Okay, I don't know where this idea came from, or where I'm going with it, but I decided to post it anyway and see what you guys think. It's an experimental fic, so let me know if you like this idea or not.

Disclaimer: I cannot claim to own the loveable winter sprite, the movie he was in, or any of his buddies who appeared in the movie, though I suppose I can claim my OCs. Meh, I want to own the loveable winter sprite though. *snickers* If only.

Has anyone ever thought about how bizarre it is to read a story told in the first person? It presumes that the storyteller has lived through whatever perils and dramas they tell, and that they are now able to speak of it from their point of safety.

It assumes that they are alive and well and unharmed. It assumes that the person was real. That the experience was real.

But what if this is not the case?

Enter myself, a crazy winter sprite with a penchant for adventure, and a knowledge that all problems in life can be resolved through fun. At least, that's what I think most of the time. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. This is that story.

I would start this story with an, "It all started when..." statement, but to be quite honest, I don't really know when it started. I only knew when I was in the middle of it.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's back up.

Pitch had been out of commission for a couple years, and I was getting more accustomed to my role as a Guardian. I still didn't entirely fit in, but we were all working on it.

Then there was that altercation I had with Bunny after a mission that we had messed up together after trying to conquer some rogue nightmares.

"Mate, you've gotta stop being so frivolous all the time!"

I swaggered around, swinging my staff in a showoffy way. "Yeah, well, maybe if you weren't so serious, things wouldn't get this out of hand."

Bunny longsufferingly rubbed at his eyes and said, "Oi, Frostbite, I just wish you could have some way of seeing how much fun is too much."

He should have really been careful what he wished for.

I was flying around one day shortly after that when I saw something that grabbed my attention. It embarrasses me to say that I can't remember exactly what it was. Most of my memories from just before everything happened are a bit fuzzy. That is as he wished it.

As soon as I touched down to investigate the anomaly, reality bent around me. The ground rose up around me and caged me in, and I promptly passed out.

When I awoke, I was spread out on an operating table of sorts, my wrists and ankles cuffed into place to prevent escape, and no one in sight. The anomaly I'd seen had obviously been a trap, and I had a pretty good idea who was behind it.

"Pitch!" I yelled. "What purpose do you have in locking me up here? Come on out and speak to me like a man!"

The resulting laugh that emanated from every corner of the room sent chills deep into my bones, which is strange when that happens to Jack Frost. That was not Pitch's laugh. This laugh belonged to someone else.

"Why would Pitch bring you here, Jack Frost? Pitch Black wants nothing to do with you!" The laughter escalated again. "I, on the other hand, could use a good laugh. And where better to get it than the Guardian of Fun, eh?" More laughs followed. I wasn't sure if this guy was terrifying or just being stupid. Sure, I'd be happy to make him laugh, but under these circumstances? Not so much.

"Who the hell are you?" I screeched, which only seemed to drive the madman even more insane.

"Oh, you don't know me yet, Jack Frost. But you will. You will. But you must amuse me first."

Despite the evasiveness, his response did answer some of my questions. If I didn't know him yet, but he was powerful enough to capture me, then he had to be a new spirit. Though why the Man in the Moon would create a spirit this psychotic was beyond me. Maybe he'd been turned into a spirit in some other way.

"I'm not in the business of entertaining people who hold me hostage," I said.

"Now don't be ridiculous," said the voice. The wrist and leg cuffs suddenly popped open and released me. The table itself vanished into the floor, and I was whipped into a standing position as my staff came out of nowhere and smacked into place in my hand.

"Your task is very simple," said the voice as he let off another roll of maniacal laughter, "All you have to do is escape."

My grip tightened on my staff. This creature, whoever he was, seemed to be getting more sadistic by the second. If I was supposed to entertain him by escaping, then escaping must be no easy matter.

"Of course, I will play 'fair', said the voice with a note of sarcasm on the word "fair". Something told me that no matter what arrangements were made, none of this would be fair at all. "You will be sorted into a team who will all work to escape my labyrinth."

