Chapter Three - Crow Valley
Mae sidled up beside Jack on the wooden seat. "So what did you wish for?"
"What?" he asked. Her bright green eyes were slightly unnerving and he couldn't help but notice that she smelled like a million flowers together with new grass and fresh, clean air. Like spring, he thought..
"Your dandelion! What did you wish for?" Why was she so eager to hear his answer?
"Isn't that against the rules or something? I'm not allowed to tell anyone my wish or else it won't come true."
Mae giggled into her hands. "That's just a superstition, silly. Anyways, my dandelion wishes always come true."
Jack gaped at her. "Are you serious?"
She nodded excitedly. "Every time."
"I should have wished for something more important then." He thought for a moment. "Can I have another wish?"
Mae shook her head. "Not so soon after the last one, I can't. The magic doesn't work that way. I'm not a genie." She crossed her arms.
"That's a stupid rule."
"You're stupid!" she muttered.
"He's stupid, you're stupid. Everyone is stupid," April said from the back of the sleigh. She opened her umbrella and closed it again.
Jack sighed; the two girls were polar opposites. "Thank you, Miss Gloomy, for your happy thoughts."
North looked back at Jack sharply. "What did I say earlier-?"
April frowned at Jack, eyes darkening. "Did you just call me Miss Gloomy?" A thundercloud suddenly engulfed the sleigh.
"Uh oh," Mae said in a small voice.
"This is stupid," April said angrily. "I'm out." With that, she jumped out of the sleigh. Her open umbrella caught the wind and whisked her away.
North exploded. "Jack Frost! I told you never to call her gloomy! Why do you never listen to me?"
"I'll bring her back!" Mae stood up and looked over the edge. They were several hundred feet in the air. Jack twirled his staff expertly, lifting himself over the edge of the sleigh. He rose beside Mae. "I'll apologize to her. You stay here."
"But you don't know what to say!" Mae shouted into the wind, but Jack was already gone.
Jack Frost searched the sky for April but she was nowhere in sight. The whipping winds and dark clouds definitely did not help. Where had she gone?
"Great," he muttered, turned back to look at the receding sleigh.
"You know, it would be easier if I came with you." Mae appeared beside him.
Jack jumped backwards. Where had she come from? And how? He turned to look at her and almost laughed.
The girl held an enormous dandelion seed in one hand, just as April had used her umbrella to stay aloft. A sudden gust of wind hit them and Mae spun away with a shriek.
Jack flew after her and steadied the massive dandelion fluff. "Hold my hand," he said.
Mae screwed her eyes shut and shook her head. "I don't want to let go!" Her tiny hands were white where they held tightly onto the stem. Jack reached forward and pried one hand away. Her hand was so warm, even though it was cold and wet around them.
"Mae," he said cautiously. "Let go of the dandelion. Don't worry, I've got you."
"No..."
Another gust of wind jerked them around.
"Let go now!"
Mae bit her lip and let go. Jack held her close and shot down towards land and safety. Gosh, her body was so warm. Jack hadn't felt warmth like this in years.
As soon as they landed, Mae sat down. Soft green grass and a multitude of flowers sprouted around her. Jack sat down in front of her. The poor girl was shaking.
"Why did you jump out of the sleigh if you're so scared of flying?" Jack asked.
"I'm not scared! I'm c-cold." Her teeth were chattering. "You're so c-c-cold." More flowers gathered around her to create a blanket.
"Oh, sorry about that."
"And anyways, I knew you would need me to find April."
"What do you mean?"
"I always know where she is." A carpet of flowers spread out from around her. Jack moved back. He didn't want to kill her flowers again.
"Actually? How does that work?"
"I don't know. I guess it's because we work together. You know the rhyme, right?"
"Uhh...april showers bring may flowers?"
"Yeah. If I didn't know where she rained, I wouldn't be able to grow my flowers."
"Interesting."
"She's practically my sister."
Jack drew patterns in the ground with his fingers. "I used to have a sister," he said quietly.
"Really? Did she look like you?" Mae seemed to brighten at the thought. "I bet she was beautiful!"
Jack looked up at her face to see that she was blushing. What?
