A/N: Wow! Chapter two already? Yep. I'm just really excited for this story. I mean, I literally CAN NOT wait for this story to be over, just so you guys can read the ending! So the rest of these chapters should come pretty quickly, too. And can I just mention that this is the longest chapter I have ever written? The word count says it's 3,662 words without the author's note... THAT'S A WHOLE LOT OF FREAKING WORDS! (For me.) So, sorry if you don't like long chapters; You're welcome if you do.
*OH* And just so everyone has a clear view of Jay: He IS human Jack. Colonial attire and all - just because that's how he looked in the picture. He doesn't even have the staff. (Obviously, because Jack has it.) So I hope that help paint the picture!
DISCLAIMER: Again, I do not own the characters or the story. They belong to Dreamworks.
Cold and Dark: Chapter Two
Music played. A man with a husky voice hummed to it. He plopped down a block of ice onto a table. He sawed into the ice. He stood up from his work. He was tall. He was tall and thick, but probably made more of muscle than fat. He had tattoos on his arms that said 'Naughty' and 'Nice'. He hummed a little more and said "Still waiting for cookies!"
Elves that were on the floor suddenly sat up and dropped the cookies that they were eating.
The man continued to hum and chip away at the ice, until it looked like a train. He blew off the excess ice dust and carefully set it down on an ice train track. He chuckled as the train whistled and took off on the track. "Ah! Finally!" He said when the elves presented him with a tray of cookies. He plopped one in his mouth and laughed delightedly as the train zoomed past him and grew wings. It flew off of a ramp that the man had built, and when it was near the man's door, the door flew open.
A yeti started yelling in an unintelligible language, and the man gasped as he looked at his smashed ice train. The yeti yelped and covered his eyes. The man cried out for his train. The yeti yelped again and flailed his arms.
The man put his face in his hands and sighed. "How many times have I told you to knock!?" The man asked, looking to his yeti. The yeti gargled again, pointing somewhere behind him.
"What?" He whispered, narrowing his eyes. "The globe?" He stood up and grabbed his sword.
As he made his way to the front of his control center, he had to shoo away the tiny elves that covered the floor.
"Shoo, with your pointy heads. Why are you always under boot?" He made his way to two yetis that were looking up at a giant globe in the center of the room. The man gently pushed them out of the way and studied the globe. It was covered in soft lights that were now rapidly blinking. "What is this?" The man whispered.
"Did you check the axis? Is the rotation balanced?" The man asked, turning only his head to his yetis. The yetis looked at each other and gargled to the man.
Suddenly, tendrils of black sand started to cover the globe. Wind blew in circles around the room, and the elves scattered. The sand exploded off of the globe and blew behind the man. He whipped his head around in time to see the sand take the shape of a man. It grew larger and larger until it covered the entire wall, and it traveled around the room, laughing.
"Can it be?" The man asked, narrowing his eyes. Then they got wide, and he turned his head over his shoulder. "Dingle." He said. Four elves stepped up to the man, one pointing to itself, and another saluting the man. "Make preparations." The man said, turning back to the globe. "We are going to have company."
Then he pressed down on a handle, and turned it. Glowing green and blue lights came out of the countries on the globe, and those lights turned into the Northern Lights. The lights shot out in every direction.
A tiny, colorful fairy zipped around a room and squirmed her way under a pillow. She came up with a tooth and let out a deep breath. She flew through the window and made her way to a beautiful palace Aain the mountains – a place where thousands of other fairies just like her were flying towards. She flew up to a tray full of teeth, and placed the little tooth in the last opening. Then she flew to the one who was giving the orders. A tall woman covered in colorful feathers was flying around telling the little fairies where to go to get more teeth.
"Wait!" She exclaimed. "It's her first tooth." She said more softly. "Oh, have you ever seen a more adorable lateral incisor in all of your life? Look how she flossed!" One of her fairies started to squeak and she leaned in to hear what it was saying. She gasped and looked at the Northern Lights, then she and a few of her fairies took off with her towards the lights.
My fellow guardians, it is our job to watch over the children of the world and keep them safe.
A child was asleep with a picture of her playing soccer over her head. Her sandy dreams made her smile.
To bring wonder and dreams.
The tendril of golden sand lead back to a cloud of golden sand that a short, round man made of sand stood on top of.
So I called you here for one reason, and one reason only. The children are in danger.
The sandy man stopped and turned towards the lights. He formed his sandy cloud into a propeller plane, and took off towards the lights.
An enemy we have kept at bay for centuries has finally decided to strike back.
A dark tunnel. But it was grassy. There were walking eggs. And then a blur. It was a bunny.
We alone can stop him.
