Summary: Three hundred years ago, we all know of the boy with white hair who rose from the ice. We know the main story of the Nightmare King and his Nightmares who rose to challenge the Guardians, and how he was defeated by his foes. But who ever said that was it? What makes people think that he could only make the horses? Well, he could do more. Much more. After all, he thrives off the fear of children, and what's scarier than snarling wolves, angry bears, hunting sharks, or striking snakes? Well, there is one girl who fights against the Nightmares and shadowlings themselves. She is the wall that keeps the mini-series safe at night and the dreamsand unaffected. She protects the children. Three hundred years ago, she was awoken and told that she was created to fight-to be the Huntress, the Queen of the Dark. What she was not told, however, was that she would one day meet Jack Frost, the other unknown spirit. Soon, she is called upon for the biggest fight of her immortal life, as is her friend. But, when Jack is made aware of his best friend's secrete life as the Huntress, will he be able to convince his new family to help her? Or will he lose her to the darkness that she has warred against for so long.
Sorry for the long summary, I enjoy rambling. I hope you enjoy! Read and review, please!
CHAPTER ONE:THIS IS HOW IT STARTS
The moon shone down upon a grassy clearing, next to a river, where a girl stood. She had hair blacker than the night, and green eyes that seemed to glow, and see right through you. She was talking, seemingly to herself.
"What do you mean, immortal?" She asked, "And what do you think I am, a warrior?"
A reply seemed to sound, one that only she could hear. "Alright, so there's a nightmare king, who's evil," she murmured to herself. "and he rules over many beings, all made of darkness." She suddenly paused and grumbled, "Alright, alright. So all of them really change from solid forms to shadow. They feed off of fear, but they rule the night, unchecked. That about sum it up?" Above the trees, the moon seemed to agree by glowing brighter.
"And you want me," she continued, disbelief finally entering her tone, "to be the one to fight back? Behind the scenes work? Forever?" Again, the moon brightened. "So, tell me this, then, Manny. Why should I spend all of eternity fighting monsters to help save bratty kids? Especially if it means I could spend all of my immortality trapped and tourtured if I get caught?"
In her head,another response must have been heard, for she again spoke to the sky. "What do you mean, it'd be worth it? Kids'll believe in me? Why should I care whether or not I'm seen?" She didn't seem satisfied with whatever response she heard because she snarled, "Why should I give it time? I don't think I'll ever understand."
After a long pause, she finally began to nod slowly, while speaking a few terms to herself. "The Huntress . . . Queen of the Dark . . . Respected worldwide . . ." She was quiet before she spoke for the final time. "Alright, I'll be the Protector. But because I want too, not for the kids. Deal?" The moon seemed reluctant when it flew this time. But it did, and the deal was made.
At a pond within a forest, the full moon shone down on the frozen surface. Suddenly, a figure appeared, slowly rising. The young man broke softly through the ice, then floated until he was upright. He stood upon the suddenly refrozen surface, and breathed heavily. He looked at the moon, then down at himself. He wore a simple white shirt with a brown vest, and some brown pants. He tried to take a step, but wound up nudging something with his bare foot. He looked down to see a staff, like a shepard's crook, laying on the ice. He picked it up and jumped as it glowed blue. When he jumped, an end had touched the ground, and frost had spread from that point.
Gaping, he bounced to his feet. Then he walked over to a tree and tapped it with his staff. Frost spread, more beautiful than a flower blooming. He laughed and bounced slightly in excitement. He tapped another tree, then turned and went back to the pond. He kept the curved end of his staff on the ice as he raced around, spinning and spinning in elegant, and yet crazy, circles, sending frost all over the surface. Once he reached an end, the wind suddenly swept him up, taking him far above the pond to see his handiwork.
He grinned, but then the wind stopped. The boy dropped like a stone, and thudded on some branches. Wheezing slightly, he picked himself up and gazed off into the distance, to where he could see a town.
Before he took off, he relished his name one more time.
Jack Frost.
Go forward a few hundred years, and you'll see the girl again, laughing and running from something. A snowball slammed into a tree next to her head as she dodged through the trees of a small forest.
"Come on Jack!" She paused, hardly panting, and turned to call through the trees. "You'll have to try harder than that!"
"It's not fair that you're so unusually agile!" Protested a young man with snow-white hair and icy blue eyes. "How did you become so fast?"
"I've told you, Frost," grinned the girl, "I'm the Protector."
"Xi!" He whined, "You know that means nothing to me! I know who and what the Guardians are, but I have no clue what a Protector is!"
"Well, duh!"The girl snorted, as though that was obvious. "That's because we're the only two people to ever know of it! And, I'm the only Protector to ever walk the earth."
"So, what do you do?" This was the most his old friend had ever told him about her duties as, what she called herself, the Protector. Hopefully, she would tell him more.
