AN: I am sooooooooo sorry about the wait on this, I just kind of lost my inspiration for a while, you know? But now I'm back on track! Okay, first off, if you are not familiar with the legends of Baba Yaga and/or Koshchei the Deathless, I would recommend going and looking those up before reading any further so that you're familiar with their background since I'm going to be using them as characters in this and since they will play such a major role. Just be aware that I created my own version of them for the purposes of this plot, but I would still recommend knowing their backgrounds. It will also help you understand why I chose the title I did.
Also, remember that girl that Jack had memories of in "Let the Storm Rage On," Makenzie Harrison? She also plays a major role in this.
AND YOU'RE FINALLY GOING TO GET TO MEET THE KIDS, HURRAAAAAAAAY! :D
Okay, kids, disclaimer time!
I OWN NOTHING BUT KENZIE AND THE KIDS AND DENY EVERYTHING!
"Nikolaus Anthony Frost!" a voice yelled. Isaak Bjorgman blinked, then grinned at his cousin.
"Ooooh," he said, "you're in trouble now, Klaus!" The three little girls with them all giggled, the smallest one latching onto Klaus's leg when he got up and tried to make a run for it. "Get off me, Senetta!" Klaus pleaded, but Senetta only shook her head, a wide grin on her little face. Just then, the doors to the room burst open, and Klaus flinched, knowing he was about to get a huge lecture, or worse, because in the doorway with her arms crossed and an angry look on her face stood his mother, the Queen of Arendelle herself, affectionately known to the people as the Snow Queen. To her family, however, she was, in the case of her three children, Mom, and in everybody else's case, Elsa.
And right now, she was mad.
"Nikolaus," she said, "did you freeze the ballroom again?"
"Um...no," Klaus replied.
"Nice try, but you're grounded."
"But Moooooom!"
"No buts, Klaus! Gloves for two weeks, and that's final! I'll tape them onto you myself if I have to!"
"Aw, Elsa, cut the kid some slack, he was just having a little fun, that's all," a new voice said. Elsa rolled her eyes, watching her husband fly past her and into the room casually, everything about him looking totally relaxed. "He can't help it," Jack continued as he landed next to the kids, "if he gets a little out of control sometimes, he's still learning."
"Well, he needs to learn to have fun without leaving behind a mess for you and I to clean up," Elsa retorted. "And besides, Clara certainly doesn't seem to have any trouble!" She gestured to the older of her two daughters as she said this. The little girl giggled. "That's because boys are stupid, Mommy!" she said, and she, Lucia, and Senetta all burst out into a fit of giggles.
Jack lifted an eyebrow. "Well that's not very nice," he said.
"What isn't?" Kristoff asked as he and Anna came into the room to see what was going on.
"Clara just said that boys are stupid," Jack told him. Anna covered her mouth to stifle laughter while Kristoff frowned, then shrugged. "She's your daughter, not mine, so you fix it," he said. Elsa sighed and shook her head, wondering if there would ever be even one peaceful day in the castle without things getting frozen and the kids running around causing chaos. Then she remembered that no, there wouldn't, and it was silly to even think of such a thing happening, especially with Klaus and Jack as contributing factors. Jack had always been good at causing trouble, and Klaus took very much after his father in that he was good at getting himself in and out of trouble all the time; Elsa didn't know if it was a good or bad thing that he had inherited Jack's silver tongue, because he was awfully good at talking himself in and out of all sorts of situations.
"Now listen," she said, "Dad and I have to go to the North Pole to meet with the other Guardians, and we don't know how long we'll be gone, so we expect all three of you to behave for Uncle Kristoff and Aunt Anna until we get back, understand?"
She was met with a three-person chorus of "yes ma'am" in response, and then Jack came over and held out his hand to her. "Shall we, princess?" he asked. She placed her hand in his and returned his smile.
"You'll never stop calling me that, will you?" she asked.
Jack just chuckled and shook his head. "Now why would I do that?" he replied.
And then he opened a window, and, with Elsa's arms around his neck, took off into the sky.
"Elsaaaaaaaaaaaa!" a voice cried, and then a colorful feathery blur launched itself at the queen and latched onto her, squeezing her tightly in a hug.
"Oof! Hi, Tooth!" Elsa said. "Good to see you too! Could you, uh, let go now please? It's getting a little difficult to breathe here."
"Toothiana, if you suffocate my wife, I'll strangle you," Jack said, and Tooth quickly let go, blushing a bit.
"Glad to see you two could make it, O King of the Popsicles," Bunny said to Jack, who rolled his eyes exaggeratedly as he leaned on his staff, but made no comment. "So," Bunny continued, turning to North, "what's on today's agenda? Typical Solstice stuff, or is there something special thrown in?"
Even as he spoke, a beam of moonlight came in through the window, shining itself on the design on the floor that hid the Guardian Stone. Everyone took several steps back as the Stone rose up from the floor, eyes widening in both surprise and anticipation while Bunny chanted to himself, "Please not the Groundhog, please not the Groundhog, please not the Groundhog..."
But the figure that took shape was in no way animalistic. Rather, it was that of a young girl in a dress and cloak with long wavy hair.
