Jack Frost landed on the ground, on a balcony that lead to North's workshop. He glanced down and raised an eyebrow with an amused grin. "You... You can let go, now."

Ashley had her arms wrapped around the teen's chest, holding on so tightly that you'd have to get a chainsaw to get her to let go. She was pale, and her eyes were wide. Scared as she was, she hadn't even heard him.

"Hey," Jack laughed, "We're on the ground now. You can let go." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and smirked. "Unless, of course, you don't want to. I promise I don't mind."

That snapped her out of her fear pretty quick. As she jumped back, Jack's lips tugged down a bit. He would never admit it to anyone, but he really hadn't minded... She was really warm, and unlike other people, both human and guardian alike, she stayed warm after being in contact with him for a few minutes. And she didn't seem to mind the fact that he was freezing, either. Of course, that could have been because she was frozen with fear the minute their feet were off the ground ...

Ashley dropped to the floor, hugging it as she told it softly, "I'm never leaving you again, baby, I promise. Never, ever."

At the sight of her hugging the floor, Jack's smirk quickly came back full force. "You know, for the spirit of bravery of whatever, you're not all that brave."

She glared up at him from the floor. "I never said I was! I'm a coward, dude, I don't know why they chose me to do this."

He laughed at her, and she scowled as she picked herself up off the ground. "Yeah, laugh. Just like I did at your sorry attempt at a Spanish lullaby! It was pathetic! The only Spanish you sang-if you could call that singing-was 'amigo' and 'hola!"

"Well, excuse me!" He told her sarcastically as he tried (and failed) to keep a straight face, "I'm not Spanish!"

"Neither am I, but I can still sing a killer Spanish lullaby-unlike a certain winter spirit!" She shot back.

The two stared each other down for a bit, before Jack cracked and burst out laughing. Ashley cracked a grin at the teen as he hung onto his stick for support.

"That was the weirdest conversation I've ever had." He chuckled before walking over to the massive doorway. He pulled open the door and waved her inside. "Mind the elves. And anything else that happens to be flying."

Ashley gave him an odd look as she walked past him. Once she got in and took in the sight before her, she dropped her trident in shock. "Pinch me, I'm dreaming..."

She suddenly jumped up with a yelp. Jack strolled by her with a not-so-innocent smirk on his face and she raised her arms in exasperation.

"I didn't want you to actually pinch me, Frost!"

He ignored her and his arms out. "Welcome to the North Pole!"

She rolled her eyes and picked up her trident before following the teen. The moment was gone, but she still couldn't stop herself from grinning like a kid in a candy shop as she took in the sights and sounds around her.

There was so much space, but things still seemed to be so crowded. Huge creatures that looked like the spawn of a gorilla and a shih-tzu were everywhere. Walking around, painting or fixing toys, and so many more things. Toy planes zoomed past, and confetti fell through the air like flurries of snow. She could hear someone (or something) jamming on the guitar somewhere, and the gorilla things talking amongst themselves with rough, garbled voices.

She followed Jack, dodging the furry creatures left and right, only to stop as the got near the center of the room. The thing that stopped her? Well... there was no center of the room. It was an empty space, save for the very center, where a spiraling staircase ran up and down, with cranes hanging over the balcony. There were way more floors than she had thought there would be, and just the sheer size of it all amazed her.

If she had the choice, she would have stood there all day watching the gorilla dudes do their thing, but Jack had looked back and saw her standing there. He went back and pulled her along by the arm as she gaped at all the sights and whole place was just... wonderful. And chaotic. It was wonderfully chaotic.

Jack lead her around until they came to a massive door. He knocked a couple times before opening the door and looking in. He must have seen what he was looking for, because he looked back at Ashley with an anticipative grin and lightly pushed her in before following.

She almost tripped over her feet, but she caught herself and straightened up, shooting Jack a look as she dusted herself off. She looked forwards, only to freeze.

She was in a room that had icicles hanging from the walls, and snow dusting the large table in the center of the room. There was what looked like a train track/roller coaster made of ice on the table, but that wasn't what made her freeze. What made her freeze, was the bloody enormous man standing in front of the table.

