Secret of Frost and Moon

Children and Games

Alaia Skyhawk: lol, I'm loving all this fun and fluff. Onwards!

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 6: Children and Games

Laughter rang out in the air around the pond, air which was subject to the passage of snowballs being flung back and forth. Two months had passed, and winter was entering its final stage, but that didn't matter to the siblings playing among the trees. They were together, here and now, and that was enough.

Emily ducked behind a tree as another of Jack's snowballs came her wait, and she shouted out in a voice full of laughter.

"No fair! You don't have to grab snow like I do, you can just make it!"

Jack's chuckle came from behind a bush, which rustled as he stuck his head up out of it from among snow-laden branches.

"I'm the Spirit of Winter, what do you expect?"

At that moment he took a snowball to the face, as Emily whooped her success and went racing for a new place to take cover. Jack rose out of his bush and took flight, racing after her and getting her with a snowball to the back. Her squeal of mirth rang out among the trees, reaching the ears of the group of children making their way towards the pond.

Emily's friend, Claire, glanced at her brother, Albert, and the rest of the village children. Everyone in the village had noticed how happy Emily had become over the past few weeks. How she had been transformed from a solemn and mostly quiet girl, into one whose smile was like a ray of sunshine instead of gloomy like an overcast day. While the adults hadn't noticed much beyond that, the children had seen her sneaking away into the forest at every chance she got. They'd then seen her returning, flushed with happiness and dusted with snow.

Today they'd decided to follow her, and now found her throwing snowballs when there was no one there, and being hit by snowballs in return. Neither she nor her unseen playmate noticed the other children, not until Claire called out.

"Emily! Who... Who are you playing with?"

Emily dropped the snowball she'd been about to throw and gasped in surprise. She spun to face the small group of girls and boys, then looked to Jack for guidance where he'd landed in the branches of a nearby tree.

He smiled at her, and shrugged.

"You can tell them. Children aren't adults. Children are allowed to take part in our games. More people to play, means more fun, right?"

Emily hesitated, and then faced back to her friends and started to smile.

"Can you all keep a secret?" At her secretive whisper, she caught their attention and they nodded eagerly, and she waved an arm to indicate the pond. "This pond is special. It's the home of the Spirit of Winter, Jack Frost... But he's not just any Jack, he's our Jack. After he fell through the ice, the moon lifted him up again and told him he had to look after winter. But Jack is still our Jack, and he still likes to play when he's not too busy spreading snow and frost where it's needed."

One of the children, Claire, gasped.

"Is it really Jack, your brother?"

Beside her, Albert scoffed in sceptisism.

"It can't be. She's just making it up because she's still upset her brother died."

"Hey!"

Jack exclamation went unheard by all but his sister, as he conjured a snowball and threw it past Albert's ear, to which Emily looked at him sharply.