Alright, I think I've got things figured out for this type of writing now. Sorry if I've been busy but it takes a little while to get to a point where I'm in a position to write. School is my number one priority and fan fiction just isn't. But enough with that, here's the chapter.

Chapter 2

Rose had never been in one of Bunnymund's tunnels. And she hadn't really wanted to; being completely out of control with no way to stop herself was a prime reason for that. However, before she could even acknowledge what Bunny had pulled on her she was flying down the tunnel with Bunny right behind her. Her screaming in surprise and fright echoed throughout the tunnel as she slid on her back, her side, and her chest. Bunny's laughter at seeing her like that added to the loud and unpleasant experience that she had just gone through. But within moments, her rather eventful trip ended with a light at the end of the tunnel and a sudden change in scenery and gravity.

She was flung up into the air without any warning and came crashing down on her butt onto a hard smooth floor. The first thing she noticed was that it was freezing, and her thin midriff shirt and loose dress did not help at all. She then noticed a great many rather interesting people staring at her. Of course there was Bunny, standing out in front of her. But then there was a small little man with a very yellow centered theme going on. His hair, his clothes, and even his skin seemed to sparkled like a bed of crystal. His smile was warm and welcoming, which put her at ease slightly. But hovering of to the side was a single woman, a fairy adorned in a great majestic set of flowers and flew with the assistance of a pair of hummingbird speed wings. She had similar, albeit smaller, versions of her around her as she sounded off locations, tooth types, and accidents that were what caused said teeth to now be on her watch list. Then, and this is where her eyes were drawn to the most, was a boy. He seemed younger than the rest, his hair was snow white, his skin an almost blue hue to it. His blue sweatshirt was encrusted with intricate patterns of natural ice crystals. His pants barely went down to his shins where all that was left were bare feet. But it was his eyes that drew her gaze. She'd never seen eyes like that before, and apparently he had never seen eyes like hers. The two of them locked gazes, a fragile and special moment that Rose had never experienced before. She was however broken from this gaze by the sound of Bunnymund calling out to the rest of the gathered Guardians.

"Well mates, here she is. The little Sheila that Manny picked out," Bunny said, presenting her to the assembled group.

"So, you are to be new Guardian?" a deep Russian accented voice spoke up, catching her Rose's attention.

She saw that he was wearing a bright red long sleeve shirt and a darker red set of trousers with Christmas themed overall straps on them. He had a long white beard, white hair and black bushy eyebrows. He examined her with a critical eye, which unnerved her a little bit. But before her anxiety turned to fear the big man let out a bellowing laugh.

"Haha! You should see your face. You like Elves who are caught eating cookies out of jar!"

"Huh?" Rose asked, not really sure what he was getting at.

"I am Saint Nicholas, or Santa Claus. But for conversation sake you call me North," he said, grabbing her hand and lifting her up suddenly to her feet, "You know Bunny yes?"

"Umm…yes. Did you say you're Santa Claus, the Santa Claus?" Rose asked, trying to come to terms with being the presence with the owner of that famous name.

"Yes! But we overlook, much to tell," North said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and spun her to be in front of the Guardians, "This is Sandman, the Tooth Fairy, and lastly is our newest member besides yourself, Jack Frost, I'm sure you know who he is."

"Of course," Rose said, "I've heard some…interesting things about you."

Jack's face changed into a mischievous grin when he heard her speak of things she'd heard about him, "And what type of things would that be?"

"Not the type of thing you want to brag about," Rose responded slyly.

"He told you about the time I had frozen the Warren huh?" Jack asked, not too surprised.

"Oh yeah," Rose said.

"Enough chitting and chatting, now we have ceremony to conduct! You are new Guardian!"

Instantly several yetis walked over and grabbed her by the arms and started taking her to the center of the room. Elves began playing a loud proud trumpet number with a yeti beating on a great big drum in the background as she was set down.

"Hey, stop it-what are you?" Rose stammered, not really sure what was going on.

"Just go with it," Jack whispered in her ear, but she wasn't having any of that.