He was taller than anyone she had ever seen, with a barrel chest and a long white beard that went down to his belt. His forearms were covered in tattoos. If you were to ask her how to describe the man in three words, they would be: larger than life. He was giving Ashley a peculiar look. Which meant he saw her. Which was good...

But he also kind of looked like he could squish her under his boot, which wasn't quite so good...

At first, she was just a tad bit worried, but then she caught sight of his eyes. They were a warm blue, with a curious twinkle in them. They weren't the eyes of someone she should have been scared of. She relaxed and let Jack lead her over with a hand in her pocket.

"Jack," The huge man said in a distinctive Russian accent, "Who is zhis person you have brought?"

Said winter spirit pushed her forward. "This is Ashley," He introduced, looking over at her. "She needs our help."

"Spirit of courage, at your service." She told him, giving a mock bow.

The man smiled from under his beard and held out his hand. "Call me North. You may know me as Santa."

She cracked a grin as she shook his massive hand. "Yeah," She joked, "And I'm the Easter Bunny."

North cocked his head to the side as he released his hand. "This is... joke, yes?"

Jack poked her in the back. "Hey, uh... He's not joking about being Santa."

Ashley scoffed. "Come on, don't be ridiculous, Frost. He can't be Santa... Santa isn't supposed to be real."

"Neither is Jack Frost, but I'm standing right here, aren't I?"

She paused, and looked back up at the massive man. She looked a little harder, only to choke on her saliva when the realization hit her. "Holy crap!" She choked out, "Diana lied to me! Santa's real!"

North raised an eyebrow for a moment, only to jump up with a gasp. "Ashvey! Ashvey Catherine Edgevood!" He beamed as he picked her up by the waist. "My, how you've grown!"

Jack smirked, covering a laugh with a cough as she looked down at North with wide eyes. "Dude! Santa knows my name!"

North gave a hearty laugh as he set her down. "Of course I do! I know all zhe children's names! You vere one of the late ones! You did not stop believing in us until you vere almost sixteen!"

She couldn't help but grin with the excited man as he practically bounced around the room. "Yeah! My dad's girlfriend, Diana, told me you weren't real. She was kind of horrible..."

He nodded and picked her up again with a big smile. "Yes, yes! Right before Christmas! Look at you! Bozhe moi, you have gotten so big!" His smile fell a bit as he saw her face. "Vhat happened to you? Vhat has happened to face?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Uh... I got in a car crash...? Y'know, the few people that I can communicate with have been saying stuff about my face. Is it really that bad? It doesn't feel all that bad..."

The large man faltered and set her down, clearing his throat. "Is fine. You are still beautiful young lady, not to vorry. So, vhy have you come to me?"

Ashley was a bit suspicious at the sudden topic change, but decided that it would be best to ignore it. "Well, uh... There was this thing. At my house-or my old house, I guess I should say. Slendy said that it was a fearling or something."

North's dark eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Fearling?! Vhat-How?!"

She started to try to explain to North that she didn't know, but by the time she opened her mouth he was almost to the door. She raised an eyebrow to Jack, who only shrugged and motioned for her to follow him.

They came to a large room with pillars and large tapestries hanging on the walls. North rushed to a balcony and looked at a huge globe with thousands of little lights on it. North looked at it like he was expecting it to explode. After a few tense minutes of observing the globe, he turned to Ashley and frowned.

"Nothing has happened. Pitch is not affecting any children of the vorld. I do not understand..."

Ashley gave a humorless laugh. "You and me both, buddy." She shrugged. "Look, the details are kind of sketchy, right? I don't completely understand everything-that's Slendy's job-but from what I understand, you know how to deal with this Fear problem. Or, at the very least, you know a little more about it than I do."

North stroked his beard and and frowned. "Yes. The cause of it is zhe Nightmare King. I am supposing that he has moved on, yes? To 'greener pastures' as zhey say. Affecting everyone else of zhe world, once again?"

Again, she shrugged. "I guess. Something big is gonna happen, and I'm gonna need your help."

North frowned and gave her a truly apologetic look."Yes, vell... I am very sorry, but... I am afraid I cannot help you."

"What?!" Both Ashley and Jack exclaimed. Jack in disbelief, Ashley in desperation and exasperation.

"How can you not help me?!"

"How can you not help her?!"

