Spring

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: Don't own ROTG or DP.

42 years and 66 days

"It has been 42 years and 66 days since I last spoke with someone," the sea spoke as the boy looked up to see who had spoken. "And don't you dare freeze my waves, brat."

"Wouldn't dream of it," the spring seasonal heard his older brother snap back to the sea. "Seriously, Nereus would be put out if he heard you, Captain. Well?" This last remark was directed at Daniel.

"Well what?" the younger boy wanted to know.

Jack sighed. "Wind, enough," he sternly ordered his ever-constant companion, who was 'twixt the flows of floating her frost child into the air and hurtling him into the sea or burying both him and her flower child in a deep grave of finely ground powdered seashell sand. Wind blasted a puff of warm air into his face, the rubbing sensation subsided.

Daniel chuckled at the comical expression on Jack's face, then coughed, trying to adopt a serious look on his own. "Why are you here, Jack?"

"On a beach at midnight somewhere in eastern Europe? No idea," came the glib explanation. "Leto says you ran when your father saw you."

Daniel gulped. "I was scared. Jack, you have no idea what my life has been like since MiM first chose me. Half the year I'm asleep, the other half I'm painting flowers and melting snow! I lost my family and friends. I hate working within MiM's stupid belief system."

"I understand more than you'll ever understand. Let me tell you what the Man in the Moon told me last night," Jack answered him.

Daniel gave him a long questioning look. "What did the Man in the Moon tell you?"

"Absolutely nothing," Jack replied, lunging for Daniel and grabbing him by the hand. Daniel tried to yank back his trapped hand, but Jack was stronger, even with an old frost-tipped shepherd's staff.

"Let me go! Jack, where are you taking me?" Daniel shouted, as his feet left the ground. Jack tucked him closer to his side, looking down at him with a serious expression on his face.

"To the North Pole," came the soft reply.

"So why am I here?" Vlad demanded, glaring at the spirit with the ash-toned skin. Currently he was tied down to a chair with Fearling shadows.

"The newborn was scared of his father and ran. The man attempted to enter the coordinates for the boy's, but the technology of your world doesn't work well with spiritual energy. He left behind a small band of ghosts who, thankfully, are still very confused as to their whereabouts. They can see our home, but not us, as we do not exist on the mortal plane, until believed in. You and the human girl-accidentally left behind-are the only ties the boy has to the world he comes from. MiM wants you to talk to him-no more, no less-but please, talk to the girl and persuade her to believe. She grows wearisome."

"Daniel," Jack said gently, after Wind dropped them onto the windowsill, "No matter what happens in North's workshop, whether it be good news or bad, you will never be alone. We are one family: seasonal spirits, MiM, Guardians, and perhaps even Mother Nature or Pitch may fall into that category, though Pitch would be more the stinky rotten banana peel you find under bed after a month."

Danny shuddered at the disturbing image.

"What I am saying," said Jack, after taking a deep breath. "is you don't have to keep running away. Tame your flight or fight instincts. You had friends and family to encourage your Center in the Other World; you have us here. Find your center, Daniel Spring, and you will know why you were chosen."

Daniel gave a silent nod, and Jack pushed open the window. A yell from below shouted that he'd seen them. Tooth's excited voice chirped a greeting to them, mixed with rapid fire orders to her mini fairies for teeth to be collected in Pittsburgh, London, and Louisville.

"What did you really tell MiM, Jack?" Daniel asked, as Wind swept them inside the workshop..

Jack touched Daniel's lips with an index finger and then with the same finger touched his heart. "I wasn't able to say anything," he admitted. "There is much I want to, but there is no need. Hey, watch this!"

Two ginger-tinted girls, deep in conversation, squealed in outrage as a snowball smacked each of them in the face. "Jack Frost! Daniel Spring! This means a snow war later," the auburn-haired girl declared, hands on hips looking up at the two boys sitting on the exposed beams that supported the heavy roof of North's workshop.

"Glad to oblige, Kate," Jack cheekily replied, earning a dirty look from the girl. The other girl was silent as stared up at spot next to the frost-haired hellion.

"Oh," Katherine murmured in realization. "You still can't see him."

"Who?" the other girl asked, only to gasp in shock as a warm whisper of wind crossed the back of her neck. "Daniel James Fenton, how many times have I told you not to do that?!"

Her brother laughed softly. She rubbed her eyes as he popped into visibility next to her. "Actually, Jazz, I'm the one she (he pointed at Katherine) called Daniel Spring. If you are here, where are Mom, Dad, Sam and Tucker?"

"This is the bad news, Snowflake, was warning you about, mate," E. Aster Bunnymund spoke up. He and the rest of the Guardians were studying the new lights that twinkled on the Globe near the North Pole.

"Phantom?"

Daniel Spring whirled around to face Ember, who was still in shock, but still ran and hugged him. "Are we ever glad to see you, babypop. Can you get us out of here?"

Daniel shook his head, then stared hard at the Fright Knight, who stared hard back at him. Was the ghostly paladin snickering at him?

Daniel glared at him. "Nice to see you too, Ember. How did you get here and how the heck can you three see me, but they can't?" He made a circle gesture indicating Ember, Jazz, and the Fright Knight, then jabbed his thumb in the direction of the other three ghosts.

Okay, so the Man in the Moon did not let Jack speak from the heart, but told him everything he needed to know with two simple gestures. Two of the ghosts, you now know, are Ember and the Fright Knight, who can see him. The other three cannot; I haven't decided who they are yet, but press the little button below and tell me what you think should be done with them, Jazz, and Plasmius. The story of how Jazz came to be at the Pole will be told next chapter.