Frostborn
Disclaimer: As you can tell, this is a disclaimer, I'll leave it to you to figure out what that means.
RoTG
The Leshy wasted no time putting its new girth to work. An arm the size of a tree trunk smashed into the ground where Jack and North had stood only seconds previously. The ground shook under Jack's feet, nearly throwing him off balance before he used his staff to right himself. North decided to forgo using his swords, and instead opted for using his magic. This time however his attack was far less gentle. A sizzling bolt of red magic leaped from his hand, scorching the Leshy's enlarged shoulder. The Leshy roared in anger, turning its attention towards the magician.
However instead of merely swinging its fists at its target, vines sprung from its form, tracking and attempting to pin down the swordsman. While the Leshy's back was turned, Jack decided take action. With a swing of his staff, he sent an icy wave at the Leshy's back, frosting it over in the middle. The Leshy paid him no mind however, and continued its attempts at smashing North into a paste.
North meanwhile was dodging as fast as he could, firing off red bolts in the few moments between potential blows. The attacks however, only seemed to further enrage the Leshy, and did little real damage. Jack continued to rain down freezing attacks on the Leshy's back, but none seemed to make a dent. Every time part of the creature froze over, it shrugged off the ice even easier than it had before. Finally, Jack decided to go for a more piercing attack. A sweep of his staff sent a large icicle shooting at the Leshy. When this attack hit however, the Leshy yelled in something other than annoyance; pain. It turned, it's lumbering form twisting on itself, as it's body rotated, swinging it's fist at Jack. Jack weaved around the blow, and danced between the snapping vines that accompanied it.
Behind the Leshy, North had begun muttering under his breath as he cast a spell. Bubbling red energy pooled in his cupped hands. Slowly, he stretched his palms apart, and the energy moved with them, lengthening itself. With a final word, he cast the energy up. In the air, it stretched further, growing wide and taut as it formed a scarlet net. The net came crashing down on the Leshy, wrapping around it, and everywhere it touched, the Leshy charred. Foul vapors erupted from the Leshy, as the rotten fluids inside it ignited, filling the air with the smell of decay.
With a furious cry, the Leshy turned, and turned again, its eyes squeezed tight, its mind blanketed in pain and rage. Before the net could further harm the Leshy however, something erupted from inside it. A oozing, black substance poured over the net, snuffing out the flames.
"Would that be. . .?" Jack trailed off.
"Unlife, yes." North confirmed as his eyes narrowed. The Leshy ceased howling, and the Unlife cascaded down it, repairing its wounds and further increasing its size, the rotted vines swelling. "Oh, that's bad, isn't it?"
"Yes, yes it is." The Unlife sank back into the Leshy, leaving its skin unmarked, and its size increased by another five feet. North's hands began to crackle with energy once more, and Jack prepared to conjure an even larger icicle, even if it meant depleting his staffs reserves. Before he could even begin to call on the energy however, the Leshy struck. The Unlife must have enhanced its speed as well, because the attack came far faster than any previously. The fist smashed into Jacks body, lifting him off his feet and throwing him backwards.
The world erupted with white for a moment, and when his vision returned, bleary as it was, he realized he was on the ground, and his mouth tasted of cold copper and bitter winter breeze. His staff was a good fifteen yards away, and there was a strange high pitched whine that dulled all the other sounds. Distantly he thought he heard North calling his name, but his thoughts were still too muddled to process that. All he wanted to do was close his eyes. There was no beating the Leshy, it was too strong, and he was too weak outside the Dell; maybe he would just lay here, feeling the morning dew, and the cool ground. His thoughts began to drift.
So quiet here, just the dew and the ground, the nice cool ground
The dew
and cool ground
dew
cool
dew cool
Jacks eyes snapped open, his thoughts flowing again. The ground was cool under his head, and the grass was covered in dew. If there was dew, and the ground was cold, then that could only mean one thing.
"Water" he mumbled, pulling himself up. The buzz faded away, and his sight gained clarity. North was still fighting the Leshy, this time by firing small orange bolts that seemed to make parts of the Leshy shrivel; the creatures back was turned to him. Jack stood, and when he was settled on his own two feet, he closed his eyes, and concentrated. Cant use the staff, I need to save that for later, so it looks like this is all me then.
