Prologue
Ok, so I know this is hardly an original idea, but I wanted to try my hand at it anyway, so please give it a chance.
I own nothing except the plot and my OCs.
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The baying of the hounds rang out over the frozen forest, a cold fog settling over the snowy wonderland. Icicles hung from every tree branch and a light covering of snow hid the ground from view. The scene would've been perfect, if not for the excited calls of the hounds and the sound of a hunting horn, blown from the back of a horse as the fox hunt ran after their prize.
Running ahead of the dog pack, was a russet furred vixen, black fur covering her legs, ears, snout and tail tip. Her underbelly was the colour of the snow she dashed through, kicking it up behind her as she tried out run her attackers and control her terror, not looking where she was running too.
Suddenly her paws slid out from under her and she scrambled to get back up. She saw, with growing dread, that she had ran on to a frozen river. Under the clear ice, she could see the water was still flowing. Odd.
A sudden bark alerted her to the fact that her chasers had caught up, but seemed reluctant to join her on the ice. So, not completely stupid then. As she turned and began slowly walking to the bank opposite the hunting hounds, she could hear the humans on their horses approaching and knew they would shoot her if she stayed in sight.
She panicked when one of the horses nickered as it came to a stop by the river bank, and her paw cracked the ice and it fell through. As she struggled to free her quickly numbing paw, the hunter aimed his gun at her, ready to fire. Her struggling became more frantic, cracking the ice around her paws. The vixen heard the ice straining to hold her.
With one last creek, the ice gave way under her, and the vixen fell into the ice cold water. As her limbs turned numb, she felt the current take her down river. What an embarrassing way for an immortal to die.
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When she awoke, the first thing she felt was the body of another animal next to her. Her next feeling was confusion, she had a feeling that she had not expected to wake up when she fell asleep. Then came the memories, of distracting the hunt to lead them off the trail of the real fox, of trying to shift, but fear had been clouding her concentration. And, finally, of her fall into the river.
Summing all her energy, she blinked open her eyes, and was shocked by the sight before her. Next to her lay a large Greyhound, sleeping peacefully. Terror raced through her system, but her body had no adrenaline left. She was stuck. She appeared to be in a cave of some sort, the entrance large enough for a horse to fit in. Just outside, a green tent had been setup, and she could smell the scent of a male human in the air.
The vixen tried to stand, but her legs had had enough, and collapsed under her. Great, I can't shift, I can't move, and I'm sharing a cave with a dog and a human. Now, she didn't hate humans, but she definitely didn't like them. They had killed so many animals unnecessary, they had lost their right to her protection.
As the Spirit of Animals, it was her job to protect animals from unfair circumstances, like when humans destroy their homes and hunt them down. Yes, humans are animals, but they are breaking nature's rules.
Having already drained her energy supply, the vixen curled up and fell asleep.
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The next time she awoke, her energy had been restored, so she insistently sat up, and almost had a heart attack from seeing the human so close. He was sat by a camp fire that was right next to her, and was stroking his dog.
" Oh, you're up. Umm, I don't really know what foxes eat, but... I have some bacon." He spoke absentmindedly as he offered some of the meat he was cooking to her. While her stomach wanted her to take it from him, she was wary of his offer, most humans she had met as a fox would have poisoned the meat to kill her. But she could sense no evil intentions from this boy. As that was indeed what he was, a boy, of around 15 or 16 years old. He had brown hair and brown eyes, and his face hadn't yet lost its child like look.
She excepted the bacon, scoffing it as soon as the taste hit her tongue.
"Well, I really hope foxes can eat bacon! My name is Jamie, Jamie Bennett and this is Abbey, my dog." He introduced him self and the dog to the vixen. He spoke in the way someone would talk to their pet, knowing they don't understand them, but wanting to fill the silence with talking. What he didn't know, was that she could understand his every word.
She did have a human form, but like with other spirits, no human could see her. She knew she was lucky to be seen as an animal, as the other spirits had no way of having humans interact with them. She had never tried to get a human to see her, but it was worth a shot with this boy. He seemed open minded and full of imagination that had not dimmed as he became a teen.
She carefully centred her thoughts on the animal she wanted to shift to, and in less that a second, she was a looking at Jamie through the eyes of a cat. Her cat form had a midnight black pelt with a white underbelly and chin, with white flecks dotted on her back. Her animal forms were always female and the equivalent of a teenager in that animals years.
Jamie, for his part, was surprisingly calm about it, he didn't scream or run, he just sat there with his mouth open. After a minute he sat back and blinked at her, saying, " Wow, a Shapeshifer, and I thought Jack Frost and the Guardians was weird enough, but this is so cool, can you be a human?"
The she-cat thought for a moment. He may very well be able to see my human form, I mean, says he can see the Guardians so he must have strong belief. After a few seconds of thought, she nodded her head and shifted to a human.
Her human form, the form she had been born in. Like all of Mother Nature's 'children', she had died before, in her human life. She had been trying to save a horse that had been abused by its owner, but the horse had struck her in its panic, and she had died alone in the forest.
Her human form was of a teenage girl with black hair and green eyes. She had never cared for fashion, so her clothes were used for their practically, jeans, a T-shirt, a warm fleece and a pair of trainers.
"Hi..." She mumbled shyly, her head down. For some reason, she was horrible at talking to other humans, when she spoke to other spirits, her mouth would just refuse to talk and her anxiety would spike, even if she liked the person she was speaking to. This meant that she often avoided all social interactions with other spirit.
"Oh, wow, hi, how did you end up in the river? I got you out by the way, you were just floating there, under the ice so I decided to help." Jamie said in a rush, excitedly awaiting her reply.
"Thanks...I was...uh...running from the fox hunt...I should probably get going...now." She cringed internally as she stuttered through that sentence, turning towards the exit to the cave.
"Hey, wait, can you at least tell me your name, and what you are, please." He got up and stood at the entrance of the cave as she stepped out into the forest.
She turned and said," My name is...Philippa, Philippa Fauna, the Spirit...of...Animals."
She left before he could react.
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AN: ok, so how was that, I am new to this site and don't have a beta so there may be some mistakes. If you don't know, Philippa means friend of horses, so I thought it would fit her, seeing as how she died.
The next chapter is in Jack Frost point of view and it will change between the two for the whole of this fic.
THIS IS NOT A ROMANCE FIC, I CAN'T STAND ROMANC, JACK×OC FICS.
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Wyrenfire