Ch. 4 – Solid Ice Does Not Lead to Solid Friendship
It took a while before Jack was able to control himself again and form a plan. Winter was a strange mix of light snows, blizzards, ice storms, and clear sunny days. The odd weather continued into Spring. Jack vaguely recalled his out-of-control emotions causing a blizzard on Easter Sunday, the day of which he only knew because the Easter Bunny had found him standing by his lake and yelled at him for it. Winter's child had ignored Easter's messenger and flown to the North Pole, to Nicholas St. North's home of Santoff Clausen. He was going to need to 'borrow' a few things from the workshop.
Jack didn't rebuild his Snow People. He loved them, he loved them as he had loved the villagers all those years ago. But his Snow People were too fragile. Without him, they were defenseless.
And without them, Jack was alone.
He was a child. He was young, and eager for fun and games, but invisible to everyone who would play with him. He needed friends, but the only ones he could have were the ones he created.
He was a child and like all children, he learned by observing things around him. Through those observations, Jack would create a friend who would be strong enough to survive, even if he wasn't around.
***********************Some Ideas Need to Bake Fully, First***********************
It took a great deal of time and stealth, but eventually Jack was able to borrow a wide array of tools for his project. He had been thrown out of Santa's Workshop more times than he could count, never seeing the jolly spirit but getting to know some of his Yetis quite well. Phil was his favorite. The furry creature was vigilant and always caught Jack before the boy could acquire more than one or two tools, but he also had the gentlest touch and was careful to toss Jack out a door or window and directly into a large snowbank. The other Yetis, while never intending to do so, sometimes threw him at a hidden rock or ice block, or once so hard that Jack went over a cliff before the Wind caught him.
But it was alright. Each accidental bruise or scrape only lent to his elation as he flew back to his lake and hid another chisel or hammer, a little saw or pick, a soft bristled brush or a multi-pronged chipper. He gathered until he had everything he thought he would need. Then, he observed.
He watched Santa through the windows of his private workshop as the older spirit carved massive blocks of ice into small, delicate looking toy prototypes. Jack couldn't get close enough to see the finer details of the sculptures, though, so he soon moved on.
He drank in the sight of the dolls of little girls, the toy soldiers of little boys, and the nutcrackers that were used to decorate home around Christmas. When these things were broken or lost, Jack retrieved them and took them to his horde by the lake where he could more closely examine them. But still they did not provide Jack with the information he needed.
He traveled the world. In India, where he capped mountains with snow, Jack found statues of many-armed beings. In Egypt, where a dusting of frost was needed, he saw strange carved pictures alongside more statues. In Britain, where he covered whole cities with snow and ice, he discovered marionette dolls. Puppets on strings who had joints. It was those puppets that most inspired him.
A request to the Wind had one of those flexible dolls torn from an adult man's hands and brought to Jack's. It, too, made its way to Jack's horde by his lake, where he spent hours, days, weeks, even months, carefully learning every detail of the toy. How the shoulder joints differed from the knee and thighs; how the facial features were overly large and exaggerated, causing Jack to frown and instead turn to the more accurate dolls and soldiers; how the fingers and toes didn't move at all, something that Jack was determined to rectify when he built his…
…his friend.
Ice was his medium. He froze blocks from the lake and hauled them onto the shore. His staff propped against a tree, the same tree he had slept in as his Snow People were destroyed, Jack took up his tools and got to work.
Slowly, the ice took on the shapes of limbs that were connected in the snow. Perfect balls of ice were slotted in to hollowed out crevices to form elbows and knees. Carefully crafted finger and toe joints were fitted together like puzzle pieces. As each limb was locked onto the carved torso, a young man about Jack's age was made. The head was the last thing to be carved and attached.
The neck Jack made too long and rounded at the top. The head bore a hollowed out base, deep enough that when he placed it on the neck, it sat perfectly on the body without the threat of falling off. The two pieces slotted together easily, and Jack tested his craftsmanship by pushing the head up and down, backwards and forwards, giving the life-size marionette the ability to agree or disagree.
Jack smiled and ran his fingers over the carved lines that made up the short-cropped hair, the etchings that formed eye sockets, irises and pupils, the faint cracks that created smiling lips. He touched the ears, lifted the arms, flexed the elbows, fingers, every delicate joint until he was satisfied. He sat back on his heels and admired the ice-formed body that laid on a bed of snow. Then, and only then, did Jack reach down, wrap his thin arms around his friend –
-Justin-
-and pulled him to his icy feet.
At least, he tried to. But no matter how carefully Jack had carved each joint, no matter how much care he took to ensure his Ice Friend could move and be moved freely, Jack had failed to take one detail into account. One small, but very important detail: an entire body made of solid ice was incredibly heavy.
