Alaia Skyhawk: Time for Jack to meet one of his fellow Seasonal Spirits :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians, the Guardians of Childhood, or any related characters etc. This story is written purely for entertainment purposes.

~(-)~

Chapter 4: Meetings and Disdain

Jack glanced back at his sanctuary, before he headed out the tunnel to depart. The Winter Sprites were still playing on the ice-slides, still giggling and laughing among themselves, and he couldn't help but worry if they'd miss him. He'd have come back for them once the Nothern Winter started, but wasn't confident at this point that he'd be able to track them all down and bring them home once the season ended, even with the help of the winds. But, if the way they never tired of the slides was an indication, they probably wouldn't miss him too much. He could just expect to be flattened with hugs when he came back to the Sanctuary next Southern Autumn.

He stepped into the tunnel, the snowfall in the cavern ceasing the moment his presense left it, and then jumped into the air to fly the rest of the way down and out the passage. The sun was shining outside upon the glacier, and the winds welcomed him back into the open skies, before he asked them to take him northwards over lands which were now under the dominion of spring.

Feeling that season's gentle yet firm grasp on the land, Jack mulled to himself over something else he'd figured out. Mother Nature hadn't told him to stay south because it was neccessary, but to keep him from being tempted to approach his sister. It was obvious by this point that the Spirits of the Seasons didn't really need to do all that much work. If he were to total up the amount of time he'd spent on neccessary duties in the past ten months, and the amount he expected he'd have to do during the last two months of his first year at this, it only amounted to about four solid weeks' worth of hours. If it were the same for the other Spirits of the Seasons, and the winds whispered to him that it was, then each spirit worked at most for a month of time, leaving them with eleven months of time to do whatever they wanted.

Inwardly Jack wished he could have done his month of work in one go without sleeping, instead of dragging it out over six months, especially given that three of those six he'd only needed to go out to tend avalanches for one hour a week. During Northern winter he'd flown around tending things for up to four hours per day.

He sighed, soaring past the invisible line that divided the north of the world from the south of the world. He also resolved to see how much else Mother Nature had deliberately discouraged him from with her words. He wouldn't be surprised in the slighest if she'd lied about summer's warmth harming him.

As if to prove that point to himself, the winds diverted his path to a massive and frigid island north-west of England, which the gusting wind told him was called Greenland by people. Parts of Greenland had active volcanoes, whose heat rose far, far up into the sky. The wind carried Jack through those collumns of warmth, even taking him down closer to the volcanoes himself when he asked them to.

After flitting around the fiery manifestations of heat incarnate for an entire afternoon, Jack eventually settled on a rock within a stone's throw of a lava flow and the heat radiating from it. It was far hotter than a typical summer, and while admittedly he felt stifled, the faint haze of water-vapour condensing into mist around him was proof his powers were having no trouble keeping him as cold as he needed to be. He proved it further by walking close enough to the lava, that the chill radiating from him in defence against its heat caused its edge to turn black and solid.

Jack shook his head and took flight again, this time to return to his pond and the village. He really wasn't surprised that Mother Nature had told that one small lie. He would be the first to admit he'd never have left the village if not for her warning, and if he'd done that he wouldn't have found the Winter Sanctuary or the Winter Sprites. He wouldn't have learnt the several important lessons which had already woven themselves into his being... The most important one being that he was no longer human, and couldn't expect to live a normal human life. He could, perhaps, live on the fringes if he was sensible about it, but he also couldn't grow too attached. He had to maintain a certain distance, or he'd just hurt himself more in the long run.

He would have to remind himself that he would see his sister grow old and die while he remained unchanged. He would have to build up a wall between himself and those emotions, which he could put himself behind when that day came. If he didn't, he knew he would break.

Soon America was flowing past beneath him, and the familiar landscape around the village came into view. Jack drifted down to his pond with a sigh, his feet touching the water and creating a small platform of ice for him to stand on. From there he admired the fiery golds, reds, and browns of the autumn forest, whose leaves were still only half-fallen to the ground. He then noticed that fine tendrils of frost had snaked out from his platform, and that the entire edge of the pond now had a rim of ice.

