A/N: I finally got my crap together and know what I want to do with this story.

This chapter has been written for MONTHS and I just now got around to posting it. xD

Enjoy!

Neither Out Far Or In Deep

"Good morning, June! How are your parents holding up?"

June knew that going to the local diner, which was surprisingly still open despite the three-foot drifts of snow right outside the door, was a terrible idea. In this town, everyone recognized everyone; even though she was setting out on a journey to stop the snowstorm and probably wouldn't return for a while, she knew that her father was going to find out she was here.

She nervously smiled at the waiter, Michael, who had been friends with her family for years.

"They're doing just fine," she said. She was trying to keep her eyes lowered and focused on the menu, but Michael's eyes were boring down at her and she was getting more anxious by the second. "I can't believe that the diner is still up and running. Are you guys still getting customers?"

"Of course we are," said Michael. "We've had worse snowstorms before. Our folks are hardly fazed. They can get places just as easily as any other winter. Our real problem? The snow doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. And if it doesn't, then we'll be out of customers. People are starting to lock themselves up in their homes and are refusing to come out."

"Oh, right," said June, clearing her throat. Above the menu, she saw Jack Frost and Baby Tooth. They were relaxing in the corner of the booth, not even worried that anyone was going to see them. "I think I'm going to have…two sausages. Um, some scrambled eggs. And I'll take a side of hash browns, too."

"You got it," said Michael. He walked away.

June released the breath she'd been holding. "We're gonna have to get out of here as soon as possible," she said beneath her breath. Jack was casually having a toothpick-sword-fight with Baby Tooth. "My dad knows I've disappeared. He's going to find out I've been here. What if he shows up and takes me home?"

"You're the one who wanted to get something to eat first," said Jack.

Annoyed that he was right, June turned her head to the window. "Aren't you scared that someone will see you?" she asked.

"No, not really," said Jack. He exclaimed, "Aha!" as he triumphed over Baby Tooth, who wailed and continued to battle against Jack's toothpick. "To adults, I'm nothing but an urban legend. I've lived for hundreds of years without knowing what it's like to be believed in. At this point, I might as well be nonexistent. Kids, on the other hand, can see me just fine."

June frowned. "Hey, I'm not a kid," she said, "if that's what you're implying!"

"Hey, I never said you were," said Jack. He wasn't looking at her, but she could see his smirk.

Not exactly sure how to respond to that, June leaned back against the squishy booth chair and crossed her arms. Outside, the snow was still falling, although much more calmly than usual. No matter how much she enjoyed watching the snowfall, she couldn't help but be bothered by Jack's earlier words: "There's someone, or something, out there that's causing this."

Who could it be? she thought. Humans couldn't cause a natural disaster like this.

She knew that this was no human being's doing, but she was being forced to consider the impossible. Two hours earlier, she hadn't exactly believed in spirits and magic. Or did I? I was able to see Jack when he was standing on our fence. I mean, I've always heard the stories from my mom, about beings like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny…have I really believed in those stories all this time?

"So why did you want to come with us, anyway?" asked Jack. June looked up at him in surprise. "I mean, I never really asked why. You said you wanted to come, and I only considered how useful you would be to our search. I didn't consider that you would be leaving behind a family or anything like that."

June watched as Michael walked by and set her plate down on the table. She smiled at him, but she didn't speak. When he left, she started pushing her food around her plate with a fork. Suddenly, she didn't feel so hungry anymore.

"I told you that my family has a business," she said. "We raise livestock. But the cold has been getting to our cows. They're dying off by the day, and the business is suffering. My parents make a lot of money, but we don't live too comfortably. Most of that money goes to paying for my brother and his sickness. He has some heart problems, and this year he was going to get a transplant. We don't know if we'll be able to afford that anymore."

Jack's eyes widened a fraction of an inch. "Oh," he said. "Dang, I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry for," said June, "unless you're the one who's causing this snowstorm."

"And I'm not," said Jack. His already pale fists whitened as he clenched them. He was trembling. "I wouldn't do anything as stupid as this. Whoever's doing this…he…or she is turning everyone I know against me. Everything that I've ever worked for is gone, just like that. The Guardians…they…"

Around his fists, the table was beginning to freeze. Tendrils of white frosts danced along the woodwork, shaping small and intricate designs. June could only watch in fascination. In a desperate attempt to calm him down, she quickly said, "And we're going to stop them, no matter what, right? Come on, don't lose your cool before we get started…"

"Chirp!" said Baby Tooth. She threw aside her toothpick and placed both of her tiny palms on Jack's hand.

The spirit let out a frigid, shaky breath and nodded.

As his eyes averted, June watched him for a minute. With his white hair, silver skin, and cerulean eyes, he was most definitely the strangest looking person that she'd ever seen. She couldn't imagine that he was born like that – were spirits born? – and even if he was, what did his parents look like? Did he have parents? What about a family? Surely, he had friends. He had Baby Tooth, after all, and earlier he had mentioned that everyone he knew was turning against him.

Everything he's ever worked for… she thought. Gone in a moment. What's he been working for? And when he brings it up, why does he look so sad? Who and what are the Guardians?

She finished her food and pushed the plate away. "You said that there was a lot of magical energy coming from this area," she said, trying to get his mind to focus again. "What does that mean?"

"It's exactly what it sounds like," said Jack. "Spirits, like me, can sense when there are others nearby. We've got to take a look around here to see if we can find someone else. Sure, there are possibly hundreds of spirits that could live here…but I'm not the only one that can control winter weather. If there's a small chance that our culprit…or someone who knows our culprit…is in this area…well, we can't risk losing track of them."

