Alaia Skyhawk: lol, I know you guys want to read this as much as I wanted to write it, so here it is. Special Double Update Day! :D

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.

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Chapter 28: Snow & Summer Don't Usually Mix

Jack stood there on the spire, the winds circling around him murmuring concern for his apparently dumbfounded state, before at volume loud enough to be heard outside the Hall of Mirrors, he burst out laughing.

He doubled over in mirth, at the sheer gall Oisin had shown. The Spirit of Autumn was, at the transition between Summer and Autumn, doing what he and Jack did at the Autumn/Winter switch-over. But of course, Achieng had probably never been approached by him about it, and even if he had she obviously hadn't given him permission.

Jack continued to laugh, until he forced himself to stop and ask the winds where exactly this confrontation was going on. And, ironically enough, it was in an area he knew well enough to open an Ice Mirror up onto the very clearing where it was happening. And once he'd done so, and moved the image closer a few times once he'd spotted where his two peers were.

They were in the middle of a patch of frozen tundra, somewhere in the northern part of Russia, and well north of the latitude where 'summer' could truly be called summer. If the nearby trees hadn't all been pines, their leaves would have been turning colour by now with how cold it was starting to get up there. But the dark-skinned Spirit of Summer didn't seem to care about that. All she cared was that Oisin was 'trespassing' during her season.

Jack perched comfortably on the top of his ice-spire, propping his chin on one had while tucking his staff against the opposite shoulder. His entire attention focused on the 'little' drama unfolding in front of him. Oisin just looked annoyed, but Achieng was screaming at the top of her lungs, winds whirling around her and whipping her numerous fine braids about to the point it looked like she had a head covered in snakes.

Jack raised an eyebrow, smirking. Maybe that was where the myth about Medusa had come from? Greece was certainly within the areas where she sometimes had to start wildfires, and what was to say that once, a long time ago, someone had believed in her enough to see her during a similar fit of rage... That or an immortal that was believed in, had made up the description of Medusa based on her and had spread it around as a bit of a joke.

But yes, she was screaming at Oisin, who looked the image of complete and utter patience by comparison.

He sighed, turning his side to her and aiming his bow at some low-lying deciduous bushes that needed to start dropping their leaves.

"If you're quite done with your tantrum, perhaps you could leave me to get on with my work? Summer has already left this region, and Autumn has begun to take its place. I am needed here, and so I have come. That is all."

Achieng hovered a few inches off the ground, seething in anger as she glared at him.

"It seems strange, considering you have never done so before! It is not your time to be here, Oisin Leaffall!"

He glanced at her, before loosing his arrow to pass among the branches of the bushes.

"And that is because, until five years ago, I wasn't aware that Mother Nature was fixing the Balance of Nature during the seasonal transitions, because we had been neglecting them with our inefficient and wholly inappropriate way of doing things. Seasons turn, not based on the calendar, but upon factors of latitude, longitude, and altitude. Here, far north and upon the high plateaus, summer is a very short season, while Spring and Autumn are slightly reduced, and Winter is the longest season of all. Very different from the lands around the equator, where Summer rules for most of the year, and Winter holds no sway at all in terms of snow."

Achieng drifted closer, her fists clenched. And yes, she was still screaming at him.

"And when did you become an expert in such matters?!"

Oisin shouldered his bow and faced her.

"Since I was wise enough to listen, when the error of our ways was pointed out to me by Jack Frost. He and I have worked simultaneously during the Autumn/Winter transitions for five years, to great success and the considerable approval from Mother Nature."

Beyond the mirror, which was invisible from their side, Jack had been chuckling quietly. But now he winced, and eyed the suddenly-still Achieng. He knew what was coming.

"...Whoops. You shouldn't have said that."

Out on the tundra, Achieng's already dark skin flushed darker around her face, and the damp ground around her began to visibly steam.

