What's up everybody? Sooo sorry for the delay in posting! You know how it is when school happens and next thing you know, poof! A whole other week has passed and no new chapter to share

But anyway, to make up for it, here's chapter 9 and it's a little bit longer of a chapter, too. Enjoy!

This chapter occurs roughly around the same time as Chapter 8. And as usual, I do not own ROTG, just my OCs

Amberlynn supposed it was for the better that Pitch ditched her, for whatever reason he did. After all, this gave her some time to become rational again and try to process all that had transpired in the last month. Had it really been a month since her first actual conversation with Pitch? More specifically, one which didn't result in someone making a threat to the other?

There's no way we've visited each other every day for a month straight she thought. I don't even see Mother Nature or Jack combined that frequently! She paced down the desert, periodically kicking up some sand beneath her feet. I mean, is it necessarily a bad thing, though, seeing him so much?

Though she didn't notice (or refused to acknowledge it), her lips turned upward into a large grin as she thought about the time she had spent with the King of Nightmares. The way he passionately talked with her in depth about his work, especially during the Olympics in Russia (who knew both of us were up to no good at the same time over there), his vast knowledge of the many villages and cities they found themselves to be roaming together at night.

She blushed at the memory of that particularly cold night (for her) in Brazil, and without hesitation Pitch created a jacket for her out of his nightmare sand. It wasn't anything fancy or heavy, but the material was surprisingly warm enough for her to continue strolling without shivering. Though she was still more than comfortable in Death Valley in just a tank top, she absentmindedly grabbed that particular jacket from the stash of clothes she keeps away for herself when she goes on assignment.

And it's not just listening to Pitch or accepting kind gestures from him, either. He listens to all her stories with as much intent and passion as he tells his. How she caused trouble during the Olympics in Russia, her vast knowledge of the constellations and how they've always fascinated her, even when she was human.

Though both were well aware that the other was human at one point before becoming a spirit, neither one dared to cross into that conversation. To know when you appeared on the earth as a spirit and to know about what happens in all the spirits' lives...as spirits, well, word travels fast. If someone didn't already know about what the Groundhog did centuries ago to make Bunny hate him, they'd find out the day their lack of knowledge on the topic was discovered.

But to discuss their time before they became spirits, that's a whole other level of intimacy Amberlynn hasn't seen in spirits who weren't romantically involved—with the exception of the Guardians. To be fair, that's also for those spirits who, for better or worse, remember their time as they were before. Many spirits that weren't born spirits don't remember who they were, or don't even know that they were anyone or anything else before. For those who are truly bothered by it, they go to Tooth in search of their memories while others either couldn't care less or were granted with their prior memories intact—as was the case with Amberlynn. But the whole situation is such a delicate one, most spirits don't broach the topic of their memories without there being that intimate trust with the other (ahem, *cough* Pitch Black, *cough* below the belt move on Jack Frost in Antarctica *cough*).

Despite being lost in thought, she was more than aware of the simultaneously random and unwelcomed visitor that was approaching her from yards away. She turned around to face her visitor and placed her hands on her hips in annoyance as she asked, "Don't you think that was cheating to use North's snow globe to get here? Now I can't leave here knowing you wouldn't be able to follow me."

Toothiana nervously laughed and squeaked rapidly, "Oh, hush now, Amber! I just thought we could have some time to talk."

"Why else do you think I said using the snow globe was cheating?" Amberlynn retorted without humor. "First off, my name is Amberlynn! Don't ever call me Amber again. Second, who says I want to talk to you? And third, don't try to lie to me. Obviously, you're not here for that."

Trying her best to not look hurt by the remark, Tooth fluttered her wings a bit before she lowered herself to the sand and said, "I—I don't know what you're talking about! Why would I be here if it wasn't to talk?"

"Let's start with the simple fact that, oh, I don't know, you've never spent this much time actively trying to get my attention let alone keep it in the history of…ever!" Amberlynn bluntly pointed out. "I can already tell right off the bat from that alone that something's up. Secondly, you're a terrible liar. I didn't know it was physically possible, but yer voice squeaks even higher when you lie. Thirdly, I know the portal from another snow globe is about to open behind me because I can sense that—whoever it is—is gonna also try to approach me."

