My Silent Guardian
It'd been 300 years since he was risen from his icy prison; summoned from beneath the thick blankets of ice that held him at the bottom of the lake. And it'd been 300 years since he'd talked to a living soul. Of course he had his fun share of having children being hit in the head by a snowball that was thrown by yours truly. And sometimes in the dark of night, Jack would watch over those children while they slept soundly in their beds, ensuring that nothing and no one would harm them during their slumber.
But even as he watched over the children and made sure they were safe and having enjoyable childhoods, Jack always felt lonely. He'd heard of the main three Guardians (those of whom he didn't get along with very well), who were just like him in immortality; but they lacked the same powers he did... That and people actually believed in them, while he stood in the cold wind as an obscure mover of ice, snow and wind.
And this day wasn't any different than those days. Well, at least the start of that day wasn't any different.
As the wind cradled him on his journey, Jack had run into a tree. But this tree wasn't like any other tree. It was larger than most, with a trunk thicker than any oak he'd seen. Jack rubbed his sore head and examined the tree, for he felt it was important somehow. He let the wind lower him down until his feet met the earth. He stared at the trunk of the tree, feeling drawn towards it. Jack outstretched an icy hand until it met the bark.
In an instant, a white hot pain shot through his arm. With a yelp of pain Jack flew backwards and crashed into a thorny bush. Jack let out a hiss as he pulled himself from the thistle. He brushed off the thorns stuck to his cape and pants. When the stickers were out of his clothes and skin, he looked up at the tree again- only... It was different now. There was an ice-blue, swirling portal of some kind. Being the curious lad he was, Jack approached it without fear and placed a hand inside the portal. The same white hot pain flew up his arm, but this time it was tolerable; he barely felt it. The white/blue swirl seemed to engulf his hand and Jack took a step back, pulling his hand back to his side. He placed his staff in the snow and leaned against it as he contemplated on what to do.
He looked around to see if anyone was nearby then took another wary step closer to the portal. Jack tilted his head then sighed; relenting. "Oh well, wherever this thing leads, it's gotta be better than here." He said to his staff, pulling it out of the snow. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and took a step closer then another step and then another, until he could feel wind blowing his hair. He opened his eyes to see he was only a hair away from the portal.
Jack furrowed his brow in determination and tensed his jaw and took that last step that caused him to step into the portal. And this wasn't some swirling, tossing, tumbling adventure like in the books. This was just like walking through a door. One second he was in his world, the other second he was in a marketplace filled with people scurrying around.
Jack took a step back in surprise, his eyes widening. His heart pounded in his chest and his lungs seemed to burn with the large amounts of breath that he was taking. This wasn't home and Jack didn't like it. He turned around to go back through the portal, but only ran into a rather large man holding a cleaver. But wait- Jack didn't run into people- he passed through them.
The man turned and looked down at him. He was even more intimidating from a frontal view with faded blood covering his smock and a cleaver in his hand. Jack feared what he might do, but the man just lifted him up and dusted him off.
"Very sorry, me lad. I dinn'e mean te scare ye." The man's voice was filled with a gruff Scottish accent. Wait, hold it again- he picked him up, dusted him off and talked to him. As if he could see him. Jack stared at him with widened eyes and a gaping mouth.
"What's the matter? Ye ne'er seen a butcher man b'fore?" Jack didn't say a word; he just stared at the man. The butcher frowned. "Well, ye jus' g'nna stan' there with an open bass mouth, lad? Say somethin'!"
Jack shut his mouth and gulped rather audibly and kept staring, until the butcher's words finally got to him and he shook his head. "Right, err... Sorry, I, uh..." He stuttered.
The butcher quirked a brow. "Ye got a name, son?" He asked. Jack, still bewildered, nodded his head. "Well, what is it?"
"Uh... It's, uh, Jack, sir." He stuttered again. "J-Jack Frost." Jack clutched his staff to his side as if it were a security blanket- well, stick.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the man gripped Jack's hand and shook it violently. "Nice te meet ye, Mr. Frost." He laughed. "Ye must be new te Arendele."
Jack cringed and shook his hand painfully when the butcher let him go. He only stopped shaking it, when he heard the name of the place he was in. "A-Arendele?" He asked. "Is this what this place is?" The butcher slapped a hand on his belly and let out a roaring laugh.
"Yer obviously new te this place! This here is Arendele, home to the beautiful Princesses Anna and Elsa." His laughter died down to a chuckle, then faded completely. "Well, Princess Anna and soon-te-be-Queen Elsa. In three days it'll her coronation."
