Alaia Skyhawk: Here's the next chapter guys! And a shout-out to orion-redde for drawing this super cute picture of a Winter Sprite. They've got them pretty-much bang on, just picture the little fellow with his fur fluffed out as if he's had an encounter with a vandergraph generator, and you get the idea :D

The picture can be found here: www . orion-redde . deviantart art/Winter-Sprite-347796233 (Take out the spaces either side of each " . ") Thanks again, orion!

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 17: Bright Memory

'October 2nd 1738' is what the icy numerals on the wall declared, placed above a pair of hooks that held a certain wooden staff, which in turn were placed above the 'bed' below. That bed was little more than a slab of ice with a huge pile of snow heaped onto it, and buried among that snow as if it were blankets, was the Spirit of Winter.

The faint sound of whirring cogs came from behind the wall, a soft background noise he was used to by now, but nothing could ignore the sound which was about to replace it.

Behind the wall was something akin to a perpetual calendar and alarm clock, designed by Ombric and then built by Jack so that the power within the Winter Sanctuary would fuel it and keep it going forever. And that 'clock', once per day at the exact same time, played a melodious but VERY loud tune using two-dozen bells made of ice, much like the rest of the collection of icy cogs and pivots were made.

The bells began to ring out, loud enough to make the snow on the bed tremble, and a head of white hair emerged from that snowdrift.

Jack yawned and reached up to grab his staff from its perch, before floating up out of the snow and whisking it smooth again in the matter that normal people would straighten their blankets. He then landed on the polished floor and strolled over to where an Ice Mirror about eighteen inches across, was held in a delicately fluted stand of ice. Beside it was a large armchair, also made of ice, which had been heaped with snow in the place of cushions.

He dropped in among that snow comfortably, at the same moment the mirror shimmered. He still hadn't managed to make them much bigger than this one, but he'd at least perfected controlling them without touching them. As for where he was looking using this one, it was the bedside-table in Emily and Albert's house.

Jack blinked, staring in curiosity, at the sight of a folded cloth bundle and a small scrap of paper on that table. His 'alarm clock' was built in part for this reason, so that he would always check-in for messages from his sister at the same time every day. But he also leaned forward to stick his head through, and confirm there were no visitors in the house before he grabbed the items on the table... The first year he'd started using Ice Mirrors this way, he'd almost treated one of Emily's neighbours to the sight of a floating letter. It had only been Albert's quick thinking, in stepping to the side to block that sight, which had prevented it. 'Check before take' was now the rule, and Jack obeyed it.

Inside the cabin was empty, although there were the usual signs that Emily and Albert had just had breakfast before going out. It was early morning at village time, which was almost noon at the Winter Sanctuary, but Jack didn't mind. He tended to go by village-time for everything anyway.

He grabbed the bundle and the note, lifting them carefully through the mirror before changing the view in the mirror to an image of his pond. But then he changed his mind, and altered the image to one of Santoff Claussen. The sun would be setting there soon, and it was always breathtaking to watch. Besides, he could get sounds though his mirror now, and listening to the children of Santoff Claussen playing with Bear, brought a smile to his face.

Sighing contentedly, Jack leaned back amid the snow of his seat and opened the note from Emily. Moments later he was up in the air, grinning from ear-top-ear at the news it contained.

Thomas, who was now seventeen years old, was soon to marry his childhood sweetheart, Clarrise, and it was going to be a winter wedding! Clarrise was a year younger than Thomas, but had been one of the village's staunchest believers in the Spirit of Winter. She'd only stopped being able to see him last summer, so re-kindling her belief with the nudge of a special snowflake, wouldn't be hard.

Jack chuckled to himself, about something else. He also knew Thomas was completely smitten with her, and had teased him mercilessly about it for the past three years with questions of 'so when are you going to ask her?'

He set aside the note, after he'd drifted back down into his chair to examine the bundle that had been with it. When he unfolded the mass, the discovery of what it was made him grin yet again. Emily had tsked no end last Northern Winter, about the state of his shirt which had been snagged in several places and torn in several others. It seemed that anything that wasn't close to his skin like his leggings, or protected with magic like his cloak from Santoff Claussen, only got so much protection from his powers. Twenty-seven years of throwing himself around through air and snow and woodlands, had taken its toll on his poor shirt, so Emily had made him a new one, and a new waistcoat to go with it.

