The next one was during the Spring Equinox, and it was in Bunnymund's Warren.

I was leaving early again, but I was hoping to make a good impression on the Pooka. Especially with Easter this close, I'd heard from Jack that he's usually more grumpy and highly strung around this time of year.

Taboo and I exited to the Warren entrance, and the first thing I did was pull off my hoodie and tie it around my waist. It was what many would probably call pleasantly warm, but for me it was just a little too warm.

"Wow, nothing says spring like this place huh?" Was Taboo's reaction, and I had to agree. We were only at the entrance, where a lot of other Tunnels were, but the grass was lush and green, mossy rocks were dotted around and brightly coloured flowers were in full bloom.

I was more in line of thinking the winter landscape was the best, but I had to admit, this was beautiful.

One of the many egg golems lumbered forward towards us, then turned around to walk away. A second later it turned back around to look at us.

Taboo and I looked at each other.

It wants us to follow?

"Looks like it."

We followed the egg golem deeper into the Warren, and we were going unusually slowly, because there was just so much to take in.

Flower beds were a riot of colour, eggs marched in formation to get painted, rivers full of multicoloured dye wound their way throughout the meadow filled Warren.

Finally we reached Bunnymund, who was sitting by one of these rivers, observing the dying process and painting some his own eggs. His ear twitched and he turned to see the three of us behind him.

"Urgh, that time already?" He groaned, setting aside the egg he was painting and standing up.

"We're just early." I said, and Bunnymund raised an eyebrow.

"'Course ya are." He sighed. "Look, we've still gotta wait fer the others, and I gotta keep paintin', so why don't ya just sit out of the way fer a bit?"

I was a little annoyed by the dismissal, but knew better than to say anything. Taboo on the other growled in annoyance.

I shot her a warning glance and looked back at Bunnymund.

"Okay, anywhere in particular?"

"Just, somewhere. Don't wander off too far, and don't frost anything!"

"I won't." I assured, before looking around and settling on a small hill in the same glade. Taboo and I walked over to it and sat down on top of it, getting a great few of the eggs marching through below us.

I looked back over my shoulder at Bunnymund to see that he had gone back to his work, so I shuffled around to get my sketchbook out of my hoodie pocket and started drawing the scene below me.

"Jackie? Jackie you in there?"

I jumped out of skin and looked over my shoulder to see Jack behind me, leaning on his staff.

"Oh, hi." I said, quickly closing my sketchbook and putting it away. "Is everyone else here?"

"Yeah, Bunny just remembered that you were here."

I raised my eyebrows. "I'm flattered."

Jack chuckled. "He is busy." He looked back down the hill. "So, you joining us or what?"

"We're coming." I said, nudging Taboo out of her doze. She shook her head to clear it from sleep and lumbered to her feet. With that we went back down the hill.

Bunny ran through the Tunnels, not really sure what to feel.

On one hand, this was a meeting with HOG, on their turf, so it was bound to be annoying. On the other hand, some of them had turned out to not be so bad, so the meeting might not be as bad as all that.

Bunny exited the Tunnel to find that he was at the top of a really tall cavern.

"Crikey!" He cried in surprise, taking a step back from the edge of the spiralling platform. Who in their right mind would make a cavern this tall, and have entrances at the top?

Bunny's ears detected a cough, and turned to his left to see Alexander standing there. There was something else Bunny had mixed feelings about. Alexander was supposedly his Descendant, related to the Pookas, and yet there was little to nothing of the Pookas left in them, making them almost an insult in Bunny's eyes.

At the same time, they didn't ask for this, and he'd be lying if he said that they weren't good people. They were just like the rest of HOG, odd.

"Good morning Mr Bunnymund." Said Alexander and Bunny waved him off. That was another thing that irritated him, the bloody politeness. It was just weird.

"Just call me Bunny." He said, looking around. "No Jackie?"

"Jackie's already in the Council Chamber." Alexander seemed to be struggling to hold back a laugh. "She's, um, well, you'll see."

Bunny raised an eyebrow but said nothing. "Alright then, lead on."

"Okay."

To Bunny's surprise Alexander stepped off the edge, but before the Head could fall a pillar of earth rose up from below to catch him. Alexander turned to his ancestor and tried not to laugh at the surprised and almost panicked face.

"It'll be quicker this way." He said, moving over and allowing Bunny to step onto the platform. The Guardian was a little wary, but decided to trust the Head.

The earth pillar sank back into the earth quicker than he would have liked, but he quickly recovered and followed Alexander into the Main Cavern.

The Cavern was large, not as large as the main part of the Warren, but still big, and utterly deserted.

Alexander had already gone up a ridge which led to a pair of double doors with HOG's logo carved into it. Bunny followed more slowly, trying to remember everything.

Alexander out his hand on the door, but started talking instead of opening them.

"The others are already here, and they'll try to remain calm, mainly because I think Jackie will freeze us otherwise. But, just try to be patient with us, please?"

"Sure sure." Said Bunny, honestly he'd expected something like that. "Let's just get on with it."

Alexander pushed the door open and Bunny got his first look inside the Council Chamber.

The Chamber was brightly lit, although there weren't any actual lights. A long table dominated the room, with six, tall, coloured chairs at the far end, all but one of which were occupied. Bunnymund frowned when he saw the wheelchair behind the yellow chair. He hadn't seen anything like that when the Heads were staying at the Pole.

