Chapter 1: Aeola

"Hurry up! I think it's going to start soon!" Toothiana called out to the other Guardians.

"There is no need to rush," said North from his workshop. "It's only five minutes until midnight."

Toothiana sighed softly and fidgeted with her fingers. All of the Guardians were excited. Earlier that day, The Man in the Moon informed North of the coming of a new spirit. Even though Manny was not involved in bringing new spirits into the world (Jack Frost was the only exception), he was always up to date on the birth of a new spirit and he always let the Guardians know.

Jack flew in from an open window, panting. "Hey...did...it...start yet?"

Sandy, who was flying around the globe, shook his head. Tooth looked up at the Spirit of Winter. "Why do you look so tired?"

"Oh...Bunny and I were...racing over here...he should be here...right about n-"

The doors burst open and Bunnymund ran in. "Hey! Did I beat Jack here...? Oh."

Jack laughed. "Nice try, Easter. You're a little late."

Bunny groaned then frowned at Jack. "Why do you look so exhausted? Does flying really take that much effort?"

"No. It's just while I was flying over here..." Jack took a deep breath and stretched out his arms. "The wind suddenly just stopped and I fell onto the snow, so I had to run for a while."

Bunny snorted and Jack rolled his eyes. "It's not that funny. The wind's been really weird lately."

North walked out of his workshop. "Alright! Less than a minute until midnight. Everyone gather around."

Tooth and Sandy flew over to the others while Bunny walked over, still upset that Jack had beat him in the race. Jack joined them and asked the others, "By the way, I was kinda wondering if I'm the newest spirit to be born."

"No," North replied. "About...when was it? One hundred and fifty years ago, a spirit of the woodlands was born. Cheeky little fellow, he is."

"Little runt tries to run off with my eggs every year," growled Bunny. "I always manage to catch him and try to bash his bloody head in, but he never learns his lesson."

"It's starting!" exclaimed Tooth.

The Guardians crowded around a large, glowing crystal that was floating in front of the globe and waited. After what seemed like an eternity, an image slowly appeared. Tooth squealed with excitement. The crystal revealed tall, dangerous looking cliffs that towered over the sea. Everything was quiet except for the waves crashing against the rocks. Then the light of the full moon focused on one little spot near the edge of the cliffs. White mist came down from the sky and spun into spirals until it became thick enough so that no one could see through it. After a while, it began to disappear and revealed the young spirit.

She was only a girl, who looked to be the age of thirteen. She had a small, skinny body with arms and legs that looked like spaghetti noodles. Her clothes were very modern: white Converse, black skinny jeans, a light blue jacket that covered a white shirt with a name of some rock band, and black, fingerless gloves. A floppy gray beret rested on her head. The tips of her light blonde hair were the same color as her jacket. She looked so wild to the Guardians. The only thing that didn't make her look human was how unnatural her skin color was. It was as white as a sheet, even paler than Jack's skin.

The girl was floating in midair, unconscious. Eventually, her eyes fluttered open and two intensely gray orbs stared up at the sky. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked around. A terrified scream escaped her lips when she realized that she was floating in the air. She flailed her arms and legs around until the force that was holding her up dropped her down on the ground. All the Guardians except Tooth and Sandy burst into laughter. The girl got up and wiped the dust from her clothes but froze when she saw her pale fingers.

"What the...?" she said. She examined the rest of her body, touching her elbows and shoulders and torso and legs like she was making sure that everything was in place. She ran to a nearby puddle and gasped at her reflection.

"What?" she muttered. "I...this isn't...what's happening?"

A breeze picked up and two objects appeared in front of her. A white metal bow and a sheath stuffed with arrows. She slowly picked them up but dropped them when a soft feminine voice spoke to her.

"Your name is Aeola," said Nature.

Aeola looked up, startled. "What? No it's not! Who is this? What's going on?" She clenched her trembling fists. "My name isn't Aeola! It's...it's Kelly! My name's Kelly Anne Stratford! I'm not supposed to be here! This is some kind of mistake!"

"Your name is Aeola," Nature repeated. "You have been reborn as a spirit. You, my child, are the Spirit of the Wind."