And he knew, that if he wasn't wearing it when he arrived with the first snows, she would want to know why.

Jack laughed to himself, removing his cloak and his tattered shirt and waistcoat, before he donned the new ones with the eagerness of a child. The new shirt was made of soft, thick linen, and must have be costly although Emily would be stubborn if he mentioned that. It had a row of small wooden buttons down the front, which he would guess that Albert had whittled since each one had a snowflake carved into it. The new waistcoat was made of grey wool, to match his cloak, and Emily had stitched stylised frost patterns into it along the two front edges.

When he had both items of clothing on, Jack admired how the ice he naturally caused on his clothing had settled into the snowflakes on the buttons, and had added to the 'frost' on the waistcoat as well. Once he'd put his grey-wool cloak back on, he then created a floor-length non-enchanted mirror so he could check how he looked. And if he were to describe it in the terms Emily would teasingly use, he looked rather dapper if one ignored his tattered leggings. She'd complained about the state of those too, but he'd had been stubborn about that. He liked how they gave him a slightly rougue'ish look. Mischievous, he'd told her. He thought of them as too much a part of him to ever change.

New clothing on, he sat down again to watch the sun set over Santoff Claussen. He then changed the image to show a distant view of the Tooth Palace, where the sun would set in about an hour. It was set at the point which was the closest he'd dared get to Toothiana's home, that being the limitation he'd discovered on his Ice Mirrors. He could only view, and therefore create portals to, places he had been and seen. Which incidentally meant he could make them just about anywhere in the frigid upper airways, but closer to the ground he was rather more limited, not that it mattered. He could descend from the upper heights, to ground level, in less than a minute. But it also meant he couldn't view or travel to the interior of buildings unless he'd been inside them. A frustrating fact he'd discovered when he'd attempted to slip into Bunnymund's Warren to take a sneaky look around, only to be unable to raise any image on the mirror at all.

A pity really, he wanted to find out how Bunnymund managed to paint so many eggs each year.

Jack sighed, comfortable among his snow-cushions as he watched the sun set over the Tooth Palace, and then he dismissed the image and left his bedroom. He went to the lower level of his palace, and to a huge chamber he'd added in a new wing to the rear. It was a massive sphere, like being inside a globe, with a tall spire in the middle with a simple stool of ice placed on the top of it. Covering the walls were thousands upon thousands of hand-sized ice mirrors, and as he sat on the platform each and every one of them changed to an image of sky with misty glimpses of cloud, land, or water along the bottom edges as if far far below the viewing point.

The mirrors around half of the chamber showed night, and the other half showed day, with a region of dusk and dawn where they met. Small breezes started to come and go through those portals, and instead of waiting up to an hour for a particular wind to arrive with weather news, Jack got word of the local conditions for any of his selected regions of the world, in a matter of seconds.

He'd taken to monitoring the world's weather in this fashion, during the long and boring span between Northern Winters. One: it let him spy on the weather changes his fellow Spirits of the Seasons were up to. Two: it was actually quite entertaining watching day and night circling the walls of his Hall of Mirrors, because he also had four slightly larger mirrors set at the four corners around his perch. It was through those that he viewed things closer to the ground.

He brought up a view of Thomas, who was sat with Clarrise on a bench at the edge of the village square. Clarrise was a rather pretty brunette, with rather more freckles than she would like. However, Jack knew that Thomas found all those freckles to be cute.

Jack smiled at the sight, wondering what he should do for a wedding present while at the same time acknowledging that he didn't really have anything he could give them besides a pretty snowfall on their wedding day. That would have to do, and it was after two more days of weather-watching, that Jack felt the pull of Northern Winter and flew out of the sanctuary with a whoop of laughter.

~(-)~

The village was filled with the usual anticipation, most of those who were present all watching the storm pole. Everyone waited for the Spirit of Winter's arrival, the children most of all, but little did they know there was a slight change in the usual routine going on.

Jack fought not to laugh, as he left a last-minute 'gift' inside the cabin that had been built for Thomas and Clarrise. He had to stay quiet, lest the nearby children hear his very familiar chuckle, but thanks to an Ice Mirror and an unsecured window, he managed to finish leaving his surprise.

