I was walking along one of the roofs in the same village my pond was in, and I looked around, noticing how it's not so small of a village anymore. 'Hmm...1748 and the village is still growing. I wonder if it'll ever stop. Probably not.' I saw the familiar golden strands of sand slip into the houses, and I looked up. "Sandy." I whispered out, and made my way up towards him.

Once I made it up to his sand cloud, he gave me a mischievous glance. "Well if it isn't Jack Frost!?" He feigned shock as he spoke with me through the one way telepathic connection.

"The one and only!" I laughed out. "How has your night been, Sandy?"

"Descent so far, and yours?" I let out a sigh and shrugged my shoulders as I watched the sand go back into his sand cloud. He must've noticed the look of reluctance on my face, because I heard him let out a sigh of his own. "Are you done with your winter duties here?"

"Yes..." I drawled out as I gave him a skeptical look. 'What is he up to?'

"Fly with me." He said with a grin that didn't reach his eyes, but I followed him anyway. "Jack, something is bothering you. What is it?"

"Nothing, I'm perfectly fine."

"You're a worse liar about your feelings than Bunny." I watched as he rolled his eyes in irritation and my eyes widened at the reaction, because I can't remember the last time I've seen him react like that to anything. "Now, I'm going to ask you again, Jack. What is bothering you?"

"You promise you wont' tell anyone?"

His sand cloud stopped abruptly and he crossed his arms at me and tapped his foot. "Oh really, and who am I going to 'tell' Jack?" He asked as he raised an eyebrow at me.

"Why does it matter so much to you that something's bothering me? I've never seen you like this before."

He let out a sigh and continued to fly so I continued to follow him. "Because...you're my friend, and I know you, Jack. You're usually either being mischievous with the nine spirits that cling to you like moss to a tree, pranking Mother Nature or the poor mortals below, or you're filled with laughter and joy as you make it snow. Right now, you're none of those things. Not only that, but you ALWAYS answer my questions. Just a few moments ago, you shrugged, and that's not an answer."

I nodded my head as I watched the ground beneath us fly behind us while we flew above it. "It's just...I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

"What do you mean?" He asked as we stopped in another village, and for that matter another part of the country.

While he let out his dream sand, happily jumping here and there with a pleased smile on his face I let out a sigh. "This...you...the Guardians...you're all seen, well...maybe not so much you, because the kids are asleep when you're out...but I want to be seen."

"You want to be believed in?" He asked me carefully as he continued to give dreams.

"Yes, I do. I've tried frosting windows, making it snow, creating ice beneath people's feet, but no one ever sees me."

"Strange..." He hummed.

"What's strange?"

"Usually Mother Nature's spirits don't care about being seen or not."

"Ah well...about that..." I said as his dream sand started going back into his cloud. "I'm not exactly Mother Nature's spirit..."

"What do you mean? You told me about what kind of spirit you were to her and...didn't she turn you into a spirit?"

"Um...no. She did not." I answered as I narrowed my eyes at him in confusion.

"Th-Then who did!?" He shouted with a perplexed and concerned expression.

"The moon." I told him with a concerned tilt of my head. However, what happened right after my words had me even more concerned, because almost immediately his sand cloud disappeared and I rushed forward to catch him. "You alright!?" I asked and watched as he held out a shaky hand to create another dream cloud beneath himself. He pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to calm his breathing. "Sandy?"

He snapped his gaze up at me, but then turned it to the moon and held his hands out in a motion of agitated disbelief. "REALLY!?" He then looked at me and let out a frustrated sigh. "The moon created you. Are you certain?"

"You want the truth?"

"Absolutely!" He growled out as he glared at the moon.

I nodded my head and let out a sigh. "Fine...I was in the pond, underneath the ice...it was dark, it was cold, and I was scared...but then I saw the moon. It was so big and so bright. It seemed to chase the darkness away, and when it did...I wasn't scared anymore. A moon beam lifted me up into the air, and I was practically face to face with the moon. The moon beam then set me down and I heard a soft and kind voice speak into my head. He said, 'Hello, I am the Man in the Moon. Your name is Jack Frost.' And then he hasn't said anything to me since."

"And you want to be believed in." He sighed out with a nod of his head and his tone held an air of understanding as if everything I said suddenly made sense.

"Yes, but mostly by the children. The adults...I like to prank, but I want the children to see me. I want to play with them. I want to make them smile and...I want them to have fun. These times can be difficult, I know that...and I just want to help them see the joy in winter rather than the bad."

He let out another sigh and continued to fly with a frustrated look on his face. "Jack, I can't give you the answers you want. I know it hurts to hear me say that, but I just can't. I'm not you. I can't tell you what to do to get believed in, but if you're truly that determined to get believed in by the children, I will be there for you every time it fails and makes you sad, and on the day or night it finally works...I will be there NO MATTER WHAT! Do you understand me?"

