A Chances encounter
Jack wasn't sure where the wind had taken him, he had an idea he had seen this forest several times before, but always from above. It was strange to be standing among the tall black and trees all leaning to one side as if the earth had suddenly shifted and they never had a chance to stand upright. It was quiet in the forest and he could feel the snow under his feet heavy and packed his ice. It was an unbearably boring place.
He waited for the wind to pick up again, it wasn't the first time he was drop off in a place he didn't mean to go. Some of the times it was his fault being too vague with his location when he asked the wind to take them somewhere absolutely random. This time he did have a place in mind, yet he was striding through the snow of the burnt forest. He jumped up to a nearby tree branch the words splintering and crumbling with black ash as it buckled as he landed. Jack watches the swirling of snow blur into a gray sky in the distance, the wind was still within earshot but just putting around in the distance.
"Hey," he called out. "I'm ready to go home now!"
Though the wind stayed in its place swirling up in the distance for not coming close to the scorch trees.
Confused Jack decided to track to higher ground. Jumping from dead tree to dead tree until the wind decided to pick him up again. As he did, he heard a sound like whispering, he couldn't make out the words. He decided to follow it deeper into the wounds and all he was staring down at a deep fissure that scarred the earth for what seemed like miles. He jumped down from the tree and propelled by the louder whispering he moved into the fissure until he stumbled upon a cave wide and dark.
The whispering noise seems to crawl out of the mouth of the cave between thick roots that hang from the top of the cave-like gnarled teeth. The site was familiar to Jack, and not in a way that he'd like to remember. Though the whispers still cold for him, begging and pleading in words that he still cannot make out. His mind was conflicted between leaving the cave and the incessant desire to quell the frantic whispers that were calling for him.
The whispers won out as he took one step then another into the cave. He journeyed as the cold frozen dirt below his feet turned to soft and muddy as the air around him became more harm an almost humid. The darkness is in the cave seemed to fade as he noticed roses going a bright florescent blue from the cave floors as moss began to blanket every inch of the cave. The cave becomes bright brighter and almost welcoming them for a second, he had thought that he had stumbled into one of Bunny's boroughs.
A steady dribble of ice water formed Crystal colored rivers between rocks and moss as they dark hollow of a tree stood in the center of it all. The beauty of it was stunning, however, it was real and as he could hear the whispers now as he entered a large chamber.
"Beware" they called from the walls. "Beware the King of the Forest." Then we're all suddenly silenced.
He stepped over the stream and peered into the hollow of the tree. He gripped his staff tighter confused and deeply concerned by what he saw. They are in a hollow way a girl that looked about the same age he was when he had saved his sister. Sleeping heavily amidst the tangle of mossy blankets and vines that wrapped around her limbs like a puppet it looked almost like the tree was trying to slowly smother her.
Jack cautiously is to staff to poke at the plants the shock of frost causing the vines to curl away and the and moss crumbled in pale gray clumps. He watched as the greenery faded away to reveal her dark brown hair and simple dirty gray gown all the way down to her bare feet that was adorned with a tarnished silver chain and anklet decorated with charms of constellations that Jack didn't quite recognize.
He leaned deeper into the whole as she seemed to continue to sleep soundly without dreaming. He was so still that for a second, he thought that maybe she was dead. Cautiously he reached out and touched her face frost snake to crossed her nose and cheeks like lace.
The girl shifted pushing his hand in a week gesture as she opened her eyes. They startled Jack they were black opals solid and matte in some places but reflective of bright colors and small flecks. He took a step back as she crawled out of the hollow and she looked around the chamber with a still expression that held no hope or wonders for anything around her.
"You should not be here." She said to him with a dull empty voice as she rubbed her hand on her face to brush off the frost.
Jack tilted his head circling her with a small smirk "Well I am what are you going to do about it." He said teasingly pointing his staff.
The girl did not move standing straight still like a doll "Go." Her eyes followed him for one revolution before saying "Now."
"Well sorry to disturb you sleeping beauty." Jack smiled as he teased "I forgot you spring spirits are cranky during your winter naps."
"I am not a spirit, nor am of the fay-kind." The girl breathed "Now please leave." Then with stiff almost pain steps, she began to crawl back into the hollow tree.
