Author's Note: Wow, this story already has 330 views! That's awesome. I also see that more people have favorited, followed and reviewed! Thanks guys! As to the reviews, I see you guys are a little split on the Pitch helps Jack thing. I still haven't really decided, but I think for now Pitch will remain in the background. Knowing Pitch though, I doubt he'll stay there for long.. So I guess we'll have to see what happens. Also, I felt super guilty that I haven't worked on the story all week.. So I quickly typed this out on the computer and decided to post this early! I tend to be a little wordy on the computer, so.. uh.. forgive any rambling!

Also..

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING. Except for Lillian. And the giant flower. The flowers as she walks thing I kinda stole from Ferngully, the Last Rainforest. I don't own that either. And since I keep forgetting the disclaimer, just remember I own nothing. I'll probably put another disclaimer if this fic gets ridiculously long. But for now, that's enough with the disclaimers.

Chapter Four: Ice to Meet You

While Jack was getting lectured by the Guardians, Lillian was being lectured by Pitch. You never would have suspected it of him, but Pitch was a worrier. Lillian did her best to nod at Pitch's questions and reassure him, but really.

Lillian was standing in the main part of Pitch's lair, or at least the room he occupied the most. It was dark, but near the entrance and it had a black globe on it that had several golden lights shining. She didn't realize it, but there were also two blue lights on the globe near Burgess, and one was growing dimmer.

She paid this little mind though as her thoughts drifted back to her cave-room. She still hadn't decorated her room yet, but it already was looking a little more occupied. Her raggedy dress was hanging in her "closet" already, having been mended a little by Pitch. She was also wearing a new handmade dress that was black as midnight. There was a light, floaty silvery material tied at her waist to make a big bow in the back and her brown, curly hair was tied back with a silvery ribbon. The black and silver reminded Lillian of the moon at night, but she didn't tell Pitch this, since for some reason he didn't really like the moon. Instead, she told him it reminded her of the stars in the night sky.

Pitch's lips had quirked at this, and Lillian had to marvel at his skills. After all, who knew Pitch could sew? She was also wearing new boots (where they came from she didn't know and didn't ask), that were also black and comfy. While a lot of the snow had melted, it hadn't completely melted which Pitch was quick to remind her.

"Now, wear this. I know you are a Child of Spring, but I will not have you catch cold," he said in a paternal manner as he drew a black hooded cloak around her shoulders. Lillian smiled up at him at this, totally unaware that cloaks had gone out of fashion hundreds of years ago. Not that it mattered much anyway, since Pitch had assured her that no one would be able to see her.

Lillian tied the cloak securely around her shoulders and giggled a little at Pitch's motherly attentions.

"I won't catch cold, Pitch," she said with a smile. "Besides, I melt the snow I touch. How can I catch cold?"

Pitch pinched the bridge of his nose. He hated to admit it, but seeing Lillian freeze to death had greatly disturbed him, and he would be damned if he let it happen again.

"Just.. do as I say," he finally said, his voice tight.

Almost as if sensing his unease on the subject, Lillian didn't comment and merely nodded at him.

The tension left Pitch a little at this. At least the child was listening.

"Now, remember. No humans can see you, and will walk through you. It isn't a pleasant feeling, so avoid this at all costs. Only spirits can see you, and remember what I -" he said, rambling a bit.

Lillian huffed at this, quickly tiring of the lecture.

"I know. Don't talk to strange spirits 'cuz not all of them are nice. And if I do meet them, don't tell them that I'm staying with you, 'cuz nobody really likes you, 'cept for me," she added on with a shy smile.

Pitch nodded at her words.

"It's very important that you remember this, as other spirits might not understand you staying with me and would try to take you away. Understand?"

Lillian didn't understand, not really. Pitch had told her that other spirits didn't understand about him spreading nightmares, but she didn't really get it. Pitch only spread nightmares to help kids grow up and get over their fears, it's not like he did it to be mean.

But she knew that Pitch desperately wanted her to understand, so she nodded dutifully anyway.

Pitch eyed her suspiciously, as if he suspected she was just humoring him, but he didn't comment on it.

"You also must stay close to my lair and I expect you back at sunset. You know that I do not venture out in the daytime, but I will gladly pull you here through the shadows if I even suspect that you are disobeying me," he said, his voice suddenly stern as he gave her what Lillian was quickly dubbing the Look. That Look he gave when he meant Business.