"I...I understand...but why?"

"Because Jack...belief is very important, and since The Man in the Moon is the one who created you..." He bit his lip as if he had to stop himself from saying something he wasn't supposed to, but continued anyway. "...since he created you it means that someday you're meant to be believed in someday. You have to gain your own belief. I can't help you and neither can anyone else. You have to get believed in all on your own."

"Does the Man in the Moon do this often?"

"Only for those he believes will be believed in someday, but no. Whether it be by children or adults...if he believes the spirit will be believed in someday, he will make them into a spirit. He's done it for spirits before, yes, but they never had the WANT to be believed in that you do."

"What difference does it make that I want to be believed in?"

"I wish I could tell you. I really do, but I can't. It's hard to say what you'll become, but I believe you'll be an excellent spirit. Just keep doing what you've been doing and never lose yourself, and I will keep to my promise."

Before I even realized it we were in another part of the country again. "I promise...and you'll be there for when it finally works?"

"Yes." He smiled joyfully as he delivered more dreams. "I tell you what...I will make it the biggest and grandest celebration I can with my dream sand."

"Like what?"

"I don't know yet, but it will most certainly involve sand-snowflakes falling from the sky, dolphins, and my favorite animal, Manta rays."

"Sounds good!" I told him with a short laugh.

"Glad to hear it. So, I'll ask you again...How's your night going, Jack?"

"Much better." I told him honestly as I floated next to him. I then noticed a sly smirk on his face and suddenly I saw a strand of dream sand in front of me.

"Go on, have fun with it. This is my last stop for the night. I go back to work in three hours."

"HA HA!" I shouted as I reached towards the sand and allowed the sand dolphins to wrap around me. "Hey, Sandy, will they follow me?"

"As long as you're holding onto some dream sand in your hand." He grinned as the sand he was using to give dreams returned to his cloud and he decided to sit there and watch me play with the dolphins.

"Awesome!" I told him as I grabbed some of the dream sand and dove down with the dolphins following me, and when I went up into the sky one of them got ahead of me. "Sandy!" I laughed out in a joyfully scolding manner. "No fair!"

"Never said I was fair." He shrugged with a smirk. "Now...how about this, Jack. You've sparred with Mother Nature and her children, but you haven't sparred with me. Would you like to try?"

"What!?" I laughed out as I rushed back to his dream cloud where he was confidently standing now, rather than sitting. "Are you serious?"

My eyes widened as I watched sand whips appear in his hands. "Depends...you think you can take me?"

"Oh you are so on!" Right when I said that, a raven perched itself on my shoulder and I noticed storm clouds but there wasn't any rain. Just thunder and lightning. I looked at the raven on my shoulder and rolled my eyes with a slight smirk. "Bram, get off my shoulder."

"Awe! But you're so comfy!" He bellowed out in laughter as he flew off of my shoulder and transformed to float in the air by my side.

"Nimbus, I know that's you brewing over there, come here."

The storm disappeared and started to shrink as it formed itself into Nimbus's form until Nimbus was a solid body that also came to float by my side. "We didn't see you at the pond. We got worried."

"Awe how sweet!" I drawled out sarcastically with a dramatic hand over my heart. "You were worried about my safety!"

"HA! More like worried you would be getting into trouble!" Bram grinned widely as he ruffled my hair.

"Bah!" I told him as I playfully slapped away his hand. "I was just about to spar with Sandy."

"Oh, I have got to see this!" Nimbus shouted in excitement with widened eyes as he put his hands into his pockets.

"Good, you two can be the judges." I told them and they immediately flew back quite a ways to watch the match. "Ready, Sandy?" As soon as I asked that I watched how his smirk grew in a dangerous manner and he went after me with his whips. He actually got me in the back at one point. It was difficult to avoid the whips, and as they cracked, I realized that they might be able to curl around my staff, and if I let it, and then had Sandy pull me...

"C'mon Jack! I thought you would be more of a challenge!" I heard him laugh out, and I went straight to my plan I got as close as I could and waited for the whip to come towards me. Once it did, I allowed the whip to wrap around my staff, and Sandy unwittingly pulled me towards him. The whip loosened on my staff and I sent electrical ice energy onto his dream cloud, causing the dream cloud to disappear, but he made another one reappear just as quickly. "Oh-ho! Using my own whips against me! Now that was very intelligent! I only know of one person that was able to do that, and he shall remain nameless. Now, you said a while back when I was visiting that sparring is about learning and honing your skills. So, tell me how you'll do that with me? We're in the air, not on the ground like you typically spar. What do you have at your disposal with everything you are?"

"Everything I am?" I asked as I continued to dodge his whips.

"Yes! What can you do, what rushes through you when you use your powers, what do you have control over, even the smallest of things can make a difference in a fight."

