[Ash]: 102.Jack Frost.10

"Just up the hill there!" Yelled the eldest explorer wrapping his animal skins tighter round him. He was followed to the summit by two younger men and his wife and child. The child looked down and saw something magnificent.

"Daddy, daddy, look, some one made a snow castle! And it's a big one!" The child jumped and squealed in joy and all emotion drained off the faces of the explorers. "Daddy, did Jack Frost build it daddy? Daddy? Or was it the winter witch daddy? Can I go play in the castle daddy?"

"Meg, take Serena and go back into the forest. We have to go search the area."

The mother nodded and scooped the small child in her arms. The child struggled than stopped wiggling and pointed behind them. "Hey mommy. Daddy! Who built those snowmen behind us?"

The group turned to see twelve snowmen blocking their exit. The largest on began to move and walked forward. "The Winter King would like to speak to you." When it spoke it's coal eyes seemed to stare.

"Who are you beast?" Yelled the youngest of the men.

"Beast?" The snowman laughed. "I am no beast I am the snow guard, Frosty. The Winter King requests that you be his audience for tea." The snowman took a step forward.

The child Serena leaped from her mother's grasped and hustled over to the snowman. AFrosty, did Jack Frost build that castle?”

"Yes, he did child." The snowman bent over and placed a hand on the ground. Pulling back he pulled out an ice sculpture of a woman at the ball. "The Winter King said these women called royalty."

"My aunt is a royalty!" Serena yelled and took the sculpture happily.

Frosty turned back to the adults and the father looked over the group, "we will be his audience."


Marylin Rose Frost bent over in the flowing white gown and picked the Monkshood and put it in a little bottle. She looked around and found a small patch of Night Shade and gathered all she could and put it in it's own pouch. "Isn't that one of the rarest plants in the Summer Woods?"

"Yes," she said kneeling back over and pushing her light red hair behind one ear, "it's rare where ever you go Gareth."

A young bronze colored man with brilliant green hair stepped out of a large Oak tree's trunk. "Why do you always pick things from around my tree? You've picked all your herbs within twenty meters of this Oak since you were ten years old."
"Maybe, it just might be that you re-grow them for me over night and add a few things I need every now and than. Or it might be you tell me how to brew everything just right."

"Or maybe you fell in love with me?" He said growing her a rose out of his fingers. "I think that's most possible."

"Maybe." Said standing up to take the rose. "So, All Hallow's is coming up soon. Are you going to be able to pop out of that tree for a couple of hours?"

"That's the thing about being a Dryad, it's not time until you go out of boundaries. Then there's only a few aching hours."

"But you're only part Dryad, the other part is fairy, shouldn’t that count for something?" Marylin Rose kissed him and started the hike back to her cabin. Gareth watched her leave than leaned on the tree.

"Maybe that's why I'm a guy...."

"Gareth, come back to our world, dear." Said a familiar voice. He sighed and went inside the tree; he ended up in a great hollow where a small beautiful Dryad was mixing nuts and berries. "Do me a favor and fetch your sister, I need her advice."

"Yes mother." He pushed him self back into the tree and came out into a small circle of trees where several Dryads were dancing with Satyrs and Nymphs. He spotted his sister with a young Nymph and a couple of Satyrs discussing there All Hallow's plans. "Angora!" Gareth yelled to her and she rolled her eyes and began walking towards him.

"What is it this time? I moved out two hundred years ago and you people will not stop following me!" She said placing her hand on her hips and chewing on a root with the other.

"Mother needs your advice."

"No, you know what. You need my advice." She said walking closer to the tree than turned around. "Remember what we talked about, you have a powerful father, go ask him for a favor."


Jack sat in his blood covered throne with his snow hounds at his feet and the ice bears sleeping around the room. This was how he lived now, alone, with only his creations. His daughter, Marylin Rose, he traded to the Witch of Woods, Cassandra, who controlled the area east of the mountains. He had to do it though, to save her, and save Elizabeth's body.

'I was meant to die so you can save her...'

She died, and Marylin was saved. But he lost Marylin Rose Frost, forever and an eternity. It had been six hundred years since he saw her as a girl of ten years. 'What would she be now? Is she still alive somewhere in the heart of the forest, is she old, is she young, does she remember me?'
A large owl with black feathers and grey crown flew in and several wolves followed.
"Cassandra's familiar. What news from the outside world do you bring today? Or does the witch want to torment me, Klaus?"

"Aw, come on now, your highness," Klaus the owl said bowing before him and having the wolves go back to the farthest walls of the room. "You know Mistress Cassandra has the deepest respect for you. You know the other day when Marylin was training the children..."

"Children? Marylin's still alive? Am I a Grandfather?" Jack leaned forward with excitement and Klaus sighed.

"No, and yes, and no." Klaus shook himself and became proper again. "Mistress Cassandra, Witch of Woods is coming here to discuss you deal."

"Deal?"

"About Marylin, she=s about to lose her, she being courted, you know, by a fine young man, very powerful, but quite funny looking..."

"Funny? Funny how?"


Cassandra sat watching over her three sleeping pupils. Thanks to the magic of her home, they have been looking seven years of age for the past fifty. They were all girls, all had lost both parents. Regina, Kristine, and Gina, they practiced hard and didn’t fool around, unlike Marylin, who spent her time with the nature of the woods.

Marylin walked in and set her basket on a small table made of tree roots. "I have all the herbs we will need for the next couple weeks. I even found some Herb of Time. We can make that special brew you were talking about, the one with ghost watching."

Cassandra watched the girls sleep like she had been lost in the moment of their tiny breathing patterns. "Mother, are you alright?"

"Yes, Marylin. It's just, we haven't started on the brew yet. I want you to come with me next week, with the potion. You need to know some things. And you need to meet someone."

"Are you sure your alright."

"Yes." Cassandra blushed as she thought of something, "more than okay in fact."

Marylin Rose looked about the wood cabin and just stared at all the detail grandmother had put into it. "Mother, may I go speak with grandmother?"

"As long as you are back before dark tomorrow."

"Yes, Mother." Grandmother was the eldest witch in the world. She had given birth to quite a few children, all girls. She gave birth to all the witches, except Shyna, who was born of despair and hate.

Grandmother was about three millennia old but still looked like she was in her thirties.

Grandmother absolutely loved being visited by her children, and her one grandchild. Marylin walked outside the cabin and to the small pond that lay in wait. "Pond, will you take me to Grandmother?"

The pond turned a green color then to a pure white light, Marylin stepped on and found herself outside a small grotto with a house and a lovely stone white house. Grandmother was talking with a Satyr and several Centaurs. She noticed Marylin. "Marylin Rose, come here child and speak you words of wisdom upon the troubled."

The Satyr stepped forward, "we wish to move out clan to the other side of the winter lands, but also does the Centaur clan. Who should get it?"

"Not who..." Marylin said thinking, "but how? How can you even get to the lands? King Winter has control and is selective about who crosses, true Grandmother."

"Yes," Grandmother said proudly. "Now, you have your answer, be happy you have home, celebrate this, for you may have lost many a clansmen."