Jack found himself walking into the main hall of Norths gigantic toy factory.
"Jack," North shouted happily then Snow walked through the portal behind him and there was complete silence. Snow eyes were filled with wonder as yeti's made toys and little red elves scuttled around the room. Jack clutched his side in pain that he had been able to contain while being at Jamie's but it had gotten to much for him now. Snow was by his side in a flash.
North pointed to a room on the side of the hall, "Quickly get him in there." Snow was a little confused as Santa seemed to be Russian but she did as he said and carried Jack into the room and laid him down on a medical bed with bright red sheets making the room feel a bit more cheery. North continued, "What happened?"
"Pitch." Jack answered with one word then fell unconscious. North called his medical yeti's as Snow watched.
"Wait," She shouted, "He might have broken ribs if you bind him with bandages like that it'll push them into his lungs and they'll could puncture them." Snow grabbed and unwound the bandages then tied it around his shoulder and back around his waist to give his rib cage extra support. After she was satisfied that the bandages were tied in a way that would support his ribs without hurting him, she let the yeti's analyse and treat him in a variety of different ways. It took her a few minutes before she realised that Santa Claus was staring right at her.
"What?" Snow questioned confused because it should be her revelling in him not the other way around. He walked towards her, asking her to come into the corner of the room to talk to him privately. When they were over in the corner, he immediately turned hostile.
"Now who are you? And what the hell happened to Jack?" North highered his voice in a way that made her slightly scared but she shook it off soon enough and turned aggressive.
"Don't speak to me like that, you don't even know who I am. How dare you try and intimidate me. I only came here to help Jack as he was attacked by the Boogeyman and I saved him." She shouted then started feeling dizzy as the clock started to chime. She glanced at the clock on the wall, it was midnight. "No no, not now." She said as she collapsed onto the wooden floor.
North now felt guilty about questioning her if she was telling the truth then she saved Jack from Pitch without a second thought for her own safety. He picked her up and laid her down in the bed next to Jack. Black nightmare sand swirled above her head, she was so frightened that she had her hands in tight fists with her nails cutting into her palms until blood had dotted the sheets.
North put a small pillow in both of her hands hoping it would stop her from hurting herself more. Phil the yeti that had been named by Jack came over to tell North that Jack was starting to wake up. North pulled the curtain and strode over. Jack's eyes flickered open looking around. The first thing he said was "Where's Snow?" North felt puzzled, Jack must have a concussion or something.
"It's outside, you're at the North pole." North responded obviously, pointing at the window behind Jacks head.
"No, the girl that was with me, her names Snow." Jack explained. It was all coming together in Norths head.
"She's here," North said while pulling the curtain between the beds showing Snow laying in the bed having a horrible nightmare.
"What happened?" Jack asked panicked.
"I questioned her and then she fainted right when the clocked chimed midnight." Jack knew what 'questioned' meant, he had a go at her.
"Why did you yell at her North?"
"Because she came in through the portal behind you, then you were unconscious and she was the only one who seemed to know anything. I had no idea who she was until you said her name." North kept rambling on for a minute.
"North it's okay, can we wake her up? What do you mean until I said her name?"
"She's Snow Smith yes?" Jack nodded, "She has been through an awful lot in her life and she only stopped writing to me last year which is quite strange as most children stop writing around thirteen or fourteen years old but she still continued to write until she was sixteen."
Norths face turned sad, "On her letters she sent me, she never asked for any physical possessions. Through the years she's asked for things like for her to know who her parents were, for people to stop bullying her at school and the last year she wrote asking for her to stop having terrifying nightmares. I was never able to give her any of those things but she still kept believing in me." He stopped as there was a knock on the door, a yeti came in saying that Tooth and Bunny had just arrived and Sandy would be here as soon as he had finished one of the bigger cities. "Jack can you walk on your own?"
Jack nodded in response, grabbed his staff for support and hobbled out. "Wait, can we wake her up?"
"No waking people up when they're having that type of nightmare can have bad consequences but I'll send Sandy in when he gets here. He should be able to help her." Both of them met the other two Guardians on the main balcony of the toy factory.
"Hey, I saw the lights. You alright mate?" Bunny's question was directed towards Jack who weakly nodded and leaned against a work table to help him stand up properly.
"Pitch has returned for his revenge...And Snow Smith is here" Both Bunny and Tooth's faces were angry at the first part and then turned into smiles when North said Snow was there.
"Really, she such a nice girl she only lost her last tooth when she was fifteen years old but that was only because her tooth got punched out on her Prom night, that poor girl has been through so much, most of her teeth have involuntary came out. Can she see us?" Tooth spoke at such a fast speed that it took Jack a few seconds to catch up. North nodded and Tooth flew around in a small circle.
"Snow always helps the children search for eggs on Easter when they couldn't find any on there own and she never keeps any for herself. I try and leave her a egg for herself but she always gives it to another child in the orphanage. She's a brilliant Shelia." Bunny stated.
What tooth had said filled up his mind with questions,"What did you mean she been through a lot?" Jack queried releasing he said it out loud.
"Most of her teeth have came out during fights or while she was defending herself or other children in the orphanage from bullies. The last tooth that came out was the worst event. It was the night of her Prom, she was ready in her dress and was walking to the hotel because she didn't have any money for a vehicle but when she was halfway there a limo pulled up and her usual bullies came out. They started beating her then left her for dead in the street. She never actually got to go to her Prom, she was at the hospital for weeks after, most of her time there was spent in a coma." Tooth said sadly.
Bunny hopped over to Jack, "You sure you're alright frostbite?"
