Alaia Skyhawk: Hehe, this one is going to give you giggles :)

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.

And a shout-out to VanRah on Deviantart, for letting me use their awesome picture of Jack Frost as the new cover for this story! Seriously, go check out their page!

~(-)~

Chapter 40: Borrowing and Breaking In

Pale fingers tapped on the wooden surface, in between turning the pages of the book before their owner. Blue eyes scanned over words, not really reading them... what with him having read this particular book roughly thirty times over the past few years.

Jack pushed the tome away and planted his head face-down on the table, as if that thought sapped any remaining will he had to continue reading it. Lately, all the books the sprites seemed to be finding were either love-lorn poetry or romance novels aimed at wealthy ladies with too much time on their hands. One exception had been a book written in French. Vingt mille lieues sous les mers: 'Twenty thousand leagues under the sea'. That had been a good read, and was a lucky find considering it was a brand new book only published the year previous, 1870. But even when he'd paced himself he'd gotten through it far too quickly. And now, with Southern Winter only just starting, along with the months-long Southern Polar Night, he was running out of reading material and also things to do that he hadn't already done hundreds or even thousands of times.

Jack Frost was bored... very bored.

He lay there with his face on the wood, unwilling to move yet at the same time desperate for something to do. Something fun. He needed a distraction, to take his mind off his boredom and also off the fact that if not for certain restrictions he could have been making children all around the world, happy. While still no means perfect with his control of frostdust, years of practicing during the Southern Polar Day meant he was certainly now capable of spreading it wide-scale and worldwide, if a little clumsily. But every time he'd asked the Man in the Moon if he could actually be the Guardian he was, instead of waiting in hiding, the only answers he got were 'not yet', 'be patient', and 'the time will come'.

It was infuriating.

Jack shoved himself up and away from the table, and then settled back to the floor to begin pacing in agitation. He had a sizeable collection of books now, up almost to five thousand various tomes, but that didn't change the fact he'd read all of them at least a dozen times, apart from the romance novels which he's foisted off onto Ombric before getting past the few pages. He needed something more interesting to read, something new to pass the time, and the best place for that would be a library.

Jack began to mutter under his breath. He knew that visiting the Boston Public Library, which had been opened in 1854, wouldn't be an acceptable reason for him to stray to the North of the World into regions in the grip of summer. Not only that, but the library had extensively catalogued their collection, and there was every chance they'd notice a book was missing if he borrowed it, even if he put it back once he was done. What if someone asked to lend the book he'd borrowed, while he was borrowing it?

Jack paced some more, able to name several other large libraries, but all of them posed the same problem, and he'd already read everything in Ombric's collection that wasn't a spellbook...

The Spirit of Winter paused in his pacing, a flicker of an idea coming to him, before he glanced around almost furtively and retreated to his sleeping chamber. And once there he created an Ice Mirror large enough to step through, and set it to show a place he'd only been to once before.

Nicholas St North's personal library, in his workshop near the North Pole.

Jack peered through the mirror, turning the view several times to ensure the room was empty before he slipped through. In the forty-five years since his first and only previous visit, it seemed that a doorway had been knocked through into another adjacent room in the complex to extend the space for the library. There also seemed to be hundreds, if not thousands more books in the collection, and the vast majority of the tomes Jack could see were ones he'd never read before.

This place was a treasure trove of potential entertainment, and by the thin layer of dust on the floor, people still didn't come in here often.

Thoughts about the dust reminded Jack to raise himself off the floor, and conjure a soft puff of moving air to erase the footprints he'd left on the boards. He then started to look around for some place new to set his mirror, out of the way so he didn't need to worry someone would stumble through it by accident and discover it. He eventually settled for a place right up near the ceiling, on top of one of the rafters, where he could sit in comfort and yet have plenty of time to dart sideways through the mirror should anyone open one of the two entrances and come in.

The portal now repositioned, Jack began to glide along the dozens of bookcases, trailing a finger along the spines of the tomes as he read the titles. And once he'd settled upon selecting a book about the history of the Yetis, he went up to his chosen perch and began to read.