He noticed that, at the same moment the Autumn Sprite, that had been dipping its toes in the pond's edge, leapt back in surprise at almost being trapped in ice before proceeding to run off through the trees yelling at the top of its little lungs.

Jack instantly cringed, broke his ice-platform, and dropped into the water to sink to the bottom of the pond. He then sat there, praying to Moon and Mother Nature that he hadn't just committed some form of breech of courtesy to Autumn.

He stayed there, just above the mud, until a shadow drifted overhead and stayed there. It circled a little, then stoppd, and he had the distinct feeling that someone was peering down at where he was.

With a small frown of uncertainty, Jack headed for the surface. The water sliding off his face, hair, and shoulders when he reached it as if he'd never been submerged at all. He then eyed the figure that floated above the water, watching him. A seemingly middle-aged man with a short beard, garbed in russet firs and leather, and carrying a hatchet on his belt and a hunting bow in his hand. It made him resemble a combination of a woodsman and lumberjack. Jack then noticed the Autumn Sprite watching him as well from the edge of the pond, chittering away agitatedly, and winced when it became obvious who the 'woodsman' was.

Jack rose the rest of the way out of the water to float above it, and kept his head bowed in nervousness.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to freeze anything yet. The edges just iced up as soon as I arrived."

The Spirit of Autumn regarded him solemnly, and then smiled wryly.

"It's your pond, and it's seven weeks until your season, not all that long." He gestured to the woods around them. "This place has resounded with the echo of winter, even when you weren't here. The Spirit of Spring, Ariko Blossomsinger, by all accounts ambushed Achieng Sunblessed, the Spirit of Summer, after sensing that echo here. Ariko was so excited that Mother Nature has finally made a Spirit of Winter, or at least she will have been until Southern Spring distracted her a few weeks ago." He looked around at the ice-rimmed pond. "But even if Achieng hadn't told me, I'd have sensed you'd been here. This is where you were reborn, correct?"

Jack hesitated, somewhat unwilling to discuss his death, but decided he might as well get it over with.

"I... fell through the ice and drowned here last winter, but apparently the world wasn't done with me yet."

The Spirit of Autumn grinned, almost friendly.

"Then this pond is definitely yours. My place of rebirth is back in England. I misjudged a tree I was felling, it landed on me, and the grove where it happens remains mine. I woke up afterwards as I am now. I am Oisin Leaffall, the Spirit of Autumn."

Jack nodded his head in respect, and straightened up.

"I am Jack Frost, the Spirit of Winter."

Oisin continued to smile.

"So, how much have you figured out so far, about your new 'life'? Did Mother Nature tell you to avoid summer?"

Jack snorted.

"Yes, she told me the warmth would harm me, but I've figured out she just wanted me to leave the place of my death for long enough not to want to cling to this place all year. When my mere presense can freeze lava, I doubt that summer's warmth will give me much trouble."

Oisin chuckled.

"Very true. What else have you learnt?"

Jack raised an eyebrow, starting to gain confidence in this encounter.

"That Mother Nature makes it sound like it's much more work that it actually is." He frowned. "What do you and the others do to fill all your spare time? Apart from shepherding my season north and south, all I have to do is find bad avalanches and set them off when there's no one below to be hurt by them. I have so much free time, that I spent most of Southern Winter bored to the brink of tears when I wasn't keeping my Winter Sprites entertained."

The Spirit of Autumn tilted his head, and conjured an arrow with which he then drew his bow. He fired the arrow into the trees at the edge of the pond, and immediately leaves began to rain down from some of them.

"My job is to make sure all the trees that drop their leaves, and drop them when they're meant to, for sometimes they cling to them for more or less time than they should. If they lose them too early, they lose energy from the sun that will help them sprout again in spring. Too late, and it's a similar problem. The frosts kill the leaves before the sap in them can be drawn back into the trunk, costing the tree strength it could use in spring after spending winter to rest. Fruit trees and bushes that have suffered like that, can produce a poor crop the following year. That in turn can harm the people and animals that depend on them for food during your season."

Jack winced, at the reminder of how his season was as much a killer as a time for the land to rest.

"So what do Ariko and Achieng do?"

