Hello esteemed reader! This is my story! Don't be afraid to R&R and tell me what you think! If it's awful, just tell me so.

I hope you enjoy my story though! It's an idea I've had for a while now and I hope you guys like it as much as I do.

Also, I post very erratically, so be prepared for long waits in-between chapters.

Disclaimer: I don't own Rise Of The Guardians, nor will I ever. I don't own the places either.

Thanks!

~Autum Dragonflame

Jet stared out the window. Had the window had been open, his semi-short, blacker than night hair, would have been blowing in the wind, and his gray eyes would have been half shut, but the window was not open. His hair fell just short of getting in his eyes. His eyes were wide open, and lacking any hint of tiredness.

Jet sat in the back seat with his little sister Seneca. The young girl had fallen fast asleep hours ago, and he had decided to let her sleep. They had gotten off a plane from America at about two o'clock, and her green eyes almost immediately started to droop. The little girl had managed to stay awake for about an hour before her blond head had started to bob, and after that she quickly sank into a deep sleep.

Jet was 13 years older than his little sister, give or take a few months. This placed him at age 18. However, he hadn't grown an inch since he was 17. His hair had virtually stopped growing too. This worried Jet. He had managed to pinpoint the time he had stopped aging, and he didn't like it. Jet and Seneca's mother had died just over a year ago, that was when he had stopped growing. For the past year, he and his sister had lived with a woman named Sophie, a close friend of the family. However, a few weeks ago they had started to hear rumors. Jet and Sophie had made a joint decision at that time, it had become too dangerous to stay in Burgess Pennsylvania any longer. They also came up with a solution, to find a safe place to stay until everything blew over.

That was when Sophie had brought up some small town in "the middle of nowhere, Russia". After hearing about it, Jet had readily agreed that it was their best bet. It was small, secluded, and nobody knew its precise location. This proved to be a challenge as much as a benefit. Looking for a town no one knew about wasn't exactly a walk in the park. It was more of a drive in a scorching desert. Sophie had insisted that they could find it, saying she knew approximately where it was, and that she had heard about it and gotten directions from a very reliable source. The only problem was that it had happened years ago, and that the directions were riddles. Any variation in those clues could send them in the wrong direction. It was a miracle that they had gotten this far without incident! But there they were, headed to the coordinates the directions indicated, zooming over sand dunes in a rented buggy.

"Jet, I think I see something on the horizon," Sophie said, squinting through a pair of sunglasses.

Jet turned and looked out the windshield. He found the spot on the wavering horizon almost instantly. It wasn't much to look at from this distance, but it was obvious enough.

"If there's a town out here, that would be it," Jet said.

"Wanna check it out?" she asked, excitement evident in her voice.

"It's worth a shot," Jet replied. "If nothing else, it'll be an oasis. We could use one about now."

"Aw, come on Jet! It's not that bad out here!" the woman said energetically.

"Nothing but heat, sun, and sand for miles. Yeah, must be paradise."

Sophie pouted slightly as she adjusted the dune-buggy's direction. "You're just grumpy 'cause it's bright."

After another hour of non-stop driving, they were close enough to see that whatever it was, it was surrounded by the biggest trees any of them had ever seen. They were at least three times the size of the trees in Burgess. As they got closer, they could make out a sort of wall, overgrown and half hidden with green vegetation.

After a couple more hours, they were so close to the edge of the forest that they could see that the wall outside of the forest was not, in fact, an actual wall, but an impenetrable weave of tree branches, bushes, plants, and undergrowth. Neither Jet nor Sophie had ever seen anything like it in their lives.

Soon the dune-buggy was in the last mile. Sophie's foot, however, was nowhere near the brake pedal. She maintained a steady speed. Jet wasn't worried, he trusted Sophie. To an extent.

"Well kids, if I'm right, we're about to have our character tested!" Sophie called cheerily.

Jet's mind started to race, his heart wasn't far behind. What did she mean they were about to have their character tested? Wasn't she stopping?! Suddenly it dawned on him. Sophie had said that the place they were going to had several layers of security, each would test your character. If you were worthy, you would be allowed to enter the town. If not, you would either be forcibly removed, trapped . . . or dead.

