Our first stop seemed to be some kind of forgery, there were muscle bound people moving around with glowing pieces of metal and hammers, so it didn't take much brainpower to guess. The heat in there was insane for me, so Nigel explained what it was outside.

"That's our armoury, mainly where we're forming armour, but also weapons."

"Armour? We've never needed armour before."

"We haven't been at war for a very long time. We've just had localised skirmishes at worst. The closest we got was last Easter, but we didn't have enough time to forge them. Now we have time and motivation, too many people have died from being too careless."

"Wait, people are dead!?" That was one piece of information I hadn't heard.

"I thought someone was keeping you updated?"

"So did I, clearly they didn't care to share that detail."

Nigel's shoulders sagged as he explained.

"There's been losses on both sides, I don't think they've been intentional as neither side really wants to kill, but it's happened. We've been on the offensive most of the time, with Penelope telling us where the bases are."

"I'm glad she's helping."

"We've all come round to the idea of a Descendant of Pitch helping us. There still a few people who are being really paranoid about her, but it's to be expected.
We've had more successes than loses; more people have been killed on Pitch's force than our own. But it hasn't been easy planning attacks, they've managed to get nightmares to some of our best. So we've all been a little sleep deprived despite the Descendants of Sandman doing their best."

I nodded and yawned. "I've been having the same issues. I've almost forgotten what it's like to get a decent night's sleep."

"That's worrying to hear."

We wandered over to another tunnel, which led to a practicing ground of some sort, called the Training Halls. There many different ones, each for different kinds of practice, from ice and wind, to using rocks to form weapons.

The largest was a one on one fighting arena, where only physical weapons were allowed to be used, although what those weapons were made of didn't seem to matter.

I saw ice, earth, sand and I think a sharpened stick being used, and they all seemed to be effective depending on who was using them. It wasn't just swords, boomerangs were being flung around and used in close quarters.

Next along were the Sleeping Quarters and the Mess Hall, although as I'd seen and Nigel joked, not everyone makes it to the Sleeping Quarters in time.

The Sleeping Quarters were segregated by gender and who you were Descended from. In my case I'd be sharing with Mary, and maybe Rachel, I still hadn't worked out whether she was Alice's mother or not. The walls were simple earth and moss, just like the rest of the base, the beds were lined against the walls in pairs and each had a trunk next to it for personal belongings.

I could already tell that one person was already in where I'd be sleeping. The sheets were already slightly frosted and frost was spread across the nearby wall and floor. It was something that happened to me as well, my temperature dropped when I was asleep, forming frost. Although it was odd to see so much frost after only being used for a few months, that kind of frost only forms during nightmares.

The Mess Hall was exactly as I expected, a long metal area at the front to get food, and tables all across the hall, much like a school dining hall. The hall was huge though, easily able to hold several hundred people at a time.

Along the way the Medical Cavern was pointed out, but we weren't allowed in for fairly obvious reasons.

As we went back into the Main Cavern we were quickly approached by none other than the five Heads and Penelope. I'd heard that Alfred was now officially a Head now, and while Penelope wasn't quite trusted enough to become a Head herself, she was quite high up.

"Jackie!" She cried and came towards me. She paused for a second, then held out her hand a little awkwardly. I took it, then pulled her into a hug.

She was stood stiffly in surprise, but relaxed after a few seconds.

"Good to see you too Penelope." I said into her shoulder. It was a relief to see that she was okay.

"Good to see you too."

Jason coughed and we withdrew, with me adjusting my glasses.

Nigel nudged me in the ribs and I looked at him, confused. His arm was up and to my surprise he was saluting.

He gave me another nudge and I got it, throwing an awkward salute the Head's way.

"Davies." Said the Head of Toothiana, whose name I'd never gotten from anyone. "It is good to see you well, but we hear that you have news for us, concerning Pitch."

I noticed Penelope pale slightly at the mention of her ancestor, but I decided to ignore it. I doubted she'd appreciate me calling her out.

"There isn't much to say. Pitch appeared in Burgess, last I saw he was pinned to a tree."

"Pinned by what?" asked Jason.

"Ice shards created by me."

"You engaged him in combat?" cried the Head of the Descendants of Toothiana. "And you survived?"

I had to restrain myself from a dry comment.

"It wasn't really combat, it was more him trying to provoke me into showing my powers to the town, and I'm sad to say that he succeeded with that. When I ran off he then tried taunting and I'd just had enough at that point, so I pinned him to a tree and left him there."

"We have people who've never walked away from such an encounter."

"If I was more panicked than I was, then I might not have either, I'd just had enough of him at that point."

"Where did you leave him?" asked Alfred.

"Not far west from the lake in Burgess."

He nodded. "Alright, we'll send someone to investigate the area."

The group began to walk away, but Penelope hung back.

"Why did he do that though? It seems like a waste of time and energy."

"Whatever he had initially planned, it didn't completely work. The part of letting the town know what I could do worked, next I have no idea."

Penelope frowned, "I'll think on it, but now I have to head back. It's good to see you again!"

With that she ran off to the other Heads.

"So," Nigel put his hand on my shoulder, "reckon you're going to be hanging around?"

I paused for a minute, then nodded sadly.

"I don't think I can face going home."

"We'll deal with what happened in Burgess, for now we'd better get you sized for some armour."

"Seriously?" I asked as we began walking again.

"Yep, now you're down here, you'll likely to get called in."

"You talk like this is an army." I said to myself, which Nigel heard.

"In a way we are. The whole purpose of the Human Order of Guardians is to hold back the Descendants of Pitch. So in essence we have always been an army, we just haven't had to actually go in to war in centuries. And we're not as disciplined as a professional army."

