After a whole week straight of hanging out with my little bro, I could feel my veins itching to leave. As much as I loved hanging out with Caeden... I couldn't stay in Niles. So I said my good byes and flew south for a change of scenery. As the weather grew colder and the air thinner I like I was coming home after a vacation.

It was strange that Niles didn't feel like home anymore. But, it was what it was. I found that, I didn't mind the cold. As a mortal, I'd preferred warmth. As an immortal, it didn't matter the weather, just so long as it felt right. Soon I was passing the edge of the glaciers surrounding and smothering Antarctica. Minutes later I dissipated my wings and dropped through a hole leading down through the ice. I landed in a chamber not unlike an entryway. I shivered a bit, I may not mind cold anymore, but it was still cold. At the warmest, it was sub zero. It was not at it's warmest.

Hanging on a rack along the wall was my green jacket. I grabbed it and put it on, heading deeper into the ice. Patterns were carved into the floor that looked like frost and snowflakes. The walls had a subtle glow, the ice seemed to be lit from behind. For all I knew it was. Off of the entryway there were three hallways. The first led to rooms that were either empty or bedrooms. I wasn't Jacks only roommate, but I'll get into that in a little bit. The second led to other "house" type rooms. Kitchen, living room, office spaces, etc. The last led to miscellaneous rooms. Jack had a room that was nothing but a giant hole up to the surface, which he usually came and went through. There were one or two rooms that, according to Jack, had changed over the years, as his different roommates had used them for their purposes. There were also rooms that were dedicated to fun of every type. Arenas for sports, a built in ice rink - that wasn't just the regular floor - and a few other rooms of the like, including one room that had snow eternally falling, with a layer of about two feet of snow year round for snowball fights. And, of course... there was Jack's globe. He'd created his globe after being sworn in as a Guardian. It was carved ice - big surprise - and the lights on it reminded me of a cross between Christmas lights covered in snow, and candle light.

I went to my room, changing my clothes as I'd worn my current ones for a few months and I was bored of them. Even though I'd traveled for the majority of the past six years, I'd still kept a room at the "Sanctuary of the Spirit of Winter" or as we called it "Jack's place." I hadn't managed to create my own home yet, and Jack's offer was still standing. Now dressed in another pair of jeans, a flannel button up over a plain white tank-top and my knock-off Toms, I hug my previous outfit back up in my carved ice closet. As an immortal, my clothes didn't get dirty unless I got into a fight with someone... or splattered them with ink. I'd ruined one of my shirts that way. I had it framed on my wall now, it was a bit of an inside joke between all of us.

I went to my bed took a short nap, which meant a day of sleep. When I woke up the first thing I noticed was my mini-globe off on the side of my room. I'd taken the idea of having a globe of believers from Jack and the other Guardians. Hell, even Pitch had one. Mine didn't have any lights on it, but rather glowed softly in general, with different areas glowing brighter every once in a while. The effect was of a pulsating orb, like a heart beat. My globe might not have twinkled, but it was alive.

I sat up and stretched. I waltzed out of my room, taking a set of stairs to a high hallway. Jack had made almost a complete circle around what would be the second floor of the sanctuary, connecting all the hallways so that we didn't have to go through the entryway each time we wanted to go to a different wing. I walked along and soon the right side of the passageway opened up. There was a railing made of ice on the side open, but beyond that was one of my favorite rooms here.

The library. I gave up walking to the stairway and instead jumped over the railing and landed, cat-like, in one of the armchairs. Not everything here was sculpted in ice. The bookshelves were made of wood, there were lazy-boys all over, the kitchen had real appliances - run with magic of course - and there were rugs strewn here and there, for those of us that weren't the Spirit of Winter. I pulled a book to me that I had noticed was new, and began reading. It was a good story. However, when a dragon decided to breathe fire I had to close the book otherwise I'd have melted the wall behind me. I decided to go back to one of my old favorites, one of the ones I'd brought.