As they closed the distance, Jet's heart and mind raced faster and faster. 30 yards, 20 yards, 10 yards, just before the moment of impact, the wall un-wove itself and the tree's roots moved out of the way.

"What just happened?!" Jet half yelled.

"The first test of our character." Sophie said flatly. "I thought I covered this already."

Jet stared out the window and watched as they passed the wall. Now that he knew he and Seneca were safe, he took the time to observe the wall in more detail. It had to be at least 100 feet high, and he realized that it was actually composed of bracken and vines instead of tree branches and weeds. Not for the first time he noticed the huge thorns included in this wall. They were as long, if not longer, than medieval spears, and he would venture to guess they were just as sharp.

As they emerged on the other side of the thick wall, it started to weave back together. Jet twisted around in his seat and watched out the back window. This filled him with considerable wonder at how the giant mass of foliage was able to weave and unweave itself. Once it was completely woven back together, he turned back around so that he was facing forward again.

WHUMPH

The dune-buggy hit a bump and the whole thing jumped. They landed with another huge jerk making Jet thankful that the dune-buggy had suspension. His gaze snapped over to Seneca. She was facing him one green eye wide open and staring at him, the other closed with a tiny little fist rubbing over it, trying to get the sleep out.

"Jet," she yawned, "What happened? How long was I asleep?" she asked, her sweet little voice still containing a hint of sleepiness.

"We just hit a bump Sen, it's alright," Jet replied sweetly. "You can go back to sleep if you want."

"No, that's okay, I'm awake now. Where are we?" Seneca asked taking her hand down from her eye and looking around her.

"We're almost there actually," he said smiling at her.

"We are?!" Seneca yelled excitedly.

"Yup, just through this forest is the place we've been searching for!" Sophie said.

"YAY!" Seneca yelled bouncing up and down in excitement. Jet smiled at her exuberance, he was happy for her. She was young, even for a child, and she healed quickly and easily. The last thing he wanted to see was Seneca hurting, and he had been seeing way too much of that for his liking. So he was happy to see her so genuinely happy.

"AHH!" Sophie cried suddenly. Milliseconds latter slamming on the breaks and skidding to a stop. The momentum jerking everyone in the car and nocking the wind out of them. Jet's head snapped forward as he gasped for air.

"What was- gasp –a bear?" Jet asked more to voice their thoughts than to actually ask. He glanced at Seneca expecting her to be terrified. Instead he saw the face his little sister made when she saw a new stuffed toy that she just had to have. At first he was confused, why would she look at this like she does a toy? Then he understood. She saw the monstrous black bear as a 40 foot, living, teddy bear.

The bear came in their direction almost immediately after it saw them. He lumbered over, closer and closer. It came close enough to see, smell, and hear them clearly, and then it came even closer. Surprisingly, the bear showed little interest in them. That is, once it had gotten close enough to see and smell them properly, it just wandered off farther into the woods.

Sophie and Jet were confused and relieved at the bear's departure, they figured it had decided they were not a threat and lost interest. Of course, Jet had no way of knowing how right they were. That bear in particular was a guardian of the town. His job was to fight off any unwanted guests, Jet, Seneca, and Sophie where not threats to the village as far as he could tell, so he left them alone. After all they still had another test to pass before they could reach the settlement anyway.

Once the bear was out of sight, they started out again. Sophie was much more careful with her driving after that event. She went slower, and watched for large obstructions in their path. The question nagging at the back of their minds, what's next?

As their journey continued, their speed would fluctuate. Here the trees would be thicker, there the animal population would be denser. Progress was slow, but hey, it was progress. After about a half hour, Seneca noticed something on the ground.

"What is that?" She asked none in particular.

Jet looked out the window to the spot she was pointing. Luckily, the buggy was going slow enough that he had time to see it. In contrast to the brown and green of the forest floor, the spot shined gold. Before Jet could say anything more Seneca looked a little ways farther up the road.

"Look," She yelled getting exited now, "another one! What are they?!"

Once again Jet looked to where she was pointing, and yet again saw a shiny golden spot. Jet noticed that the golden spots on the ground were always perfectly round, and were about the size of an American quarter.

"I don't know what they are Sen," Jet said to her, a puzzled look on his face.

