Chapter One
The Offer

When he was first asked he refused. Completely and utterly. He didn't agree with it one bit. But as time moved on, 39 silent, lonely and pretty unhappy years, he gave into temptation.

Jack had spent many nights trying to talk to the Man in the Moon; he was confused, alone and scared. He just wanted to know his purpose, was that so wrong? To this day he still hasn't received an answer and has given up asking. He'd begun to start loathing the man, and his moon. All he wanted was one kid to see him, to be his friend, hell just a "hey" would be great.

Jack sometimes struggles now to even look at the moon, when the sun goes down he hides behind clouds, trees, buildings, his own hood, anything to help relieve his guilt. For you see Jack had done something terrible. Something he still hasn't been punished for which surprises and worries him. He imagines MiM views him as a child throwing a temper tantrum or a teenager rebelling and Jack could care less, or at least that's what he tells himself.

In his mind this was the only way he could gain a companion; the 'big four' clearly wanted nothing more to do with him other than passing glances and greetings. This went for any of the other spirits he ran into as well.

He was the only one that seemed to care, although Jack knew better than to believe that. The man in question offered him the same thing every year since he became Jack Frost. And for 38 years he declined. But his answers began to grow weaker, finding it harder and harder to think of any reasons to not accept the offer. When the fateful day arrived in the 39th year Jack took the man's hand and began to follow him.

For four years he has been in this man's presence, training and preparing for what is to come. Sure he regrets some of the things he's done, some nights it's all he can think about. But now all he can do is follow in the Nightmare King's footsteps blindly.

Jack twirled his staff absentmindedly as he watched the fearlings floating around and interacting with one another, at least that's what he thought they were doing. He grimaced as one came too close; he hated them. Despite having gotten used to them and how hopeless and scared they made him feel, he could never get used to how they could control him at one snap of their master's fingers. They forced him to do all of the man's biddings. Pitch told him it was necessary, Jack thought he was right to a degree. He could never bring himself to do any of the things the man demanded of him, particularly at first. Something inside still stopped him from being truly evil.

But it had gotten easier with time and practice. He was successfully able to maim small dead animals on his own, while he was watched over, although it still made him feel sick. He was fine with everything he was forced to do that didn't involve harming or even taking an innocent life. Pitch didn't seem to realise this inability, but to his credit he did have patience with the boy, never forcing him to do it unless there was some determination from him to do the task at hand.

The staff stopped its movements as its user drifted up from his seat, resting his pale feet on the cool stone. "Pitch," he called out strongly, bringing his crooked staff to rest on his right shoulder. Not long after his shadow distorted and altered into the Nightmare man's form before becoming the man himself. It didn't even surprise him anymore; he had long grown used to the tall man using his shadow to travel effortlessly to his location.

"I'm heading out to cause a blizzard or two," he smirked somewhat, "try not to miss me while I'm gone."

"Oh I won't Frost," Pitch turned, speaking dryly over his shoulder, "on the contrary it'll be much quieter, I might actually get some scheming done."

"Haha," he mocked airily, "Don't wait up." He turned on his heel, throwing a brief wave over his shoulder as he propelled himself upwards, using the wind to guide him out of the shadow man's Venetian hideout with ease. The sun stung his blue eyes when he was free from the dark cave; he rubbed them in a vain attempt to help.

Once a mile or so away he felt relief wash over him, happiness filling his heart. He didn't enjoy spending too much time cooped up with the fearlings, it wasn't pleasant. It was like all the good emotions he had were drained out of him; or that could just be Pitch's lack of humour starting to get to him, the so called Nightmare King really needed to light up. He chuckled into the wind as his mind began to work clearly once more, a few moments pasting before he began nearing the rooftops of the village underneath; laying a light sprinkling of snow in his wake.

The boy came to rest near a local field in-between some houses, where he saw children playing. It didn't take long for the grass to be covered with a thick lining of snow, making it a winter wonderland. Their little eyes sparkled as they ran back inside to fetch their scarves and gloves. Once they had all returned they began making snowmen, forts and some even started having a snowball fight. This time Jack's eyes twinkled, his lips pulling into a big grin, "Never takes long."

He quickly glided down towards the boy's throwing rather poor excuses for snowballs at one other and it wasn't long before Jack had all the children involved by throwing his own icy spheres at them, the cold air was filled with their giggles of delight. There were blurs of white being hurled in all directions, several pasting by Jack's form as he drifted around them expertly; conjuring plenty more snowballs for them to use as ammunition. They all continued until they were utterly exhausted or called away for dinner, Jack frowned at the thinning numbers, just noticing that the sun was setting on the horizon, "But I'm not finished," he called out, a touch of optimism in his voice.

As they all slowly returned to their homes, paying him no attention, the spirit forced his left hand rather roughly into his hoodie pocket, stalking off towards the edge of the village. It was the same story wherever he went; he would have the time of his immortal life and use his powers to encourage the kids to have more fun as well, every time hoping that someone would notice his presence but each time to no avail.

He let the wind pull his body into the sky, heading towards the place of his birth. It always helped clear his head and calm him down, although he never knew why he was always drawn back to Burgess. He wasn't going to complain if it worked, but he couldn't help but wonder about it from time to time.