My books had their own shelf. I climbed up the shelves, like the spider-monkey I'd always been. I pulled out Holes. It always made me feel warmer when I read it in the sanctuary, as it took place in a desert, and I was in a tundra. As I was part way through it one of my other roommates walked in.

I hadn't ben totally truthful with Caeden when I'd said I hadn't met any immortals besides Jack. I'd met three others. My two other roommates. They lived here for the same reason as me, they didn't have an official home. They were roamers like me. Jack was a nice enough guy to let roamers stay if we really needed a place. All the others were either intolerant to cold or too stubborn to "stoop to living with a hooligan like Jack Frost." The longest staying of my roommates was almost a permanent addition to the sanctuary. She'd been here long before Jack was brought back as Jack Frost. She was a Lillend. Lillends are fiercely protective of the wilderness they consider home, and she'd decided that the entirety of Antarctica was her home. So she stayed after Jack set up his place.

Her name was Selie, and we had become instant friends. Lillends are great lovers of art and stories. They'd prefer a story as payment for something over gold. The fact that I was, literally, stories had instantly forged a friendship between us. Selie was beautiful, as her race commonly is. Lillends look like beautiful females from the waist up, from the waist down are brightly colored snakes, and have brilliant wings like a birds'. Selie's tail was a gradation from white where it met skin all the way to the deepest midnight blue where her tail ended twenty feet away. Her wings were not unlike a snowy owl's. I'd taken to calling her Hedwig in a playful way when we were joking with one another.

Selie smiled at me, throwing her wings out and railing the end of her tail. Arms wide she called to me. "Story! I thought you were home!" I got up and ran into her offered hug. Selie rarely left the sanctuary, and was always glad to see me, one of the reasons I loved her so much, and she me.

"Hey, Sel. Are Del and Korri home?" I didn't ask about Jack, for, whenever he was home, snow fell in nearly every room in the sanctuary. As of that moment, there was no snow aside from the previously mentioned room.

"Korrigan is gone right now, but Ara Del'Ket should be here. I believe he said something about being hungry earlier." Selie always used Del's full name when referring to him if he wasn't in the room.

"Del's always hungry. But, hey, when you're a dragon..."

She chuckled as she coiled her tail and perched on top of it, like it was a bean-bag chair. I sat back down in the armchair I'd vacated upon her arrival. "So, where did you run off to this past month? I've been looking forward to the story almost since you left."

I laughed and told her about the first two weeks, where I'd basically spent completely in the Redwood forests and generally doing a Maximum Ride impression. "The second two weeks I... I went to see my brother."

"Caeden?" She sat up. I hadn't told any of them that I was going to visit. "Why didn't you tell us?"

I sighed. "Because I didn't plan it. I realized I'd gotten close to Niles and, suddenly, I couldn't shake the thought from my head. If I'd waited much longer, he wouldn't have been able to see me. If he'd passed through me..." I closed my eyes and took a breath. "I'm just glad that I got to see him." I smiled at her. "He's so grown up now... a lot's changed since I left."

She unraveled the bottom most coil and used the tip of her tail to lightly tap my arm. It was one of her ways of comforting people she liked. I smiled at the gesture. She said, "Lets go see if Del's left anything for us, shall we?"

"I could go for some hot chocolate." I stood up and walked over to the door Selie had come through. Selie glided along next to me as I walked with my hands in my pockets. Her wings were tucked in against her back at the moment so they wouldn't scrape along the sides of the tunnel. "So, where's Korri off to?"

"I believe she went to visit some friends in Scandinavia. The Rusalki if I am not mistaken."

I snorted. "They'll probably spend the whole time dancing around fountains and combing each other's hair."

