Castle of Glass

A/N: Well, I wasn't terribly fond of this fic, but you guys seemed to like it, so have another chapter xD I'm not sure I'm keeping Jack IC, or Merida, for that matter, but I don't know.

"Merida, it's alright, I…"

"HIS HEART!" I yelled, feeling sure my own was about to beat right out of my chest. "His heart wasnae beating, and now this!"

"Please stop!" The actually not-dead boy cried, jumping up from the bed like all was perfectly fine. "I didn't mean to scare you or anything, but—hey, where am I?" he reached up with his arrow-ridden shoulder to scratch the back of his head, before wincing suddenly and putting a hand on said shoulder. "Ow…" he looked down at it curiously and reached to pull it out.

"You donnae want to do that," Mum warned him, stepping forward and suddenly taking control of the situation. I could tell she was just as scared and shocked as I was, but she wasnae showing it. "You could get the head stuck in your shoulder and—

"I'll be fine," he replied, reaching up and beginning to slowly, painfully extract it. And then he stopped, wincing a little. "Okay, maybe I won't be."

His face was young and childish, suggesting he couldn't be older than fourteen, but he had the voice of a twenty-year-old, and the eyes of someone much older.

"You're supposed to be dead!" I cried, taking another couple steps backward. "What are you doing up and walking around, you're…you're like a corpse!"

"Merida!" Mum turned swiftly to glare at me and the boy rubbed his forehead in exasperation.

"In case you're wondering, I am a corpse, thank you," he scowled a little at me, trying to move his arms but being hindered by the pain of the arrow. I still felt guilty for shooting him, but it made me feel better that he had scared the living daylights out of me, too; at least now we were even.

"What do you mean?" Mum's skirts rustled as she brushed by him, and she suddenly shuddered with cold, pulling away. A trail of frost clung to her dress.

"I mean that I—oh no." His face paled suddenly. "No, no, no…where's my staff?!"

"Staff?" Mum questioned, raising an eyebrow and turning swiftly to look at me.

I shrugged. There hadnae been a staff when I'd first seen him.

"Yes, a staff!" he replied, beginning to pace around the hospital looking for it. He checked every side table he could, but of course, he didnae find it. "Long, thin stick of wood, you know? Should have a kind of G shape at the top?"

Mum shook her head, and I shook mine, too.

"I'm sorry," Mum continued in her queen voice. "We havenae seen anything of the likes of which you have described. It might be in the forest, where my daughter, Merida, shot you, but—

"Oh, that wasn't Trick?" The corpse's eyebrows flew up. "I thought it must have been, but…hmm…" his lips twisted into an expression of confusion. "Right. Thanks for your hospitality, I gotta go get my staff." he nodded in our direction, heading for the door.

"Wait, wait, wait." I planted myself firmly in front of the door. "You cannae just leave!"

"According to her…" he jerked his head in Mum's direction. "…You shot me with an arrow, so I don't see why I should listen to you. Let me by."

"I have questions for you!" I nearly stamped my foot again, spreading my arms wide to prevent him from leaving.

"I have questions about why you shoot random strangers for sport—

"That arrow was an accident!" I retorted, feeling my face flush. "I didnae expect a floating corpse boy to spring oot from behind the bushes—

"F-floating corpse?" he sputtered, his own face gaining a darker tint; but instead of turning red, he turned purple. "I don't know who you're insulting, Carrot Top, but it clearly isn't me! And I did not spring out of the bushes—

"Well, that's what it looked like from my end of the bow!" I retorted. "And Carrot Top?! Pick some new material, I've been teased aboot my hair already—

"Merida. Boy." My mother cut smoothly through our words, putting a hand on each of our shoulders. "Enough."

The boy glared at me for a second or too longer before returning his gaze to Mum. "Look, all I want is my staff back, okay? Just give it to me and I'll be out of your hair."

"We donnae where your staff is," Mum admitted quietly, running a soothing hand along his back. "But Merida may be able to help you find it. It was she who shot you back there in the forest, you might have accidentally dropped it back there. That's my best guess, at least."

"Oh, good," the boy visibly relaxed. It was clear how vulnerable he felt without his staff in his hands. "Well, then, I'll just go find it."

"You could get lost in there," Mum informed him carefully.

"I don't think that'd be a problem."

"My daughter, Merida, knows the forest like no one else," Mum added swiftly. "I think it'd be best if you took her…"

She wasnae even paying attention when I tried to frantically shake my head at her, silently communicating. But whatever I was trying to say without words, she clearly wasnae getting. I definitely didnae want to go anywhere with the white-haired bampot, but it appeared that, to the forest, I was going.

Corpse Boy tried to reject Mum's attempts, but after a bit of negotiating, he just gave in, and I led him back to Angus' stables.

"We're taking a horse?" he asked, and I thought he wrinkled his nose a bit at the idea.

"Do you have a problem with it?" I demanded, unlatching Angus and opening his stall door.

"No…I just…don't think we need it."

"And what do you think we're going to do?" I asked heatedly. "Fly there?"

"Well, I was planning on it." He wasnae even using a hint of sarcasm right now; the look on his pale face was completely innocent and my jaw dropped. He really was radge.

"You…you…what?"

