Snowflakes and Moonbeams
Chapter One: A Walk in the Woods
The house stood in the silence of the morning, a lovely white snow covering its rooftop. Icicles dangled delicately from the gutters. Inside, a girl slipped on her gray coat and walked out the back door of the house. She stopped for just a moment to look at the winter scene that rested before her. It looked like something from a greeting card. A beautiful Monday morning, made even more beautiful by the announcement that school had been canceled for the day. She hated to ruin this peacefulness, but she couldn't help but step out into the snowy lawn. Winter was her absolute favorite time of the year, and there was no way she could allow herself to sit in the house while a perfect snow day waited just outside her door.
She walked through her yard toward the edge of the wood that expanded for acres and acres behind her home. As she began to venture through the forest, a few flurries started to drift down through the air. She stopped and smiled. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath of the cold winter air. It stung her nose slightly, but it was a refreshing sensation.
She continued to walk, her worn sneakers trudging through the sparkling snow. The scant flakes began growing and multiplying. She smiled at all of the fat little flakes fluttering past her and catching in her long hair. Suddenly, something in the distance caught her eye. It was a deep, yet bright, blue and it was moving quickly through the trees. Being a particularly curious girl, she had to follow it. It was odd to see such an unnatural shade of blue in the forest; she wanted to investigate. She wove between the tree trunks and skipped over fallen branches that were in her path. Finally, the figure paused in a place where she could see it more clearly. She froze behind a thick tree trunk, peeking out just enough to see whatever it was she had been following. To her surprise, she saw a boy. The blue blur she had been chasing was the hooded sweatshirt that he was wearing. He was standing many yards away and held a tall, hooked object that she couldn't identify from a distance. He appeared to have white hair, but the girl tried to convince herself that it was simply blond and covered in snow, as he looked far too young for it to really be white. She watched as the boy tapped a tree with the hooked object and a white frost swirled up the trunk. Her eyes widened. She froze in place, unblinking. The boy laughed, then started walking about with a carefree gait, frosting more trees as he went along. He let his eyes wander around quite a bit, like he was watching old memories play out in front of him. At one point, he turned his head in her direction. He seemed slightly shocked to see her looking at him. He looked to either side, and then behind him, checking to see if anyone else was around. He hesitated for just a moment before, to her shock, the boy seemed to hop upon the wind and disappeared into the sky. The sheer surprise of the sight sent her toppling backwards onto the cold, snowy ground. As she caught her breath, her head reeled. Had she really just seen that? Or was she dreaming? Hallucinating? She wasn't sure. All she knew was that her curiosity had been doubly sparked, her attention captured.
The entire way home, through her daily activities, during her dinner, and as she laid her head upon her pillow that night, she thought of nothing but that boy. As she slept, she dreamt only of him. She hardly heard a word that her teachers said the next day at school. She decided that she simply had to go back into the forest and try to spot him again. When she got home from school that afternoon, she threw her backpack into her bedroom, homework being the last thing on her mind, and made for the back door. She kept her eyes peeled as she hiked the same path which she had traveled the day before. Much to her dismay, she saw and heard nothing aside from the crunch of the snow, and the chittering of birds in the trees. She dragged her feet as she walked home, running through every possibility in her head; perhaps she was being tricked by some kids from school. Or maybe she had eaten something bad and experienced a strange and vivid vision. Or maybe, she thought with disappointment, she had dreamt the entire thing.
That night and the next day felt like someone had hit the repeat button on her life. Go to school. Spend the day in a blur of confusion and thought. Search the woods. Be disappointed. The next day, Thursday, appeared to be headed in the same direction as the others. If I don't see him today, she thought, I should give up looking.
As she traversed the forest after school that afternoon, she almost lost hope of seeing the boy again. Just as she was about to give up and go home, she heard an odd thumping from somewhere in the trees above her. She looked up, and there he was! The boy who had consumed her every thought for the past four days was perched in the bare tree branches overhead, the strange hooked object in his hand once more. Just as he had before, he tapped the hook on the tree, and frost appeared as if by magic.
"HEY!" she yelled without stopping to think about it first. The boy's gaze shot down to her, his eyes wide with surprise. She maintained eye contact with him, but suddenly found herself at a loss for what to do next. He looked back at her, shimmying a few inches to the side. When her gaze followed him, he cocked his head to the left and leapt down to the ground. As he approached her, she felt the urge to run away. It was, of course, a suspicious thing to find a stranger sneaking around in the forest – in her forest – in such a way. But that biting curiosity kept her in place.
