~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Author Note's~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I would like to say, Thank You! There I said it, now to direct it towards those who I wish to receive it. That would be you, the readers. All of your reviews so far have made me so happy! You all are so excited about this story and its still in the early stages. So I am going to keep it going for sure!

Also if y'all have any suggestions of what you want to see please let me know. I may just find a way of putting it in here.

Disclaimer: Don't own RoTG Also this chapter may seem a little harsh for some of you at the end. Please tell me what you think.

Chapter 4: Tick Tock

Jack found out one thing that he never realized before…being small sucks! At first he was shocked, and then he enjoyed it, now he is absolutely fed up with it.

Two days ago Jamie found him in the woods a shrunken spirit and brought him to his house. Originally their plan was to contact the Sandman as he was making his rounds later that night, but Jamie fell asleep and Jack was unable to move around freely enough to locate him. So that turned out to be a huge flop.

When the sun had risen Jamie apologized like mad until Jack threatened to put ice cubes down his shirt if he persisted. Taking a different form of action, Jamie ran about town that afternoon. Jack was able to tag along by piggybacking on Jamie; it was the only way they could thing to do this without drawing questioning gazes form non-believers. Now, the plan was to do some shopping for his mom while also gathering information about children who have lost or close to losing their teeth.

Much to there disappointment no one was ready to relinquish their pearly whites, and on top of that they had forgotten to get the groceries. This resulted in an scolding that Jamie hadn't heard in years. Jamie informed Jack that they would try Sandy again that night, but just like the night before the boy had yet again drifted off before the golden-mans arrival.

Today Jamie swore to his friend that things would go differently. That they would spend the whole day talking to his friends and fellow believers; hopefully someone would still have a snow globe left over from their younger days.

This plan was squished almost immediately when Jamie's family kidnapped him for a family outing right after breakfast. Due to unforeseen events, Jamie was unable to take Jack with him. As a result the Winter Spirit was now not only tiny, but alone, incapable of traveling long distances, and practically powerless. At first Jack was fine with it, he has been alone before so this was not really all that different…or so he thought.

There was absolutely nothing to do, when he was board in the past he would just muddle about with his ice. Doing any such thing in the house would just cause problems for Jamie and his family, and he really didn't want to cause his friends trouble.

Therefore he had to locate other means of entertainment, which when small was rather difficult. Jamie's room harbored no television or games of any type, in fact there now that he had the change to look about the room he noticed the lack of any form of fun!

With Jamie just moving back into his room, there was only a few things set up for him upon his desk, dressers and bed. There inlay the problem, what ever was available was so far off the ground that baby Jack had no real way of getting to it any of it. Again, being small official sucked!

'Way to go Jamie. At least you left me on the floor so I could leave this boring room.' Jack hummed to himself sarcastically.

Ten minutes later of crawling –with the occasional attempt at walking a few feet before falling- Jack had found his way to Sopie's room. There were a few things closer to his level in here; thing such as books and magazines, but these objects only helped in distracting him for a little while.

One all of upstairs was 'conquered' as he like to call it he crawled to the steps and gazed down. His eyes began to play tricks on him, each step seemed to extend farther out then he knew they were.

Swallowing back his panic Jack turned so that his feet were now facing the stairs, just like how he had seen younger kids do before. Slowly he lowered his foot down to the first step; once he was steady he let out a breath of relief.

'One down, only…' he looked behind him and counted, 'sixteen more to go." He sighed. Shaking his head he decided to continue on. When he slipped up and slid down two stairs he yelped in surprise, oh these stairs were tricky. This was no longer a danger but a challenge; he would get down all these stairs with out slipping again!

Before he realized it Jack was humming the Missions Impossible theme as he descended.

'your mission if you choose to accept it' he half mumbled half giggled to himself. 'Jamie really shouldn't have let me watch all those movies' he mentally laughed. A large smile playing across his lips as he cleared the last step, "whose da greatest winter spirit!?" he yelled to no one in particular.

While doing a happy dance he was completely oblivious to the sudden appearance of a certain greyhound. Abby had walked into the room when she heard the sudden commotion.

Two full spins later Jack's bright blue eyes landed on the large canine and he froze. Jack knew Abby was a good dog and she knew him, however that was when he was a lot larger. He wasn't even sure if she recognized him now that he was small, and this frightened him slightly. After all, if she considered him to be an intruder he could little to defend himself. Yeah, he still had his ability to make ice and snow but not as much or as long as he used to. It had never crossed his mind before now to have Jamie reintroduce Abby to him.

Silence crept over them, Jack refused to move and Abby just stared him down. 'Man, was this what Bunny felt like last Easter?' He made a tiny mental note to apologize when next he seen the Pooka.

Finally Abby began to move forward, Jack closed his eyes tightly preparing for the worst. Sniffing filled his ears as Abby searched him over, he wasn't sure what it was she was hoping to find.