The weeks passed by, then months, as in his spare time Jack contentedly began to work his way through shelves of books about various cultures, both of mundane human origin, and also about the Tribes of Myth. He even snuck into the library a couple of times during Northern Winter, to peruse the collection and decide which section he would look at next year. It was during one such visit, on the day after Christmas since he figured North and all the Yetis would be resting, that he got the proverbial fright of his life.

It seemed the day after Christmas wasn't a rest day, it was 'clean everything and start fresh' day. Because that's what the yetis were doing, cleaning the library and dusting the shelves, but not only that... They'd brought new books, and began shelving them once everything had been cleaned.

Jack watched from the safety of the other side of his mirrors, waiting for the furry creatures to leave, and once they'd eventually done so he darted back into the library and over to the section where novels were kept. He'd seen them place several book in that section, the pristine spines of the new tomes were easy to spot, and flipping open the cover of one of them revealed a publication date of 1871. North had a way to legitimately get the newest books?

Jack started to grin in anticipation, his gaze searching out more of the new books, until his eye caught upon a title that snagged every part of his attention. He immediately reached for the book in question, taking it down and running a finger over the text on the cover.

'At the back of the North Wind', by George MacDonald.

Jack furtively glanced towards the library door, reluctant to borrow the book in case North came looking to read some of the new additions and noticed it was missing. But at the same time he was reluctant to leave without reading it himself. In the end he settled for switching his portal location to a point right beside the shelf where the novel belonged, so he could stand there leaning against the bookcase in the knowledge that he was out of sight of the door, and would have time to quickly put the book back and dart through the portal if anyone came in.

It was as well that no one did enter during the following few hours, because Jack wouldn't have heard them. He was so completely caught up in the story that he was oblivious to all else. It was about a boy, called Diamond, who befriended the North Wind. A beautiful lady with long dark hair like midnight, who was kind and cruel as and when was needed. If Jack hadn't known better, he'd have thought the author had met Mother Nature, such was the similarity to her.

And Diamond, the boy. She swept him away on journeys that intersected the lives of several other people. Adventures where he saw times of great fun and joy, and others of cold reality, but which always had a purpose that led to a greater good or understanding... That boy could almost have been him, a long time ago when he was a child, before he became Jack Frost. A child with eyes wide with wonder, who would follow the beckoning call of curiosity. Jack could recall that he'd certainly been scolded often enough for wandering off to explore when he should have been doing his chores, although admittedly he had not done so with the often blind trust that Diamond displayed.

But still, the story held him fast right up until the point he'd read the final word. And as he returned it to the shelf, he resolved to ask the Winter Sprites to keep an eye out for a discarded copy of the book to add to his own collection. But another thing the book had done, beside entrance him and give him several hours of blessed immersion within the world of the story, was rouse his curiosity. For he was, after all, inside the home of the greatest maker and giver of toys to children in all of the world. The library was interesting, but what other interesting things might there be in this place?

A mischievous grin lit up Jack's face, and he glided silently over to the nearest of the library doors. He then, after cracking it open and peeking to check the hallway was empty, stepped out and began sneaking down the passage towards the left.

The wooden panels that lined the walls, gave the hallway a warm and homely feel despite the place being built to accommodate the physical size and proportions of the resident yetis. Jack was like a thin shard of ice by comparison, following his curiosity as he peeked through door after door as he proceeded down the hall. But then, after barely a few minutes, he stuck his head into a walk-in closet full of cleaning supplies and one rather startled yeti.

Jack scrambled backwards as the yeti lunged towards this intruder, but before he could even gather his thoughts enough to flee to the library and the portal there, or hide and find a place to make a new one, a great furry hand grabbed him by the scruff of his cloak and shirt, while another hand divested him of his one obvious weapon... his staff.