I remembered his comment about last Easter.

"So, the last time you did something like this was last Easter? I know something happened involving the Guardians, because Jamie's mentioned it."

"It wasn't just the Guardians fighting in Burgess that night." Replied Nigel. "We had about ten Branches stationed around the edge of the town, fighting off what seemed like most the Descendants of Pitch in North America. We'd been on guard for a few days, and had a light skirmish, but nothing compared to that night."

"Wow, I don't suppose you noticed what the Guardians were doing? I can barely understand Jamie when he talks about it, he gets so excited."

"Sadly, no. We were a little busy. Although towards the beginning several of us did notice that blasts of ice were heading towards Pitch and that there were sheets of ice the next morning around town."

I nodded, "I remember." I got really freaked that day, suddenly terrified that I was sleep walking and using my powers in my sleep.

"That's how we found out that Jack Frost was the new Guardian. The Heads knew, how none of us know, but that's how most of us guessed before the information was officially released."

"So, what happened exactly? How did you find out about the fight?"

"That is a story for another time I'm afraid."

We reached a room that consisted of one person sitting on a chair reading a newspaper. Around him was a large amount of tape measures, paper and pencils.

As we walked in he looked up from his book to reveal a spectacled, clean shaven face with a shrewd expression.

"Ah, Miss Davies, good to see that you've finally decided to join us." He said in a way that suggested he thought I should have been here earlier.

Before I could say anything he'd grabbed a sheet of paper and began scribbling notes.

"Descendant of Jack Frost, still growing so adjustable, prescription head piece..." He looked up at me. "Any moves that are unique to you?"

"Um, ice elbow and wrist blades, forming ice bridges to skate on."

"Where exactly do these wrist and elbow blades form?"

I pointed to just beyond my wrist and about midway up my upper arm, which he scribbled down. They never really appeared in the exact same place twice, so the positions were just general.

"Hmm, light armour for easy movement, a slit in the sole for an ice blade, slits by the wrists and upper arms. Anything else?"

I shook my head.

"In that case may I borrow your glasses?"

I took them off and handed them to him, my world becoming blurry. He held them to his face and muttered something to himself before handing them back to me. As I put them on he picked up some tape measures and started measuring me, still muttering to himself.

"A little skinny... long, powerful legs..."

He finished his measurements with a snap of his tape. "Excellent, I'll send them off and it should be ready in a few days. I'll send a message to you when that happens."

With that he sat back at his stool, refining his notes. Nigel nudged my shoulder and we left the room.

"Alright, that's all needed doing." Said Nigel, "I'm going to have to head off to the Vehicle Cavern, where are you going to go?"

I didn't even need to think.

"Back to the training area, I'd like to practice."

"Alright then, do you remember the way?"

"Yes, see you later."

I went into the training area and went straight to the ice training area.

Behind me were Mary and Chris, clearly curious as to what I was going to do.

Inside the Training Hall were several patches of ice on the floor for practice and some dummies hung from various rungs from rafters in the high ceiling. The dummies had targets on them in various places, presumably where they'd die if you hit them.

I took a deep breath and raised my arms, feeling the ice in the room, its exact volume and how much that was available on the surface.

I looked over at the dummies, memorising the targets position, then closed my eyes.

I raised my arms again and felt the ice lift out of the floor, I flipped my hands so the palms were facing downwards and flared my fingers, causing the ice shattered around me. I could feel the shards hanging in the air, seeing the targets in my mind's eye I sent the ice shards at where I remembered the targets were.

There was a loud thudding noise and a gasp behind me that told me that every one of them had hit.

I opened my eyes and saw that my projectiles had hit every single target, dead centre every time. I lowered my arms as I studied them, now for the tricky bit.

I stared at them and concentrated, imagining them moving back towards me. Several of them began to shake and slowly slide out of the dummies. More than a few wobbled in the air and the odd one dropped in height.

I furrowed my brow and felt sweat break out on my forehead as I sent the exact same volume of ice back to their original places.

I stepped back so I could see them all, then imagined the shards coming together into a solid mass.

It happened slowly, but it was happening. My head ached from the effort and my legs began to shake, but I didn't let my concentration waver.

Once the ice was back in its original state I set them down carefully into their original slots in the floor. Once they were in I let go and gasped for air, suddenly feeling weak.

My shaky legs staggered backwards against the wall and I clung to it for support, breathing heavily, but still pleased with the result.

I looked over at Mary and Chris, who looked back at me with their mouths hanging open.

"You'll catch flies looking like that." I said, with a tired smile across my face.

Their mouths clapped shut in unison.

"How did you do that?" asked Mary.

"With a lot of practice. The best part of a year ago I could only move a small ice ball a few centimetres in either direction."

"You've certainly come a long way from then."

"I'm surprised in myself to be honest; I didn't think I'd be recovering so quickly from that. Someday I hope to be able to do that as well as I can when moving my arms."

"It would so cool to be able to do that." Sighed Chris.

"Have you ever tried?"

"Yes, barely any movement and a headache for my trouble."

"You have to practice it."

Mary shrugged.

"Maybe it's something only someone really powerful can do."

I felt my face flush red. "I-I don't know about that."

"Now you're just being modest."

"I, um." I fumbled for something to say, to escape this situation.

"H-hey, I'm feeling hungry after all that, I'll just head to the Mess Hall. See you later!"

I ran as fast as I could away from there, not caring how shaky my legs still were. I really hoped that I wouldn't have to put up with any more of that.

Hey, I left some links to a couple of songs I thought fit this story in my profile. Go have a look!