Jack expanded his senses, reaching out. There was no easy comfort of snow and ice here, no chill in the air that made him feel secure. Still, the environment wasn't totally foreign. He pushed past the plants skin, and peered inside. There, there was something familiar, flowing all around him. He looked closer, not at the plants, but the air itself. It existed in even smaller amounts, but it was there, and he could use it.
Jacks hands curled, and he brought his arms closer to his chest. As he did so, the water came. Small freezing droplets formed in the air, drifting towards him. The plants closest to him froze from the inside, before shattering, first three feet, then five, until Jack had ten foot circle of dead plants around him and snow lifting from the shells to float towards him. "All it takes to make snow" he said as his eyes opened "Is water, and all it takes to make ice, is the cold." The Leshy turned towards Jack as the temperature dropped. "Lucky for me" Jack said, as the Leshy charged, "I've got both" The snow and droplets had coalesced into a shimming wall of ice and snow, and with a great push, Jack sent it hurtling at the Leshy.
The cold from this burst was far more severe than any previous. The Leshy's charge faltered as the ice blasted into it, embedding itself in its vine-like flesh as parts of its chest froze solid. The Leshy collapsed to one knee, but this time, the vines did not slither over the damaged area, leaving it shriveled and dead. Instead of emitting yet another cry, the Leshy gazed at Jack with its dark eyes, a fury the likes of which it had never known now boiling inside it. Slowly, the black energy began to dribble out of the Leshy, leaking from its eyes, and whatever facsimile for ears it possessed. It slithered over its body, putrid and festering, creating a stench maggots would flee from, as it once more grew. Arms swelled, legs doubled in height and width, and the gaping maw of its mouth was now filled with narrow, black thorns, dripping with a putrid green venom.
"How many times is it going to do that?" Jack wondered aloud as he began making a hasty retreat backward, calling his staff to his hand as he did so.
"I. . . have no idea" North replied honestly, blades back in their scabbards as his hands began to shine with energy. The Leshy's sudden growth finally came to an end, and the corrupted creature towered over the two.
"Should we maybe run?" Jack asked.
"No point, he would catch us before we got very far."
"So we fight?"
"Yes, we fight." And so saying North let the energy in his hand fly. It arced upward through the air, turning from a shimmering blue to a venomous looking purple. As it began its downward arc, the Leshy raised one of its gargantuan hands to block it. As the spell came down on the Leshy's hand, it splashed like a liquid, and everywhere the purple light touched, the Leshy's skin steamed and burned. Jack glanced at his friend "Ardariyan Acid Spell" he answered simply. Jack shrugged, and dove backwards as the Leshy's foot came down on where he had been standing previously.
Tumbling backwards with a grace no human could have, his hand slid over the slick grass, and he wrenched more water from it and the ground, coming back up on his feet, he used his momentum to fling his hand up and the handful of ice shards sprayed through the air, embedding themselves in the Leshy's moldering flesh. This however, did nothing to inconvenience the forest protector; in fact, so minute was the damage, it completely ignored him, in favor of raising more thorny vines from the ground to strike at North.
As Jack watched, the old man pulled yet another spell out of his seemingly inexhaustible bag of tricks. The writhing vines struck out at North, aiming to bind and puncture with their deadly thorns. Instead, they passed right through the large mans form. From behind the Leshy, a cobalt blast erupted, crashing into its unprotected form. Instead of dissipating as the others had, this blast soaked into the vines, and as it did so, the Leshy's movements slowed.
"What was that?" Jack questioned, sidling up to his partner.
" A Gorgonian paralysis spell, unfortunately, I don't think it works as efficiently on plants."
"Why?"
"If it did, that Leshy would be turning to stone by now."
"What!"
"Relax, I would come back later and fix, and before you ask, no he wouldn't be conscious during that time."
"Oh, well, okay then."
"Good, but it doesn't matter now, seeing as how he's already getting better." While their brief conversation has been going on, the Leshy had indeed be working on fixing itself. All around them, thin tendrils of green energy flowed toward it, turning black the instant they touched its form. When the flow stopped, the Leshy hadn't grown in size, but rather seemed newly invigorated.
