Alaia Skyhawk: Ok, so that wasn't a 'couple of days'. It's just been a bit busy for me, so I'll update when I can.

Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians, the Guardians of Childhood, or any other non-OC characters etc. This story is written purely for entertainment purposes.

~(-)~

Chapter 109: Modern Town

It took him a few moments to realise he was awake, such was the difference from his usual abode. The bed was too large, too soft, and left him feeling as though floating. The room was too warm, and it was far too bright and quiet... There was no pounding of a dragon on the roof, and the glare of sunlight-on-snow that came through the large window made no doubt that he wasn't inside a Viking hut.

Hiccup opened his eyes and sat up, leaving the bed to go to the window. The expanse of mountains, snow, and ice visible beyond it, dispelling the tiny hint of doubt that everything the past two days had been real. Waking up in Santoff Claussen had been different, it wasn't so outlandish as this place, but waking up here was definitely odd.

Hiccup pulled himself up onto the wide windowsill, tucking his knees up to his chin as his mind churned over all he'd seen so far. They ranged from intriguing, to startling, to outright shocking. He'd already experienced wonderment and dumbfoundedness in equal measure. Especially here at the Workshop, seeing all the things that North and the Yetis made for the world's children, and meeting the Yetis themselves.

Because they were a Tribe of Myth, too.

Hiccup let out a soft sigh, thinking about it. Being a 'Tribe of Myth' obviously had some far-from-obvious reasons for qualifying. At least far from obvious to him. What with Yetis, Dragons, and his own people all being such a group despite being so different from each other. He'd also, during the meal last night with North, Jack, and Sandy, heard mention of Unicorns, Pegasi, Selkies, and at least a dozen others. He'd have to ask Ombric about it before going back to Berk. The wizard was easy to ask questions to, and wouldn't chuckle or poke fun in the way Jack would.

Hiccup was still at the window a short while later, when a knock on the door of the guest-room heralded the arrival of a yeti. It wasn't one he recognised, then again he found them extremely hard to tell apart. Not to mention the fact they didn't speak his language made understanding them impossible. But this one was simply delivering a pile of folded clothing, shoes, and an attached note.

Hiccup went over to accept the bundle, starting to read the message even as the yeti went outside and closed the door. The note was from Jack, and even via paper Hiccup could imagine the cheerful tone of every word.

'Put these on and leave your normal clothes in the room. The yeti will guide you to North's lounge for breakfast. I've got a big couple of days planned!'

Hiccup set aside the note, looking somewhat bemused as he went on to examine the clothing he'd been given. If someone had been their to explain, they'd have told him the black and white shoes were 'sneakers', that the stiff blue trousers were 'jeans', and that the dark-green top with a dragon silhouette printed on it was a 't-shirt'. Regardless, even if someone had been there to explain, Hiccup's initial thought once he had them on would have been the same as he fastened the heavily-modified left shoe over the end of his false leg.

"People actually wear these?"

Feeling awkward in the strange clothes, Hiccup left his guest-room and followed the waiting yeti. But if the clothing wasn't an odd enough start to his day, even if the morning spent with North was interesting stranger still was when he arrived at the lounge for midday. Because Jack was supposed to be arriving for noon, and at the table inside North was clearly visible as one of the two sat there. But the other, a brown-haired young man, was someone Hiccup didn't recognise.

He came a short way into the room, confused.

"Where's Jack?"

There was a snort of laughter from the stranger, who was dressed similarly to the young Viking except his t-shirt was plain red. The stranger then smirked and conjured a snowball.

"Oh I do believe I'm right here. Or at least I was the last time I checked."

Hiccup gaped for a moment, pointing limply at the Guardian.

"Your hair... Why are you disguised?!"

Jack laughed again.

"It's a wig, and as for reasons it's because I'm really well-known in Burgess, and don't usually show up there during the warmer months. When I do I usually go dressed like this. It saves on being charged after by kids looking for games, and by my oft irate colleagues the Spirits of Spring and Summer."

Hiccup began to look nervous.

"Are you not supposed to go anywhere it's not winter?"

North chortled at that, waving the young Viking to come over and sit.

"Jack is Guardian of Fun, so he can go where and when he wants. It's just he's not supposed to flaunt it when he's somewhere it's not winter. Is not good manners."

Hiccup regarded Jack blandly.

"You have manners?"

He got the snowball to the face for that.

