Chapter 1- When you are lost, It is always a welcome to be found
Jack Frost was lost. He had been flying around for a few hours, simply enjoying the view of the night sky, when he was abruptly thrown off course by a harsh gust of wind.
Now, surrounded by large unfamiliar trees, Jack had no idea how he could get home. It was night time and the sky was cloudless, allowing the bright stars and the full moon to light the clearing where Jack stood. Taking in his surroundings, Jack could not discern which way was 'home'.
He called the pond where he first arisen three years ago home, because that was the closest place he had to one. Jack only really knew three things about himself: He has winter powers, he's invisible and his name is Jack Frost.
He sighed aloud to himself, shaking his head as he pondered what to do next. He didn't want to waste time flying endlessly, having no clue which direction to go in. And yet, he couldn't simply stand around here uselessly either.
Before he could ponder any further on the matter, however, he heard the sound of footsteps on snow and the crunching of dead branches beneath a person's foot. Jack turned around and came upon the peculiar sight of a young girl.
She looked to be around twelve years old, with long reddish-brown hair tumbled down her shoulders and back in thick curls. She wore a yellow dress and brown fur lined boots and carried an old wooden basket filled with flowers in her grasp.
But it wasn't her appearance that was peculiar. No, it was her intelligent grey eyes that stared, not through him, but at him. Jack liked to hope that it was true, but three years of people being oblivious to his existence made him smother all hope quickly. No one you've come across has ever seen you before, a voice whispered in the winter spirits mind, why would now be any different.
Jack turned to leave before his thoughts took him anywhere else, but before he had completely, a voice made him freeze where he stood.
"H-Hello?" It was the little girl. It couldn't be! And yet, as Jack's eyes widened as he turned to face the girl again, he could not seem to deny it.
She was looking at him. Straight at him and no one else. Jack looked around the area just to make sure, and when he realised the two of them were alone, he looked back at the strange girl with the inquisitive eyes.
"Are you… talking to me?" He dared to ask. "Can you actually see me?"
"Of course!" She chirped, a tentative smile reaching her lips. "Who else would I be talking to?"
Jack's mind was running at a million miles an hour. He could not believe this! Three years of wishing and it finally came true. He is seen by someone! And they are talking to him. Jack had not realised how stifling the loneliness and the silence that accompinied him was. All this time- every night- he would ask the moon the same questions: Who am I? What am I? Why am I here? Why can no one see me?
He never got an answer.
But now, before him stands a little girl who can not only see him, but is talking and smiling at him. He feels like it has happened once before, like in a far away dream he can't quite remember.
Jack thinks that, despite this great revelation, he would not want to scare away the child, and decided to try and make this encounter as un-akward as possible.
"Right… that was a bit of a silly question wasn't it?" He laughs it off for a moment, befor the little girl's next question brings his whole mind screeching to a halt.
"Are you a spirit of some kind?" She asks the question innocently, as if she had asked it before.
Jack blinks, before an uncertain smile comes upon his face. This girl cannot be a normal human, he reasoned, there's no way she could know all this! "Why, yes I am, but how did you know?"
She softly giggled, putting the basket and walking slightly towards him. Jack has to look down to continue looking her in the eyes. "You don't look like an ordinary human like me. That and the fact that you're covered in frost and are hovering slightly off the ground." She tilted her head to the side. "You are a winter spirit of some kind, aren't you?"
So she was a human, and a smart one too. Jack hadn't even noticed he was hovering until she pointed it out. Slowly putting his feet back onto the earth, he wondered if she might have seen other spirits as well then. "Correct again. Have you met any other spirits like me?"
She put a hand to her chin, as if in deep thought, a stray curl twisting around with every movement her head made. "I've met spirits, certainly. Some are invisible to most humans and others can be seen. But I haven't met a winter spirit, or any kind of seasonal spirit for that matter."
"Other invisible spirits?"
"Yeah! Like small fairies. They're always surprised whenever I see them." She had a grin on her face, as if remembering something funny. But then it morphed into shock and embarrassment as she exclaimed, "Oh! I forgot. My name's Katherine by the way."
"I see. Well it is very nice to meet you Katherine, my name's Jack Frost. But you can just call me Jack."
She nodded at this, a smile back on her face. She really was an adorable little girl, no doubt every adult she comes across turns to mush before her. Very well mannered too.
"So… mind telling me how it is you can see all these spirits? I've never met anyone like you."
"It's the power of belief!" She stated proudly. "Ombric taught me. It allows me to do magic and see all sorts of things that most ordinary people don't."
The power of belief?
"So this Ombric person can see spirits too?" Maybe he will have the answers to all of Jack's questions.
