Alaia Skyhawk: Here's the next chapter! :)

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 24: New Settlers

"Get back to your Sanctuary, Frost!"

"Chill out, Oisin! It's only four weeks until Northern Winter!"

Two figures streaked across the sky; one of whites and greys and the other of shades of brown. The latter chased the former, who proved as slippery as the ice he commanded. It was sufficient to say that relations between Jack and the other three Spirits of the Seasons, had turned decidedly sour during the last seventeen years. They resented the fact Jack was favoured by Mother Nature, despite him pointing out that it was only because he didn't treat her like dirt on a personal level. The result was that he was very unwelcome whenever he showed up in a place it wasn't his season, even if as far as the general work-rules went, he was within his rights to come north at this time.

Still dodging Oisin, who wasn't so much as trying to hurt him but rather just trying to drive him away, Jack skimmed over the tops of the trees and past the ridge which marked the edge of the valley and his territory. Once he'd done so, he then came to an immediate stop and perched on the tip of one of those trees.

Oisin also came to a halt, scowling.

"You are a disgrace, Jack Frost. You flaunt your lack of respect for the status-quo, and trample over the rights of the rest of us."

Jack rolled his eyes and scoffed.

"Oh yeah, really? Winter may not 'officially' go into full swing for another month, but you and I both know that the Four Seasons overlap with each other a month each way at both the start and end transitions. There are places in the North of the World that have been getting snow for weeks because of how far north they are, just as there are places where the 'winter' I preside over never comes at all. But do you see me complaining when you, or Achieng, or Ariko sweep through somewhere 'out of season' when I'm doing my work? No." He jabbed a finger in Oisin's direction. "The balance calls for a colder than normal winter this year, which means that I have to make sure the temperature drops early. So quit your whining and let me get on with my work, you stumped-up arrogant git with a superiority complex!"

The Spirit of Autumn tensed, glowering at him.

"Don't push your luck, Frost."

Jack floated up into the air, and darted close to that he staring Oisin in the eye from just a few inches away. His eyes were narrowed.

"I'm not the one kicking up the fuss, you and the others are. You act like the Seasons are inviolate, separate, instead of one whole that shifts and flows depending on latitude, longitude, and altitude. You three have turned the system into a stilted and stagnant procession of weather, instead of a living and breathing harmony. If I show up early for my work in an area, it's because I'm needed by the balance. It is not some childish attempt to get on your nerves! If you worked with me, instead of against me, you'd know that."

The two of them glared at one another for several seconds more, until Oisin let out a sigh of exasperation and backed up a short way. He then folded his arms across his chest, frowning.

"Fine, let's say that you're right? How are we supposed to organise our work around each other, if we don't know in advance when to expect each other to show up?"

Jack shook his head in disdain.

"Please... If you bothered to use the winds to watch the world's weather, all the world's weather, all year round like I do, then you would know."

Oisin snorted.

"Do you seriously expect me to believe you've been keeping watch on what we do with the weather during our seasons?"

The Spirit of Winter began to idly list some of what he knew, while also apparently inspecting his fingernails.

"During the monsoon season of this year, Ariko and Achieng dropped exactly five extra inches of rain on Southern Asia. Achieng also started fifteen wildfires, six of which were on that continent far south of China which no one has named yet, three were in the western areas of Northern America, and the rest were in Africa. Two weeks into Northern Autumn this year, you instated drought conditions in Southern Europe, while also causing floods in parts of Russia." Jack smirked. "Am I right?"

Oisin was staring, for while he couldn't say if Jack was right about what Ariko and Achieng had been doing, he knew he was right about the drought and the floods.

His frown deepened, but some of his hostility faded.

"Fine, I'll admit you're right about what I've been doing." He paused, a little confused. "You really use the winds to keep track of what we've been doing with our seasons? Why?"

Jack let his smirk fade, replacing it with a serious expression.

"Southern Winters can be boring, really boring, and listening to the winds' gossip helped pass the time." He flipped his staff up to rest on his shoulder. "I started listening more, after you three began treating me like a three-year-old instead of having the grace to get to know me for who I am instead of what you expect me to be. I guess I figured that if I understood your seasons better, I could figure out how to get you to take me seriously... Well, that and the fact that I was still bored. I've more company than I used to have, but the Winter Sanctuary is still a quiet place a lot of the time. Weather Watching has become habit for me these days, whenever I'm down there. You should try it sometime."

The Spirit of Autumn began to relax, curiosity gradually replacing anger and frustration.

"You think so? So how do you do it?"

Jack started to smile, and plucked one of the little curls of wind from the air that came to him from all around the world regardless of where he was or the season. As he sent it to flow past Oisin's ears, it whispered what it had seen of Ariko's current work in South America. Another wisp, which had come from Africa, muttered about a rising storm of temper simmering in the region around the Summer Sanctuary.