"Ha ha, very funny." Jack pointed to the plate of waiting food as soon as Hiccup had brushed off the snow. "Now hurry and eat your food. It's almost dawn in Burgess, and if we don't want people thinking you're weird for gawking, we need to get there before there's a lot of people about."

Hiccup eyed him.

"You're that sure I'll gawk, after seeing this place?"

Jack smirked.

"I don't just think you will, I know you will."

Hiccup quickly finished his food, and soon found himself standing beside the Spirit of Winter as a new ice mirror was conjured. The young Viking couldn't help but fidget, uncertain in his strange clothing. But his certainty didn't improve once they'd gone through the mirror and arrived in a section of woodland.

Hiccup frowned.

"Uhh, this doesn't look like a town."

Jack, his expression far too smug for comfort, grinned.

"That's because we're in Jackswood Park, the forest part of it. I couldn't exactly have you appear out of thin air somewhere someone might see." With a glance he changed the mirror's destination and tossed his staff through, completing his disguise by putting away that very distinctive item. The mirror then crumbled and Jack strolled off through the trees. "You coming or not?"

At that backhanded remark, Hiccup frowned and limped after him. The modified shoe that hid he was missing part of his left leg, taking some getting used to. A part of him wondered why it needed to be hidden at all, that is until the moment they cleared the edge of the trees and reached the park proper...

Because beyond the park were masses of buildings, taller than any he'd ever seen except for North's Workshop. Even the ones in Santoff Claussen had been built with the support of trees. But these ones were odd boxes, with masses of windows, that stood up all on their own.

Hiccup gawked, he couldn't help it, and his eyes only widened further when a strange metal contraption on wheels, with a person inside it, travelled by on the road to one side of the park.

Jack glanced back at him, shaking his head.

"Well, good thing I didn't show you some place like New York first. If little Burgess shocked you this much." He headed back and took hold of Hiccup by the arm, towing him towards one of the park gates. "Remember what I said. People have been inventing things for a long time. Things you have never imagined or believed possible."

Jack paused, mulling something over while checking his wig was still on straight. He then changed direction.

"We've got three hours before it opens to the public. I think a history lesson is in order."

Hiccup blinked, still being towed along.

"Where are we going?"

"The Burgess Museum."

The young Viking still looked baffled.

"What's a 'museum'?"

Jack didn't answer, at least not until they'd arrived outside a large building with a simple columned façade out front. It was the largest building in Burgess that Hiccup had seen to this point, and he resumed his nervous fidgeting as Jack made a small mirror and reached through it.

In Jack's grip when he pulled it back out, was a set of keys and strange flat rectangles all connected on a metal ring. He selected a key and unlocked the door, a strident yet quiet bleeping causing Hiccup to flinch when the door was opened. Jack then hastened to an odd glowing panel on a wall inside the building, ran the edge of one of the rectangles through a slot on it, and pushed several buttons.

The bleeping stopped and he came back, ushering Hiccup inside.

"A museum is a place where the stories and objects from history are displayed for people to see and learn from. This one tells the stories of this town, and of me. Here I can show you how this town started, and how it grew and changed to become what it is now."

Jack led him into the first exhibit, about 'The Village', and turned on the lights in there. There'd been extensive changes in this one, since the announcement that the Bennett Family and himself were related. Where once the far wall had been dominated by a mural of him stood atop the storm-pole, now the image showed something else entirely. Two pictures that mirrored the before and after, split down the middle of the wall by a third.

The left side showed Jackson Overland, the young shepherd, stood among the trees with his crook, his young sister, and a couple of sheep. On the right it showed the same woods, cloaked in winter's snow, with Emily Overland reaching out in greeting to Jack Frost; her brother reborn as the Spirit of Winter. The middle and smallest panel was the odd one, the contrast to the happiness of the other two scenes. Because it depicted Jack's fall through the ice, his sister reaching out it desperation from the distance beyond him. It showed the defining moment that his first life ended and his second life began. The moment that also set the course of history, for the place that would become known as Burgess.

Hiccup was silent as he walked the length of the room towards the mural, his gaze focused upon it.

"So that's how it happened? How you became the Spirit of Winter?"

Jack nodded to himself, turning off to the side to a cabinet that held some of his sister's journals.

"A few years ago my family revealed to the world that they were related to me. After that, they made sure to update everything in this museum. They had whole box-loads of journals, artefacts, and other things that told the history of the town. But because their relationship to me was a secret, they had to keep those hidden. Because those things would have revealed it."

