The Christmas Shadow

Author's Note: For anyone that cares, I had meant to put the second chapter up last night, but I decided I'd much rather watch my new Star Trek movie, so I did that instead. I'll try to get the third chapter up tomorrow.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my character.

It had been almost four years since Shadow had first come to the North Pole and met the elves. She had quickly decided to stay there and help and, once Santa had returned, asked if she could be of any assistance for future Christmases. Santa just laughed and told her that she was welcome to the Pole anytime she wanted. So, every year, in early November, Shadow would come and help the elves until Christmas and leave again shortly after.

She was cleaning the ice off of the walkway in front of the workshop when she sensed someone approaching, someone she didn't recognize. The person stopped next to her.

"Well now, you don't look like one of the red man's little workers." Shadow glanced at the man out of the corner of her eye, but kept working. He had whitish-blue, spiked hair and was wearing a blue pin-striped suit and sunglasses.

"What do you know, ladies and gentlemen, he's not as dumb as he looks," she muttered. She hoped that he would leave her alone after that, but no such luck. Not only did he not walk away, he also had the nerve to laugh.

"Feisty, I like it." At this point, Shadow just couldn't take it anymore. She stood up fully (which didn't do much to help, seeing as she was still shorter than him) and looked him straight in the eyes (with a very annoyed look, might I add).

"Can I help you?" The question itself may have been polite, but in no way was her tone. It didn't really help the situation, because her attitude only caused that annoying smirk on his face to get bigger.

"Yes, you can,"

"As if that wasn't obvious," Shadow thought as she rolled her eyes. "Why else would he be standing here bugging me?" When he didn't say anything else, she huffed out a breath.

"In what way may I be of assistance?" She asked sarcastically.

"I'm here for the meeting of the Council of Legendary Figures."

"That would be in the kitchen." With that, She turned and started back to work.

"And where might that be?" Shadow had to admit, he was very persistent.

"Well, maybe if you came to a meeting once in a while, you would know," she muttered under her breath before saying, "Follow me," and briskly walking into the workshop.

The man followed, futilely trying to make conversation with her, starting with introducing himself as Jack Frost, the personification of the season of winter. She said nothing to him until they reached the kitchen.

"In there," was all she said before leaving him and going back to work. She didn't get much done, as she found herself lost in thought. She didn't like, nor did she trust this Jack Frost person that had just randomly wandered into her life, and she hoped that she would never again have to see or deal with him. Once again, she had no such luck.

She walked back into the workshop later only to find the one person she dreaded seeing, standing right in front of her. His back was to her and she thought that she could turn around and go back the way she came, but just as she was about to turn, he did.

"Well, hello again mystery woman. Fancy meeting you here." Shadow mentally slapped herself for getting into this situation again. She tried to ignore him and keep walking, but he followed her. This time, he was determined to find out who this cat-girl was. He found he didn't have to pry very much because at that moment, Santa chose to walk by and noticed her standing there.

"Oh, Shadow, there you are. I've been looking for you." Jack smirked.

"So, her name's Shadow, huh?" He thought to himself.

"Yes, Santa?" As annoyed as she was that Jack now knew her name, Shadow couldn't just ignore Santa. After all, he was such a gracious host.

"You heard about Carol's parents coming right?"

"Yes."

"And about how they can't know that we're at the North Pole."

"Of course." Santa hesitated. He didn't quite know how to put this.

"You see, you look kind of-" He decided to take another approach.

"Would it be possible to make yourself more…human?"

"Yes, Kisa (who would be the tamer mentioned in the first chapter, by the way) and I have been working on that and we've recently succeeded in creating a form that would and allow myself to appear human but still have access to my powers."

"Excellent. I'm leaving tonight and I'll be back here at the Pole tomorrow morning, so if you need anything until then, ask Curtis." With that, he walked away, nodding to Jack as he passed. Shadow had forgotten about him, until…

"So, Shadow-"

"Ugh!" She stormed away. This time, thankfully, he didn't follow her. She was so irritated that she didn't even see Curtis until she had nearly run him over.

"Whoa, Shadow! Try to watch where you're going." She sighed and leaned against the wall.

"Sorry Curtis, I'm just so mad! That stupid Jack Frost had to go and-"

"Jack Frost? So you've met him?"

"Unfortunately."

"Well, stay away from him, he's bad news."

"Yeah, I figured that out on my own."

"No, he's worse than that. He's here for community service for trying to upstage Santa Clause and a whole bunch of other things."

"Community service? For how long?"

"I don't know, until the council has decided he doesn't need to anymore."

"Hopefully not for too long. I can't stand that guy!" Shadow moaned. If she had been angry before, well, let's just say nobody had better get in her way anytime soon. Even Curtis could see this (cause we all know Curtis isn't the sharpest tool in the shed). He quickly said his goodbye and rushed off. She retired to her room soon after, thinking that tomorrow would definitely pass without incident. It was Christmas Eve, after all, what could possibly go wrong?

A/N: Okay, so I know that I said that I would make this chapter longer than the first, and it is, but not by much. So the next chapter I promise will be even longer.