[rd][fic][Rise of the Guardians] Scenes, part 2

[sakon76]

Scenes From the Life and Death of Jackson Overland Frost
Part 2: Milk Teeth
by K. Stonham
first released December 7th, 2012

March, 1699

The tooth is loose in his mouth, and wiggles when he pushes it with his tooth. It wasn't that way the last time he checked, and Jack doesn't know when it started. He demonstrates this wiggliness to his Ma, who crouches down in front of him, examines this new ability most seriously, then smiles at him. Not knowing why, Jack still grins back.

His father is out with Masters Marshall and Dale that day, felling trees to clear a new field, so it is Missus Frost who takes Jack to the blacksmith, where he's usually told not to go. But there is always all sorts of interesting clanging going on and cherry-red fires and metal taking new and interesting shapes that Jack always, always hopes will be a sword, but which sadly it never has yet. So Jack has been caught there more often than he should be. But today his Ma is taking him, so that's all right.

He's too big now to need to be held by the hand, and he struts proudly by her side with this freedom. They pass Adam and Richard, old enough now to be of help, each carefully carrying a bucket of water to their separate homes, and he spies Mary sitting by her house. At first he thinks she's playing at something, but then he sees she's laboriously mending a patch onto a shirt. He knows her Ma made her practice sewing over the whole winter, so he figures Mary has to be pretty good at it by now. Jack takes his hat off and waves it at her. She looks up and waves back, but his Ma is moving on and Jack needs to keep up.

There are three new houses in the village this spring, three new families who moved here, which makes the village seem so much bigger. Only one of them had a kid Jack's age, though, and Stanley Pritchard is a stuck-up scoundrel if Jack ever saw one, putting on airs just because he came on a boat.

(Some day, Jack is going to have his own boat, and see the whole world. And wipe that smug look off Stanley Pritchard's face.)

And then they're at the smithy, and have to wait while Master Black finishes shoeing Master Rowling's plowhorse, which apparently has a split hoof. Jack looks at his foot and thinks that he wouldn't like a split toe, so the horse can go first. His Ma gets to hold Missus Gibson's new baby girl, and she looks sad and wistful, but Jack doesn't know why. His Ma rocks the baby while she talks with the other village women, things about their vegetable and herb gardens, and the pigeon hunting, and had they any word about the native tribes? Jack mostly tunes it out in favor of watching Master Black work and wiggling his tooth.

CLANG! goes the hammer. Master Rowling is holding the horse's head, but Jack thinks it still can't be comfortable to have a nail driven into your hoof.

CLANG! Moving his tooth feels kind of like picking at a scab. It kind of hurts, but it's kind of a good hurt too. His Ma glances down at him and he obediently freezes and sits up straight. But it's just too interesting, and he leans forward again to watch.

CLANG! Master Black lets the horse's leg go, its hoof all better now. Maybe Jack might like to be a blacksmith. He would get to stand here all day and work with iron, turning it into interesting, useful things.

But on the other hand, he'd have to stand here all day and not go do and see things. The smithy's fire is very hot, and he can't imagine having to work with it all day in the summer, instead of going in the woods and feeling the cool air on his face.

Maybe Jack won't be a smith.

Master Black has noticed him now, and his Ma hands back the baby. Jack is ushered forward, his Ma's hand on his back. "Let him see your tooth, Jack," she says, and Jack obediently opens his mouth wide, wiggling it with his tongue.

Master Black crouches down and grins, and he's a big man with huge arms and a burned leather apron, but Jack can't help smiling back. He loves smiling. "Well, now," the smith says, "that's a beauty and no mistake about it. His first?" he asks, looking up at Jack's mother. She nods.

"Well, then, young Jackson, we have two choices here."

Jack straightens up and is attentive. He loves choices. Whether to go fishing or trap squirrels. Whether to have squash or beets on his plate. Whether to play jacks or hopscotch.

"Either we can wait for that lovely thing to come out on its own, or we can take it out now."

Jack considers. "Which one's better?"

"There's not a better, just a different. Taking it out now's quicker, but waiting hurts less."

Jack is not a big fan of pain. But his tooth kind of hurts already, so it can't hurt more, right? "Now," he decides.

"All right." Master Black stands and walks over to his tools, selects one, then comes back.

The tongs are very big, and Jack doesn't particularly like how black they are, and he is very sure they won't fit into his mouth. He kind of shrinks back against his Ma.

"Or would you prefer to wait?" Master Black asks him.

Jack swallows. "H-how long will I have to wait?"

