Alaia Skyhawk: Hehehe, lots of people liked the "Jack is related to Jamie" thing, and also Emily bossing both Jack and Albert around. Well, she's still going to be getting her way in this chapter too :)

Also, on a small side note, I'm going to explain why getting Albert to believe in Jack again, worked. 1: Because he used to belief in Jack. 2: Because Emily had a strong tie to him, he was more inclined to believe her words even if he was stubbornly sceptical. 3: The snowball definitely helped.

The trick wouldn't work with anyone who didn't know Jack as a child, unless that person is naturally more open to believing anyway. Such as someone with a strong love of stories about myths, legends, and folklore :)

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 9: A Tradition Founded

It was with some disorientation that Jack woke the following morning, roused from his sleep by the firm nudge of a foot to his ribs. He opened his eyes to find himself inside a cabin, which he'd never been since he'd died, and then his view was dominated by the skirt of the woman who was nudging him awake.

Emily looked down at Jack where he'd dozed off on the floor, speaking as he in turn looked up at her.

"It's dawn. Now come on, we have things to gather."

Jack got up off the floor, and took hold of his staff from where he'd propped it in the corner. At the other end of the room, Albert was in a similar state of drowsy confusion.

"Collect what?"

Emily threw on her shawl and opened the front door.

"Things to make a garland with, silly. Now come help me pick what you want to be used to represent your festival."

"Eh?"

Jack stared at her as she went out the door, before he hastened to follow upon her leaving it open and making it clear she wasn't going to close it herself.

Outside the house, in the pale light, no one else was moving about yet. Only Emily left her footprints in the thin covering of fresh snow, as she walked into the woods until she found a patch of climbing ivy. She then began to cut off a few trailing lengths from it, before turning to her brother.

"I thought ivy would make a good base for the garland, since there's so much of it around and it's a lovely dark red at this time. What else should we weave in with it?"

She actually prodded him in the chest as she asked that, and Jack awkwardly took a step back before looking about at their surroundings.

"Umm." His eyes spotted a patch of what had been nicknamed 'Christmas Fern', because it stayed green all through the winter, and he pointed to it. "What about those? They hold the frost well, and will look good against the red."

Emily darted over to the plants, and grabbed several of the stems before grinning at him.

"Right. What else?"

Jack hesitated, still uncertain if or not this would get him into trouble. But then Emily looked so happy, and was having so much fun. He couldn't refuse.

He mulled it over.

"Something with berries on it, but not holly. I don't want anything with sharp edges or thorns."

Emily's smile widened, and she dashed away through the trees.

"I know! Winterberries!"

Jack glided after her, feeling his heart lighten at the sound of her joyful laughter. He watched as she gathered the clusters of berries on their woody stems, before the two of them headed back to the cabin and sat on the porch.

He held down the end of the forming garland, as Emily braided the ivy into a length as long as her forearm. He then watched as she threaded the ferns into the back so they framed the dark-red of the ivy, and then she began to thread the sprigs of berries into the front.

Most of the villagers were up and about by the time she finished, so they heard her call Albert outside, and they saw the two of them tie the garland to one of the porch supports. Several villagers looked confused, but it was Claire who came over to see what her brother and his wife were doing.

"What's that for?"

Emily smiled at her, even as she passed a spare sprig of berries to Albert.

"The first snow was yesterday, so I'm welcoming the spirit, Jack Frost, back to his woods around this village." She walked over to the storm-pole, Albert at her side, and at her prompting both of them set their sprig of berries at the foot of the post. Emily then set her hand to the wood. "Spirit of Winter, watch over us until spring. Warn us when the bad storms come, and grant us your protection" She put her hands to her belly. "I want my child to be safe."

Claire watched the whole scene with uncertainty, but at Emily's prayer and mention of her unborn child, the woman seemed to come to a decision.

She hastened over to her own cabin, and immediately asked her husband to go out and gather the same things Emily had used for her garland. A couple of other mothers copied her, and by mid-morning most of the houses in the village had a garland tied to the porch. There was also a pile of winterberry sprigs at the base of the pole.

Jack watched it happen with both bemusement and a sense of awe, for while the half-true belief of the adults didn't give him power, their acknowledgement of him still sent a strange tingle up his spine with every uttered prayer.

Was this how all the Legend Immortals started out, the ones that had festivals? With a single believer getting the idea to celebrate their existence or that which they represented?

