Sorry I've been absent loves! With finals and just general stress I haven't been writing much, but recently I have finished this and I'm almost done with a third chapter! So I'll try and get the last bit done sometime this week, Enjoy~
Before
By: Midnight E. Siren
Mother Nature is visited
Mother Nature was a beautiful woman, her skin shone a pretty shade of olive, and her hair twisted in a never ending breeze felt only by herself. She wore no shoes but wore the elements around her body, storm clouds and winds, rock and water, even ice clung to her hem as the elements flowed around her like a loving sheet. Her eyes glowed a beautiful sunset gold, she was kind and cruel, beautiful in her many faults, fleeting and stable yet so mysterious one could not look at her for long. The Mother of the Seasons, the Mother of the Earth, she was called many things and held great power yet she was helpless to stop her children from growing old. There was no way she could protect them from the cruel beauty of the world, but she could give comfort when needed.
Her domain was one that lay deep beneath the Earth, even deeper than Bunnymund's Warren in what some would call the center of the earth. It was here that she rested her tired form, so curious to explore the world yet jaded by its ever changing surface. Sharp rocks hung from the ceiling threatening death to those of lesser mortality, but she held no fear of them, she could hear them speak their soft whispering words. Could hear the water of the earth twist and roil, feel the four winds as they played and soared through the world. From here she could feel the entire world, every heartbeat and voice of her children of the world, the whisper of the trees and rocks. Sometimes, she grew tired of listening, she would retreat into the earth and rest her mind and while the voices never stopped they lessened while she slept.
It was on such a restful day that she felt a new presence in her domain, she rose from her bed of spider's silk and morning mist to investigate, her skirts billowing about her form. Her golden eyes searched out the little presence until she saw just what had invaded, a child no older than seven stood at the entrance of the underground cavern. Surprise was taking her reaction to the child lightly, her realm was hidden deep in the earth where no human should have been able to reach yet here a child stood searching the dimness with wide eyes. She strode forward to regard the child, it was a little girl with flaxen hair, pretty green eyes that sparkled with wonder, and a smattering of freckles adorned her nose. The little girl clutched tightly to the edge of the nightgown she wore with little cats all over it and her feet were bare, if not a little dirty, against the stones.
Mother Nature kneeled before the child, coming down to her level of sight so the little girl could look into her gold eyes. At first the child took a step back, anyone would be nervous when meeting such a powerful spirit, power and intimidation rolled off of her in waves and her swirling locks made her look etherial. A child would be nervous of her, but suddenly the little face steeled and she took the two steps forward that would put her in the woman's reach. The determined look on her face was admirable, others would back down in the face of something so cruel yet gentle, but she was a mother and children were also drawn to her.
'If Jack Frost brings Winter then what came before Jack Frost?' the child asked lips pursed and expression serious as the ethereal woman blinked in surprise.
Not many asked such questions, humans always asked 'why' but never asked the right questions, never asked the questions that were truly important. Yet this child stood before her, asking a question she'd long waited to hear come from the lips of a human, the story laid heavily upon her shoulders, she sagged under the weight of the words and sorrow came to her eyes. For a moment the child looked as if she wanted to take the question back, but Mother Nature simply raised a hand to pet the girl's yellow hair, running her cool fingers through the thin strands. The tale was dark and not for the ears of a child, but she could not deny the child her knowledge, so she curled her legs beneath herself and motioned the child to come closer.
"Before Jack Frost Winter was bitter and harsh, it did not love humans as Jack Frost does." Mother Nature replied. "It was a monstrous thing that could not be quelled, no matter how much blood it drank into it's snowy banks."
Mother Nature remembered the days before the young winter spirit, days when she would find the bones of children and adults alike strewn beneath the trees, frozen stiff or maimed with deadly icicles. Elder Frost was a merciless spirit, it did not care who it harmed or if they deserved such cruelty, it knew nothing but to harm and kill. On many occasions the spirit chased out its siblings, Spring would not cross its path, nor would Autumn stray too near when he wanted to begin. Only Summer could chase it away with her blazing heat, but even she fell to the biting spear of permafrost lodged in its back. No, this spirit was like no other, it held no compassion or pity, it merely lived to destroy what Mother Nature had worked so long to create.
She sighed, sending the child a sorrowful eye as the memories swirled in her mind. "Elder Frost, was its name. Many children just like you fell to him, he hated them more than anything, he hated their innocence, their belief in that around them. It disgusted him more than anything in this world, " Mother Nature turned away from the child, striding over to a small nook in the rocky wall where she kept what few belongings she had from her human life. "It was born from the shadows, the very shadows that took my father from me, Elder Frost and the Fearlings that bring nightmares have a kinship with the other.
