[Ash]: 102.Jack Frost.14

When Cassandra had left the room she found Jack, Gareth, and Fyra standing above Marylin, the wolves now sat at the entrance, four large males and seven females with pups along. Cassandra proceeded to her sister’s side and looked down at Marylin.

“Jack, we should probably move her, to your bed perhaps, she needs to sleep and I don’t have one yet.” He looked at her expressionless and nodded slowly. The snowmen slowly rose out of the floor, scaring Gareth and Fyra. Wordlessly they took the sleeping enchantress into Jack’s room.

Fyra was the only one whom looked as though she was alive. “Well, we still have a wedding to do.”

Cassandra looked down at the dress, white, “I guess we do.”

“Are you sure?” Jack whispered in her ear. “If you preferred to wait till she awakened, that would be no matter.”

“We have guests, Jack.” Cassandra replied quickly. She grew a bundle of roses in her hands, white of course, and Jack took his place besides her.

The wolves laid down and quieted their pups. The breeze in the place which brought the cold air had stopped. Gareth didn’t really know what to do and stepped back and stood by the wolves until one of the females told him to sit down.

Fyra took a deep breath and began to sing in the tongue of her lands. “Invito il vecchio poteri, loro ha lasciato è venuti e ripara questi amanti è chiamato sono unito, l'amore e l'amore sono portati.”

She went quite and motioned them forward with her hands. They went up to Fyra who stood up on the bottom step, “take the others hands.”

Jack hesitated a bit but put his hand in anyway. Cassandra stretched her arm out and held it giving it a bit of squeeze and he looked over seeing how nervous she was and calmed down a bit. Fyra took their hands and cupped them with hers. “Per amare è un regalo... Di mai abusarlo, sempre conservarlo. Jack Frost, King of Winter, Warlock of the Driving Snows, now to be called husband of Cassandra, be ever diligent in your service as husband. Cassandra, Witch of Woods, now to be called wife of Jack Frost, Queen of Winter, be ever caring in your service as wife. Kneel and be blessed.”

Jack and Cassandra slowly dropped down to their knees and bowed their heads. Fyra let go of their hands and raised her left hand. It burst into a red fire and filled a great amount of room. After a second it went out and left a bowl with a piece of silver cloth in it.

“In the water, and through the earth, blessed is thy union, blessed with riches and myth.” Fyra lowered her hand and draw out the cloth soaking wet. She carefully set the bowl down under their clasped hands and wrapped the cloth around above it. Jack felt the warm water freeze at his touch and wondered how Cassandra could not be getting cold from him.

He turned enough to see her face and she was smiling, staring straight ahead. Jack got a bit more nervous not knowing what terrible things she was going to put him through, and now wished to back out but didn’t have the guts, they were frozen after all.

Fyra stepped back from the cloth and let them stand up. Jack was now visibly shaking in his other hand and Frya noticed and decided to end the ceremony quickly. “If you accept this bond, bless them with silence, if not, speak now and tell your arguments.”

Cassandra stared at her for changing the speech, but didn’t whip up a fireball at her seeing as nobody knew the speech to correct her. The room stayed silent and Jack accidentally gripped Cassandra’s hand almost enough to crush it but she didn’t flinch.

Fyra removed the cloth, “turn and face the world as husband and wife.” Jack and Cassandra spun around. Cassandra stopped and faced them, but Jack fell down onto the floor, unconscious. She rushed next to him and shook him frantically, “Jack! Jack!”

Fyra began to laugh, “He’s just asleep, he was quite nervous through the entire ceremony. A good night’s sleep will do him well.”

“Are you sure?” Cassandra asked quietly.

“Yeah, but I want to know why everyone’s passing into a deep sleep phase.” Fyra shook her head. “I hope you don’t mind me but I have to go somewhere warm.”

