These are taking me longer to write and they're becoming shorter. Sorry about that guys, my mental health ain't so awesome right now so I'm a bit sluggish :p I'll be tip-top again in no time, I just need to get out of my rut :)

Enjoy!

Arcane, adj.
- Mysterious and difficult to understand

Jack didn't mind the cold, at all, but North seemed to like to have a fire roaring in every large room of the Pole to keep the place heated. In fact, the fires made him feel uncomfortable, the heat made him itch and he hated standing close to them. It was only because he was looking at a large pastel coloured picture hung above the fireplace that he was so close.

It was North, aged as he was now, shaking hands with one yeti and there were a ton more behind that one. It must have been when he'd made a deal with them or something before they'd come to work for him.

In fact, why did they work for him? How did it come to be that North even met the yeti's?

Glancing around the Pole, Jack Frost was suddenly struck with a whole host of questions. How did the Pole come to be? He knew the Warren had already been there, and a whole tribe of Pooka had roamed about before Pitch reduced them to just Bunny. Tooth had told him all about the Palace belonging to the Sisters of Flight before she'd become the Fairy Queen. Sandy just went about as he pleased, and he stayed mainly in Burgess because that had always been his home.

But he knew nothing about North before he became a Guardian.

He didn't know what North did, because he half expected the man had a youth. You weren't born old, after all. Had he always been a toymaker? What was he before a Guardian.

He remembered North talking to him after Sandy's death, saying he did not know what Jack was in his past life, but in this life he was a Guardian.

Well what was North in his past life?

And how did he get so good with swords? In media and in the world children and society alike had the idea that Santa Clause was this jolly old man, quite overweight, but overall quite timid in all respects. Gentle, kind, caring.

Not that North wasn't caring and kind, but he highly doubted any parent told their children that Santa had tattoo's and swords. Hell, would parents know?!

North had said he was mysterious, but he'd always chalked it up to him being able to sneak in houses in the middle of the night, leave gifts and get out of there undetected. He'd never thought it would be down to him actually having a mysterious past. The more he thought about it though, the less sense it made. Why would a guy who made toys and acted so childish most of the time need to be sword trained? And it would be a strange hobby, at the very least. And where did the yeti come from? And the elves...

"Jack, are you okay?" came a rumbling voice from the door, and the snowy haired teen turned to see North stood there looking a little concerned. "You've not moved for ten minutes, normally you are testing the toys."

"Just thinking," Jack replied, shifting himself away from the fire with a small sigh of relief, feeling cold seep through him again.

"Thinking what?" North questioned, his head tilting slightly to the side, his bright blue eyes twinkling with curiosity.

"what were you before you became a Guardian?" the boy asked outright, curling his arms around his staff and leaning heavily on it, smiling slightly. At first North looked a little shocked at the question, but then he laughed, his head rolling back as it burst from him, and he looked back to the boy in front of him with a small smile.

"I wondered when you would ask," he said, a wide smile plastered over his face. "It's a long story."