"Well, I work to fight against the Boogeyman's allies, the ones the Guardians don't even know exist. And, I'm just naturally awesome." She pulled a face and laughed. She knew that Jack was her only friend, and she valued how understanding he was, but she didn't want him to think her any stranger then he already did. So she always tried to avoid the topic of her life.
"Ximena." Jack said, unusually serious. "It's not fair that you know every detail about me, but I know next to nothing about you-well, what you do, anyway."
"Jack," Ximena replied, "you know I don't like to talk about it. So can we just go back to throwing snowballs at each other?"
"Yeah . . ." The white-haired boy agreed reluctantly. "Sure!" He then ducked to avoid getting hit in the face with a snowball.
Later, when the moon had risen above the trees, Jack was floating around a small town called Burgess. He landed upside down beside a window, and watched a boy, his little sister, mom, and dog getting ready for bed. He watched until his breath frosted the glass, then flew off. He walked along a rooftop, then stopped to look up at the moon. He was so lost, and lonely, and so confused. Why was he alive? What was he meant to do? Was Ximena supposed to help him?
A hundred or so years ago, he had been racing through the forest, trying to catch a snowflake in a game with the wind. Then he had suddenly been knocked to the side by something huge, angry, and warm. It had scared him, and he had lunged for his staff, that had been knocked out of his hands. Before he could even see what was trying to kill him, a shout had sounded and something sliced through the air. It embedded itself in the thing's side, and he saw the hilt of a throwing knife. Then the creature had vanished, and he turned to see the most beautiful girl in all of history.
She had hair darker than the night, and such beautiful green eyes . . . They still took his breath away. She had strode towards him, and he thought himself invisible before she had grumbled how close he had come to dying.
"You . . . Can see me?" He could hear the disbelief in his tone, but at the time he didn't care.
The girl nodded, picking up her blade. "Obviously."
"Do . . . you, I mean, you know who I am?" Nowadays, he mentally kicked himself for being so pathetic.
" 'Course." She told him. "You're Jackson Frost."
Now, he wondered why her responses were so curt and unrevealing. She had been so clammed up, and so . . . serious, like she'd never had a day of fun in her life-didn't even know what fun was!
So he had spent so long prying open her shell, and getting her to laugh and smile, although she preferred hiding from the world. Even the Guardians, or other immortals. He sort of understood that. After all, he wasn't even on speaking terms with the Easter Bunny(who was more kangaroo than rabbit), much less the other spirits, but he still wanted to be seen by kids, wanted to be believed in.
Ximena, on the other hand, didn't seem to feel anything along those lines, and she didn't even seem to want to see any kids. At least she was willing to help him work to be believed in.
He turned and took off, after having a heart-to-heart with the Man in the Moon, called Manny. He continued along some power lines, with his hood up, when he caught sight of a trail of golden, glowing dreamsand. He pulled down his hood in amazement.
"Right on time, Sandman." he muttered to no one in particular. He laughed and jumped up to touch a strand. It turned into a dolphin, and grinned at the sight of his favorite animal. Soon, however, the sand faded out for the night, and Jack started off down an empty street.
A swift movement swished past him, and he shot off to a tree. It flooshed by again, and this time he tried to follow it, and leapt from car to car, then down an alley. He had his staff at the ready, and narrowed his eyes warily. A noise sounded behind him, and he snapped around.
"Been a long time, mate." Jack snapped around to see the six-foot tall rabbit known as the Waster Bunny.
"Bunny?" Jack said, grinning. He pretended to let his guard down, and leaned on his staff.
"Blizzard of '68, I believe. " Bunny carried on, tapping his boomerang on his lip. "Easter Sunday, wannit?"
"Aw, you're not still mad about that," Jacks asked, "are ya?"
"Yes." Bunny snarled, tensing for a moment. Then he slipped back into his nonchalant state, and said, "But this is about somethin' else. Boys?"
Suddenly, the ground disappeared beneath Jack as he was scooped up by two yetis. "Hey!" He protested, "Put me down!"
They did. Right into a sack. Jack did not stop struggling, not even when the yetis paused to say something to Bunny, and not when he felt himself soar through a magic portal.
In the middle of the night, in a back alley, nothing but a flower in a sea of concrete remained from the magic that had occurred there just moments before.
Away from any city, deep in the forest, Ximena was pacing in a clearing. She was waiting for something, although she didn't really know what. All she knew was that she was called here, just as she was called two nights ago to deal with a Nightmare.
while she paced, she remembered that day she met her closest friend, Jack Frost. She had been called by that strange feeling in her gut, like a stone being pulled, pressing on certain sides of her belly, telling her where to go. When she arrived, she had only seen the shadow wolf about to eat something, although she hadn't known that it was Jack. So she had thrown her knife, aiming for the sweet spot, the shoulder. And she had made her mark. Fortunately, it hadn't gotten Jack as well.