He came very close to her. He held onto the hooked object – she now saw that it was an old staff of some kind – tightly as he came nearer. His face expressed disbelief, as though he wasn't sure if she was real or not. The boy was standing right in front of her, yet he leaned his neck in until his face was only inches from hers. He squinted his shining blue eyes at her as she leaned backwards to put some distance between them. She found it awkward and difficult to only focus on his eyes, so she studied the faint little freckles that were scattered on his cheeks.
While she stood there, panicking, he kept looking at her. He concentrated on her large brown eyes, noticing the strange blue flecks that surrounded her pupils. She parted her lips like she wanted to say something, but no sound came out.
"Can... can you see me?" the boy asked, breaking their silence with his raspy voice. She nodded slowly with confusion. A crooked smile spread across the mysterious boy's face. He chuckled. It was the sort of laugh that makes you trust someone. She relaxed a bit.
"Is that how you usually start a conversation?" she said a bit nervously, with one eyebrow raised.
"With someone your age? Most definitely," he said.
"My age? And what are you, about nine months older than me?" she countered. The boy smiled.
"Maybe a proper introduction would clear things up." He held out his right hand. "I'm Jack." She took his ice-cold hand and lightly shook it with uncertainty. She became very quiet, thinking of the frost that had appeared at the touch of the staff. "And you are...?" Jack helped her along.
"Luna," she said cautiously. "How did you do that?" she asked, a deep stare still settled in her eyes.
"Do what?" He furrowed his brow.
"... The frost!" she said, her face suddenly snapping into a more alert expression. "How did you make that happen?"
"I guess that introduction wasn't so proper after all." The boy laughed. "I'm Jack Frost."
"Jack Frost..." she said under her breath. Jack grinned. "Does this, by any chance, just happen to be some kind of cruel joke?" she asked. She was smiling, but her brows were still furrowed at the peculiar and somewhat frightening situation.
"What do you think?" said Jack as he touched his staff to another tree. Shimmering frost quickly spread over the bark, and Luna glanced at him with one eyebrow slightly raised.
"I think I'm just crazy enough to believe in things like Jack Frost, even at 'my age.'"
"Obviously, or else you wouldn't be able to see me right now," said Jack.
"What do you mean?" asked Luna as she put her fingertips to the frost, as if checking to see that it was real.
"A mortal can only see me if they believe that I'm real. You can see me, so you must believe in me. Thanks for that," he said with a genuine smile. "So how exactly can you see me? You're a little old, don't you think?" he teased.
"Whoa there, pal," she said, jokingly raising her hands. "Don't throw around the term 'old' just yet. I'm not even sixteen. And, for you information, I tend to live in my own impossible dreams more than I live in the real world," she said matter-of-factly.
"I'm in your dream world? I'm touched, really."
"Winter is my favorite season; it wouldn't be any fun if you weren't there."
"Oh, I'm flattered," Jack said with a dramatic hand on his chest and his head tilted to the side. Then he closed his eyes and straightened his back in the cockiest manner. "I am pretty great, huh?" he said jokingly.
"Yeah, you're wonderful," Luna said as she sent a snowball flying into his face. He looked at her, and a devilish grin danced across his lips.
"You'll pay for that," he said in mock-threat, wagging a finger at her. "My snowball-fighting skills are legendary."
"You clearly don't know what you're up against," Luna smirked. Jack made a snowball out of thin air and threw it into her face. "I hope you know that this means war," she said through a mouthful of snow.
"That's kind of what I was going for," Jack laughed. Within seconds, there were snowballs flying in all directions. Their battle was so light-hearted and silly that Jack almost found it hard to believe that Luna was as old as she said she was. As the fight turned to talking, they settled into a pleasant conversation and they began to assemble a snowman together. By the time they were putting on the last piece (a stick for a nose), it had started to grow quite dark.
"Oh. I should probably get home. My mom and sister will be wondering where I am."
"You have a sister?" Jack asked with interest.
"Yeah. She's two years older than me," Luna replied, wiping snow off of her heavily-freckled face.
"Oh. Why didn't she come out with you?"
"She isn't much of a winter person. Let's just say snow isn't really her favorite thing in the world. No offense." Luna stood up and smoothed out her coat. Her wavy, brown hair was dripping with melted snow.
"None taken," Jack said as he stood up. "We should hang out again," he said with a smile, which Luna returned.
"Well, I'll make a deal with you," she said with a sparkle in her eyes. "If you can bring another snow day tomorrow to get me out of school, thereby granting me the sacred three-day weekend, then I'll agree to that." She raised her eyebrows in a manner that suggested mischief.
"Deal," Jack said with a laugh. "Maybe you could meet me here around mid-day tomorrow?"
"Perfect. See you tomorrow," said Luna. The two said goodbye and went their separate ways.
As Luna started to walk back down the trail toward her house, she couldn't help but smile the entire way.
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