“Thank you so much dear sister. If you would go and check up on Grandmother and tell her what’s happened, she will know what to do.” Cassandra summoned several vines out of her hand that grew and jumped off her hands. They formed a cot and lifted Jack off the floor. “Fyra, don’t you have to install the title of queen on me?”

“No, because Jack made that title up for himself. He has an ego on him, doesn’t he?” Fyra waved and disappeared in whips of fire and smoke. Cassandra turned to follow the vines and Jack to her room. She had the vines form a small couch with Jack still on them, they harden to a wicker state while she worried about growing herself a bed.

She had never grown a bed before, and figured it was a wonderful time to think about it. She grew the posts up, four of them, each ten feet apart, and then had them grow branches so there was something to support a mattress. “Awe, I don’t know what makes a mattress up!”

“Then fill it with cotton…” Jack turned his head slightly and coughed a bit. “You grow some cotton and have something spin it into thread, then you can make cloth… and fill it with cotton.” He turned to the ceiling and stared up at the shimmering ice, seeing a reflection of himself in it.

“You’re awake…” Cassandra walked over slowly and looked at him.

“I had sheep once, we used to sheer them every spring and use the wool to make clothes. I made a very itchy pair of pants out of them.” Jack laughed to himself.

“Jack, are you alright?” Cassandra asked. Jack didn’t even turn over to look at her.

“We had a bull too, Rose and I did, he…” Jack had to stop and laugh a bit, “one day he just up and pushed me down in to a pile of his waste… he was always doing things like that. Rose died after that, then I lost the girl and the old woman, then…” Jack went silent and seemed to snap back from reality. “Rose and I never did have a wedding, I was to nervous, we just said we did and lied to everyone, Elizabeth and I were going to have on though, she was going to wear a white dress with lace covering her arms and top of her chest.”

“Jack…” Cassandra helped him sit up and sat down next to him.

He turned to her crying, “You should have stayed away, now you’ll die too.”

“No, I won’t die, I’m immortal… I can’t die, look.” Cassandra grew a thorn and stabbed herself with it. She pulled it out and her skin healed itself back to the north smoothness.

“The mind is frail, no matter how long you live.” Jack whispered and fell over on her crying to himself, “I looked at my daughter, the thing I lived for, and I felt nothing. I’m afraid my heart has frozen.”

“Let me help then…” Cassandra whispered and she kissed him gently.


Gareth sat watching Marylin’s chest flow up and down to her every breath. She was wakening more, but not enough to hear him, so he started to divulge himself to her, knowing that he wouldn’t be bothered after he escorted the wolves on their way.

“When you first came to my tree when you were seven, over four hundred years ago… I thought you looked funny because you didn’t have green or red hair, but shimmering blonde hair. Back then I didn’t know what humans were.

“I followed you as far as I could everyday and watched you… I think by the time I finally approached you 200 years later; I was in love with you. You didn’t even know me, but you were so kind to me as you were the animals and plants, I didn’t know that people like that existed. You were the best thing that has ever happened to me.” Gareth looked one more time at her and felt the sting of the crystal in his hand.

“I wish I could be here when you wake up, but I can’t.” He walked over to her slowly and kissed her on the forehead and left the room. He made his way through the main chamber and went running out the door. He made it across the barren lands without much pain but only had a scarce few second before it really began to hurt.

Gareth rushed to the nearest tree and in an instant, was back at his own tree. He fell out of the tree because of the pain and felt the crystal remove itself from his skin. He sat up and looked around him, the werewolves were near.

He rushed back inside the tree and felt claw marks against it, causing gaping wounds on him. Dryads didn’t bleed, so he just felt the stinging. He removed himself from his tree into his mother’s only to find a strange couple their.

“Mother…” He gasped and fell to the floor clutching the wounds. The small woman and the couple rushed to his side.

“Gareth, be still.” He let out another scream as new wounds appeared on his back.

“Werewolves, Strigori! Strigori are in the woods as wolves…” Gareth passed out from the pain.