Chapter 2

Jack sat on the window ledge in North's workshop, lazily drawing patterns of frost upon the glass. Half listening to North and Bunny argue over how to deal with the influx of Nightmares in the recent months due in large part to the pandemic gripping most of the world. Parents were afraid, meaning their children were afraid, normal things like school and social events had been all but halted.

And fear created more Nightmares.

The prior Easter had been very difficult for Bunny and he was still pretty sullen about it, but with Christmas coming up soon they were trying to coordinate a better approach to dealing with Nightmares besides just taking them down when they came across them.

A job that had mostly been left up to Jack and Sandy, as both their duties had them constantly on the move around the world. Tooth's fairies would often report seeing them, but it wasn't like her helpers were able to fight on their own.

This much fear all at once, all over the world, Pitch could regain his old strength back far faster than they had ever anticipated.

It was the first real crisis after defeating Pitch that had occurred since Jack had become a Guardian.

Despite this his mind was not currently on Nightmares as he stared at his frost creeping across the glass, but instead a pair of pale blue eyes.

That spirit he had met near the forest, Elsa, she'd had such sad eyes.

He'd been absolutely floored when she'd saved him from the Nightmare he hadn't seen. He'd turned around and been nearly struck dumb by the sight of her in the bright moonlight. The only thought he was able to voice was some lame comment about her icicles being awesome.

Talk about a preverbal foot in mouth moment.

When she'd finally relaxed enough to speak with him he was shocked to find out she'd been in the area for over a hundred years. All that time and they'd never met!

The look in her eyes when she told him she hadn't left the forest in all that time, he knew that look, he'd lived it.

He knew very well what lonely looked like.

He had to go back and see her again.

"Jack?"

He startled when he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Tooth fluttering next to him.

"We've been calling you for a while, are you alright Jack? You seem like you're out of sorts, did you have any trouble earlier on your way here?" Tooth leaned forward, several of her fairies chipping around her at Jack as well.

"No, I'm good. I took care of some Nightmares right before, but it was fine, no problem at all."

He was loath to tell them about meeting Elsa, or the fact she had saved his ass. The last thing he wanted was a reason for the other Guardians to doubt him or think he couldn't handle himself against a few Nightmares.

"Well you're being pretty silent mate, care to add any input?"

Jack bit back a snarky reply about Sandy currently being half asleep and always silent, but thought better of it and slipped down from the window seal over to Bunny with a glare and a sigh.

"Nothing that hasn't already been said." He slung his staff over his shoulder and paced back and forth in front of the hearth. "Taking down a handful of Nightmares at a time is just a stop gap, it won't do much good for long. It was different when Pitch was controlling them, they were in large groups. Now they're just…" He waved one hand vaguely in the air, "Without some way to herd them into…"

"Ah ha! That is it Jack!" North boomed, startling everyone, even waking up Sandy.

"What's it?" Bunny uncovered his ears from North's large outburst.

"We find way to herd them together! That way we take out many at once!"

"But we can't control them like Pitch, how would we gather them up, without having to chase them down like we do now?" Tooth fluttered down and directed several fairies off to collect teeth before turning back to North.

North stroked his beard, "I'm not sure yet, but we will have to think of something. After Christmas of course!" He passed a yeti painting toy airplanes blue, "Paint them red!"

The yeti sighed heavily and glared after the Guardian.

"Well, if we're going to wait until after Christmas then I've got more prep work to do, Easter is six months away and I've got to make a lot of adjustments this next season." Bunny tapped his foot and opened up a tunnel, "We're still coordinating for Christmas Eve right?"

"Yes, of course! I deliver toys, you all chase down Nightmares! It will be fun, like race." North guffawed and slapped Jack on the back, "Right my fiend?"

Jack staggered forward from the powerful, if not affectionate, gesture, "Yea, I think you and I have very different ideas about fun North."

North laughed and continued towards his study as Bunny disappeared down his tunnel. Jack turned back towards Tooth to find her nearly motionless except for the fluttering of her wings to keep her aloft. Her eyes seemed to be focused on some non-existent point, brows furrowed.