No matter how hard he pulled, pushed, pleaded with Justin, the ice boy could not be moved. Jack sat beside his almost-friend and pulled his knees to his chest, chin resting upon them as he gazed forlornly at his failure. Jack was small and light. He had to be light for the Wind to be able to move him so effortlessly. He had to be in order to balance on his staff's Sheppard's crook, or to walk in freshly fallen snow without leaving behind so much as a faint footprint. While this had never bothered Jack before, now he saw that he would never be able to lift and move his Ice Friend.
Which, of course, meant that he wouldn't be able to move Justin to a place where Winter ruled and there was never a fear of melting or being murdered by cruel not-children. Come Spring, Justin's frozen body would melt, and Jack would be alone again.
The Winter Child buried his face in his knees and cried for the friend he had doomed to death.
*******************Heavy Ice Leads to Heavy Hearts, Dear Boy******************
A/N: Well…that was a bit more depressing that I intended it to be. Shorter, too. Still, moving along, my dearlings! Next chapter will have the story's namesake (I hope), or at least the beginnings of it all.
That being said, my classes start back up tomorrow, so…I'm not sure if I'll be able to update more, just to escape the stupid people I'll inevitably be dealing with in my classes (EX: "Who's Abraham Lincoln?" – A real question in a US History course. "What's a 'Benedict Arnold'?", which was answered with "A type of eggs." – From another history course. "I can't read this ****! It's like freaking bible writing. Why can't we read normal stuff, like Twilight?" – From a World Literature Before 1500 class. Yup), or if I'll be updating less because of the amount of work I'll be doing (FINAL YEAR OF SCHOOL!...so many senior classes…) But I shall do my very best to keep this moving along with updates at least every few days, a week at the most.
Now then: Reviews –
Eternal She-Wolf: Thank you, dearling!
Kaylessa: Yes. Yes they were. And yes, there is significance behind a few of the names – "Piper" is a play off of Pippa, the usual name given to Jack's little sister, based, I think, on something in the film's credits. "Ryan" is the name of my housemate. I needed a boy's name, looked up, he was there, and I said "I'm naming one of Jack's Snow People after you." He gave me a rather confused look, but did not pry. "William" has no meaning beyond the fact that I'm pretty sure it's a name that would have been common enough for Jack to have heard. "Emery" was chosen because, according to one site, it was a unisex name, and Jack and I couldn't decide if there should be more boys than girls or if they should be even, so Emery was named so he/she could be both and a name change would never be needed. "Kayla"….if you don't know why "Kayla" was chosen, you are a sad, sad little Elf.
Rose O' Sharon: The Plot, she thickens like a delicious pot of Crab and Corn Chowder. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Em: Thank you! Ch. 3 wasn't my favorite, but, yes, it was necessary for plot (and writing) development.
Now for the part I know you all love most: THE RECOGNITION!
My Sweet Favs: Crazy-insane-original-person45, DannysaysRAWR ("ROAR" says I in reply), Liberty-Chan-123, Lonemachine, RinzlerIsTron123, Rose O' Sharon, SiriuslyScarredforLife (WHY are you scarred, dearling!? I must know!), Whisper119, lurkerlaine (Where do you lurk, kitling?), and xXIchigoAngelXx
My Dear Followers: DannysaysRAWR, EpicDetour9 (Is it Cloud 9 that we detour to?), Fumi-chan, Kaylessa, Lonemachine, Rose O' Sharon, SarahRB2-10, SiriuslyScarredforLife, TheNineTailedKitsume, The Sapphire Dolphin, ieatlorriesforbreakfast, and xXIchigoAngelXx
My Wonderful Reviewers of Ch. 3 (and 1, in one instance): Eternal She-Wolf, Kaylessa, Rose O' Sharon, and Em.
Yes, some of those names were repeated. That's because they were on more than one list. If I wanted, I could delete the repeats but…I don't want to. Mwahahahahahahaha!
Oh, the name "Justin" for the Ice Friend: That's just a random name that popped in to my head. It is not a name I like or don't like, merely what came to the forefront of my thoughts as I thunked "What should we name him, Frostie Toes?" So….Okay, I love you, Good-bye!
*waves enthusiastically*
Oh, and just so you know: Every time I get an email alert saying someone else is following/faved/reviewed Snowdrop, I'm hit with so much Happy. But then, THEN, I had a notification that I, the writer, was faved and followed. .0 Lonemachine…Lonemachineand Kaylessa…You two…TT_TT I bask in your follows! Baaaaaaaaaaaaask in them!
So…so….I'm going to use you two for an experiment! Yes, my first two followers for me, you have been chosen! The experiment: Have you a Drabble you'd like me to (attempt) to write for you? An idea, a dream…a word that sounds funny that you want a short story written around? I'd like to give you both something special for your love. And if it works, if I'm able to do it, then We May Have A Special Thing Going On Every Few Chapters For Every One!
And now I'm done. *waves enthusiastically* Good-bye, my dearlings!