Cold was the first thing he remembered. Overwhelming, yet underwhelming. Bone-chilling, yet life-bringing. Absolute, yet subtle. The cold was his everything. Ingrained into his very essence as he rose through the ice, as if being reborn due to the meddling of some higher power. Even as the young man ascended from his frozen coffin, the cold refused to desert him. He should have been dead, and yet, he felt more alive than he could ever remember. Which was not very long.
He examined his hands, so pale it was as if his very blood had frozen. Considering where he had just been, that was a very likely possibility. His surroundings consisted of a frozen lake, and a frosted forest bordering said lake. Nothing moved, nothing made a sound. The wind was silent, and no animals made a move. It was as if the world was dead. That, or in a deep sleep in hopes of the harsh winter simply passing by. The boy himself was barely breathing. He did not want to be the one to break the silence. It was almost… ethereal. A flash of light caught the boy's eye. Whipping his head toward the source, he saw the reflection of the moon off the ice.
Turning his head slowly, the boy looked at the moon. Somehow, someway, the moon was flashing of its own accord. The silver light was almost blinding in its intensity. The boy looked away, unable to stand the brightness with eyes that had only known darkness. A wisp of wind finally blew by, bringing some semblance of life back to the frozen forest. Riding on the wind was a voice, heard only by the young boy who had lost his life to the very ice he had been reborn from. A name, that would not be known for many years...
"Jack Frost…"
Three hundred years later, the Workshop of Nicholas St. North
"STILL WAITING FOR COOKIES!" A man bellowed. This man, dressed in a pair of blue trousers, moccasins, and a red sweater with rolled-up sleeves that revealed many tattoos, was one of the most well known Immortals in the world. Nicholas St. North, more commonly known as 'Santa Claus' was currently working on a sculpture of ice. There was a chainsaw on top of his desk, still running, most likely used to carve the basic outline of the statue. North jumped into his rolling chair, and proceeded to fly across the floor of his personal workshop. The chair stopped just short of crashing into a shelf full of carving equipment. Using his huge hands, the size of a bear's paws, North extricated a tiny hammer and chisel from the mess. Riding the chair back to his uncompleted work, he immediately began lightly tapping away at the block of ice, giving it a more defined shape. Once that was done, he simply tossed the hammer and chisel behind him- the elves will pick it up later- before pulling a jeweler's magnifying glass and needle-like object from out of seemingly nowhere, before continuing his project. In the background, music played, which North happily hummed along to as he worked. A few minutes later, North stowed away the last of his tools before proudly holding up his newest creation; a small locomotive made entirely of ice. The huge Russian quickly set the locomotive upon a previously crafted track, also made of ice. As if by magic, the locomotive began chugging along by itself, with no help from North. The large man giggled in excitement when the locomotive finally rode up a ramp, before flying off the track altogether.
However, rather than hitting the ground and shattering, the locomotive used its wings and jet boosters to fly through the air. It made to turn around once it neared the door, but never got the chance. A Yeti with dark brown fur slammed the door open, smashing the locomotive to pieces. The shattered remains flew across the room, until the laid at the feet of North.
North cried out in dismay. The Yeti cried out in shame. Their chorus of wails of filled North's personal workshop until the Russian stopped suddenly and said,
"How many times have I told you to knock?"
The Yeti replied in some strange, garbled language that North somehow understood.
"The Globe? What is wrong?" North asked in dread. Rather than answering, the Yeti pointed in the direction of the Globe. With a hefty sigh, North trudged after the Yeti.
In the Globe room, the normally carpeted floor had been replaced by a sea of jingling bells. The elves were all watching the Globe fearfully, so entrenched in their worries they did not hear the approach of North, with his heavy stomping.
"Shoo, with your pointy heads. Always under boot." North complained, as he kicked and nudged the elves out of his way. After a few elves were tossed, the rest got the message and cleared a path for the Russian. Unimpeded now, North quickly walked over to the Globe.
The Globe of Belief was a giant, metal replication of the Earth, on a smaller scale of course. It was still rather large, though, at least five times North's height. And North was by no means small. As the massive Russian observed the Globe, there did not seem to be anything wrong. Then, all of a sudden, hundreds of lights located in America simply vanish. North was shocked, but even more so than surprised, he was scared. His fear was amplified when the lights starting going out in the thousands, all over the Globe.
"What!? What is happening!?" North cried out. Looking at the nearest Yeti, he asked, "Have you checked axis? Is rotation balanced?" The Yeti shrugged, before warbling out an answer. However, the Yeti was interrupted by a sudden gust of wind that ruffled it's fur. North watched helplessly as the Globe was covered in sand so black, it seemed to absorb the very light around it.
