Sorry for the long wait, my private life and my studies needs to comes first!
Great thanks to YGP for helping me with the grammar, tenses and flow. You`re a Star!
Evy Hallow
Chapter six
The kids laughed as they rode on the North wind over the Arctic Ocean to the South.
Jack hold a tight grip of Evys` little hand because the last time she tried on her own, she had plumped straight down into the freezing Arctic Ocean. Luckily he was around and she was joined with very cute and chubby seals. Evy quickly made friends with them and begged Jack ears out to bring them home with her which he definitely despite Evy`s high protests refused.
They were really high up, but they could already feel the change in the temperature and soon they saw the tips of first mountains and cliffs of the mainland near them.
Soon they were watching with great admiration one of the most dramatic landscape features on earth.
The Fjords!
Narrow inlets of the sea and created in Canada's small valleys and carved by glacial activity during the Ice Age.
This was Evys` very first visit to the mainland and what`s more beautiful could you possible present than the Fjords as the intro of this huge world. Then of course, it was more nearer to the North Pole in case something happens.
Into this wild beautiful landscape, still persevered from any human touch, they traveled through the fjords, mountains, valleys and glaciers and into the southern areas of the Canadians region and soon they saw endless miles of straggly pine and birch forests, scattered with half tired bears preparing for the deep winter sleep. A pack of hungry wolves stalking a large elk and on a large field Jack and Evy saw a dozen of deer's eating the grass and the flock looked up curiously as they went by.
Soon noticing Evy eagerness to get a closer look, Jack landed with a feather's step in the middle of a forest and dropped her on the soft moss that was covering the ground, before twirling his staff and letting it come to rest on his shoulder as he placed his feet on the ground.
He looked down with a bemused smile at Evy`s wide-eyed and gaping expression as she looked around.
The sky was clouded, but it was still bright and the wind tugged gently though the Maples that were still holding a great deal of leafs in their branches; colored in brown, orange, yellow and red. Some leave were falling slowly down from their homes, swirled and danced around them until they hit the ground.
The little girl stood there in the middle of everything, watching with glittering eyes over this strange, new, beautiful world.
Putting her knees on the ground, Evy slowly moved her hands down and then dig her small fingers into the dark mould. Moving her nose down, Evy sniffed the smell of it. Her eyes closed and then exhaled the scent.
"It smells so… different," she mumbled and then picking up a golden leaf, she examined it. "The leaves are so beautiful, but why do they change colors?"
Jack moved down beside her. "When the summer ends and autumn comes, the days get shorter and shorter. This is how the trees "know" when it`s time to get ready for the winter; they turn their leaves into these colours and lose them before they go to sleep. Like switching into your pajamas before go to bed."
Evy giggled. "The trees are switching into their…pajamas. Then suddenly she launched herself into one of the neat pile and grabbing a handful of leafs and tossed it up into the air.
"I LOVE IT!" she shouted and starting to jump up and down over the twirled leafs falling over her head. Then she began eagerly collecting the most colorful ones she would bring back to North Pole.
Jack smiled over her enthusiasm and as the winter-spirit he is, began frosting some of the trees and leafs around them. With grace and playfulness Jack frosted the ground with beautiful ice-flowers with his staff but when he started to frost near Evys area she suddenly shouted.
"NO! STOP IT!"
Surprised, Jack immediately stopped. "Why?"
"You`re making my pretty leafs go brown and grey! She showed one of her leaves Jack just frosted. From being bright-red it was slowly turning into dirty dark brown color with frost on it.
"Oh like this!" He teased and quickly touched the staff at the pile of leaves Evy just collected and began to frost them.
"NO!" she screamed again and throws herself over the rest of her favorites, covered them with her body and tugged the still colored leafs with her arms and body.
"They are mine! She glared up at him angrily. "I want to take the leaves home with me and cover my bedroom with them. If you frost just one of them I will tell Grandpa what you did!"
"Sorry…" Jack shrugged. "Just doing my job, but I will keep some parts untouched so you can collect your favorites!"
"No more frosting?"
"No more frosting."
For a while the other sibling were frosting from the distance and the younger one was screaming in delight every time she found another beautiful fire-colored leaf and put it in a nice pile she was building and it wasn't a small collection she was going to bring back home to North Pole.
Suddenly a squirrel rushed through the branches over their heads and made an awkward sound at them, like he was irritated for being interrupted collecting his nuts and disturbing the peacefulness in his forest.
Evy looked up at this small creature with small surprise. "Is that a squirrel?"