"No doubt." She agreed. Korri was our newest edition. She was older than me, about ten - that's immortal years. She'd been human like me. Her name was Carolyn before she died. She'd been one of those vain, Barbie-girls who care more about shopping than anything. She'd died right about when the old Korrigan legend had drifted. Many had brought her back as the replacement. Korri looked to be about twenty two, had long blonde hair and red eyes. Honestly, I think Many brought her back, only because she's as shallow as the myths about the previous Korrigan were. I didn't have anything against her though, she was like that cousin that you have to love even if you'd like to punch them for their stupidity. She'd taken a room about three years back.

We made it to the kitchen and I could hear Del scarfing whatever he'd decided to have for lunch. Selie burst out, "Del'Ket you are making a mess! I am not cleaning that up!" I chuckled from the doorway where I'd leaned against the frame. Del was off in the large area Jack had created once Del had moved in. It was easily large enough to hold all of us as well as any guests we may have, Jack had made sure of that once he'd become a Guardian.

"Nice to see you again, Morning Breath." Del was a dragon, just not like I'd always thought a dragon would be. He was a pushover and gullible and whined a lot. He acted like a mix of a puppy and a kitten, especially when he was upset. He was small for a dragon, tough he was still huge. Hid scales were a deep forest green and his eyes were nearly white. I'd only ever seen him mad once when Korri had brought home a "pet" that turned out to be a boggart in disguise. That's what I'd always thought a dragon would be like.

He swallowed whatever was in his mouth and smiled his toothy grin. "Story! When did you get back!" His deep rumble filled the kitchen with the feeling of home. I rolled my eyes as I moved into the room.

Selie swatted him as she said, "She's been home almost a full day, you over grown lizard!"

He looked at her dejected. "Hey, that wasn't very nice. I am not a lizard. I'm a dragon!"

It was Selie's turn to snort. "Not much of one."

I smiled as I shook my head. Good to be home.

The past six years, I'd spend most of the time traveling, but every three months or so, I'd come back to the sanctuary for a rest. I'd first met Selie when Jack and I had dropped off my stuff that first night. She'd come roaring out of the "front door", the whole in the roof of the entryway, straight at me. Screaming that I was an intruder. Selie's the other reason that a lot of immortals don't want to stay at the sanctuary. Instinctively I'd made a wall, albeit a flimsy one, out of the pages of my books. That'd been my first indication that I could control stories.

Of course, using stories as a shield was the perfect way of stopping Selie from ripping my head off. Being a Lillend, she would never destroy a story. She saw the pages and instantly got lost in reading the words printed on the pages. I slowly lowered my wall, once I'd realized that I wasn't in danger anymore. Selie looked at Jack and asked, indignantly might I add, "Who is this?"

"This is Story Tale, she's a new immortal and our new roommate."

At the mention of my name Selie had perked up. "What are you? You were obviously once human. Legend? I can tell by your name you're not a seasonal."

"I'm stories."

A wide smile had carved itself across her face at my response. "You and I are going to get along well." She held out her hand. "I am Selie. I apologize for my earlier behavior, we Lillends are notoriously protective of our homes."

Jack looked at me and elaborated. "Sel's lived here longer than me. She's - what - sixte-"

"Don't you dare speak my age Jack Frost!"

He laughed. "Well, lets just say that she was here long before most of the other immortals I know have been around. When I moved in she gave me the same warm reception she gave you."

"And I have since apologized. I did not know you were the Spirit of Winter when you first came here." She looked at me again. "I am sorry about how vicious I may have seemed. Ever since Kozmotis got through last year I've been on edge. It felt like I had fleas when he was here." She shivered at the memory.

"You called him Kozmotis, not Pitch?"

She smiled at me kindly. "I remember a time when he was Kozmotis. And Seraphina and I are friends. I will not refer to Kozmotis as anything else."

It was the second time I'd come to the sanctuary that I met Del. I was wandering around the sanctuary on the upper walkway. It opened up on one side to each of the rooms that were more than one story in height. And many of then were to accommodate Del's size. I'd come to an opening that looked down on one of the fun rooms, this one was an open space with stalactites and stalagmites made of ice that were huge. As big as trees. There were some that had formed together to create columns. I'd found out later that this room was mainly to practice flying.