"It should come out on its own within two weeks."

Jack looks at the tongs again, and he doesn't want to be a crybaby, but he also doesn't want those tongs in his mouth. "I'll wait," he decides.

Master Black nods. "Just be careful you don't swallow it, young Jackson."

Jack is led away by his mother, a whole new set of problems swirling in his mind.

Swallow it?!

* * *

He is very careful with the tooth over the next several days, checking it with his tongue whenever he remembers. He doesn't want to swallow it the same way he doesn't want to swallow an apple seed, because then it might sprout in his tummy and start growing and... well, he doesn't know what a tooth might grow into, but he doesn't think it would be good to have it growing inside him.

But every morning and every night, it's still there in his mouth, even if it's a little wigglier and a little looser. He shows it to Adam and Richard and Mary and Nellie and even John Fuller, who's a little bit of a baby, being age four, but still tags around with them anyway. He doesn't show Stanley Pritchard, but somehow Stanley finds out anyway and comes over to lord it over the rest of them.

"I lost my tooth last winter," he says, "and the Tooth Fairy left me a whole ha'penny."

The rest of them look at each other in confusion, never having heard of such a person. Jack, being the one most affected, finally asks, "Tooth Fairy?"

"Of course you colonials wouldn't have heard of her," Stanley dismisses. "If you put your tooth under your pillow, she comes in the middle of the night and leaves you a present."

"What about the tooth?" Nellie asks.

"She takes it, of course."

"What does she do with it?" Adam asks.

Stanley sniffs. "As if I would know such a thing." He swans off like he's the King himself and owns the whole village.

Jack is the oldest of them, and the others look at him doubtfully. "Do you think he's telling the truth, Jack?" asks Mary.

He tests his tooth again with his tongue. "I don't know," he says. His expression hardens. "But I'm going to find out!"

It takes three more days before the tooth comes out, and it's strangely anticlimactic. He's eating supper when he feels a bit of turnip uncomfortable against a strange place in his mouth. Jack spits the turnip into his hand and there, hard next to it, is his tooth. He immediately pokes his tongue against the strange-feeling empty spot in his mouth, then shows off his prize to his parents.

His father laughs delightedly, and promises him a game of battling tops after supper, as a reward, while his Ma holds the tooth up against the firelight, smiling. She hands it back to him and tells him to keep it safe.

He doesn't tell them about his plan to find out if there is such a thing as the Tooth Fairy, or if Stanley Pritchard really is just a lying liar.

That night, when the fire is banked to glowing coals and Jack's bed is pulled out from under his parents', he lies his head down on the pillow and slips the tooth underneath.

One way or another, Jackson Frost is going to find out the truth.

* * *

The next morning starts like any other, with his Ma getting out of bed to stir the fire, and his father getting dressed and going to the stream to fetch water. There's corn mush for breakfast, which Jack loves, so it's not until he's tidying his bed for it to get put away for the day, that he remembers about the tooth.

He hesitates, then lifts his pillow.

Sitting there, on his thin mattress, is a whole shining silver English penny.

Jack gapes for a minute, then whoops, picking up the coin.

"Jack?" his Ma asks him.

"The Tooth Fairy came!" Jack says, still clutching his pillow while showing off his prize. "She left me a whole penny!"

His Ma looks shocked and kneels down before him, taking the coin momentarily and examining it. She looks at Jack's father, who just gives his head a little shake, but Jack's too excited to try and figure out what that's about. "Can I go show the others?" he begs. "Please?"

"Finish making your bed first," his Ma tells him, and Jack's bed has never been made so quick before he runs out the door, coin in hand. He can't wait to rub it into Stanley's face that he got a whole penny.

In his glee, it never occurs to him that this means Stanley was right. In fact, he finds it hard to remember why he didn't like Stanley. Though the other boy will give him plenty of reminders over the following days and years, Jackson Frost now counts Stanley Pritchard among his group of friends. And where Jack leads, other children follow. Always.

*~*~*

Author's Note: Pennsylvania had its own currency in 1699. It held about three-quarters of the value of English currency. A farm laborer at that time earned about ten pence a day; you may judge Jack's windfall accordingly.

Comments

[eerian_sadow]

boy, she liked him from the very beginning of their associations, didn't she? ~_^

[sakon76.livejournal.com]

My theory is that he had very nice teeth even before he became a spirit. And the Tooth Fairy gives more money for teeth in good condition. At least, that's what my parents always told me.... :)

[mmouse15.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, a whole penny? That's quite the windfall. I love it!