That done, Jack swept backwards out into the woods, before soaring up in the sky to come down on the pole from above as if nothing were different from the norm. The children saw him arrive, they cheered like always, and he frosted over the pole which signalled to the villagers that the festivities could begin.

He waved to his sister and her family, in silent promise to come to them once he'd tired the village children out enough to give them the slip. It was starting to get dark before he managed it, and that was only because their parents called them to their homes.

He landed on the porch of Thomas' cabin, Clarrise having returned to her parents house since propriety meant his nephew living in the house alone until they were officially married. That was where he waited when Thomas and Emily approached the house. Albert was busy splitting more logs for the woodpile before it got too dark.

Jack smiled.

"Miss me?"

Emily returned that smile, the expression accentuating the creases now at the corners of her eyes. Age was starting to show on her.

"As much as I always do, even with the letters."

Jack's gaze moved to Thomas, and he gestured to the house.

"I've left a surprise in there for you. Go on, go and see."

Thomas approached the house, and paused once he stepped on the porch.

"Should I be worried?"

"Nah, it's a nice surprise."

Thomas opened the door and went in, and once he'd stepped from view there was a sudden 'Ooof!' before he called out.

"Jack! Get these sprites off me!"

Jack laughed and darted into the house, followed by Emily who stood at the door and fought not to laugh at the scene within.

Thomas was just about completely immobilised, by the mob of around a dozen Winter Sprites who were clinging to his arms, legs, and torso. Jack laughed again, leaning on his staff.

"But I thought you'd like it... I didn't really have anything I could give you as a wedding present, so I thought lots of hugs would make up for it."

Emily started to giggle, and then moved forward to start extricating her son only for the sprite she took hold of to transfer its attentions to her. She then looked at her brother, still laughing.

"Jack, this is a wonderful 'gift', but really. Thomas can hardly marry Clarrise with these adorable little fellows still clinging to him."

Jack shrugged and whistled one, before sharply inclining his head towards the open door in silent command. The Winter Sprites reluctantly let go of Thomas and Emily, but one or two still gave the pair a final hug to the leg before scrambling out the door. Jack then closed it and settled into a nearby chair with a sigh.

"It seems like barely yesterday that you were a tiny child, Thomas, and I held you in my arms. Yet now you're about to get married. Promise me you let me know when any children are expected to be born."

Thomas laughed.

"As if I wouldn't." He paused, thoughtful. "When are you going to help Clarrise remember you again?"

Jack frowned a little, but then replaced it with a smile.

"The morning after the wedding would be best, I think. Bring her out to the pond just after dawn. That will be too early for the village children to come looking for me for games." He went quiet, still regarding his nephew thoughtfully. "...It really does seem like only yesterday. Time is going by so fast."

"Jack, are you all right?"

Emily came over to her, placing her hand on his shoulder, and he nodded.

"I'm fine. I have my moments, when I think about the day you'll be gone, but then I tell myself that no matter what I'll still have all the happy memories we made together."

She nodded, and hugged him tight.

"That's right, and in a few days we'll make another one."

And so it was, to a delicate fall of snowflakes lit by the dawn sun shining from the clear sky to the east, that later that week Thomas and Clarrise said their vows. Their day blessed by yet more signs of approval from the Spirit of Winter, when the eaves of all the houses were then frosted over with patterns like garlands of flowers. It was a feeling of elation that was repeated the following day at the pond, when a touch of a special snowflake, and the reassuring words of her new husband, opened Clarrise's wide eyes to the Spirit she had stopped being able to see.

Life was good, watching their life and happiness was good, and Jack knew he had a new image to add to his growing collection of sculptures. The radiant smile of Clarrise, stood with one arm around Thomas while her other hand clutched a snowball ready to throw at Jack. One that was easily dodged followed by a peal of laughter from him.

Yes, life was good, for however long it would last.

~(-)~

Alaia Skyhawk: I didn't detail this wedding too much, or Clarrise being helped to believe again, since I'll be doing that with another generation of the family much further on. Also, this stage of Jack's story is winding down now, and the next one is soon to begin.

I think you can probably guess what will be coming next.