Jack looked up too. "Yes it is."
"He`s so cute." She stood up and clapped her hands together in delight. "I have only seen one in the pictures books. Can I take him home with me?" Then her little body started to jump up and down in a funny attempt to catch it, despite the branch the squirrel sat on was several meters from her reach.
"I don't think he would like the climate Evy."
"squirrels have thick fur and I`m sure he would like to live in a snow cave." Evy said as she started to climb up in attempt to catch it but the squirrel was quick and jumped to the next tree and then to another to keep the distance between them.
"No, come back!" Not giving up keeping it as a pet, Evy jumped down from the tree and started to run to catch it. Leaving behind her shoes, socks, jacket, the pile of leaves and a very surprised Jack.
Tapping his staff on the ground he created a thick and slick road and then he eagerly started to ice-skate after her and the squirrel.
Right in front of him, a barefooted and laughing Evy dashed after the now very edgy squirrel. Jumping in puddles that rain had created last night, she let the splashing mud cover her clothes, body, and her smiling face.
"Evy wait up!" Jack shouted, but Evy and the squirrel were faster and soon they were completely gone through the thick forest.
Weaving between trees with the wind, Jack followed Evy`s footsteps until it suddenly disappeared by hard rocks and dry ground.
Jack yelled again, but there was no response. He peered around, but it was almost impossible to see through the trees and branches.
He looked and looked, but there was no trace of Evy. No broken branches, no footprints or ripped clothing or even a sound of her high laugher.
Searching for her, the sun was starting to sink on the horizon, casting Jack's and the trees long and slender shadows over the ground. The strong glow made leaves stronger and brighter in their colors, turning the landscape into a world of gold, yellow and dark brown, but as it was getting darker and darker and dread was now starting to grow in Jack`s chest.
Evy was immortal and couldn't be harmed like a human, but he couldn`t be sure what kind of other spirits she might risk to encounter. There are spirits that are notorious for having short tempers and Evy was a sort of child who speaks her mind bluntly without thinking. One wrong word and it`s "good bye" to Evy Grey.
After a while of yelling and shouting, Jack finally heard Evy`s high little voice.
"I`m Heeerree! Come and seeeeee!"
Happy and relieved, Jack started to sick-sack through the trees by the guiding of her voice, he soon reached a small clearing.
There she stood in the centre of it, her little body jumping up and down, full of excitement and pointing up to something Jack first didn`t see. Just as he stepped into the clearing he literally froze on the spot.
At first he thought that Evy had found the squirrels nest and his little family, but the thing that was hanging over Evy`s head Jack almost felt for the first time in his immortal life very lightheaded.
If the body had any eyes he would have been looking straight at him, but instead Jack was starring into two dark empty holes of a half rotten corpse, and Evy was just precise under it. Her face and clothes was covered with dirt, but her golden eyes were dancing in delight as she took in the corpse half-rotten state as the wind pushed it moving in circles under the tight rope around it`s neck.
Shuddering Jack forced his eyes back to Evy. "E-evy, please… come and take my hand." he whispered and help up his slighty trembling hand towards her, "We shouldn`t be here."
But Evy was more curious than frightened over this new discovery and ignoring Jacks pleading, she suddenly flung herself upwards. Grabbing the feet of the hanged man and began tossing around in circles with it.
Shocked, alarmed and without a second hesitation, Jack ran straight to the gallow and gripped Evy`s own small feet to pull her down.
"Evy?! What are you doing, take your hands off of him!" he screamed as he desperately tried to drag her down.
"No!" Evy yelled back and grabbed the dead man's feet's harder and refused to let go.
Jack drew his mouth in a tight line as he dragged. "I`m serious, let go!"
"Make me!"
Suddenly something cracked and one moment later Evy had her butt right over Jack`s chest on the ground and together with one of the corpse feet in her hand.
Confused, Evy moved the foot up to her face and sniffed it. Her nose wrinkled over the sickly sweet odor "Eeeeeeh!" Then she showed it in Jacks face under her. "Smell it Jack, he properly never clean it for years!"
Having the rotten foot just few centimeters from his nose, Jacks face turned white to green and almost gagged over the awful smell. Quickly he snatched with his thumb and index finger the foot away from Evy`s hands and tossed it far away. Then he managed to move up to his bare feet, placed Evy`s body over his shoulder, and then with full force speed ran as fast he as could away from the gallow and the clearing.
