The knowledge of the ice guided my movements, and before long, it had taught me how to skate. It was simple, really; just put one foot before the other, and push away to the side in order to move forward. I tried it on my own. Right foot, push, place back, left foot, push, place back, repeat. As long as you remember to lean slightly forward and keep your balance, it is easy. Stopping was a little bit harder, though; you had to jump, make a 90 degree spin, land back on the ice and lean in the direction opposite to the one in which you were going. The problem was, again, keeping balance – because if you are not experienced with that type of breaking, you'd fall due to either your momentum, or to you leaning too much. I tried it after a few rounds around the lake, and, of course, I fell. "Well," I thought out loud while slipping over the ice, "seems like I should practice some more before I do that again."

My sister was in stitches. I took her some time to recover enough to be able to speak again. "Y-y-yes, I think s-s-so too," she laughed, rubbing her eyes.

"Are you laughing at me?!" I asked her, pretending to be mad at her; however, my smile betrayed me. I picked myself up from the frozen lake and skated to her. She was still laughing, but when she saw my failed try to act mad, she laughed even harder and fell on the ice in the process. "Okay, enough," I said. I formed a bunch of snowflakes and made them cling to each other, creating a snowball. I dropped it on Flee, and it worked: She had stopped laughing. Only now she looked at me in a failed attempt to act mad herself, making me laugh. Before long, something white and cold hit me in the face, knocking me clean off my feet. It was directly followed by more laughter courtesy of my little sis. "Oh, now you've done it!" I yelled. She yelped a little and skated away from me as fast as she could, laughing all the while. "Come and get me!" she yelled back at me. Don't worry, I will, I thought. I formed another snowball and went to follow the nine year-old in front of me.

I had forgotten about my staff, which was still in the middle of the lake.

We skated around the lake, Flee was getting better at it with the second. Before long she was picking up snow while skating, and threw them blindly behind her back in the hopes of hitting me. She had hit me quite some times, but I was learning as well and was soon dodging most of them. I picked up speed and passed her, then turned around to watch her while still skating backwards. I made a snowball and threw it at her. She dodged it. "Very good!" I congratulated her. "Wow, you are a very quick learner, now aren't you? I thought that you couldn't skate at all!"

"Well, I could because you had shown me the basics before, but I was afraid that I had forgotten it. So I wanted to learn a bit more."

"Turns out that you hadn't forgotten it, then. That, or you are a natural talent."

"What about both?" she said.

I made a thinking face. "Could be," I said, which promptly resulted in a snowball to the face. I stumbled and fell again.

"Got your nose!" Flee yelled when she skated past me. I picked myself up again, and that's when she said: "Hey, Jack, where's your staff?"

"It should be in the middle of the lake, where I have left it," I told her, ruffling my hands through my hair to get all the snow out of it.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I don't see it here," she reacted.

That got my attention.

I skated over to her. "But it should be here," I said looking at the spot where I had left the staff. "Yes, you already said that," Flee said. "But it is not here, so where could it be? Can it fly?"

"Not on it's own."

"Then who took it? If it can't move on its own, then it had to be moved by someone. But if anyone was on the ice, we would have seen them. So, basically, it is impossible for it to be anywhere else than here, except if you have moved it yourself." Flee concluded.

"Or, you have moved it to play a prank on me," I bounced back.

"No I haven't," she told me with the most serious face I had ever seen on a child.

"But I haven't either." I looked around, trying to find the lost object. I didn't see my staff, but what I did see were two, orange lights, like eyes watching us from the tree line. "Hey, what's that?" I asked Flee, pointing at the lights. "Does that commonly happen here?"

Before Flee could answer, however, the lights blinked and moved forward. Out of the tree line came a black mare with those glowing, orange eyes. There was something strange going on, though; its mane was floating behind it and dissolved when it became too long. It seemed to be made out of black sand… Somehow, it made me feel scared.

"Er… no, that does not happen very often…" When I heard the fear in her voice, something inside of me stirred. That horse didn't have the right to make anyone scared, and especially not my sister. But, what was it holding in it's mouth?

"Wait a second… Jack, is that your staff?" Flee asked me.