Pitch didn't realize it of course, but he was already turning into a parent. Lillian could tell, but she didn't know how she could tell. She just knew that this sort of parenting seemed familiar and foreign all at once. It was a strange feeling.. She felt like long ago, someone had been like this with her, but she only woke up a few days ago, right?

Mentally shaking her head to rid herself of those confusing thoughts she nodded again at Pitch.

"I promise I'll stay close and won't talk to anyone strange, Pitch," she said softly. "And if I get cold, I'll come back. I won't leave the forest either, if you like."

She did kind of want to wander into the town, but she instantly knew Pitch wouldn't really like it. She could content herself with just exploring around the wood for awhile. Being a seasonal spirit, it wasn't like them to be locked up in caves for long periods of time and the outside was calling to her. Even though her cave-room was homey, it still felt a little stifling after awhile.

So after somewhat patiently waiting for Pitch to triple check that she was as warm as could be, he sent her off to play, by helping her through the shadows. He didn't leave them himself, but watched as she left the shade of a tree and ran off.

Golden eyes glowed in the darkness of the shadow as he watched her. She was so young.. She only looked to be around six years old, after all. Far too young to be left on her own, but there was little he could do about it. He reluctantly withdrew from the shadow back to his lair. He was a nocturnal spirit and a spring spirit would never be nocturnal no matter how much he wished it would be that way.

Unaware of Pitch's worry, Lillian eagerly ran around in the snow, as somehow not all the snow had melted away by Pitch's lair. She whirled around in a circle, her arms outstretched as she laughed. She promptly got dizzy and fell over in the snow, but that was alright.

She spread out her arms and legs and made a snow angel. She wasn't sure how she knew how to do this, but she just did. She carefully got up and surveyed her work. The hood of her cloak, which was down, had made strange marks in the snow and her boots had made footprints in the feet of the snow angel, but that was alright.

Giving her work a nod, Lillian continued on to explore the woods. After getting a little lost (not that she would ever tell Pitch this), she soon saw a frozen lake. Strangely, there wasn't much snow at all in the woods and so this frozen lake was somewhat puzzling.

She saw a flash of red taking off from the lake, but before she could get a good look at it, a figure in blue drew her attention. It was a boy, she could see. He was wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt with ragged brown pants. They were fraying a bit at the ends. The boy had his head down, with his white hair covering his eyes.

Her eyes widened in astonishment as she saw the boy wipe some tears away. That was when she realized his shoulders were shaking. Forgetting all about Pitch's demands, she hurriedly left the forest and walked closer to the boy. Even though he was much older than her, she could tell that he wasn't a Grown Up yet.

"Boy, why are you crying?" she asked, her voice soft and shy, yet easily heard in the quiet of the lake.

The boy's head jerked up suddenly and he stared at Lillian with the bluest eyes she had ever seen. They reminded her of the cold of winter, but they held none of winter's cruelties in them.

She titled her head at him, confused as to why he wasn't answering, and then it occurred to her that he wouldn't be able to see her. Duh, humans can't see spirits-

"C-can you see me..?" he asked suddenly, his voice hesitant.

Holy. Cow. He could see her! He could hear her! This was amazing!

She nodded with a smile on her face.

"..You.. you can hear me too..?" he said, hardly believing it.

Lillian nodded then gasped as he gave a strangled cheer and leaped forward, grabbing her in his arms and twirling her around. The light snow that had been falling when he was upset, suddenly grew a little heavier at his happiness.

Lillian giggled as he set her down on her feet.

"I'm Jack Frost," Jack told her happily. "How can you see me?"

"I'm Lillian, the Child of Spring," she said to Jack's complete surprise. "I'm supposed to make it be Spring now, but I don't know how."

"You.. you're the spirit of spring?!" Jack said, his eyes widening in surprise.

"Yup," Lillian said. "I woke up a few days ago. You're a spirit too, right..?" she asked, suddenly remembering Pitch's warning of avoiding strange spirits. Whoops.

"I'm the winter spirit," Jack said with a grin.

Before Lillian knew it, she was hit with a snowball to the face. She had been about to ask him again about why he was crying but that was soon forgotten. If she had thought about his intentions more, she might have realized that this was Jack's plan.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, wiping snow off her face. She looked around for ammunition, but pouted when she realized she didn't have any. "No fair!"