When they were far away enough and Jack`s anxiety was in the safe level, he finally stopped and put the very angry Evy down on her feet. She had screamed and hit her fits at Jacks back during the whole running for throwing away her new interesting toy.
Placing himself on a big rock, Jack ignored Evy`s angry face as she stomped her little feet on the ground. "Jack! Why did you that? "Then punched her brother's leg with her small fist to make him look at her. "Take me back, NOW!"
"…Evelyn, don't ever do that again," Jack mumbled as he kept staring on the ground.
"I was just playing with him!" Evy huffed and crossed her arms against her chest. "Why did he look so blue in the cheeks?"
"That`s because he was dead." Jack said as her blue eyes looked straight down at hers, the cheerfulness had vanished from his voice, now replaced by something close to anger. "And what you did was bad. Very BAD!"
Evy looked back at him confused. "What`s dead?"
Death is one of the hardest subjects to broach with young children. It`s a very delicate subject and varies in how you explain it to a child, including the many different scenarios when a child encounters death for the first time. The death of beloved pet, animals in the forest or on the road, a beloved family member or a dear friend who passed away in old age, sickness or in a tragic event and in the worst case…by murder or execution.
When you`re Jack Frost and the only goal in your life is is to have fun and causing mischief, how do you explain death to your six year old sister that the man in the clearing was dead and punished for an unknown crime he committed? For a long moment Jack stared at her, unable to explain what "death" was to this curious and unknowing child. Seeing the way her eyes were filled with fascination, curiosity, and without the slightest regret that she had one moment ago molested a corpse.
Slowly, Jack bent down on his knees, fingering a lock of her messy white/black hair and looked deep into Evy`s eyes.
"Evy, has North ever talk to you about life and death?" He tried to keep his voice strong and firm, but some part of him must have betrayed how nervous he really felt because Evy looked at him with more curiosity in her eyes. She shook her head and Jack made a small gulp but continued. "…The man you saw hanging was dead. He`s in a forever deep sleep."
"He was sleeping? What odd way to sleep?"
"He was not sleeping, he was dead!"
Evy`s eyebrows furrowed, trying to understand Jack`s odd talking about death and sleeping.
Jack`s eyes flickered back up to the sky, did he dare he risk it?
"And…his life didn't end painless. He got hanged for a crime he had committed."
"What did he do?"
Jack gulped again and then rubbed his hand at Evy`s arm in a comforting motion. "I don't know. He was probably once a thief or a murderer."
Now gaping, Evy`s eyes were wide and shocked over this new information. "He killed a person?! Why?"
"I don't know…" Jack said slowly. "In anger or greed?"
"How long is he going to hang in that rope?" Evy wondered. "Will they take him down when they think he`s ready to regret his crime?"
"He will be "hanging around" very long I`m afraid. Now no more running off. It's time to go back home Snowhite." Using the nickname he`s been calling her since birth, Evy nodded as they started to move back to the spot where Evy`s things still laid.
Back to the place they first landed, Jack worriedly scratched his back with his staff as he looked at Evy as she collected her leafs, still seeing her still furrowed expression like she still couldn't understand his silly explanation before about the poor person's crime.
This was of course not the first time Jack had seen a dead body or encountered death before. Being a spirit he had seen generations of babies turning into children, children into adults, adults into old people and the old people leaving Earth at the end. Luckily he only had seen these events on the brighter side of humanity, by simply avoiding much as possible, places where the humankind showed his lowest side like this particular event!
"There's a lot in the world that's not nice," Jack mumbled to himself.
"Like what?" Evy wondered while she put all her leafs in her pockets.
"Bad people who do bad things."
"What bad things?"
"Very bad things." Before she could ask any more questions on the subject, Jack moved down and picked her up and heaved her to his back and then flew both of them up into the sky again. By the help of the North Wind, they were heading back hom to the safe and cold North Pole.
"Evy, can you keep a secret?" Jack said while the flew. "Promise me not to tell North what you have seen today."
"Why?"
"Because… this is something he`s not ready to hear…yet, and he`s very busy with the toys right now so we properly tell him after Christmas. Right?!"
Evy seemed slightly confused over this decision, but just as Jack said, Christmas is coming so North needed time to finish his work before the deadline so she gave him a slight nod.
"And this'll give me slightly more time to work out how I will explain to North that Evy saw a corpse and even played with it without banning me from North Pole Because he`s definitely not going to like it!"
Behind them the sun was sinking with pink and red streaking in the sky. Cold and the few already-bare frosted trees were standing amidst the gold and red, together with the lonely corpse in the small, dark clearing.
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