A.N.: First off I do not own Rise of the Guardians. Secondly, my chapters will be short and sweet for this piece. Thirdly, I hope you enjoy it. Thank You.

Chapter One: Adelina Plumb, Humble Baker

Our story begins with a young woman, in a time long ago and in a place that has been become part of many. The world she lives is in a cold and oppressive state. Every morning for the last twenty years, she feels the heat of the ovens warming her skin and the smells of sugar and baking bread wafting in the air. In this she finds comfort, a break from the dark.

A young woman in a dirty apron sighed at the sight of the young beggars at the street. Too often she had seen them crying for scraps from the guards and knights that rode through the village to the King's castle. The King was well known for treating and be gifting his underlings with much food and wealth-leaving little for everyone else in the kingdom to survive on. She shook her head at the thoughts and ushered the children to the back doorstep of her bakery.

The blonde always tried to make extra when she could afford so. The children smiled at her, and she smiled back shyly at them as they left with the offered breads, candies and pastries. She was never one for socializing, preferring to stay in her kitchen, kneading dough and glazing cakes. A bell rang from the front of the store, and she bustled back in from her momentary break.

She burst to the front of the store, a little out of breath. The customer (she assumed so) was a young man with black hair and was suited in equally black armor. She thought to herself that he must be one of the head knights of the King's Court.

"Are you Miss Plumb?" the black haired man asked commandingly stepping closer.

"Yes? I mean yes." She said, somewhat nervously. Oh how she hated people coming into her personal space! She wanted to tell the man to leave but she had a feeling that it would not be very effective.

"I want to try one of your confectionaries." He said, his face with those dark eyes and thin lips making very little expression at all. She frowned a little bit at that. For all of her lack of people skills, Adelina knew that something was wrong with this tall sour faced man. He stared as if waiting for her to go fetch him something. She was not a puppy willing and eager to please his master. Just who did this man think he was, trying to intimidate her in her own bakery!?

"You would actually have to buy one first then wouldn't you?" she snapped.

"Fine" He said collectedly. She decided she despised him even more for all his collected coolness.

The man took out a coin from a satchel on his side and flipped it to her. Adelina caught it, her eyes widening as she gazed at the gold coin shining so brilliantly in her calloused palm. She stuffed it into one of the folds of her dress and smiled slightly at the ground.

"Will that cover the cost of one of your pastries Ms. Plumb? " He inquired. She sensed a slight mocking edge to his voice but decided to ignore his impertinence.

"Barely, but it will do." She replied evenly, he nodded woodenly.

She went to go gather up one of each of the three varieties of baked goods that she made today from the back. Adelina presented them to the man and he sniffed the air deeply before beginning to consume the sweet delights set before him. He took a bite of each. She saw his mouth twitch upwards with a bite of hot cross buns. Then it grew more with a bite of the apple strudel.

But when he reached the sugar plum, his grin grew until it seemed all his face was a smile. The man gobbled down the rest of the treat with gusto and licked each of his fingers with a loud 'pop'.

A.N.: The next chapter will be longer and have more things going on within it, I promise.