All the way down were brown chairs of a normal height, and next to the tall grey chair was a tall, white one, which was empty.

Alexander gestured for Bunny to sit down in the white chair, and when the Pooka sat down the chair changed colour. It went a mixture of green, pink and yellow; spring colours.
Bunny had to smile at that, it was certainly an interesting idea.

Alexander sat down in the green chair on the other side of the grey one, which had the wolf girl sitting in it. She nodded to Bunny as he entered and returned to looking down the table.

Bunny scanned the rest of the table. Jason appeared to be the only one who was struggling to remain calm. Samson, Claire and Alexander were calm and relaxed, waiting for the meeting to start.

As for Jackie, she was asleep.

Bunny couldn't believe it. From what he'd seen Jackie was actually quite diligent, more disciplined than her ancestor. And she was sleeping on the job!?

Bunny did make note of the dark shadows that were still under the woman's eyes, but that was no excuse. She did look remarkably like Frostbite though, if you ignored the glasses and the brown fringe over the right side of her forehead.

Jason had noticed as well, and called out in a booming voice.

"JACQUELINE!"

She woke with a start and sat bolt upright, looking around the room in a panic before relaxing and leaned back in her chair. Jason on the other hand sighed.

"Jacqueline, I appreciate that it's summer, but that does not give you an excuse to fall asleep for the meeting."

"Alright, I'm sorry." Jackie replied irritably, and Bunny could see Jason almost puffing up in annoyance. Then Jason seemed to realise that Bunny was in the room and calmly deflated.

"We'll discuss this later." He said, and Jackie didn't even seem to care. She still had her hood up, and Bunny had seen Jack with his up enough times to know that it meant 'leave me alone'.

Bunny just shook his head, he could understand why Alexander was the one meeting him, Jackie during summer seemed to be downright moody. It was relatively cool down here, but even this seemed to be too much for the Descendant of Frost.

So, without any official opening, the meeting started. Bunny admittedly found it boring, it was mainly about how many new Descendants they'd found, and the lack of Nightmares. Then it got to Jackie.

"No new Descendants." She reported. "The ones we do have are badgering me for more workshops during the summer. There's only so much I can teach, and I'm still learning the stuff in the Bergland books myself."

"Whether or not you increase the number of workshops is up to you." Said Alexander patiently. "Although, if you all react to summer in the same way, why not just take a day trip somewhere cold?"

Jackie tapped her chin. "You know, that's not a bad idea. Thanks."

"Welcome."

Now it was Bunny's turn.

"Things are on schedule in the Warren and Pole, Tooth's fine and Sandy's still spreadin' dreams. Frostbi-Jack's bored outta 'is mind, and tha's about it. All good our end."

"Excellent, we can wrap up early then." Said Jason, starting to stand up.

Bunny blinked, that was it? This was all they talked about?

"Hold on." Said Alexander, reaching beside his chair. Jason sat back down and everyone watched as Alexander pulled out a long, thin parcel wrapped in blue paper and put it on the table, pushing it towards the blue chair.

"Happy birthday Jackie."

Bunny frowned and Jackie almost groaned, smiling at the last minute. The Head of the Descendants of Jack Frost had her birthday on the summer Solstice? Seriously?

"Yep, it is Jackie's birthday." Said Taboo, who'd kept quiet during the whole meeting. "And she's not happy that it's been brought up."

Bunny saw the forced smile on Jackie's face and agreed. Jackie looked anything but enthusiastic right about now.

She still played along though and opened the present. Inside was a two metre long staff in a leather sheath. The sheath wasn't plain though, it was dyed dark blue and threaded with silver, making very accurate frost patterns. Jackie pulled the staff out of the sheath and examined it.

It was made of a pure white metal, with frost patterns curling around it and silver eight sided snowflakes had been painted down the entire length and Bunny could see the letter 'H' on the end closest to him. The two ends of the staff were domed, rather than flat, making it look a little more decorative. Although in the right hands, Bunny didn't doubt that it could cause some serious damage.

Jackie seemed to be curious now, standing up and holding the staff, which stood a little taller than her, standing at about two metres. She moved away from the table and spun it over in her hands, then seemingly as an experiment she added ice to one end to turn into a spear.

"It's name is Istapp. Norwegian for Icicle." Said Alexander.

"Thanks Alexander." She said, sounded honestly grateful, "But, is it made of what I think it's made off?"

"Meteor metal? Yes." Said Alexander. "We couldn't find any more raw material in time, so we had to melt down and re-forge the sword that was meant for you."

"Why am I only hearing about this now?"

"We thought Alfred had mentioned it to you." Said Claire, sounding confused. "The five weapons we do have made of meteor metal were for each set of Descendants, if you didn't have a signature weapon then it was automatically a sword. Now we know you have a signature weapon we changed it."

Jackie nodded, absorbing the information. "Thanks."

"As interestin' as this is." Said Bunny, who had gotten disinterested. "I need ta get back to the Warren."

"I'll show you out." Volunteered Alexander, and Bunny just decided to go with it.

"Alright, see ya guys later."

For note, the autumn equinox will not be covered, as it also takes place in HOG Base. Also, for those who have read or are reading this after Black Sheep is finished, this is the main HOG timeline, so this is when Jackie would come across Istapp is Mim didn't exist.