North sighed. "I vould love to help, truly I would, but I am Guardian. I, and the other Guardians, can only take action when zhere is threat to children. You are spirit of courage. You deal vith everyzhing else. I cannot help you."

Jack went on to protest as Ashley continued to stare at North in disbelief as she tried to get her thoughts in order. How could he say that...? He was her only lead, and he shot her down! Because he could only help children?!

Jack and North continued to argue, only to stop when one of the gorilla things tapped North on the shoulder and pointed up to the ceiling, where a section of the roof was missing. The moonlight shone in the room, and both of the Guardians silenced themselves.

Ashley didn't know why they stopped, but she was glad they did because she knew what she wanted to say now, and damn it, she was gonna say it!

"Do you know what happens, when adults get scared?" Ashley tightened her grip on her trident and slammed it to the ground. "Now I know kids are very important, but I don't think you understand what's gonna happen if this Pitch guy does what he's aiming to. When adults are scared, so are the kids. And you know what else adults do when they get scared? They start wars! Why do you think World War two happened?!"

North opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off with a scowl. "No! Shut up! You don't get it! Millions of people, which includes kids, by the way, have died because a bunch of people were scared! Do you want that?! If you don't see that as a threat, then you're an idiot!"

Ashley came to realize that insulting such a large man probably wasn't the best idea momentarily after saying that, but figured it was too late to do anything. As she waited to be squished under North's boot, she realized that both he and Jack were looking at her peculiarly...

And it kind of freaked her out...

"What?!" She finally asked, "What in the hell are you all gawking at?"

North pointed up at her, then at the moon. She looked up at it, but nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary... She looked around, at herself, then at the moon again before it dawned on her.

"Oh..." She muttered, "That's what you're looking at." The moon was shining light on her. And just her.

"That's pretty weird," She said slowly, rubbing the back of her neck, "But wasn't I in the process of attempting to get you to help me...?"

North looked between her and the moon a couple of times before nodding and clapping his hands together. "Right. Let's go."

Ashley furrowed her eyebrows together and cocked her head to the side. "Go...? Go where?"

"To sleigh," North answered simply. "Ve are getting other Guardians to help you."

Oh. That was good... But didn't he just tell her that he couldn't help her...?

She looked at Jack to maybe get some clarity, but he wasn't giving anything away. Finally, she shrugged and wiped off some dust from her pants. "Alrighty then. Let's do it."

She followed North and Jack into an ice cave that looked like it had been modified into a stable of some kind. She had just taken a few steps ahead of them when two huge wooden doors open, and some huge-ass reindeer came crashing out. Yelping, she jumped back to where Jack and North were.

North was in a big red coat with black fur and a black Russian hat, and Jack was... Well, he was Jack. And he still had that stupid stick. She'd have to ask about that, later...

As the reindeer pulled the sleigh out, two thoughts ran through her head. The sleigh was a sexy beast, and the reindeer were bad-ass. She also wondered if North would ever let her ride one...

She had started to ask, but one of the reindeer in the very back started rearing up and going out of control. And then, Ashley did something. Something very stupid.

Ignoring the worried protests of Jack and North, she walked right up to the beast, and put her hand on it's massive shoulder in a piss-poor attempt to calm it. But the thing was... she did calm it down. Err, well, she got it to stop freaking out, anyways... Though, maybe not in the way she had wanted it to...

The beast snorted in her face, it's bright brown-almost orange eyes glaring at her, daring her to make a move. Well... she dared.

She moved her hand up to it's furry snout, allowing it to smell her. She didn't really know why-that just seemed to be the right thing to do.

As it inhaled her scent, she studied the beast. It was huge, easily surpassing North in height, and rippling with muscle. It was a dark, deep brown, with tan points circling under it's eyes and on it's lower jaw. Tan covered it's spiky mane and dusted it's chest. Another thing that really stuck out to her, was the two long jagged scars that ran across it's snout.

The beast seemed to deem her worthy. Of what, she didn't know, but it bowed its head in respect and closed it's eyes. It-he, she decided after a moment's thought- seemed to almost purr as she gently, cautiously stroked his muzzle. The tips of her lips tugged up as North came up behind her.

