Hey everyone! New chapter! Thank you to kramer53 for being a very patient beta, and thank you to everyone who reviewed my last chapter! Everyone seemed to have the same thoughts on what they would do if they were Jack (meaning cry or throw a tantrum, or both) and I totally agree with you. I would be in tears too. But for this chapter, Jack has to be careful about how Elsa sees him react, since she doesn't remember anything, so the tears will come later, and there'll be a major feels moment for all the fans. Jack needs to get her to trust him again, so that's what their part in this chapter is. The part that really sets up the plot is the section about the Guardians. Enjoy my snowflakes!
Chapter 2: The Northern Lights
The moon shone brightly through the open doors of a balcony in a palace made of ice, concentrating on the body of a woman with platinum blonde hair braided to her left side, ice blue eyes, and a blue dress made of ice. The moonlight was strong enough to melt the lid of the casket she was lying in, and focused a beam to land directly on her heart. There were a few minutes where nothing happened, then there was a flash of bright light and snowflakes as the ice palace erupted into color, and the woman sat up. The blue flames burning in the icy urns froze in intricate patterns, and the woman stood and walked to the balcony to look up at the bright, full moon shining above her.
"Your name is Elsa, and you are the Snow Queen. This ice palace is your home, and the Guardians of Childhood are your friends," the Man in the Moon told her, and that was all he ever told her. The woman, Elsa, went to explore her ice palace, and saw every room. As she was walking past the ballroom to go back to the room she woke up in, which she decided was her bedroom, she noticed a figure standing by the window staring at the sky. She walked closer silently, and noticed the figure was barefoot, tall, and definitely male, with snow-white hair, wearing a blue hoodie covered in frost and brown pants, and carrying a tall, crooked staff. She had never seen this man before, so as she walked closer, she held her hands out in a defensive position in case he tried to attack her.
"Who are you?" she demanded, and the figure spun to face him. He had deep, kind blue eyes that lit up when he saw her. He smiled and took a step towards her, but when the air around her hands began to glow blue with her icy magic, he stopped in his tracks and the light in his eyes faded away.
"I asked you a question. Who are you?" she demanded once more, and saw a flash of something resembling pain in his eyes.
"My name is Jack Frost," he informed her slowly, almost as if he didn't want to. "You don't remember me…?"
His question caught Elsa off guard. Why should she remember him? She never met him before. Although, now that she thought about it, she didn't remember anything before she saw the moon. There was darkness, the moon, her wandering throughout the palace, and now her meeting Jack Frost, but nothing before then. She didn't know how the ice palace came to be, and why she woke up there, and she didn't even know her last name—if she even had one. She just knew she was the Snow Queen and anyone who said they were something called a Guardian of Childhood was a friend.
"Why would I remember you?" she asked him, and saw the same emotion as before come into his eyes. This time it stayed long enough that she was sure it was pain, and she wondered why he would be hurt that she didn't remember him. He sighed, and she watched as he turned to look at the moon before turning back to her.
"You wouldn't," he sighed again, then gripped his staff tighter before continuing. "I'm a Guardian, the Guardian of Fun, to be exact, and the Spirit of Winter. I bring snow days and snowball fights to all the children of the world." Her breath caught slightly when he said he was a Guardian, and she felt her body relax.
"You're a Guardian of Childhood?" she asked him hesitantly, wanting to make sure she understood him correctly, and he thought for a minute before nodding with a shrug.
"Yeah, I guess you could call us that. We just call ourselves the Guardians, but I guess we're the Guardians of Childhood. Why?" he asked and watched her curiously.
"The Man in the Moon told me anyone who was a Guardian of Childhood was a friend," she stated, and the light came back into Jack's eyes as she completely relaxed. Granted this light wasn't anywhere near as bright or as happy as it was when he first saw her, but she could tell he was at least a little happy.
"That's great, since the Man in the Moon is the reason the Guardians exist. He brought us all back to life as spirits to fight a spirit named Pitch Black, the Boogeyman. He tries to rule the world with fear, and we exist to keep the children safe," he explained, and Elsa watched him with intrigue in her eyes. She motioned for him to follow her to the living room in the palace, and while he sat she went to her kitchen to grab two bars of chocolate she found hidden in a cabinet. She came back and handed him one, and she could have sworn she saw a memory flash in his eyes, but it was gone before she could see the details. He thanked her, and she sat down next to him.
"So, can you explain to me what Guardians do?" she asked, interested in the fact that the Man in the Moon was responsible for something called spirits.
Jack smiled and explained everything about Guardians, from them doing something worthy of being revived to protect children, to them becoming spirits, who could only be seen if they're believed in. He explained how each Guardian had something called a center that was specific to them, one that no other Guardian or Spirit had, and that center was the part of childhood that they were meant to protect. He told her about how Santa Claus protected wonder, and the Tooth Fairy protected the most important childhood memories, and the Easter Bunny protected hope, and the Sandman protected dreams, and how he protected fun. Elsa listened intently, wanting to absorb every detail he would tell her about who her friends-to-be were, and time seemed to simply fade away.
Toothiana, Sandy, Bunny and North remained in the workshop talking after Jack left. Everyone was trying to guess what the happy feeling North mentioned was.