The shock of having it taken from him left Jack hanging in that grip in astonishment, for if the yeti had known who and what he was they would certainly never have dared to do so. Even without the staff, he was capable of freezing the fellow solid. The staff was just a conduit, an aid that made flying and conjuring ice so much easier, and permitted him to do so at great range and/or speed. He could do the same things without it; albeit flying was a major chore and not worth the effort, weather became fickle and as unpredictable as a two-year-old, and frostdust just became even more awkward that usual.

At the close range of actual physical contact, he could have frozen the yeti to the floor and filled the hallway with ice and snow, but he didn't. Instead he remained limp and perplexed by the whole situation, right up until the moment he was carried to one of the workshop's side-doors and bodily tossed outside into the snow.

Jack landed face-down in the drift, his staff clattering down beside him before he heard the door thud closed. He then stood up, brushed himself off and straightened his clothing, before picking up his staff to regard the dauntingly large façade of the Workshop. The Polar Night meant only the light of lanterns through windows, and a glimmer of moonlight, gave anything to see by. One small fellow who could ride upon the winds, had plenty of possible places by which to enter unseen.

Jack grinned.

"Let the game begin."

~(-)~

Jack's periodic emergences from his sleeping chamber, covered with clumps of snow and chuckling to himself, over the course of the following two years did not go unnoticed by his Lieutenants. Not once did he come out of there in that situation, looking anything less than like he'd been picked up and thrown into a snow-bank. But he was obviously enjoying whatever new game it was he'd discovered, and that was by far better than having him lurking around the Winter Sanctuary either brooding with frustration or bored to the brink.

It was only after one such occasion, during Northern Winter in January 1874, when he came out of the Ice Palace untangling himself from what seemed to be the remains of a length ribbon, that any of them really began to wonder what he'd been up to.

Yuki watched him from one of the windows of the Lieutenants Residence, her chin resting upon folded arms on the 'sil.

"Am I imagining things, or does that look like someone tied him up with bright red ribbon?"

A large feline head peered over her shoulder, ears flicking as Zuě Hu also regarded the odd scene. He then snorted.

"You're not imagining it, although by the faint scent of yeti that clings to him after each of these little incidents, I can now make a good guess of where he's been and what he's probably been up to."

Marzanna appeared at the window now, a hand leaning on Zuě Hu's head as she rose off the floor a little to get a good view.

"He's been breaking into North's workshop... Where else would you find both yetis and decorative red ribbon?"

Yuki glanced up at her, a little concerned.

"But isn't it a bad thing, for him to be breaking into the home-base of one of the other Guardians? North might not take it too well, and it might cause problems when the day comes that the Man in the Moon summons Jack to take up his role publicly."

The tiger beside her, let out a single scornful huff of breath.

"I highly doubt it would be a problem, not once it's revealed he is the Guardian of Fun. All he's doing is living up to the very core of his nature, dealing with his frustrations and dark moods by banishing them with games and laughter." He turned away from the window, his tail flicking from side-to-side in dismissal. "Besides, it will be interesting to see just how far he can get into the Workshop, considering it's clear he's refusing to 'cheat'."

Yuki stood up and faced him, frowning.

"And what do you mean by 'cheat'?"

Zuě Hu paused and glanced back at her.

"He can make Ice Mirrors to any place that he has been, which means if he wanted to he could simply make a mirror, go through it to the furthest point he has yet been, and then continue from there until he is caught and thrown out again. Something that he could repeat, to inexorably progress further and further into the complex with little to nothing the yetis could do about it."

Marzanna raised her eyebrows in knowing amusement.

"But that wouldn't be much of a challenge, or much of a game. Jack would rather find a new window to slip in through, and see how far he can get from that entry-point before getting caught. We just need to make sure Dig doesn't figure out what Jack's new game is, or he'll want to join in as well."

At the mention of the most hyperactive of the Lieutenants of Winter, all three of them winced. Outside of his bi-annual duties, Dig now tended to spend most of his days racing around the sanctuary playing with the sprites. Occasionally Jack would take him out on trips during Southern Winter, to work off some of that excess energy, but it was always a blessed relief when Dig went into hibernation every second week of November.

