Chapter 26

Jack Frost

Jack sighed as he looked out the window. He had a huge urge to go out and make it snow in some places that needed it, but he knew that everyone else would be furious. Not to mention that right now going anywhere alone was suicide. He growled in the back of his throat, extremely frustrated. He turned away from the window, intent on finding someone that might go with him, because being cooped up here was driving him nuts.

As it turned out, Tooth and Sandy had gone out to do their jobs, and Jack knew that there was no way that Bunny or North would go with him. That left the three newbies. Great.

Rapunzel had been placed under extremely mild house arrest after the elephant incident, so he didn't bother asking her. Hiccup was an unlikely candidate as well, he had spent the entire morning hobbling slightly, an extremely amused Astrid in tow. That left Merida. Jack irritably froze an elf that was in his way, glancing up when he heard a familiar scoff nearby.

"Got nothin' else to do?" Merida asked, rubbing her thumb along her bow.

"Actually, I've got places to snow in, but with the situation being as it is, I'm not risking going alone. Care to see how winter's spread?" Jack invited, leaning against his staff.

Merida flashed a suspicious glance at him. "Why are yu askin' me?"

Jack shrugged. "Punzie's forbidden, Hiccup can't move, Tooth, North, and Sandy are busy, and I'm totally sure that Bunny would jump at the chance to help me make places colder." He explained.

Merida snorted. "In that case, can't see that I could refuse. But how am I supposed to tag along?"

Jack grinned. "I figured that you'd take your horse and a couple snowglobes. Who knows, maybe we can get some people to believe in you in the meantime."

Merida nodded. "And where would these snowglobes come from?"

Jack patted his hoodie pocket, causing a slight clink to be heard. "Got that covered."

Merida laughed. "Yu're incorrigible."

"Thank you!" Jack retorted cheerfully. "Now, shall we go before a certain Russian notices?" He added, walking towards the stables.

"Not that I'm quite sure how yu roped me into agreeing that easily." Merida said, and Jack was pretty sure she was doing that for the sake of argument. Well, if she wanted some banter, who was he to turn her down?

"I dunno, restless?" He replied, jostling her with his elbow. "Happens."

"Princesses don't get restless." Merida replied loftily.

"Princess?" Jack asked, looking around as if confused. "Where?"

Merida punched him in the arm. "Funny, Snowflake."

"Was that really necessary?" Jack griped, rubbing his arm.

"The punch or the nickname?"

"Both!"

"Yes."

Jack rolled his eyes, deigning not to answer as they reached the stable. "Kay, get saddled, then I'll pass the...contraband to you." He instructed with a sly grin.

Merida smirked despite her apparent effort to retain a straight face, and swung up into the saddle with surprising ease, considering the size of the horse.

Jack scanned the area just in case, then began passing the globes to her. "I counted, and then brought some extras. You shouldn't run out, and if you do, well, we'll cross that bridge on the less than 1% chance that occurs. Just use them wisely, as in only when I tell you to." He instructed when she had secured the snowglobes. "And don't break them." He added.

"Yes, thank you, mother." Merida sighed, tightening her grip on the reins. "Where to?"

"Well, first time, I get the honors." Jack told her. He swirled the snowglobe, then whispered, "Australia!"

"Bit of a grudge?" Merida inquired as the portal opened.

Jack shook his head. "Nah, Australia's in the Southern Hemisphere, thus, they get snow in this season, when in the Northern Hemisphere it's going away." He then ran through the portal before it could close, Merida kicking her horse into action right behind him.

Jack landed in a cool park, grinning at Merida as she came through. She looked over at him. "So, where are we goin'?"

Jack thought for a moment. "Well, besides here, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, Peru, and Tibet." He replied, holding up a finger for each one.

"So we're here for awhile?" Merida asked in resignation.

Jack smirked. "I'll make you eat those words by the time I'm done."

"Really." Merida remarked skeptically. Jack snorted, and in the next moment he had summoned a blast of wind to rocket him high up into the air, followed immediately by a thick cloud cover and heavy snowfall.

Jack looked down to see Merida thundering down the street on her horse, dodging around the people who were scurrying away from the 'riderless' horse. He smiled when he saw a few children excitedly point at Merida, talking animatedly to their friends and parents.

Jack quickly dropped so that he was flying alongside Merida. "See? New believers already." He told her. "They probably recognized the horse from a story, and were thus able to see you."

Merida gasped, pointed at an adult. "That's great, but yu'll run into that person!"

Jack sighed, lifting so that he dodged. "Say, Merida, do you know what it means to be invisible as a spirit?" He asked.

She shook her head. Jack nodded slowly, then flew ahead to land in front of a group of adults hurrying irritably through the snow. He heard Merida yelling at him, and then there was the horrid icy feeling flashing through his body as the adults walked through him obvliously. He winced and put a hand to his chest, and was still gasping slightly when Merida rode up to him.