Oisin snorted in a kind of humoured disdain for his peers.

"Ariko makes those trees and bushes I mentioned, flower at the correct times. She's obsessed with blossom, but that's probably because of where she was from before she died. In Nippon, or as it is called by the people of this land, Japan, they believe cherry trees are blessed." He shrugged what what he clearly considered to be foolishness, and continued. "Achieng's job is to handle the summer wildfires, which are common in the lands where she is from. She was from a tribe somewhere on the plains of Africa. Of course, all of us handle the bad side of our seasons as well. We can't keep things kind for humans all the time, there has to be balance."

Jack frowned.

"What do you mean?"

Oisin's smile faded into seriousness.

"When Mother Nature detects that the balance of nature needs to be settled, depending on the season, she will call one of us and say what she needs and where. So while I protect the harvest most years, sometimes I am told to make the leaves fall early, or make it rain too much. When that happens, the harvest suffers. Achieng can be asked to start a wildfire instead of control them, or bring a drought to an area that normally gets enough rain. She may even be asked to bring too much rain. Ariko is the same, she controls rain. If the ground is too wet, and she does not bring warmth as swiftly as normal, seeds can rot in the ground before they can sprout. It sounds cruel, but nature isn't always fair, and so we aren't always fair either."

Jack pulled his arms around himself, holding his staff close.

"So what you're saying is that, I may be told to conjure terrible blizzards or freezing rain to coat things in ice, possibly even in areas where people will be killed by them?"

Oisin nodded solemnly.

"It will take a while to accept. Trust me, I know. Sometimes we are even asked to bring our season early, or late, to an area. The first time you're asked to do that, or to bury a town under snow, you'll hesitate. But remember this, if you don't do it, then Mother Nature will do it herself, and she's not as subtle with it as we would be. You'd pause, thinking perhaps you could spare them, but instead it would only mean more of them coming to harm. Take my advice, and do what Mother Nature wants you to do, when she tells you to do it. You'll spare yourself far more pain that way, while you get used to this new life of yours."

Oisin rose upwards on a breeze as if to leave, and Jack called out after him.

"And how long have you been the Spirit of Autumn?"

Oisin paused and looked down.

"I stopped counting a while back, but it's been more than a thousand years. Achieng has been around a couple of centuries longer than me, and Ariko was the first of us. Heed my advice, Jack Frost, and maybe in a decade or so we will talk again."

Jack gaped at him.

"A decade?!"

Oisin regarded with a pitying smile. As if he were some small child who didn't grasp the harshness of reality.

"We Spirits of the Seasons don't speak to each other much. Except when we're moving our seasons, or doing our small tasks, we live in our sanctuaries. I've no doubt you'll build something for yourself if you haven't already found it, and in time you'll understand why we keep to ourselves."

Jack headed up into the air, following after the departing Spirit of Autumn.

"Wait! Do... Do any of you have people who believe in you? Children who can see you?"

Oisin stopped, and looked back with a haughty expression. Whatever friendliness or good humour he'd shown before now, gone beneath a hardened perception of the world.

"We're the Spirits created by Mother Nature. We serve her and nature gives us our power. Why should we seek the belief of children? We are not like the Legend Immortals created by the Man in the Moon, we do not need the belief that their power depends on. We work alone."

Oisin departed on a gust of air barely short of being a gale, and when he was gone from sight, Jack scowled and muttered to himself.

"Mother Nature may have made me the Spirit of Winter, but it was the Man in the Moon who chose me... I'll never settle for being alone. I'll never settle for not being believed in."

He turned in the air and flew off to the village, where he then settled himself on a roof to watch the children below. From there he spotted his sister, running around and laughing, and smiled to himself.

Soon. He could try to gain her belief in him, soon.

~(-)~

Alaia Skyhawk: Yep, Jack already doesn't like his fellow Seasonal Spirits. Why? Because they're boring, unsympahtetic snobs. They were chosen because they had the ability to wield the good and bad of their seasons without caring if people got hurt by them, because nature isn't generally fair, but Jack was chosen by the Man in the Moon... Ariko, Achieng, and Oisin are seriously going to have no clue what to think of him hehehe :)