Alaia Skyhawk: Admittedly this chapter is definitely filler, but I think you'll like what I foreshadow as coming next, at the end :)

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 27: Changes

Jack flew towards the two settlements, excitement bubbling up and emerging as laughter and whooping as he swooped and soared towards his first destination, the village. And of course, the village would always be first. And this year they got a surprise because, even with the delay of speaking to Oisin and Mother Nature, he was an hour early.

Not that the children complained.

Their cheering and laughter filled him with joy at being back, and he revelled in it as he frosted over the pole. But there was one change of routine, and that was in what he said to the children.

"I've got to go do the other shrine, ok? Meet me and the children from Burgess, at the big tree halfway along the trail. I've got a brand new story for you all to hear."

The children gasped in delight at that news, and dashed off to tell their parents that Jack had a new story for them! He watched for a few moments more, grinning, before he took to the air again and skimmed over the trees the short distance to Burgess.

There was a group of over twenty chattering and eager children waiting around the town's shrine, along with a large number of obviously sceptical adults. Thaddeus and Mary were the exceptions, as they cheerfully assured the children that Jack Frost would come. In fact the youngsters were asking that question so often, that only the two who were intently watching for him saw him land on the post.

Jack grinned at Grace and Liam, and waved.

"Hey there! I'm back!"

"Jack Frost!"

"He's here! He's here!"

Grace and Liam's shouts and pointing made all the other children look, and such was the belief they'd already gained thanks to those two and the village children, that Jack didn't even have to use any of his special snowflakes.

Eyes widened, the children gasped in awe, and then they started cheering while almost all the nearby adults looked on completely uncertain what to make of it considering they couldn't see him. But then Jack dropped down and then spiralled back up the pole leaving frost in the wake of his touch, and that was something they could all see.

Thaddeus smiled, nodding in satisfaction. He'd already been confident of Jack returning, since he'd seen the frost that had been left on the garlands from the night before.

"Welcome back, Jack Frost! I hope our shrine has pleased you!"

Jack dropped down again, walking through the crowd of children, who parted to let him pass, as the townsfolk gasped at the footprints they saw being left in the thin covering of snow.

Jack stopped in front of Thaddeus, and glanced over his shoulder at the children.

"Liam, tell everyone what I say. I'll pick someone else for the next time I have a message, and the time after that, so you'll all get a go, ok?"

Liam nodded eagerly, as did the rest of the children.

"I'll tell them."

Jack faced Thaddeus again, and spoke at a steady speed so that Liam could keep pace.

"You've honoured me, so much. It brings me great happiness to be acknowledged by you all, and to be able to bring joy and laughter to your children. Winter can be a harsh season, but it can also be one that brings families together. As the land rests in preparation for spring, so do the people get the time to slow the pace of their lives and think back on the events of the year. To talk about the happy times, and even the sad times, and become closer because of that."

As soon as Liam had finished relaying those words, Thaddeus bowed in respect to the invisible figure before him.

"It is we who are honoured, Spirit of Winter, that you would give us your blessing to live here in your valley. That you would offer us your protection, that you would make our children smile, for nothing more than our words of thanks and the sound of their laughter."

Jack smiled at that, sighing in contentment as he then faced the gathering of children. His expression now showing a hint of mischief.

"Right, now that all the formal stuff is done... Follow me to that big fallen tree halfway to the village! The village children will be there too, and you call all hear a story from me before we have some fun and games!"

He leapt up into the air, whipping up a little of the snow in his passage, as Liam and the children's gazes traced his passage.

Grace began to dance about in excitement.

"Jack's gone to the big tree, to the other children, and wants us to go too! Can we go listen to him telling a story? And play games?"

Thaddeus nodded to his children.

"Today is the Festival of First Snow, so of course you can go. But remember, after today and for the rest of winter, you have to do your chores first before you go play."

"Ok!"

Grace and Liam dashed off, while the rest of the children began to clamour for permission from their parents. The rest of the adults agreed, if hesitantly, and actually everyone followed the children off up the trail.

