I'm back! This is mostly Jack messing around with people to see if they can see him or not. 'Nuff said.
The next day, though they were heading towards an epic battle, the group still took time to open Christmas presents. Mist liked her present of a new staff to replace her old beaten up one, and Rolf absolutely loved the bigger bow, since his looked like a toy compared to his current height, as opposed to how it used to look right. Looking at the boy, Jack was reminded of Jamie. Even though they looked completely different, there was an air of eager enthusiasm and wonder around Rolf, same as the one Jamie had. Jack momentarily wondered whether Jamie would be missing him. To keep his mind off the subject, Jack watched som of the other kids open their presents. The little girl from last night, who Jack found out was named Ciela, got a thick black book labeled "Flux". Jack wondered why North would make something like that. Jack slowly drifted off into thought, being unsuccessful in trying not to think about his home and friends. The Easter Kangaroo would think something was up if Jack didn't make a few major blizzards.
"Jack? Jack!" Mist called, " We're leaving. You coming or not?"
"Oh! What? Yeah."Jack jumped up and Mist giggled.
"Ok, who're you going with?" Mist asked.
"Micaiah is taking one route, I'm going on another, and Queen Elincia and the Hawk King Tibarn are going a third." Mist explained.
"Which group has the least kids?" Jack asked.
"That'd be mine. Only about a quarter of us aren't adults." Mist said. So Jack went with Mist.
To his alarm, Yune wasn't there. He supposed he had it coming, since Yune had said something about Micaiah sleeping, and Sothe had thought she was Micaiah, but he still felt a bit uncomfortable. He decided to try and test who could see him.
Soren, the guy with green-black hair from last night, didn't, as it turned out. Jack watched him with interest as he (reluctantly) taught a lilac-haired girl with a yellow cape how to cast a spell. Jack assumed the girl was Ilyana, since Soren was chanting and creating a controlled blizzard. Ilyana copied him. On her own, she made a few snowflakes, but Jack zapped them with his staff and they became a small flurry. Hey, Yune had said no storms, but nothing about a little snow. Both of the mages seemed to genuinely think it was Ilyana by herself though, so Jack noted them as people he could prank.
Next, Jack decided to look for a challenge. He decided to try one on the commander, who seemed like the kind of person who doesn't question why stuff happens and accepts that it does. Jack found him that night, sparring with a purple-haired girl. He had been about to win, but Jack made a surprise ice patch and he slipped. Not at all to Jack's surprise, he didn't do anything but laugh and tell the girl she was doing well to have not slipped. She returned the smile for a second, but then turned to Jack and asked him who he was.
"Jack Frost, Spirit of Winter. I'm kind of stuck here, and Yune said I could come along on the condition of no snowstorms." Jack explained.
"Mia, who're you talking to?" The commander asked.
"Jack Frost, Spirit of Winter apparently." Mia replied.
"You're kidding."
"No, I'm not, Boss." Mia stated firmly.
"Aren't only mages supposed to see spirits?" He questioned.
"I dunno, I can see him."
"And those two magicians earlier couldn't." Jack pointed out.
"Who, Soren? Not surprising. He never believed in goddess Ashera- as good anyway, so this isn't that surprising for him." Mia explained.
"So, who's he?" Jack asked, pointing to Ike.
"That's Ike, leader of the Greil Mercenaries." Mia explained.
"Mia, I think the cold is getting to you. We should go join the others at the campfire." Ike gently led Mia to the side of a campfire. It was too hot near there for Jack, so he went to the outer edge of camp, where he made it snow so heavily the world seemed fogged. When he stopped, it actually was foggy. He heard shouts and crashing coming from the campfire, so he reluctantly went back to the fire. He saw Mia and co. fighting people in gold armour, and they seemed to almost be losing. He briefly wondered why only about half of them were helping, but put it aside. His previous plan had been to play more pranks, but he could see this was no time to be playing tricks. Except, maybe on the attackers.
Within minutes, there was a cacophony of sounds ranging from childish laughter to screaming and disgruntled whinnies.
And I ducked out of doing the fighting scene. I think I'll make these chapters shorter from now on, so I don't start dropping it and so it's harder to get a block like the one on most of my other stories. Thank you to blackkyu, the sole reviewer of this story! I'll be sure to do a lot more explaining later!
