Good Luck Mr. Snowman

Six

I stood behind Jack and North as we rode down in the elevator, my arms crossed and face still slightly red from my explosion just moments before.

"It's nothing personal of course, but what you all do it's just, it's not my thing," Jack said when we got out of the elevator as he looked around.

"Does everyone just ignore me or something? I am here ya know!" I erupted like a small volcano, assuming he was just talking about the guardians.

"It's not that I ignore you, I just see you as a guardian," he took his eyes off of the wonders of Santa's workshop for a second to look me in the eyes.

"Yeah, well I'm not," I huffed.

"Man in Moon says it is your thing," North signed something one of the yetis held up to him and continued walking.

"Slow down, would ya? I've been trying to bust into here for years, I want a good look," Jack chuckled, still gazing upon everything.

I laughed a little at how eager he was, and just like that my bad mood vanished.

"What do you mean 'bust in'?" North asked accusingly.

"Whoa, don't worry, never got past the yeti," Frosty calmed him while said yeti pounded his fist behind him.

"Cool it Phil, you did your job well," I complimented the poor yeti.

The two of us fell behind a bit and North shouted for us to keep up. Jack looked at everything like a child would in a candy store. I flew a few feet forward with him by my side and we caught up in no time.

"I always thought the elves made the toys," he commented.

"We just let them believe that," North whispered as we passed a few elves pretending to be Christmas trees, they ended up getting electrocuted though.

"Very nice, keep up good work," North told them with a fake smile.

He told one of the yetis to paint some robots a different color and the yeti had a meltdown seeing as he'd already painted a ton of them blue. Let's just say that there was one less robot to paint after his meltdown ended.

North led us through a door, into a room with ice sculptures. One of the elves offered a fruitcake, but North threw it away once he saw that neither of us wanted it.

"Now we get down to tacks of brass," North started popping his knuckles and the door closed and locked itself.

I stood next to Jack a little intimidated by North. He started walking towards us, backing us up until our backs were on the door and our shoulders were touching.

"Who are you two?" he spoke angrily, though I knew he wasn't, "What is your center?"

"My center?" Jack spoke but we both looked on confusedly.

"North we've already been through this," I said after Jack, he'd spoken to me about my center once before.

"If the moon chose you to be a guardian, you must have something very special inside," he spoke to Jack, or at least I think he was talking to Jack, but why did he look at me when he said that then?

"What do you mean North? I was never chosen to be a guardian," my voice showed my confusion.

"Clover, you left too soon, there was not one guardian chosen, but two," North answered and my breathing stopped.

Man in Moon chose ME to be a guardian? But why? Why now, after I've helped them for so long? I couldn't believe what North just told me, it left me speechless. My mind just couldn't comprehend why Manny would want me, out of all the spirits in the world, why me?

"Hmmm," North scratched his beard as he looked at the both of us, then got a Russian stacking doll of himself, "Here, this is how you see me, no? Very big, intimidating, but if you get to know me a little, well go on."

He handed the doll to Jack, and I looked over his shoulder. We were no longer plastered to the door, but standing in the middle of the room. He set his staff against a table and opened up the doll, seeing a smaller version of it inside.

"You... are downright jolly?" Jack suggested.

"But not JUST jolly," North spoke, and Jack opened up the smaller version, "I am also mysterious."

There was another North doll with a cape wrapped close to its nose. Jack opened another when the real North said no more.

"And fearless," North spoke before Jack opened the next doll, "And caring."

"And at my center," North said as Jack opened the last doll and poured the tiny figurine into North's large hand.

"There's a tiny wooden baby," Jack spoke too soon, rubbing his eyes.

"Look closer, what do you see?" North encouraged him.

"...You have big eyes," Jack stated.

"Yes, very big, because they are full of wonder. That is my center. It is what I was born with, eyes that have only seen the wonder in everything, eyes that see lights in the trees and magic in the air. This wonder is what I put into the world, and what I protect in children. It is what makes me a guardian."

As North spoke, the room seemed to come to life. All the toys began moving, some flying, acting like children were playing with them. The door opened, letting a few of the toys out, and we followed. Jack still held the small Russian doll.

"It is my center, what is yours?" North asked the heavy question that I knew he would.

"I don't know," Jack sighed, looking down, and North wrapped Jack's fingers around the doll as if he was telling him to keep it.

I smiled warmly at the scene. Unfortunately though, it was interrupted by Tooth flying by the window in the room we just came out of. The three of us looked at it in curiosity, turning to look at Bunny and Sandy when they came up.

"We have a problem mate, trouble at the Tooth Palace," Bunny stated.

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