At this proclamation, the walls in the room I was in fell down and revealed another room that was already occupied by two people: a man, or rather a young adult boy, and a little girl. Why was this guy dragging innocent humans into this mess? He had really gone too far.

"Meet your team," said the voice. "This is the skeptic, the naive one, and the freak."

The voice started laughing again as name tags appeared on the three of us, denoting which of the three demeaning categories he had sorted us into. I knew even before I checked my name tag that I was "the freak". The other two were clearly human. I was the only one who wasn't.

"It will require all three of you combined to escape my labyrinth, so don't let anything happen to each other or you'll never get out alive!" The child started whimpering upon hearing this, and I gripped my staff even tighter in irritation. I felt no belief coming from either of the two humans, so I had no idea what I could do to help. How dare he terrorize a little girl like that?

"Good luck, my friends, and have fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!" I felt sick to my stomach. This was supposed to be fun? To who?

The walls then fell down around us and disintegrated into nothingness, and the three of us found ourselves standing on the edge of a canyon, overlooking a vast valley of green and purple grasses beneath a crimson sky. As bizarre as it was, it took my breath away due to its strange beauty. "Wow..."

The other two snapped around to look at me, which made me stagger back. They could see me despite not believing? How was that possible? What had the crazy guy done?

"So, you're the 'freak', I take it," said the guy in my team, gesturing to my name tag. "Why so entranced? Are you on his side or something?"

The paranoia threw me for a loop, and I waved my hand and shook my head. "No. N-N-NO! I was captured just like you guys."

"Then why did you 'wow' at what he did?"

"It's pretty, okay?" I shot back. "I've had to learn to see the good even in bad situations in order to do my job, so deal with it!" The guy crossed his arms and turned away from me, miffed. I felt bad for yelling. We were all just scared.

"Sorry," I said, and I took off my demeaning name tag. "I've spent most of my life alone. I'm not used to working with others."

"That makes two of us," said the guy.

A whimper from the little girl snapped us out of the fit we were in and we directed our attention at her. "Can I go home now?"

All my irritation flooded out of me and I ran over and knelt in front of the girl, putting my arms around her protectively. "We have to get out of here first," I said, "but we'll make sure to keep you safe." I turned to the other guy and gave him a meaningful look. "Won't we?"

The guy shrugged and said, "Yeah, sure," but he didn't seem so sure. I stared at him sadly. The poor guy really didn't have much hope of getting out of he was acting like this. I took a deep breath and then stood up, my resolve renewed. It was time to act like the Guardian I was.

"Okay," I said, "if whoever he was said that we can't get out of here without working together, then that must mean that each of us has different abilities that we have to pool together. So we're going to have to get to know each other if we have any hope of getting out of here."

"Right," said the guy, wearing a deadpan face. I'd hoped to get more of a reaction than that. Whatever. I sighed and tried again.

"How about we start with our names? I'm Jack."

"Brent," said the guy. At least he was trying to cooperate.

I knelt down to the little girl's level and placed my arm around her shoulders. "And what's your name, sweetheart?"

"Amanda."

"Amanda," I repeated. "That's a pretty name." The little girl smiled at me, and I smiled back, then stood up to get back to business.

"Okay," I said, "I can guess that he called Amanda 'the naive one' because she's so young, but I'm a little afraid to ask why you're called 'the skeptic'."

Brent rolled his eyes. "It's because I value logic and reason over anything else, obviously." He sighed. "I'm a computer programmer. It's just what I do." He paused a bit as he eyed the spot where my demeaning name tag used to be before he said, "I suppose his nickname for you was making fun of your hair."

I choked on a laugh that escaped unexpectedly at the comment. This Brent dude was naive enough to assume the term 'freak' was merely being applied to white hair? And here Amanda was called naive.

"Eh heh," I said as I rubbed the back of my head. "Not exactly. But I don't think you're going to like the reason, Brent."

"Why not?" said Brent.