The Guardians were as dumbfounded as Aeola. There was never really a wind spirit since Kon, the Inca god of wind, gave up the position in the late 1500's. Since then no one really controlled the wind except when other spirits and gods needed it, like when Triton uses it for hurricanes and Jack uses it for flying and snow blizzards. And when there were things that can only be controlled by a wind deity, Nature took care of that. But there's only so much that She can do, so it was understandable that She created a new wind spirit. It was still a surprise to the Guardians.

"At least it's not another winter spirit," Bunnymund muttered.

Jack shot him a dirty look but said nothing.

"I don't understand," Aeola shouted to the sky. "Why me? Out of all the people on this earth, why was someone like me chosen for this?"

"Because you have something that not many people have," said Nature. "You have a spirit that is as free as the wind. Even though you may not know that, you have had that spirit in you ever since you were a child and you still have it now. It is an important factor for your job."

"...My job?"

"Yes." The bow and sheath of arrows flew into Aeola's hands. "These weapons are for you to defend yourself against anything that threatens your safety. And you can also use your powers to defend or flee."

"Powers?" Aeola looked at her hand. She flicked her wrist at a group of nearby palm trees and a blast of wind caused the leaves to whip wildly and the tree trunks to bend at extreme angles. The wind ceased when she put her hand down and she smiled. An idea popped into her head. Aeola strapped the sheath behind her back and jumped, hovering in the air for a bit until she landed back down. She jumped again, floating higher but not high enough. On the third jump the wind violently shot her up into the air at an impossible speed. Aeola was screaming and shrieking, "Stop! STOP!" until the wind obeyed her command and she stopped abruptly. She felt relieved but her stomach churned when she looked down and saw that she was above the clouds. She only had time to say, "oh, crap" before she started to plummet towards the earth.

After about ten seconds of falling and more screaming, Aeola called to the wind to support her. It was chaotic. The wind only kept her floating for little bits of time and then let her go to fall. By this time Jack was on the floor laughing at the girl. It was amusing to him that the spirit of the wind had no idea how to control the force that she was the master of. It continued on with the gales holding on to Aeola and letting go until about 200 feet above the cliffs, where she plummeted down to the jagged rocks sticking out of the water. She began to panic and frantically called for the wind's assistance. She was about three feet away when the wind came to the rescue and carried her out of harm's way.

Finally, Aeola had control of the wind. She only floated around at first, testing the wind. But she began to trust it more and let it toss her around, making her spin and dive in the air. She shot an arrow above her with no struggle (she has never shot an arrow in her whole entire life!) and caught it as it came down. She began to laugh and smile, enjoying herself, until Nature spoke again.

"Though this new power is a blessing, it is also a great burden," She warned. "Like you, the wind is unpredictable. At times it can be gentle and comforting, but it can also be violent and destructive. You must learn to control your emotions, otherwise you will harm those around you. Not only did I give you this power because of your spirit, I gave it to you so that you can learn from it. The wind will face any challenge without hesitation. It is courageous and brave. You, my dear, will realize how important it is that you learn from the wind. I must leave, but heed this warning: know who your friends are, and who the enemy is."

Nature's voice faded off. After a moment of silence, Aeola smiled and flew off to a nearby town.

Bunnymund spoke up. "I guess I don't mind having a new wind spirit around. As long as she doesn't cause trouble, unlike Frostbite here." He looked down at Jack, who was still recovering from his excessive laughter.

Jack looked up and smirked. "Oh, come on. I never caused you that much trouble."

"Blizzard of '68."

"That was one time."

The large Russian stepped in. "Good grief. The both of you argue like brothers."

"Oh no," Tooth said under her breath. The Guardians turned back to the crystal. Aeola was shouting down at a family walking across the street. A woman and a man walking with two little boys and a teenage boy.

"Hey!" Aeola yelled from above them. "Mom! Dad! Kyle! You guys!"

All of the Guardians winced as the wind spirit flew down to her family. None of them really wanted to watch what was about to happen.

