Secret of Frost and Moon

Silent Declaration of Hope

Alaia Skyhawk: I'll let you guys try figure out what series of books Jack is reading one of at the start of this hehehe. I also reference a very funny Jack Frost youtube vid :)

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 71: Silent Declaration of Hope

"Jack, one of the yetis just stopped by. North's sent out the signal for the meeting."

Jack glanced up from his book and towards the library doors, to where Cernunnos remained only long enough to be sure the Spirit of Winter had heard him. And as the Lieutenant walked away, Jack sighed and slipped a bookmark between the pages of what was proving to be an unusual yet very entertaining read. It was one of more than a dozen books by some Asian author, which was set thousands of years into the future and yet seemed to be almost like goth, the wild west, and science fiction all rolled into one. It sounded strange and yet was oddly addictive, if you ignored how the author commented on the sheer drop-dead gorgeousness of the main protagonist... about every other page.

Jack stood up and stretched, yawning once before heading for the door. The past three annual meetings he'd been to, he'd spent most of them trying not to doze off from boredom, but today he actually had some very important news for his fellow Guardians. Sandy had insisted he be the one to tell them, since either way he was the one who'd have to verbalise it for them. The only thing that remained to be done before heading to the pole, was to go pick up the person the news was about.

The Guardian of Fun idly opened an ice mirror into Mother Nature's sanctuary, specifically the cottage garden, and knocked on the wooden door once he reached it. Just a few moments later it opened to reveal Kosmotis stood there in his new attire, the front of his hair now hanging much looser than the scraped-back style 'Pitch' had kept it in. The change was probably deliberate, since it softened his angular face considerably, and helped distance him even more from resemblance to the Nightmare King than his green eyes and now normal skin had already done.

He smiled as he exited the cottage, with only the slightest hesitation showing he was nervous.

"Are you sure this is wise? Might it not be better to tell them before introducing me?"

Jack grinned.

"Nah, I'd just end up with them insisting I must have been brainwashed by Pitch and that trouble is going to start again. There's a saying here on this world, 'Show and tell should be done in that order'."

Kosmotis looked somewhat baffled.

"Show and tell?"

"Something that kids do in schools, usually as a homework project or for a science project. I've watched through windows sometimes, and seen everything from photo albums, fishing rods, papier-mache volcanoes, and one time even a paper cup filled with dirt."

As the two of them stepped through the mirror and into the Winter Sanctuary, Kosmotis nodded with only minor comprehension. Thanks to fifteen-thousand years of memory being squished down into one vague recollection of darkness, screams, and rare words and phrases, he wasn't exactly familiar with Earth's wide and varied cultures and ways of life.

"I will have to take your word for that." He followed Jack into the Ice Palace, heading through the frozen hallways to somewhere far at the rear of the building. "Are we using one of your mirrors to get to North's Workshop?"

Jack glanced back and nodded.

"Yeah, I made a permanent portal to it so one of the yetis could bring messages when meetings are about to start, or there's an emergency. It's a backup in case no snow-globes are available. I'm at the opposite end of the world here, so the signal lights don't get here until about six hours after he triggers them. Bunny keeps a golem stationed at a burrow entrance somewhere near Tooth's Palace, so he gets the signal about the same time she does. I had to come up with my own way to solve the problem of being even further south than he is."