Well, I managed to write another chapter. Yeah! Sorry that I don't seem to be managing to write a chapter of this every day like I was hoping. Life is more chaotic than I gave it credit for, but I'll continue to update this. I want to see it complete its story just as badly as the rest of you. ;)

Also, I delayed myself a little bit because I was working on a cover for this story, but as I'm a bit of a perfectionist, it's going to be a while yet before I upload it. Sorry about that, but I'll try my best to get it up by the next chapter or two.

Anyway, without further ado, here's the next chapter of Dabba Dabba Dove. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Rise of the Guardians. And I'm going to try not to react to it sounding weird... aw, darn. Saying anything about it is reacting to it, isn't it?

A new soul had entered the fold. That much she could tell, as she could feel it, but something was rather strange about the whole situation, and she could not place what was so odd about it. She had witnessed plenty of nature sprites being born, but none that felt like this one. It almost felt like there was too much of this one around, though that did not make any sense. The Man in the Moon was not that foolish, surely. But if it was not the Man in the Moon who had done this, then who had?

A knock on the door to her tree palace startled her out of her trance. Who could that be? Mortals could rarely ever see her or her palace in the trees, and she was not on the best of the terms with most of the other guardian spirits in the world, except for the nature spirits under her jurisdiction. They understood her in a way that no one else did.

That was that. She was not going to answer the door. If it was someone who understood her, they would know what it took to get her attention, but if it was someone else, then she would rather them leave. The last thing she needed was more complaints about the crazy weather in the Middle East or the erratic snowfall in Europe. If someone would just get her a winter sprite, she could tend to more pressing needs than ensuring winter went well.

"Seraphina?"

The woman raised an eyebrow at the name. So whoever it was who was calling knew her name at least. It was better than having someone bow down before her to implore the good graces of the great Mother Nature when her supposed 'good graces' were minimal, to say the least. But simply knowing her name didn't mean she liked them. They could freeze out there in the cold for all she cared.

The rapping at the door got louder and more obnoxious. She wished the person would just leave already. "I know you're in there, Seraphina. You've got your palace lit up with salamanders."

This idiot was somewhat knowledgeable, knowing that one could not leave salamanders alone in a tree palace when one had to go about their rounds to do their work. Salamanders were lively fire spirits who would likely start playing with each other and leave nothing but a pile of ashes where the palace had stood by the time one arrived home. That knowledge still did not mean the person was anyone she would respect though.

"Alright, fine, don't answer the door. I'll just wait out here until you come out."

The caller was definitely an idiot. He would freeze out there if he stayed until she came out. It was the middle of December, and she liked to keep December cold, like December was supposed to be. If he wanted to complain about her winter practices, then he should just go and complain to the Man in the Moon until he gave her the hired help she needed.

"I'm just going to stay here all night then."

That did it. Who did this guy think he was, messing with Mother Nature? She was not going to just leave a guy out there to freeze to death, but he was going to suffer her wrath for disturbing her. Then he would know the incredible depth of his idiocy and wish he had never sought her out.

She stomped toward the front door, muttering something to herself about how people should be required to undergo a speech exam before appealing to Mother Nature for help so that they sounded less like idiots. She unlocked the door and grabbed the door handle as she heaved the massive door open.

"Come in!" she yelled, and the character stepped in, nonchalant at her bitterness. In a way, that made her all the more enraged. One does not push Mother Nature around and not care about it. This crazy boy was going to pay for what he did, just as soon as she was sure he was not going to die from the cold. She did not want to deal with cleaning up the mess.

The boy was wearing a strange sort of cloak that did not go down his back all the way, and she could not understand how it managed to keep him warm. It had a hood, which the boy was wearing, despite the lack of necessary length to make the cloak thing useful. The boy's breeches were normal, though still largely useless, and the only other thing he had on his person was a large branch he carried in one hand. She could not fathom how he was not frozen to death already, as he did not even have shoes on his feet. If she had not had the good heart to allow him inside, he would never have survived the rough conditions she had set up outside.

The boy lowered his hood and looked around at her palace, though he did not look long enough in her opinion to be amazed by its ornateness, which annoyed her. Who could not be amazed by her palace? He acted like he had become familiar with it already, though that was impossible. She had never allowed this imp into her palace before, and after looking at him, she was likely to never allow him into her palace again.

He looked at her. "Long time, no see, Seraphina."

That did it. He was going way too far. "Stop pretending like you know me, you little insect! You should consider yourself fortunate that I had the heart to allow you to come inside instead of freezing to death!"