"Yeah, she was." Jack could see his sister's face in his mind.
"What happened to her?" Mae asked, her face returning to its usual colour.
"She grew up, fell in love, lived a good life." Jack looked at his staff. "She would never have the chance if it wasn't for me."
"Is that how you died?"
"Yeah. Pulled her away from the thin ice. I fell through."
"So you drowned?"
"I guess. Or died of the cold." Why was she asking all these questions?
"I drowned," Mae whispered.
Jack looked up at her. "What happened?"
"April and I died together. It's a long story…" Mae shrugged.
Jack stared at the girl in front of him. He had never really thought about how she had become the flower spirit that she was.
"The funny thing is that I didn't do anything to become what I am. Why did the Moon choose me? What am I supposed to do?"
"I asked the same questions."
"I understand my job. But my role in everything? I can't fight. I can't do the same things that the rest of you can." Mae looked like she was going to cry and Jack did not know what to do. He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her. Mae seemed to like hugs so he thought it was worth a try.
When he drew back, she had a small smile on her face. "Thanks Jack."
"Don't worry about anything. It'll make sense eventually, I promise." He got up and brushed the dirt from his pants.
"So can you tell me where April is?"
Mae stood up, the flowers falling away from her. She sighed, smiling. "Much better." She looked at Jack and then out across the landscape. They were in the middle of a barren plain. "She's about twenty miles that way." Mae pointed south-east.
Jack held his hand out to her, his other gripping his staff, but Mae only shook her head.
"No offense, but I'm going to run."
"This will be faster though." Jack twirled his staff.
Was that a smirk on her face? "Jack Frost, I don't think you really realize how fast I can run." With that, she turned and zoomed out over the plain, leaving behind a trail of fresh flowers. Jack grinned and leapt into the air. It took him a lot longer than he expected to catch up with Mae; he had to call up the strongest winds to push him forward until he was flying beside her.
"Told you I was fast!" she shouted over the wind. She wasn't even panting. Jack looked at her feet. With each step, her toes glowed a bright green colour and flowers burst from the ground.
"Why are your feet green?" he shouted.
"Ever heard of having a green thumb?" she answered, giggling, "Well, I have green toes too!"
Jack laughed, and flinched when they suddenly hit a wall of rain. They slowed, looking around.
"Well, isn't this sweet?"
April floated to the ground, closing her umbrella with a snap. "Already have another man falling for you, Mae?"
"April..." Mae said softly, a high colour rising to her cheeks.
April waved off her protests, a smile cracking her otherwise downturned lips. "I'm only joking," she said.
Mae frowned and Jack could tell that April's words had shaken her. "Where did you go off to?" he asked her. He noticed Mae was quiet beside him, fiddling with a small flower in her hair.
"Atlanta needed some rain," April answered.
"Well," Jack said, stepping forward. The puddles under his feet crackled into ice. "We're not in Atlanta, so why is it raining here?" He raised an eyebrow, a smirk curling up the corners of his lips.
"I can take a hint, thank you," April said. She pointed her umbrella at the sky and twitched it. The rain ceased and sunlight speared through the clouds. Mae gasped in delight, turning her face up towards the sun. April smiled softly, stepping back under the shade of a single remaining cloud.
"Good," Jack said, glancing between the two. They were a conundrum. Mae was as bright and cheerful as the sun, and April was as dark and gloomy as a raincloud. Yet, Jack could see April truly cared for Mae, even if she had strange ways of showing it.
"Anyway, the others are probably lost, no thanks to your storm," he said, looking at April.
"Jack..." Mae said carefully. He was taunting her now.
April bit her lip; thunder rumbled threateningly in the distance. "Just don't, Jack. If you know what's good for you, don't."
"Fine, sorry," Jack consented. "And I'm sorry about before. I shouldn't have called you gloomy."
"Oh!" Mae exclaimed, spinning around in the sunlight and then facing them. "I forgot! Before I jumped out of the sleigh, Santa told me we should meet at the city. We should go there now!" She took off running before the other two could react. Jack jumped into the air and let the wind sweep him away; April popped open her umbrella and followed on the same gust.