"JACK FROST?!" She gaped at him in utter disbelief. "You're working with, and standing up for, Jack Frost?!"

In the Hall of Mirrors, Jack stepped off his perch to get closer to the mirror. Having strayed north of the equator a couple of times during Southern Winters, he had personal experience of what Achieng was very likely about to do.

"Don't say any more, Oisin... She's going to explode."

On the tundra, unable to hear Jack, the Spirit of Autumn did just that. Say more, while wearing a slightly disapproving frown.

"We have misjudged him, Achieng. He sees the world with far clearer eyes than we have done all these centuries. He sees the errors that we have long-since blinded ourselves to."

The air around Achieng began to shimmer with heat, while the tundra grass beneath her began to blacken and smoke. Jack then saw her fingers open and clench in prelude, as he hastily conjuring a much larger mirror in the moment before she raised both hands and then snapped them out in a gesture in Oisin's direction.

The Spirit of Autumn remained stock still in shock at the wall of fire heading his way, having never gotten on the wrong side Achieng's extreme temper before now. But before the fire could hit him, a pair of cold hands came out of thin air and grabbed him.

The moment Jack had Oisin through the mirror, he shifted the view to a position behind Achieng and well away from the wall of fire that was scorching a one-hundred foot long swathe of tundra. The last thing he wanted was that physical manifestation of her fury coming through his mirror.

Oisin, now sprawled on the top of the ice-spire, looked around in confusion as Jack whistled in awe. As Achieng reacted to his disappearance, considering her fire had blocked her view of Jack's intervention, by flinging yet more fire around her in all directions. Forcing Jack to keep moving the position of his view to avoid it.

"Whoo boy, you got her mad."

Oisin got to his feet, his gaze tracing over the thousands of views of sky and horizon that blanketed the walls of the spherical room, and then at the person-sized mirror in front of Jack.

"This is in the Winter Sanctuary? But how? Since when-"

"Since when did I have the ability to make portals from one place to another?" Jack glanced at him. "Since nine years after I became the Spirit of Winter. I've said plenty of times how boring Southern Winters are. I had to do something to keep myself occupied, so I experimented, and then I practised at getting better and better with my Ice Mirrors. I can get weather information from all over the world in a matter of seconds, when I sit in here." He turned back to the view of Achieng. "But enough of that, something needs to be done about her before she torches half the tundra."

He floated off to the side, conjured a new and rather large Ice Mirror that was laid horizontally and facing up. He then created a heap of snow on top of it, and touched the side of the mirror with a fingertip.

In the view displayed by the first mirror, as the pile of snow on the second one suddenly sagged downwards and vanished, Oisin saw that snow drop out of the air above her head and bury her.

He then saw Jack's head and upper torso appear, and glanced to the side to see his lower half sticking out over the edge of the second mirror.

On the tundra side, Jack waited until Achieng had managed to push her head up out of the pile.

"Cool your temper, Achieng Sunblessed. For someone who prides herself in following rules, you seem to quickly forget that the Spirits of the Seasons are forbidden from harming one another. If I hadn't pulled Oisin out of your way, you'd have set him on fire!"

He pulled his head back to the Winter Sanctuary side, while in the view of the first mirror, the snow-pile around Achieng now began to melt at a frightening rate. Enough so that Oisin winced.

"I believe you may have made things worse."

Jack snorted in disdain, and conjured a new heap of snow on the second mirror. This time giving it a second tap with his staff, causing an odd blue wash of light to flow over it and soak in.

"I believe that, in the next few moments, she will be incapable of venting her temper."

He reopened the portal in the second mirror, dumping the new pile of snow on top of her. He then watched and waited for her to push herself to the surface, which she did after a far longer delay than the first time. The reason being one that was revealed the moment her head reached open air.

Achieng wore an expression of utter fury, which in the blink of an eye became a grin as she inexplicably burst out laughing. She then visibly fought to stop, her expression darkening again, before again she erupted into giggles and collapsed onto her side shaking in mirth.

