A/N: Welcome back to The Serendipity of a Misunderstood Winter Spirit! I hope you don't mind that this is a shorter chapter. The next one will be pretty long, though, so don't worry! It will also be centered around the perspective of Jack and a malicious figure (so SPOOKY, I know)! Anyways, in this chapter, the Guardians flesh out their harsh preconceived opinions of Jack as the search for the supposedly dangerous winter spirit continues.

Enjoy!

Chapter 2: The Guardians' Judgment

E. Aster Bunnymund was not fond of the cold.

As a spirit of spring and the Guardian of Hope, the Pooka disliked the deadly low temperatures for obvious reasons.

E. Aster Bunnymund was also not fond of flying.

Being a tunneling creature, he was most comfortable either on the ground or in it.

Unfortunately, though, the Easter Bunny was now soaring high in the cold sky above Québec as he, along with the other Guardians, sat in North's sleigh. This was not by his choice, however.

When they were leaving Mother Nature's palace, he had offered, no, insisted that he could take his own tunnels instead of riding in North's death trap for the second time (the first being when they sought out Mother Nature).

When Bunny's suggestion was denied, he was promptly hoisted into the sleigh by North, and before he could verbally protest any longer, the large Russian grabbed the reins of the sleigh, cracking them upon the reindeer, and they were off, leaving the ground and lifting into the sky. To the Pooka's left, because dusk approached, Sandy was now spreading his Dreamsand to sleeping children in the area as Tooth ordered locations to her chittering fairies for them to collect teeth.

Now, as he shivered vehemently and held onto the sides of the sleigh for dear life, Bunny silently cursed the bloody little frost spirit they were searching for; it was the icy devil's fault that he was even out there six days before Easter in the first place anyways.

Yes, Bunny had been furious that he had been called to the Pole so close to Easter, much to the jolly delight of North of course. Bunny had been even more furious when North told him that he thought something had to be done quickly about Jack Frost because he felt it "in his belly."

Reportedly, Jack Frost had recently killed yet another child with his deadly cold, and North argued that they've waited for far too long and could no longer stand by while other children could become the cruel spirit's next victims. Although Bunnymund agreed that the string of deaths connected to Jack Frost was appalling and needed to be discontinued, he disliked the idea of hunting the wintry miscreant down just six days before Easter.

However, much to the annoyance of the Pooka, North reasoned that it was the perfect time to act since the transition from the cold of winter to the warmth of spring weakened winter spirits to some extent but not enough to where they would need to migrate to the poles for the season, leaving Jack an easy to find, weak target. According to North, all of this information came from an old book that revolved around seasonal spirits he had found in his library which Bunny doubted the validity of considering an update was greatly needed. So, to help decide on what they should do next, the Guardians sought an audience with the Man in the Moon.

Surprisingly, though, when they had tried to communicate their plan with Manny, they received no answer whatsoever. This was a sign that told them not to go through with the plan just six days before Easter, Bunny thought.

Under his breath, the Pooka involuntarily grumbled when he remembered the conversation he had with North once they had all met up at the Pole. He had tried to convince the hefty Russian not to do this so close to Easter. Of course, though, the phrases "I'm dealing with perishables" or "I've still got three million eggs to finish up" was not enough to persuade North seeing that they were all now flying above the bloody freezing taiga of Québec looking for the bloody frostbite spirit Jack Frost.

Despite his disliking of their search's timing, though, Bunny knew that deep down, he was glad to be rid of the malicious troublemaker soon. No more winter-related tooth accidents for children, no more blizzard-induced perilous sleigh-rides for North, no more interrupted dreams caused by the sudden draft of the biting-cold, no more frozen egg hunts, no more repeats of the Blizzard, and no more deaths caused by Jack.

Just then, Bunny seemed to relax a bit but then glanced over the side of the sleigh and had to refrain from spilling his carrots. In an attempt to avert his thoughts from these troubles, the Pooka decided to start a conversation concerning one of his favorite things to complain about.

"Did ya see those winter spirits? Nasty lot right there! Always tryin' to freeze my googies during egg hunts!"

"Oh, Bunny," Tooth started as she pulled away from giving orders to her mini-fairies, "Other than Jack Frost, I'm sure not all winter spirits are bad. I mean, they're just doing their job, right? Plus, their teeth looked well-taken cared of…" On saying the last part, Tooth and her mini-fairies almost seemed to reminisce before refraining themselves from doing so any further.