The bunny stuck its head out of a hole. It was snowing outside. The bunny jumped out and stood up. This wasn't a regular bunny. This bunny was tall and stood on its hind legs. He had markings on his arms and he wore boomerangs on his back.
"Oh, it's freezing!" The large rabbit shivered and then took off on all fours towards the center of the lights. "Ah! I can't feel my feet! I can't feel my feet!" He shouted as he ran over the snowy mounds.
"This better be good, North!" The bunny warned as he entered the room with the globe, and made his way to a fireplace to warm his paws.
"Sandy!" North, the big man, said to the short, round man. "Thank you for coming." Sandy started making sand signs – signing he had been busy. "I know. I know. But I obviously wouldn't have called you all here if it wasn't serious." He said, reassuring the others that he wasn't wasting their time.
At this, the tooth fairy stopped giving orders and shushed her little fairies so she could hear what North had to say.
"The boogeyman was here. At the pole!" He said, pointing to the ground he was standing on.
The tooth fairy gasped. "Pitch? Pitch Black? Here?" She looked to Sandy, and Sandy looked back at her.
"Yes." Said North. He started waving his hands theatrically in the air. "There was black sand covering the globe!" He looked off into the distance.
"Hold on. What do you mean, 'black sand'?" The bunny asked, walking up to North with an egg in his hand.
"There was a shadow on the wall." North said, still waving his hands in the air.
"I thought you saw Pitch." The bunny said, painting an egg.
"Well," North started, looking sheepish. "Not exactly."
"Not exactly?" The bunny mimicked. "Can you believe this guy?" He said, looking to Sandy with a smile. Sandy only shrugged and signed a question mark. "Yeah." The bunny chuckled. "You said it, Sandy."
"Look," North started. "He's up to something very bad. I feel it." He paused. "In my belly." He whispered, shaking his belly.
"Hold on. Let me get this straight." Said the bunny. "You summoned us here – three days before Easter – because of your belly?" He paused, pointing at North with a paintbrush. "Mate, if I did this to you three days before Christmas – l"
"Listen, Bunny. Christmas is not Easter." He said simply, patting Bunny's cheek.
Bunny chuckled. "Okay. Here we go." He said, pointing his ears forward. "Look, mate, I don't have time for this. I still have two million eggs to paint. You've got all year to get ready. I'm dealing with perishables!"
While North and Bunny argued, Sandy noticed the moon was peeking through the window. He tried to get the others' attention by signing, but nobody noticed him signing a music note when he tried to whistle.
The tooth fairy started to give more orders to her fairies and in the process, she interrupted the argument.
"Tooth!" North yelled. "Can't you see we are trying to argue?" He asked more softly.
Tooth giggled. "Sorry! Not all of us get to work one night a year. Am I right, Sandy?"
Sandy jumped at having Tooth's attention. He signed an arrow that was pointing to the moon. Tooth paused, looking at Sandy before gasping. "San Diego; sector two.." and just like that she started to give orders again.
Bunny stepped over to where Tooth was and walked into Sandy's arrow, disintegrating it. Sandy looked frustrated. "Look, mate, Pitch went out with the dark ages, all right? We made sure of it." Bunny said, trying to reason with North.
Sandy looked over to an elf, and his eyes lit up with an idea. He stood by the elf for a second, tapping his foot impatiently, before grabbing the elf by its hat and shaking it. The bell on the elf's hat got the guardians' attention. They looked at Sandy and he signed a moon, and then pointed to the one outside.
North turned to look at the moon. "Ah! Man in Moon! Sandy," North said, turning to Sandy. "Why didn't you say something?" Sandy puffed little clouds of sand out of his ears. Turning his attention back to the moon, North exclaimed, "It's been a long time, old friend! What is big news?"
The moon shone a ray of light on the floor, and in the middle of it was a shadow in the shape of a man. Bunny gasped. "It is Pitch." North stepped forward and patted his belly twice, shooting a pointed look towards Bunny.
"Manny," North said, returning his attention to the moon. "What must we do?"
The moon's ray of light shone on a circle in the floor, and a stand with a giant crystal on it rose out of the floor.
"Uh, guys? You know what this means?" Tooth asked, fluttering around the crystal.
"He is choosing a new guardian." North said.
"What?" Bunny asked. "Why?" He said, panicked.
"Must be big deal." Answered North. "Manny thinks we need help."
"Since when do we need help?" Bunny asked, laughing to himself.
"I wonder who it's going to be!" Tooth said, excitedly. Sandy signed a four-leaf clover. "Maybe the leprechaun?" Tooth mused.
"Please not the groundhog. Please not the groundhog." Bunny repeated to himself.
