Rise Of The Guardians - The Life Of A Spirit

Equinox

Despite deciding to try and encounter the spirit of Summer, Jack was unable to track her down, mostly due to the ridiculously hot temperatures that she seemed to constantly reside in. After an unsuccessful excursion into the Sahara, Jack retreated north until he reached a nice cluster of mountains that had some snow on their peaks. 

He sighed, rubbing some snow on his face to cool himself down and resolved to meet Alsayf on the Equinox when he made his way to the island for the gathering. In the meantime, the Northern Hemisphere was well enough into autumn to allow his spreading of snow and frost and perhaps this would be enough for a human to see him for once.

He was relaxing in Iceland after adding a new layer of ice to a number of glaciers and flying up and down their length to see just how far they stretched when a large oak leaf gently descended in front of him. He rose to catch it, wondering how it had gotten all the way out here. There weren't any oak trees in the vicinity. He was on a glacier for heaven's sake. But it didn't seem like an ordinary leaf. It shimmered gold at its edges and when it caught the light, and it seemed to radiate warmth. As he held it up to his face to examine it closer, an image abruptly appeared on its surface of a small forested island in the middle of the ocean and he realised it had to be the Equinox. The leaf then proceeded to show him exactly how to get there and with a whoop of excitement, he took to the air, racing south to the meeting of the seasons. His excitement grew the closer her got and it almost reached breaking point when he sighted the island and circled above it, spotting a clearing at its centre where he came in to land.

"Jack Frost!"

Mabon abruptly materialised out of the air, looking exactly the same as he had when they first met.

"Wonderful to see you again! How have you been? Did you meet Chūntiān and Alsayf? Also, I love what you've done with Moscow; it looks amazing under all that snow and the fern patterns! I wish I could paint as well as that. Absolutely stunning. Just don't waste all that talent this early in the year, though. Winter is still yet to come. Apple?"

His tirade of excited chattering stopped as he offered the fruit to Jack who grinned and accepted, relishing its taste. He really should get around to eating more often.

"So this is the infamous Jack Frost," came a new voice in an accent that Jack hadn't encountered before. Riding on a wave of blisteringly hot air was a female spirit whom Jack immediately identified as Alsayf, the Spirit of Summer. She radiated heat, and it appeared that the hems of her trousers were smouldering slightly, a fact that she appeared not to care about.

"Infamous?" he asked, "What makes you say that?"

"Don't mind her," Mabon advised him, "She's a little... hot-headed. Get it!" he cracked up laughing at his own joke while Jack smirked at her annoyed frown.

"Don't you start," she muttered, landing and sizing up Jack. "The other guy was taller."

"Sorry to disappoint," he replied, "If you like, I can give us all a nice blanket of snow to make up for it."

He didn't know why, but there was something about her that was grating on his nerves. Perhaps it was her attitude towards him, perhaps the irritating waves of heat she was giving off but he couldn't help poking back at her.

"As if a little snow could stand against me," she laughed, waving her staff which Jack only now realised was actually on fire at the end. He quickly backed off out of instinct, before retaliating with a strong gust of winter wind, making the flame die down a bit.

"Stop it!" she demanded, making the flame rise up again with her own warmer wind.

"I will when you do," he retorted and the two glared daggers at each other.