We were all warned not to go into the forest. Bears and wolves and mountain lions prowled there after dark. But, my grandmother told me that tricky elves and frost giants inhabited it also. I then remembered one of my favorite bedtime stories when I was little. Grandma would put me on her bony lap and tell me the story of one elf, an elf that didn't age like the others. An elf with snowy white hair and crystal blue eyes, whose wooden staff could freeze trees and ponds solid. As I stood there, thinking, the story of that particular elf popped into my head.
There was once an elf, whose snowy white hair glowed like fresh snow, that realized he didn't age like the other elves. He was shunned by them, forced to live as an outcast. But, one day, when he was walking through the forest, he happened upon a wandering sorcerer. The sorcerer was very powerful, but very lost. The sorcerer needed directions and food. So, the elf invited the sorcerer to his meager house. They ate and drank and laughed into the wee hours of the morning. Then the sorcerer said that he really needed to leave, for he had a meeting with the King of the Elves. When the elf heard that, he happily drew a map to the Elf King's castle. In return for his hospitallity, the sorcerer gave the elf a magic staff. The staff gave the elf power over ice and snow and the winter winds. From that day on, the white-haired elf was known as the Frost Elf, or more commonly as, Jack Frost.
I had been standing there contemplating for so long that my feet had nearly frozen inside my boots. To warm them, I walked a little farther along the footprints. It didn't work. I walked on my numb feet until I my side hurt. I paused for breath beside a boulder.
As my breath fogged out in front of me, I heard something. A crunching sound, like snow and ice cracking beneath a foot. I froze beside the boulder. The trees around me slowly turned crystaline and white. Almost as if they were... An elf with snowy white hair with crystal blue eyes, whose staff could freeze trees solid! The words from the story floated through my head. I thought that my grandmother's stories were affecting my mind. But they weren't. That curious little voice was back again, one hand over the logical voice's mouth, telling me to look around the corner. And, like an idiot, I did. And when I saw the thing awaiting my eyes, My feet weren't the only thing that were frozen. My whole body siezed up in terror.
