CHAPTER 4
AUTUMN DUSK
Standing at the pinnacle of the mountain range, Jack breathed in the fresh air and blew out a dusting of snow onto the fresh layer he'd added a couple weeks ago. Snowflakes dazzled like stars in the pink dusky sky. Below, Song-Kul lake reflected the stars twinkling like a thousand candles through a pink stain glass window. Jack grinned with anticipation and touched the ground with his staff, letting a jolt of ice solidify the fresh blanket of powder he'd just laid.
"Ready, set, go!" Jack shouted to the stars and snowflakes.
On a sheet of ice he'd formed below his feet, he leaned over the edge. The bite of cold kissed his cheeks and he let out a holler of pure excitement. The rocky landscape flashed before his eyes as he twisted his ice-snowboard down the mountainside. Outstretching his arms, the wind lifted him weightlessly into the fresh Kyrgyzstan air. He flipped and laughed, landing back down on the cliff and gaining speed, his lips pulling away from his teeth as he directed his final landing toward the lake. Quickly freezing the surface of his path along the water, Jack skidded across the ice on his back, gazing up as darkness set in, the sky now fully ablaze with stars and the full moon.
Ever since becoming a guardian over a year ago, Jack filled his days bringing fun to children. His life had purpose now. He no longer drifted the world, lost amongst a menagerie of beings who wandered unseen, blinking in and out of existence based on the times and humans' beliefs.
Lately, he'd taken to traveling where his fellow guardians recommended. Tooth's latest tip lead him to this breathtaking landscape. Through the memory in a tooth of a young nomad girl, Tooth had discovered the girl had suffered a mysterious loss of her younger brother on the same night the group had lost all their livestock. The group travelled each day with grief and growing hunger, making their way to other bases for trade and search. Even darker rumors had surfaced, however, that slowly the children had been disappearing too. In the morning, Jack would try to distract the children in a camp at the base of Song-Kul Lake from their hunger and anxiety with play.
He loved his work; and even more, he had fun. Nevertheless, since he became a gradian, his fellow guardians had guided him towards children who were sick, scared, hungry, hurt, lost, neglected, dying, and the list went on. At times, he felt completely helpless. He couldn't completely change the lives of the children he visited. However, he tried his best to provide a moment of courage, a respirate for play, and a memory of fun to last through hardships. To balance the duty and difficulties he did come across throughout the day, he started to set aside a small amount of time for himself to just have fun alone, rest, or explore a little. It helped to reset his mind and ponder new creative ways to bring fun about.
A clap of thunder and flash of blue eclipsed his vision of the starry dusk, shaking him from his reverie. Jack was shocked as he felt the icy water pull him under and déjà vu washed over him as he gazed up at the moon poking through the shattered film of ice above his eyes. He could not drown, his life no longer connected to humanly perils. However, it unnerved him floating within the water. He implored the wind to raise him up – but no answer. Panic seeping in, Jack began to swim upwards toward the moon. He broke through the ice with his staff and flung himself onto the shore. Although he couldn't die, he could injure himself and expend energy. After thanking the moon for not letting him drown, again, he sat up slowly. In front of his eyes a tall stone stood with a face etched into it, surrounded by a circle of smaller stones. Curious, Jack walked to the face in the stone. He decided he liked it, the serious demeanor. Unable to resist, however, Jack frosted a mustache onto the solemn ancient face and smiled, shaking the fear from his recent experience out of his mind as his finger traced the curly mustache. Thunder rolled and blue flashed before his eyes again as he passed out.
Jack awoke with a loud gasp, gulping crisp air into his lungs. With the full moon gazing down at him and the aurora borealis shimmering across the stary sky, Jack rolled onto his knees and felt a crunch of snow beneath him. Surprised, Jack quickly snapped his head up to take in his surroundings. He was standing in the center of what looked like a small stone henge atop a large hill, his graffiti mustache face nowhere to be found. Beyond, a frosted evergreen forest and ridges of jagged snow-capped mountains towered against the horizon. Jack felt scared. Usually when coming across portals of transport, he landed at the North Pole or Easter Bunny's realm. He felt the wind gust and a flurry of hail stung his cheeks.
"Okay, stay calm. Let's just explore. It might turn out to be fun!" Jack told himself and gazed up at the moon for courage.
He let out a sigh to calm his nerves and felt the hail turn into a light patter of snowfall.
"Where should I go?" Jack asked the moon.
The moon had taken pity on Jack long ago, on an evening when he'd drowned saving his sister. Only then had the moon ever talked to Jack, and that was simply to tell him his name.
While gazing at the moon, Jack could have sworn he saw a face with twinkling eyes and a thick curly beard wink at him. A ghostly arm of silver light appeared to toss a beam of light upon a path through the frozen forest of trees.
"I'll take that as a sign" Jack whispered to his former savior and leapt into the wind, letting the breeze carry him through a maze of trees with boughs drooping from the weight of snow. A flock of snow owls fluttered after him. Jack laughed as he began to crisscross between birch trees, watching the white-winging owls follow suit after him. The landscape was an icy wonderland, as if it were built just for him.
"Oof!" Jack groaned as he felt his back slam into a flat surface. He was halfway up another mountain, the tall hill with the mini stone henge a speck in the distance. Jack groaned and held his head in his hands. The family of owls gathered around tilting their heads back and forth. Jack smiled at their curiosity. He was curious too.
Turning around, Jack beheld the object of his obstruction to be none other than a door set in the center of a modest log cabin.
"Shall we?" Jack winked at the owls.
Cautiously, Jack knocked. No answer. He opened the door slowly and stepped into a spacious room piled with white blankets and pillows centered around a fire place tall enough for Jack to walk into on the back wall. Fresh-cut logs were set in the center of the fire place.
"Hello?" Jack called out, stepping into the room. Candles flickered to life from a great chandelier, casting a cozy glow throughout the room. Jack noticed other rooms off of the main chamber.
"Anybody here?" Jack shouted out again to silence.
The family of snow owls had taken up roost upon a particularly cozy woolen blanket.
"Good idea" Jack smiled at the owls as they nestled together and coed, eyes closing.
He was starting to feel sleepy himself, something that didn't happen all too often. He bundled up under a pile of fleece and pillows and tapped his staff upon the log in the fire place, causing icicles to grow up from the wood like flames. He liked to pretend he could feel warmth now and then. Jack drifted into a dreamless sleep listening to the comforting quiet patter of snow on a windowsill.
Jack awoke to the sound of crackling timber… and heat.
"Whoa!" Jack gasped, shaken from the oblivion of sleep to find his ice had been replaced by blue flames leaping and licking the air and casting dancing shadows within the dark cabin. An intense heat radiated from the flame that he hadn't felt since he'd been human. Entranced, Jack leaned closer, watching as the flames took shape in his imagination. He fancied he saw snowflakes in the flames, but the images kept shifting until the fire twisted into the shape of an elderly man with a long nose, curly beard, and lonely eyes. Jack grabbed his staff and pointed it at the man of flames, falling on his back and putting himself between the fire and sleeping owls. The flames continued to twist and grow upwards until the image of a full-sized man in shepherds-garb stood in the fireplace, staff and all. The man slowly nodded his head towards Jack and smiled kindly, his eyes beaming with brightness.
"It's you" Jack whispered, a thrill of awe sweeping through him.
Jack lowered his staff as he beheld the being who'd given him new life all those years ago, the Man on the Moon.