Aeola walked beside them, waving her arms around. "Jeez, are you guys deaf or something? Hello?" She looked more closely at them and saw the sadness in their eyes. "Oh...no, look! Guys, I'm okay! I'm alive and well and all that! Yeah, I'm kinda pale and I control the wind now, but look!"

They did not look her way. Aeola groaned in frustration and ran in front of them. "MOM! DAD! Are you not listening to me? If you guys are still mad at me, then I'm sorry f-"

Aeola froze in place. Her mother had walked through her. She walked right through her body, leaving an almost painful feeling in Aeola's gut. It felt like butterflies in her stomach. Butterflies with giant claws trying to rip out of her skin. She turned around to say something to her parents until her older brother walked through her and the painful feeling came back. She gasped and stumbled back, which only caused her big brother to walk through her again. A million questions bounced around in her head. Why can't they hear me? Why can't they see me? Is it because I'm a spirit now? Why can't I make any contact with them?

Aeola turned around when she hear her father speak. "Augustus, AJ. Let's get going." His voice was soft but was heavy with grief.

The two little boys stood near a lamp post and one of them pulled on his brother's shirt. "AJ, come on."

AJ refused to move. He was clinging onto the lamp post and staring out at the ocean. He sniffled and said with a trembling voice, "I want Kelly back. I want her to come back to us right now."

Aeola's heart nearly broke after hearing her brother's plea. She walked to him and went on her knees, smiling. "It's okay, Little Dude. I'm right here. Kelly's right here."

Mr. Stratford walked up to AJ. "I'm sorry, Sprout. She can't come back. She's gone."

"No she's not!" AJ yelled with tears streaming down his face. "Kelly's not gone! She's out there! She will come back! She has to!"

"I'm right here," Aeola repeated.

AJ's dad walked through Aeola and bent down and picked up the screaming and kicking child. The family walked away with their minds on the loss of their deceased daughter and sister and left her still on her knees near the lamp post.

"I'll always be here." Aeola's voice cracked as she tried to choke back tears.

The wails of AJ could still be heard in the distance when the image on the crystal disappeared and sunk back into the ground. The Guardians remained silent. They all knew the terrible feeling of people walking through you. They could almost feel how terrible it felt when your own family can't see you. But they will never know the tragic feeling of knowing how much your family grieves for you and not being able to let them know that you're always there for them. Jack could relate to the wind spirit, in some sense. But he knew that she was going through a much worse predicament than he went through. She still had her memories so it was more painful for her than when he first found out he was a spirit.

Tooth broke the silence. "Poor thing. I hope she recovers from that."

Jack stood up. "Maybe I should go to her. Like say hi or something."

"Not a good idea, Jack," said North in a serious voice. "Her heart very broken. It is best to leave her alone and let her heal."

More silence. "Well," Bunny broke in. "I better get going. Three more days until Easter. I need to go ahead and finish up the rest of the eggs."

Everyone but North left and went back to their usual business. Jack was planning on visiting Burgess and saying hi to Jamie and the others, but there was something else that he needed to do.

Jack felt uncomfortable as he approached the Californian city of Santa Monica. Sure, spring had just begun and it was cooler at night, but it was still warm enough to make the winter spirit feel uneasy. Still, he wanted to make Aeola feel better, or at least say hi to her. But as he got closer to the city, the winds became stronger. It eventually became so strong that Jack felt like he was flying against an invisible wall and he got the message: don't come any closer. He eventually flew away, leaving the wind spirit to her thoughts.


...hello.

Yay! first fanfic published. I'm quite proud of myself, really. Can't really believe that I'm doing a thing like this. It's pretty groovy. Normally when I come up with an idea for a thing I think about it for a long time without actually writing about it and then drop it. So this is a freaking miracle.

Anyways, the paragraph with the crystal sinking back into the ground is a bit shaky. Sorry. Also, if some details in the fanfic are a bit off, it's because I haven't seen RotG since December and I don't have the movie, so I have to rely on Wiki for that stuff.

Hope you guys like? or favorite and review and... subscribe? wait does this website have that? I don't know. I'm new to this and it's so confusing...God, I'm so lost help me.

-psychochirpingmistress