Chapter 1: Invisibility
Hi guys! Some of you may have already read this, and probably laughed at it, but I'm re posting and hope you enjoy it~
Jack was angry. He lay in his normal tree, just out of earshot from his guards, and glared at the sun. The weather was too cheery for his taste. He wanted, no needed, a snowstorm to happen. A snowstorm would calm him down. The feel of snow beneath his feet with the wind hollering around him would make him feel so much better. Cold weather always seemed to calm him down. He knew better than to think such dangerous thoughts though.
The cloak he wore was proof of the fact that he could not be trusted. It held his magical abilities and prevented him from using them. His magic was too volatile, to attune to his emotions for him to be allowed to use it. Weather magic was looked down upon in his kingdom, and the King and Queen were not going to reveal that their son had some of the most hated and dangerous powers in the entire system of magic.
For on a planet where resources where extremely limited, a mage who has the power to destroy crops and freeze water was not welcome.
Jack sighed and flipped off his tree in one long fluid motion. His guards marched over to him and he sighed again. They reminded him of why he was mad in the first place. As he walked through the gardens his mind wandered back to the conversation in the throne room.
"Jack we are doing this and that is that. Don't argue with us. You are too dangerous for us to keep you here and this will help everybody so much."
To say Jack had been hurt by the audacity of the thing his parents were suggesting was an understatement, and his mother saying that this was going to help people was the last straw.
"Please explain to me how sending me away to a distance planet with a bodyguard who will double as a mage will help the people. As far as I can tell, you're wiping the blemish of having a weather mage for a son off. Now that Ella's of age, you can shuttle me off and still have an heir. Let me guess, you plan to tell that I got in a horrible accident and am dead."
Watching the blood drain from his parents face was nowhere as satisfying as it should have been.
He had just felt numb. Nothing could penetrate the fact that his parents had planned to ditch him on some distant planet with a stranger to live out the remainder of his life. Shaking himself from his thoughts, he left his guard at the palace entrance and walked up the stairs to his tower. The rest of that conversation had been his parent's weak explanations and excuses. It had not been pretty. But in the end Jack was still being sent off.
As he reached his tower he opened his door and threw himself on the bed, feeling the cool air hit him from his open window. He always kept the window open, even if the weather was frigid. Cold didn't affect him like it did others. Just another reminder of how different he was from his family. Laying on his bed, he cried into his pillow, letting himself drift off.
He was drowning. The feeling of cold was seeping into his bones and his lungs had become saturated with water. At least he had saved his sister. That was a thought he could die with. At lease he had done some good in his life. That was his last thought as he sank into darkness.
Jack woke up with a gasp. He clawed at his chest, gasping for air as if he was drowning. Jumping off his bed he ran for his bathroom, feeling the water rise, and oh god he was drowning all over again, he couldn't breathe, couldn't move, all it took was a few kicks and he would be okay, but his body wouldn't listen oh god oh god oh god.
Reaching the toilet he retched over it, bringing up stinging bile and the apple he had in place of dinner. When he finished he wiped his mouth and laughed dryly at his reflection. Hair turned white by the shock, the ever thinning body, pale skin, eyes that used to be a warm brown now bright blue.
Drowning had somehow changed his body, made him even more powerful, made him into the thing he was now.
He splashed his mouth with water and sighed. This happened far too much. At least he didn't scream. Screaming drew far too much attention to himself. As much as he wished for attention, this kind was not good. His parents never liked to know that there son had nightmares. It wasn't good for the royal image. Soon he learned to keep quite through even the most terrifying dreams.
He may be famous for disappearing and being "invisible" but those were learned through necessity. Getting the attention of anyone in the royal household was a bad idea. Even the servants knew that he was not liked. Therefore they would not be punished for hurting him or making him work. In fact, sometimes the Kind or Queen would offer them a kind nod or a pay raise at the sight of them making Jack do chores. They said it built character.
Jack learned how to vanish in plain sight.
Then his sister was born. When Jack was allowed to see her, his heart had melted. He could never be resentful to this tiny pink bundle.
She was simply too sweet.
