.”

And it had been a nice night for practise. The skies were clear; stars twinkled, and in North America it was quiet and crispy—perfect conditions to practise some literal frosty shenanigans.

Jack had brought them to a forest-y area, with lots of surfaces to dust; Jacqueline had been jumping with excitement the entire way! She had just done a large spruce all by herself, jumping for joy when the tremor hit.

“Uh, Jack? What’s happening?”

The young sprite had stopped, her hands still raised mid clap as she looked down at the shaking ground. She wobbled a bit.

“Steady Jacqueline! Remember your stance.”

“Right!” she said. With a determined nod and fierce look of concentration, she steadied herself, legs out in the smallest horse stance Jack had ever seen. He stood still too, waiting for the tremor to stop; in the distance, there was a crack. It was sharp, and a little more earthy than the cracking sounds of ice he was accustomed to.

The shaking stopped, finally; Jack looked around, alert as could be. Something was not right.

“I thought we couldn’t do earth stuff?”

“We can’t.”

“But what if I did? OH! What if I’m actually like Mother Nature and I can throw ROCKS with my MIND!”

Jack looked behind him. He couldn’t help the silly grin when he saw Jacqueline jumping around in a circle, making little whoosh noises as she moved her hands about, trying to move the rocks. He let out a little laugh.  “Come now Jacqueline, quickly. Hop up,” he said, squatting a bit.

“Okay!” she said, jumping onto his back. He stood up once he felt her cold little frosted fingers around his neck. Grabbing her legs and hoisting her up, he tapped his foot. Below them, a sheet of ice spawned into existence; he slid, the ice forming in front of them as they went.

Expertly, he dodged trees and ducked branches, Jacqueline squealing on his back. It was getting brighter up ahead. Was there a clearing?

He stopped. The light was moving. Towards them. Fast. And it was very much blinding.

“Close your eyes, Jacqueline!” he shouted, spinning around quickly. The golden light washed over his back, Jacqueline’s grip tightening as the golden dust engulfed them. Jack looked at it closely; the little Z’s were unmistakable.

And they were tinged with a soft lilac.

His heart dropped.

The moment the light washed over them, he turned back around, sliding even faster now. Finally, they reached the pond they had passed earlier. He stopped, looking around them. Though the area was intact, the air was heavy with…something.

“It feels weird,” Jacqueline said, pulling herself up to sit on Jack’s shoulders, looking around. “It’s icky. But also good. But also it’s kind of sad,” she said, her voice wavering.

Jack reached up, squeezing her hands. “It’s okay, Jacqueline.”

He scanned the pools; he turned his attention to the waterfall, and gasped.

It had split. What had once been a long, albeit tiny waterfall was now split right in half in the queerest of ways. There were two streams; one still trickled down into the pool below. The other one shot off to the side, a bit of the water trailing off into the main waterfall, but the majority of it disappearing down, down, down into what looked to be a very deep, dark, tall hole.

What had happened?

“Don’t you gotta do something?” Jacqueline asked, gently tugging on his spikes.

“I am doing something! I’m investigating. Keeping my eyes peeled for anything...weird.”

She gasped suddenly. “Jack! Look! Over there! What’s that shiny thing?”

He followed her point with his gaze. Sure enough, by the base of the rocky enclosure, something glinted in the moonlight.

Jack walked towards them, carefully. He gasped.

It was a pair of goggles. A pair of very familiar googles. One of the lenses was cracked; but there was no doubt about whose they were.

They were Tooth Fairy’s.

He bent down and picked them up, carefully. The lenses glimmered; he angled them away from the moonlight. He frowned at his three reflections in the glass. They frowned back. Their Jacqueline’s looked down at him, concerned.

“Jack?”

“You don’t see Tooth Fairy around, do you?” he asked, getting up.

Jacqueline swivelled on her perch, looking around the clearing. She looked right up, Jack putting a hand on her upper back in a nick of time. “Nerp.”

Well that probably wasn’t good.

“We’ve gotta get Mother Nature,” he decided.

He clenched the goggles tight in his fist. Turning around, he ran back in the direction they came in, Jacqueline holding on for dear life as they ran into the brush, disappearing in Jack’s customary blue sparks and snowflakes.

The moon was high in the sky. The light from the sun bounced off of it, shinning in the reflection of the pool below it, the water sparkling and splashing. Droplets from the falls hit the calm lake, the moon’s reflection distorting briefly.

---

She was already awake when Jack and Jacqueline barged into the Garden.

They both looked winded; Jacqueline's hair had fallen out of her plaits, all sticky outty as she held onto Jack’s neck for dear life.