One heartbeat later the hound was licking and nuzzling his face with affection. Jack let out a breath of relief and ruffled her fur, "Good girl Abby, nice ta see you to!"

Abby played with Jack for a bit before he started to crawl away in search of something for them to do. She trailed behind him in a protective fashion which Jack found amusing. Either she was afraid he would get into trouble, or she was just amused at his unusual appearance.

When he took forever to get across the hall and into the living room Abby must have gotten fed up with his pace, for the moment he reached the doorway she bent down and picked up by the hood of his sweater.

"Woah Abby put me down! I'm not a pup ya know?!"

Abby snorted at the spirit and trotted over to the couch where se sat him down. Jack readjusted his shirt and looked to the dog only to find her staring at him flatly.

"Wha?" He looked around the room then back to the dog. "I don have a tweat if dats what you want."

Abby gave a small bark before turning to the side, her eyes looked over the spirit expectantly, Jack just stared at her in confusion.

Barking again she looked from the boy to her back, this caught his attention. "Wait, you want me ta ride you?" Once again she barked, her tail wagging at a fast pace.

"Now were talking!" he giggled out before climbing on the canines back. It was times like these that he loved being so light.

Χρόνος paced back and forth within his tower, a feeling of curiosity building inside of him. Only a few days have passed on the surface since he had made the deal with Pitch Black, and he was already becoming antsy. Jack Frost was a very capable spirit, and he didn't leave him without any means. However, for some reason this wager was getting to him.

Visions of past and future events between Jack and the children of the world were still clearly visible in his head. Blizzards of old had claimed the lives of many, just as they would in the future. Humans, animals, and plants of all kinds have met their deaths in the harsh winters created by this spirit. So in part Pitch Black was right about the boys involvement upon the time line.

Father time however never blamed Jack personally for it, because none of these deaths were done intentionally. Jack never went out of his way to attack a person with death as the end result. Frost was more of the prankster who loved the attention, even if it wasn't really directed at him personally. Therefore, having a person perish would be counter productive.

Jack is a winter spirit who is just doing his job; death was just one of the few outcomes he was forced to live with. Χρόνος knew Pitch was trying to use his concern of time lines to win him over, saying that Jack was disrupting the flow of time with all of his mischief and fun. Pitch was a cleaver man who enjoyed using his persuasive tactics to manipulate others. Unfortunately for him and fortunate for the time keeper, Nicodemous was privy to a rather dark secret. Jack Frost is the Spirit of Winter and Guardian of Fun, but he also has another title that most beings-including Pitch the Guardians-didn't know.

Jack Frost is the bringer of death.

Jack knew this all to well, as did Nicodemous. Being touched by Jack Frost was considered the mark of death, nipping at your nose was not a figure to be taken lightly in the past.

Pitch may be the King Nightmares and Fear, but Jack was death. As saddening and horrible as it sounded, this was fact. If truth be told, beings of this world were more afraid of the cold than they would ever be of the dark. Cold had always brought death; in fact most people would claim that the icy hands of death had come to claim them. It was the cold that destroyed their food, work, and even their lives.

Black had wanted him to believe that Jack was a problem for the time line when in truth he was more apart of it than the other immortals knew. All the deaths from the winter were not of Jacks choice but by design. Their lines were at their end and that was all there was to it.

Now when Pitch explained that Jack was making personal contact with people Χρόνος was a tad concerned, even if he didn't show it. Seeing as those he has made contact with in the past usually vanished his concern wasn't misplaced. This was until he found out that the once he made contact with were his first believers, Χρόνος concerns all but vanished. Believing in Jack Frost was the surest way of protecting yourself from his touch of death. Again, this was another bit of secret information that being the Father of Times was privy to.

Nicodemous had taken the time to peer into the past where Jack had been hugged by his first believer. Everyone thought his look of shock was due to being touched with such affection after years of being fazed through. Part of that may have been true, but from what Χρόνος could see, it was a mixture of panic, concern and realization. Panic was from the fact that he was touching a mortal; the concern was derived form the fear that the boy would parish shortly after, and realization that the child was safe from his icy touch.

In truth of all the beings all the immortals who rested out of his time line and jurisdiction, Jack Frost was the only one he found to be alright. That or it was just because he seen a lot of him self in the boy, even if he didn't admit it.

DING

Χρόνος was pulled from his thought as one of his larger clocks began to ring out, the deep base like tones filling the air with reverberations that shook the tower.

DING

Glancing around the tower his eyes landed on an old grandfather clock resting against one of the far walls. Its black features housed within its wood and ivory face plate and long silver chimes, a silver pendulum swung slowly back and forth.

DING

A small and rare smile graced his lips as a thought playing across his mind. One he found rather amusing now that he looked at the situation from a different perspective.

DING

"Hickory" he morphed into a child.

DING

"Dickory" he morphed into his adult form

DING

"Dock" now he was in his elder form.

DING

As the last chime faded from the air Χρόνος floated to the top of his tower, this was truly turning into a wager he would be looking forward to.