My jaw was hanging open as I stared at the room easily bigger than five football fields. I saw Selie flying around and between some of the protrusions. I was about to call to her when a giant green lizard flew right past me... and right towards Selie. Del was so big I could have easily stood straight in his mouth, and yet he was small for a dragon. Selie circled around and started sparring with Del in mid air. Though at the time I hadn't known they were sparring. I thought Del was attacking Selie.

I threw myself out of the opening calling my wings and flew to aide Selie. I sent a rush of pages at Del. They covered his eyes and prevented him from seeing. "Sel! Are you ok?" I called as I finally made my way over to her... only to see she was laughing so hard she had to hold her abdomen. Del was pawing at his face, trying to get the papers to release him.

Through gasps of laughter, Sel managed to sputter, "Let - let him go, Story. He's fine." She dissolved back into laughter as I skeptically let the paper go.

Del froze and blinked as he tried to figure out if he was going to be attacked again... and by whom. He looked at me and nearly whined, "Who are you?"

My eyes were wide with surprise, but my brows were scrunched together in confusion. "Uh..."

Sel managed to stop laughing enough to do the introductions. "Del, this is Story Tale. She is the new immortal I was telling you about. Story, this is Ara Del'Ket, one of our roommates."

"Oh." I said as I began to feel very embarrassed.

Sel clapped me on the shoulder as she said, "That was one of the funniest things I've seen in years! Del'Ket the expression on your face was priceless!"

Dal pouted as he said, "Why did you attack me? It's hard enough fighting off the harpie over here." Sel was laughing to hard to take offense at being called a harpie, which she usually despised. Cal her anything other than what she was, and you better hope you have a good defense or that she really likes you.

"I'm sorry, Del'Ket. I, uh... I thought you were attacking her." I shrugged in that what-can-I-do way.

"Ha!" Selie had mostly gotten over her fit of giggles by now. "As if that over grown lizard would ever willingly attack me."

"I'm not a lizard!" He looked at me and smiled. "You can call me Del. My name's a bit of a mouthful. Even if Sel over here insists on saying it, doesn't mean you have to."

I smiled back. "If you don't mind my asking, what is a dragon doing in Antarctica?"

Selie smiled over at me as Del buried his head in his paws and groaned, "Here we go."

"Del'Ket is a runt. He is smaller than most dragons, save hatchlings. And he is the only dragon I've met incapable of breathing fire."

Del mumbled from beneath his paws, "Dragons always have eyes some shade of red, orange or yellow, the colors of fire. Mine are white because I can't breathe fire. I've tried from the day I hatched! No one respects a dragon who can't breathe fire!"

"Well," I said, "You're the first dragon I've ever met. You seem pretty impressive to me."

Del looked at me shocked. Sel said, "Del'Ket may be a fire-less dragon, but he is every bit as ferocious as his kin... when he want's to be."

Del pointed a claw at her as he said, "I resent that."

But that was almost six years ago. Selie and Del were still like a bickering married couple towards each other. Del was as much a pet as he was a roommate. Sel was as much the sister I'd never had as she was a replacement for the best friend I'd left behind. She mothered all of us, which wasn't a big shocker seeing as she out-ranked us age wise. Jack was like our landlord and fellow tenant at the same time. Korri came and went as she pleased. One minute she was here, the next she was gone. Usually without notice. But, hey, as far as I'd noticed, she wasn't much different before she'd died. I more or less went on a "vacation" nonstop, came back in somewhere between one month and three, and then stayed for somewhere between a week and a month.

I'd been back for five days when Jack came home. It was still summer up north, which meant it was winter down here. Hack was at his busiest when Northern winter was in full swing, but, when the south got chilly, Jack actually had time to relax. The colder regions below the equator were far less densely populated than their northern counterparts. Which meant Jack could let winter do most of it's work on it's own, with him running out to cause avalanches for a few weeks and then staying at the sanctuary the rest of the time. Of course he ran out to spread fun around at least every two days regardless of the season.