His reaction was not something she ever would have predicted. He started laughing. And it wasn't just a mild laugh. It was a laugh that emanated up from his belly and shook his whole frame. It even reverberated off the walls and vibrated back into her. That was one heavy laugh, and she did not appreciate it. She had not approved it for her palace, and it was therefore unacceptable.

"Oh, Seraphina." He rubbed at his eyes as though the laughter made his eyes hurt. "I forgot just how uppity you used to be."

No one insulted her and got away with it like that. She began to conjure up some storm clouds around her as she pondered precisely how she would torture the boy as soon as her rage got intense enough. She would not kill him, oh no. She would merely make him seriously regret coming. Possibly make him very sick too. That could be enjoyable.

"If you have come here to complain about the weather, then you may as well just leave now before I have my way with you."

To her surprise, the boy plopped down on a seat and made himself more comfortable. That was not the sort of reaction she expected from people. He was acting like her nature spirits acted around her, but this person was not one of them. She was quite close to all of them and only them. This boy had no business pretending to be one of her precious nature spirits.

"Not coming to complain, Seraphina. I rather like what you've done with the place." He winked at her, which startled her. She highly doubted that he was referring to her palace, since he seemed to be taking that for granted, but how could anyone like her weather outside? Nearly every sprite but herself hated it, unless they were one of hers.

"What do you want?"

He leaned forward on his staff and peered at her seriously. "I've come to ask you a favor."

Indignation flared up within her. Who did he think he was to ask a favor of her? One did not ask any favors of anyone when one could not offer something of value in return, and no one could possibly offer anything of value to Mother Nature. She had everything she wanted. Almost.

"How is it that you propose to ask me a favor without bringing any sort of offering in place that I may determine the value of your request?"

A mischievous look played across the boy's face. "Who said anything about me not bringing an offering?"

Seraphina sputtered and said, "But all you have brought with you is the old dry branch of yours! I do not need another branch when I have billions of them at my beck and call across the world."

The young man chuckled, then pushed himself up to standing position with his staff. "Believe me, Seraphina, this 'branch' of mine will provide me with the best offering I can give you. See, I know exactly what it is you want, and I know how to give it to you."

She crossed her arms and glared at the boy. The impudent fool, thinking he could outsmart her. Well, two could play at this game. She would make him show her whatever it was he had to offer her first, and then when he could not produce what he pretended to have, she could punish him for fraudulence against Mother Nature. That would be a satisfying ending to this whole affair.

"Very well. Let us see your shenanigans and see if I appreciate what you have to offer."

He smiled wordlessly, then closed his eyes and lifted his staff over his head. What was he doing? He looked like an idiot, posing like that. The boy then dropped his staff down so it smacked onto the floor, and the floor suddenly froze over. Seraphina yelped and jumped back, allowing the ice to pass beneath her feet to freeze the entire floor.

The strange boy, seeing this reaction of hers, burst out laughing and ran around the palace, swinging his staff to freeze this pillar and that pillar, and then swinging his staff to send flurries of snow in her direction. She reached out to catch some of the snowflakes that glided her way. The snow melted in her hand, the little droplets left behind by the snow only matching the tears that were forming in her eyes. A winter sprite. He was a winter sprite. The Man in the Moon had finally given her one.

Her demeanor toward the stranger changed in an instant. She could not fathom how he had known exactly how to get through to her in this way when he was just a newborn, or how he had such amazing control of his element already, but she did not care. She had her winter sprite, finally. She wanted nothing more at this point in time, and only wanted to ensure that this boy was willing to work under her and take winter off of her hands. His snowflakes were already a much better quality than she had ever been able to produce. There would be a lot fewer complaints now that he was around.

"A-About that favor you wanted to ask..." she said, and the boy stopped running around, turned to her, and smiled.

He threw his staff over his shoulder. "Well, it's a simple request, but it's sort of a long story."

She straightened her robe and sat down on the nearest surface that was suitable for sitting on. "I am willing to listen. Please enlighten me."

He came over to where she was sitting and sat in a seat across from her. "How do I put this? I, uh, I'm not from around here exactly."

"But whatever do you mean?" she said. "Of course you were not born right here. You were born elsewhere, or I would have found you myself."

He waved his hand. "No, no, not like that. I mean, um, well..." He scratched the back of his head nervously. What did he have to be so nervous about? "I had a bit of a fight with Father Time, so I kind of got bumped back in time a couple hundred years."