"Is she always like this?" Jack asked. April nodded, smiling to herself again. It seemed to Jack one of the rare times she would smile, was when she talked about Mae.
"You're not all that bad," Jack added, looking sideways at April. They were still within earshot of Mae as she giggled, running along the ground beneath them, blooms sprouting from her feet. "At least, with Mae you're not all bad."
April shot him a glance. "The world's a cruel place, Jack. Someone has to protect her from it. I couldn't do it before, so I have to do it now."
"She told me you died together," Jack said, lowering his voice, but still loud enough to be heard over the rushing wind around them. "You drowned?"
"She died because of me," April snapped. "I was given a second chance to protect her, and I'm not going to fail her this time. I owe her as much."
Jack was quiet for a moment and chose his words carefully, lest she blow up at him. "If you hadn't died then, you wouldn't be here now. You both would have died hundreds of years ago, anyway. So isn't it a good thing you're here now?"
"You say that like death is a good thing," April murmured, watching the colourful life spark beneath them.
"Hey," Jack said, shrugging and giving her a lopsided smirk. "I am king of Winter, death of Summer. Death isn't all that bad."
April snorted, letting the wind catch her umbrella and snatch her away from him. Jack rolled his eyes - she wasn't all that bad but, unlike her rainclouds, she wasn't good at opening up. He followed them on the wind for a few more minutes until they were carried into a sleepy city whose street lights shone like the stars above.
Jack landed on the ground and looked around. "Where are we?"
"Dalton," Mae said brightly. She inspected the street sign and smiled. "Crow Valley Road."
"You know it?" Jack looked down the street. No sign of North and his sleigh.
"Nope. I'm lost." She turned to April, a mischievous look on her face. "Remember Crow Valley?"
April grinned and nodded slightly. Jack watched in awe as a blush spread across her face. Mae giggled, a faraway look on her face.
Jack would ask about Crow Valley later, but "Pitch has definitely been here" was all he said. The black nightmare sand spun around them, galloping like horses on fire, seeping into the windows the surrounding houses.
"I don't like it," Mae whispered, hugging herself. "The poor children."
April nodded, following a nightmare to one of the houses, opening her umbrella to fly onto the windowsill. Jack watched her turn to the sky and pointed her umbrella at the imposing black could. The fire nightmares were slithering out from it.
Thunder rumbled and it began to rain over the cloud. For a moment, Jack thought it was work. The fire almost seemed to sizzle, but then a wave rose up from the cloud and crashed over April. Mae screamed, jumping forward, but Jack held her back. "No," he warned.
A tense moment later, the sand slipped away, revealing April cocooned in an orb of water, eyes flashing like the lightning that crackled across the sky overhead.
"April!" Mae shouted. A vine sprung up out of the ground and she climbed up it onto the windowsill. Jack leapt up lightly beside them. Mae peered into the window. Inside, a child tossed in his bed, a flaming nightmare above his head. The effect of this on Mae was immediate.
"I can feel them!" she sobbed. "Make them stop!" Before Jack could do anything, she pried the window open and slipped into the room.
"Stop, stop, stop!" she screamed at the nightmare. She tried to shake the little boy awake but her hands went right through him. Jack was at her side immediately but he had the same results. Not every child believed in Jack Frost yet. How could they help this child? Mae's reaction to the nightmare's effect on the child scared Jack. After realizing she could do nothing to help the boy, she crumpled into a ball, sobbing.
Jack ran to the window where April still watched the immense cloud above. "April! Mae needs you!" The girl waved her umbrella at the nightmares once again; a huge lightning bolt snapped earthward and hit several of the dark nightmares. They exploded into a cloud of black dust that dissipated on the wind. Satisfied for now, April turned to see Mae on the floor, arms wrapped around her legs. Concern spread across her face.
"Mae." She shook the smaller girl. "Mae, what's wrong?"
"I can feel his screams. I can feel them all! We have to make them stop!"
April shot a glance at Jack. "Get the short dude."
Jack guessed she meant Sandy and sped out of the room.
Ellis: A huge thanks to kaci12 and PeachtreeAmuto for the wonderful reviews!
Carter: You guys are lovely. Thanks for reading! Stay tuned!
