Nonexistent (Rise of the Guardians)

3. Apparently We're 'Just An Expression'

Laughter rang out through the skies above a city far away from that lonely forest we had met in all those years ago, but only the two of us heard it. Jack and I, ever the dynamic duo, were reigning over London with our own version of terror. Jack's staff was frosting things everywhere, from windows to fish bowls to drinking fountains. I was using my power over wind to blow things about, sending one man's important documents out the open window his desk was positioned in front of. One woman suddenly found her hat sweeping wildly through the sky, and a teenage boy with shaggy brown hair tucked into a flannel beanie found himself catching a bit more air than he meant to on his skateboard.

"Call me sometime!" I shouted at him before swooping away on the wild air currents I was summoning.

"Are you flirting?" Jack laughed as he blasted by me.

I doubled my speed, shouting, "I'm three hundred and eighty six, Jack! Let me live my life!" I caught up with him and we landed  in similar crouched positions on top of a tall building, looking out over the havoc we wrought.

I pushed my tattered leather aviator goggles onto my forehead, the metal dials and screws holding the various additions I had made onto the original frame clanking with the pleading sound of needing to be repaired. I tucked my windblown hair back behind my ears just as Jack was saying, "Now that, was fun." I nodded in agreement, a wide smile still dominating my face.

"Hey Breezy," Jack laughed, glancing at me from the corner of his eye, "let's head home!" He laughed, spreading his arms in an awaiting gesture, practically asking for it. I grinned mischievously before sending a blast of hot air his way, shoving him down towards the hard concrete ground.

He caught himself with his own cold gust of wind just before he hit the ground. Glancing up, he saw me circling overhead, laughing in a carefree way.

"That's what you get for calling my Breezy, Frosty!"

He rejoined me in the sky, and we flew on the arms of the wind back to our chosen home of Burgess, Colorado. We technically were wanderers, but Jack and I spent most of our time in an abandoned cottage in the surrounding woodland. We had made the place our own, keeping our sparse belongings there, like food, clothes and such, and had cleaned the place up when we'd found it about thirty years ago. It was cozy and comfortable; what more could two spirits ask for?

Jack broke through the cloud cover over Burgess with a somersault, whooping and shouting about a snow day.

Instantly, the ground was covered in snow and windows all over town were covered in layers of frost. A water fountain froze just as a boy began to drink, freezing his tongue into the stream of water as he yelped in surprise.

A group of kids ran about in a front yard, a couple had sleds, and all were decked out in cold weather gear. Jack and I looked underdressed, him in his buckskin breeches and a frosty blue sweatshirt, and me in a tight brown tee shirt, black breeches and my old scuffed knee-high leather boots. My aviator goggles rested just behind my hairline, holding the black locks back away from my face, while a burgundy scarf tied around my neck blew in the sparse wind that ruffled my hair. The whole look was kinda steampunk-esque -but without the corset or the petticoat- while Jack's was a bit more modern. Not like the kids could see our outfits anyway, or us for that matter.

Jack swept by, pulling his signature 'I'm-gonna-freeze-the-ground-right-under-your-feet' trick, sending a couple of the kids sliding into some snowbanks. I swooped right over the top of their heads, accidentally knocking a book out of one of the boy's hands with the gust of wind that carried me aloft.

Jack landed on the fence behind them, turning his head sideways to see the title of the book. The boy babbled on about Bigfoot as he scooped the book up off the ground.