"It is! What is she doing with my staff?!" I was upset. Now, that was very rude of her. I charged at the mare, which turned around and ran back into the woods. I barely noticed my sister yelling my name; I was so angry that I didn't notice anything but the thief horse in front of me. It had taken off in the direction of the forest, but wasn't running over the ground; it was running trough the air instead. It was gaining altitude, aiming for the treetops. I jumped into the air and let the wind catch me, taking me after the mare.

I chased after the black horse for quite some time, not paying attention to where I was going. It tried to shake me by zigzagging through trees, houses or wagons, and at one time it would go up into the sky, and race trough the clouds. With my staff, I could have asked the wind to blow the clouds away; but without it, it almost seemed like it spoke a different language, as did the snow and the ice. I had a hard time trying to tell them all what I wanted them to do.

When I finally got through with them, they set out to put the plan in action. The wind blew me past the sand-made mare, which was obviously shocked that I was still there, and it turned the other way. I kept steering her like this, and eventually, I got her to gallop down toward a lake that wasn't frozen. Once near the water, I gave the ice and the snow the cue to do their part. The wind blew the snow in the horse's face so it couldn't see where it was going. The ice sprang up as soon as the mare's hooves touched the water, spiraling its way up to her neck. Then it froze solid, effectively stopping the horse dead in it's tracks.

I went to stand on the ice in front of the black sand-creature. It looked really mad at me, as if I had been very rude to her. "What?" I asked her. "Don't act insulted. I should be the insulted one. You stole my staff! What horse does such a thing?"

"The one sent out on a mission," a dark, female voice in my head reacted. It had probably come from the mare in front of me. I was way too angry to be surprised, however. "Oh yeah? What kind of mission?"

"As if I would tell you."

"Seems logical, as I obviously am the one involved in it."

"If I told you, the boss would be really mad with me."

"I don't care. I want to know what is going on, and why I am talking to a black, sand-made mare."

"For your knowledge, I am an Onyx. And if you really want to know what is going on, you should just wait."

I didn't like the sound of that. "What exactly do you mean?" I asked cautiously.

"Nothing more or less than I said," she answered, with a very mischievous look in her eyes. I had a seriously bad feeling about this…

Wait, where did that tricky horse leave my staff?! It was gone! I looked around like a madman, and finally noticed a dark figure standing behind my back…

I turned around and saw a man standing there, wearing a long black robe, which obviously resembled a shadow as it fanned out over the ground. It had a V-neck, and the collar, along with the sleeves, faded into the gray of the man's skin. He had black hair, silver-golden eyes that vaguely remind of an eclipse, and that look on his face told me that he was used to being feared.

The man was holding his hands behind his back and looked at me. "Hello, Jack," he said in a dark, silky voice. "Are you, perhaps, looking for this?" He held out his right hand, and in it was my staff. I tried to get it, only for the man to hold it above his head, out of my reach. He clicked his tongue disapprovingly. "I thought you knew better than that. Because, how do you know that this is not a trap?"

The surprise was fading away, making place for my anger again. "Who are you?" I asked him.

"How rude of me. I have many names, but I'll introduce myself as Pitch Black."

"He is my master," the Onyx told me. "You do not want to upset him."

I ignored her. "What do you want from me?" I asked Pitch.

"Quite straight-forward, aren't you? I do respect that. Why, I just wanted to say hello."

"And, since you're the master of this… horse, you need to steal my staff for that?"

"Clever, indeed. Did the Onyx tell you that?"

"That's not an answer to my question."

Pitch laughed. It was a smooth sound, like his voice, but there was no joy in it. "No, it isn't. Forgive me my rudeness. I had found that I could not draw your attention, and saw this as a way to get you alone. I am not very much loved, you see."

Well, I can see why that is, I thought.

"If you go as far as to steal my stuff, then there should be more reason behind getting me alone than just wanting to say hello."

"That is true. Good thinking, Jack."

"What is it, then? And how do you know my name?" I demanded.

"I saw you at the lake, two days ago. Do you truly think that you were the only one to hear the Moon's voice?"

"You were there?"

"Of course I was! You don't hear the Moon talking every day, and certainly not to anyone. I immediately knew that you were special."