"Wot was that?" She asked in alarm. "Are yu ok?"

Jack made a face. "That, is invisibility. When someone doesn't believe in us, it's like we don't exist. They can't see, hear, or touch us. And as for ok, well, it's not a pleasant feeling but I'm not harmed by it."

Merida nodded slowly. "I'm...sorry."

Jack shrugged. "Don't be, it'll happen to you to, just not right now since your horse is kinda preventing that from happening. Now, we've still got a lot of places to cover, so we should get going before someone finds us and hauls us back home."

Before Merida could respond, Jack leapt up, grabbing onto a light pole and using that to land on some power lines. "Race you to the next town, frizzy!" He yelled, running along the power lines, causing them to ice over.

"It is so on!" He heard Merida yell, and he laughed as he summoned a wind to propel him into the air, also assigning a wind to finish with the snowstorm.

As he flew along, he was surprised to hear the sound of hoofbeats growing louder. He glanced back to see Merida leaning down flat against the horse's neck, a defiant look on her face. He laughed slightly before urging the wind to drive him along faster.

Several hours later, both Guardians were at the end of their rope as Jack landed next to Merida in Tibet. "Finally." He muttered.

Merida looked up at the sky. "Well, given the amount of area covered, even if I do think that yu took a long time, I'll give yu that yu're faster than I thought." She admitted. "Can we go back now?"

Jack nodded. "Unless you broke all the snowglobes."

Merida flashed him a dirty look, holding up a snowglobe. "Of course not." She shook it, yelled, "North Pole!" and threw the snowglobe against a tree. When the portal opened up, Jack and Merida jumped through.

Neither of them noticed the Nightmare watching them from the shadows.

When Jack stepped from the portal, Merida right behind him, the first thing he registered was being immediately fussed over by Phil.

"Phil...Phil! What?" Jack sputtered, trying to figure out what was going on with the Yeti. The Yeti garbled something at him in its language, and Jack frowned. "Pitch?"

"JACK!" He heard Tooth and North yell, and he looked over at them in confusion.

"Yeeeeeesssss?" He replied slowly. "Am I in trouble?"

He then yelled in protest as North picked him up. "You are not hurt?" North demanded.

"No, but you're about to give me whiplash!" Jack retorted, trying to wiggle free.

His only comfort was that Merida was receiving the same treatment from Tooth.

"Why, what's the problem? All I could get from Phil with all the mother-henning was something vague about Pitch." Jack asked North as the large Russian finally set him dowm.

North rubbed the back of his head. "His shadow appeared on globe when we look for you and Merida, taunted us about not keeping track and hinted that even he could keep you under tabs. Naturally we expect the worst."

Jack nodded. "Yeah, sorry, I was just worried you guys wouldn't let me go out, even though I've still got my job to do."

"And per'aps we've got a reason for that, ya gumby!" Bunny snapped irritably as he ran up. "Pitch has got a huge grudge against ya, and he's not gonna be subtle about taking it out on ya! Ya had us all worried!"

Jack held up his hands. "Ok, ok, well, I've given everywhere that needs it a good snow, so I'll be able to stay put for awhile until I'm needed somewhere else." He conceded. He then put his hands down and grinned. "But still, it's nice to know that you really do care." He added with a crooked grin.

Bunny rolled his eyes, muttered something under his breath, then hopped off. Jack ignored him, knowing that getting into an argument wouldn't be smart. He looked at Merida. "I'd suggest that you stable the horse, both it and you look about ready to fall over."

"Yu're not any better." Merida shot back before leading her horse away.

"Yeah, well at least I'm not pointing out the obvious for the sake of arguing!"

"Let's not start this!" Tooth interjected. "Both of you, get to bed, once everyone is up and ready to go tomorrow we'll start planning."

Jack planted his feet stubbornly. "No. We'll go to bed, get up, and then get out there and do something." He insisted. "I'm done waiting for Pitch to come to us whenever he feels like taunting us, let's turn the tables back on him."

"Sounds like plan!" North agreed heartily, thumping Jack on the back.

Jack staggered forwards, just barely catching himself. "Well, time to execute phase one of the plan: Get to sleep before passing out where I stand." He told North, giving a not very subtle hint.

"Of course, of course! Shoo shoo!" North bellowed, shoving Jack lightly.

Jack laughed as he took to the air, landed in front of his room, and opened the door. "Whatever Bunny says, that was fun." He muttered to himself before leaning his staff against the wall, falling onto his bed, and dropping off to sleep immediately. Tooth would be horrified.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

For those of you confused about that last line, he didn't brush his teeth before going to bed. Yup, har-de-har. In my defense, I'm up waaayyyyy later than I should be, so my brain's not firing on all cylinders.

And this may sound repetitive at this point, but there WILL be action! The stage has been set, I think I've got everyone pretty riled up, so this should be pretty fun! Hooray for character bashing! And sleep! On that note, I shall see all of you lovely people later, at a more natural hour.