As the three progressed, the shiny golden spots became more and more common. For a while it had been one or two every once in a while, but then there began to be more, and they appeared more often. After another fifteen minutes, the ground was littered with the shiny, quarter sized, gold spots.

Jet looked over at Seneca, she was practically bouncing up and down. He could see the curiosity she was trying to contain. He knew that if he didn't do something now, she was going to burst.

"Alright, we better stop and take a look at these gold spots before Seneca explodes." He said.

"Okay Jet, we'll stop for a minute, but don't mess with anything." She said gently bringing the buggy to a stop.

Jet, Seneca, and Sophie all climbed out of the buggy. Seneca ran around the buggy and stood beside Jet. Sophie stood looking around, feet spread apart and her hands on her hips. Jet crouched, balancing on the balls of his feet, to get a better look at the mysterious spots. Seneca, seeing her brother crouch down, did the same.

Now, as he was closer and had a better view of the spots, Jet saw that they weren't spots at all. They were gold coins! His thoughts were interrupted by his little sister's voice.

"So, what are they Jet?"

"They are gold coins Seneca."

"GOLD COINS?!" Sophie yelled.

"Yes, gold coins," Jet said. "Now we need to keep moving."

"But, they're gold coins jet!"

"I know, but we have to figure out where they came from before we go and take them."

"Yah, you're right, logic tells us to keep moving." Sophie said disappointed as they boarded the buggy once again.

As they continued on their way, they could hear the coins jingling as they rolled over them. The jingling got louder and louder as they went on. The layer of coins on the ground was increasing. Then all at once, the coins stopped, and there was a ghostly figure before them.

They stared at the sub human figure before them. It was a figure of a woman, and she was as pale as a ghost and she shimmered like jewels in the sunlight. Jet slowly climbed out of the dune-buggy. Sophie would have said something to beckon him back, but she too was amazed at the creature. Tentatively, he took a step forward. Seeing no sign of discouragement from the ghostly lady, he continued carefully. One step closer, then another, and another, until he was no more than three yards away from her.

Jet stared at her entranced, she was the most beautiful creature he had seen in his entire life. She didn't just shimmer like jewels, she was practically covered with them! She wore every kind of jewel, and where she was not covered by jewels, her skin emitted a soft white glow. Her face though, was the most beautiful part. There were no jewels on this part of her body, just her pale, diamond-like skin. Her smile was beguiling, but her eyes was what he noticed the most. Strangely enough, they reminded him of Seneca's eyes. They glowed, like the rest of her, but they were the only green on her, and they were greener than emeralds.

The woman started to move. She outstretched her hands, and suddenly, gold coins identical to the ones they had been examining earlier started pouring from her hands. Jet and the others watched in wonder as more and more came fourth, and soon, the little clearing that they were in was filled with gold coins. Slowly, the woman placed her hands at her sides, watching them closely.

Jet wanted more than anything to scoop up as much gold as he could carry and go. He knew that even a small amount of this gold would put Seneca through primary, secondary school, and college, but at the same time he knew that the gold was not theirs to take. He was not a thief. He had never committed a crime of any kind. He decided to keep it that way. Besides he thought, what would Seneca think of him if he stole from someone?

Firm in his mindset, Jet forced his eyes closed. He still knew the gold was there, but he couldn't see it, or the mysterious woman. Then, he slowly turned around and walked back to the buggy. Every so often, he would open his eyes long enough to get his bearings, and then close them again. When he got to the buggy, he finally trusted himself to keep his eyes open. He climbed into the buggy, and voiced his thoughts.

"We need to get out of here, staring at these treasures will only corrupt our minds. If we stay much longer, we may do something we regret."

Sophie nodded. Now that someone had broken the silence, interrupting her thoughts of riches, she saw reason. She was ready to leave, she knew she couldn't hold out much longer, and she didn't want to do something she would regret.

Sophie hit the gas, and the trio was on their way again. Once they were out of the clearing there was no more gold, and the feeling of awe passed. Jet sighed in relief, crisis averted, he thought, but how many more tests are there?

(To readers who have been here before: DO NOT BE ALLARMED! I have been reorganizing my chapters. This is an updated version of the first four chapters. I will continue updating as I see fit. Some will have very little change, and some will be combined with others to make them longer.)