Amberlynn lit a fireball in her hand about twice the size of a softball, large enough to prove to Toothiana that she wasn't playing games. She warned, "Let's just pray for yer sake that whatever drewgi is about to make their appearance isn't very flammable."

The second a yeti stepped foot out of the portal, Amberlynn swung around to throw her fireball, only to have her arm thrust in the opposite direction by Tooth. The fireball shot past the first yeti and barely missed the second yeti stepping out of the portal by mere inches. The yeti whose fur nearly got singed shot his eyebrows up in shock and grumbled something unintelligible to his friend.

"I could use some help over here!" Tooth shouted at her large companions. While she held her own against Amberlynn, she was struggling to keep up with the summer spirit. How is she moving so fast? Every time Toothiana was able to block one attack, Amberlynn was up and ready with another shot.

Amberlynn flipped over Tooth's back, only for Tooth to grab her by the ankles and drag her back to the ground. Just as Amberlynn leaped toward Tooth once more, one of the yetis grabbed her by the collar and stuffed her inside a large, cloth sack.

"Thanks for that, but couldn't you have done that any sooner?" Tooth gasped. One of the yetis grumbled at her in protestation while the other shook a snow globe and threw it, opening another portal leading to North's workshop. Without further ado, all three…er, four…parties made their way through, leaving the desert behind.

Jack made it to Santoff Claussen with minutes to spare. Heh, I even beat Tooth here he thought, pleased with himself. He greeted Sandy with a warm smile and proceeded to walk toward the globe room, where he saw North and Bunny arguing…again.

"Oi, North, how many times do I have to tell ya?" Bunny yelled. He proceeded to chase North down and around the room, trying to get his attention (though it appeared to be in vain). So help me, MiM, if it's another Christmas/Easter debate he thought slightly bitterly. "You can't have this meeting here, ya big gumby! How many times do I have to tell you we need to do it my way this time!"

"Ahh, but the Warren is not my workshop," North stated dismissively. Trying everything in his power to not strangle him, Bunny argued, "Yes, but you're not listening, mate! If there's one time in your centuries of being a Guardian to listen to me, now would be that time!"

"What's all this about?" Jack asked, his curiosity piqued. "Did I miss something important?"

Before either spirit had time to answer, a portal opened up in the globe room. Jack saw Phil and another yeti walk in behind Tooth, the latter yeti carrying a large sack. He plopped it in the middle of the room and whatever (or whomever, Jack realized) was in the sack was violently thrusting about, trying to escape.

Bunny ran his paws over his head and kept muttering, "Please tell me you didn't, North" at the same time Jack took his turn to yell at North. "What did we talk about, North? How many times do I have to tell you that you can't just kidnap people in sacks?" The winter spirit froze as soon as he saw a head full of flaming red hair peaking its way out of North's bag. Oh no! MiM please don't let it be who I think it is!

Disoriented, Amberlynn stepped out of the bag with some slightly scorched clothing from her attempt at escape. "I swear if I get my hands on those bloody yetis, I'll—bloody hell rydw i'n oer! Ble ydw i? Gadewch i mi!"

Before North or any of the other Guardians could even open their mouths and talk to her, Amberlynn was frantically flying around the room, incoherently shouting in Welsh. She created as many fireballs as she could, initially to North's immediate panic, only to find she was on the hunt for as many fireplaces as she could to throw them in.

"We have to stop her before she burns down whole workshop!" North exclaimed in protestation. Jack and Bunny both stopped and stared at him in utter disbelief before exchanging glances with each other. This time, though, Jack vocalized his frustrations before Bunny.

"How dense can you honestly be, North?" Jack shouted. Everyone except his spring counterpart gasped in shock. "Jack!" Tooth warned, but he interrupted her. "Now is not the time, Tooth! North! I need you to search for the heaviest, warmest coat you own and bring it here! Sandy, I need you to knock out Amberlynn with some of your dream sand, and Bunny? Get ready to catch her!"