He no longer looked angry, just determined. June nodded. "Then we should go as soon as possible," she said. She had no idea what she was getting herself into. Spirits…hundreds of them…

June started slipping into her multiple jackets. She noticed that Baby Tooth was trying to fit herself into Jack's dark blue hoodie, and she figured that it probably wasn't the most comfortable place for the hummingbird fairy. "Here, Baby Tooth," she said, opening up one of her fleece lined pockets, "you can stay in here if you like. It even buttons shut, and you won't have to worry about falling out."

Baby Tooth went "Eep" and there was no competition after that. She leapt from Jack's sweater and buried herself into June's pocket. June took the liberty of snapping the button, and she smiled when she heard a pleasant sigh from inside.

June left most of the money that she had. She counted the bills and exhaled through her closed mouth. And then, because she didn't know how else to handle the situation, she quickly scribbled a note on a napkin:

Michael,

If my dad comes by and asks about me, I swear that I'm fine. I'm not running away, and I haven't been kidnapped. There's something important that I need to do, so don't come looking for me. I'll be home as soon as I possibly can.

Love,
June

"Let's go," said Jack, who looked like he was trying to not notice the note.

"Where are we going?" asked June as soon as they were outside.

"The energy is getting weaker as we speak." Jack, as usual, wasn't bothered by the cold at all. He jumped into the air and stood on a telephone pole, his flattened hand covering his eyes from the sun. Looking down at June, he called, "We're going to need to go that way! I think the spirit is moving right now, so we're going to need to catch up!"

June ran down the sidewalk, even though lifting her legs was a struggle. She wished that she could fly like Jack could, but that wasn't really an option for her. Baby Tooth stuck her head through an opening in the pocket and chirruped. "Sorry for the ups and downs, Baby Tooth," apologized June. "I know that I'm not exactly the smoothest ride."

Jack effortlessly leapt from telephone pole to telephone pole. Every now and then, he would call out a random direction and June, without any hesitation, would listen and go that way. She had just gotten warmed up when Jack flew down beside her and came to a screeching halt in the snow.

They were standing near an electric fence, which was surrounding a huge field that probably belonged to one of the farmers in the town. There was a black and maroon sign that read: No trespassing. Violators will be prosecuted. But Jack wasn't planning on going over the fence. He was walking alongside it. Next to his bare feet were strangely shaped footprints that kept going for a while.

"This is the spirit that we've been following for a couple of days," explained Jack. "The storm was so bad that the signal was muddled and we weren't able to trace him correctly. But now that it's calmer, we can finally see where he's been hiding out at. He's still pretty far, though…"

June was determined to keep up with Jack. She shoved past him and started following the footprints, taking care to not disturb them with her own shuffling. "Come on, then," she said breathlessly. "We have a spirit to catch."

Jack float-skipped next to her. "You're not hungry anymore, are you?"

"Not even a little," huffed June.

"Don't get too worked up," said Jack, taking on a more serious tone. He was staring straight ahead. "I don't think that this spirit is too strong. There's a good chance that he or she might be working for someone much more powerful. We're getting closer, but the magical energy is still subtle. I doubt that this one could create a real blizzard, much less a snowstorm that could take over the entire world."

June was slightly disappointed, but she shouldn't have been. What was I expecting? We defeat the spirit, save humankind as we know it, and then I return home before the dinner bell? No…this is going to be a much bigger investment than I thought.

They power walked-slash-floated down the fence line. Eventually, the electric fence slanted in a long curve, bearing towards the left. Up ahead, there was a giant hill with a single, withering tree at the peak. And someone was standing beneath it.

June hurried even more, and even Jack seemed to be moving with a greater sense of urgency. When they got close enough to distinguish the person's shape, June stopped and squinted.

"That's not…"

"No," said Jack. "That's no human."

The spirit was the size of a child, but other than that had no resemblance to a human being at all. His ears were pointed and were covered in short, brown hair near the tips. His eyes were huge and the pupils were unnaturally dilated, and he had a strange, deer-like nose. The spirit was snuffing at something on the ground. A few moments later, he pulled away, snorting and shaking his head.

June wrinkled her forehead. "What the—?"

"Wait…that's not a spirit, either." Jack took a careful step closer, holding his staff tight. Suddenly, he shied away. "No, that's a—!"

The creature glanced up and started to shriek, his cries resembling that of a wounded animal's. He began flailing his arms wildly. Suddenly, his entire body exploded into a whirlwind of glowing white snow.

"No!" yelled Jack, hauling himself at the wind.

He was too late. The gale of snow swirled around the withering tree and then disappeared into the gray sky. Jack floated in the sky. With heaving shoulders, he watched the wind completely dissipate before he let out a frustrated sound and then lowered himself to the ground.

"That wasn't a spirit," he confirmed as June ran up to meet him. Biting his lip, he lifted his leg to kick the tree, but he stopped himself before he did. "That was only an imp…probably here to do someone's dirty work. Every spirit has helpers." He started muttering to himself, "North has the yetis, Tooth has the fairies…but an imp? Who on earth has IMPS?"

"Well, there can't be many spirits to narrow it down to, right?" asked June helplessly.

"Yeah, you'd think so," said Jack, "but the world's a big place, and Manny is a funny guy." He peered into the sunlight, his lips drawn and tight. "Come on, you two…we should get moving before you guys freeze to death."

With another defeated sigh, he turned around and started walking away. June could only trudge after him, her skin chilled and her heart feeling worse. For some reason, even though she knew Jack Frost was the spirit of mischief and snowy weather, she distinctly sensed that Jack Frost's lonely heart was feeling much colder than her own.

End