"That's just getting annoying" Jack complained, preparing to rip more water from the grass and ground if necessary before he realized that the former was no longer an option. While he had been observing the Leshy's incredibly fast recovery, the grass around them in a wide radius had be reduced to a few decaying islands of yellow in a sea of black.
It seemed instead of attacking with its fists, the Leshy was instead opting for a more plant based approach again, as vicious black tendrils formally recognized as vines erupted from the ground all around them. Huge, bloated, and dripping a poisonous looking purple substance, the vines rose in the air, waiting for their masters command like trained snakes. North at last redrew his swords, and Jack prepared to tap even further into his staffs precious supply of energy. Both groups were still for a few, quiet seconds. Then the vines struck.
But not the ones they were expecting.
From the decayed ground sprung the new vines. Unlike the Leshy's, these vines were smaller, but strong, vibrant with life. They coiled around the Leshy's corrupted vines, and where they touched, they glowed green, emanating energy that flowed through the larger vines, turning black to green, and causing them to shrink. Even more vines gripped the Leshy, lapping and overlapping, a carpet of green growth, binding blackened arms and holding the creature still.
From behind Jack, a figure shot forward, and all the frost spirit caught sight of was a green blur. Said blur neared the Leshy, but instead of stopping, leaped into the air. Opon impact, the chest of the Leshy, the figure kicked off, and the already bound creature toppled over. As soon as the Leshy's back met the ground, the figure was once more on top of it, even more vines growing up and over any part of the Leshy that could make the slightest of movements.
"Sorry mate, but this is gunna hurt" a voice, deep, and definitely male, emanated from the figure, and without further ado, slapped his palms against the Leshy's chest. Green light exploded from the figure hands, rippling over the Leshy's body. Like the energy from the vines before, this power soaked into the Leshy, who immediately began to roar in pain, though the vines held him fast. As the energy continued pouring into it, the Leshy began to shrink. The black faded from its body, and the foul stench it emitted dispersed. Thorns fell off, poison dripped away, and at the end, a swath of black energy rose from the Leshy's chest and was viciously crushed by the green.
The Leshy, body now normal and face once again blooming with a vine like beard, slumped into unconsciousness; then the figure rounded on Jack and North. With a few steps, the figure closed the distance between them, and Jack began looking him over. He was tall, very much so, and clad in a dark green coat, with a hood pulled around his face. His arms looked powerful, but not bulky, and his legs were likely the same. His skin was a deep tan, and was covered in dark, swirling markings, and he had two oddly shaped holsters at his side, their form reminiscent of a sharply curved capital l, or a wide sideways v.
"So, just what're you doin' here?" The man asked. The accent was there, there was no denying that, but there was also zero chance of Jack placing it.
"Our apologies, we hope we didn't cause any damage to the landscape, we are merely passing through."
"Passing through my foot, yer huntin' fer Pitch, aren't ya?" North appraised the man, while unexpected, another ally would be useful, especially one capable of working directly against the Unlife.
"Indeed we are, am I correct in guessing that you are as well?"
"True enough, he took someone from my village, a little girl named Irida."
"Irida?" Jack asked, drawing the tall mans attention.
"Yeah, Irida, short for Iridaceae, she didn't like the length. Speaking of names, just who're you?"
"My name is Nicholas St. North, but please, just call me North."
"And I'm Jack Frost."
"Real warm names you got there" the stranger said wryly.
"So mister mysterious, do you have a name?"
"The names Aster."
"Last name?" Jack prodded.
"None o'yer business."
"Aster" North intervened "I was wondering, seeing as how we are all pursuing the same target, maybe we could collaborate, join our forces?"
"You wanna team up." Aster stated rather than asked.
"Exactly."
"Sorry mate, no go, I work alone."
"But-" North began, but Aster interrupted him.
"Look, I appreciate you guys holdin' off the Leshy till I could get here, but to be frank, even with that slediage of yours, you're going to be too slow. I need to catch up to Pitch before he's gets to far away for me to track, I'm surprised he's even traveling instead of going. . .where. . . he needs to go. . ." Aster trailed off.
"Uhh, you okay there pal?"
"Why is Pitch traveling, I mean if he's strong enough to make his move then you'd think he'd be strong enough to. . ." Aster's eyes widened, and a grin stretched across his face.