But I didn't get a chance to answer, because what looked like a giant albatross swooped past us, nearly knocking us off our perch. Having missed its target, it turned and prepared to have a second go at us. We had to get off the ledge, and fast, but it was a fifty foot drop to the ground.

"I think you're about to find out why, Brent," I said. I started barking orders. "Brent, Amanda, grab hold of me as tight as you can, and don't let go!"

"What are you doing?" said Brent while Amanda hurried to obey.

"No time to explain. Just trust me, please! I know what I'm doing."

Having no alternative, Brent came and clung to me as well, and I leapt over the edge of the cliff seconds before the albatross arrived at the place where we had been. Both people screamed immediately as we fell, but I did my best to tune it out for the time being as falling most of the way was key to getting away from the ginormous bird as fast as possible.

Just before impact, I stopped and slowed our descent to a gentle downward float until the three of us made contact with the ground.

As soon as we were stable once again, Amanda squeaked with joy, let go, and started bounding around, pleased with herself. Brent, on the other hand, stared at me with a terror-stricken expression on his face, shouted "FREEEEEEEEEEEAAAK!" and took off running in the first direction he could think of to get away from me.

My team was now down to two, and we'd only just gotten started.

Whoever it was who had trapped us here and stuck us together was right about one thing: we absolutely needed to work together in order to survive. But I didn't know what to do if someone ran in terror to get away from me. I wondered if it was kinder to just let him make the choice to bail out on us than to force him to stick it out with someone he feared.

Thankfully, I had Amanda to slap some sense into me. She tugged at my shirt, and I looked down at her. "Yes?"

"Isn't it bad for him to run away from us?"

"Um," I said, rubbing my neck. "Yeah, I suppose it is."

She didn't miss a beat. "Then you have go catch him and tell him that he's naughty."

Despite the situation, I chuckled at that and knelt down to her level. "Snowflake, he's not trying to be naughty. He's just scared of me because I have magic powers."

She wouldn't hear it. "Uh hun, he is too naughty. We were told to work together or we'd die, and he won't do it. So he's naughty." Then she shook her finger at me. "And you're naughty too, because you're letting him get away!"

I rolled my eyes and smiled. There was no getting around her little kid logic. She was right.

"Alright," I said as I hoisted her up onto my hip. "Let's go get the naughty boy before he gets himself into too much trouble."

"Yeah!" said Amanda.

I launched into the air with new purpose, having benefitted from the motivational speaking skills only a young child could give. I scanned the ground in the direction he'd run, but there was no sign of him. Had I lost him?

Upon closer inspection, I noticed a large hole in the ground, and it seemed to be shrinking by the second. I had a gut-wrenching feeling about that hole. "Oh, no." I dove straight toward the hole, shouting Brent's name.

"Go away! Don't touch me!" Brent's voice shouted from the hole. I wanted to stand there and just talk to him until he decided to stop fearing me, but the hole was still shrinking. In a few minutes, he'd be swallowed up for good, and there would be no way I could reach him. It was now or never.

I placed Amanda on the ground and told her to wait there, then dove straight into the hole. It didn't take long to find Brent at the bottom of the pit, recoiling in fear both from the sight of me and from the ever-shrinking hole. I wasn't sure which fear was worse for him at the moment.

I reached out my hand toward Brent. "Please, take my hand. I'll get you out of here."

"Go away!" shouted Brent. I recoiled a bit from the venom in his voice, but little Amanda's pep talk was still ringing in my ears. I refused to be the naughty one. This time, at least.

"Brent, please," I said, "if you stay here, you'll die for sure. If you let me save you, you'll at least have a chance of living." I looked up at the opening of the pit. Another couple minutes, and even I wouldn't be able to squeeze out. We had to leave now.

"Brent," I said, "I understand you're terrified of the unknown. I'm sorry that I happen go be one of those unknowns. I'll happily tell you everything you want to know about me once we get to the surface, but we have to leave now or we're both going to die here!"