Upon his signal, all the spirits set out to do their assigned tasks, with Toothiana nervously fluttering at Jack's side. North ran to the office in his workshop as quickly as he could while Bunny and Sandy were trying to target Amberlynn. She kept flying in circles too quickly for Sandy to seamlessly throw dream sand at her without risking hitting everybody else (he learned that lesson the hard way with Jamie Bennett during their adventures in Burgess), so he decided to get creative.

With one hand holding a ball of dream sand and another holding a "dream lasso," he threw his lasso at the summer spirit just as she was making a turn around the corner, snagging her ankle. With a quick tug on the lasso, he sent her flying in their direction with perfect aim to throw his dream sand. With one throw, the sand smacked her in the head and sent some residual dream sand landing on her jacket-covered shoulders.

After Bunny caught her, they brought her with them back toward Jack and Tooth. Seeing Jack's expression, Bunny explained, "I know what you're thinking, mate, but don't worry. My own body temperature alone should be plenty to keep her warm for a bit. I swear I'll get her warmed up more by the fireplace in a second, but you've gotta get a load of this."

Upon closer inspection, the four Guardians present noticed her jet-black jacket begin to turn gold before disintegrating into thousands of tiny, golden, dream butterflies and dissipating around Sandy, leaving Amberlynn in nothing but the tank top, shorts, and light cardigan she had been wearing before.

"I have my coat, Jack!" North bellowed, not bothering to hide his annoyance as he approached the other four, completely unaware of what they just saw. "Now, why do you insist that I bring it down?"

"Because you are incredibly impeccable with your timing!" he retorted, snatching the coat from North and tossing it to Bunny, making sure to keep his distance away from the summer and spring spirits. Bunny caught the large fur coat with one paw and immediately began swaddling Amberlynn in it almost like she was a newborn. As soon as the coat completely covered the summer spirit, her visible shaking and trembling cut down by more than half.

After ensuring that Bunny was close enough to the fireplace to warm Amberlynn back up (while the winter spirit still kept his distance from the two warmer-natured spirits), Jack swung around and snapped at North. "What the hell is wrong with you, Nicholas?"

Completely shocked by such blatant rudeness, North's eyebrows shot up and his eyes doubled in size. "Whe—where do you get such gall, Jack? Never have I been so disrespected by one I consider such a close friend!"

"Oh, you wanna talk about disrespect?" Jack challenged. "How about you just running off and sending your yetis along with Tooth to do whatever you want without either mine or Bunny's input involved? Oh, oh, how about the fact that you just kidnapped Amberlynn and tossed her into one of your sacks? And the fact that you happened to have one that was fireproof, so you knew she wouldn't have a fair chance to escape!

"Or—oh no, this one's my favorite part! How about the fact that you kidnapped her from her own home—yeah, I know Amberlynn, and I know the only place in literally the entire world she is comfortable wearing that little clothing is in Death Valley. And you kidnapped her from literally the hottest place on earth and sent her through a portal to quite arguably one of the coldest!"

"Jack, you need to calm down," Toothiana interrupted softly but firmly. "Never mind North's more…albeit unethical ways of getting people here, we have bigger things to worry about. Like what was she doing wearing a jacket made out of Pitch's nightmare sand? As Guardians, we need to find out what he has planned and if he is part of the bigger threat MiM warned us about."

"Wait, she was doing what with Pitch?" North asked, clearly dumbfounded by whatever piece of vital information he just missed. Tooth quickly explained, "The jacket Amberlynn was wearing. Turns out it was made out of nightmare sand and when Sandy hit her, it returned to dream sand."

She tried to rest her hand on Jack's shoulder, but he yanked it off and marched away from both North and Tooth. "You still don't get it!" he barked. "Amberlynn Sommers could have DIED and it would have been BOTH of your faults!"

North, Tooth, and Sandy all stared at Jack in both shock and disbelief. Though Bunny didn't move from his spot with Amberlynn by the fireplace, his ears perked up and aligned themselves in the direction of the conversation. "Well, guess the cat's out of the bag now, sheila," he muttered.