Had he already told me the reason I'm here? I asked myself. Not being able to remember said reason, I asked it again. "Why am I here, again? I do believe that I have not heard it." I tried to copy his mockingly polite way of speaking. He smiled at that.

"I have not told you at all," he admitted. "I wanted to ask you if you wanted to join me in my cause. You see, I am very lonely. I have many believers, that is for sure, but they all hate me. I need some friendly company, too."

I had been wondering about why I thought something was being very wrong. It irritated me that I couldn't figure it out. It had felt so obvious… Just when he said the word 'believers', it hit me. He could see me, and didn't expect anything else than to be able to do that. On top of that, if he was to be believed, he had been able to see me when the moon had lifted me out of that lake. How could he see me, when no one in the small village could?

"What is a believer?" Of all questions, I chose that one.

"Ah, I forgot. You are only two days old, now aren't you?" Pitch laughed. "A believer is someone who can see you, most often it is a child. You see, a child has to believe in your existence, before it is able to even notice you. That's why they are called believers."

"And why can you see me, if you didn't know who I was in the first place? I mean, you also saw me at the lake."

"Good question. I can see you, because I am the same as you. You can see me, too, but you didn't know who I was either. Now," he started to walk around the frozen Onyx, "did you do this?"

"Depends on how you look at it," I answered, still not fully trusting the man. He laughed again, however.

"I can tell that you were very frustrated with my Onyx here. Was that because of it stealing your staff?"

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I am making a conversation! The only problem is that you don't want to join it. Speaking of joining, you still haven't answered my question about you joining me; and you had me thinking that you cared about answers."

"I do care about answers. But you still haven't explained what your cause exactly is."

"Hm. That is another good point. I want children to believe in us. More important, they have to love us. And, to be honest, I need some friendly company, too, like I have said before."

"You want to make children believe? But I thought that you had enough believers," I said, not feeling comfortable with it.

"Yes, I do, but you don't. All I want is to help you."

"Then why not give me my staff back? If you really want to help me, well… I think it's not very helpful to steal my things, you see, I kind of need them, so… perhaps you can give them back now?" I tried to reason with the man. He didn't really make sense. First he says something nice, then he says something that is not really clear and a little bit much unsettling, and when you ask what he means, he gives you some vague answer and hurries to talk about another subject. I generally didn't consider people like him trustworthy; I'd rather call them annoying. He better gave me my staff back, and then we'd see.

"You are right again. Good, here you go," Pitch said, holding the staff out to me. I cautiously took it from him – half expecting him to yank it out of my reach again – but he didn't. I felt the magic from the staff wash away a part of the unsettling feeling, effectively making me feel more comfortable. I relaxed; the man in front of me had probably seen that, judging by the nearly unnoticeable curiosity on his face. "Are you more at comfort with your staff?" he asked me, confirming my thought of him being curious.

"Yes," I simply said. No need to lie, he had already seen it.

"I can tell. You should have said that before; I would have given it back earlier if I knew."

Yeah… sure. Needless to say, I still didn't trust him. I nodded anyway. He smiled at that.

I looked at the sky and saw the sun setting on the horizon. Flee, I suddenly thought. "Hey," I said to the man, "I probably need to get going. It's getting dark, you know…" I started to walk away.

"What, do you got anything better to do than to talk to your own kin?"

"Well… I kind of think that freezing stuff is my job… and freezing is a lot easier to do at night so… I should go." I tried to walk away again.

"Yes, of course. I will not bother you any longer. But, do know that I will ask you again, as you didn't answer me now. Goodbye, Jack," he said, disappearing into the shadows. I shrugged, jumped up and let the wind take me home.

Author's note:

Whoo, the first bit of action in this story! And, what are your opinions? Do tell me!

If you want to tell me something else, anything, go ahead. I love reviews, they make me feel appreciated XD.

This chapter wrote like a train! Really, this is most likely the longest chapter until now, and it took me relatively short time to write. Hope y'all like it!

P.S. In case you are in America and wondering why I only react/post at night, it is because I am Dutch. I also live there, so when it's night at your place, it is day here. This may also be the cause that I, probably, make a fair amount of grammatical mistakes. Please do point them out!

Until next chapter,

CrazyDragon200.