Ch. 7 – Snowdrop
It took him almost five and a half years. He chose a vast frozen landscape as his base of operation, an icy continent devoid of human life and their cruelty. A place so full of Jack's element that only the hardiest of animal and plant life could live there. A place that experienced months of sunlight without darkness and months of darkness without sunlight. Jack had plenty of time to work. He never had to worry about his project melting or run-ins with other spirits, had an abundance of materials to work with, and had a large, cozy cave that had series of ice tunnels and caverns he could walk around in when he needed to think or to store things in, such as bowls he had procured and bits of clothing.
And Jack walked around those tunnels a lot. He hadn't realized how difficult his task was going to be.
Since the body had to be hollow, Jack couldn't carve each limb from a solid block of ice. He had tried sticking his arm into the sea and allowing the water to freeze around it, then shaping the results into an arm, but he hit a problem when he tried to create flexible joints. Empty ice was prone to cracking and shattering from the force necessary to break the knees and elbows. So that method hadn't panned out.
Then he tried first hollowing out a block before carving it into the necessary shape, but that plan failed when he realized he couldn't fit hand and tools into the narrower portions of the limbs, nor could he accurately judge the width and length of what he was carving. One hand, sans fingers, had been a little wider that Jack's own, while the pair had looked more like a deformed bubble. That plan had been abandoned as well, and Jack was back to square one.
He attempted to make a snow sculpture, slightly smaller and thinner than what he was aiming for, to use as a core to form the ice around. The issue he ran into was again the joints when he tried a full-body core, and then the removal of the snow when he went back to making interlocking body parts as he had with Justin. Holes in the ice for removal weren't an option, as the snow was too packed. Jack had made the holes larger and larger in an effort to make it work, only to end up compromising the 'skin' and causing the ice to break. He tried pouring water into the holes in order to melt the snow, but ended up again weakening the ice to the point of breaking. A fire was tried, with the same result.
Annoyed, Jack had taken every failure and dumped the pieces in the sea. Then he sat on the icy shore and pondered at why the sea water wasn't as frozen as the rest continent. He spent days gathering the sea water and waiting for it to freeze in bowls in his caves. He froze it with his own powers, sometimes flash freezing it, other times slowly. In doing so he discovered salt crystals that formed in the unfrozen water as more and more ice formed. Curious, Jack started to experiment.
He gathered water from his (Mother/Brother) lake, from rivers and ponds, from various oceans, including the sea around his frozen land, and slowly froze each one. Various impurities formed, but it was the sea water that held salt. He gathered the pure ice into another bowl and took it to warmer climates to melt, then gather more water from around the world. All of this was then flash frozen, and Jack carefully removed the large chunks of ice from their containers. With the wind's help, he took each piece, one at a time, into the air, and dropped them onto the jagged landscape below. The salt water ice proved to be stronger. He gather more water, refroze it, and left all the bowls, side by side, in the sun of Australia. He kept a careful eye on each as they melted. Again, salt ice proved the tougher, taking longer to melt than the others.
That, in Jack's mind, was that. He would start from scratch with salt water ice. Now, he just had to figure out how to make it work.
It had been two years since his encounter with Bunnymund. Frustrated with another failure, this time in the form of a warped foot, Jack had taken to wandering the tunnels. He swung his staff to and fro, causing fern-like patterns of frost to form over the walls, floor, and spikes of ice growing from the floor and ceiling. His voice echoed around him as he asked questions that gained no answer. Occasionally he knocked a bit of ice lose, causing a musical tinkling to surround him briefly before silence once more reigned. He swung his staff more violently, throwing out bolts of ice as he chased shadows that he pretended were enemies come to take his home, a game he'd seen children playing.
Laughing as he fought his imaginary foes, Jack threw a bolt at one of the icicles that rose from the floor. With a mighty crack, the spire broke and fell to the icy floor. Another crack rent the air, and the spire split in half. The Winter Spirit's laughter died as he looked at the two pieces. Snowflake blue eyes narrowed as he knelt beside it and ran his fingers over the core of the spire. Resting his staff against his shoulder he drug to two halves closer and pressed them back together. They lined up perfectly, a few nicks along the break the only evidence that the piece wasn't whole once again.
