A Trapped Winter Spirit - completed

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛᴡᴏ: ᴄʜᴏꜱᴇɴ ʙʏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏᴏɴ

"Stay away from Jack Frost." The voice said, and the sand and shadow vanished.

I recognised the voice immediately. Pitch Black. But what did he want with Jack Frost? I knew I needed to alert the other guardians, so I yanked the Northern Light switch, the signal that something was wrong.

Almost instantly, a hole appeared by the door and Bunnymund leapt out of it, hopping to my side. Tooth drifted out from the hallway out of nowhere with four of her tiny tooth fairies. Sandman floated through the open window high up on the wall, golden sand trailing from behind him.

"Sandy, thank you for coming," I said. Various symbols of confusion and/or confusion formed in the yellow sand over his head.

Tooth darted around the air, chattering to her tooth fairies. Bunny hopped ahead of us as I spoke, "I know, I know. But I obviously wouldn't have called you all over if it wasn't serious."

Tooth hushed her fairies as I began. "The boogieman was here! In the Pole!"

Tooth's eyes grew wide. "Pitch? Pitch Black? Here?"

"Yes! There was black sand covering the globe," I explained, gesturing with my hands as I spoke.

"W-what do you mean black sand?" Bunny asked but I continued.

"And there a shadow-"

"Hold on, hold on, I thought you said that you saw Pitch," Bunny interrupted.

"Well, not exactly-"

Bunny's face grew impatient. "Not exactly? Can you believe this guy?"

A question mark formed above Sandy's head as he shrugged.

"Yeah, you said it, Sandy."

I could see I was losing the other's patience. "Look, he's up to something very, very bad. I can feel it," I glanced briefly at my stomach before grasping it, "in my belly."

"Hang on, hang on, you mean that you summoned me here three days before Easter because of your belly?" Bunny poked my stomach with his paintbrush. "Mate, if I did this to you three days before Christmas-"

"Bunny, Easter is not Christmas," I said as I plucked the egg out of his paw and walked away.

Bunny chuckled lightly before hopping after me. "Yeah, here we go. No, I don't have time for this! I've still got two million to finish."

Bunny and I began to argue when Tooth flew backwards in between us.

"Tooth, can't you see we're trying to argue?" I asked her politely.

"Sorry, not all of us get to work one night a year, right Sandy?" She said as an arrow point upwards appeared above Sandy's head. Tooth gasped as she began counting all of her fairies, asking them if they had forgotten any teeth.

I continued my argument with Bunny, telling him that I did see Pitch and that Easter preparation could wait. There was a fierce jingle of a bell. Bunny and I turned to face Sandy, who had just dropped one of my elves. He pointed unmistakably at the skylight where the Moon sent a ray of silver moonlight directly at our feet.

"Ah," I said, "Man in the moon. Its been a while, old friend."

The beam responded by moving past us and settled on a square of carved stone. The stone sank into the ground then rose again as a podium.

Tooth and her fairies began to chatter excitedly. "He's choosing a new guardian! I wonder who it will be."

A four-leafed clover appeared in the sand above Sandy's head. Tooth nodded in consideration. 'Maybe the leprechaun."

While she spoke, Bunny clutched his egg to his furry chest, muttering, "Please not the groundhog, anyone but the groundhog."

Silver light entwined the podium, turning a soft blue as it formed a body; a small figure in a icy blue hoodie, brown pants and leaning against a wooden staff with a curved top. My heart sank as I recognised the boy and I remembered Pitch's warning.

"Jack Frost," I said. "Manny has chosen Jack Frost."

"OK, I take it back. The groundhog is fine. Not Jack Frost! Do you even-" Bunny hopped off ranting with his Australian accent about Jack Frost to Sandy while Tooth swooned with her tiny fairies.

I had met Jack Frost once or twice. He was just a teenager with a mischievous attitude who preferred to break the rules and make fun while the rest of us worked hard in our jobs. He wouldn't make a good Guardian, would he? He was a lonely boy who had no children believing in him. Perhaps he would be an advantage to us against Pitch Black.

Oh no. Pitch had specifically warned me to stay away from Jack Frost. And now Manny wanted him to join the Guardians? This wasn't going to end well.