Author: Hi... Um I'm not dead nor have I abandoned my stories, I don't think I'd even be able to continue on without fanfiction...
I started at my new school, I love the course, my new friends and my intern work. But the schedule is ridiculously hard to work around with.
To make it up for the long wait this chapter is something a lot of you asked for. I feel confident enough to introduce an OC into this!
Disclaimer: I don't own ROTG.
The Unneeded Search Party.
The sleigh was gone.
The sleigh was gone! Not gone as in accidentally turned invisible by a magic spell gone wrong or gone as in North didn't park it in the garage.
No, someone has actually taken all preparations to take the sleigh out -even the preparations Santa didn't bother taking- And judging by the amount of elves- elves that looked a little too innocent- Nicholas St. North had a good idea on exactly who took the sleigh. The moment the three original elves(the ones Jack had found in Norway those many years ago) laid eyes on the winter spirit, they had gone back to being Jack's loyal minions. The ones that hadn't met Jack before following suit just as easily.
It was a typical teenager act, North decided. Just harmless fun, besides Jack knows how to fly the sleigh... Kinda- well mostly. The boy would get a proper scolding from him later... Not really. North would just laugh and ask how Jack enjoyed his flight.
Of course not everyone agreed with North on that.
At least not Tooth when he told her Jack took the sleigh, only five minutes after he discovered it himself. In the short amount of time since the fairy had been informed she had organized a search party amongst her fairies(having your own army has it's benefits) and she had gotten her fairies to inform Sandy and Bunny and convinced them to come to the pole.
As North expected, Tooth was the only one worked up about the situation. Bunny had only snorted and remained leaning against the wall as he was told the news and Sandy actually silently laughed in amusement.
So North concluded that it was time for their 'you are worrying too much, give boy space for fun' fight, it would be their first one since they got Jack back.
However before North could say something a single mini-fairy flew in. She flew over to her queen and said something none of the men in the room understood.
Tooth smiled. "Thank you." She told the mini-fairy before turning to her companions. "Jack's in Japan. Nicholas get a snow globe."
It's hard to say no to a command when she's like this.
Even Bunny only grumbles under Toothiana's glare and follows North and Sandy through the portal.
-ROTG-
It's dark when they get out of the portal, they are in a snow covered forest in Japan and clearly the portal was faster than the sleigh, because just a moment after they stepped out of the portal they see the sleigh landing on a snow bank a couple of yards away.
Tooth was about to fly over, her rant- lecture already planned when someone grabbed her ankle and dragged her down.
Much to everyone's surprise it was Bunnymund who dragged her down. "I wanna see why tha kid took tha sleigh to Japan." Bunny answered Tooth's incredulous look. "It's not like he couldn't just ride the wind ta get 'ere."
That sparked their interest.
So they followed Jack into the forest doing their very best to remain hidden. North decided that being a man his size and wearing a bright red coat in a forest where the only colors seemed to be white and brown, made hidding hard.
Still the Big Four managed to stay hidden as they followed the baby of their family. They watched from their hiding spot as Jack stopped in front a hill and hit on it with his staff exactly three times in certain rhythm.
Seconds later foxes came walking out of the hill In less than a minute Jack was surrounded by a large group of foxes all in various sizes and fur colors variations per fox... as did the amount of tails?
One of the foxes, one with dark fur and eight long tails -Bunny could tell this fox was an elder- glared at Jack un till he was nudged aside by a smaller fox, she only had one tail and her fur was a brownish shade of orange. The female fox walked closer to Jack lessening the space between them to only a feet. That's where she stopped, dark eyes on Jack as her body started to change shape growing.
From their hiding place in the bushes the four guardians watched wide-eyed as the fox changed. In less than a few seconds the fox had gone from... well from being a fox to a being human girl. Or at least a human-like appearing girl because clearly she wasn't human. Even if she did look like a Japanese girl around Jack's age.
The color of the kimono she wore was a light shade of pink with decorative blue flowers on it she stood in front of Jack, the geta she wore barely leaving an imprint in the snow, and despite the fact that these kind of shoes gave her an extra height boost the girl still was at least a head shorter than Jack. Short with light brownish-ginger hair that had playful curls in it that went on till beneath her shoulders.
The girl looked at Jack, her head tilted to the side. "Jack-kun?" She said sounding both curious and mildly annoyed at the same time.
Sitting on a tree branch above the bushes where his companions were hiding in Sandy found himself nodding to the girl's annoyance. Clearly Jack had just awoken an entire clan of kitsune.