"NO!" she finally screamed, throwing her arms out in frustration and then out of nowhere vines and roots sprouted up from the floor. The elves scrambled around as they were enveloped by the curling mass of vegetation that whipped around their small bodies and held them upside down. The yetis were totally wrapped in vines and struggled to remove them from their legs and arms. Meanwhile the other Guardians looked at her with a look of surprise, "Don't I get a say in this? I never asked and nor do I want to be a Guardian."

"Ha!" North chuckled, "You think we had choice either?"

"We're not the one who chooses the new Guardians, that's someone else's job," Tooth said gently.

"Oh could you let down Elves and shrink plants. I had new floor laid down," North said, but was ignored.

"Well who? Tell them that I flattered but I…" Rose trailed off, seeing a sudden flood of blue light streaming in through the window. She looked up, and saw the Moon, staring right back at her.

"He's the one who chose you," Jack stepped forward, "He chose all of us. We never had a choice to become Guardians, but we did. We became what we were always meant to be and now it's your turn."

"He-he chose me?" Rose whispered, "After all this time he finally decides to take notice of me?"

"What do you mean?" Tooth asked, sensing something fairly sensitive lurking in her mind.

Rose looked right at the five Guardians and shook her head, "You wouldn't understand."

"Excuse me?" Jack said, "What wouldn't we understand? I'm fairly sure that we've all been there."

"Have you ever gone through life not knowing what your purpose in this world was?" Rose said accusingly.

"As a matter of fact I did, for three hundred years I never knew!" Jack said, stepping up to Rose.

"Well-well did you never even know your own name? I never knew my own name until Mother Nature found me and took me in, before that I was nobody and had nobody," Rose said, taking the Guardians by surprise.

"He-he never spoke to you? Never once?" North whispered.

"Yes, so you can see my confusion and anger at being told that he chose me to be a Guardian out of the Blue!" Rose snapped, "So thank you but no thank you. I'm leaving."

Before any of the Guardians could even say anything a sudden little sprout poked out of the ground and extended around her to form a tree that quickly enveloped her and closed. But right before the tree fully enveloped her she stole a glance at Jack, meeting his concerned stare and then saw the dark tree bark fully enclose around her. Then without any other warning the tree gently glowed and then started to unravel, reversing the process it had just gone through to leave the floor exactly as she had left it. The only thing that was left was a single maple leaf that gently floated down, carried in its graceful dance to Earth by gravity alone until it landed at Jack's feet.

"That was pretty impressive," Jack said, acknowledging the unique method by which she had just left the Pole as he gently picked up the lone leaf.

"Jack don't you get it? She just left, she's a Guardian now. There's a lot that we have to discuss and teach her," Tooth said desperately.

"Well it sure looked like she had reason to not want the job," Jack said.

"Which is why you're goin' after her," Bunny chuckled, "To bring her back."

"Me? Why me?" Jack snapped defensively.

"You have nothing to do, it's Summer. And besides, the last Guardian is the one who takes the new one under their wing," Bunny replied.

"Hold on!" Jack said, "You never took me under your wing."

"The circumstances prevented a proper Guardian one oh one mate, now off you go," Bunny said with a sly grin. And with a heavy pat of the foot he opened the ground under Jack into a tunnel.

"Oh I should've seen that coming."

Jack fell straight down without much hesitation on the part of gravity and slid his way to where ever bunny had sent him.

XOX

Rose emerged from the special tree she conjured to return to her own special forest. She walked out to see that things were just how she had left them. The deer were now drinking from the creek with several of the little fawns running and splashing around downstream of their parents. Several bucks also were in the group, but none were as big and powerful as their leader. A large twelve point buck stood careful watch and instantly turned and snorted in her direction once he heard her. He was the protector of that group, and his instant defensive posture was not a surprise to her. Nor was his relaxed friendly posture when he saw her.

"Rose!" the big white tail called out, recognizing her.

"Hello Henry," she replied, "I didn't see you this morning."

"Oh I had to chase off a couple of young un's trying to butt in on my turf," Henry bragged.

"I'm sure," Rose said, walking past him.