North gasped lightly, a smile spreading onto his face as he realized that the figure was one he recognized. "The Fairy Godmother," Tooth said in an awed half-whisper, then turned to Elsa in excitement. "That means that we'll be just that much closer to having the same number of girls as we do guys, then we won't be so outnumbered anymore!" she said, and Elsa giggled.
"Yetis!" North bellowed. "Get the sack ready!"
"Oh, for the love of...I feel sorry for the girl," Jack muttered.
Makenzie loved to fly.
Even after three hundred-something years, it never got old, the feeling never changed. She was proud of her glittery iridescent wings, even though she couldn't exactly show them off to anyone seeing how, well, she was invisible, but she was still proud of them, and she hated when, for whatever reason, she had to fold them up so they looked like a cloak. Unfortunately for her, now was one such time. It had started to rain, forcing her to land, and since she didn't want her wings to get drenched, she'd had to fold them up.
Now, she was in a sack.
She had been walking through a park, headed for the lake she lived near, when suddenly, two yetis had appeared out of seemingly no where and startled her out of her wits before one of them grabbed her and shoved her into the sack that the other was holding open. As she struggled to escape, protesting the entire time, she suddenly felt a sort of tugging sensation and heard a whooshing sound, then felt the sack get tossed onto the ground. It opened, though, so that was good.
"Well, I never!" she declared as she began crawling out. "That is absolutely no way at all to treat a person, much less one you know absolutely nothing about! And another thing! I—" She stopped short when she saw a large man with tattoos on his arms and a thick white beard smiling down at her. "Oh," she said, frowning, "it's you lot. Well, this is certainly unexpected, to say the least." She stood up and pushed hair behind her ears, smoothing out the skirt of her dress. "You know, you could really stand to learn some ma—"
"Makenzie?" a voice said. She turned and let out a small gasp. His appearance had changed since she'd last seen him, but she'd know him anywhere.
"Jack?" she said. "Is it really you? I thought...I thought you were dead."
"I was...dead," he replied. "I...You...But...How...I don't understand, 'Kenz."
"Wait," Elsa said, "you two know each other?"
"We grew up together," they said at the same time.
"Right across the street," Jack elaborated. "We...She was my best friend."
"And now I see you have very different...friends," Makenzie said, glancing around the room at everyone.
"Jack is an amazing Guardian!" Tooth gushed. "And I'm sure you will be, too! Hi, I don't think we've ever been formally introduced, I'm Toothiana, but you can call me Tooth!"
"I know who you are," Makenzie said, "I know who all of you are. Except...Except you."
"My name is Elsa," the queen said. "I'm the Guardian of Love."
"She's also Queen of Arendelle, the Snow Queen," Tooth said, "oh, and Jack's wife, too, of course! And you should just see their kids, Lucia is the absolute cutest—"
"Tooth, chill!" Jack said. "Don't bombard the girl, you'll overload her! Too much information at once, we've talked about this, remember?"
"I don't...understand why I'm here," Makenzie said.
"Oh, that's easy, mate!" Bunny replied. "You're here 'cause Manny picked you to be a Guardian!"
"M-Manny? Who's Manny?"
"The Man in the Moon, of course!" North said. "Manny is what we call him!"
"I—I don't really think I'm cut out for what you six do, I mean..."
"It's okay, we just have to figure out what your center is," Elsa said. Makenzie looked at her quizzically. "Your center," Elsa repeated, "like, for example, how I'm the Guardian of Love, or how Jack is the Guardian of Fun. Those are our centers."
"Mine is Memories!" Tooth piped up. "And Sandy's is Dreams!"
"Mine's Hope," Bunny added, "and the big guy's is Wonder."
"See," Elsa said, "we just have to figure out what yours is. Once you know, things will seem a lot easier, trust me."
"Um, guys," Jack said, "Elsa and I would love to stick around and chat, honest, but we better be getting home. It's getting late in Arendelle, and the kids will be expecting us home for bedtime stories and everything, otherwise the twins might just decide to freeze the castle solid."
"Klaus already froze the ballroom earlier," Elsa added with a roll of her eyes. Jack laughed, then turned it into a cough when he saw the look his wife was giving him.
"Yeah, so, anyway," he said, "we better get going if there's nothing else that needs to be taken care of right now."
"I'll send one of the girls if we need you back," Tooth offered, and the King and Queen of Arendelle both smiled at her in thanks before leaving.
So now you've met Makenzie and the kids, yay! Okay, just so we're clear on everything with the kids, Klaus and Clara are twins and they're the oldest, they're Jack and Elsa's. The next oldest is Isaak, Kristoff and Anna's son, then Lucia, who is the twins' sister, and finally, Isaak's sister Senetta is the youngest, and she's roughly the same size as Baby Anna.
What do you think of Makenzie so far? We'll learn more of her story later...and her relationship with Jack, kekekekekekeke!
MEANWHILE, I'M PLOTTING TO BRING THE BAD GUYS IN PROBABLY NEXT CHAPTER, MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! XD
Please remember to review and tell me your thoughts so far!