He might have become an immortal now, but he still obeyed his former natural habits and slept through most of Northern Winter. They'd rouse him so he could be there for the end of Cernunnos annual race with North, but he'd always be straight back into his burrow as soon as they returned home afterwards.

And now, at the second week of January, he was due to wake up any time now.

Zuě Hu slicked his ears back, before sauntering towards the residence exit.

"I shall go inform Cernunnos to keep Dig occupied once he wakes, while we ensure that ribbon conveniently 'disappears'."

Yuki darted after him.

"I'll go make sure there are sprites in the garden for when he wakes, as well. They love playing, so they'll keep him distracted too."

Marzanna watched both of them go, her eyebrows rising for a different reason now as he murmured to herself.

"And to think, we used to only have to come up with these distractions for Jack when he was having 'one of those days'. These years we're dealing with an eight-year-old immortal groundhog, who has the mentality of a child of the same age." She sighed, running a hand over her face. "Here's to hoping he matures a bit over the next few years, although I doubt he'll ever lose interest in playing with the sprites. I hate to call him 'intellectually challenged', but I find it highly unlikely he'll ever be the brightest snowflake in the sky."

She headed out of the residence, and flew over to where Jack was still untangling himself. He reacted in surprise when she grabbed the trailing end of the ribbon and proceeded to unwind it from around him, and then he grinned.

"Thanks. Phil used some really good knots this time."

Still helping him out of his entanglement, Marzanna tilted her head in query.

"Phil?"

Jack's grin widened.

"The yeti who keeps catching me, although his real name sounds a bit like 'Phil' at the start, but then garbles off into something I'm not even going to try to pronounce. He was the one who threw me out the first time, so every time I break in now, I ask the winds to sneak a draught in first and tell me where he is."

"...So you can then deliberately break in via whatever window and room is closest to him. All for the purpose of seeing how long it will take him to notice you."

Jack laughed as the last of the ribbon was pulled away, oblivious to the fact his Lieutenant pocketed the offending item with the intent to dispose of it later.

"He's finally starting to catch on. I always try to break in on a Tuesday, at either eight in the morning Workshop time, or three in the afternoon. He's started going on 'patrol' when he knows I'll probably be coming. It's so funny to watch."

Marzanna's tone became reproving.

"And I'm sure he's delighted to spend every Tuesday searching for you, when he could be resting or doing whatever job it is he does for North."

"He's one of the yetis who does the building maintenance and cleaning. I think he probably welcomes the distraction."

Jack's quip earned him a long look from Marzanna, who then folded her arms across her chest.

"Well, as fun as I'm sure it has been for you, work beckons. Dig should be waking up soon, and you get to wear down his post-hibernation energy rush this time. You also need to work out when Northern Spring Threshold is going to be this year.

Jack shrugged, his answer instant.

"March 24th, six days earlier than it was last year." He hefted his staff, his manner now switching from childish glee, to resigned and businesslike. "But, as you say, work calls. I've a few late avalanches to go deal with. I'll be back in a couple of days!"

Marzanna watched him as he flew towards the tunnel exit, before she realised just what he was doing.

"Wait! You're supposed to take Dig with you!"

Jack gave her one last wave before vanishing from sight, leaving Marzanna stood there looking rather irritated.

She turned, stalking in the direction of the Winter Garden, her hand straying into the pocket where the ribbon was. If he wanted to play games, fine. And if he happened to wake up from his two-week post-Northern Winter nap, with a few dozen red bows frozen into his hair, then that was his own fault.

And she'd make sure Dig got to watch her put them there.

~(-)~

Alaia Skyhawk: 'At the back of the North Wind', by George MacDonald 1871, can be found in ebook format for free. I've started reading it on Kindle, after searching for book titles from the correct year and, like Jack in this chapter, was snagged by the title and how it fit the 'winter' theme. It really was quite eerie, to read the description of Lady North Wind, with her long long black hair, which is what Mother Nature's hair is like in the Guardians of Childhood series. That and just Lady North Wind's general manner, the ability to be both kind or cruel to humans when it is necessary, struck me as being so much like her.

Jack would definitely notice the similarity :)