Brent thought for a moment, then shakily reached out and took my hand. I wasted no time in shooting up to the surface as fast as my magic would carry me. We broke through to open air just as the hole closed behind us, and I heard Amanda cheering from the ground. We were all safe. For now.

I caught my breath in the air before shifting my energy to lower us back to the ground. Before our feet had even touched the ground, Amanda ran up and grabbed Brent's arm and started shaking it in time with her words.

"Bad Brent! You ran away! Naughty, naughty Brent!"

Brent looked up at me with a question on his face, and I merely shrugged and chuckled. Little kids had a way with me.

Brent reached out and patted Amanda's head. "Sorry, kid."

Amanda nodded firmly with her hands on her hips, then shook her finger at Brent. "Okay... but don't do it again."

"Noted," said Brent, who then took on a serious expression as he turned toward me. "And I think you have some 'splainin' to do."

I moved my arms out in an open gesture. "What do you want to know?" I knew better than to just rattle stuff off about me in front of a skeptic. He was already scared enough as it was. It was best to let him ask the questions.

"First of all," he said, "how do you do that flying trick? And don't say-"

Before he finished his sentence, I held up my staff and said, "Magic."

"-magic," he finished. He blinked as he realized what I said, then added, "I told you not to say that."

I leaned on my staff, slightly amused. "Why not? It's true." I couldn't remember the last time I'd gotten to talk with a skeptic about magic. I was going to cherish every second of this conversation and remember it for when I needed a laugh later.

"No, it's not," he said, "because magic isn't real."

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Brent, you're trapped in a magical world. Yet somehow you can accept all this... this chaos around you, yet you can't accept a man who flies?"

"There's a perfectly rational explanation for all of this," he said. "I just haven't figured it out yet. For all I know, this might all be one big hallucination of mine."

Another eye roll from me. "Well then, sir Brent, if we're all just part of your hallucination, why don't you just go with it rather than fighting it the whole way?"

He opened his mouth to protest, then closed it before he spoke, then opened his mouth again and said, "You do have a valid point."

"Of course I do," I said. "I've been rehearsing for ages on what to say when I encounter a skeptic. After thinking on it for that long, it had better be sound advice."

"Okay, fair enough," said Brent, "but if I'm going to just go with it, I need to know what to expect from you. What else can you do besides flying?"

"Hmm..." I thought for a moment before answering that. For some reason, I wanted to be funny. I had no idea why that was so important to me, but it was. "I'd say, mostly freezing things and driving people into hysterics."

Brent gave me a double-take. "What?"

I laughed at the look on his face. This was just too perfect. "Watch," I said, and I slammed my staff on the ground. "Freezing things..." Ice spread out from my staff to cover the soil for several feet all around. Brent got startled and jumped back. "...and sending people into hysterics!" I conjured up a snowflake, infused it with my spirit, and then blew it at Amanda who promptly collapsed into a fit of giggles.

Brent crossed his arms while staring at the scene, then turned back to face me. "Fat lot of good that's gonna do. We can just giggle our enemies to death."

I held my hands up in surrender. "Hey, this is your hallucination. Maybe your subconscious is trying to tell you to laugh more."

"Either that, or it's warning me that laughing buffoons like you will be the death of me."

I lost control of my emotions at that point and fell to the ground, laughing so hard my eyes stung. "Laughing buffoons? That's a good one! I've never been called a laughing buffoon before. Go ahead, call me that again. Do it, do it!"

Brent rolled his eyes and said, "Let's go," but it took several minutes before Amanda or myself were able to stand up again, our laughter was so intense. Brent was not amused.

But a low rumble like a distant laugh came over the valley, and I think that watching us from some safe place, someone else was laughing too.

So, what do you guys think? Do you want me to continue this fic? Please tell me if you do. Also, feel free to tell me where you think it's going or where you want it to go, if you have any ideas. It might help me to figure out where I'M going, haha! If you have no ideas though, that's fine. I just need to know how much interest there is in this story.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and maybe I'll see you next time...? *waves shyly*