The smile that stretched his lips was so big it felt as if his face was going to split. The ice clattered back to the ground as he dropped it in favor of running back to the main cave. He grabbed his tools and pulled a block a little longer than his forearm towards the entrance. Grey sunlight glistened off the ice as he started chipping away at it. Even as the sun set and the moon rose, he kept working. Jack was focused, excited, ready to finally, finally, get it right.
A rough forearm shape had emerged from the ice when he stopped. It wasn't as finally detailed as he wanted, the musculature still too thick for what he had in mind, but any thinner and his plan wouldn't work. Setting the hammer and chisel aside he picked up a thin hand saw, the curved wooden handle fitting easily in his grip.
The ice forearm was moved and braced between his knees, the wider end that would be the elbow flat on the ground with the smaller wrist joint faced him. He set the saw dead center of the flat joint and carefully began dragging it back and forth.
It was difficult and slow going. Jack's arms tired frequently, he stopped even more frequently to make sure the cut hadn't twisted off center, and even more frequently than that to ensure there were no hairline fractures spidering out into the 'skin.' His own cold body kept the ice from melting with the constant friction and his icy breath blew away the shavings regularly. In his mind he chanted This will work. This will work. This will work. I believe it will work, so it will work. That's how it works. This will work. When the ice split in two, Jack retrieved his chisels and hammer and hollowed out one side. He carved sockets for the balls that would act as elbow and wrist joints. As he gently removed the core ice and shaped the arm, he frequently pressed the two halves back together, making sure they still lined up perfectly, ensuring that the 'skin' was the same width without being too thin.
After the forearm Jack moved on to the rest of the arm, wrist, and hand. He used the same method of splitting and hollowing the pieces, except for the fingers. Those, Jack decided for the sixth digit had slipped from his grasp and skittered out the cave entrance, were too small to hollow out and would thus remain solid. He focused instead on making small holes in the balls and weaving thin metal wires, which he had convinced Phil to give him in exchange for staying away from the Workshop for a while, through the arm, joints, and fingers. The wires, Jack had learned by pulling a broken marionette puppet apart and looking at its insides, would secure every body part to the whole of his creation. Jack was determined to make no mistakes this time around. A layer of sea water, partially frozen into slush for easy handling, was laid between the two halves and flash frozen, sealing them together.
The Wind blew through the cave often, wrapping him in its intangible embrace and ruffling his hair, coaxing Jack into breaks to play with the strange black and white bird creatures. Animals, for whatever reason, could see Jack, and he rejoiced in that knowledge as he slid down slopes and waddled around with the birds.
It was in this manner that he passed two more years. Every few weeks, he'd go out and spread Winter or else create the clouds and ask the Wind to deliver them for him. He'd play with the children who couldn't see him, and when one inevitably ran through him, he'd hurry back to the frozen tundra and work more feverishly than ever on his project. He played with the birds, laughing as he found more types, some with yellow feathers like eyebrows, others with long beaks. He found humongous fish that reminded him a little of the ones he dreamed about, and animals with long fat bodies and webbed fingers and toes. Jack stayed away from them, because the larger ones didn't like him near their babies, and Jack wasn't sure what would happen to him if one of those large creatures managed to get hold of him. The babies were really cute, though. He loved to watch them.
He still returned to the cave, though, and his project frequently, spending more time working on it than playing or bringing about Winter.
He completed one arm by smoothing the rough seals with a clothe damp with lake water. Once completed he pulled on the exposed lengths of wires. The elbow and wrist moved, the fingers flexed, and Jack let out a whoop of joy, leaping into the Wind and showing his incorporeal friend what he had done.
"Look! Just look at that!" He exclaimed as he made the fingers move, "It's perfect, Wind! This time, everything is going to work out, I know it will!" His laughter was carried around the world, bringing smiles to millions and lightening the hearts of children everywhere.
**************What Better Friend For A Not-Child Than A Not-Child**********
He was working on the head. Specifically, the top of the head. After over five and a half years, he was nearing completion.
The arms, hands, legs, feet, and hips had all been attached to the torso. After much thought, Jack had formed a protective box on the left side of the chest and placed a large snowflake in it. The snowflake glowed a steady blue. Jack's friend needed a heart, after all.