I thought about it while dodging his attacks, which was not easy with how accurate they were getting once again, but as I thought about it, I remembered all of the times I sparred on the ground. I would mostly go up into the air and deal a final blow, but now I was constantly in the air. 'I have to lift myself higher...but that's not enough...I AM winter...SNOW!' I thought with a wicked smirk and I flew higher up into the sky and summoned the wind, but as I looked up at the sky, it was clear, and I needed it to be cloudy to pull snow. I closed my eyes and ignored Sandy's cracking whips as I felt the pleasant rush of not just my powers as it usually was, but I felt magic as well, and I could feel it pulsing in my core and in my staff. When I opened my eyes I looked up again and noticed large snow storm clouds had formed overhead. I looked down and saw three completely baffled expressions. I gave an evil smirk and summoned a small blizzard. Once it started steady and got stronger, I dove in and out of it, carrying the wind with me until I was in front of Sandy once more and I allowed the wind to drop me just slightly and I put myself underneath Sandy's cloud and combined the wind and blizzard to make a blizzard tornado underneath his sand cloud. The blizzard tornado sent him high up into the sky, and evidently making him lose balance as well as his sand cloud. Thankfully he made another sand cloud before he fell too far down. Once it was formed I heard him laughing as he floated up to meet me. "Is that what you meant?"

"Oh, yes! That is! I can't believe you summoned a snow storm!" He continued to laugh and the mirth that was in his laugh left me giving a wide and open smile. "Oh..." He breathed out as he calmed his laughter. "I am soundly beaten in this sparring match, but make no mistake. I will win the next one."

"Wait...did I see those symbols correctly?" Nimbus questioned with his jaw dropped. "Did he...did he say that you won?" Sandy turned to Nimbus and nodded his head. "Holy...I can't wait to tell Mother!" He laughed out as he ran a hand through his hair quickly, allowing it to rest on the back of his head.

"SHIT!" I shouted as I remembered what I was supposed to do tomorrow morning. "That woman is gonna kill me! I'm supposed to be cooking breakfast tomorrow so she can look for the person she wanted to turn into the next animal spirit! It's supposed to be another wolf spirit!"

"Ah, remembered that did ya?" Nimbus sent a sympathetic smile. "Yeah, that may or may not be the real reason we came looking for you."

"Sandy, I have to go! Thanks for the talk...and for the sparring match. It helped a lot."

"You're very welcome. Now go. I know more than anyone that she's not someone you want to mess with."

"Right!"

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

Once we made it back we were immediately met with Mother Nature and she had her arms crossed. "Why is it always you three!?"

"Ah well..." Nimbus started as he scratched the back of his head with a guilty expression. "...we went to go get him, but he wasn't at his pond, so we went looking for him in the only way we could. I went as a storm cloud, and Bram went as a raven. He knew it was us immediately, though."

"Well, the two of you spend enough time with each other, it's no surprise. So, Jack, if not at your pond, where were you?"

"Oh you should've seen it!" Nimbus shouted as he he slapped his hand onto my shoulder with an excited expression. "He sparred with Sandy!"

"Is that so?" He earlier furious frown quickly upturned into an amused smirk, and I found myself flushing with some slight embarrassment. "A quick match then?"

"Oh it was, but not like you'd think." Bram snickered and I sent a disapproving look his way, but as usual, he ignored it and sent me a toothy smile. "Sandy relented. He admitted to being soundly beaten in a sparring match."

"S-Sandy...admitted to...What!?" She asked as her arms immediately dropped at her sides, and she stared at me in shock with her beautiful eyes that, since realizing I was in love with her, still made my heart pound despite her being the carrier of it.

"Yeah!" Nimbus exclaimed. "Jack used Sandy's own whips against him, and got Sandy to wrap the whip around his staff, which ended up yanking Jack towards him, and Jack sent his ice energy directly into Sandy's sand cloud. Then, Sandy gave him some kind of advice involving everything Jack is...and Jack SUMMONED a STORM! HE Summoned a snow storm and created a blizzard!"

"But it didn't end there!" Bram said with pure delight in his eyes, and I knew my cheeks were getting redder by the second, because of her shocked, but impressed gaze.

"No, it didn't." Nimbus chuckled low. "Jack then created a blizzard tornado underneath Sandy's cloud, knocking Sandy off balance! That's when Sandy started laughing and admitted to being defeated in the sparring match."

"That's...that's very impressive, Jack."

I tilted my head at her in confusion. "How?"

"Because...well...let's just say that Sandy is a very fierce combatant. There's a very good reason why he's not just a deliverer of dreams, but a Guardian as well. Now, you better get to the kitchen. I'm off to get the new spirit."

"What will her name be?"

"Wolfina." She told me with a confident smile.