-ROTG-
Jack let out a chuckle the sound covering the sound of him mentally smacking himself. 'How had he prepared everything so well and still forget the little detail called time zones?' "Yeah... Sorry about that cheeky fox." Used the name he called her when the Kitsune hadn't been able to tell him her name would cheer her up, as would this, "Um.. Oregon?" Jack asked moving straight on to their usual greeting -or at least their greeting for whenever Jack visited in the hours that could be considered morning.
Blinking only once, the surprise faded from Chika's face. "Is it morning in Orego-" Even centuries after meeting Jack Frost and later on Hiccup Haddock, sarcasm was not yet an art the girl had mastered and she ended up covering her mouth to hide her giggles.
"Ohayo Jack-kun." Chika said cheerily once she swallowed her laughter. She shouldn't let herself go in front of the rest of her clan like that. Sure her grandfather would allow it but not the clan's chief. Yes kitsune are trickster spirits but they were also supposed to b dignified, graceful beings of wisdom.
"I am glad to see you, it's been too long!" and boy had that sudden giggle fit make her energized. Jack-kun had probably done that on purpose! "But," She said calming down or at least pretending to do so in front of th clan. "but..." She repeated more slowly letting the word drag on. Yeah she had no excuse to save Jack from her angry clan leader later on.
Remembering the other kitsune all glaring at him Jack flashed Chika his trademark smirk. He put a hand on her shoulder and turned so he was fully facing her fellow clan members, his eyes meeting the dark ones of the clan leader. The proud large fox, one with five tails and orange fur.
"Kitsunerīdā-sama, I am sorry for my disturbance to you and your people." Jack spoke in perfect Japanese, bowing deeply to the leader of Chika's clan. "It was not my intention to wake your entire clan, I only came with a surprise in mind for Chika-chan."
Chika bit her lower watching Jack and her leader stare each other down. "Jack-kun..." 'Don't piss him, don't piss him off.' She mentally chanted. Taka, their Kitsunerīdā was powerful enough to-to do...
Not kill Jack, that's wasn't honorable. Taka could seriously injure the spirit of winter. That wasn't Chika's greatest concern. Jack had been hurt before. Too many times, more so from before they even met. Before her grandfather started teaching Jack kendo.
No, Chika worried her leader would ban Jack from the Den.
Finally the clan leader turned his head and a mental command ran through the heads of all clan members.
'Let us return to the Den and try to go back to sleep. Chika,'
The girl jumped at being addressed through Taka's telepathy.
The leader shapeshifted into his human form, a tall broad tan mad whith high cheekbones, dark eyes just Chika's and his short hair was raven black. His lips formed a thin line. "Have fun."
Naturally Jack took that as permission to go. Without warning he grabbed Chika's wrist began dragging the kitsune along with him.
"Where are we going?!" Chika asked adjusting to Jack's running pace with ease.
Jack laughed, "Remember when you said you'd love to see different views?"
-ROTG-
From their hiding spot the guardians sat there, stunned into silence. Finally North broke the silence. "Vhat... Vhat did we just see?" The amusement in Santa's voice was hard to miss as well as the pride.
"My little prince all grown up!" Tooth was smart enough to wait till the rest of Chika's clan disappeared back into their Den. Realizing something the fairy's expression shifted, her amethyst eyes narrowing on her husband. "And he's acting way too much like his father."
"Nah," North waved his hand at her in a dismissing gesture. "eez all for good fun."
"Jack stole the sleigh, took it for a late night flight to Japan and then just went and disturbed an entire clan of powerful trickster spirits." Bunnymund listed a large grin on his face. "All that tha pick up a girl." Aster laughed, he'd been dying to meet the Chika Jack's friends had mentioned. Now that he'd seen all this there's no way Bunny was gonna let the lil' frostbite live it down.
Sandy clapped his hands forming many hearths from his dreamsand. The little man already eargely anticipating the day Jack would introduce them to Chika. Clearly she had to be someone special.
According to the fellow seasonals Jack had no problem getting girls to like him. Not surprising seeing who the boy's father was. But Jack was clearly close to this Chika.
All four of them jumped when the heard a faint but clear squeal of delight. Obviously Jack had just shown Chika the surprise.
North couldn't stop the deep belly laughter that escaped him. "Everybody loves the sleigh."
Author: Explanation time! Okay lets see... The tree Jack knocked on is the secret entrance to the clan's Den, the Den is like their version of Bunny's Warren.
Jack and Chika have been friends for a long time, long enough to have their own inside jokes.
"Ohayo" is Japanese for 'Good morning' and is pronounced 'Ohio' so Jack made it his personal mission to name every other state when greeting Chika. Not that Chika really minds.
And Chika's grandfather is the one who taught Jack how to use his staff for kendo fighting. He's a fun character which I might introduce soon, I also plan on exploring Taka (the clan leader) at some point.
I hope you don't hate me for making you wait, or that you guys are mad because I introduced an original character.