Author's Note: I know, I know! You are all probably saying "But she said she felt bad about delaying the plot! Why are we getting an interlude?!" Before you all start rioting, I have to tell you that the next chapter is almost done. I just have an uncooperating Jasper to wrangle with and then it will be finished. I don't want to end it until all the painting is done with and since it's already almost 9 pages long, it could turn out to be another long one. The chapter after that won't stop until Pitch and Co. are settled back down at home. I don't know how long that will be since my chapters have a tendency to go out of control and be longer than I plan. So the plot is most likely going to resume two chapters away from now.
The idea for this Interlude popped into my head when I was reading early chapters of Child of Spring. I often have to go back and look up information I had previously written since I have too many chapters to keep it all straight in my head. Plus sometimes even I like to go back and reread it just for the fun of it. :P Anyway, I had hinted about Jack's wavering belief after a Christmas when I had been writing about the blue lights and explaining about the first one before the second one popped up. I never explicitly said it was North's fault, but it was implied.
So of course after that, I had to write about Jack's first Christmas and the incident with his blue light appearing in Antarctica in more detail. I have to warn you that this chapter is very sad, but it will feature a young Jack Frost, who still hasn't gotten his hoodie yet. I think I might intersperse the current chapters with peeks into Jack's hundreds of years of solitude. I think it would be interesting to see how Jack met each of the Guardians (or in Tooth's case, one of her fairies).
Sorry to keep you all in suspense about the actual plot, but I hope you like this interlude anyway.
Interlude Sixteen: Over 300 Years Ago
Over three hundred years ago, Jack Frost had been created. He hadn't realized the significance of his creation, or even in fact, what he was. He had landed on the ice on his lake and discovered a staff nearby his feet and soon discovered that he could use it to make frost.
It had taken Jack a long time to finally master his powers and figure out that he was supposed to be spreading Winter everywhere, but only when it was in season. It had also taken Jack quite a few years to finally master flying without falling out of the air. The Wind seemed to have a mind of its own and hadn't taken kindly to Jack ordering it about.
Now, however, Jack could fly freely wherever he wished as long as he asked the Wind nicely. It loved to take the winter child wherever he wanted to go and seemed to enjoy having him fly fast while occasionally having him do dives playfully. The Wind seemed to be as playful as Jack, and Jack was glad to have the Wind to talk to. He had been very lonely without a friend.
It was when Jack was wandering around a town that he had first heard about the Guardians. Or more specifically, Christmas. Jack was still wearing the same outfit he had come out of the lake in, and it was now winter time. He was lazily twirling his staff while listening in on some kids' conversations.
The children were young and had stopped in the snow to build a snowman. There had been a lot of shrieks of laughter and much snow throwing while they had done so, and after the snowman had been built, they settled down into excitedly talking about Christmas.
"I cannot wait!" a small girl squealed happily. "I know Santa will come! Mother said he would, and I have been extra good this year."
The boy, who was a little older, nodded eagerly as well.
"I helped Father chop the wood for winter," he said proudly. "I have done as he said and I know Santa will come. He only visits good kids after all."
Jack stopped twirling his staff as he looked intrigued. There was someone called Santa that came to the good children in town?
"What presents will he bring?" the girl wondered out loud. "I really hope it is a doll. I have always wanted one."
"It could be a new dress," the boy said in a teasing tone.
"What are you to get?" the girl asked him with a smirk of her own. "New boots?"
The children both took a look at their own faces after such declarations and burst out laughing. It wasn't long after that, that their parents both called out to them and the children ran off.
Jack looked interested in all this. Santa came to good children and gave them presents? Jack paused to think about what he had done and a smile grew on his face. He had spread winter without fail and had started a lot of good snowball fights.
True, sometimes he had spread Winter out of turn, but that had been before he had really gotten the hang of his powers. Now he could spread Winter with ease and since the Wind and he had finally become friends, things were so much easier.