Finally a picture of a teenager wearing a hoodie, holding a staff, and bearing his signature smirk appeared above the crystal. "Jack Frost." North said, surprised. Tooth's fairies squealed, and one of them fainted.
"Uh, I take it back." Said Bunny. "The groundhog's fine."
Tooth snapped out of her daydream about Jack and said, "Well, as long as he uh, helps to – to protect the children. Right?"
"Jack Frost?" Bunny exclaimed. "He doesn't care about children! Okay? All he does is freeze water parks and – and mess with my egg hunts. All right? He's an irresponsible, selfish – "
"Guardian." North said, warming up to the idea.
"Jack Frost is many things, but he is not a guardian." Said Bunny.
~()~()~()~
Jack flew around the city, frosting and freezing the roads, the windows, a water fountain, a fish bowl, while Jay flew next to him pointing out random things and daring Jack to freeze them. They laughed and let the wind carry them to the top of a cathedral. Jay laughed as Jack spun around the pole.
Jack laughed back. "Now that – " He sighed. "That was fun."
"Sure was!" said Jay. "Race you back!" He yelled before taking off.
Jack laughed and shouted, "Hey wind!" He smirked as the wind blew in response. "Take me home!" He smiled and let the wind blow him off of the cathedral and shoot him up higher into the clouds.
He shouted and whooped as he flipped and twirled in the air. Finally, the wind lowered him through the clouds and he dived backwards into the busy city. He flew through the streets, dodging trucks and cars, and frosted the windows of shops and stores. Then he flew back up a little bit, and surfed on his staff and twirled on it until he reached his pond. He skated on it and used his staff to frost it over in pretty designs.
He blew past a little boy who was reading, and the force of the wind blew the book out of his hands. Jack crouched down to look at the book. "Huh, that looks interesting. Good book?" He asked as the boy picked it up. The boy, of course, ignored him. Two other kids came behind the boy and shouted, "Snow day!"
As the boys walked off, excited about the snow, Jack took an exaggerated bow and said, "You're welcome!"
He stood there for a minute, watching the boys. Jay flew over to him from a boulder in the pond and put his hand on Jack's shoulder. "I think you're getting slow, Frost!" He said playfully.
Jack laughed and brushed Jay's hand off of his shoulder. "Well next time you won't be so lucky." Jack nodded towards the kids and took off. Jay stood there for a second before following.
Jack landed softly on the first boy's fence, and Jay lowered himself to sit on the porch fence. Jack walked on top of the fence and listened to the children's conversation. He chuckled to himself as they talked about Bigfoot. He perked up when he heard "the Easter Bunny".
"Claude, the Easter Bunny is real." The first boy said.
"Oh he's real alright." Said Jay, looking to Jack with a smirk.
"Yeah. Real annoying, real grumpy, and really full of himself." Jack said, returning the smirk.
Jack and Jay watched as the kids continued their discussion. The boy's sister fell off of the stairs and started to cry.
"Mom! Sophie fell again!" Shouted the boy as he tried to get away with his sled.
"You okay, Soph? Jamie! Hat." She said, putting a hat on her son, who groaned in response. "You don't want Jack Frost nippin' at your nose."
"Who's Jack Frost?" Jamie scoffed.
Jay glanced over to Jack, who was curious to see what she would say.
"No one, honey. It's just an expression." The mother said, chuckling softly.
"Hey!" Jack snapped. Jay looked at Jack.
The kids started laughing and ran across the street to play in the snow.
Jack hopped off of the fence and scooped up a handful of snow. "Who's Jack Frost?" He asked, shaping the snow into a snowball and blowing on it.
Jay, sensing what Jack was about to do, jumped off of the porch and got ready to fly. Usually when something like this happened, it was best to just let Jack play.
Jack threw the snowball and it hit Jamie in the back of the head. Blue sparkles danced in front of Jamie's eyes, and he started to laugh. "Okay. Who threw that?" He smiled, and braced himself for another hit.
"Well, it wasn't big foot, kiddo." Jack said, gliding over to the kids from across the street. Jay followed quietly and perched himself in a tree to be out of the way.
Jamie quickly made a snowball and threw it at the back of another boy's head. The boy fell face first into a pile of snow, and the girl he was with looked up at Jamie in time to see a snowball headed for her face. She fell backwards.
"Jamie Bennett, no fair!" She cried, throwing her fists into the snow.
"You struck first!" Jamie yelled, laughing as Claude and his brother both got hit by snowballs.
"Free for all!" Shouted Jack, pitching in a few magic covered snowballs to get the other children in the mood to play. Jay watched Jack play with the children. He was always amazed when Jack could do things like this. Jay still didn't know if he could do anything other than fly. So he looked on in fascination every time Jack did something like make it snow, freeze water, or simply frost a window.