Jack laughed, his eyes sparkling with mischief. The snow picked up a little and Lillian looked around.

"Is it supposed to be snowing now? I thought it was spring," she questioned.

Jack looked a little sheepish.

"Sorry about that," he said as he waved his staff and the snow stopped falling.

"Wow!" Lillian looked at him with awe. "How did you do that?"

"Huh?" Jack looked puzzled. "I used my staff. It helps me focus my powers. It's almost impossible for me to use them without it," he said.

"Oh," Lillian said with a slight frown as she examined herself. "But I don't have one of those. How can I focus my powers?"

Jack shrugged.

"I kind of found out how to use mine by accident. I guess if you play around with what you do know, you'll eventually figure it out."

Lillian huffed at that.

"Doesn't somebody show new spirits how to use their powers?"

Jack shook his head.

"Not that I know of. You're the first spirit I've seen in over two hundred years that'll even talk to me. I see Sandy sometimes, but he's always too busy to talk for very long."

At the mention of one of the Guardians, Lillian looked a little sad. She cast her gaze up at the sky.

"What about the Man in the Moon? He made us, right? He could tell us how to use them."

Jack's look darkened at that.

"The moon doesn't talk to me. It just told me that I was Jack Frost."

Lillian nodded sympathetically.

"He told me I was Lillian and I was a Child of Spring, but that was it. What does a spring spirit do?"

Jack shifted so he was in a more comfortable position. He was feeling more alive having this conversation than he had ever felt, but that didn't change the fact that he was still very exhausted from removing all that snow.

"You spread Spring to all the parts of the world that need it now, just like I spread Winter everywhere when it needs snow. I travel around the world by riding the Wind. It carries me to where I need to go." he explained.

"Ohh," Lillian said, once again impressed. "But how do I move around? I don't ride the wind, do I?"

Jack shrugged.

"I didn't really know the spirit of spring that was before you, so I don't know. I guess you just concentrate on your powers and where you want to go. Just.. I don't know, close your eyes and concentrate hard on your powers. Then think really hard about where you'd like to go, and you'll go there. I think."

At Jack's words, Lillian closed her eyes. She wasn't certain what her power felt like, but she concentrated really hard on Spring, and all the feelings that went along with it. Hope, life, flowers. Warm (but not too warm), a light spring breeze.

Jack looked around as a light spring breeze blew in from nowhere. A light glowing caught his attention and he looked at Lillian to see a flowery bracelet he hadn't noticed was glowing. As he watched it, the glowing became brighter.

Spring flowers started to grow around Lillian's feet as the few flakes that clung to the ground melted. A particularly big pink tulip loomed up behind Lillian, and Jack looked at it hesitantly.

"Uh.. Lillian.."

Lillian kept concentrating really hard, as the tulip grew to be really big.

To Jack, the giant flower looked ominous and to his horror, the flower bent down and ate the suddenly screaming Child of Spring.

The flower quickly shrunk back into the ground leaving no trace that it had ever been there.

Jack stared at the suddenly Lillian-free spot.

She was gone.


Pitch paced his lair uneasily. He usually slept during the day, but this uneasy feeling kept him from feeling tired as he usually did during the day.

He knew something was wrong. He just knew it. He could feel it in his bones. Several times he thought of just taking a peek through the shadows, but he shook his head at himself. He couldn't become the sort of person who hovered. He wasn't that sort of person.

Besides, Lillian wasn't even his child. Not really. He glanced over at the darker shadows gathered in the corner and thought maybe a little peek couldn't hurt.

No.

No.

No hovering!

No..

He glanced at the corner again.

A peek couldn't hurt.

Not really.

A small one.

More like a glance.

Glancing was not hovering, right?

With that thought in mind, Pitch walked over to the shadows, merging himself with them.

Golden eyes appeared outside and he winced at the harsh daylight. He looked around outside the lair, and spotted the telltale signs of Lillian having played around there.

His lips twitched a little as he moved from one shadow to the next, looking around for Lillian. His amusement soon turned to panic as he realized he couldn't find her.

Where was she?!

Then he heard it. Frantic calling.

Someone was frantically calling for..

"Lillian?!" Jack said, freaking out. "Where are you!?"

Why was a boy calling out his Lillian's name?