Unfortunately, it was those incidents before he had learned to fully control his powers that had Jack Frost labeled as a terrible prankster, who only liked to play tricks. The spirit world that had once been interested in Mistral's replacement had completely dismissed Jack after his so-called "pranks" and now had nothing to do with him.
Jack hadn't quite realized that of course, since to him he had only made a few mistakes and new spirits were allowed to make some mistakes, right?
It had taken Jack until that next year after he had been born to realize that there were other spirits in the world. That spring after his first winter, he had managed to get on Leif's bad side by accidentally making it snow on the first day of spring.
In fact, Jack had managed to get on almost all the Seasonals' bad sides that year after his first winter. Too used to Mistral and his harsh, unforgiving winters, the Seasonals hadn't given Jack a chance to explain that it wasn't on purpose.
Jasper, in particular, had yelled some very harsh things to Jack after Jack had accidentally made a blizzard form right over a forest where Jasper had been painting fall leaves. Jack had been amazed to see another spirit that so looked like him and had wanted to get to know him better, but after the snow started falling and Jasper had started yelling, Jack had made a hasty retreat, the Wind jerkily flying him away after Jack had ordered it to.
Now it was a few years after that and Jack was hardly five years old as a spirit. He grinned to himself and asked the Wind to take him home. The wind complied by lifting the winter child into the air after ruffling his hair affectionately with a breeze.
Jack laughed as he soared through the sky, feeling more free than he ever had. His brown cloak flapped behind him and his blue eyes sparkled in delight. It wasn't long before the wind set him down by the lake that he had first woken up from.
Jack had always felt a pull to the place where he had been born and often returned there in the winter. He hated to see the water unfrozen in the lake and couldn't even explain to himself why the thought of thin ice made his heart beat faster.
Jack often snuck back throughout the year when he could stand it, just to make sure the water was still frozen. The residents of the nearby town of Burgess hadn't failed to notice this strange phenomenon and had decided that the lake was cursed. They decided that the spirit of the boy who had drowned was unhappy and so the residents tried to avoid the lake as often as possible.
Not knowing anything about this, Jack rushed off to the town after the Wind had him land. He felt the breeze flutter around him as the Wind seemed to be exasperatedly telling him that she could have brought him to the town if he wanted to.
Jack had laughed and said that sometimes it was good to get exercise. Once he was in town, Jack set about spying on all the children and their families, to see if he could confirm that Santa would come here as well. He needed to find out more about this Santa and when he would come.
A week later, Jack had learned all that he needed to. Santa came on Christmas Eve and only if you were asleep in bed. If you left Santa a letter and some milk and cookies, he would leave you gifts if you had been good that year.
Jack had been so excited that he was practically bouncing around as Christmas Eve approached. He wished he had known about Santa years ago, so he could have seen him before. Jack knew he was young for a spirit since all the other ones he had seen had looked older than him. Jack also knew that he wasn't a small child, yet he wasn't an adult either. He felt that this qualified him to have a visit from Santa as well.
So it was that Christmas Eve that Jack had settled down by his lake to write out a letter. He had brushed snow off a particularly large flat rock near his lake and carefully wrote out a letter on a borrowed scrap of parchment with an ink and quill.
It read:
Dear Santa,
I have been very good this year. I now have all my winter powers under control and the Wind is one of my very best friends. She looks out for me and I try my best to treat her well. I heard from the children in town that you visit good children and bring them gifts. I would very much like to have a special gift from you. I do not know what I want, but I know if it is from you, it will be the best gift in the world.
I have no cookies nor milk to leave out for you since I have no stove or any glasses for milk but I hope you like this small ice sculpture instead.
Sincerely,
Jack Frost
Jack had pondered where to put the note and had finally settled on carefully folding it and leaving it tucked under the ice sculpture on the flat rock he had used as a writing surface. The ice sculpture had been of a miniature sleigh. It was what he thought Santa's sleigh must look like and he thought the delicate ice had been the best creation he had ever done.