I was in the kitchen with Del. He didn't often leave the kitchen as it was. Usually only to go out hunting. There was a reason that Leopard Seals hadn't eaten all the penguins yet, and that was that Del thought their spots made the seals yummier. I was reading the book I'd had to stop reading earlier in the week. Though Del was flame-less, he could still swallow fire, so, when the dragon in my book let loose, Del opened up. Every one of my stories with warm projectiles coming out of them I always read around Del for this very reason. I was about halfway through the book when snow started softly falling from the ceiling.

Del looked up from his after lunch snack and mused, "Jack's back."

I looked up as well. "Looks like it." I turned back to my book. "Hell find us if he wants us." Though Jack didn't mind being sought out, especially if it was for a game, he often took a nap after coming back from a business trip. And he was often busy with Guardian duties, though not always. I preferred to not interrupt something important, I'd rather let others find me if they needed me. Besides, I had no reason to go running to see Jack the second he got home.

A few hours later I'd finished my book and I sat with my eyes closed and the book resting in my lap. Ever since I'd become Story Tale, whenever I read a book completely through in one sitting - or came to the ending of a particularly powerful story - I'd found that the story continued around me. About a year ago I'd started ending my books this way, with my eyes closed. Eventually the story ceased and, once the only things I saw were the backs of my eyelids, I'd open my eyes. With music I'd end up humming the song until a new one was heard by my ears.

Del had fallen asleep after his meal and was snoring, softly for him, but still loud enough to make the rood rumble slightly. I opened my eyes and blinked a few times, shaking the last remnants of the story from me. I stood up and walked to the doorway. I strolled down the hall towards the library. I entered the shelf lined room and started climbing the shelves, looking for the place the book had previously been. There were no ladders to scale the shelves. Del was tall enough to reach any book he needed. Selie could either stand tall on her tail or fly up to the book she wanted. Jack would either send wind to get it for him or would ride the wind up to get it himself. I could have flown, but there was a good chance I'd pull the pages from whatever book I was looking for. I couldn't pick and choose what stories made my wings yet. I could have also sent the story back to it's place without any movement on my part.

However, just as Jack preferred being carried by the wind, I preferred climbing the shelves. When I was alive, there was one sport only that I'd ever actually loved, and it was technically an extreme sport. Rock Climbing. I'd even taken it as my gym class in college. There was actually a rock wall in the sanctuary, which I had been happy to discover. I had always been a good climber, growing up surrounded by trees will do that to you. There was one time, my mom was helping out at the craft fair at Caeden's school, and they needed more pans from the storage room. There were about three shelves, but they were deep, and stuff was piled in front of most of them. I'd climbed up on one of the lower shelves and spider-monkeyed around to find them.

I found the empty space and pushed the book back in. I jumped free of the shelves and landed quietly, a skill I'd learned back when I was alive, but that was much more effective now. Jack was standing near the middle of the room staring at me with his half grin. "What?" I said as I stood up.

He shrugged. "Nothing."

I rolled my eyes at him as I fwomped into one of the armchairs. "No nap?"

He shook his head and shrugged as he sat in another of the chairs, leaning his staff against the nearby table. "Not too tired right now. I might take one later." He gestured to the book I'd put back. "Good read?"

I smiled at him somewhat sarcastically. "You know it was." Jack read every book in the library. He'd been collecting the books longer than I'd been alive. He was almost always the first to read a book - unless I was the one who brought it back. "However, I had to wait to finish it 'til I was around Del."

He winced. "Oh, yeah, forgot about the dragon."

"Yeah."

"So, how was your last trip?"

I relayed the same information to him as I had to Sel about the redwoods, then I said. "I also went to Niles."

"And?"

I smiled, staring at the floor as the scene replayed in my mind. "Caeden saw me." I continued to smile for a few moments before I frowned and hit Jack on the arm. "Why didn't you tell me you kept visiting him!"