"Hoo hoo, this is great." Aster said as he threw his head back and laughed. The green hood fell back, and Jack could see that the mans eyes were a piercing green, and his face was as tan as his arms. His hair though was odd. While most of it was a deep black, the very tip turned into a light bluish gray.
"Don't you see?" Aster looked at North and Jack. "Pitch isn't out and about now because he's strong enough, he's make trouble because he's too weak."
A look of realization dawned on Norths face "Of course, no wonder he's traveling so slowly, he probably can't move like he did before."
"Whatever happened to him all those centuries ago must've really knocked him for a loop, he's making his last act."
"What? What's going on? Why is everyone making 'aha' faces" Jack asked emphatically.
"Jack, we stand a much better chance of beating and capturing him now, he can't pull any of his escape tricks."
"Why?"
"Cause he's dying." That threw Jack for a loop, sure he knew about death, but for the entirety of his existence in the Dell, the only thing that had died were pets; adding to that of course was that as far as he could tell, Jack himself hadn't physically aged in the past decade, so death seemed something of an alien concept.
"This could explain the rampant Unlife energy." North mused "If Pitch is dying, then his power could literally be bleeding out."
"I thought the energy spread was a little chaotic" Aster agreed, before shaking his head "Anyway, sorry, but I still can't join you, now that I know he's dying, I can push myself harder without worrying about burnin' out before I get to him. Without another word, Aster turned on his heel, which Jack noted that, like himself, was lacking in shoes.
"What if he's not alone?" Jack posed, and Aster stopped in his tracks. "He already turned a Leshy, and he must know someone's going to come after him, odds are, he's going to have at least temporary help."
"Jack, that was oddly well thought out." North said, and Jack turned to him with a grin. "Come on North, just because I'm a mischievous, talented, handsome-"
"Get to the point." Aster said.
"Right, anyway, just because I'm all of those, and a bunch more, doesn't mean I can't be smart or clever when I want to be, I got your wolves didn't I?"
"Fair enough" North turned towards Aster "so Aster, Jack could be right, shouldn't you have some help of your own?" The tall man looked contemplative "Not to mention that if you do travel with us, you will not be as tired when you face Pitch than you would be if you pushed yourself to catch up on foot." Aster considered it for another few moments before he sighed.
"Awrite, awrite, but you better not slow me down."
"I would not dream of it." North said with a grin.
"Lemme just take care of this" Aster waved at the dead scenery "real quick." Jack watched his newest team mate close his eyes and focus. A faint green aura sprang up around him, and thrummed with power. Power to make life anew, to breath energy into dead earth and call forth the green, power to make the forests heave and the grasslands bend beneath his feet. Then he took that power, pulled it close and . . . tapped his foot on the ground?
Immediately, a wave of green spread from Aster foot, expanding rapidly to cover the dead and twisted life. An emerald carpet sprang from the dead husks, and red and black plants were cured and made brighter than ever as the remnants of Unlife were flushed from their systems and destroyed by the same verdant wave. All this took place in a second.
"Alright" Aster turned to Jack and North, the former had his mouth trying desperately to touch the new grass, it was hanging so low, and the latter had merely done his signature eyebrow quirk.
"What?" He asked with a grin, though he chuckled as he did so "Everyone's gotta specialty." Hopping into the sleigh, he took a seat, and Jack quickly joined him, and North once more took the reigns. Without a single signal, the reindeer decided to start galloping again, and the landscape was once more reduced to variously colored blurs. "So Aster" North called to his newest passenger, his tone serious.
"Yeah" Aster's brow furrowed.
"Slediage?"
RoTG
Irida short for Iridaceae which is the family the Crocus flower is in, which is the type of flower that sprung up after one of Bunny's holes was used in the film, since I gave Jack Jamie and Sophie I figured I'd need something cleverish for Bunny's kids name.
A/N: Soooo, I'm just gonna end this right here for now, mostly because I'm reeeaaalllly late with this chapter, and also because I reeeaaallly want to get a chapter up for this. I will try to get the next chapter out sooner, which should happen, because I know pretty much exactly how I want this to go now, barring a few details. It should also be longer than this. Anyway, until then, remember to R&R, because I live on reviews.