Secret of Frost and Moon

Accidental Misdemeanor

Alaia Skyhawk: Well I said I'd work in stuff from the books, after I'd read them. And after having read the first book in one go before I wrote yesterday's chapter, and chugging through all of book 2 and half of book 3 today, I'm doing just that.

Time to see how Jack ends up on North's "Naughty List" for the first time as Jack Frost :)

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 11: Accidental Misdemeanour

The winds carried him east and north, over the North Sea, over Sweden, onwards to Russia and then Siberia. That in itself wasn't that odd, as quite a bit of his avalanche duties happened in the many areas of mountains in this part of the world. However, what was surprising, was that when he got close enough to sense the danger-zone of an impending avalanche, the winds seemed to forget where it was.

They circled around for a while, as if they'd lost the trail to the avalanche zone he needed to tend to. At this point Jack started to get a bit impatient with them, for interrupting his talk with Sandy only to keep him hanging around while they find the danger zone that they've just 'lost'.

So he hung there in the air, still waiting, until the winds suddenly surged beneath him as they relocated the trouble-spot. He was then led to a mountain valley which felt odd to his senses, almost as if it were hiding from the world, and then he saw the 'avalanche zone' the winds had gotten all worked up about.

He stared.

"What the-." He glared at the winds. "How the heck did you lot not find this before now?! That thing has built up so much it could go at any second!"

The winds curled around him apologetically, but Jack had every right to be worked up. Because below the danger-zone, which has at least several years' worth of snow built up on it, was a village.

Jack flew in closer, aware that dawn would be arriving soon, and dawn plus this avalanche could equal serious problems. If he wanted to trigger the thing in a controlled manner, he needed to do it before the sun started warming the surface of the slope.

He examined the snow and the slope, careful not to disturb so much as a single snowflake, and then he flitted towards the village for a look there... and cringed.

The place echoed with masses of magic, not surprising given that the biggest home seemed to be a massive tree, and lots of bits of the other homes looked utterly impossible in terms of normal construction, which made it obvious that it was quite likely the hideaway of an immortal or other powerful being of some kind... Great, now he had to do this avalanche without angering whoever the place belonged to.

Jack frowned, cautiously inspecting the hundred-foot high hedge of thorny vines that formed a barrier around the settlement. Beyond that was a woodland ring of massive oaks, and in both circles he could sense great protective magic and the presence of some form of lesser immortals. Closer inspection of those revealed some sort of woodland spirit, and a massive bear... But none of that would be a defence against the thousands of tonnes of snow teetering on the slope of the mountain above the village. There was enough up there to bury the village as completely as if it had never been there.

As for why his winds hadn't found the build-up of snow, he could now guess. The protective veil that radiated out from the village, had kept the winds from looking too closely at an area which radiated a sense of 'safety'. It was also why they'd had trouble leading him to the spot once they'd told him of it.

He contemplated going down there to deliver a warning of what he was about to do, but decided there wasn't time with dawn barely an hour away. Instead he went back to the slope and started to get to work, creating spires of ice, frozen right down through the snow to the rock beneath, in a series of arrow-shaped snow-breaks between the teetering snow and the village, set to take the snow off to the sides. Once he had three rows of them he then went to the top of the avalanche zone and very, very carefully gave it a small tap with his staff.