Cocking his head to the side Jack grinned and produced one of the gold coins Tooth's fairies would leave in exchange for teeth they collected. "Penny for your thoughts?"

She blinked and looked up at him, a smile pulled at her lips for a moment before dropping back to a more serious expression. "I might have an idea about how to herd more Nightmares together, or well, more like draw them into a set location."

"Really, you have something that can attract them?" Jack leaned upon his staff idly rolling the gold coin back and forth over his knuckles.

"Possibly, I'll have to check into a few things, but I think so. Though, it does come with some risk, but I wanted to look into it more before I say anything else on it." A small fairy came in at just that moment carrying a rather large molar with what looked like a bit of string attached to it. "Oh my gosh! How cute! A classic, removal of a stubborn loose tooth with a string to the door knob! Works almost every time!"

Jack chuckled and headed for the opening in the main room that allowed moonlight to stream into the globe room. He gave a wave to Sandy as they both exited into the night air. The Dream Guardian created a little top hat out of sand and tipped it in farewell as his sand expanded into a large cloud and he headed south.

Jack looked east, "Time to chase the sunrise," he flew off to bring a bit of morning frost to the northern half of the world.


It'd been three days since Elsa had met Jack Frost; she had just about convinced herself it all had in fact been a rather strange dream or some form of hallucination, when on her early morning walk a snow bird came chipping to her excitedly.

Gale was following her around today and whirled about in curiosity. "It seems the spirit I met before has returned. They're near the forest border by the stone markers."

Gale picked up speed and spun around her before quickly racing off in the direction of the stone markers. "Gale!" Elsa called after the spirit but it was too late, they were too far ahead and it would be near impossible to catch up. With a sigh Elsa began to follow after in a much more subdued pace.

It wasn't too much later, when she was still within the forest, that she heard the rush of the wind returning, "Gale?" At that very moment she heard shouting and looked up to see Gale and the boy from before tumbling through the air, fighting to keep himself steady.

"Hey, what's the big idea? Woah! Hey, wind!"

Gale gleefully flung him forward, head over heels into a large pile of leaves not a few feet from her. Elsa flinched at the sound of his landing with a thud.

Sitting up Jack sputtered, leaves sticking in his hair and to his hoodie. "Was that really necessary?" He whined at Gale who whirled around him tossing more leaves into his face. He groped around blindly for his staff that he'd dropped and with a swift motion pushed all the leaves away with a cold blast of air. He glared triumphantly and only then seemed to realize Elsa was there. "Oh, um hi? Sorry, didn't mean to just…drop in…again. Did you send the wind for me?"

"No, Gale went to find you after one of my sentries noticed you."

"Oh, so there are other spirits here with you?"

"Yes, I am the 5th spirit, though some of the others are asleep right now."

Jack stood and brushed himself off. "That's good, I was kind of worried you were out here all by yourself."

Despite herself Elsa felt a blush begin to rise in her cheeks but cooled it quickly, "Is that why you came back here?"

"Ehh…yea kinda?" He rubbed the back of his head absentmindedly, he couldn't quite bring himself to look her in the eye, "But I think I recall something about maybe having a snowball fight?" Here he grinned and then looked up.

Laughter bubbled up in Elsa's chest, escaping her lips, the thought of him coming all the way back to have a snowball fight was rather endearing, in a way. It was just like something Anna might have done.

Either way Gale seemed to like the idea and swirled about the both of them. Elsa felt her heart race, while she had many questions for this spirit a part of her was still wanting to bolt off into the forest and hide. She swallowed hard and took a deep breath to calm her heart. It'd been so long since she spent any time with, well, anyone, she almost wasn't sure she knew how to just…be around someone anymore. She cleared her throat combing her trembling fingers through her hair "Perhaps later on, but well – I am taking my morning walk to check on everything in the forest. Would you like to come with me?"

Jack grinned brightly at her, "Sure!" He swung his staff over his shoulders, "Where to milady?"