"You mean you are not-from this time?" Her countenance fell, and a heavy weight settled on her heart. She did not want to have to wait another couple hundred years for her winter sprite to finally show up. She was so relieved to know she was going to get one at all, but waiting another couple hundred years for him was going to be so painful. She needed him now, not two hundred years from now. Could the Man in the Moon not see how desperate her need was? Controlling all of nature all over the world was simply too much strain on her, and she could not do the job well.

"It's okay," he said, and he reached a hand over and placed it on her shoulder. It felt cold to the touch, which was a strangely comforting feeling, considering that she hadn't actually had a winter sprite in a long time since the last one had died in a forest fire several hundred years prior. "You don't have to wait two hundred years for me to show up."

"I do not?" she said, "How many years must I wait for you to appear once you return to your own time?"

"None," he said. "I was just born a few days ago."

Her eyes snapped open as the information registered in her mind. This was how the information had all fit together. There was indeed a newborn nature sprite around, a winter sprite in fact, but it felt like there was too much of him around because his future self was time traveling due to an argument with Father Time. So therefore, it was not the idiocy of the Man in the Moon for doing this, but Father Time. And possibly her winter sprite, though she hated to admit that he really might be that stupid.

She let out the breath she had been holding, letting a few small clouds drift up toward the ceiling and disappear. Seraphina pressed her hands to her heart. "My winter sprite. I finally have a winter sprite."

"Yes," he said, "if you'll do one small thing for me."

"What would that be?"

She never expected the response he gave. "Thaw me out."

"Once upon a time," said Jamie's mom, starting out the story with the corniest line she could think of, "There lived a little family with a mom, a dad, a boy, and a girl. And they were very happy together, until one day, the boy died."

Jamie quirked an eyebrow at his mother. "Is this just a ghost story, or does it have something to do with Overland Lake?"

"It's a local story," said his mom. "I don't know if it has to do with your Jackson Overland person or not, but it might. The story doesn't say, but the boy died. We know that much."

"Okay," said Jamie.

"So," said his mom, "the family was very sad, until one day the girl's room froze over. She thought a ghost was in her room and she went to get her parents. When they saw it, they thought it was a ghost too, so they went to the priest to get help."

"Why would they go to a priest for a ghost?" said Jamie.

"That's what they did back then," said his mom, "Don't interrupt, Jamie, I'm telling a story. Now, where was I? Oh yes. They went to the priest to get help, and on the way, a freak blizzard sprung up. 'Surely the devil is trying to stop us!' they said. The next thing they knew, they were lifted out of town by unseen hands and saved from that awful storm. 'God's angel has saved us!' they said. And meanwhile, unseen eyes were watching them, laughing at everything they said."

"Who was it?" said Jamie, leaning forward eagerly. He hated to admit it, but he was getting into the story more than he normally did. This story had already mentioned frozen stuff twice, and it sounded like something Jack would do.

Jamie's mother laughed. "Oh, you silly. Can't you just wait for the story to tell you itself?"

"No," said Jamie, "Who was it?"

More laughter from Jamie's mom, but then she finally said, "Alright, fine. It was the ghost of the boy. He had been trying to get their attention, and didn't want them ruining his chances by going to the priest before he could talk to them. But he'd scared them a bit, because he had somehow managed to get control of the weather."

Yep, that was Jack. There was no doubt about it. It had to be Jack.

"Anyway, the sister started hearing him talk that night, and by the next morning, she could see him. She was so happy, and so was he, because they weren't separated anymore. She was so happy in fact, that she went and taught her mother how to see him, and her father, and everyone in town, because she thought that if everyone could see him, that he would be able to live almost normally among them again."

Jamie nodded. "Makes sense, I guess." Even though it didn't entirely make sense, really, because Jack had told him in the past that Jamie was his first believer. He wasn't sure how a whole town of believers fit into that equation if Jamie was supposedly the first.

His mom held up a finger to halt his speech. "It sounds like it makes sense, but it only works if everyone actually wants to live like that. See, there were some people who thought that a ghost wandering the streets of Burgess was the last thing this town needed, and they decided to do something about it."

Jamie snorted. If this story really was about Jack, there really was nothing they could do to stop him. No one controls Jack.

"They thought long and hard on the matter, and figured out that the ghost was made out of ice, which meant that if they melted the ghost, he would die."

Jamie slapped his hands on the table. "Wait, what?" He hadn't just heard that last bit, had he? And even if he had, it was just a stupid idea the villagers had come up with that didn't hold any water, right?