As quickly as it started, the invasion of the black sand ended. Another wild breeze passed by, carrying the sand off with it. Faintly, North could make out another noise among the shuffling of the sand grains; laughter. Deep, echoing, malicious laughter. Most importantly, though, was the fact that this laughter seemed… familiar.
"Can it be...?" The Russian asked no one in particular.
North broke out in a cold sweat as his mind worked in overtime to comprehend the event that just took place. Immediately taking action, the Russian bounded across the room towards a lever labeled 'Emergency Lever'. He grabbed hold of the lever, twisted, then pushed it into the control panel.
Outside The Workshop
The top of the workshop exploded into a flow a colored light; the Aurora Borealis. Flowing across the icy landscape of the North Pole, the Northern Lights soon were spread out across the entire world. This light show luckily did not cause mass panic amongst the humans; the light was being projected at a frequency only visible to Immortals.
Now, while the humans may not have panicked, the Immortals were a completely different matter. The Aurora Borealis was only seen when a battle was looming over the horizon(or when the elves managed to get at the switch). A few Immortals, in particular, were desperately hoping that it was just the elves this time.
These specific Immortals were known as the Guardians of Childhood. They were the immortals who fought time after time to keep the world safe from those who would seek to unbalance the forces holding the Earth together.
E. Aster Bunnymund, the Easter Bunny. Toothiana, the Tooth Fairy. Sanderson Mansnoozie, the Sandman. And the one you have already been introduced to, Nicholas St. North, a.k.a Santa Claus.
Inside the Workshop
Within ten minutes of the Aurora Borealis being set off, the aforementioned immortals were at the North Pole.
Aster was rather out of breath, considering he had run all the way here through the use of his underground tunnels. Toothiana was barely better, having been winded by the excessive use of her shimmering wings. Sanderson was the only one who was physically fine, because he just flew to the pole in a plane made of dreamsand.
"Friends, we have big problem. Very big problem!" North bellowed, which was slightly unnecessary considering the other Guardians were sitting about five feet away, surrounding the desk in North's workshop.
"Well, bloody duh! Why else would ya use the Aurora!?" Aster asked, slightly frustrated at North's penchant for theatrics. Now was most definitely not the time for games.
"Er, right. Anyways, a most strange thing has happened. The lights, on the Globe- many have gone out!"
"How many are we talking about?" Asked Tooth, seeming slightly worried. Her wings were buzzing a bit, as if threatening to carry her off without permission.
"Thousands! Tens of thousands! Hundreds of thousands! All over the world! And worse, Pitch might be behind it!"
The Guardians all took a collective breath.
"Woah, woah, woah! Are you seriously expectin' me to believe ya, just like that!? Cuz if ya really do, ya got another thing comin' mate!"
"I have proof! Ask Elves, or Yetis, they were there when it happened. Black sand, blacker than night, swallowed Globe, but sand disappeared quickly. And, I heard, I heard, I heard his laughter! Was faint, but there!"
Tooth's mouth was wide open, and Aster's ears were sticking straight-up, along with the majority of his fur. Sandy was also rather shocked, and making erratic dreamsand shapes in his distress.
"We- we barely beat him last time! H-how are we supposed to do it again, especially if he's going to cause a massive Belief Blackout!?" Tooth cried out. She was trembling, and her hummingbird wings were buzzing.
While his friends were freaking out, Sandy looked out the window; more specifically, towards the moon. He was hoping the Man in the Moon would bestow some of his wise advice upon his Guardians once again, and Sandy's wish was granted. The light of the moon flared up, blinking rapidly at Sandy, whose fearful countenance immediately brightened up. He jumped out of his seat and ran over to the nearest person, Tooth, and began eagerly tugging on her sleeve.
"Hmm? What's wrong, Sandy?" she asked. Noticing the symbols the Sandman was making, she gasped. "Guys, Manny's trying to tell us something!" She squealed.
Aster's ears perked up, along with North's belly. The Guardians leapt up, and nearly sprinted to the Globe room. Once there, North pressed another button; one which opened up a window in the ceiling which the Moon's light could shine through.
The silver light contrasted sharply with the dark wood floor, and the light began contorting, ever so slightly. Slow though the process was, it was still breath-taking for the Guardians, who had already seen it many times. When the light was done reshaping, it stood in a human shape. A male, about the size of a mortal teenager, wearing a cloak and holding a tall staff, taller than the boy himself.
"A new Guardian? But who is that?" Tooth wondered out loud. Indeed, the Moon showing them a person could only mean one thing, but it didn't exactly help if they had no clue who the Guardian-to-be was.
"That there staff… I swear I've seen the thing before…" Aster mumbled. All of a sudden, a figurative lightbulb went off in the large rabbit's head. "Jack Frost!" He shouted, which startled the rest of the Guardians.
"That is Jack Frost?" North asked, seeming unsure.