Jack shrugged as he turned to walk towards the entrance of the cave. As he walked towards the end of the chamber, he blew frost into an icy snowball then spun around quickly to toss it out the hollow of the tree.
The girl jumped and squawked as the ball hit her "That is wrong with you!" The girl's eyes went wide as she crawled up in her perch.
"Just checking something." Jack smiled casually making another snowball.
Her eyebrows furrowed as she scowled at him "Are you satisfied?"
"Nope." He said tossing the other snowball putting her square in the shoulder.
As if she hadn't gotten hit for the first time her hair stood on end startled by the impact. The girl then hopped out the hollow and moving so quickly within a blink of an eye she had pushed Jack into the stream.
"Hey!" He shouted and laughed as he splashed water at her.
She hopped away smirking down at him in the water. Jack couldn't help but smile back using his hands to splash out water at her before getting out of the stream. The girl smiled and ran away from him and Jack pursued her throughout the cavern. They chased each other through the chamber in a mocking of tag until Jack had run out of the cave and ran a few feet into the snow before realizing that she was no longer chasing after him.
"What are you afraid of the snow or something?" Jack laughed as he waited for her to exit the cave.
However, she began to slowly take one step back looking into the darkness of the cave "I cannot leave this den." She said glancing back into the darkness.
Jack walked back to the entrance of the cave concerned about why she couldn't leave.
"Don't come back in!" The girl screamed violently at him "He's awake." The sound of the heavy breathing echoed out from the cave the sounds of snapping wood rolling like thunder.
"Who?" Jack asked he hadn't seen another person or animal in the cave with her even the whispers had stopped long ago.
"My custodian, he knows you are here I don't want him to catch you." Her voice held fear but her face was slowly returning to one of an emotionless doll.
"Custodian, like your dad?" Jack asked.
"He covets me as a prize." The girl stared at him with her deep sparkling eyes.
"That wrong!" Jack said not able to stand the realization, he couldn't believe that he was so blind to the girl's situation "Here, takes my hand I know a place-"
"No!" The girl screamed running back in the cave leaving Jack alone in the snow.
The window licked at Jack's neck a silent gesture to tell him that it was okay to go. But he couldn't leave the strange girl to suffocate in that then den held hostage in by some sort of monster. Before the wind could get any stronger, he ran back into the cave after her as he entered the chamber that held the hollow tree, he saw a second one taller and am not old and bent in strange ways. That's when he realized it was no tree at all, but some type of giant spirit he hadn't encountered before.
"Little creature? Small, small creature." The tree spirit whispered into the hollow of the tree it spindly branch-like fingers prodding within.
Unsure if he could take on the giant spirit alone Jack decided to play it smart slinking along the edge of the chamber is as quietly as he could. His eyes were fixated as the living tree drag the girl out of the hollow like someone would pick up a warm.
"Did the spirit hurt you. Pretty creature." The tree spirit said in an old raspy tone as he dropped her limply into a hand of branches and thorns.
"No, he didn't know who I am." The girl answered curling up as if she had always been asleep.
"Liar." The monster growled, "Every creature lies, like those fairies." The monstrous spirit began to stroke the girl's face "but you don't lie, you don't know-how, small creature."
Jack gripped his staff angered by the tree spirit's words and concerned for the girl's lack of reaction. He was worried that she might have been injured being yanked out from the tree.
"The wind knows who you are, the wind fled when you fell, the wind will always blow intruders in." The tree spirit continued to speak to her "Yet the wind can't reach us here, deep, deep, underground with the creatures that burrow."
The girl nodded solemnly up at her captor before glancing off her glittering eyes widened as they fell on Jack. She froze tightening more into a ball as she stared at Jack within the grasp of her captor that continued to whisper in talk to her.
Jack put a finger to his lips, half wishing that the girl would emote anything at this point to know if she was angry at him or even more afraid. He put his back against the dirt in stone of the cave wall readying himself to strike as soon as the giant put her down. He was stopped in his tracks by a wayward root snagging the fabric of his hoodie as he reached out a hand to stealthily as he could disconnect himself from the root is another emerged from the wall to grab his hand. He gripped his staff using his frost powers to snap the roots to free himself, but more came in their wake. They hoisted and pulled him above the ground and wrap around him.
