Crystal Winters

Chapter Four

Sitting near the lake was peaceful, Crystal decided. That was, until some weirdo boy with a stick and a glint in his eyes decided to show up and crash her party. Backing up into the woods (hey, she wasn't in the mood to get walked through again) she studied him curiously.

He had the same snow-white hair as her, and the same vibrant blue eyes, except his had the faint outline of a snowflake in them. He wore a blue sweatshirt and brown pants. Glancing at his feet, she realized that he didn't wear shoes either. How he hadn't gotten frostbite yet was a wonder.

The spark in his eyes never faded, even as he called out to nothing.

"Come out!" He cried, twirling his stick in one hand. "I know you're there!"

Crystal crept carefully up behind him, trying to inspect the odd stick. As she got closer, it seemed more and more blatant that the odd stick must have frost on it.

She almost rolled her eyes at the very thought of it. No one, out of all the people she had observed, had powers. Still, she was becoming more and more doubtful of that. As she started to get closer, it began to look more and more like frost was decorating the wood near his hand.

When she got within a meter of him, he spun around, triumph in his eyes. The crook of his stick was pointing straight at her.

"Whoa!" She cried, putting her hands up in the air. Then it registered. That stick was clearly pointing straight at her, which meant...

"Wait, you can see me?" she asked, amusement and shock creeping into her voice.

His face turned troubled. "Yea."

"And hear me?" she tested.

"Yea." He repeated. "This is bad."

"Hey! I'm not the one barging in and messing up all the results!" She huffed indignantly. "This really throws a wrench in my testing."

"Testing?" He mumbled, confused. "Wha- actually, never mind. Who are you?"

She glanced at him before giving an exaggerated bow. "Crystal Winters, at your service." Then, in a much smaller voice, she added, "At least that's what the moon said. "

She straightened, giving a mock glare towards him. "And you are?"

"Jack Frost. C'mon, I'll take you to the pole." He grabbed her wrist. "Win-"

"Wait!" She cut in. "Where are we going?"

He gave a lighthearted chuckle and ignored her.

"Wind! Take us to the North Pole!"

She was dizzy, lightheaded, and absolutely giddy with adrenaline by the time they got there. That had been much faster than anything she had ever tried with the wind, and the rush of flying had been so much greater. Jack glanced at her, a little worried, but laughed as he saw her face.

"First time flying?" He asked, fighting to keep a straight face.

"No." she said. "Just faster than I'm used to..."

"Alright." He started dragging her across the balcony on which they had landed. "C'mon, I'll introduce you."

"To who?"

"Oh, no one special." A hint of mischief crept into his voice. "Just the Guardians of Childhood." He pulled her through the window.

Suddenly, he was tackled by a green blur.

"Oh, Jack, we were so worried, you can't just disappear like that, I was worried sick and we were just about to send some yetis to find you and don't you do that again an-"

"Tooth! Tooth, calm down, I'm fine. In fact, I've got a little surprise."

The green thing pulled back. Jack gently grabbed Crystal's wrist and pulled her out from behind him. He grinned. "TADA!"

If front of Crystal stood four figures. The green figure had pulled back to reveal a young woman, with feathers for hair and clothes. Crystal personally thought that she looked like a cross between a hummingbird, a fairy, and a human. She had bright magenta eyes, and her wings flitted behind her, creating a constant 'hmmmmmmmmm'. Next there was a short man who was made of what seemed to be golden sand. His hair was also in golden sand spikes, and his eyes were a warm buttery gold that made her a little sleepy. Next to the sandman stood a tall-what was that? The figure sort of looked like a kangaroo, except taller and more humanoid. He had grass-green eyes and his fur was dark and light grey with white. Finally, there was a broad-shouldered man that had big blue eyes. He was wearing a red shirt, brown pants, and boots.

"Meet the Guardians."

She glanced around at them, eyes searching for a threat. She turned and mumbled to Jack "They can all see me?"

At his confirmed nod, she turned around and exclaimed "What is with you people and messing up my data!"

They looked at her confused. Then turned to Jack. The man made of sand started flashing symbols over his head.

"Err... I think it's time to explain some things."

Soon enough, they were all seated in big cushioned chairs.

"Okay. Time for introductions." Jack began. "This is the Sandy, AKA the Sandman" he pointed to the golden man. "This is Tooth, AKA the Tooth Fairy." He pointed to the green hummingbird hybrid. "This is North, AKA Nicolas St. North, AKA Santa Claus." He pointed to the big man dressed in red. "And this is Bunny, the Easter Kangaroo-"

"Eh! I'm not a kang'roo mate!"

"Fine! The Easter Bunny."

"Thanks."

Jack ignored him. "And this," he pointed at Crystal, "is Crystal Winters."

The next hour or so was spent in those big fluffy chairs, mostly explaining things to Crystal and asking her questions. Where and when did she wake up? What did she remember? What where her powers? And a whole bunch of over stuff. The majority of it, however, was spent answering her questions, and she had a lot of those.

She finally got answers to some of the stuff she had been wondering about. She was a spirit, and as such, people could only see her if they believed in her. Her powers came from The Man in the Moon, or Manny, and she was supposed to help spread winter.

Nearly two hours later, everyone except Crystal and Jack had left the room. Tooth apologized and said she had to go collect teeth, Easter was only five months away for Bunny, Sandy had to go spread dreams, and North had to take care of an ...err... accident with the yetis.

Crystal sunk into her chair, biting her lip. Jack looked at her with worry clear in his eyes, even if his face was blank.

"You okay?"

She looked up. "Yea. It's just... a lot to take in. I mean, I must have...died... since I have no memories, and Man in Moon must have chosen me. But why? I mean... so many other people die every day, why am I special? Why was I chosen?"

"Yea. It's just feels like a jumbled mess right now, huh. I was the same way, until..." He trailed of, eyes widening as if he had just discovered the solution to everything. "until I got my memories!"

Jack grabber her wrist again, dragging her through the window. "C'mon! Let's go to the Tooth Palace!"