As she grew up Jack was always there. He spoiled her rotten when their parents didn't and it became known around the kingdom that the Prince had a soft spot for his sister. When they had gone out to skate that day, Ella had been so excited. This was her first time skating and she was so thrilled to be doing something so grown up. Then the ice had cracked. And Jack had drowned saving his sister. Since then his parents hadn't allowed him to get near her, and all he saw of her was a glimpse of a bowed head or flash of brown hair.
Shaking his head to clear it of bad thoughts, he gave up on going back to bed, instead turning to his easel. The half-finished picture of a bench in the snow called to him. He spent the rest of the night working on it.
Jack woke up to a knocking on his door. He had fallen asleep standing up, and in the process gotten paint all over himself. Checking if his painting had taken any damage, he called for the servant to come in. Ignoring her completely he went to the bathroom and wet a scrub.
Jack had become quite good at cleaning himself efficiently with nothing but a wet sponge, and today was no different. After scrubbing the paint off himself he excited the bathroom to find the servant stuffing clothes into a large shoulder bag. He nodded to her on thanks, then went to his painting supplies and began packing them. He really should have packed last night, but he figured the longer he could delay the trip the better.
Logic had never been something he liked.
When the servant finished packing his clothes, he thanked her and began his journey down the stairs. Swinging both his painting supplies and bag around his shoulder, he whipped down the banister, laughing freely as he picked up momentum.
Reaching the bottom he jumped off and landed perfectly. He pumped his fist and walked to the front door. His guards were waiting there. He tried to chat with them as they escorted him to the front gate but they ignored him as usual. Jack was used to it. His guards hadn't talked to him once for the entire time he had had them. He wasn't sure why, but he wasn't going complain.
Being ignored was better than being beaten, Jack knew that from experience.
When they reached the palace gates, the guards deposited him in front of the gates with said nothing then left. One lingered and gave Jack a pity filled stare and a small pat on his back. He then left.
Jack was a little shocked by this treatment, but then laughed wryly at himself. Leave it to his parents to throwaway him as soon as they could. At least one of his guards had shown he cared.
Sitting on his clothes bag, he began to trace patterns onto the dew coating the bars. When the shadow of a person fell upon him he had a pretty good rose bush going. Looking up to see who had cast the shadow he was shocked to see a golden eyed man in front of him. Golden eyes…he knew that that symbolized something. If he could just…
A Lunanoff! That was what the golden eyes meant. The trait that was so common among the colony had petered out as they were destroyed by the shadows that plagued their land. Jack had thought that the entire race had been wiped put, but as he peered closely at the man he saw what he had missed the first time. The gray skin.
Jack furrowed his brow, confusion plain on his face. The man chuckled.
"I take it you noticed my…unique…features." Jack flushed blue, and looked down. "Don't be embarrassed," The man smirked in a very non-comforting manner, "Staring is normal."
Jack decided that he didn't like this man.
Of course, that didn't mean he wouldn't ask questions.
As they started walking Jack glanced around him with wide eyes. He was never allowed outside in public. The only times he went outside the Palace was when his parents let him go to his pond in the woods. And that was rare since the incident. The last time he had been outside the palace walls had been a good 4 months. As he glanced around he couldn't help but notice the gauntness of the people's faces around him.
Years of having almost no water and very little food had taken its toll on the people of Santabia. They had developed a permanently starved look, and were all rather small people. That in itself was enough to see that they were struggling but the state of their houses and clothes were another.
Everything was horrid.
Jack stopped looking at his surroundings and instead stared at the ground. His bare feet stuck out awkwardly from his frame and he wondered if his parents had realized that he left without shoes. Nobody else had. Of course, nobody cared either. Sighing, he glanced out of the corner of his eye to the taller being besides him.
Jack didn't like the way he was being scrutinized so he decided to ask questions.
"What's your name?" The young boy suddenly leaked attitude, a defense mechanism he had developed years ago. The look he got said that it wasn't fooling anybody.
"My name is Pitch. Pitch Black." Pitch gave an almost imperceptible bow.
Jack snorted. That got him an eyebrow raise.
"Seriously. Pitch Black? Could you have any more of a dramatic name?"
"Your one to talk. Jack Frost is hardly a normal name." The eyebrow went up again, this time with a companion in the form of a small smirk.