It was said with a teasing tone, but for a moment it startled Elsa, he had no way of knowing she used to be a Queen. "Where are you from?"

"A long way from here, on the other side of the ocean."

"The Americas?"

"Yep."

Elsa hummed in interest, "So your home is in America and you travel a lot?" A part of her couldn't help but envy the thought, she'd often wished she'd been able to travel more.

"Well, I guess you could say that. I'm on the move a lot, so I don't really have a home, exactly. Though I do drop by my old hometown often." He shrugged, "It's fun, to see the world, but I do sometimes crash at North's when I need a break. The yetis are fun to prank."

Elsa looked back at him as they crested the hill, they were now in view of the river and realized he wasn't walking beside her but floating again. His feet were just above the ground, she wondered if he even noticed he was doing it. "Is this the same North that summoned you before?"

An exasperated sigh followed by an eye roll was his reply, "Yes, totally unnecessary if you ask me. I know he's all worked up with Christmas being in a few months but still, that meeting was not worth summoning all of us in with the emergency beacon."

"Why is he worried about Christmas?"

Jack laughed, "Well he'd be a pretty poor Santa if he didn't worry"

Here Elsa stopped so abruptly that Jack nearly bumped into her, "Santa, as in Santa Clause?"

"Yep, the jolly big fellow with a beard that delivers gifts? Though funny, none of the stories say anything about the tattoos." He grinned, "He's a friend and a Guardian"

Elsa gawked at him a moment before remembering to keep moving, "He's…really up north, with his reindeer and sleigh?"

"Heh, everybody loves the sleigh. Yep, all the way up at the North Pole"

It took Elsa a moment to process that. "What is a Guardian?"

"It's what I am, what we all are. We are the Guardians and Protectors of Childhood. North is the Guardian of Wonder. There's five of us, a bit like you I guess, you said that you're the fifth spirit right? Each of us Guardians protects an aspect of childhood."

Here Elsa stopped and turned to face him. Jack landed lightly in front of her; when his feet touched the ground frost bloomed around them, she could feel it pulse into the soil and air around them. There was something about his magic that spoke to hers, it felt – different but also the same, perhaps more wild and ancient than hers was. "What are you the Guardian of?"

"Well naturally, I'm the Guardian of Fun" He winked and stepped back to give a sweeping bow. "At your service." They had come to a stop beside a slow moving river, though not too far in the distance Jack could hear the roar of a waterfall. "So what about you?"

"I was gifted with magic when I was born. I later learned that I was meant to become the fifth spirit to bring harmony between nature, the forest and the peoples of this land."

Jack whistled, "Wow, so you were born with powers? That's pretty awesome."

She decided not to correct him, after all what good would digging up her awful childhood do? "Were you not born with powers too?

"Nope, didn't get them until after I became a spirit." He twirled his staff and snowflakes danced in its wake. "So, what can you do? Your icicles are pretty sharp." Elsa raised an unamused eyebrow at his attempt at a pun of sorts, he answered her with a cheeky grin. "But I bet you can do more?"

Was that a challenge from him? She crossed her arms over her chest. "Of course I can, but I try not to use my magic frivolously, there's no need."

"Aww, come on, I'm the Guardian of Fun, doing stuff for the sheer joy of doing it is kind of my thing! Don't you like ever, let it go and have fun?"

Perhaps it was his choice of words that triggered the memory, but Elsa couldn't help but for a moment be transported back to the side of the North Mountain. Feeling freedom and relief for the first time in years, her powers flowing through her, filling her with joy, for the first time since her childhood actually feeling alive.

It was that feeling more than anything that made her magic sing, she could feel it course through her veins at the mere thought of that day- it'd been so long…

She was startled out of her reverie when she felt the impact of snow on her shoulder. Her eyes darted over to Jack who was smirking like a mad man. He had another snowball in his hand and was pretending to be inspecting a piece of foliage next to him intently, giving an innocent whistle.

"Jack…" she warned.