As each body part had been completed, each set of seals smoothed out and rendered nearly invisible, Jack had begun to think about the people he still watched longingly as he spread Winter. It was during those musings that he recalled a father who had eased his son and daughter's tears over his leaving with a simple sentence and gesture.
"Don't cry, children, don't cry. Remember, your pa will always be with you. Right here," The large man had pressed a finger over both his children's chests, on the left side, "right here in your hearts."
Jack had gone back to his cave and pressed a hand over his own chest. He felt a slow, almost sluggish throb beneath his hand, and marveled at the feeling. "That must be my heart." He murmured to the Wind. His gaze had fallen on the partially carved block of ice that would make the torso, and he smiled. "You'll have a heart, too. A snowflake heart."
It hadn't been easy. Snowflakes by nature were very small, very delicate. Great care had been taken to coax droplets of water to freeze together into a giant snowflake. Several had been thrown out, the patterns imperfect, lopsided, too large, too small, too fragile. But Jack had learned patience. And eventually, he had formed the most beautiful snowflake he had ever seen. It was about the size of both his fists and with the cool breath of Winter's Child, lit up with a blue light the same as his eyes. A box was made in the chest cavity to hold the snowflake heart, and, satisfied, Jack went back to work.
Now all he had to do was finish the head. The top and back were a separate piece from the rest of the head, full of thousands of tiny holes. Jack was painstakingly connecting snowflakes into chains and slipping each chain into a hole, creating hair for his almost-complete Ice Friend. He had even made clothing, similar in style to his own, of snow, ice, and frost stitching: a tunic, left untucked so it hung over frozen thighs, and a pair of breeches. In a small cavern, barely larger than a single room cabin, there was a pile of white, more clothing he had made for his friend. There were no shoes.
He hummed, occasionally sang, as he work, a content smile on his face. He was almost done, the hair the last touch before he sealed the pieces of the head together and attached it to the neck. The Wind blew through the tunnels, adding a whistling tune to his own music, as eager as Jack for his Ice Friend to be finished.
Moon and starlight reflected off the snow and ice both inside and outside his cave, providing Jack with plenty of light to see by. Winter had come to his little corner of the world, and that meant several months of darkness. But the Moon still shone, and so did the stars, and Jack's element bounced the light back, creating a shimmering world of diamonds that dazzled Jack's eyes. Not even Jack's (Mother/Brother) lake could compare in beauty.
As Jack hummed and placed more snowflake chains of hair, he didn't notice the shadow that darkened his doorway until it fell over his legs and a voice spoke. To him.
"Well, well, what have we here?"
Startled, Jack's fingers slipped and a snowflake chain drifted from his fingers. A stray breeze caught the chain, and Jack followed it with his eyes as it floated across the cave entrance and was caught in the grey fingers of a man.
He was tall, very tall, with grey skin only visible at his hands and head, the rest covered by a black robe. His hair was blacker than the night, his eyes such an eerie shade of yellow that it made Jack's sluggish heart beat a little faster and his hands grip the skull cap in his lap a little tighter.
The snowflake chain was weaved through the stranger's fingers. Yellow eyes examined it closes, scrutinizing the snowflakes and their links. A smile tugged at grey lips, revealing a flash of teeth before he pressed his lips back together. He turned his gaze on Jack and took a few steps closer. Jack yelped in shock and scurried backwards until his back was pressed against the ice-covered wall. He clutched the head to his chest and swallowed, fear swimming in his eyes. The only people who saw Jack were other spirits, and none of them ever seemed too fond of Jack –
- "…ya lil' ankle bitah, it's alright. C'mon, mate, look up and tell ol' Bunny what's the mattah." The words flashed through his mind. He recalled the Sandman, offering comfort after he explained death to Jack. For a brief time, someone cared. But it hadn't lasted -
- so he was understandably weary of any who found him.