“Mother Nature!” he was shouting, nearly crashing into her as they crossed paths.

“Jack dear, whatever is the matter? The two of you look a little worse for the wear. Is everything okay?”

“Absolutely not!” Jack said, almost gleefully. “I would just like to start with a quick little disclaimer. We didn’t do it! Honest! We were out practising—”

“I frosted my very first tree!!”

“Very good job Jacqueline.”

“It was amazing,” Jack said, “She knocked it out of the park! But as we were celebrating—”

“The ground asploded!”

“What?”

“There was a quake; we went to investigate but before we even got to the place it originated at, we got hit with fallout. Magical fallout.”

“Whose?”

“Sandman and Tooth Fairy.”

“Oh no.”

“We found these,” Jack said, holding out the cracked goggles.

“It felt icky!”

“Icky how?”

“Hmm…”

“You said sad,” Jack said, gently.

“Ye. Sad, but also good.”

“Heavy,” Jack added. "Bittersweet? Melancholy? Saudade?"

“Good heavens,” Mother Nature said, taking the goggles. Three Taras stared back at her, worry lining their faces.

“And I swear Grandmother, we didn’t do it! I didn’t do it! Honest! Jacqueline as my witness!”

“I believe you, Jack,” she said, touching the goggles to her chest. “Are you two okay?” she asked, checking them over for scrapes and bumps.

“I’m fine,” Jack said, grabbing Jacqueline around the waist and placing her down. “How bout you, little flurry. you okay?"

“My legs are ricey.”

“Remember what Dad taught you; shake it off, you’ll feel them again in a moment.”

“Ricey?”

“It’s what she calls pins and needles,” Jack clarified.

“Yeah! You know, ricey,” Jacqueline said, shaking her little leggies. “Like when you pour rice into a jar. Dry rice. It’s like. Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh—”

“I think she gets it, Jacqueline.”

“I might steal that,” she added.

“Ou! Remember what I taught you!”

“Right! I’ll need royalties, Gramma!”

“You taught her about royalties?” Mother Nature asked, amused.

Jack placed his hands on his hips. “I’m covering all my bases. All of them. You’re sure you’re okay?” he asked, concern lining his features as he glanced down at Jacqueline.

“I’m okie dokie,” she said, grabbing her brother’s hand with a grin. “Can I go back up now?”

Jack nodded, picking her back up. “Anyway, Mother Nature, I think you need to come see this.”

---

Moments later, the trio found themselves back at the waterfall. The minute Mother Nature materialized, she gasped, nearly stumbling.

“Grandmother!” Jack rushed to her side, offering his arm.

“I’m fine, thank you, Jack. Heavy indeed; something terrible has happened here. Where did you find the goggles?”

“Jacqueline saw them first. Over here, by the base of the falls,” he said, leading the way over to where they found it.

Mother Nature climbed carefully over the stones. They had a weird film on them; she scooped some up on her finger, looking down at it. It was gold; when she rubbed the dust between her fingers, it looked like little Z’s.

“Dream sand,” she said out loud. She trailed her pointer finger on a separate rock. More sand. “It’s all over the place.”

“And if you look closely, there’s some fairy fire residue,” Jack said, pointing to the cliffs behind him.

Mother Nature made her way over, investigating the smears. Sure enough, mingled with the dream sand was the sandy residue all fairy magic left behind. A soft lilac, one that, when Mother Nature touched it, felt comforting. She was immediately reminded of her own childhood, with her dear Mother Gaia.

“It’s Terracina’s,” she confirmed. “And there’s no sign of either of them?”

Once more, Jacqueline swivelled around. Jack already had his hand in place when she leant all the way back to look up at the sky. “Nerp, still nothing,” she said, throwing herself back up, resting her chin on Jack’s head.

“Hmm.” Bending down, Mother Nature gently trailed her fingers along the ground. Her eyes widened; she shot back up.

“Jack. Bring your sister home.”

“What?”

“But I don’t wanna go home—”

---

Sorry to cut it off so suddenly! It is, after all, a Shadowy Snippet. This is Chapter 2, scene 2 and 3, I believe. I left a bit of preamble from Jack for SOME context but the real reason we're reading this is bc, uh, TINY JACQUELINE AND YA JACK!

Fun fact #2: Jack does take Jacqueline home, and when he gets back the rest of the Council is there, and Roy has his kid with him and Jack straight up is just like, OH. SO ROY CAN BRING HIS KID, BUT MY KID HAS TO GO HOME? RUDE.

Ah. Their dynamic is EVERYTHING to me. And just think, thirty years after this is the Day of Darkness and everything falls to bits :-) What a time to be alive!