She had been cautious of the boy at first, although she had simply adored his beautiful blue eyes from the very beginning. That, and his perfect smile, his amazingly awesome tousled hair, and his laugh . . . Everything about him had attracted her, straight from the first time she laid eyes on him.
But she had never been around other people before, and had no faith in anyone, no trust for anything in the world, other than the moon. Then she'd met Jack Frost. He'd won her over with his charm, but it wasn't until she finally understood him that she fully trusted him.
They had been having another snowball fight when a few kids had come through the trees, laughing and joking. Jack had been interested, although she had longed to flee. But she could see that he wasn't going to leave, not while there was a possibility that these kids could see him. He had started a snowball fight between them, and had laughed, playing along. She had hide up in the trees, watching the whole scene with a fond smile. Then the whole thing had been ruined. Jack was overjoyed by the fun that he had made, but then a kid had ran straight towards him. Instead of seeing him, however, he fled straight through him. Jack once again felt invisible.
She sighed as she slowed in her pacing. The feeling she always got when a monster was nearby was growing, a sense of anxiety, as though butterflies were trapped in her ribcage. Smirking, she crept off to the side of the clearing, blending into the darkness.
When she had been first made Huntress of the Dark, she had immediately been gifted with multiple gifts. One was an uncanny ability to go unnoticed by foes, she could see in the dark as though it was day, could fly, was extremely agile(much to Jack's complaint), and had a bunch of fighting techniques.
Suddenly, her prey slipped through the clearing, in solid form. It seemed to be leaving the town from miles away, but that didn't register with her. Ximena was too busy taking off after it. The mare raced around, almost faster than sight. Almost.
As it was, the girl with black hair was able to keep up with surprising ease. She followed it for a distance, then suddenly lunged. She had produced a blade, gleaming silver, and plunged it straight into the evil beast with glowing yellow eyes.
It dissolved from beneath her, and it took all three-hundred years of her experience to stop automatically, although it took no effort from her.
She leaned closer to examine the beast. This one looked fresh, the sand a tad more . . . fresher? She couldn't recall what word wold fit, although she noticed it had a healthier sheen then the last mare she had got. It seemed stronger, too, although it was caught off guard. Perhaps something big was happening? Was . . . Pitch couldn't be rising again, could he?
Ximena swiftly banished the thought. She found that if you think something, it would happen. Especially if it was negative. So, she decided to go off, and try to find herself a comfortable sleeping place. As she was flying off, the sudden butterflies-in-her-stomach feeling hit her so hard it almost knocked her out of the sky. She grunted, and flew off towards a small town. What she saw there made her actually knocked her out of the sky.
Hundreds of thousands of sahdowlings were coming together and merging into one, huge, dark, swirling cloud of evil. Now one, it headed towards a sewer drain, and slipped through the bars. She paused, horrified at what this meant.
It was finally time, after hundreds of years, to rise against the full army of Pitch Black, the Nightmare King. And she would probably never make it out alive.
At the Pole, in North's sitting room, a portal opened and through it appeared a yelling, red sack. Two yetis followed, then it closed. In the room, the Queen of the Fairies was fluttering around, giving directions to her mini-fairies, while the golden Sandman floated, sleeping. The owner of the Workshop, North, was facing the sack and tried shushing the Queen, called Tooth.
The sack opened, and Jack peered out. His eyes widened as he took in the sight of the Big Four, just as Bunny came in.
"Woah . . ." He breathed, then struggled as some yetis picked him up. "Hey, hey, put me down" When he was set down he kicked his staff up and caught it with fluid movements.
"Jack Frost!" North yelled joyfully. "I hope the yetis treated you well?"
"Yeah," Jack replied sarcastically. "I love being shoved in a sack and tossed through a magic portal."
North, oblivious to sarcasm, cheered, 'Good! That was my idea!" He then turned to gestured to the six-foot tall Pooka. "You know Bunny, obviously." The Pooka grunted.
"Obviously." Jack agreed.
"And the Tooth Fairy." North continued. Tooth zipped over to get in Jack's face, her excitement overwhelming.
"Hello Jack! I've heard a lot about you," She told him, "and your teeth!"
"M-my what?" he asked, totally lost. Tooth didn't hesitate to invade his space further.
"Open up!" she commanded, opening his mouth for him. "Are they really as white as they say? Yes! Oh, they really do sparkle like freshly fallen snow!" Satisfied for the moment, she pulled back. One of her mini-series screamed and flew closer as Tooth scolded, "Girls, pull yourselves together. Let's not disgrace the uniform." She fluttered back beside North as Jack snorted.
"And Sandy." North finished, gesturing to the small, sleeping man. Nudging him genteelly, the big Russian tried to awake his old friend. "Sandy! Wake up!"