"Yep, that's what they came up with," said his mom. "It turned out to be true, because the ghost panicked when his sister told him the townspeople's plot. He tried to get away before they could do anything, but they had laid a trap for him, and he couldn't get away. Then they set up this huge bonfire in the middle of town and dragged this thoroughly bound ghost toward the fire. He was scared, because he knew that fire would kill him, and his mother and sister were screaming too since they didn't want him gone, but there was nothing they could do."

Jamie's fingers squirmed their way up into his hair, and before he realized it, his mom was gently prying his fingers away from the hair he was trying to pull out of his head. He hadn't realized he had gotten so tense, but he was picturing someone trying to melt Jack, and that wasn't a pleasant thought. No one had ever actually tried to do that, had they? And if they had, it hadn't worked, right? He was still alive in this time and place, so he must have gotten out of it okay.

"I'm sorry, Jamie. I didn't know this story would scare you so much. I probably shouldn't tell you how it ends."

"No!" He shot up from his seat to a standing position and bumped the table slightly in doing so. "You've got to tell me!"

His mother sighed. "Jamie, it ends on a scary note. Are you sure you can handle it?" Jamie nodded his head weakly, so his mother waved at him and told him to sit down, which he did in a heartbeat.

"Here's the end," she said, "But it sounds like you won't like it. The ghost was waiting to be tossed into the fire, and his family was screaming, and everyone was cheering that they were about to get rid of the ghost, when a horrible shadow monster suddenly appeared over the fire. It said, 'Your cries and shouts have reached my ears in the mountains, and have aroused me from my slumber. I now come to you furious and hungry. Give me a sacrifice, lest I destroy your entire village.'

"Needless to say, the villagers were terrified and were looking around at each other, wondering what to do. They didn't want to sacrifice any of their own to this hideous monster, but it was about to kill them all.

"Then the ghost spoke up, and said, 'I don't belong here anyway, and none of you should lose your lives over this. Just give me to the beast, and the town will be spared."

"No!" said Jamie, and he pounded his fist on the table.

His mom shook her finger at him. "Jamie, do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?"

He nodded remorsefully. "Yes, Mom."

"Then keep quiet. Anyway, they weren't sure if that would be an acceptable sacrifice, since it was a ghost and all, so they asked the monster if that would work. The monster said, 'I will accept your ghost as my sacrifice so long as none of you harm one another like this ever again.' The villagers agreed to this, and the monster said, 'And the family of the ghost must journey beyond the boundaries of the town after midnight tonight to speak with me, alone, or I will return to seek my revenge.' This was a much more terrifying thought to them, but the townspeople and the ghost's family agreed, since it meant saving the town.

'So the ghost was offered up to the monster, which devoured the boy in one gulp, and then the monster disappeared. The only people who ever saw any trace of the monster after that were the parents and sister of the boy, who met with it one last time. It gave them this message: 'Live your lives and move on. Don't let anyone hold you back from your own happiness.' Then the monster vanished from their midst, and it was never seen again, but the town lived in peace forever after that. The End."

There was silence for several moments after that. That story hadn't even entirely made sense, but not all ghost stories did, which was why Jamie didn't spend as much time obsessing over ghost stories as his mom did. Sometimes they really did have disappointing endings like that, though this one was beyond disappointing, since it hinted at his best friend dying, and that was not cool. Jack couldn't die. Jack had to live. Jack wasn't-well, this story was in the past, so he was probably worrying too much, since whatever had happened, Jack had obviously gotten through it.

Jamie moistened his lips. He didn't know if he dared ask any questions on this story, but he felt he wouldn't be able to get away with not doing it. He was much too frazzled. "Mom, did you ever find out how that ghost was dressed or anything? I-I'm trying to picture it."

"Oh yeah," she said, as she scratched her head. "I'd forgotten about that. The stories always described him as this strange boy who wore normal trousers, but had a strange blue shirt made of a material they had never seen before, and he carried around a large magical staff that he used to control the weather."

Jamie's head smacked into the table. Yep, he knew way more than he wanted to know now. That was definitely Jack in the story, but it wasn't Jack during the right time, since blue hoodies didn't exist back then, which meant that somehow Jack had traveled through time or something. This could only mean one thing.

Somehow, Jack was going to die.

Yes, I know, I'm evil. I apologize. But cliffhangers make for much better stories in the long run. I'll write up the next chapter as soon as I'm able. In the meantime, feel free to write to me about whatever is on your mind, be it questions, comments, suggestions, or anything. Chatting is fine too. I enjoy chatting with my readers. :)

In any case, thanks for taking the time to read this today, and I hope to see you around next time!