This cycle went on a few more times, before Oisin turned his head slowly to look at the Spirit of Winter.

"What did you do to her?"

Jack started to chuckle, murmuring quietly to himself

"Oh, this memory is definitely going into my Hall of Sculptures." He laughed, and then answered the question. "I have another talent besides my Ice Mirrors. I can gift people, even immortals, with a temporary sense of fun and happiness. In strengths ranging from mild enough just to trigger a smile and a lifting of their mood, up to a level where they collapse into helpless laughter. I'll let you figure out which one I used on her."

He was grinning wickedly by now, and at the sight of Achieng still fighting against the urge to laugh, even Oisin cracked a smile and started to chuckle.

"I will admit to this being amusing. But what about when it wears off?"

Jack let out a sigh, deflating a little.

"All right, spoil sport. Another rule that binds us, is that we're not allowed to cause any form of damage to each other's sanctuaries. We can't even leave little 'presents' as pranks... and no, I never tried, so don't ask. I decided I wanted to keep living, and not have Ariko demanding my head. Not to mention the scolding I'd have gotten from Mother Nature." He pointed at Achieng. "So anyway, we bring her here and sit her down for a talk. Not even she would risk Mother Nature's wrath by damaging anything here in the Winter Sanctuary... But first, I want to make sure she can't hit me when I get hold of her."

Jack conjured a snowball in his grasp, blew on it to create the same blue glow from the pile he'd dumped through his mirror, and then he took aim and threw it through the first one just as she lifted her head to try and get up.

It smacked into her face, knocking her onto her back. And as the power of fun kicked in and was added to the effect she was already under, she was reduced to impotent giggles as she lay there.

Jack changed the view to another room in his palace, gesturing for Oisin to step through, and once they were both in the new room, he broke the first mirror and made a new one which he opened up on where Achieng was. He then flew through, grabbed her by one ankle, and dragged her back into the sanctuary with him.

He left her giggling on the floor as he dismissed the new mirror, before he indicated that Oisin help him lift her over to the table and chairs, both made out of ice, which were close by within the room. It was only once she was seated, her head resting on the table as she continued to giggle, that the Spirit of Autumn looked around and noticed what the room resembled.

"Is this a... kitchen?"

Jack walked over to the work-area in the corner, opening frozen cupboards and pulling out three ceramic mugs. He didn't have anything that was metal, since it didn't handle the extreme cold as well as the pottery could.

"The Selkies, in thanks for me giving them a new and safe home, give me gifts from time-to-time. Dried fish and meat, bread, leather and woollen stuff, and milk from the herd of cows they keep in this totally isolated little mountain valley I found for them. They have an Ice Mirror portal to that location, so they can come and go to it as they please." He opened another cupboard, and pulled out two pottery jars. "But these... I got these from Ombric, at Santoff Claussen."

Jack now located a large bowl, which he set over a little stone pit set into part of the work-area. There was charcoal in the bottom of it, which he lit using a magical fire-striker that was also a gift from the wizard. Lastly, he then lifted the lid on a large box at the end of the counter, and pulled out three mug-sized frozen blocks of milk.

Oisin frowned at that.

"Milk? Doesn't it go sour keeping it in there?"

Jack rolled his eyes, putting the blocks into the bowl over the little fire. He didn't have to worry about his work area melting from the heat, since no ice in the Winter Sanctuary would melt unless he told it to.

"Do you really think that milk will go sour, after it's been flash frozen down to Antarctic temperatures by me? Trust me, it doesn't."

He touched the blocks of milk with his power, 'pulling' the cold out of them so that they immediately turned to liquid that then began to warm from the heat underneath. While it did that, he spooned equal amounts of the white and brown powders from the two jars, into each of the three cups. Then, when the milk was hot, he divided it between them and gave all three a good stir.

