Nat's Memory

A few days later, Nat was moved to the Tooth Fairy’s elegant home as per North’s plan to protect the nature spirit. Jack had once again volunteered to keep an eye on Nat while Tooth went about her exceedingly busy daily business. He and Nat wandered the elegant golden halls of Tooth’s airborne palace, watching the tiny tooth fairies flutter about as they managed the retrieval of teeth from the dark side of the planet. Baby Tooth naturally accompanied Jack everywhere he went, and seemed quite jealous of how attentive he was to his charge. The two were having a pleasant conversation, and Jack had noticed that the girl was growing less cold than when they had first met as they spent more time together. He even got her to smile one or two times with his antics.

“So… Do you remember what you were like before you became… well, you?” Jack asked suddenly. Being in Tooth’s home reminded him of the episode with his memories, and was curious of whether Nat had experienced the same predicament or not. She stiffened as he brought up the subject, looking away.

“Of course I remember,” she answered promptly, still refusing to face him. He frowned slightly, propping his staff on his shoulder as he regarded her suspiciously.

“Why so defensive about it? It was a simple question,” he remarked.

“I just don’t like talking about it,” she replied hotly, snorting and stomping off into the golden halls. Jack remained where he was, contemplating the strange girl’s behavior. He truly couldn’t figure her out; there seemed to be moments when he was breaking through that cold icy shell of hers, but then he would say something seemingly insignificant and she would be up in arms immediately.

“I can’t figure her out, Baby Tooth,” Jack sighed sadly. The small fairy fluttered beside his head, and he gasped as she suddenly took off down a separate hallway. She returned shortly, waving her little hands in a gesture to follow. I guess it won’t be too bad to leave Nat for a little while, Jack thought as he followed the little fairy through the halls. He came to a familiar sight, a room filled with the teeth of all the children of earth and of all children past, stored in little containers that also housed memories. Baby Tooth flew up high, retrieving a container and fluttering back down to drop it into Jack’s hands.

He turned the container over, frowning when he saw the little painted face that decorated it. “These are Nat’s teeth- her memories?” he murmured, and Baby Tooth nodded solemnly as she settled on Jack’s shoulder. He stood there a while, turning the tube over and over in his hands as he contemplated the merit of what he was about to do. On one hand, looking at Nat’s memories was sort of a betrayal, but on the other, Jack really wanted to know just how he had wronged the girl in the past to make her hate him so. Besides, he was curious as to how she became Mother Nature in the first place. With a deep breath, he popped open the tube and pulled it open.

The landscape immediately shifted as the Tooth Palace swirled and shifted like a liquid substance, morphing into a forest scene where a small, quaint village was tucked away. They seemed familiar, almost like the very wooden huts that Jack had encountered when he had woken up at the frozen lake with no memory at all. Of course, he was as invisible here as he was back then, and watched as people strolled by him without giving him a passing glance. He tucked the tube in his jacket pocket, propped his staff on his shoulder, and began walking through the small village.

A sweet smell filled his nostrils, and he followed the scent around the corner to stumble across a large flower shop situated on the outskirts of what he deemed a small market district. A few people were here and there trading and selling goods, and this was true for the flower shop as well; he walked closer to find a blonde-haired girl with soft hazel eyes manning the store, smiling sweetly as she sold a young woman a bouquet of brilliantly colored flowers. He edged closer, then cried out when a group of children charged right through him and past the shop. One trotted to a halt, a brown-haired boy with a joyful expression, and approached the young girl at the flower shop.

“Hey, do you want to go play hide-and-seek with us?” the boy grinned. Something about the boy’s voice sounded eerily familiar to Jack. Before the girl could answer, there came a screeching shout from inside the shop.

“Nat! Natalie! Get in here!” shouted a woman from inside. The young girl flinched at her angry tone, then glanced apologetically at the boy. Jack gasped, for now that he was up close he realized that the girl was none other than his Nat.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t…” the girl whispered sadly, glancing miserably down at her feet. The boy glanced over her shoulder into the doorway of the shop, then back at Nat.

“Come on, she won’t miss you!” he persisted. The girl, nearly in tears, shook her head profusely and turned her back to him.

“I’m sorry, Jack, I can’t!” she cried and ran into the shop. In shock, Jack dashed in front of the boy to discover that the brown-haired youth that Nat was none other than himself- that is, himself before he died nearly four hundred years ago. As the boy dashed through his spectral form to run after his friends, Jack merely stood there, numb, as he digested the realization.

Nat… Nat knew me?