The tree spirit raised its head and turned to face Jack. Its head was a horse skull made from twisted bark and wood "You dare to hide!" His voice was allowed as a splintering tree "I'm every root, every branch." He put the girl back down into the hollow of the tree and began to rush towards the ensnared to Jack.
Jack not wanting to meet his fate embarrassingly pinned to the ball like a bug did his best to turn his staff towards the center of the tree monstrosity. The frosts spread upon the Spirit's chest white and sharp before melting as the creature heaved and growing rage.
"This is my forest!" The tree spirit smacks the staff away with an animalistic scream narrowing down his face to be level with Jack.
Staring into the wooden skull of the spirit he could see beneath it a face old and rotting, human, animal and plant all at once. As he peered into the carnal snarling visage that existed under the healthy shell of a tree he knew that this was more than just another spirit that made a plant it's home. This is a spirit old and ancient as decay itself as it was one of plants and life.
"Beware." The voices told him from within the walls of the cavern "Beware the king of the forest." The voices seem to scratch and pull at the corners of Jack Frost's mind.
A memory flashed across Jack Frost's mind as the voices invaded, and all the memory as it came from a lifetime ago. An old woman wrapped tight and blankets her finger wiggling as she warned children not to go deep in the woods and fear of the leshy would drag them deep underground. How he wishes he didn't laugh and disregard her warnings at this moment.
"I don't want her." Jack coughed an old childish fear and shaking him to his core "I just want to help her."
The milky yellow eyes of the forest spirit narrowed the leshen angered by Jack's words. The ancient king of the forest rising up rendering a gnarled branched hand to strike at him. There was no mercy in the mind of the creature that believed everything lies.
"I'm a Guardian, a good guy," Jack said though you know that the words were probably useless to a spirit that was known for kidnapping and killing.
"Guardian?" The leshen gnashed his jaw as he peered closer to Jack "Tiny Guardian, he cannot have her back." He hissed shoving Jack harder against the wall "He should have caught her when she fell." His hand grip tighter the roots began to slowly pull Jack into the dirt wall.
The leshen straightened up readying to play another strike gone to Jack as the walls slowly began to the white-haired teen. "I saw her first!" The leshen roared.
A bright light brighter than the sun erupted behind the forest spirit. The leshen turned his massive body slightly to face the light allowing Jack the perfect view of what was occurring.
It was the girl that Jack Frost had come back to save. Though she looked completely different now she was like a ghost, white from hair haired to the gallon around her ankle bracelet shining with a spectrum of color highly lighting the ground. Wisps of glowing vapor like tentacles moved to feel out its environment seeming to warp space as it did.
"Let him go!" She cried her eyes like fractal diamonds in the light she admitted.
The King of the forest released to Jack, however, the roots were still holding onto them tight, to turn his full attention to the girl "He will bring others, they will hurt us, with fire and blades as they did before." The leshen calmly stroked her hair not even recoiling as the vapors seemed to burn at his fingers.
The girl did not move or say a thing as the vaporous tendrils wrapped whipped and burned at the king of the forest. The leshen lowered his skull-shaped head in defeat as he scooped up the smoldering girl despite the damage that was being done to his body.
"Leave, do not return." The leshen warned holding the girl between his hands like a cage. At his words, the dirt in the wall began the shift in the roots that clasp of death grips released Jack making him tumble to the floor.
The moment Jack hit the ground he rolled in picked up his staff readying his staff against the massive ancient spirit. Though he relented seeing the girl shake her head silently pleading with him to go, that resilient glow that was burning the Leshen alive slowly dissipating into the dark of the cavern.
Squeezing his eyes Jack Frost ran as fast as he could fearing that the ancient spirit that he had thought would change his mind and cave in the ground under him and swallow him alive. The moment he exited the cave the wind that had brought them here picked him up with the strength of a blizzard carrying him somewhere far away from the forest. As he was whisked away Jack looked down at the ground one last time and saw the snowy ground to move like clay and trees that he assumed were dead uproot themselves and skittered across the ground like giant spiders. He knew when everything settled in the spirit beneath the shifting forest went back to rest he would never find that cave again, at least on his own.
(AN: I had an idea for this to be a longer story by it it's a bit of an out-there concept. So, I decided to write the equivalent of the prologue/1st chapter just to see how it goes. Tell me what you think? If there is enough interest in it, I might write the whole version sometime later.)