"A long time ago, it's eye was caught by a little girl. She was innocent and pure, and he hated her with his entire being, hated her beautiful laughter and playful mind." she continued, pulling out the item she wanted and going back over to the visibly frightened child. "He'd tried to kill her once, she grew sick and fragile and he delighted in her suffering.
"But..." she held out the treasure to the young human, who took it carefully, the boot was made out of leather that had seen the wear of the years but the blade shone beautifully bright. "She had someone to protect her, someone who's light burned even brighter than her own.
"His belief and strength chased it away, and the little girl did not die as it'd hoped. She lived even more strongly now, but it no longer cared." Mother Nature kneeled before the child again, shoulders sagging at the sad memory. "It decided that the boy must die before it could extinguish her light."
"But why would Elder Frost do that?" the child exclaimed, clinging to the boot carefully as to not cut herself. "If his light is too strong it can't go near him can it?"
Mother Nature patted the small human on the head at that, threading her fingers through the fine strands. "No, Elder Frost could not touch the boy, nor could it touch the girl but its hatred of them grew until it was consumed." her face clouded, anger clear on her face, raven hair twisting behind her in a long-lost breeze. "Elder Frost could not bear the thought of the children living, that such bright lights existed in its cold, dark world of winter."
"The two received each a pair of ice skates for their Christmas presents, these very skates." she tapped her finger on the boot that the child held. "And when they went to play upon the frozen lake, it took its chance.
"For hours it lurked beneath the ice, waiting, watching, hoping for the moment when it could strike." she continued, remembering herself when she'd sensed the disturbance that always came with one of its kills, as if nature itself were unbalanced. "And then it began to break the ice beneath them, the little girl was trapped, if she moved the ice would take her but her protector was there."
The young one's face looked relieved for a moment, but her story was not done. "He rescued her from the cracking ice, and Elder Frost grew enraged, it broke through the remnants and dragged the boy down, fear and terror had dimmed his light." she felt her heart pang at the look of horror on the child's face. "I could not bear to let it kill this innocent child, no more children had to suffer, no more pain had to be given.
"As it drug the boy beneath the ice I placed a curse upon it."
'It With a Soul so Full of Hate
And No Pity in Its Heart I Do Plague Thee,
In this Light's Heart You Will Be Kept
And Suffer For All His Days.
For the Children that You Maimed,
For the Lights that You Have Taken,
You Will Know No Peace,
You Will Know No Silence.
Children Will Be Your Every Day,
And This Curse that I Place Upon You.'
"Elder Frost laughed, he laughed as if I were a fool. It spoke to me and said, 'The child will die in mere moments, his days will be over and your curse useless, and I will slaughter a hundred more for your insolence!'" the child before her shook visibly, clutching to the little skate as if a lifeline. "But in that moment, the Moon shone down on the lake and blessed it with His light.
"He pitied the boy, the girl's protector and reached out with his lights to give the boy a gift." her face softened and she pulled the child close to herself, wrapping her arms around the tiny frame. "The Moon said, 'My Child, you have Sacrificed much for the sake of thy sister, and you have been ripped from Fate's own hand by this beast. Your light has even reached my own and for that I bestow upon you this Gift.'
"It screamed with rage. Screamed and screamed as it faded away, locked into the boy's heart where it could no longer do harm. When the boy woke, he would not remember its horror, would not remember his pain. Such a cruel and yet sweet Gift the moon gave him." the child in her arms piped up, asking her what gift the boy had been given and she smiled ruefully at them. "Immortality, and the power of the very thing that strived to kill him.
"The boy was to be the protector of children, drawn to their every call, to their laughter and their light, everything Elder Frost had hated now he was forced to endure. Buried so deep in his heart, the boy never could hear its screams, could never feel it clawing at its prison walls trying to escape." she released the child, nudging them towards the tunnel from which they'd come. "Jack Frost was born from its hatred, a pure, and innocent protector borne from the shadows that had once consumed it."
"So Jack Frost doesn't know what's inside him?" the child asked innocently, turning away from her path.
"He has always known child, he has always known the darkness that resides in him." Mother Nature smiled sadly, urging the child forward again. "For Winter is the Death of the World, from which life springs forth and begins anew. He has always known that that death is necessary and has always known that the darkness within him will always remind him why he must protect the children of this world."
With that she sent the child on her way, and she felt a weight lifted off her shoulders only to have a new one take its place. To burden a child with such a tale was cruel, but Mother Nature could never deny humans the knowledge they so begged for. That was her curse and her blessing, and like a mother she could not protect her children from the pain of the world only let them learn from it.