"I'm sorry!" He gasped out, eyes already filling with tears, "I didn't know this was your home. No one ever came here, and I-I-I thou-thought it w-was…*gulp*…w-w-w-…" He couldn't finish. The stranger was smiling again. His sharp teeth glinted in the Moonlight as he came closer to Jack's huddled form. Hailstone tears rolled down the boy's cheeks as fear flooded his being and he folded himself over his Ice Friend's partial head. Whimpers escaped his throat as he waited for the hateful words and blows that he knew would follow –
-Akitu called lightning storms to chase him away when she found him skating on his still-frozen lake-
-Miochin summoning birds to attack him when the Summer Spirit found Jack creating ice flowers in a field of fresh blooms-
-"…if I catch ya messin' with my holiday again, I'll break yer neck!" The Easter Bunny had snarled at him-
-Tommy Rawhead, a horrific skeletal creature with bits of flesh still clinging to his bloody bones, trying to rip his arms off and eat his flesh, just because Jack was a child-
-The Yetis throwing him out over and over, never letting Jack in, never letting him see Santa Clause, never wondering why a child looked so sad and desperate-
-that always followed when another spirit saw him.
The footsteps stopped right in front of him. Barely opening his eyes, Jack could see the tips of black shoes poking out under the robe. He squeezed his eyes closed, trembling. He did not get what he expected.
Cool fingers carded through his hair. Just as with the Easter Bunny, it seemed to Jack as if he could feel every grove of the skin, every rough edge of the fingernails. But unlike with Bunnymund, the touch didn't scorch him. The grey man's hand was cool. It felt water drifting through his hair, over his scalp, to cup the back of his head and direct his gaze back up.
Fearful blue met yellow. The hand slipped from the back of his head, over his jaw, and gripped his chin lightly. "This isn't my home, boy. This isn't anyone's home that I'm aware of. But that's something for later discussion. Who, child, are you?"
Jack had to swallow to moisten his throat before he could answer. "J-Jack Frost." His voice was barely above a whisper. The man smiled again and Jack's trembled anew at the sight of those too-sharp teeth, so much like the teeth of Bloody Bones. "A-a-are you g-gon-n-na eat m-m-me?" His arms throbbed with a phantom paint in remembrance. Rawhead had tried to rip both limbs off, frothing bloody foam and lamenting about what a shame it would be if he didn't get "just a taste. Just a taste of that icy flesh."
The smile fell for a brief moment as those eerie eyes widened in shock. Then it was back, stretching into a laugh that shook the man's form and froze Jack to his seat. The man laughed, howled, in mirth. Icicles hanging from the ceiling quivered, seeming to share Jack's unease. The Wind wanted to pull Jack free, but his staff, which allowed them to connect and intertwine their beings so Jack could fly, was several feet away.
The cool hand left Jack's face as the man stood up straight, then bowed backwards as he continued to laugh. Jack pressed himself more firmly against the wall and curled himself tighter around the incomplete head in his lap.
For nearly a full minute the stranger laughed and Jack trembled. When, finally, he stopped, the Winter Spirit was ready to leap from the cave and run, forgoing his staff all together. The dark man knelt back to Jack's level and again cupped his chin. "I see you've had a run-in with little Tommy, haven't you?" Jack nodded, and that sharp toothed smile was back, "I thought as much. No, little child, I'm not going to eat you. I've not a taste for flesh, spirit or otherwise." He licked his lips and his fingers tightened briefly on Jack's chin before returning to petting his hair. "I feed on…something else entirely."
Jack's trembling increased.
The man chuckled. "Oh, don't worry. I'm not here to feed on you. I just happened by when I heard you humming. I've never heard any voice out here, so I was curious and came to investigate. Imagine my surprise when I found not just a child, but a spirit child. You are a curiosity, boy. Where do you come from?"
The petting was soothing Jack, reminding him so much of the feel of his (Mother/Brother) lake, that he couldn't help but answer the stranger. "I was born from a lake…"
He spilled his story to this strange man, never taking his eyes from the others, almost feeling compelled to talk to him, tell him everything, anything. He didn't know how long he talked. Darkness ruled his world right then; there was no sun, no friends or family; only the ever-silent Moon and this strange man in black, who encouraged Jack to talk, who pet and stroked the boy's hair in a hypnotic manner, who seemed to understand Jack's loneliness.
When Jack finished his tale, rounding it up by lifting the partial head, hailstones were again falling around him. The man looked at the head, at the snowflake chain hair, and smiled again. As soon as his eyes left Jack's the boy took a deep, shuddering breath, feeling as if he hadn't done so through the whole of his story.
The man was still petting his hair, but now he was reaching for the partial head. Jack jumped and tucked the head back into his arms. He didn't want anyone touching his friend.