He grinned even wider and she watched as he blew onto his snowball, magic sparked around it for a brief second, she knew the gleam in his eyes very well. Anna always had the same look right before she did something sneaky, "Jack…" she warned again and took a step back, "Don't you dare…"

The words had barely even left her mouth when he threw the snowball, she should have been able to deflect it easily, but Gale happily blew it right back at her and it smacked Elsa right in the face.

All was quiet for a brief moment, Elsa slowly reached up and wiped the show from her face. Her gaze locked with his as smirk of her own graced her features. "So you want to see what I can do, do you?"

"Ha, bring it!" He taunted and swiped his staff along the ground and snowballs popped up almost like flowers.

Laughter sprang from Elsa as she conjured over a dozen snowballs and pelted him mercilessly. He managed to avoid most of them by leaping up above them, until Gale sent him suddenly plummeting back down.

"Whoa!" He created a snowdrift just in time to cushion his landing. It took no time at all for the surrounding area to be coated in white. His laughter echoing with hers among the trees as the glade increasingly looked more and more like a winter wonderland. He sprang across the river, the water freezing beneath his feet as he went, which in turn led him to creating a path of ice before him, propelling himself forward at breakneck speeds.

He peppered her with more snow as he flew past.

Elsa threw several piles of snow in his way that he either was able to jump over or go around before another idea came to her. She ran quickly after him and just as his path crossed with hers she dropped a giant snowball onto the icy track he had been creating where it began to roll down the path after him.

Jack looked back and suddenly realized the predicament he was in just as Gale blew past, adding extra momentum to the giant snowball. He sped up creating ice at a frantic pace, swirling this way and that, crossing back over Elsa's path he was suddenly lined right up with her. He grinned, waved at her and created a ramp of ice right before he leapt up into the air. Elsa realized too late what he was doing as her own snowball came rushing at her. She flung up her hands to stop it right as Gale blew Jack out of the sky, the two of them fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs just as the snow ball landed burring them both completely in snow.

Jack sputtered, he'd dropped his staff in his fall and was now having to dig out of the snow by hand. He sat up just as Elsa swished the snow off herself. Their eyes met and both of them dissolved into laughter.

"I think the Wind won that one" Jack continued to chuckle as he retrieved his staff.

Gale whirled happily around Elsa, "Yes, you got us both Gale." Looking up she saw that Jack had offered her his hand. For a brief second she hesitated before grasping the offered help and let him pull her to her feet. She'd expected his hand to be cold, but found it warm, his calloused fingers rough on her skin, but not at all unpleasant.

It felt strange all the same, she couldn't even recall the last time she'd touched someone. She smiled at him briefly before withdrawing her hand from his.

He seemed to either not notice or not care about her hesitation and turned to admire some willow trees whose long branches had become coated in ice. He grazed his staff along them, making them sway back and forth, the ice creating a tinkly chime like sound.

Gale excitedly joined in and blew the branches, swaying to and fro, creating a melody of twinkling ice. Jack laughed as Gale picked him up, playfully rolling him over before setting him back onto his feet in front of Elsa.

He gave her a dazzling smile, "Shall we?" He indicated with his staff the direction they had been heading before the impromptu snowball fight. Stepping aside he let her lead the way through the rest of the forest.

They spoke for hours about his duty as the Guardian of Fun, he shared a few stories about his fellow Guardians, all of them usually full of some kind of mischief on his part. Elsa's cheeks hurt from smiling so much. She found his description of the Sandman as the Guardian of Dreams fascinating. The way he wove dreams from golden sand sounded enchanting to her.

She told him of the forest, its streams and rivers, the beaches and mountains. Her fellow spirits, always in eternal stewardship of the forest, where the last refuges of nature and magic dwelled in the land.

When evening began to fall Elsa had been shocked at how quickly time had passed and reluctantly Jack had to leave. He had winter to spread in other parts of the world and to patrol for more Nightmares. He promised to return soon and as he flew off into the fading sky, waving to her, Elsa for the first time in over a century felt hopeful for what her tomorrows might bring.

That maybe, just maybe, she might have a new friend.

She was very pleased a week later when he showed up with a basket full of candy canes from the North Pole.