Jack chuckled at that, smirking.

"Dear dear, I think Achieng has discovered the fresh layer of snow I dropped on the top of Mount Kilimanjaro... Well it was overdue for it, I held off for three years because of the low rainfall in that area. The moisture was there a few days ago, tail end of the rainy season, so when some of the rain was falling on the slopes I froze the bit that was above the snowline as it fell on the mountain. It was going to freeze anyway, but it was slushy, so I crispened it up a bit."

Jack sent several more wisps of wind around the both of them, a number of which carried weather news of things relevant to Oisin, and then he raised his eyebrows at the Spirit of Autumn.

Oisin regarded him back, unmoving, before a look of grudging respect became apparent.

"I'll give this 'Weather Watching' of yours a try. If it proves useful, I'll stop coming after you when you return north early. So long as you stick to the areas where you're actually needed."

Jack nodded, tactfully choosing not to make any smart remarks right now.

"Deal. Also, next year, Northern Winter is going to be pretty mild in a lot of places where there's usually snow. I can do rain when I put my mind to it, but maybe you'd like to use your finesse to do a better job than I can for the areas that will be getting it during October and December." He shrugged. "Winter isn't really 'winter' when there's no frost or snow. It's more like an extended autumn, which isn't really my forte, if you know what I mean."

There was another pause between them, that seemed to stretch on for eternity, until Oisin nodded once and then turned to fly away.

Jack watched him go, restraining himself until he was sure the other immortal was out of earshot, before he then let out a whoop of victory! It had been a growing irritation for him over the decades, to hear of snow falling in far northern places up to several weeks before Northern Winter officially started. The 'tug' of the season, which each of them felt, wasn't so much as the herald of the seasons' start as a final warning that the Spirits in charge of them had to head out on that day at the latest in case the weather stalled.

That was something else that, in his friendship with Mother Nature, he'd learnt from her. Back when there had only been her, the Four Seasons had been what he'd described to Oisin, a harmonious whole that shifted and flowed in different ways in different regions, all depending on latitude, longitude, and altitude.

After Ariko was chosen, the winter/spring and spring/summer transitions became slightly stilted, which meant many areas that got that season later or earlier were being left to adjust on their own or be attended to too late or early. It had gotten worse when Achieng had been chosen, and she'd copied Ariko's idea of only ushering the seasons in when the season's themselves started calling, or rather as Jack now knew, complaining about the lack of action. Mother Nature had been left to do her best filling in the gaps, which had increased in number once Oisin had been chosen and he too copied what the others were doing. Jack had added to her burdens as well, also copying the routine until he recently learnt better, but maybe now he had a chance to get a decent working partnership going with Oisin. That at least would mean the autumn/winter transitions wouldn't be an issue for her anymore.

And hey, maybe Oisin would eventually turn out to be an amiable acquaintance instead of hating him on sight? It was worth hoping for, even if Jack didn't hold up much hope for similar success with Ariko. Since he'd started 'intruding' in the far northern areas during the first few weeks of Official Northern Spring, times when the weather said it was clearly still winter in those naturally frigid places, she'd taken to screaming fits of temper whenever she actually caught him trespassing.

No, he'd spare himself any attempts at talking her round, until after he'd spent a few decades working out a proper partnership with Oisin. At least then he'd have proof he knew what he was talking about.

Jack turned and flew off in the direction of the village, even if he had no intention of showing himself until the Festival of First Snow. He likened it to being a game of 'hide and seek', where the village children were the knowing seekers as he made sure none of them saw him early as he slipped in and out of James and Thomas' cabins. He was just thinking about how fun it would be, to tell them about the talk he'd just had with Oisin, when he spotted something that made him halt mid-air and frown. Something that hadn't been there when he'd left at the start of Northern Spring, and which hadn't been mentioned in the letter he'd gotten from Thomas two weeks ago.

A brand new cabin, built of raw pine-logs, close to the river and roughly a quarter of a mile from the village.

Jack flew down, landing in a tree at the edge of the clearing that had been made for the cabin and the farming plot which was being marked out ready for when spring came. A man and a woman, obviously his wife, toiled together to pound crude fence-posts into the soil, while their young son and daughter darted back and forth between them and the pile of posts that were set near the cabin.

Jack frowned, not in displeasure but rather in concern. A new family had come to the valley, but this was the worst possible time for newcomers to show up. This Northern Winter was going to be bad for this region, and without proper warnings to prepare...

This winter could be that family's last...

~(-)~

Alaia Skyhawk: Yes, you may have guessed it. The year is 1795, and the family by the river is that of Thaddeus Burgess. Changes are coming to Jack's valley, and to the village :)