The skies were remarkably clear in Berk on this winters day as the young Haddock strolled back to his home with a large basket full of salmon and cod, a certain dragon's favourites. When the door was opened, a large black reptile descended on him, paying no heed to the boy's complaints and warning tone. The creature's teeth gripped the edge of the basket and dragged it over the teen's flattened body towards the centre of the room, devouring the fish happily, "Thanks for that bud," he stated sourly as he picked himself up off the floor, brushing some dirt off his clothes.

Toothless barely showed any concern until half of his fish was demolished. Hiccup sighed with a slight chuckle, running his fingers through his shaggy hair as he headed up to his room, where he pulled out a fairly new piece of paper and some charcoal. He was adding some improvements to his recent sketch of all the Dragon Training Academy's dragons and their riders, and so far he had to say it was looking really good despite it being one of his first non-invention related drawings in quite a while.

After a few hours passed, Toothless now curled up behind the teen dreamily looking at his surroundings, Hiccup dropped the pencil to stretch his muscles out. He cast his drowsy viridian eyes to his open window just as he noticed the sudden chill, so he picked himself up to go and close it. Once there a figure caught his attention in the darkness, they were stumbling somewhat as the ground was beginning to frost over.

"Hey Gobber! Any news on when my dad will be coming home?" Hiccup yelled over the increasing howls of wind. He did worry about his father when he was away travelling. Said Viking raised his metal hand to his mouth, trying to amplify his already loud voice.

"Shouldn't be too long now lad!" They waved farewell as the large man headed off towards home, most likely to get out of the blustery weather. The boy closed his window soon after and turned back to his drawing.

Hiccup was thoroughly unaware of the dark clouds descending, hiding a raging snowstorm behind them.

Jack spent a few hours seated at the lake that was partially hidden by trees but still easily accessible. He kicked his feet a little, putting his staff on the ground before manoeuvring into a more comfortable position while he contemplated. Soon afterward he couldn't help but noticed a couple of kids walking over to the waters frozen edge, they chatted and giggled noisily as they put makeshift ice skates on their feet before beginning their wobbly journey onto the water.

A smile crept onto his face as he watched. Two of them were holding onto one another as if their life depended on it, doing their best not to fall. One was skating around confidently, almost arrogantly, and the last one skated slowly but was steady and somewhat nimble. For the longest time he simply observed them, envying them really. He released a frozen breath in annoyance, kicking himself up from his stone seat.

He swung his staff at the group causing a fairly strong gust of wind that knocked most of them down; he smirked at the sight, hopping up onto a nearby tree branch he pushed himself off it and away from his place of origin and the merriment.

When he had reached the town centre he slowed, coming to rest on the roof of the local pub. His ice blue eyes followed people down below as they got on with their day, not noticing his existence; not that he expected them to. Once a few moments passed a grey blur bounced through the crowd towards the towns' outskirts, driven by curiosity Jack shadowed the movement, trying his best to stay close behind. It lead him to a large clearing in the forest that bordered the village.

As Jack turned slowly he was immediately faced with a rather angry looking rabbit that towered over him and virtually spat at the sprite as he spoke, "Why're you following me shadow boy?"

The almost seven foot guardian glowered down, his long ears standing straight up now as he barely paused, not waiting for him to answer before letting another insult fall easily from the mouth under his twitching nose, "What? Did Pitch get rid of you? Aww what a shame but you must have expected it, I mean look at you, who would want you."

His eye lids narrowed, pointing his crooked staff warningly at Bunnymund, "You don't want all Pooka's to be extinct now do you?" he asked rhetorically, enjoying the faintest flinch from the rabbit.

"Like you have the power," he scoffed, crossing his arms as he clearly found Jack to not be a threat, "You're not even Pitch's first hand man; I don't see what he keeps you around for."

"More than you know rabbit. Just you wait," he turned, scowling at the Easter Bunny over his shoulder, "Now if you'll excuse me I have business to do, unlike you."

He could hear the Pooka disagreeing but his body was already lifted by the wind like he weighed no more than a leaf, leading him off in search of a sunnier setting in which to release his blizzard and frustrations.

It wasn't long before he could see an island forming in the distance, the island of Berk to be precise. He passed by some dragons on his way and even flew beside one for a short while. This was one of the reasons he visited so much, where else could you go to find dragons? He found them to be fascinating creatures and most of them seemed to like him too. He would often fly with them, play with them and feed them by freezing a school of swimming fish so they could defrost it and relish in the catch.

But the prime reason he liked travelling all the way out into the middle of the ocean was simply that because the natives were Vikings they had no problems or issues with him coming here when he needed to release an almighty snowstorm to quell his anger. He admired this about them and was often surprised at how much resistance they had.

As Jack came closer to the unsuspecting village and its inhabitants a large black cloud began to form overhead. The wind severely picked up and started to whip snow past his pale face. He felt like this was going to be one of his biggest blizzards yet, all because of that stupid rabbit and his unrelenting tongue.

Legal Disclaimer -
I in no way am or claim to be associated with How To Train Your Dragon/Riders Of Berk or Rise Of The Guardians/Guardians of Childhood, they belong to their respective writers, animator's etc. I do this for my own enjoyment as well as others. Please support the official release as they are both awesome films and books.

Thank you very much for reading! What do you think? I did want to make Jack a bit more evil, but I just couldn't do it, it wouldn't be true to his fun loving character, I will do my best though to make it interesting. Follows and reviews will be very much appreciated :)