At his shout, the Sandman awoke. He blinked and settled on the ground.
"Uh, anyone wanna tell me why I'm here?" Jack asked, pacing. Sandy raised his hand, a series of images flashing to fast for anyone to read. "Thanks, but not really helping." Jack told him.
Jack looked at the others, the asked, "Am I on the naughty list?"
"Naughty list?!" Laughed North, "You hold record! But that is in past. We overlook. Now, we are wiping clean the slate."
"Why?" Jack asked, bemused.
"That's a good question." Grumbled the Pooka.
"Why?" exclaimed North, '"I tell you why! Because now, you are Guardian!"
"What?" Jack was now so beyond lost. His question went unheard, however, as elves came into the big room, all playing instruments. Two yetis twirling fire moved with surprising grace, circling the winter spirit, and came to a rest behind him. Jack declined a pair of min-fairies offering him a floral necklace. Suddenly, he felt something tugging on his torn pants. He looked down to see a bossy looking elf point to him, then to a pair of blue, pointy-toed shoes. He turned his overwhelmed mind to focus on the Guardians, and saw North begin to open a giant book.
He didn't want to be a Guardian! Why should he be penned up, bribing kids to believe in him? And why should he help them, when all they had done was ignore him, and scold him? They had some nerve! He scowled and raised his staff. He slammed it down, spreading frost all over the floor. His old friend, the wind, helped by blowing out the torches and giving him some breathing space.
"What makes you think I want to be a Guardian?" he spat.
"North and the others paused, shocked. Then North threw back his head and laughed his great, big belly laugh. "Of course you do." He told Jack. "Music!" He cried, snapping his fingers.
The elves started again, just for Jack to yell, "No music!" One frustrated elf threw down his instrument and knocked his buddy over as he left.
"Look," Jack told them, "this is all, uh, flattering, but you don't want me. You're all hard work, and deadlines, and I'm just . . . snowballs and fun times. I'm not a Guardian."
"That's exactly what I said!" Bunny agreed. Tooth fluttered over to Jack.
"Jack, I don't think you understand what it is we do." She gestured to the giant Globe behind him. "Each one of those lights is a child," Tooth began the story.
"A child who believes." North picked up the tale. "And good or bad, naughty or nice, we protect them."
"Argble," Jack said.
"Tooth, fingers out of mouth!" North chided.
"Sorry!" Tooth said, pulling away from the winter spirit. "They're beautiful." She told him before fluttering off. North carried on.
"Okay, no more wishy-washy! Pitch is out there, doing who knows what!" Jack looked at him, curious.
"You mean the Boogeyman?" he snickered.
"Yes!" North said. "When he threatens us, he threatens them" - he pointed at the Globe -"he threatens them as well."
All the more reason to pick someone more qualified." Jack told him.
"Pick? You think we pick?" North was losing his temper. "No, you were chosen, like we were all chosen. By Man in Moon."
"What?" Jack gasped, shocked.
"Last night, Jack," Tooth told him genteelly, "he chose you."
"Maybe!" Bunny added swiftly.
Jack ignored the Pooka and narrowed his icy eyes at North. "The Man in the Moon? He talks to you?"
"You see, you cannot say no," North said. "It is destiny.
Jack felt like his mind was going to explode from information overload. He asked nobody in particular, "But why wouldn't he tell me about that himself? After three hundred years, this is his answer." Jack felt his anger rising. "To spend eternity like you guys, cooped up in some hideout, thinking of new ways to bribe kids?! No, that's not for me!" He swiftly pulled himself together to add, "No offense."
"Ho-how is that not offensive?" Bunny was so mad, he couldn't get his words out." "You know what I think? I think we just dodged a bullet. I mean, what does this clown know about bringing joy to children?"
Jack knew that he had to defend himself. He also knew that Ximena would've shredded the Pooka if she were here. "Uh, ever hear of a snow day?" Jack snorted. 'I know it's no hard-boiled egg, but kids like what I do."
Bunny retorted, "But none of them believe in ya, do they?" Bunny lowered his voice and growled, 'You're invisible mate. It's like you don't even exist."
"Bunny!" gasped Tooth, affronted. "Enough!"
No," Jack calmed her, "the Kangaroo's right."
"The . . . The what?" snarled the rabbit. "What'd you call me? I'm not a kangaroo, mate."
"Oh," Jack scoffed. "And this whole time I thought you were. Well, if you're not a kangaroo,' he leaned in closer so he was eye-to-eye with the 'kangaroo', "then what are you?"
"I'm a bunny." Fury rose in the Pooka's voice. "The Easter Bunny. Kids believe in me."
Sandy nudged North warningly. The big man stepped forward.
"Jack," he told the boy, "walk with me."
Alright! So, I'll keep going if you guys want me too! Please tell me what you like and what you hate! Reviews, I love 'em!