He held his arms up in surrender. "Easy! I wasn't gonna leave him high and dry, besides, after you left, he needed some fun to cheer him up."

"Did you tell him to read?"

Jack smiled wryly. "Nope, he did that on his own."

I smiled at the ground again. "So, how's it going with the other Guardians?"

Jack laughed. "Those shut-in's need to interact with kids more. I've gotten Tooth back out 'in the field' as she calls it. Sandy's letting one or two kids a night see the sand before it knock's 'em out. Aster's still stuck up about it though."

"What about North?"

Jack laughed again, a tad more evilly. "North's been switching places with some store Santa's the last few years. The yeti's have been giving them the same welcome they gave me - only these guys don't get to be let out of the bag."

I laughed along with him at the thought. "I really want to meet them... I'm surprised I haven't met Sandy yet."

"Well, you're gonna meet them sooner than you think." I looked at him confused as he stood up. Grabbing his staff he said, "The next annual meeting is being held here. Last year we decided that we were gonna take turns with the location, and I volunteered to go first. I already told Sel about it. Tell Del when he wakes up for me." He stretched and yawned as he walked towards the doorway. "Now I feel like a nap. See ya."

"See ya." I said absently.

My mind was spinning. The Guardians were coming here. To the sanctuary. Where I lived. I got up and walked back to the kitchen. I made myself a cup of hot chocolate as I waited for Del to wake up. Almost an hour later he finally did. He smiled at me sleepily. "Finish your book?"

"Yeah." I paused, waiting 'til he was fully awake. "Jack found me in the library -" Del snorted and I gave him a chastising look before continuing. "He said that the other Guardians decided that they were gonna trade off for the meetings. Each year is gonna be at a different Guardian's place. They're coming here this year."

Del arched his back - not unlike a cat - as he said. "Did he say when the meeting was going to be?"

"No, he'll probably tell up when he wakes up tomorrow."

I was in my room, drawing, when Jack woke up. It was a drawing of one of my characters. Even though, I'd first thought up the first of them over thirteen years ago, I'd never given up working on them, even when I'd died. I'd actually gotten more and more in-depth on their ref sheets as the years passed. I was really into the drawing when I had to stop because she almost literally came to life. I'd done that once - not gonna make that mistake again. That was the last time I drew in the realism style.

I put my supplies back in their wooden trunk, to protect them from the cold and from the snow that fell when Jack was home. I stood up and stretched, my arms reaching towards my ceiling. I picked up my iPod and put my ear-buds in. Now that I had control over stories, my iPod never messed up. It had a notorious habit of working one minute, and the next it wouldn't flip through songs, it wouldn't change in volume, it wouldn't pause... nothing. I had the 3rd generation Shuffle, the one that looks like a flash-drive. It went out of style years ago, and I'd changed the songs on it multiple times. I'd also bypassed the 2gig-ness of it, and, with my powers of course, had thousands of sings now. It was easier. I still had to plug it in to charge it though. I did that when I was travelling, I'd find some library and plug it into the computer, just long enough for it to fully charge.

Instrumental music drifted out of the speakers and a smile grew on my pace. I clipped the I-Pod itself to my waistband - I was in sweats - and walked out into the hallway. I was planning on going to the rock-wall, but on my way over, ran into Jack. I pulled one of the ear buds from my ear as I said, "Oh, hey. I was just heading to the rock-wall, wanna come?"

He shrugged and swung his staff across his shoulders, hanging his arms over it. "Sure."

We walked at a leisurely pace through the main hallways, as opposed to the upper one. As we passed through the entryway I could faintly hear Selie yelling at Del for making a mess with his mid-morning-snack. Jack and I both chuckled at this. "Those two have been like an old married couple for as long as I can remember." He said.

"So, true." We were both still laughing as we walked down the miscellaneous hallway and heard Del's usual protest that he was not a lizard but a dragon. "Hey," I said when we'd stopped laughing. "When's the meeting?"