The petting stopped for just a second and the yellow eyes flashed with rage. Jack whimpered and tried to pull away, but he had nowhere to go. Then the eyes were soft again, and the hand resumed its petting. "I'm sorry, Jack. I should have asked first." Winter's child wrapped his arms more firmly around the head, ready to deny the man, but the request never came. Instead, the dark figure settled himself more comfortably on the ground in front of the child. "You have quite the story, Jack. It's sad, full of hardships, hate, fear. Dear boy, you've had a difficult life." The words were gentle, but the look on the man's…he looked like he was enjoying Jack's misery.
Finding the strength that had deserted him when the black robed man had arrived, Jack climbed to his feet and backed further into the cave. "I have. But I've also had fun and friends."
The man laughed, and the sound set Jack's skin crawling. His scalp itched where the man had touched, and Jack wasn't sure how he had found that touch comforting, how he could have possibly compared it to the feel of his (Mother/Brother) lake. Jack continued backing up until his foot settled over a familiar object.
Quickly, he scooped up his staff and pointed it at the man. "I think you should go."
The smile was still there. The eyes flashed again. Jack's arm shook and his staff wavered. "Go. Go away. Leave me alone."
The man rose, the move smooth, and loomed over Jack like a shadow. "But Jack, I'm just trying to give you what you want. Someone to talk to, a friend," those yellow eyes flicked to the head Jack held, "who will listen to you, comfort you. Dear boy, I'm offering you someone who understands you."
"I have a friend!" The shout was accompanied by a blast of frost from his staff that narrowly missed the man.
Smile gone, smile gone, the man was suddenly in Jack's face again, snarling. "Fine, if you want to be alone, boy, then I'll leave you alone!" A hand came at him and Jack flinched, expecting to be hit. Instead the grey limb passed him and slapped at his arm. The portion of his friend's head was knocked from his grasp. Jack screamed in panic and tried to catch it, but he wasn't fast enough. Ice shattered against ice, snowflake hair scattered like white blood across the ground. Jack fell to his knees and tried to gather the pieces up, but a black shod boot stomped on his hand. "No, boy, you wanted to be alone, then be alone!" The boot lifted, but before Jack could move away, it was back, kicking viciously at the boy's stomach, chest, everywhere he could reach. Jack cried and curled into as small a ball as he could manage until the assault was over.
Harsh panting washed over him from above. "Be alone, Jack. Know what it is to have no one. Then, maybe you won't scorn the offers of Pitch Black again." Ice skittered across the ground as Pitch kicked several broken shards out the cave entrance before taking his own leave, darkness wrapping around him and dissipating into nothing.
Jack didn't move for several minutes despite the Wind's attempts to rouse him. His body ached, his heart ached, but his mind was full of rage.
Pitch Black. Jack would never forget that creature's name. One day, Jack would see Pitch again. And he would deny the man again. And again. And again. Jack would never befriend Pitch. Any hope of that died when the cruel man hurt Jack's friend.
*********************Hello, Snowdrop**********************
Jack worked with a frenzied fervor. He had to start the head over; there was no way he was going to be able to carve a new top that would fit perfectly with the old face and neck. The Wind kept watch for him, carefully observing every shadow and twitching darkness to ensure that Pitch Black hadn't returned.
Jack wasn't aware of it, but an entire month passed before he finished the new head. The features were pixie-like, with laughing eyes and pointed chin, rounded cheeks and button nose. The body was similar to Jack's own wiry frame, the differences found in the slimmer appendages, wider hips, and the swell of a bosom. The blue glow of the snowflake heart was visible through the pure snow of the tunic, and the snowflake chain hair moved with the slightest breeze, almost seeming to float around the head as if under water.
Once the head was settle in place Jack knelt beside his Ice Friend and tentatively place his hand over her heart. "Hello?"
Nothing happened. Jack bit his lip and tried again, shifting his hand to her shoulder and shaking it gently. "Hello? Please wake up. Please?" Again, nothing. Jack pulled his hand back and folded over, laying his head on the other's frozen chest. "You have to wake up. That's the way it works, see? I build you, and you wake up."
Nothing.