"Yep! As can everyone in Santoff Claussen. That's the village where I live, by the way."
A whole village filled with people who can see spirits and do magic? Jack could not believe it. He must be dreaming. This simply cannot be real! But… even if it wasn't and this was a dream, Jack did wonder what such a place would be like in his imagination.
"Where is this 'Santoff Claussen'?"
Katherine looked down in embarrassment, the smile slipping off of her face and her cheeks going bright red.
"Well, I wish I could take you there, but I don't know where it is." She then suddenly looked back up to Jack, eyes going wide and starting to tear up in fear. "I got lost! I was sent to go get a special flower from the forest. But once I found it, I couldn't find the path back and so I wandered around for a bit. It started to get dark and I became all scared. But-but then I looked up and saw the moon. It was really bright and the light of if seemed to create a path when It shined down. Ombric always said that if I ever got lost, to just follow the light. And then it lead me to this bright clearing, wher you were standing!"
After finishing her sudden outburst, Katherine took several breaths to calm herself down. A few stray tears had leaked from her eyes as spoke, but they soon disappeared. Jack had to hand it to the little girl. Getting lost in the woods at night would be scary for anyone, but especially a child all by herself. The winter spirit had to wonder if the moon had led her to him intentionally.
"It's all right," He said, in an effort to soothe her, "I'm a bit lost too. But I promise I will look after you and try to help you get home, okay?"
Jack could never bring himself to just leave a child by themselves. It had happened a few times before. A child would be lost and start crying, and although they could never see him or hear him, Jack would always stay by their side, trying to lead them home with frost patterns on the trees or just waiting till the child's parents found them. Of course, the child didn't always get found by their parents or anyone friendly. Sometimes they didn't get found at all.
But Katherine could see him and he knows that he would protect her from anything. Just then, the picture of a young girl with straight brown hair before his mind. But it left before it was gone. Strange, he thought, why did that feel so familiar?
He was pulled out of his reverie, by the feeling of something wrapping around his waist and the sound of a muffled 'Thank you' against his chest.
He could barely register what was happening. Someone was...touching him. They didn't go straight through him, no cold and empty feeling rppied through his being. Never, in all his three years of existence, had anyone touched him. It was so comforting. It was familiar, and unfamiliar at the same time. But it wasn't uncomfortable, no, It just felt right. He knew that for Katherine, he must be freezing, but Jack knew that she needed that confort right now. And maybe so did he.
So, very carefully, he pulled his arms in closer to hold the girl in his cold but kind embrace. Jack did not know how long they stood there for, but eventually, Katherine pulled away (If Jack was disappointed, he tried not to show it). Her eyes were completely dry, but her cheeks and nose were still red from the cold.
"Sorry for crying on you." She apologisesd. "I know a lot of spirits don't like being touched by humans but…"
Jack gave her a comforting smile. "It's alright, you just surprised me a bit. No one has ever seen, heard or touched me before. You caught me a little off guard." He laughed to hide his whirling emotions, but Katherine's face fell in sadness.
"No one has ever seen you or even touched you? I'm sorry, I couldn't imagine what that's like." She gave a shudder, but not from the cold.
Jack just leaned on his staff, a sad smile on his face. "I got used to it."
Katherine opened her mouth as if to protest, but Jack cut her off before she could say anything.
"Now! How about we see if we can find the way back home for you, right?" Katherine looked a little put out for a bit, but she lightened up at the prospect of going home.
"Really? Thank you, Jack!"
"Alright then, I have no idea where we are going, but how about we re-trace your steps and go from there?" She nodded at this and started to lead him back the way she came.
And if she quickly slid her hand into his, he didn't comment on it.
{~}
Katherine really liked to talk.
She spoke about everything she could think of, never stopping for a moment.
Apparently, Santoff Claussen is a fairly small village, isolated from the rest of the world. It is protected and run by Ombric, a great old wizard who had been Katherine's guardian ever since he found her in the forest after her parents had died.
Oh, and apparently he was also a wizard.
She spoke to him about Big Tree, a large oak tree where she and Ombric lived that held a great library of all sorts of books.
That was another thing. Katherine absolutely loved to read. She read history books, science books, magic books, fiction and non-fiction. She had also taken it upon herself to learn other languages so she could read books in Greek and Latin and… Jack couldn't even keep up by the end of it.
When they reached the flower patch where Katherine had first gotten lost, she bounced in front of him, looking around the area.
Jack was about to ask her what the path should look like when a voice cried out.
"KATHERINE! KATHERINE WHERE ARE YOU?" It was a man's voice, and, despite sounding quite old, whoever it belonged to had quite a pack of lungs.