He then blew out the fire, froze the residue on spoon and bowl so they crumbled off into a waste-container he had to one side, and he put both away before taking the first two mugs carefully to the table.

Jack made sure not to touch anything but the handles of the mugs, as he passed one to Oisin and placed the other close to Achieng. He then went back for his mug, lightly touching a fingertip to the side of it as he walked back. The result was that the brown liquid in his steamed only faintly in the cold room, while the other two released steady streams of vapour.

Oisin watched as Jack took a sip of his drink, and then warily eyed the mug in front of him.

"What is this?"

"Hot chocolate. Ombric introduced me to it. Go on, it's nice."

Jack reached out with his empty hand, to tap Achieng on the shoulder. It caused a glimmer of blue to visibly pull away from her and into his grasp. He couldn't take all of his power of fun out of her, most of it would just have to wear off on its own, but he could reduce it by enough that she was able to coherently sit up and direct a wavering glare at him.

"You overstep the line, Frost."

Jack snorted.

"No, you did that when you attacked Oisin. All I did was ensure the rules that bind us were followed, by protecting him and disabling you long enough for your temper to cool down... Now drink your hot chocolate, before it goes cold. I didn't go to the effort of making it, for you to go and waste it."

Achieng eyed him, her frown warring with the smile his power still tried to spark in her, before she relented and picked up the mug. But after the first sip, her eyebrows rose in pleasant surprise.

"This is good."

Oisin tried his now, echoing the sentiment. Jack then smiled.

"See? I told you."

He continued to enjoy his own, much-cooled beverage, as if completely oblivious to how odd it was to have three of the Spirits of the Seasons, sat around a kitchen table drinking hot chocolate. But then it was far more probable that he did know, it was that he just didn't care, and that thought caused Achieng to frown at him again over her mug. But this time, she was more puzzled than angry.

"You... are very strange, Jack Frost."

Jack set down his now empty mug, and started drawing frost-patterns on the surface of the table.

"So what? If other immortals think I'm strange, then they can think what they want. If being considered 'normal' means forcing myself to act and think in ways that completely at odds with the way I really am, then I'd rather be considered strange. It's better to be yourself, than to live a lie just to satisfy other peoples' distorted ideas about the ways in which they think you should behave."

He stood up, freezing the dregs of chocolate out of his cup and putting it away. His sharp movements betraying the fact that he was actually very annoyed by her remarks.

And after hearing his words, neither Achieng or Oisin could deny he had every right to be irritated. Because that was what they'd done to him for years. They'd tried to force him to conform to their beliefs, rather than respecting that he had his own.

Achieng looked down into her empty mug, tracing the rim with a finger that was a darker shade of brown than the liquid the container had recently held. It was all so very very odd, to be sat here being treated almost like an errant child by the Spirit of Winter. She and the others had accused him so often of being immature, and yet right now she had in many ways proved the opposite. He wasn't the one who had started the fight, he wasn't the one who had lost his temper... No, he was the one who had forced her to look at and see the truth of her behaviour.

She lifted her head, braids swaying, and looked across the table at Oisin.

"What was it you were saying? About a better way to transition between our seasons?"

Jack hid a smile as Oisin began to explain to her, both about the new way in which he and Jack worked, and about the 'weather watching' that made it possible. The Spirit of Winter left him to it, walking out of the kitchen after calling and telling a Winter Sprite to guide them to him once they were done. Jack then headed out into the main cavern of the sanctuary, to where Yuki was sat with several Selkies.

He joined them, and listened to the general talk about fishing conditions and the youngsters that had been born this year. And when the Spirits of Summer and Autumn came and sat with them as well, a short while later, he didn't remark on it. Even if the new harmony between the three of them, brought to mind a new problem they would soon have to face.

Ariko Blossomsinger, oldest of the Spirits of the Seasons, was going to be far harder to convince.

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Alaia Skyhawk: lol, I loved writing all Jack's funny bits in this :D