Chapter 01 - A New Guardian

I have been alone a long time. I should be used to it, but I'm not. I cover it up though, with snowballs and fun times, is better to smile even if it's a cover, a mask, but sadly even the best mask will break under enough pressure. And I fear that so will I.

Big blue eyes widened in surprise and horror when a big black shadow surrounded the glove, the wind picked up making a mess of the place but North only had eyes for the laughing form made of a black substance that appeared in his sanctuary. His belly felt heavy as he recognized the voice, it was from long ago when he first was chosen. His mouth was set in a frown when the shadow disappeared, his eyes filled with determination as he went to the main control panels, he wouldn't fall prey to the fear. I was time to call the guardians.

"Get things ready, we will have company" he bellowed to the elves, the black substance was a really bad sign, he could feel it, in his Belly. He was startled when he heard a crash behind him, such was his concentration, the elves just tripped into each other and all the things that had in their hands broke into the floor. With a half amused, half frustrated sigh, North called the Yeti to do the work instead , he should know better than to ask the elves to do something.

It wasn't long before all the guardians were reunited in the North Pole, they all knew what the signal meant and it had been a while since it was last used. Bunny was warming his frozen paws on the fire with an annoyed frown on his face, Tooth on the other hand was giving instructions a mile a minute to her fairies. Sandy the last one to arrive was contentedly sipping his cup of eggnog as he watched with a thoughtful expression as North told his emergency.

"Pitch? Pitch Black?" Asked a worried Tooth as she gently soothed one of her fairies, the Sandman frowned in thought and Bunny voiced his skepticism of the whole thing, and got more aggressive when North told that he didn't actually see a Pitch, only black sand that surrounded the glove."You call me all the way here because of your Belly!? If I did this to you three days before Christmas..."

Sandy shook his head in fond amusement as the guardians of hope and wonder started their usual argument but a silver light almost made him choke. Man in Moon was shining brightly in the sky and the other three were to caught up on their own world to see it. Sandy tried to get the attention of the rest, but Tooth was to busy giving orders to her fairies while North and Bunny were too busy discussing between themselves. Getting their attention required a little bit of imagination but he managed, taking one of the elves and shaking it to make the bells tingle. With an exasperating silent sigh, the Sandman pointed to the moon.

The moon shined brighter in greeting and a moonlight soon could be seen traveling to the floor, on the surface a shadow appeared taking the form of a face, one easily recognized by the guardians. "It is Pitch" mumbled Bunny, glaring at North when he looked at him with a 'I told you so' expression, patting his belly. Plans already where forming on the guardians minds on how to face this adversity but to their astonishment Man in the Moon still wasn't finished. North who already was opening his mouth to talk had to close it with a snap when the moonlight activated the crystal. As it slowly rose the guardians understood what he was trying to say, the man in the moon was choosing a new guardian to face this.

"A new guardian! What? Why?" spluttered Bunny, they had managed all this time against Pitch, the King of Nightmares, by themselves so they didn't need someone else and to make it worst it opened the possibility of it being the groundhog. But MiM always did things for a reason so even the Easter Bunny was resigned to have a new member "Since when do we need help anyway?" Bunny asked with crossed arms. North hummed in thought and looked at Bunny "Must be big deal" he said with a light shrug of his shoulders as he looked at the crystal, wonder in his eyes. He ignored the other guardians as they tried to guess who it was going to be. North gasped in surprise, and Bunny looked up in horror when it was finally revealed, no one else but the problematic winter spirit, Jack Frost.

The room was a blur of activity in less than two seconds, the mini fairies were talking between themselves as they practically fainted before the image of Jack Frost. Tooth was admiring the crystal projection with dazed eyes, she was all for it, after all it was said that Jack Frost had teeth as white as snow but she eventually got control of herself "If he take cares of the children, right?" she had to admit that his teeth weren't reason enough to make him a guardian. Bunny not so surprisingly was all for ignoring the Man in Moon, he was still resentful of the blizzard of '89. But the Sandman, the oldest of the guardians, trusted North to be the level-headed one and do what is right. But to Sandy's surprise he was hesitant about letting Jack Frost into the group, he was looking at Bunny and Tooth with a confused expression.

"Jack Frost?! He doesn't care about children!" exclaimed Bunny as he started to pace around the room "Im telling you mate, he only makes a mess of everything!" Tooth titled her head to the side as she thought, her fairies trailing close behind trying to get her attention "How can you be so sure?" she asked hesitantly. North nodded "We need to give boy a chance, no?" Sandy showed a thumb up and looked up at the moon when the platform started to go back to the ground, shrugging.

"You don't understand mate, from us I'm the only one who has direct contact with that little pest, and I'm telling you that he is irresponsible and selfish" On the other side of the room Sandy pointed to himself and pouted when he was ignored. Bunny hopped close to the fireplace in thought and stared at the dancing flames "What if..." He started, hesitant "What if we chose the new guardian"

"Bunny!" Exclaimed a surprised Tooth as she started to move around the room. North frowned and went to take a sit in a close by chair "Do you really feel so strongly about Jack Frost?" He asked as he sent a penetrating gaze to Bunny. The guardian of hope hesitated only for a moment before nodding determinedly "Very well my friend, I will trust your judgment" North said finally with a heavy sigh. Tooth shared a helpless shrug with her fairies as Bunny started to discuss with North. "Well I kind of thought already on who could it be"

Sandy watched the proceedings with unbelieving eyes and for the first time in a long while wished he could speak. Only so he could scream some sense into the others, specially Bunny. Sandy shook his head after he was ignored once again, he would need to show them facts, he would bring Jack Frost here so they could see for themselves how kind the winter spirit really was. Unnoticed he slipped out and went to search for Jack Frost, thus missing the others designation of the new guardian.

In another place, far from there in a small town called Burgess was Jack Frost playing with the children, doing his best to ignore the pang in his heart every time the children passed through him.

The wind picked the winter child and gently placed him on a frozen lake, from where he came from. The blue gaze looked up to the moon, the winter spirit knew by just looking at it that something was wrong, unknowing to him his fate was going to change, and not necessarily for the better.

In the North Pole, North laughed joyfully, his blue eyes alight with wonder as he gazed at the projection of their new guardian.

"The summer spirit will do nicely"

Bunny nodded while Tooth went back to her fairies, in their enthusiasm they didn't notice the lack of presence of the oldest guardian, the Sandman.

First story ever, hope you liked it and let me know if I should continue :)