He quickly traveled through the shadows and his golden eyes appeared on a tree that had a shadow cast on it by another tree.

He could see it was the winter spirit looking around frantically in a small spot that was filled with wild flowers.

Flowers.. So Lillian had been standing there.

But where was she now?

As he thought that, he noticed that by the lake a particularly large tulip was growing. As golden eyes widened in astonishment, the tulip quickly grew to giant proportions and with what can only be described as a 'patooey!' sound, the flower spit Lillian out onto the ice of the lake.

Lillian screamed as she landed in a belly flop onto the ice and was sent skidding right out into the middle of the small lake.

She fell limp and just laid there completely in shock. Some.. some thing ate her and spit her back out again.

A small whimper escaped her. Was it a monster? Do monsters eat spirits?

While she was busy panicking, she felt a cold winter breeze nearby, and pale bare feet landed on the ice in front of her. A mop of white hair fell into her vision, followed by the worried face of Jack Frost.

"Are you alright?" he asked shakily.

Lillian sat up and took a deep breath, as the wind had been knocked out of her. She nodded and after a minute of getting her breath back she looked up at Jack, sitting on the ice.

"Wh-what was that?" she asked, her voice timid.

Jack looked more concerned as he heard her small voice. She looked scared.

As Pitch was still watching her from the shadows, her fear sang out to him, as it always seemed to.

I don't want the monster to eat me!

With a soft chuckle at that, Pitch withdrew from the shadows. Lillian was safe, for now. And as far as he knew, Frost was harmless.

In a way it was sort of a blessing in disguise that the very first spirit she had come across was Jack Frost. He was a fellow seasonal spirit and could help Lillian learn how to master her powers.

He would never admit it, but the thought of helping Lillian train her powers had him feeling a little helpless. Not that he wasn't capable, of course, but his powers were very different from a seasonal's. So much so that it might be difficult to try and help Lillian realize her full potential.

Still.. it made him a little uneasy that she was so easily spotted by a spirit the very first time she ventured from his lair.

He was also curious as to why a giant flower spit Lillian out, but he figured he could solve that mystery by asking her when she came home.

As Lillian sat on the ice, Jack explained to her about the Giant Tulip of Doom that had seemingly eaten her and vanished back into the ground. It then proceeded to reappear by the lake and spit her back out.

Lillian looked startled at this, not noticing the slightly mushy feeling as the ice began to melt under her.

"I was thinking about traveling to the lake!" she exclaimed. "Is that how I travel? A really big flower EATS me?!"

Jack had to grin at that.

"Looks like it, kiddo."

Lillian shook her head. A giant flower.. Well, she was the spirit of spring.

But still. A giant flower?

She stood and suddenly realized that the ice felt strange. Was ice supposed to be this mush-

For the second time a scream was torn from Lillian as the ice gave way under her and she fell.

Jack's mouth fell open in an 'O' of surprise. All at once this horrific scene seemed familiar and yet, unfamiliar.

Had this happened before?

Before he could even think about what he was doing, Jack dove into the hole after her.

He had to save his new friend.


Author's Note: Don't kill me! I couldn't help it! I originally was going to end this chapter when the flower ate Lillian, but didn't want to be that mean. Then I decided Lillian wouldn't want to travel too far and the lake was right there.. Of course she would go there. And getting eaten and spit out is a pretty good distraction from the fact she was on ice and she seems to melt snow and ice just by staying in one spot.

Poor Lillian! And Jack! Will he save her in time?

Or will it be Pitch to the rescue!

Stay tuned to the next episode to find out! Uh.. I mean.. chapter. Yes, next chapter! Sorry there was no Guardian interactions. I promise they'll be there soon. And yes, Pitch is a bit hovery. I can totally see him being a super overprotective parent. Maybe if not with Jack (if he decides to help Jack out) but definitely with Lillian. Let me know what you thought of the chapter and you can still chime in on the Pitch/Jack thing, since it's not set in stone yet.

Oh, and I have to say I was a little disappointed nobody picked up on the Peter Pan reference in the last chapter. Oh well.. Also Lillian's flowers are from Ferngully: The Last Rainforest if you missed it in the disclaimer. I might borrow small things from other books/movies, so keep an eye out for references!

Edit: I found a bazillion things to correct, especially italics, so if you see any (italics)stuff here(italics), I'm addressing it. Sorry!