He scoffed, disregarding her comment on their teeth. "If by job you mean spreading the season of death around then no," Bunny stated haughtily before continuing, "Y'see, Sheila, not every group of seasonal spirits are cut out to be nice, especially winter spirits." As if on cue, he shuddered when a sudden cold breeze wrapped around him, the wind seemingly unhappy about his statement.

North overheard Bunny and somewhat disagreed. "Vhat, Bunny! Every nature spirit has reason, no matter how small or unliked." Normally, North would agree with Bunny's statement since winter spirits were known to be somewhat callous, but the unextreme ones still had a purpose nonetheless. After all, snow was a well-known characteristic of Christmas in most cases so how could he not defend them in some way.

North promptly looked back from the front seat and continued, "Speaking of this, Mother Nature seemed rather saddened by Jack's fate."

"Pfft, right. Mate, he's a mistake! I'm surprised that Mother Nature even looked sad when we told her everything that monster has done! I expected her to be furious!"

Sandy, who was still spreading his Dreamsand around to sleeping children, turned his head and nodded in agreement.

Tooth broke from her order-giving and stated her opinion on the matter. "Well, even if Jack Frost is terrible and considered a mistake, he is still Mother Nature's creation."

"Toothy makes good point! Maybe this is why Mother Nature did not want to join the fight against him. Maybe it would pain her too much to destroy her own creation, no?"

"Creation or not, Frost needs to go." Bunnymund assured them sternly. The others nodded in agreement; Jack Frost was an extreme danger to children after all and nothing more.

As she continued to pipe orders to her fairies, Toothiana pondered about the mysterious and cruel spirit they've tried so many times to contact before and persuade to stop. It suddenly occurred to her that she didn't even know what Jack Frost looked like.

She had always automatically thought of a preconceived image when hearing his name. Jack Frost the callous, slim, well-dressed, and middle-aged man, a spirit with snow-white hair, pale skin blemished with frostbite, and piercing blue eyes that could freeze someone under their cold, unforgiving gaze. But how could she know? Besides Bunny, none of them had ever even seen him clearly. So, to subdue her curiosity, she asked a question everyone besides Bunny was thinking.

"What does he even look like anyways?"

Although it was faint, she noticed the Pooka's ears twitch at the question. They all knew that the Blizzard of '68 was understandably a touchy subject for Bunny to talk about. It had hurt all of them, the Blizzard did. All of those poor children lost to the cold…

"From what I could see through the snow, he's very skinny and somewhat tall. About 5'8. Maybe 5'9. Typical winter spirit features, white hair, blue eyes, pale. Once I got close enough to confront him about his mess, though, I saw that he looked rather young, most likely in his late teens. I thought that it was strange, y'know. From what I've heard, he was supposed to look a lot older. I assume it must've been some sort of trick to make me go easy on 'im."

North nodded before chiming in. "I've read from book that some seasonal spirits can obtain ability to shapeshift so it could be possible that it was trick."

That really didn't surprise any of them; the rumors that they've heard label Jack to be very crafty and cunning.

Bunny suddenly directed his attention to Sandy as he continued to spread his Dreamsand.

"Any luck finding him Sandy?"

Sandy shook his head.

In response, Bunny gave an insincere sigh of disappointment.

"Well, are we about ready to call it a day and finish this search up tomorrow? I've gotta finish preppin' for Easter," Bunny added as he shivered in his seat.

North looked over his shoulder, smiling heartily as he saw through Bunny's façade.

"Bunny!" North interjected. "Cold is not too bad!"

"Too bad?! Mate, I'm freezin' my ears off!"

The large Russian laughed as he waved off Bunny's complaint, "Bah, you'll be fine!"

As Bunny grumbled something under his breath, the others chuckled at his attempt to postpone the search. As this happened, North took out a snow globe from his heavy coat, and after bringing it near his mouth, whispered the next location that was recommended to them by Mother Nature for being another place that Jack dwells around often.

"Burgess, Pennsylvania."

With that, the Russian threw the globe in front of the sleigh, triggering a portal to appear. Without a second thought, North cracked the sleigh's reins and the reindeer promptly pulled the sleigh through the portal to Burgess, Pennsylvania.