"Hmm?"

"The Guardians. When the meeting?"

"Oh, it's Friday."

"This Friday?"

"Yep."

"Dude, that's in two days."

"Yep," He said again. I rolled my eyes in mock annoyance, even as a smile crept across my face.

The rock-wall was the only room in the sanctuary that had actual rock in it. The sanctuary itself was near Valkyrie Dome, and the rock wall was where the sanctuary met the mountain. One complete wall of the room was a nearly sheer cliff-face. Two of the other walls held jagged spikes of ice and crevasses where we could climb as well, which Jack had fashioned. I opted for the actual rock while Jack headed to the wall cornering mine. He looked towards me and said, "Race?"

I stared up the wall in front of me. "No powers, unless we fall."

"Deal."

"3... 2... 1!" We both jumped onto the wall in front of us. I wasn't wearing any climbing gear, hadn't needed it in years. I found the crevasses, the handholds and footholds, and my body fell into a rhythm almost as natural to me as breathing. I'd always preferred the holds that jutted out, the ones called beaks and the ones called bowls. I also loved when there was a crevasse big enough to lay my arm across... though I didn't use those during a race. I swung, one-handed half of the time from hold to hold, leaping, doing dynos. All but flying my way up the wall. With the speed I was going I barely felt gravity. I used my momentum as often as strength to pull myself ever higher.

One of the reasons I'd always loved climbing, on non-repetitive surfaces anyway, was that, it was like a giant puzzle, that I was actively trying to solve. I'd have to put my hand on that hold, so my foot could go on that hold, so I could reach that hold later. When you climb you have to see the route before you start, and you have to use your mind as much as your body to get to the top. There had been times where I'd be halfway up the wall and I'd just stop and stare at what was left, trying to beat the puzzle.

I didn't even look up to see what was left to go, nor did I look down to see how far I'd come. I simply saw the holds around me that almost lit up, the way my mind worked. I could vaguely feel Jack near me on the other wall, matching my pace. I'd never been quite brazen enough to dyno when I'd been mortal, but now, I did it often. I knew that, if I fell, I could save myself, and if I happened to be a tad late, I'd only be bruised, not dead. Being immortal tends to make you a bit reckless. Well, tended to make me a bit reckless. The others had chastised me about if a few times over the years.

I'll get back to that later though, right now, I was in a race with the Guardian of Fun... and I wasn't about to loose. I kicked it into high gear as the top of the wall drew near. Tunnel vision, I'd guess you'd call it. That's what I got the last ten feet or so to the top. All I saw were the last few holds I'd need, how I needed to use them and the ledge that ran along the top of all of the walls. Right hand there, foot here... There, two holds left... "Yes!" I topped out on the ledge.

I sat down swinging my legs over the edge and looked over at the other wall... where Jack was already sitting. "UGH!" I laid down on the ledge in exasperation. Jack's laughter wafted over to me. Still laying down I said, "How... do you always beat me?"

Through his laughter, he said, "You get too into it. You get tunnel vision and you get too caught up in the puzzle. I'm just having fun."

I sighed, and sat back up. I turned around and climbed over to hold onto the top of the wall. I carefully climbed down until the ledge was a few feet over my head. The rock room was easily five stories high, that's one of the reasons I loved it so much, nearly endless climbing. Holding on to my handholds tightly, I pulled my legs up so my feet were flat against the wall. I leaned back to my torso was almost level with the ground and pushed off. Throwing myself a few feet away from the wall itself, out into the open air. I used to climb down, but this was my favorite way.

Falling through the air, I called my wings. They were there almost instantly, as they'd done for years now. Jack fell down next to me, the wind carrying him down just as my wings did for me. I flew through the room and out into the corridor, big enough for Del and big enough for my wings. I dispersed my wings once I passed the entryway, falling into a run and then slowing to a walk. I strolled into the kitchen, Jack on my heels. "Do you have any sense of self-preservation?" He was referring to my dive off the wall.