"It shouldn't be my place to tell you guys," he began, "And it quite frankly isn't any of your business. However, because you nearly killed her, you've kind of forced my hand. Amberlynn physically cannot stay in extremely cold places for long periods of time. She barely tolerates being somewhere humans would consider room temperature, let alone in the middle of Santoff Claussen! Fire is the source of her heat and energy, guys! Think about how much shorter of a lifespan a fire has here as opposed to the Warren. That is what is happening to Amberlynn every time she goes on a mission and she needs to physically prepare for it. That is why she has more clothes than any other spirit I've met. It's not out of vanity or boredom—okay, maybe partly vanity—but it's out of necessity!"

After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Tooth's wings twitched before she argued, "Well, she could have said something to me before any of this happened. I wanted to talk to her, but she started attacking me and the yetis before I had any chance to explain. We probably could have had this all sorted out. And once again, we still have a bigger problem. She was wearing a jacket made out of Pitch's nightmare sand! What was she doing with him?"

"Getting her life saved, apparently," Bunny answered. All the Guardians except for Jack walked over to the fireplace where they could all better hear him. He shifted for a moment, trying to readjust without waking up Amberlynn (although as much dream sand she was knocked out with, good luck with that).

"Trying to place blame on the victim, Tooth," Bunny said while shaking his head. "Not cool, sheila. You might have seen the jacket disappear, but you didn't feel the consequences of it disappearing. Before it disintegrated, Amberlynn was already shivering. After, her body temperature dropped at least five degrees, mates. As far as I'm concerned, Pitch saved her life from the transition through that bloody portal. Besides, I know Amberlynn almost better than the show pony behind me. Whatever plans Pitch may or may not be involved in, the bloke's not bringing her into it. Trust me, she's too strong-willed to get tangled up in that."

Bunny turned his head to lock eyes with North in a death glare. He added, "If you bothered to listen to either me or frost bite, you might have known that! Now our next plan is to figure out how and when to send her back home without risking her entire body going into shock."

"But we can't send her home yet," North said matter-of-factly. When will he get a hint? Jack thought bitterly. Honestly, he's never seen North so dense to the idea of "no" before! "We still need to tell her about imminent threat and Man in Moon's plans!"

"Yeah, well, I don't think she's exactly going to be very receptive of us right now, North!" Jack snapped. "Quite frankly, if you knew anything about Amberlynn, you'd know she wants nothing to do with the Guardians or MiM."

"Sounds like somebody we knew when we first met him," Toothiana replied, trying to lighten the mood. Jack shook his head and explained, "This is different. I can't quite explain it but Amberlynn has her own reasons for her resistance to MiM, and none of them at all related to my experiences. We might be the closest spirits in age but trust me when I say I have the feeling our transitions to becoming spirits are nowhere near similar."

Sandy waved his hands around, successfully getting the attention of the other four Guardians. While the others were busy arguing back and forth, he had been busy coming up with a Plan B. Clearly, as Jack and Bunny were saying, when Amberlynn wakes up she's not going to want anything to do with them, especially not after today.

Sad isn't it? As a Guardian he is to ease children of their fears and fight off any nightmares of Pitch's. Yet what happens when they bring a fellow spirit to North's workshop? He sees the deepest pits of her fear written all over her face because of them, and yet it was Pitch Black himself who seemed to be able to save her. Nothing about this sat right with him.

He flashed some symbols over his head, indicating his agreement with Bunny. He then proceeded to suggest the use of the Warren until she fully regains her strength. Amberlynn trusts Bunny, and hopefully he'd be able to help smooth things over with her when she wakes up.

"I'm not going to be the messenger boy over an idea that I had no say in," Bunny replied. "But taking her to the Warren actually isn't a bad idea." North pulled a snow globe from out of his pocket and offered it to Bunny, which he quickly refused. "No offense, mate, but you've helped enough. I'm taking her there my way."

Some more Welsh terms!

Drewgi: Smelly dog (insult someone you don't find agreeable)

Rydw i'n oer: I'm cold

Ble ydw i: Where am I

Gadewch i mi: Let me out