She is in Africa when she hears about the Easter Battle of Burgess, but she is not surprised that she missed the summons from North. Anansi loves to talk, and he is very good at keeping ones attention, so by the time she has run out of paper (or that is her excuse) and Anansi has run out of interest in her company (or that is his excuse. You can never be certain with trickster spirits), she finally climbs up on Kailash, and turns them towards the North Pole.
She meets Sandy on the way, as he spreads dreams across Los Angeles, and in a flurry of dream sand, he tells her of the battle. Of how Pitch had been collecting his sand, how he had been manipulating it, and how he had been close, so very close to winning.
She sighs inwardly, doing her best to seem like she is paying attention.
After all these years… She thinks sadly. Will either side of the coin ever learn? In her years of travel across the world, she has learned through many sources about the importance of balance. But also of communication, something the Guardians (as well as the Boogeyman) have been terrible at these past few centuries. It is something they sincerely need to change.
She will try to speak with Pitch later. The Nightmares won't occupy themselves with him forever, and it is always easiest to speak with him, when he is exhausted.
For now, she turns her attention back to Sandy, just as he tells her of how they could possibly have lost forever, if it had not been an unexpected wild card in the form of a new Guardian. That gets her attention, and she glances up towards the moon as she and Sandman approach North's workshop.
She has the strangest feeling that there is something about the round coin of the Moon that seems to avoid her gaze.
The North Pole looks as impressive as always, and she finds herself smiling as Kailash lands by one of the entrances, the Himalayan Snow Goose honking as the yeti greet them, and open the gates to the workshop.
The first of the Guardians to greet her is, unsurprisingly, dear Nicholas St. North. He bellows in pure joy at the sight of her, before he gathers her up in his arms in a massive hug, which she gladly returns.
"I'm sorry I was not there to fight at your side," she tells her oldest Guardian friend. "I didn't find out until Sandy told me."
"No harm, no foul." Nicholas tells her. "We won, and that is most important!"
He continues on from there, asking her questions about her journey and then filling out any questions that she has about the battle (with Sandy having been killed, he had missed some of the details of the story. She inwardly shudders at the thought of that, deciding that she needs to have a serious talk with Pitch later).
"And of course," Nicholas says, cutting into her thoughts, "we would not have won if it had not been for Jack Frost, our newest Guardian!"
She blinks. She has heard of Jack Frost, of course. The mischievous winter spirit who colored the leaves in the autumn and who spread frost over windows, who brought snow days and nipped at noses…
But that was all she knew. She had never met him, had only heard about him in passing on her travels. The thought of that made her frown, as she glanced up towards the skylight where she could just see the Man in the Moon. He had lead them all together back when they had first fought Pitch so long ago. Why had he not included her this time around?
Why did the moon light feel as though the Man in the Moon was ashamed?
She hears the voices of the other Guardians, the chipper voice of Toothiana and the gruff, accented voice of Bunnymund (he has changed so much because of all that chocolate. They have all changed, herself included).
And a laugh. A young laugh, clear like a bell, seeming to ring through the whole workshop.
It can't be…
"Jack!" North calls. "Come over here, please!"
The laughter stops, and a lithe figure carrying a staff literally comes flying over, and lands in front of them. A young, pale man with a flash of white hair and bright, blue eyes, clad in a blue hoody and ragged brown pants grins up at North, before he looks at her.
"What's up North?" He asks cheerfully. "Who is this?"
North grins, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Katherine? Meet Jack Frost, the new Guardian of Joy! Jack Frost, meet Katherine. She is our Mother Goose, the Guardian of stories!"
She feels as though her heart has stopped, as she stares at him. The light in his eyes, the paleness of his whole body…
She steps forward before she can stop herself, and pulls him into a close hug. The young man starts, and he goes stiff, clearly not used to being touched, but she still holds him close. And despite so many things that are wrong, so many that seem to be missing, there are some things that are never wrong, and the feeling of his body against hers is one of them.
She pulls away, giving him a sad smile before wiping at her eyes for a moment.
"My apologies. You remind me of someone I knew a long time ago. And I guess I let my feelings overwhelm me."
He blinks at her owlishly. "Uhm… That's okay." He said slowly. "It's nice to meet you."
"It's nice to meet you too, Jack Frost." She says kindly. "Come on. Let's join the others, and you can tell me all about the adventure you have all been on."
As she walks with Jack and North to the other Guardians, she glances up towards the skylight. The moon seems to glance down at her in an uncertain way.
It's no use getting angry, she decides. But she will need some time to digest this sudden revelation.
But first things first, which involves hearing the full story from everyone involved.
And then she is going to talk to Pitch.