Q&A

These are questions and answers regarding The Serendipity of a Misunderstood Winter Spirit. Feel free to ask questions about this AU Fanfiction, and I'll try my best to answer them all in the next Q&A.

Is Jack injured (in Chapter 1)?

Yes. Yes he is (and you will find out why in Chapter 3: Spring's Parting Gift to Winter).

As a spring spirit himself, doesn't Bunny know that death (winter?) is important for the rebirth (spring) of new life? (Suggested by a Guest)

Yes, he does know. Despite this, however, Bunny is so blinded by the hate that he has for winter spirits (they always freeze his googies and cause other problems y'know), he doesn't really care for it. This fuels his hatred for Jack even more. Besides winter, though, he doesn't find a problem with any other season because they don't seem to give rise to any issues concerning death even though there are a lot of other things to consider (e.g. spring: pollen/allergy related deaths, summer: drought, autumn: famine from an unsuccessful harvest, etc.). Nonetheless, Bunny just doesn't consider these things.

What other nature spirits can be found in Mother Nature's palace?

As mentioned before in Chapter 1, Mother Nature's palace harbors many types of nature spirits like:

·Seasonal spirits (About 50% of Nature Spirits) - Seasonal spirits herald and spread the four seasons. Some famous seasonals include April Showers (Spring) and May Flowers (Spring).

·Weather spirits (About 25% of Nature Spirits) - As their name suggests, these spirits specifically control the weather. Their powers are usually restricted to one or two focuses (e.g. precipitation or humidity). As a side note, weather spirits differ from seasonals in the way that they only have short-term effects on the area they decide to work in unlike seasonals which actually change the area for an entire season with many different focuses. Some famous weather spirits are the twins Thunder and Lightning.

·Elementals (About 12% of Nature Spirits) - Spirits who control specific elements like water, earth, fire, & air. They sometimes serve as guardians to protect specific landmarks in accordance to their element.

·Teller or Oracle Spirits (About 8% of Nature Spirits) - Like Mother Nature, teller spirits can predict what is needed to benefit the Earth and avoid disaster. Of course, every nature spirit has some sort of indicator on whether they need to do this or that, but it is often not in sync with what other spirits are trying to do, thus sometimes causing havoc. Teller/oracle spirits alleviate this. The Groundhog is a famous teller/oracle spirit that decides whether 6 more weeks of winter is needed or not.

·Sprites (About 5% of Nature Spirits) - Unlike other nature spirits, sprites aren't true spirits; These mischievous elves, fairies, and pixies can automatically (without believers) be seen by humans if they're not careful. Usually, sprites assist other nature spirits when they're not causing mischief though.

And, of course, Mother Nature has all of these abilities and more.

How do seasonal spirits come to be?

Well, when a mommy seasonal and a daddy seasonal love each other very much—Just kidding, yeesh. Mother Nature sometimes resurrects different creatures (not just humans) that she deems worthy enough a chance to herald a season for all eternity, which is a very high honor that most don't refuse. She rarely ever just walks up to a living creature and gives it to them, that is strictly only for special cases (e.g. E. Aster Bunnymund). More than half of the time, though, she'll just create a seasonal spirit from scratch right out of thin air. Despite all of this, there have been cases where seasonal spirits were actually born from other spirits, but that's another story for a different time.

Why did you write that Jack has been doing evil for about 44 years (in Chapter 1)?

Assuming that this takes place when the original movie took place (which was in 2012), if you subtract 44 years from 2012 you get none other than 1968. :}

Why are the Guardians so judgmental of Jack?

Well, they've never met him and are only going off of what they've heard about Jack. They are so convinced that he is the cause of so many deaths that they are willing to be judgmental about him because why not; plus, they're Guardians, and their job is to protect children at any cost. If you were a Guardian and you heard about some winter spirit killing kids, wouldn't you want to act?

Will this AU Fanfiction follow the plot of the original movie?

In some ways, this fanfiction will follow the plot of the original movie, but not too closely. I can't reveal anything else, I don't want to spoil anything. :}

When are your OC's going to appear?

Some will appear in Chapter 3. They are spirits of a particular season too, MWAHAHAHA!

A/N:

Well, that's all for now! I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you all so much for reading and for your support! Please feel free to leave a review! Remember, anything you have to offer is appreciated as I would love to hear what you guys think! Also, feel free to ask any questions, and I will try my best to answer them all in the next Q&A! Until next time, bye!