A sob escaped Jack's throat. Clinching his fingers in the tunic he had made, he stared blankly at the wall and cried.
It hadn't worked. Jack was still alone. It should have worked, though. It always worked. Ice tinkled and clicked around him, something made a "tha-thump" sound beneath his ear, the Wind blew through his hair, carding through the snow white strands and massaging his scalp…
…wait…
Jack slowly sat up. The "tha-thump" sound vanished. What he thought was the Wind in his hair followed the motion, and Jack watched as an arm came into view, raised from the side of a frozen body, snow-and-frost sleeve sliding up and revealing ice skin. Blue eyes followed the arm down to a shoulder, up a neck, pass a smiling mouth, and…
…and locked on to ice carved eyes. In their depths Jack could see the faintest of blue, barely distinguishable from the clear ice and white hair. He watched, listened, as ice clicked and tinkled as the body rose of its own volition. He gasped in shock as the hand slid from his hair and rested against his cheek, wiping away tears from his eyes before they could become hail.
"Hello. I'm awake now. Please stop crying."
A cry of pure joy left his lips and he wrapped his arms around the Ice Girl. His laughter mixed with hers, two Winter Children overjoyed at the sight of the other. He could feel the slow thumping of her snowflake heart against his chest. Jack pulled back and smiled brightly at her. She returned the gesture. Together, they stood, and Jack was overjoyed that she could do even that. She took his hand and walked with him around the cave, and they enjoyed the simple movement as only two friends could, in silence, not needing words to express their joy.
Jack showed her the tunnels and caverns. With the Wind's help, they carefully made their way out and he showed her the white and black birds and the cute long fat animals they couldn't go near. They played, built snowmen and forts, had snowball fights and made snow angels. Her thick ice skin held up against the abuse that only children can provide, and hugs and laughter cheered Jack's heart after so many years with only his own.
They carted armloads of snow back into the cave and used it for make a massive bed, which they collapsed upon not long after, giggling and tickling one another. As they calmed down, as sleep began to pull at their eyelids and golden tendrils entered the cave, Jack realized something.
"What's your name?"
Her smile was small as she answered. "Fleo Pruina."
Jack's brow furrowed as he tried to repeat it, stumbling over the unfamiliar pronunciation several times before she pressed her fingers to his lips to silence him.
"Snowdrop. Call me Snowdrop."
He smiled and mumbled around her fingers "I'm Jack Frost."
Her hand fell away and she giggled again before laying her head on a pillow of snow. "Hello, Jack."
He copied her, pulling a blanket of frost over them. "Hello, Snowdrop."
Smiles on both their faces, the child of Frost and child of Ice fell asleep, golden sand circling and creating dreams of snowball fights and games.
****************As Ombric said "Believe, Believe, Believe."***********
A/N:
.0 Guys. GUYS! This chapter is over 5,000 words! There, you slave drivers! For those of you who really wanted longer chapters, here it is!
The plan as of now if for chapters to very between about 2000 and 5000 words, but who know what will actually happen. Anyway, some notes for you, in case you are confused by things:
The "vast frozen landscape" Jack escaped to is Antarctica. The first confirmed sighting of the southern frozen tundra was in 1820. Jack found it long before then, still in the 1700s. The start of that five and a half year timeframe was the Spring/Summer (North American Spring/Summer) of 1799. It ends in December 1804, sixteen years before the first confirmed sightings of Antarctica in 1820, and almost 90 years before "Antarctica" was first formally used by John George Bartholomew. See, this is what happens when you have a History Major writing a fanfic. I just have to hunt down information. Not always, mind you, but often enough. So…there.
The "spikes of ice growing from the floor and ceiling": Come on. He's been on his own this whole time. Everything he knows, he taught himself. That, dearlings, means he doesn't know yet what a stalactite or stalagmite is.
The "black and white bird creatures" are penguins, dearlings. Later, Jack finds other birds that are found in Antarctica, each of which has a black/white color scheme, or else is completely white.
The "humongous fish" are whales.
The "animals with long fat bodies" are seals. There are several types of seals. Pick your favorite. I personally see Jack oohing and ahhing over the Weddell Seals. Mostly because they're adorable.