"All right, who needs ammo?" Jack asked. With a swing of his staff, snowballs made themselves. The children laughed and continued to pelt each other with the snowballs, until one of them hit another girl in the back of the head.
"Crud." Said the first girl, nervously. "I hit Cupcake!" She half whispered, biting her lip.
The little boy next to her pointed and said, "She hit Cupcake."
"You hit Cupcake?" Claude asked, his head sinking into his shoulders.
Jamie, on the ground, hid under his sled as Cupcake stood over him, holding a snowman head with a frown on it. She growled as she started to squish the snowman's head. But then she was hit in the face by a snowball. She stepped backwards a few times as the kids all asked each other who had done it.
Behind them, Jack was perched on his staff with his arm outstretched and a smirk of anticipation on his face. Again, blue sparkles danced in Cupcake's eyes. She let out a single laugh, and struggled to keep more laughter from escaping. Finally, she let her laughter explode. The other children laughed as she chased them around, carrying her snowman's head over her own.
Jack came up behind them and froze the ground in front of Jamie. "Careful, it's slippery!" Jack teased.
Jamie slipped and landed on his sled. Losing control of where he was going, he slid out into the road. The other kids yelled in fear for boy, and Jay took off to follow Jack and Jamie.
"Woah!" Jack yelled as he realized the danger Jamie was in. He started to ice a path on the road so he could lead Jamie to safety. Jay flew on the opposite side of Jack, so he could help if Jack needed it. "Don't worry kid, I gotcha! Hold on! It's gonna be all right!" Jack twirled playfully over Jamie, proud of himself for the fun he was sure the boy was having, and Jay mimicked his movement over Jack. "Keep up with me, kid! Take a left!" Jack turned a sharp corner and lead Jamie onto the sidewalk. The trio dodged people and dogs and fire hydrants and telephone poles until Jack made Jamie cross the street. "Come on kid, there you go." Jack said quietly. Jamie looked behind him at everything he had just dodged, and started to laugh. Jack, hearing Jamie's laughter, glanced down and started to laugh.
"Jack!" Jay said urgently, still looking ahead of them.
Jack looked back up and saw a snow plow headed for them. It honked, Jamie gasped, and Jack made Jamie turn to get out of the way. Jack's path formed a ramp over a mound of snow, and Jamie flew into the air on his sled. Jay paused in his flight, no longer seeing any danger, and flew to the very top of a statue in the park they were in. Jamie landed in another snow pile, and Jack flew over to the statue and landed a little lower than Jay.
"Yeah!" Jack said, laughing and pumping a fist into the air.
The other children finally caught up and started nervously calling Jamie's name.
Jamie got up and smiled. "Woah! Did you guys see that? It was amazing!" Jack smiled softly at the kids as Jamie explained what happened and he looked up to Jay. Jay smiled back at him, knowing that Jack was happy that Jamie had had fun. In the middle of his explanation, a couch slid on Jack's frozen path and rammed into Jamie, knocking him over.
Jack and Jay jumped at the sight. "Oops." Jack said, sheepishly.
"Cool, a tooth!" Jamie exclaimed, holding up a tooth.
"Oh no." Said Jay, looking towards Jack.
"No!" Jack said, disappointed. He stood up from his crouched position on the statue as the children started to walk away, excited and talking about the tooth fairy. "Wait a minute. Come on. Hold on – hold on." Jack jumped off of the statue and started following the children. "What about all the fun we just had? That wasn't the tooth fairy – that was me!" Jack pointed to himself.
"Jack…" Jay said softly, watching Jack from his spot on the statue as he tried to reason with the children.
Jack jumped to a little in front of the kids. "What's a guy gotta do to get a little attention around here?" The children ignored him and kept walking. Jack didn't move away in time and Jamie walked through him. Jack gasped at the feeling and stepped into the street to move away from the other kids. He looked away from them, feeling lonely and embarrassed to be vulnerable, and it started to snow a little. He looked up at the sky, annoyed with his emotion's effect on the weather. He looked at Jay for a second, put his staff on his shoulder and his free hand into his pocket, and took off.
Jay let him go. It didn't affect him like it did Jack when somebody walked through him. But it was different, he supposed, because he didn't do anything. He didn't have a reason to be recognized. It just didn't really bother him. But Jack – Jack did so much to be recognized for; he didn't deserve to be invisible. It just wasn't fair. So Jay felt bad for him and wanted to help him feel better, but he knew it was best to just let Jack be alone for a while.
So? Did you like it? Did you not like it? Was it too long? Be sure and let me know by reviewing! Honestly, I love reviews!