He sat perched atop the pole, looking down at the people leaving their sprigs beneath him, and noticed the children that had gathered to do the same. They giggled among each other, some pointing at him furtively, and he waited until the adults all had their backs turned before he jumped down to spiral frost around the base and up the pole above the tributes after the children set down theirs.

The children all looked so happy as they cheered his display, and the adults reacted with awe when the children's laughter drew their attention to the newly-formed frost.

From her porch, Emily watched and murmured quietly. Yet her voice was loud enough for the nearby villagers to hear.

"I think we've pleased Jack Frost. We've made him happy."

Jack smiled at her from atop his pole, and remained there as a watcher until the sun set. He then went back to his pond to wait for morning, and dwell on the day's events. The winds hadn't found any avalanche sites today.

He was perched atop his staff in the centre of the pond, beneath a clear night-sky, when a familiar voice jolted him from his thoughts.

"Your peers aren't going to be too pleased about this, although I can guess that you do not care."

Jack glanced over his shoulder, to where Mother Nature stood in the shadows.

"You know I'll never be content with the isolated life that they live. But you chose them because you knew they'd be happy working on their own, with only a handful of lesser seasonal spirits to keep them company. But you didn't choose me..."

Mother Nature sighed.

"And already you show yourself to be more the Moon's work than mine, or perhaps, rather you show yourself to be both our work. A bridge between the Nature Immortals and the Legend Immortals, a counterbalance."

Jack turned to face her, still perched on the top of his staff.

"So you're not angry?"

She shook her head with a wry smile.

"Not at all. It was one of the villagers who started the tradition, not you, and it will be they who continue to tell your legend." Her smile faded. "But, by the very circumstance that the tradition is started, to celebrate the protection you give to the village, so will the belief in you not spread beyond it. Others may hear of you outside of this valley, but they will not believe. Your circle of influence will be as limited as any other minor Legend Immortal. Only the Guardians, and a select few of the more powerful Legends, are believed in across the entire world."

Jack frowned.

"Guardians?"

Mother Nature came into the silver light that shone across the pond and the forest, and looked up at the moon overhead.

"The Man in the Moon's chosen ones, the protectors of the world's children. The Sandman, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and Santa to name the most prominent of them. I'm sure you've heard of those four by those names."

Jack stared.

"Wait, all of them are real?" He blinked. "Wait, what am I saying? Of course they're real! They're Legend Immortals, right? Their power comes from the belief of the children."

"Lots of children." Mother Nature turned to face him, her expression unreadable. "You'll learn more over time, about Sanderson, Toothiana, Bunnymund, and North. You may even meet them someday, although don't expect much attention. They are far busier than any Immortal you have met thus far. North and Bunnymund remain at their homes at all times, rarely leaving for anything but the single day each year that they do their work and reinforce the belief of the world's children. Toothiana never leaves her palace, save when she and the other Guardians are summoned to a meeting at North's workshop at the North Pole. The only one you are likely to meet is Sanderson. You will know when he is nearby, when you see the trails of his golden dreamsand seeking out children in need of good dreams. You must have seen them by now, if you've been paying attention."

Jack frowned at that, and nodded with a hint of annoyance.

"I've seen them."

Mother Nature smiled.

"Then seek him out, if you are curious, for of all the Guardians, he will quiet happily converse with you. But do not expect to hear much... He doesn't speak, just in case that by doing so, he wakes a child from their dreams."

She vanished, leaving Jack alone with whatever thoughts her words had triggered. And after mulling over them for a while, he did make a decision. It was then, with the coming of dawn, that he went to speak with his sister.

~(-)~

Alaia Skyhawk: Just another bit of info. Should I eventually work in details from the books, I'm changing when those books were set. Namely, instead of them happening about 200 years before the film, they happen 400 years before. So in my time-line, that means North has been 'Santa' for around about 110 years by this point, and is of course the youngest of the Guardians. In my time-line, Bunny has also been a Guardian for about 350-400 years at this point. If I work in book info, my tweak to the plot of the book about him, will be that he's already a Guardian when those events happen. I can't really pin any of this down yet, until I've read the books, but I'll go into more details later if I start to work that information in after I have :)

Also, about Emily starting that tradition... never underestimate a mother's determination to protect her children in any way. The moment Emily roped the village women into praying for the safety of their children, there was no way the idea wasn't going to spread to the entire village hehehe.