Secret of Frost and Moon

Stormy Weather

Alaia Skyhawk: Here's a long one, posted from my holiday with Sparkling Moon Phoenix in London :)

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 120: Stormy Weather

The following day dawned bright and with just a scattering of clouds over Lunestra, with the guests all returned to home or guest accommodation. There was no one there to see the two new Nature Immortals off on their first foray, save for Tsar Gallus, Tsar Lunar, and Jack Frost.

Jack was there out of curiosity mostly, and perhaps some slightly mischievous hope that the pair's first attempt at flight would be good for a few chuckles. As it was, both Tanmun and Emed soared away with only some minor wobbling. The former heading off to Lumeris' Sanctuary of Nature, to do some much-needed restoration work, and the latter off to do his first weather-working.

Southern Winter was coming to an end on Lumeris, so the Spirit of Spring had his job to get started on.

Jack strolled off to wander the grounds a bit after that, waiting until it was a slightly more sociable hour before heading to the wing where the candidates were. He'd asked for the Steward candidates to be moved to another room for today, where he could sit and talk to them without the disruption of the others. He knew he couldn't test them properly, that would be down to Kosmotis, but he should still be able to narrow down the number of those that would come back to Earth for that.

The room he was shown to by one of the porters, was something of a classroom towards the far end of the candidates' wing. Inside it, sat at rows of individual desk, were the fifty potential Stewards. All of them waiting patiently, and with no visible nerves.

Calm and composed, which was a good start. Even if a handful of them were already unknowingly 'tagged' by him as being unsuitable.

Jack walked the length of the classroom, which was utterly silent but for the sound of his footsteps. But when he reached the desk, rather than going behind it to sit in the chair, instead he sat casually on the desk itself.

"As you'll all know by now, I'm Jack Frost. One of the two immortals that accompanied Tsar Lunar and Tsar Solus here. I just want to make one thing clear right away. Don't call me 'Sir' or 'Mr Frost' or anything like that. I'm just 'Jack'. I can do formal, but only when it's necessary. I'm the Guardian of Fun for my world, as well as being the Spirit of Winter. I'm not the Guardian of 'Stiff'."

One of them raised a hand, speaking once Jack had nodded in permission.

"When you came to us three days ago, and pretended to be a candidate, that was to get a measure of us. Correct?"

Jack smiled at that, shrugging.

"Guilty as charged. I knew all of you would be too awed by me being an immortal, to talk truly and openly. That would have made it a lot harder for me to do my job regarding you all."

Another hand was raised.

"Is this why Father Time had the Constellations choose and bring us here?"

"Yep." Jack jumped down off the desk, strolling up and down between the rows of candidates. "First off I'll start with one simple fact. On my world the Fearlings still roam about, but they're not a threat anymore. That's because we learnt from the mistakes made during the Old Golden Age, and discovered the way to keep them harmless and powerless."

He reached the front again, and turned to face them. "For a long time Sanderson, our Guardian of Dreams, did his best to ward off the nightmares caused by Fearlings using his power of dreams. It worked, but only to an extent. Then I came along."