It had taken him several days to complete and even the Wind had thought the ice sculpture was quite good. Jack had grinned to himself at that and his good mood continued all the way until Christmas Eve.
Now it was night time and Jack had settled down in his favorite sleeping tree to eagerly sleep the night away. And like all children all over the world, Jack fell asleep to have happy dreams of what he would get from Santa that Christmas.
The next morning, Jack awoke when the first rays of the sun shone brightly onto his face. Jack leapt down from his tree branch, his fall softened hastily by the Wind that blew a little harshly in a reprimand for him to be more careful.
Jack grinned cheekily at that and hurried over to the rock where he had left his present for Santa. He just knew that Santa had come and -
Jack stopped abruptly when he saw the miniature sleigh was still there, a scrap of folded paper tucked carefully underneath. With trembling fingers, Jack gently picked up the ice sculpture and then the scrap of paper.
The sculpture fell out of his hands, but Jack hardly heard the tinkling of broken ice as he saw his own handwriting staring back at him from the scrap of paper. The lines of the paper grew wavery as a crushing disappointment filled him.
It began to snow as Jack grew more emotional and soon a harsh blizzard was starting. Wanting to help the winter child, the Wind had picked him up and carried him at top speed to Antarctica. She knew that Jack couldn't remain near Burgess when his powers were as out of control as his emotions.
When she had set Jack down in the snow of the desolate land, Jack had fallen to his knees. His shoulders shook as sobs wracked his frame, frozen tears trailing down his cheeks.
He had thought that Santa would come and that finally, he would have someone other than the Wind that would be able to see him and be his friend. The children had spoken of Santa with such admiration that Jack had thought that Santa would understand about his spreading Winter, unlike all the other spirits he had seen.
The more he had heard about this mysterious Santa, the more Santa had grown in his eyes to be a sort of hero that would solve anyone's troubles. He would spread joy and wonder throughout the town and finally, Jack would be able to experience it too.
That illusion had been shattered the moment Jack had seen his own handwriting staring back him from the scrap of paper. His belief that Santa would make everything better had been almost snuffed out before it had hardly begun.
As Jack sat there sobbing in the snow, the wind howling around him in a sorrowful gale, he wondered not for the first time, what it was that he had done wrong to have everyone hate him so.
North had been happy at yet another successful Christmas and had complimented his yetis and elves on yet another job well done. He had just gotten back and had a mug of eggnog in his hands when he wandered over the globe. He had been very happy to spread so much joy and wonder all around the world, and seeing all the happily shining golden lights made his heart swell with happiness. As he thought back to the naughty and nice children of the world, his thoughts drifted to the Naughty List.
Jack Frost had been at the top of the Naughty List for several years and this had been the year that he finally gave up on Jack ever changing and had underlined Jack's name in red ink. He hadn't even stopped to think as he did so that it was supposed to be impossible for spirits to appear on the list, and that only children showed up on it anyway.
As he stood in front of the globe, North's eyes wandered over the golden lights and he wondered what had become of the lone blue one.
It had been a curious thing, but he had noticed around five years ago that a blue light had appeared. It had first been a little dim, but he noticed as the years wore on that the light had become brighter and brighter.
North had no idea why this particular light was blue, but he had been glad that whoever this child was, that their belief was growing stronger. He had been very pleased this year in particular as he saw the light shine the brightest it ever had.
So it was a complete shock when he finally spotted the blue light in Antarctica in all places, the light extremely dim and flashing as the mysterious child wavered on the very edge of belief.
North had dropped his mug in shock and rushed right off to set off the aurora to call the Guardians to him. He only hoped that they weren't too late.
Bunny had been the first to appear and had rushed right over to the distraught North.
"What's wrong?!" Bunny practically shouted at North. "What is it?! Pitch?!"