"Yeah, I'd recognize the cheeky bugger's stick from a mile away. Why Manny wants him to be a Guardian is what I don't understand."
"What's wrong with Jack Frost?" Tooth asked cautiously. While many Immortals had earned Bunny's ire for something or other, the fairy had rarely seen him so worked up about one.
"The little blighter caused the Blizzard of '68! Caused me one of the largest Belief Blackouts I'd ever experienced! I was pint-sized for weeks!"
Tooth, North, and Sandy exchanged glances. They had known about the Blizzard, had even helped Bunny regain Believers in '69, but they had never heard anything about another Immortal causing it.
"Bunny, are you sure Jack Frost caused that? The storm covered the majority of the country, and I'm having a bit of a hard time believing any Immortal could have that much power." Tooth questioned softly.
"Of course I'm sure! Kid came and apologized to me after, something about an experiment gone wrong, but he hardly looked sorry at all! Looked like he'd rather be anywhere else, the bloody cur!"
"Maybe that is why Manny chooses Jack!"
"What!? Why!? Cuz he doesn't care about anyone except himself?"
"No, because he is powerful. Blizzard of '68 was big storm! If one Immortal caused that, imagine what he could do!" North seemed to be getting more enthusiastic about getting the chance to work with Frost, while Bunny looked absolutely disgusted.
"Well, I for one think that Manny's made a big mistake on this one. Jack Bloody Frost is not Guardian material, and that's that!" For emphasis, Bunny crossed his arms over his chest, and his face formed into a sneer.
Sandy used a small cloud of dreamsand to float himself up to Bunny's height, then proceeded to strangle the rabbit's ears.
"Ow! Ouch! Oy! Get offa me!" Bunny cried out in vain. Sandy had an iron grip, and continued to rattle the rabbit's brain, until Tooth finally took pity and stopped the Sandman.
Still, worked up as he was, Sandy's attempt to communicate with the rest of the Guardians was ruined by his symbols flowing by far too fast for the others to process.
"Slow down, Sandy! Cannot understand!"
Realizing that nothing good would come of giving the other Guardian's seizures, Sandy reigned in his indignation. Finally, he made a symbol of the Moon, followed by an extremely derpy face, which was then crossed out with a big 'X'.
"Sandy's right, Manny isn't an idiot. He knows what he's doing, and if Jack Frost really is that powerful, he could definitely help us in this coming battle!" Tooth said passionately, while giving Bunny a stern look that brooked no argument.
The rabbit huffed and looked away, crossing his arms once more.
"Alright, fine! We'll recruit the little pest! Happy?"
No! You, mister, need to find yourself a better attitude, or Jack might not even want to join us!"
"All the more reason not to change!"
"Bunny, are you listening to yourself!? Pitch is coming back, and we'll need all the help we can get if we want to win! Are you really that selfish that you would let the world get swallowed by fear, just because you couldn't get over a little accident!?" Tooth was breathing hard now, her displeasure made known by her scowl and buzzsaw wings.
"Little?" Bunny scoffed, but straightened up a bit when Tooth glared at him. "...Fine. I won't be too rude to the kid. Even if he deserves it." Bunny mumbled that last bit, because he was still slightly cowed by Tooth's anger. It had been a while since she got worked up, and it was pretty scary.
"Thank you." She said primly.
North and Sandy, who had been standing off to the side, finally re-joined the conversation.
"Good! So we find Jack Frost, make him Guardian, and beat Piich back into his little hidey-hole. But… How do we find Jack Frost?"
The Guardians looked at each other apprehensively. They had barely had a clue the Immortal even existed! How were they supposed to find him?
"Well, if Jack can make massive blizzards, it's probably safe to assume he's… somewhere cold?" Tooth asked, sheepishly.
"And that narrows it down to the entire Northern Hemisphere, and Antarctica. Great job, Tooth." He stared at her balefully.
'Okay, maybe it's not the best of leads, but it's the only thing we have to go off of right now! So I don't want to hear your sass!" Tooth was frazzled by the revelations of the current evening, so it was only expected for her to be snappy. That didn't mean she didn't scare Bunny any less.
"Right, sorry…"
Sorry, not sorry. I updated this because I was reading RotG fanfics, and my interest was piqued. For those of you who are curious, yes, another chapter of Demon in Disguise is in the making, but I just felt like writing this one. For those of you who know, this completely goes against what I said a few months ago, but I am a very fickle person, so such a turn around should be expected. I'll do whatever interests, and if it happens to be one story for a few weeks, then that's what it is. For those of you who wanted me to write this story, here you go. I didn't read the books, and I don't plan. Just going based off what I saw in the and in other fanfics. Maybe I'll write another chapter of this, or maybe DiD, or maybe even Solo. Who knows, stick around to find out.
