[Ash]: 102.Jack Frost.03

Jack felt cold and tired, to tired in fact, to open his eye and see exactly what was making him cold. He did however sit up and hit his head on a giant cold thing he would have seen had he opened his eyes, which he did just now. He was entombed in ice and did the only thing that seemed to make sense, scream.

The scream obviously was heard because a dark blurry thing moved outside the ice and knocked three times, “hello, Jack is that you?”

“Yes, I think so, who are you?” He said worried now. The person was obviously a girl and had obviously put him in the ice. “Why am I in Ice? Who are you? What happened to the drunken bastards? Where the hell am I?”

The blur stopped walking around and started hitting the ice, “sorry I can’t hear you that well, let me get you out.” Jack thought the girl was going to break her hand than suddenly saw fire in the ice and the top was completely melted away. “Hello Jack, long time no see.”

“I’m sorry, I believe I don’t know you.” He said sitting up this time checking that he wouldn’t hit his head. Jack looked around and saw he was in some sort of cave and there was a warm fire. He got up and looked at it, “that fire’s kind of hot, don’t you think you should put it down?”

“Oh, yes, you’ll feel really hot for a bit, maybe you should go outside.” The girl grabbed his arm and lead him to a very thick door, “you’ll feel better out there.”

Jack got outside and felt great, it was very nice than he looked at the sky, it was snowing and landing on his bare chest, yet he felt nothing. “You, you’re the witch of winter, what did you do to me?” He check his breath, yet he had none. He walked over to Shyna and grabbed her neck, “what did you do to me?”

“You died,” Shyna croaked with a lump in her throat, “and know your daughter is going to die in five days unless I do something about it.”

Jack stopped, “you, you put the sickness on her, you put it on Rose and Marylin!” Jack picked Shyna up and threw her. “This is your fault you blasted witch. You cause the winter which blocks the roads to the other towns, towns that have medicine! Towns that have cures for the sickness."

“You are the problem in my life, Shyna.”

Shyna pulled herself up and managed to look at him, “Jack Frost, I have made you very powerful, yet you seem as though you are ungrateful. Maybe I should leave you dead and put your body next to Marylin’s.” Jack stopped, “that hit your heart. Do you know why you keep her? I do.

“The only reason you love that child of yours is that she looks so much of Rose. Well, Rose, I regretfully say is dead, she died of sickness. If you came to me I could have taken it away from her and give it to another who was to die sooner. That is one reason you are still here, I wish to save my great, great, great grandchild.

“The third reason is, I couldn’t get your heart to ice over. You have so much love that it can not be frozen, so you will live with that guilt forever.”

“Guilt? Guilt!” Jack screamed, “I have no guilt! I have no regrets, my only regret is not coming up here sooner and doing away with you witch!” The snow began to blow harder and hail began to fall, and for the first time Jack actually felt pity for the small, crying woman of whom he was made. Jack stopped and so followed the snow and wind. He walked over to her and placed his hand on her chin lifting it up to see the bruise, “I am sorry Shyna Frost, but you should have left me for dead. What I now am, I am sure no good can come.”

“Jack, you are winter, that is what you are.”
Jack stood up, “than I shall leave you and go into the fire to melt.”

Shyna shook her head and truly looked up at the creation for the first time, his hair had turned white and his skin as snow, “it will freeze, you are immortal, Jack help me, and I will save your daughter, I will save your still beating heart.”

Jack picked up the tiny woman and carried her inside and set her down by the fire. “Shyna, you will tell me exactly what it is I must do, and than you will save Marylin. Break your promise, and I will break you.”

“Jack, you silly Frost, do you still believe I am that of evil? What illusions have you been fed? I keep out the evil of the world, but not for much longer, Jack, I myself am dying. If you wish to save Marylin Rose Frost you must do two things for me. The first is go outside the safely of the valley and bring me a plant called Heart Wood. When you return, I will cure Marylin, but before you can go anywhere, I need to teach you how to use winter, how to make it bend to your whim.”

Elizabeth and her brother stood at the doors to the jail staring at Maxwell. Maxwell stared back with eggar interest in Elizabeth which she scorned openly. Her elder brother Rupert stepped forward, “where is he?”

“He who? I could tell you if I knew who in blazes you was a talkin’ about.”

“Where is Jack Frost?”

Maxwell rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, “that boring bag of a human. He went swimming.”

Elizabeth put her hand through the bar and played with maxwell’s beard, “you know there’s a reward for finding him.’

“Well missy,” the putrid man said, looking at her and smiling., “he went up to the mountains to swim.” Elizabeth grabbed all his beard and nearly yanked all of it out of his head.

Rupert led Elizabeth out side and pulled her to where no one could here him talking, “Beth, you going to get yourself in trouble, you know that right? You also know, we may not find him alive.”

Elizabeth smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder, “you know littler of him than I thought, Jack is strong, he will not be taken down so easily.”

“Dear, look up at the mountain, do you see that concentration of blizzard right there?” Rupert pointed to the largest mountain somewhere near the top and she saw what was to be expected, a large storm. Elizabeth nodded. “Right below that there is a lake, but in that blizzard is Shyna, the Winter Witch, she does exist and she hates trespassers.

“That is why you never must get your hopes up, she may have taken him.” Elizabeth for the first time in a long time, held fear in her heart for her beloved Jack Frost. A single tear ran down her check and evaporated in the warm summer sun. “Do not cry, I will find him.”

Rupert saw a group of men and headed off with them to the mountains and she stood there silently and than coughed a bit. ‘Oh dear,’ she thought, ‘what a silly time to get a summer cold’.

Elizabeth began to walk for her house when she came upon a young man being beaten up by a group of school children, “You! Get off him this instant!” Elizabeth pulled out her purse and began beating the boys off the smaller one. They soon left and she saw the boy was sleeping, he was scrawny and very skinny but looked healthy besides that.

Elizabeth looked up and saw a couple of men just standing around, she called them over and asked them to pick up the boy and bring him back to her house. “Are you sure of that mam? He seems to be a stray.”

“Then he will be my stray. Please, take him to my house. I’ll be along in a minute, I have to get something from the general store.” The men nodded and picked the boy up as she walked across a few streets to the small, but quaint store, inside was Dr. Gibson. “Hello doctor.”

“Hello, Elizabeth. How are you, I heard Jack is missing.”

“Yes,” she thought and than decided that she didn’t need the cough suppressant and walked out sans another word. Elizabeth came home to find the young boy being fed by her mother.

The boy saw her and stood up to bow, “thank you Miss Elizabeth, you are truly an angel.” Elizabeth blushed and began to cough, now ignoring him both Elizabeth and her mother went inside to get medicine. “She has it, she has the sickness. I must tell Shyna it’s spreading.”

Robet the squirrel now turned human child sprinted across the town out into the wintery mountains to go tell his mistress about the strange happenings in the village.