He sighed, turning to face the young Viking, and waved for him to follow to the next exhibit. Once there, he continued.

"The Bennetts and Burgesses have been central to this town for centuries. They run through the core of its history, shaping things both openly and from behind the scenes. The Burgess Family, or the Burgens as they are now, were the open part. The Bennetts were the hidden shapers, who protected me and my place here, and also protected the culture unique to this town. But that's not why I brought you here." He smiled. "You're here to see how the world, and new inventions, changed things here from what they were to what they are now. Because if you ignore all the stuff to do with me, then Burgess is the same as just about any other town in the United States. Now let me show you."

And show it he did, over the course of the following time. The museum was re-locked and the keys returned, before the time when Craig Bennett would set out for the day's work. Only if he checked the alarm records, would it show that one 'Jack Frost' had used his personal alarm-code to open the place up for two hours.

By this point Jack and Hiccup now strolled in the direction of the Bennett House, with the young visitor still struggling not to gawk at passing vehicles. With the sun now rising, the air was already warming up to a summer's day heat. It was warmer than anything Hiccup was used to, except his forge back on Berk. It was a pity his leg meant taking him to the local pool was completely out of the question, because by midday chances were he'd have appreciated it.

The two of them paused outside the house once they reached it, Jack's passing glance at his pond directing Hiccup's gaze to it. The young Viking didn't ask about it, there was little point. Instead he steeled himself ready to meet the Bennetts, feeling all at once even more awkward in his 'modern' clothes.

Laura opened the door with a smile, her warm greeting immediately putting the younger of the visitors at ease.

"You must be Hiccup. Come on in. I've got pancakes left from breakfast."

Sitting in a modern kitchen was definitely a new experience for Hiccup, as were pancakes with syrup and butter. In so many ways it was different from what he was used to, and yet in the important ways it was the same. He was sat with a friend and his family, chatting away about things. Where that talk was taking place, didn't matter. It didn't matter that the food was different, and that it had been cooked on some contraption that cooked food without visible flames or by stoking a fire inside it with wood. But by far the biggest distraction and fascination for him, when he was eventually shown it, was the TV.

Jack had to physically restrain Hiccup from going to the device and trying to figure out how it worked, even as Laura explained that most TV shows were stories, like in books, but acted out and recorded so they could be watched again later. Naturally she made sure no 'reality shows' were put on, and instead got out a pile of movies and instructed her guest to pick out whichever ones he liked the look of.

Of course she'd slipped 'Dragonheart' and 'Dragonheart II' into the pile, which meant the moment Hiccup saw a dragon on the covers he'd picked them out. The movies themselves might have been outdated by modern production standards, being well over twenty years old, but they were still among Laura's favourites and had a firm place in her collection. And the fact most of her collection dealt with films about creatures of myth, folklore, or fairytales meant that even without those two films there was plenty that Hiccup could enjoy without spending half the film asking how things like aeroplanes or computers or telephones worked.

Hiccup remained totally entranced by the movies, not noticing when Jack got up to replenish the bowls of popcorn, and not noticing when Craig got back from work. And even when the movies were finished, the young Viking chattered about them until his long day caught up with him. After all, he'd gotten up at dawn on the other side of the world, and this side it was now nearing ten at night. He'd been awake for almost twenty-four hours.

As soon as Hiccup was tucked into bed in Jamie's old room, Jack made his way back downstairs to where Craig and Laura now sat enjoying some chatter-free quiet. The former of the two raising an eyebrow when his immortal relative arrived back in the room.

"So, what's the plan for tomorrow?"

Jack flopped down onto the couch, not tired physically, but mentally he was as relieved for the quiet as the couple were.

"I take him to meet up with Jamie, and we go to an amusement park. I thought about taking him to see a city, with all the skyscrapers and such, but I think that would be a bit much. Amusement parks work better with my own talents, and with the stunts he's used to doing on dragons, I doubt even the biggest roller-coaster I can find would faze him much once he's on it."

Laura shook her head at that, in wonderment.

"Just make sure to warn him about all the coloured lights and things. He's managed the culture-shock this far, but don't push it."

Jack smiled wryly and chuckled.

"Don't worry, I won't."

~(-)~

Alaia Skyhawk: I'll try update within the next week, but don't worry if I go a few days beyond that. I'll see you all then :)