"Where were you Rose? Dian said she saw you leave with the Easter Bunny," Henry asked, following her to underneath the shade of the willow tree.

"Uh nowhere," Rose responded, quite startled.

"Rose? You know that I can tell when you lie," the big buck responded wisely.

Rose sighed heavily and sat down, a thick root reaching up to meet her and she sat comfortably as the willow adjusted and flattened to create a bench, "He sort of kidnapped me to the North Pole, it turns out the Man in the Moon wants me to be Guardian."

"Wow that's great Rose, congratulations!" Henry said proudly.

"No it's not," Rose responded standing up, "For more than two hundred years I had never known what my purpose was, I've never known why I am who I am. And now that glowing sphere up there decides now to finally say alright here's who you are. I'm sorry, for two hundred years I've found and created a life for myself."

"How do you know this was the life you were meant to live?" Henry asked, his wisdom shining through in spades.

"What? Henry, you, your herd, the pack, the birds, and the squirrels and every tree and flower is my life. I could never leave, even for the position of Guardian," Rose responded, almost shocked that one of her closest friends would say such a thing.

"What if keeping us and being a Guardian went hand in hand? You wouldn't have the power to bring life, speak to us, and speak to the trees if there wasn't a reason. Mother Nature and the Man in the Moon wouldn't do that without purpose."

"But being a Guardian means looking out for children, that's what the Guardians do."

"Well, I suppose you won't know until you find out."

XOX

Jack Frost went charging out of the tunnel that Bunny had sent him through and came out on the other side with an undignified crash right onto a fallen tree. It hurt, a lot, and Jack grumbled under his breath as he got to his feet. As he looked around at where he'd ended up he made a note to freeze something of Bunny's when he got back.

He seemed to be a part of the woods one would compare to downtown Detroit, not a place you would want to be when you're all alone. These woods were very dark, and very quiet. Moss hung from the limbs of trees where ever he looked and bushes, ferns, and grasses were everywhere. A few large rocks were spread out around him, equally spacing the massive oak trees that made up this forest. A small pond was fed by a trickling waterfall off to his left. And in the center of this clearing was a platform like rock with a beam of sunlight shining down on it. This was the best place of sunlight that was received by this patch of forest. Little beams of sunlight were shining through openings in the canopy onto other places in this clearing and on what appeared to be a small cave by the pond. Jack shook his head in annoyance.

This can't be where Rose lives, it's too dark and gloomy, Bunny I am so paying a visit to the Warren when I get back.

"Hello! Rose, you out there?" Jack called, looking around for any sign of the girl he was to teach to be a Guardian, "Rose come on, I just wanna talk!"

"Who calls for the lady of the woods?" a dark menacing voice responded from the shadows.

Jack whirled around, his staff pointed out at the shadows of the woods where the voice could have come from. But he saw nothing. He swirled around, swallowing a little bit of nervousness at the fact he was being watched and couldn't see who or what it was that was watching him.

"Jack Frost, I need to talk to Rose," Jack said, hoping for some kind of reaction, or better yet Rose herself.

"And why would you need to speak to her?" a different, feminine voice spoke from the opposite from where Jack was looking.

He ducked back around, aiming his staff at the source of the voice. But when he spun around a snap and the sound bushes rustling caught his attention from behind him. He spun around again to only see a bush that was coming to rest after being disturbed.

"It's important, where is she?" Jack bravely said again, not liking the way this was looking at all.

"We'll decide what's important," a new voice said, this one was deeper, and darker than all the rest.

Jack could now feel the heat of breath from behind him. He slowly turned around, and came face to face with golden eyes, black fur, and large teeth. And over all of this a wolf's howl echoed out, and was answered by more and more. Growling and snarling rose from around him. Dark canine shapes crept from bushes and ferns, walking into the light. Shining eyes stared back at him with extreme hostility as they circled him, waiting for one wrong move to strike.

"Uh, did I mention I'm a Guardian?"

How's that for a bit of a cliffhanger? Not bad right? I think I'm beginning to get the hang of this, thanks for reading, please read and review and let me know what you think.

Next Chapter Preview: The Pack meets Jack Frost.