"Vell... That truly is something," He told her as he put his large hand on her shoulder. "I have difficult time getting Aleksei to calm down." He turned back to Jack and chuckled. "Vhere did you find this vone, Jack?"

The teen snorted as he hopped into the back of the sleigh. "Believe me when I tell you that I didn't find her. She found me. And nearly killed me, but that's another story..."

North gave a hearty laugh and patted Ashley on the back, nearly breaking all of her ribs in the process. She bit back a grimace of pain and gave a weak smile as she clambered into the back of the sleigh. Once she was seated and North wasn't looking at her, she silently screamed in pain as she reached for her back, curling into herself at the same time.

Jack laughed at her. "Don't worry, you get used to it."

"Really...?" She asked weakly.

"Nope."

She let out a groan before looking around. "So how does this work? Do the reindeer pull the sleigh the whole way? Are there rockets...? That would be cool." She leaned forward and poked North. "Hey, the reindeer can't really fly, can they?"

The man gave her a smile through his beard that bordered on being manic. "Ve'll find out, von't we?"

She frowned. That wasn't very reassuring... she leaned up to ask what he meant by that, only to be jerked back as North let out a laugh and the sleigh began moving.

It was all fine and dandy. It reminded her of a roller coaster, really. She let out a whoop as they began spinning around the tunnel, throwing her arms up and laughing with North.

"I hope you like the loopty loops!" He called back as he urged the reindeer to go faster.

She cheered. "Damn straight, I do! BOO YEAH!"

They whizzed through, narrowly dodging icicles, and spinning so much that Ashley couldn't tell which side was up anymore. It was probably one of the most dangerous things she had ever done in her life, but god it was fun!

A distant light got closer and closer until suddenly the sleigh beneath them trembled as it ran on wooden planks. She glanced over the side, only to have her grin turn upside down in a face of horror. Her cries of joy quickly turned into yells of fear as the reindeer jumped, and suddenly they were in air. She all but hugged the seat, silent and frozen as Jack smirked at her, mischief in mind.

"C'mon, the view's actually quite beautiful if you get up and look at it," He told her as he inched closer to the side of the sleigh, and hung out, pointing to various snow-covered mountains. She glanced over and realized that, oh shit, that was really dangerous!

Jack acted like he fell out on accident, and was actually flying in the air, when a hand closed around his hood and dragged him back up into the sleigh. It all happened so fast, he didn't have time to react when he found himself being held to the chest of the terrified girl.

She was clutching him to her chest like a five year old would to their teddy bear, and her arms were stiffer than steel and she was nearly as pale as Jack. She sure as hell wasn't letting the idiot go and get himself killed!

The thing she had yet to realize, though, was that even if she hadn't grabbed him in time, he would have been perfectly safe.

"F-f-fucking idiot!" She stuttered, trying and failing to steady her voice, "Gonna get yourself k-killed!"

Jack laughed and relaxed in her arms. "Aww, I knew you cared about me!"

She choked out a bunch of nonsense, trying to come up with a good response and failing, so she finally just settled with: "You aren't dying on my watch!"

The teen laughed some more as she hyperventilated in the seat and tried to get a hold of herself. She was only thousands of feet in the air. What was the danger in that...?

EVERYTHING.

"We're gonna die," She gasped to herself, "We're gonna plummet to our deaths and die. I just died, and I'm gonna do it again- We're dead!"

"Hey, take it easy, it's all good," Jack tried to tell her between chuckles, "This is safe, honest!"

For a few milliseconds, she almost believed him. Her arms relaxed, just a bit, and she trembled a little less.

But then North pulled out one of his a freaking snow globe and opened a magic portal, or something. They went through it, and it must have been too much for Ashley, because... well, she blacked out.

Author's Note~

Here we are!

Well, let me start off with a thanks to all the people who favorited, followed, reviewed, and read. Gosh, I still get excited when I see I have two new emails! Thanks a lot, I'm glad people are liking this as much as I like thinking it up!

I have a feeling that the next one might take a bit longer than usual, so just a heads up. Wanna take my time and get all the details in, because I kinda feel like I've been rushing myself a bit, as of late. And that's not good... I gotta fix that :\

As always, tell me if I messed up anywhere! Thanks for reading, and I hope you got a few laughs out of reading my lame little story :)

,BlueAsh666