Tommy Rawhead: Also known as Bloody Bones; he originates Ireland, his legend traveled to the rest of the UK and eventually into the US. Rawhead has MANY different appearances. I chose the skeletal version with flesh and sinew still hanging from his bones because THAT is what I dreamed of one night: That creature sitting atop a pile of children's bones, eating a living child, "Rawhead" splashed across the walls in what I suspect was blood, while also being whispered from the shadows…So I woke up, looked "Rawhead" up, and found Bloody Bones. See…I don't know if I've EVER heard about him before. I somehow doubt it, because he's something I would have done a great deal of research on, because I enjoy creepy things…Anyway, Rawhead originally lived near bodies of water and would kidnap children who misbehaved; later, he moved in under water pipes, then in the cupboard under the stairs. He's a sort of Boogeyman from the UK. So…so I decided he'd be perfectly horrific for a child-spirit to encounter, even if only briefly.
So, Snowdrop's name: Fleo Pruina – Fleo is Latin for weep, sob, or drop (among other things that mean drop or crying); Pruina is Latin for snow or frost. So her name in Latin, for purpose of this story, literally translates to Weeping Frost (although "Weeping" is actually "Fletus", but I like Fleo better.) BUT! She is meant to be Jack's dearest friend, and telling him her name's translation, for ease of pronunciation, is Weeping Frost, which is like a constant reminder of his pain, she chose to tell him an alternative translation: Snowdrop. Hush, it makes since in my head.
And now, for the part you all love most: RECOGNITION!
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My Wonderful Reviewers: Galimatias, Mistress of the Words, elise-hale913, darkryubaby, Guest, Effugere, Motaku1235, Catflower Queen, MysteryPerson, AquaNerd, Elwyn, PepperLovey, lncross1of7, SethBlackwolf, Eternal She-Wolf, Kaylessa, Rose O' Sharon, Em, WordsMusic, The Sapphire Dolphin, and Me.
Response to Reviews (If I haven't responded in some other medium):
Galimatias: You did, you really did! And thank you! I do hope it ends up as lovely as yours is.
Mistress of the Words: ^_^ Thanks! Jack really is a doll, isn't he? He's so cute.
Rose O' Sharon: I hope this chapter was better. I swear I'm not trying to make you cry! Hey, look! Happy Frostie Toes!
Guest (who asked that I make Jack insane): Um…well, let's just see how this goes, shall we? I've got several ideas, and they'll all find a place, one way or another.
Effugere: As Ombric said – "Believe, believe, believe." The first bit of magic we all learn. Believe, believe, believe….or else Jack's completely off his nut. You'll just have to wait and see, dearling!
Kaylessa: No. I didn't. Shut. UP! You pointy eared nit. *glares*
Motaku1235: Look, it worked!
Catflower Queen: Jack was very preoccupied in the last chapter, trying to figure out how to make things work. After his brush with Bunnymund, he was ready to go back to thinking and, like many a child I've dealt with, callously brushed Bunny off. It's not mean that you wanted to Aster to see Frostie Toes in his ice cast. I seriously struggled with that, because I wanted him to see the poor boy with it. But I felt like that would have influenced how he treated and acted towards Jack in the film/future, and I didn't want that. Not yet. And Bunny didn't KNOW it was Jack's emotions that caused the blizzard. He just thought Jack was being an ill-behaved child. Yes, Bunny saw, briefly, that Jack was/is a child, but he also saw him as a powerful Winter Spirit. "Power" tends to clash with "child." The Guardians never really associated Jack with one of the children they're meant to protect, because, in my mind, he wasn't really a child anymore. He was Jack Frost. A child needs protection, and Jack spent all of his time taking care of himself. He was a strong, resilient spirit, just like they were. And that, my dearling, is what stopped them from seeing that he was a child spirit, who was only getting by thanks to his own imagination and powers. As for hand-making his own friends…no, that's not healthy. But it's all he has right now. Or it was. Now, he has Snowdrop! Which, by the way, sort of has to do with his crying hailstones. Her name, as previously mentioned, for purpose of this story means Weeping Frost. She's the end of his tears.
MysteryPerson:…*cocks eyebrow* Fred, is that you?
And that's all, my dearlings! I'm so sorry this update came so long after I intended, but it's also twice as long as the other chapters. And life and school got in the way. So…yeah. Until next time!
*waves enthusiastically*