Jack wasn't completely sure, he was tired and wounded but hearing what Snow had been through made his heart hurt the worst. "Yeah. I'm fine's just my ribs but they feel much better than before."
"That's because Snow bound them in a way that it takes most of the strain off your ribs, that girl really is quite something."North continued ramble on for an hour or two about all the good things she had done to put her on the nice list. Bunny and Tooth joined in as Jack listened intently at all the good things she had done even if she did get on the naughty list once or twice for pranking the other kids in the orphanage but it made everyone laugh along with the person she pranked. Jack wish he remembered her earlier, they could have had so much fun together. That strange feeling started up in him again, he needed to ask the Guardians about it but now clearly wasn't the time. North was about to carry when Sandy flew down on his favourite mode of transport; a golden sand plane.
"Ah, Sandy will you please come with me, I need your help with Snow" North requested but all that came above Sandy's head was a question mark. North repeated her name, "Snow Smith." Sandy still didn't know who he was talking about. "How do you not know who she is?" North lead Sandy into the ward and the others followed behind them.
Sandy saw her face and had another question mark appeared above his head.
"Can you stop her nightmare?" Sandy responded with 'I'll try' coming out in pictures above his head. He swirled his hands around the top of her head with small bursts of golden sand to attack the nightmare but all it did was make it stronger and more aggressive. Snow started writhing around in the bed, Jack approached the bed and sat down next to her. He put his hand on her forehead, the coldness of his hands seemed to comfort her slightly.
"Why isn't it working Sandy?" Sandy just shook his head, he didn't know. "Sandy have you ever given her a dream?" He shook his head again.
"That's what her letter meant. She asked for the nightmares to stop, I don't think she's had anything but nightmares all her life." Tooth gasped at Norths conclusion.
"Can we please try and wake her up?"Jack pleaded to his fellow guardians. North nodded his head as he approached the bed but the sunrise blinded him for a couple of seconds as it came through the window. Snows eyes shot open panicked. "Snow its alright..." She interrupted Jack.
"Hello, is there anyone here?" Snow looked around seeing a completely empty room, there was no one there not even the elves or yeti's that she saw before. They were all standing there but she couldn't see them. She got out of bed and walked into the main hall. "Where have they all gone?" she said to herself as she was followed out by the Guardians. "Maybe they are there but I can't see them now?" She continued, "If you're there I'm going to find the kitchen and start cooking okay?" Snow didn't expect to get a response but she hoped there was a chance, sadly it was silent.
Snow followed the decorative signs to the kitchen and got to work, making food always made her feel better no matter what feelings she kept inside. She made cookies which slowly disappeared off the plate, a carrot cake, brownies along with other sweet things. She kept going for five hours making anything she could think of with the ingredients that were in the kitchen.
Snow had just made herself a cup of tea and a sandwich for a short break and sighed heavily. Then a lined notepad with a pen landed on the worktop in front of her which made her jump slightly almost making her spill her tea.
'Are you okay?' was written on it.
"Yes I'm fine, I just can't figure out why I could see you yesterday and not today. One minute who am I talking to?" As soon as she stopped talking the pen was moving.
'It's Jack, North and the others are trying to figure that out now. Are you sure you're okay?" She nodded even though she felt so alone again, meeting Jack even if it's been a short amount of time helped her forget how lonely she had been all her life, he made her feel really weird but a good type of weird. The other Guardians walked through the doors and Snow looked up just to see the door open and shut. She drunk a little more of her tea and ate the rest of her sandwich before setting to work again.
"Jack, we think we've figured it out." North sounded so enthusiastic. "We think she's an Ice child" Jack expression was just plain confusion, North continued. "Innocent eyed," Jack still didn't understand. "They're a person that can always see us no matter their age is, we haven't seen or heard of one in over a hundred years. She's called an Ice child because of the season she was born in but what we can't be sure of anything as we've only ever heard of one other that had been born in winter and the died a long long time ago. Although all the others we've known have been able to see us in the day not the night. We don't know why she so different." North smiled when he heard Snow starting to hum a cheery tone while putting her mug back down to take things in and out of the oven, putting more cookies on cooling racks and start to decorate others with icing, there was a different pattern/image on each one.
"Unless..." Bunny pondered you could almost see a light bulb ping on top of his head like what Sandy would have done, "What if when she was born she felt fear or sadness straight away instead of happiness and safety. It would explain the nightmares she has and being able to see us at night but we just need to figure out what happened to her on the day she was born."
Jack spoke up stunning the others, "I think I know." He told them everything that had happened even that he thought Snow could see him before anybody else could.
"But how?" Tooth asked.
"I dunno but I know she definitely special. Why else would I have found her instead of a normal person and there's something else. When she saved me from Pitch she used my staff to protect herself and me, She isn't a spirit but it worked for her." Jack told them what he could remember.
"She is truly remarkable, Maybe MIM know why? We should ask him tonight." North pondered out loud.
Jack smiled as he saw Snow dance around to grab another ingredient from a counter across the other side of the kitchen, She really did love making sweet things. Then she froze still, her eyes glazed over.
"I need to get back to Burgess NOW." She shouted, "A snow globe portal thingy..."
North thought of Burgess and chucked it at the wall. Snow grabbed her bag from off the floor next to her slinging it over her shoulder as she ran through the portal without a second thought. Jack and the others went to go through behind her but it slammed shut too fast.
"Thanks for the information about Snow, I think I'll enjoy this." Pitch's laugh rang through the kitchen.
Thanks for reading, hopefully i'll have another chapter done tomorrow :)