Before long, there was a half-circle of adults looking on, at a gathering of almost forty children seated on rocks and logs around the large, fallen trunk. Listening intently to their invisible storyteller, oblivious to the presence of their parents.

The scene was both eerie and yet astoundingly beautiful for those onlookers, who gasped with the same awe as the children when Jack concluded the story by summoning a cloud of snowflakes to scatter over everyone... They were, of course, 'special' snowflakes... Since the parents were here, it wouldn't hurt to get them involved in the fun as well.

Sufficient to say, the following snowball fight, made possible by Jack conjuring and dumping large piles of snow all over the clearing around the tree, was the best he had ever had. All those extra children, all those parents too even if they couldn't see him, meant so much more laughter and fun.

Jack was left riding on a high all winter, even if it was a mild one with only minimal snow. Oisin was around, although out-of-sight, helping out in shaping the rain-clouds which Jack could do, albeit only rather sloppily.

Two more years passed, as Jack and Oisin continued to work together in their new arrangement. In the meantime Burgess continued to grow, with a dozen more families arriving and settling in the valley. It soon came to pass, that the outermost home of the town, was barely a hundred yards from the edge of the village's fields.

Jack now stepped in, speaking to the villagers and townsfolk with the help of the children. He asked for stone markers to be made and placed, in a boundary around his pond and and swathe of the woods, ending where the large fallen log was. Within weeks of them being made and put into position, the area they bounded was already being called 'Jack's Wood'. It was that same year that town and village consolidated their two shrines into one, by building a new and much bigger shrine between the fallen log and the trail.

That was the day that the village became a part of the town, a part of Burgess, even if 'the village' continued to be used to denote that part of the settlement.

It seemed like no time at all before the year 1800 arrived. Burgess was flourishing, trade was booming, and it was becoming clear that Kirktown now had serious competition in terms of economic value. But no matter the rapid changes that were being brought, one thing remained constant, and that was belief in the Spirit of Winter. Jack had heard passing mention of himself in several towns out along the trade route, as 'that quaint story the people in Burgess believe in'.

But whatever outsiders thought, it didn't matter, because no one could deny that Burgess had uncanny 'luck' when it came to knowing what weather each winter would bring. By the start of Northern Winter 1799, the last traders passing through before snow made the roads difficult, all asked the people of Burgess for a weather prediction. Enough asked that Thaddeus posted official notices on the new Town Hall, declaring the harshness of winter they'd been told to prepare for.

And, of course, the predictions on that first notice were completely right.

Jack chuckled to himself at the memory, of hearing his name murmured alongside the predictions as word of them spread to the areas around the valley. Yes, sure, they were outside his 'range of belief', but his name was still becoming known. Just like James had said would happen eventually.

Jack was just taking a day or two's nap in the Winter Sanctuary, during the perpetual night near the end of Southern Winter in Antarctica, when his happy, peaceful routine came to a jarring halt.

He sat up in his snow-bed, dazedly blinking sleep from his eyes even as he shook clinging snowflakes from his hair. Something had woken him, and he wasn't entirely sure what, and he started to frown as he grabbed his staff and floated up out of his bed.

He went to the Hall of Mirrors, bringing them to life to show the world's skies as he flew up onto the icy spire at the centre. He then called to the winds of the world through those mirrors, asking if they knew what it was that he'd sensed.

When the news came in just a couple of minutes later, Jack didn't know whether to laugh or consider it bad news... Because Oisin had gone early to the far northern lands of the world, where Mother Nature would have been setting autumn in motion, and was doing it himself...

...And Achieng had just confronted him about it.

~(-)~

Alaia Skyhawk: Yes, I know it seems I'm skimming over Thaddeus a lot, but he does appear a few more times in upcoming chapters. It's just that, plot-wise, very little happens during these years other than the growth of Burgess and the village merging with it. But, as you can probably already guess, the next chapter is going to be FUN :D