"I don't know if the wind would recognize me without my staff, though…" he added worriedly. "So maybe a horse is the most promising way to go right now…"

"What did you just say?" I demanded of him, taking a step closer to him in the dark stall.

He jumped back a bit, like my sudden closeness made him nervous, but before he did, my hand brushed by his. His skin was so breathtakingly cold, even though it was early autumn. Perhaps it was winter in his country by now.

"I said I don't know if the wind would recognize me without my staff," he repeated.

"When does the wind ever recognize anyone?" I asked, with an increasing feeling that I would never quite understand his thought processes.

"Well, it recognizes me," he said defensively. "I've just never tried to fly without my staff before, so I wouldn't know."

"You…" I struggled to spit out exactly what I was thinking. More than anything, I wanted to run back to the castle or gallop away on Angus as fast as I could, yet I knew that, whatever my mum wanted, my mum usually got. And she wanted me to help this boy find his staff. "I…let's…let's get this over with," I muttered, hitching myself up onto Angus' back. I stroked his mane, speaking to him in a calm, soothing voice.

"This boy is gonna get on your back now," I coaxed him gently. "He's a bit radge, but he's got to find his stupid staff, so just…keep your head up, he'll be gone soon, Angus…"

The boy awkwardly climbed onto Angus' back, scooting as far as he could away from me on the horse, his knee poking into my back.

"Is this your first horse ride?" I asked him, turning to look at him. He was staring down at Angus' legs with an expression of wonder.

He nodded in response to my question, putting one hand on Angus' side. The horse nickered suddenly and nervously, trying to instinctively jerk away and I knew why when the boy took his hand away, there was a trail of frost clinging to the hair.

"What…what…who are you?" I demanded, staring up at him, unsure whether I should be awed and impressed and add this to my growing mental list of reasons why he was crazy. "Is that ice?"

"If you can see me, you should know this by now," he replied quietly. "I thought for sure you might, since you looked at me when I woke up, but…" he blew out a small breath, his voice suddenly losing that cocky edge of arrogance that so annoyed me. Instead, he sounded small and almost…vulnerable. "You didn't."

"Obviously," I responded. "What does seeing you have to do with knowing who you are?"

"You have to believe in me to see me," he replied quietly. "And to believe in me, you kind of have to know who I am."

"Um…" It was official: he was so weird.

"I'm Jack Frost," he added for explanation. "And, if you don't mind, I really need my staff so I can get out of here. Do you mind?"

"Wait, wait, wait." I unhooked my shoes from Angus' stirrups, jumped off his back and stared accusingly up at him. "You're Jack Frost? But you donnae look a thing like him!"

"Correction, I don't look a thing like how you imagined him." His voice sounded a bit bitter.

"Last ah checked, the spirit of winter isnae a dead teenage boy."

"Well, I'm standing right in front of you," he snapped. "Obviously, a part of you does believe me that I'm real, otherwise you wouldn't see me, even when I'm standing right here."

"But you…" I just stared at him for a second, my fingers entwining themselves, forming a tight ball. "Are you…are you kidding me?"

"No, I am not," he responded, rolling his eyes. "I really am Jack Frost, so can we please go now?"

"But Jack Frost is supposed to be old!"

"Why? Because they call me Old Man Winter?"

"Yes!"

"What does it even matter to you anyway? Can't we find my staff?"

"It matters to me because…because apparently, ah'm speaking to Jack Frost!"

"So?!"

"You're a legend!"

This seemed to both shock and appease him; the anger in his eyes faded and suddenly he looked much happier, though disbelieving. "I'm a legend?" he asked, pleased. "Really?"

"Donnae get too pleased with yourself," I added. "You're still a right scunner in mah book."

Jack Frost? I stared at him, trying to picture it. The dark circles under his eyes, the thin lips, the pale face, high cheekbones, sparkling blue eyes, tousled white hair… he could cut it as Jack Frost, even if he wasn't what I'd expected. I hadnae expected Jack Frost to be attractive. Or irritating, I added quickly to myself.

His brows drew together, and he pursed the thin, pale lips in confusion. "What's a scunner?"

"It means you're annoying as hell," I responded.

He didnae look very contrite. "Being annoying as hell is my favorite pastime. Are we gonna find my staff or what?"

"Oh! Oh, yes. I just…I just forgot. You know, finding oot who ya are and all. Ah cannae believe that you're…that you're him!"

A smile flickered over his lips as I carefully tried to mount Angus again, a million thoughts swirling in my head. I tried to be skeptical, to think that he was just joking with me, but something insisted that he wasnae. He looked too honest, too sincere when he told me his true identity, and, furthermore, too sad when I didnae recognize him myself…

When I pulled myself up onto Angus' back and grabbed at his reins, I looked back at Jack, drinking in the sight of him again.

"Hey, Merida?" My name sounded so unfamiliar on his tongue, a whole new spin on it.

"Yes?"

He leaned forward, as if he was about to ask me something very serious, something life-changing. "Am I really legend?"

"You wish," I responded. "Now, if you'll stop askin' stupid questions, we can find that stick you're so worried about."

"Staff!" He corrected me indignantly.

"Right," I replied, turning to face straight ahead again so he wouldn't see the grin spreading over my face. "Right, let's go."