This time, Jack quirked a brow. "Princess? Queen? Coronation?" He looked down and searched for words to say. "I-I... This-this is all very new to me, I-" He began to breathe heavily. "I-I need to sit down. Or... s-some water."
"Lad, are ye okay?" The butcher asked.
Now, Jack was hyperventilating. "I need some water! A seat... S-something, I-I..." He looked up at the butcher, his vision growing blurry.
"Lad?" that was the last thing Jack heard before he blacked out.
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When Jack woke up, he saw a stone ceiling above him and felt a warm blanket around him. He groaned and sat up, rubbing his forehead. When reality hit him, it seemed to jolt him out of the cot he was laying down in and drag him down to the floor. Jack got up on his hands and knees, rubbing his face and chin.
"Ow..." He groaned, pushing himself to his knees. Jack looked around and saw he was in a small cabin of some sort. He stood up and looked around. The cabin was small, but big enough to contain a small family. As Jack looked around, he heard the creaking of steps and saw the large butcher make his way down the steps.
"Ah, Jack, good yer awake!" he exclaimed as he walked over to the small boy looking around his cabin.
Jack rubbed the top of his head, messing up his hair in the process. "Where... where am I?" He asked. The butcher man placed a hand on his shoulder and guided him over a small wooden table with two bowls on it. Jack sat down at a chair and looked at the man, who began speaking again.
"Yer in me house, lad. I brought ye here when ye passed out in the street." He explained as he poured some stew into Jack's bowl. "Ye stayed asleep fer a whole day, ye did! Luckily me wife was able te make ye better. Ye were starvin'."
Jacked looked down at the stew and realized how hungry he was. He picked up a wooden spoon and began shoveling the steaming soup into his mouth ravenously.
"Good heavens, Aidan! You bring home a boy who's passed out and starvin' and he eats like a wolf!" A woman's voice snapped Jack's attention away from his food and over to the staircase again. A large woman dressed in a commoner's clothing walked down the stairs with a young girl following behind her. "You could at least teach him some manners b'fore he eats!" She snapped.
The butcher, Aidan, rubbed the back of his neck. "The boy's starvin' Matilda. Let him have a good meal b'fore ye chomp his head off!" He chuckled. Jack didn't say a word as his mouth was full, but he found the whole man vs wife argument quite hilarious.
"Well, I think he's handsome." The young girl piped up. "He doesn't look like a wild boy te me!" Jack looked at the girl and swallowed his stew, smiling his thanks.
"He's got the most outrageous hair color! And the stew I made is fallin' off his chin and onto my clean table." Matilda complained. Jack's hand instantly went to his hair.
"What's wrong with white hair?" The words slipped out of his mouth before he could stop them. Matilda looked at him with poisonous green eyes and glared at Jack.
"It's unnatural," She stated. "Just where are you from, boy?" She asked. Jack looked down and kept silent. For this was a question he did not know the answer to.
"I-I don't know... All I do know is that where I'm from, no one can see me... It's like I'm invisible." He looked back up at the wife. "I don't even know who my parents are." As soon as those words left his lips, Matilda's chilling green gaze softened into wide, sympathetic irises.
"Aww... C'mere, Pumpkin!" She opened her arms and rushed over to him, wrapping him in a bone-crushing bear hug. Jack struggled for air as the side of his face was smothered in her bosom. When Matilda let him go, Jack gasped for air as if it were the most precious thing on earth. As his breath caught back up to him, he looked up and smiled at Matilda, who smiled back then turned to her husband Aidan. "The poor boy needs a home; a job."
Aidan nodded. "Aye, that he does," he agreed.
"Why don't we let him stay here? He can help you at the butcher stand. He can clean up, cut meat, or whatever it is you butchers do." Matilda said as she stood Jack upright. "I mean, look at him. He's young, strong and hardy. He'll do perfectly at your shop."
Aidan scratched a scraggly beard that hung off his chin. "What do ye say, lad? Do ye want te stay here?" He asked. Jack looked around at the family, then out a nearby window. If he ventured off alone in this strange world, who knows what would happen to him! In this world people see him, he gets hungry, he feels pain. He's human in this world.
Looking back to the family, Jack grinned. "I will, and I promise I'll do my best to provide for the family." Matilda and Aidan grinned happily, but their little girl was more enthusiastic. He rushed over to Jack and threw her arms around him, pulling him in for yet another bone-crushing bear hug.
Jack chuckled and untangled her arms from his waist and smiled at the family. This was his home now; nothing could take that from him.