North shook his head quickly at Bunny and was about to explain when Tooth and Sandy both flew in, almost crashing into one another in their haste. They rushed over by North and Bunny and both began speaking at once, Tooth going a mile a minute and Sandy with several golden symbols rapidly appearing over his head.
"Is blue light!" North cried out in dismay. "Look!"
They all looked at the globe as North gestured and Tooth gave a gasp of dismay as Bunny's ears went back. Sandy bowed his head as they all looked at the light, on the edge of going out and losing its belief forever.
"We have to help that child. I do not know how they came to be in such a place, but we must save them!" North said in a rush.
Sandy got a look of determination on his face and before the others could say anything, he had flown off as fast as he could on his golden cloud.
Sandy had been taken by surprise when he reached Antarctica to see the worst blizzard he had ever seen covering almost the entire continent. He had almost been blown right off his cloud and with all the snow and strong wind, he had practically no visibility and no hope of finding much of anything.
He had stubbornly stayed there for more than an hour, but he hadn't been able to find anything or hear any children whatsoever.
Looking very defeated, Sandy had flown back to North's and relayed the news of what he had seen.
Tooth's wings had grown still and she dropped her head into her hands.
"What are we going to do?!" she wailed into them, her voice muffled. "We have to help that child!"
But none of the Guardians could think of what to do to help the blue light. They had held a vigil in the globe room for two days. Two nerve wracking days, as the blue light flickered. The flickers had grown further and further apart as disbelief had started setting in.
They knew it was only a matter of time before the light went out.
Then, on what was to be the third day, Bunny had blearily looked at the globe. He was completely exhausted as none of them had gotten any sleep at all, so it took him a moment for what he was seeing to finally register.
The blue light had moved.
"The light!" he shouted, startling them all.
The others rushed right over and they all stared at the blue light. It was so very dim, but it had stopped flickering. It was rapidly moving away from Antarctica. As it seemed to move from country to country at incredible speeds, the Guardians all stared at one another in shock.
What was this light?
Jack had been inconsolable for two days, as he alternated between crying and staring off into space. He had taken to laying in the snow, letting the Wind rage around him as she cried out for her winter child.
It had been that third day when Jack had just finished crying and was now looking despondently up into the whirling snow all around him that the Wind had finally settled down and stopped raging all around him.
She ruffled Jack's hair and he heard the Wind whispering to him, offering the comfort that he needed as she told him that he wasn't bad. She offered that perhaps Santa was too busy with the children of other towns, and she also pointed out that they all had houses, while Jack had none.
The thought of not having a true home hadn't exactly cheered Jack up, but he realized that perhaps that Santa did exist after all. All those children wouldn't be so excited if there hadn't been any Santa. When Jack had been so upset, he had started to lose his belief, doubting that there had ever been a Santa.
But now his belief had come back, a light, fragile thing that wouldn't take much to be broken. With a heavy heart, Jack had asked the Wind to take him away.
And so it was at least thirty years before Jack had the confidence to try contacting another spirit again.
But with the Wind always there as his constant companion, Jack's depression had slowly lifted and his life had returned back to the way it had been. Winters had once again become filled with fun and snowball fights, but Jack had never forgotten his very first Christmas and he never wrote to Santa again until over two hundred years later.
Author's Note: Sorry about all the sadness. I can't help it when I get the urge to write something and I just had to write this for some reason. Even though it's pretty sad, I like looking into Jack's early life as a spirit. We're just lucky that Jack wasn't actually alone for an entire 300 years in this fic, since Lillian and Pitch cut his time short in 1968.
The next chapter will be out hopefully before the weekend's over. If not, then definitely sometime next week. Anyway, let me know what you thought of this one!
Oh, and the next Interlude will feature what happened thirty years later when Jack tried contacting another spirit. It won't be as sad, I promise.
Edit: Got my timing a little confused at the end. Jack wrote to Santa on Lillian's behalf well before Rise of the Guardians, so it was over TWO hundred years and not three. Whoops!