"Are there more believers this year? Or more people becoming believers?" Tooth asked, going over to North's giant globe. There were millions of tiny golden lights covering the surface, but no more than there usually were. North shook his head.
"No, that's not it. I would know if it was. I watch that globe like hawk," he told them with his thick Russian accent. Tooth frowned in thought, and Bunny piped up.
"Maybe the Man in the Moon knows where we can find the last artifact to stop Pitch once and for all?" he asked, knowing they had all but one piece of the magical weapon that would be the only thing to destroy Pitch Black forever and erase fear from the world. The first four artifacts were North's sword, one of Tooth's teeth that belonged to the Man in the Moon which gave her the ability to see the memories stored inside the teeth of the children, Bunny's Egg of Life, that allowed him to create spring, and Sandy's dream sand, but they were still missing one piece of the puzzle. North shrugged.
"Maybe. Until Manny gives us more information, we not know," he said, and Bunny pulled out one of his boomerangs to play with while the thought. Sandy floated over using his dream sand to create images above his head, saying what he thought the feeling was. He showed an image of the moon, then one of a four-leaf-clover, then a bow with a heart-tipped arrow, then a question mark.
"You might be right, Sandy, and he's going to choose a new guardian, but this feels bigger than that," he started, but was interrupted when the roof opened to reveal the moon. They all turned and were about to greet Manny when a large crystal emerged from the floor and a beam of moonlight shone through it onto the Guardian symbol on the floor, raising a crystal pedestal, and Tooth gasped.
"So he is choosing a new Guardian. But who?" she asked, and Sandy once again showed his images of the four-leaf-clover and the bow with the heart tipped arrow.
"Please don't be the Groundhog, please don't be the Groundhog," Bunny chanted, and as they watched, a figure appeared on the pedestal.
The figure was tall and slender, wearing a fitted, floor-length blue gown. The dress had a long slit that reached halfway up the woman's thigh, and her ice heels could be seen under the bottom of the dress and through the opening that revealed her right leg. She had a long, sheer cape with snowflakes decorating it, a sweetheart neckline, and sheer sleeves. Her platinum blonde hair was braided to her left side, her eyes were lit up as she smiled freely, and her right hand was held up with a large, precise, angular snowflake hovering above it. She had a faint scar on her cheek, and the entire group gasped as they recognized the woman on the pedestal.
"It's Elsa!" Tooth exclaimed with a wide smile, and North smiled knowingly, patting his stomach.
"I told you it was something good! Elsa is a Guardian, and she and Jack can be together now!" he exclaimed, and ran to turn on the Guardian Call to bring Jack back to the workshop.
"Um, mate, there's just one problem. What if she doesn't remember us? Or Jack? I mean, Jack didn't remember his past when he woke up. What if Elsa doesn't remember hers?" he told the others, and Tooth perked up again.
"We give her back her teeth! They have her memories in them! She'll remember!" she declared eagerly, flying around the room. Suddenly the room darkened, and three voices became one in an ominous laugh.
"Thanks for the tip, fairy," one voice said, and as quickly as the darkness came, it disappeared again. Tooth's face paled and she dropped from the sky.
"North, what was that?" she asked slowly, and the images above Sandy's head were going crazy. North just shook his head.
"I don't know. Did that voice sound familiar?" he asked the group, and they each took a moment to think before shaking their heads.
"I've never heard that voice before. I swear in the laugh there were two voices that were familiar, but I didn't recognize the one that spoke. If I had heard it before, I would know who it was, but I don't," Tooth said, her eyes betraying how confused she was. Bunny, North and Sandy all looked at each other without much hope, before everyone remembered what the voice said.
"Tooth, your palace," North said, and the hummingbird girl was out of the workshop before anyone could blink. North sent Sandy and Bunny after her, wanting to wait until Jack saw the Northern Lights and returned to the workshop to hear the good news.
Once Jack had finished telling the story of the Guardians, leaving out the parts about Elsa to avoid confusing her, they had each finished three bars of chocolate and Elsa had asked every question Jack had an answer to, and a few that he didn't. She finally ran out of questions, and at that moment S'more and Marshmallow came in. S'more nudged Jack to the window, and somehow Marshmallow explained to Elsa that she created him to be her bodyguard. Jack just assumed it was a creator/creation relationship. When he reached the window and looked out at the sky, he gasped, and Elsa jerked her head up.
"What is it? What's wrong?" the Snow Queen asked him, and he shook his head.
"We need to go to North's workshop. Come on," he said, grabbing her hand. She didn't fight him and followed him to the balcony.
"How are we getting there?" she questioned him, and he held out his staff.
"I was just going to fly us there. It makes life easier. And if you're worried I'll drop you, don't be. I'll keep you safe, I promise," he swore to her, and she nodded. He smiled and picked her up bridal style, and together they flew off to North's workshop to see what the emergency was.
Oh no! Tooth's palace is in trouble again?! That poor fairy. Anyway, who do you think the mystery voice is? The Guardian of Memories doesn't remember hearing it before, so who could it be? Leave your thoughts in a review or PM me and we'll see if anyone thinks the same way I do!