Jack decided that this guy smirked a lot.
"Well yes, but at least it isn't completely melodramatic."
"Hmph."
Jack waited, but that seemed to be all the answer he was getting.
Talk about drama king.
"So what do you…do?"
Pitch looked down at him with a renewed interest.
"I control shadows. And I can read fears, though how easily I do depends on the person and the time I spend with them."
Jack hid his surprise. Powers like those were not something people just came by. Those were powers that had to be worked for and were very rare. The fear tasting was something different altogether. Now he would have to figure out how to hide his fears.
Like his life wasn't complicated enough.
"And you little princeling, what can you do?"
Jack fiddled with the clasp of his cloak, a reflex reaction these days.
"Little princeling? Interesting nickname." Pitch gave him a look that said the change of topic wasn't unnoticed, but didn't press the issue.
"Simply stating what I see. You are little, and you are a Prince."
"Not anymore." This sentence was accompanied by a dry humorless laugh.
Pitch didn't comment.
As they reached the docking station, Jack looked around him, eyes drinking in the sights greedily. He had never been here and although the walls were cracked and nobody was there, he still enjoyed the sights. Though it left a strange sense of guilt in his mouth to enjoy them. Happy feelings had no place in a world like this.
Then the ship arrived.
It was small as ships went, designed to take a small group through space. But it was the first ship jack had ever seen and it was amazing. Pitch chuckled at his open mouth admiration and loaded his possessions.
Then Jack boarded.
Already he could tell that this was not going to work out. The space was small, and he began to feel boxed in.
He hated enclosed spaces like this.
They made him feel trapped, and trapped led to memories of being under the ice, and it never went well from there. His breathing spiked and he stood there helplessly, stuck in his head as well as the spaceship. Memories of water flashing past him, the scream of his sister they were flooding his head. He began to shake and suddenly Pitch was there, stroking his hair and holding him close, whispering a stream of comforting words in Jacks ear. He stopped shaking and went limp in Pitch's arms.
"Sorry…" That was he got out before he fell to the ground and faded into blackness.
Jack awoke to the silver flecked gaze of Pitch. He blinked a few times, then registered that he was on the man's lap, and jumped up quickly. Rubbing the back of his neck he gave a sheepish smile, looking around.
"Umm, where are we?"
He didn't recognize the ships interior, not that he had gotten a very good look at it. Pitch gave him a small smile.
"After your…incident, we flew out to another dock and rented another, bigger ship."
Jack flinched. "You didn't have to do that, I mean, I could have managed." He hated that he was so scared of small spaces he had no need to be, no need at all.
When his parents had found out they had told him straight off that it was another unacceptable flaw, one he needed to get rid of, fast. And oh had he tried. From shoving himself into closets, to simply just sitting in a small room, he tried everything. Nothing worked. Nothing erased the fear. If anything, it got worse. His tolerance time shortened, until even thinking of small spaces had him hyperventilating. Not to mention servants made it a habit to push him until small spaces, just for the sheer fun of making a Prince cry.
Snapping himself out of his reverie, he flinched as he saw Pitch's expression. He had completely forgotten that he could feel fear. Not a good way to start off. Quashing the growing multitude of fears inside him, he fiddled with his cloak clasp.
"So, where are we going?"
Pitch shook his head. Jack stared with unabashed curiosity as the taller one passed a hand over his face, taking a breath.
"Why don't we discuss your…breakdown in the other ship."
Jacks expression shuttered and he took a breath of his own. "It's nothing."
Pitch scoffed. "I can sense fear remember. Nor am I stupid. That was something."
Jack shook his head in silent denial, and walked to the other side of the ship. He traced the designs etched in the wall. They were small spirals surrounded by lettering in a language he was unfamiliar with, going up the sliver tarnished wall. He sighed and turned to Pitch.
"About a year ago, I…I fell in a lake."
Pitch opened his mouth, but Jack held up his hand, shaking his head.
"Don't interrupt please. It will make things easier."
Sooo, whadda think? Also, Some of you may know me by my tumblr crowsandravensanddeadthings. Note that I am on hiatus, and updates will be slow. Please feel free to comment and kudos. Also leave advice, I need it.