"That's Ombric's voice!" Katherine gasped. She searched around, trying to figure out where the voice had come from.
"OMBRIC!" She shouted. "I'M HERE BY THE LAVENDER PATCH! THERE'S NO NEED TO WORRY, I'M ALRIGHT!"
With that last comment, Jack had to wonder if this had perhaps happened before.
A rusling of leaves and bushes sounded from his left, and Jack and Katherine turned to face the owner of the loud voice.
He was an old man, with a very long white beard. His eyes were older than even his appearance, indicating that he had seen many things in his lifetime. He wore long dark blue robes, lined with a lighter blue on the edges. In his hand he held what appeared to be a walking stick, but upon further inspection, Jack noticed that it was in fact a staff.
Ombric eyes lingered on Katherine, a soft smile stretching upon his weathered face and relief shining in his eyes, before turning to face the spirit whom his charge was still holding hands with. He frowned, assessing Jack, trying to determine what he was doing there and who he even was.
Thankfully, Katherine broke the silence before it could get awkward. "U-um, Ombric, this is Jack Frost. Jack, this is Ombric."
Sadly, she had let go of his hand at this point, but still stood next to Jack, for which he was grateful.
"Um, hi!" Nice going Jack, way to make a first impression on the second person who appears to be able to see you. If it turns out that there are multiple people who can see him, Jack thinks that he may have to seriously work on his social skills.
"Jack Frost," The old wizard mused, "I do not think I have heard that name before. Tell me, are you a new spirit?"
"I am, I only came to being around three years ago." And how long ago that felt now. It seemed like more than a century had passed since he emerged from the lake.
Ombric seemed to contemplate his words. "I see, and you are a winter spirit, I assume?"
"Correct." At least, he thinks so.
Katherine chose this point to butt back into the conversation. "Jack volunteered to get me back home despite being lost too."
Ombric seemed to contemplate this for a while before speaking up again. "Then I suppose I should thank you, Jack Frost, for looking after Katherine. She is quite the troublesome child sometimes." He said the last part while glancing back down at the little girl at Jack's side.
"It was no problem," Jack said, "I'm just glad that she's alright. Although, I have to ask, who's idea was it to make a little girl go wandering around the forest by herself?" He was still a bit miffed at that part.
Ombric had the decency to look ashamed at that. "That would be me. I was making a special potion, you see, and had need of lavander. Katherine was the only person available at the time who could get it for me. I didn't know she would get lost, as she's been here before." He turned to Katherine, who was looking more and more put out by his words. "I do apologise, child, if I had known this would happen I would have sent one of the adults or an older child with you. You were lucky to find someone who was willing to help you."
Katherine shook her head, her long curls bouncing with the movement. "It's not your fault, you didn't know. It's more mine for getting lost. And besides, like you said, I had Jack to help me!"
She smiled up at the winter spirit, who returned his own grin back.
"Well," Ombric smiled again, "I believe it is much past the time of a certain young lady's bed time, wouldn't you agree katherine?"
"Not at all!" The young lady in question replied, just before giving a huge yawn. Jack couldn't help but laugh, Katherine really was a fun little girl.
Ombric raised his eyebrows and turned to Jack, the look on his face seemed to say 'Can you believe this child?' "Now, now, you always complain about going to sleep, but in the mornings you complain about waking up! Young people these days are notorious for it."
Jack realised that this was where they parted ways, as they most likely would not want a cold spirit like him to linger about. "I suppose I should leave you to it then. Take care, and don't get lost again, Katherine."
"Wait! You're not going far are you, I was hoping I could speak to you again." Katherine looked to him with a crestfallen expression that made him want to immediately wrap her up in his arms again until she smiled.
"Well, I-"
Ombric interrupted him. "Why not stay the night at least? I have never had a conversation with a winter spirit before, and I think you might like the company."
Jack wondered if that was all Ombric wanted, or if the wizard wanted to make sure that Jack truly meant no harm to Katherine.
If he left, he wasn't even sure he would know where to go, or how to get back. But if he stayed, he had no idea what would await him in that village full of believers. Would it be everything he wished for? Or would it overwhelm him?
Decisions like these are hard to make, and, for some reason, Jack knew that this was an important one.
"Alright," He decided, "I think some company might be quite nice."
Ombric's smile grew wider, and Katherine's sleepy grin made it easier to stay with his decision. Especially when she took his hand.
And so, the three of them emerged from the dark forest, into a village of Magic, Stories, Fun, Wonder, Hope, Memory, Dreams and Light.
No one knew what would happen next, and perhaps that, for now, was a good thing.