Secret of Frost and Moon

Winter's Ire

Alaia Skyhawk: Here's the next one :)

And in answer to "Littlebopeep", I may reference the "Year without a summer" in past-tense, but only if it fits with what's going on in a chapter. I'm trying not to bog-down this fic with too many historical references.

And in answer to Hannah's question as to if Sophie is the first girl born to the family after Emily and Claire, no, she isn't. In line with what is typical of families during these early dates, there's actually 3-5 children in each generation. But so I don't have to come up with crazy numbers of names, I'll generally be focusing on the eldest boy in each generation and sometimes mention the name of a wife here and there. There is one young girl in the family who will be mentioned, for a cute moment not too much further on in the time-line, but in my head-canon Jack eventually sticks to only paying attention to the direct lineage. The reason for that, other than it would eventually become impossible to keep tabs on all the dozens of side-branches of the family, will be revealed in a future chapter :)

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.

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Chapter 35: Winter's Ire

If it weren't for the fact he never used his voice, Sandy would have been humming cheerfully to himself as he flew down the icy crevasse to the tunnel entrance of the Winter Sanctuary. He was in such a good mood, as he had been in general ever since Jack had become a Guardian. It was hard to believe it was now a few months over eleven years since that day. But then he'd been so busy, going about the world giving dreams, and also making sure to slip in the one about scaring monsters with snowballs or other thrown objects, every so often. Between that and Jack's own work, he'd only seen the Spirit of Winter perhaps two or three times per year over that period.

But then, that wasn't so much of a problem when you were immortal. He and Jack had, on a couple of occasions since their first meeting, gone a whole decade without setting eyes on one another.

But that was the past, and as Guardians it was only right and proper that the two of them have an annual meeting of their own. Sandy normally stopped by after he and the other Guardians had finished their meeting at North's Workshop, but this year he felt it only fair that Jack have the chance to request a matter be raised, secretly on his behalf, at this year's meeting. But when Sandy reached the plaza, it wasn't Jack who met him there.

Marzanna arrived after a few minutes, led by the sprite who had let her know there was a visitor.

She paused when she saw who it was, and smiled after a moment.

"Sandman, welcome. I'm afraid Jack is busy at the moment. Could I give him a message for you?"

Sandy tilted his head, drawing Jack presenting a question-mark to him, which he then took to where the other Guardians were sat at a table, and asked that 'question' to them.

Marzanna nodded in understanding.

"You wanted to ask if there was any question he wanted raised at the Guardians' annual meeting." She paused again, slightly evasive. "I'm certain there's nothing he'd want asked this time around. I'll let him know you stopped by, once he returns from his work."

Sandy regarded her for a long moment, before nodding and turning to leave. There was something a bit 'off' about the Lieutenant, for she'd seemed rather tense and on edge. And her excuse that Jack was 'busy', was one which had come up fairly frequently over the past few years. In fact, if not for those occasions when Jack was seemingly elsewhere, Sandy would have seen him far more often than he had. Not only that, but when he had seen Jack, the Spirit of Winter had been just a little too cheerful.