"I caught myself." We walked through the doorway and into the bickering that still filled the air. "And if I hadn't you would have."

"What if I hadn't been fast enough?"

I gave him the same look that Caeden gave me. The I'm-not-stupid look. "Jack. You would have. And if you hadn't I'd be bruised and sore, but none the worse for wear."

At hearing my rebuttal, Selie and Del had now turned their attention to the two of us. Del spoke up first. "What're you guys talking about?"

"Story did another dive off the rock-wall." Jack explained to them as I opened a cabinet and got out a popsicle. As it was always sub-zero here, we didn't need a fridge, just the cabinets kept everything as cold as needed.

"Again?" Sel looked over at me while I shrugged. She face-palmed and sighed. "I swear, between you and Jack, my hair is going to turn gray."

"I don't see what the big deal is. Jack, you almost sent Jamie flying into a statue. And then he got hit by a couch. I can fly, I'm immortal. Why is it suck a problem for me specifically?"

"Story, you're a young immortal. Only six years. And you don't have a specific place where your believers are, you don't even have to work for your belief. You don't have to protect a specific place. And you don't have the fall back of being a seasonal Spirit like Jack." Selie had slipped into mother-mode. There was no getting out of this.

"No rules, no responsibility. Right Jack?" I said, bringing up his favorite phrase.

"Wrong."

"Story, we don't want to see you hurt. We care about you."

I stilled, my flippant façade forgotten. "Yeah, well I wish you didn't" I said quietly as I walked to the doorway, throwing the rest of the popsicle into the garbage as I passed it. "I'm going topside... I miss the stars." I walked down the hallway, steadily increasing in speed until I reached the entryway where I launched myself, wings forming and soaring upwards towards the entry-hole.

Hours later it was Del who found me on the ice. I'd let my wings go once I'd decided on a place to land. The wind was fierce here and I didn't want to risk the pages being destroyed, even a little. He sat next to me, radiating heat, saying nothing.

"Del, you shouldn't be up here. There might be scientists around."

He snorted. "You know as well as I, that most of them leave during Polar Night. And the few who stay don't leave the stations." He looked up at the stars. "They really are pretty."

I nodded. "Back home, when I'd been mortal, we had a fairly clear sky. I could make out enough constellations. I always found Orion's Belt first." I added smiling. "It wasn't like in a city where the lights drowned them out... but a lot were still hidden. I love it here because, there's no lights. I can see 'em all."

"I've never been to a city. Never been close to any place with a population of humans above fifty in fact." He said still staring up at the sky. "I've always wondered what they were like." He looked down at me. "What did you mean earlier, that you wished we didn't?"

I sighed. "Back when I was mortal, unlike most of the people I knew, I actually liked my family. All of them. I truly loved my family, but I hated Niles. It was small town nowhere, and I hated it. I'd always craved adventure, a story of my own over everything else. I knew, back then that, because I loved my family, even though I hated where I was, I could never bring myself to leave them. It broke my heart more than the failed hopes of magic combined." Tears were now gathering in my eyes. "Every time I told this to my mom, of wanting to go off and do whatever, she'd always tell me that she cared about me and didn't want me to get hurt... After a while began to associate that phrase with 'you're going to stay here forever and never have a real adventure of your own'..."

I snuggled closer to Del's side, only half-conscious of it. "I know I'm Story Tale now. I know I'm immortal and that I'm having the adventure I always wanted... But every time I'm getting chastised for being 'reckless' and - feeling alive... I can't help but feel the same way I used to. I know that you don't want me to be hurt, but I can't stop myself from being me, from living my story the way I've always dreamed. I was mortal longer than I've been immortal. I've been dreaming of my story for longer than I've been immortal."

Del said nothing. Only let me vent. "You know, you're a good listener when you're not taking naps or stuffing your face." I felt his chuckle through his side. "Thanks, Del."

"Any time."