Disclaimer: I am not Peter Ramsey; I do not own the characters in Rise of the Guardians, etc., etc.

Author's Note: I want to especially thank A Scribbler of Hobbiton for... urhh... reviewing! Yes! It was very kind of you! (drip.) and Charles the Charles for unwittingly contributing to the title to Chapter 2. Potatolo- I commend you for your rather creative username. :)

~Chapter 3- Fate~

Ember sat while complacently munching on leaves. Mint leaves, to be exact. It was three nights after she had awoken-when no memories of her past. However, she did retain some useful pieces of information such as: never go near other people, and fire. At least, she supposed, it was better than nothing.

She was munching on mint leaves. It struck her as odd the first few minutes-that she had the ability to actually chew and digest edible substance without burning it first- but the really, she shouldn't complain. She had nothing to do, except a few things here and a few things there. On the contrary, her "a few things here and a few things there" was the reason of her existence. She went around, providing warmth in one or another, in places in need of it: in homes and in hearts.

So, of course, one day something had to go wrong. It was expected, of course. She was seldom rational. Or rather, her brain was extremely rational, but the only problem was that she was seldom smart enough to recognize it existed. On that one day, she made an acquaintance with another whom she would defend as much as she could.

"Fire." A bored voice circled her, not exactly void of gravity.

She turned around to look for the source of the lifeless voice, but she failed miserably, considering the fact that she could not see one centimeter beyond her flaming halo.

"A bit too dark, perhaps?" the voice sliced again, exuding omnipresence, but distinctly, very distinctly, on her right hand side.

"Yes, very." was her reply, even though she was very, very engrossed in trying to suppress her natural instincts to just blast this being who was speaking to her. So instead, she preoccupied her mind be busily descending, trying to find ground so she can just start a bloody fire! Slowly, she came to a stop, as she remembered-


"You can see me."

"I'm sorry."

"Hey, Mint-Leaf!"

...Followed by very irritated (and heavily narrated) sighing.

...Which was followed by-


-Her scar tingled as she mentally jolted back into reality. The scar that she had spent countless hours pondering upon. The scar made of ice embedded from her wrist to almost her elbow.

The last person to whom she had talked had betrayed her trust.

She watched with satisfaction as her always-loyal fire illuminated the space, and more importantly, hit its target without hesitation. The man fell four yards down before hastily trying to put out the fire.

"What. Do you. Want." the man said in a clipped tone, trying to hide his fear and maintain the feeling of power and ease he was familiar with.

Ember was very much torn. (Not literally, as she thankfully kept all of her limbs intact.) Her first instinct was to flee, of course. Her vague recollections were obvious in pointing that out. However, if she fled, the man would be the victor, wouldn't he? Then, her little outburst would be rendered insignificant. But if she stayed, who knows what might happen?

First things first. Knowledge first, safety second.

"Who are you?" she inquired with a very airy tone, which was very suspiciously Lunaish.

With that question, the man's apprehension grew, and he repeated, "What. Do you. Want."

It was a very pitiful answer, as Ember grew more irksome by the moment. Unluckily for the man, she had a natural defence against irkiness, stupidity, confundity, and plain boredom, among many other things.

"I do sincerely hope you have not lost your precious sense of hearing. But in case you were simply being disrespectful or distracted, I. Would. Like. To. Know. Who. You. Are."

Silence.

Ember was not very tolerant of silence after she asked a question. Her raw emotions encompassing her and her fear completely forgotten, she encased him in a sphere of fire. She could have encased him in a sphere of rock, but it was pitifully soundproof, and SHE WANTED ANSWERS.

As fire encompassed him, he suppressed a yelp of disdain. Nobody before had entered his dwelling without preamble and atrociously encased him in, one could say, his worst fear. If he was so vulnerable in fire, her worst fear… this was getting interesting for once. With two waves of his hand, he extinguished the fire and suffocated her in a shroud.

Poor Ember couldn't dodge the shroud, as fast as she was, because she hadn't had the need to develop night vision before. On top of that, her glowing visibility rendered her a very agreeable target. The man's target this time was her neck. That shroud was immune to fire. But the rocks above were not, and they were about to take the plunge of their existence. A burst of fire escaped out of her left hand. As the shroud drifted closer to marking the end of her existence, the more panicked she became. The more panicked she became, the less coordinated her attacks were. She no longer had a sense of where the man was. She only knew that she was going to cease to exist if she didn't do anything. Her deranged and deadly fireworks finally hit a mark, and she vaguely heard something crashing down.

Miraculously, the shroud loosened. She regained use of her eyes.

She had survived.

Whoever it was, he was going to pay the price.


Ignore: I am so terribly sorry! (okay, I know in the "summary" I put that I update once every two to three weeks-that's because I know I will slack off :)-but in my head I've always calculated two weeks, and since last time I posted on a wally/migety (please ignore) WEDNESDAY, it kind of (really) messed up my schedule.

So-thanks to those of you who read my story (483 views! I probably should stop celebrating now...) and thanks to those who merely glanced at my story's first chapter and lost hope, because hey! you go in the stats. But that's just a number, is it not? Who wants merely to be a number on a website? Not me, of course. So: review if you felt like I deserve a review.

(By the way: here's a sincere thank-you for those who reviewed!)