Ch. 5 – Spring is a Time of…
Jack stayed with Justin all winter, leaving only long enough to spread Winter to various locations around the world. Always, always, he hurried back to his immovable friend.
They couldn't play as Jack had played with his Snow People, but he could tell Justin stories. He could make his Ice Friend clothes and bedding out of snow, frost, and ice. Jack learned to make shoes and gloves, like what he saw on the humans –
-humans who had rebuilt over the crumbled remains of Jack's old village. Humans who didn't know or didn't care that their houses were built over the graves of Jack's loved ones –
-from his element. He made his friend fine garments like he saw on the royalty of England and China, or simpler tunics and breeches like Jack's own. He made a great frosty coat much like North's, and armor of ice reminiscent of Bunnymund. He decorated both of their fingers with rings bearing ice diamonds so massive Jack couldn't lift his own hand, and draped snow pearls around their necks.
As Spring drew near, Jack had very nearly perfected the art of making Snow Clothing and Jewelry. He could weave snow and ice together into clothe and sow it together with a needle of ice and threads of frost. Justin encouraged Jack's talent, marveling at the intricate designs the Winter Spirit stitched into the fabric. He encouraged Jack to try his hand at quilting, something Jack had told the other about after watching a group of women for weeks as they slowly pieced together a blanket so resplendent that Jack had cried at the sight of it.
"They gave it to a new mother," Jack recounted while carefully etching designs into a thin layer of ice over a cushion of snow, "She had a baby a few months ago, just after Christmas. She didn't have a blanket for the baby, though, so she kept it wrapped in her shawl. The other women made the blanket, the quilt, for the new baby. It's very pretty, Justin. Full of color and patterns and love." Jack turned his focus to Justin's eyes.
The Ice Friend blinked and smiled at him. "How do you fill a blanket – quilt –" he corrected himself when Jack lightly tapped the top of his head with a cold hand, "with love, Jackie boy?"
Jack smiled at the nickname. Justin like calling him 'Jackie boy.' It reminded Jack of the older brothers he saw, who doted and humored their little siblings and called them special names. He held the layer of ice up to the sunlight, scrutinizing the pattern he had carefully drawn before showing it to Justin. His friend's eyes crinkled, ice cracking around them, as he took in the intricate snowflakes Jack had etched. Then his lips spread in a broad grin and he nodded. Snow shifted under his head as he praised the design.
Jack's smile turned shy as he blushed, the blue tinge rising on his cheeks and spreading across his nose. "You really like it?" Justin nodded again enthusiastically, and Jack's smile widened. "That is how you fill a quilt with love, Justin. You make pretty pictures, images that mean something to you and to the person you're giving the quilt to, or you use fabric from clothes that hold some special meaning, like a wedding dress, and sew it all together. You put time and effort and thought into it, and that puts love in it."
Turning, Jack placed the square of ice on a small pile of ice and snow that rested on his brown cloak on the ground behind him. There were almost a dozen squares stacked under snow on his cloak. Each bore a different design or picture, depicting some significant even in Jack's life or else bearing the mark of his trade. More snow was scattered over the top of it before he turned back around. He was making Justin a snow-quilt, something to keep his friend cold and stave off Spring's warmth for just a little longer while Jack tried to figure out a way to move his friend to colder climates. Each patch was made of crystal clear ice. Snow would take the place of the cotton batting, and frost-threads would hold the whole thing together. He was infusing each patch and handful of snow with some of his own magic in an effort to keep it colder longer. The hope was that the blanket would last deep into Spring, maybe even make it through the Summer if Jack could find a way to shift Justin into a cave or some other shelter.
That was Jack's hope, anyway. Realistically, he didn't even know if he'd be able to finish it in time. It took a group of women a few months to finish a quilt. He was just Jack, a Winter Child who had never made a quilt before, who was trying to save the friend he knew already would die.
He was just a child. But he was determined.
*********************To Winter, Death Is Not Cold; It Is Warm******************
The quilt was not done, but Jack was out of time. Snow was melting, icicles were dripping, and Justin was shrinking.
The heat had hit Jack like a punch in the stomach when he returned to his lake around noon one day. Spring had begun for his little home, but Jack was still needed to spread winter in other areas of the world. He had flown as fast as inhumanly possible with the Wind's help, trying to hurry back to his friend's side and finish the quilt; trying to protect his friend from the fate Jack had inadvertently doomed him to.
When he had left the village that was built on the bones of his people, now called Burgess after its founder Thaddeus Burgess, there was still enough chill in the air to keep Justin safe. When he returned a day and a half later, there was no snow left except that which made up his friend's incomplete quilt, and Justin's hands and feet had melted away.
Jack sobbed harshly as he landed next to his friend and threw the half completed quilt over the dripping form. "No! Justin! Justin, hold on. It'll be okay, I'll…I'll get you somewhere safe and…and…" His voice trailed off as he slipped his arms under Justin's and heaved with all his strength. The ice body moved a few inches as Jack pulled him along slick mud and water. The Wind tried to help, but against a solid form like Justin's it had no power. Jack dug his feet into the muck beneath Justin and managed to move a few more inches before slipping in the mud. He landed with a wet 'thwack' on his back, then screamed in pain as Justin's form slammed onto his legs. There was a horrific 'crack' like a dry twig snapping, and white-hot agony flared up from his left ankle.
Hailstone tears rolled down his cheeks as he tried to force the ice body off of him. The Wind wailed and again tried to help, whipping the quilt away and attempting to force the solid form to roll over. Jack sobbed as he twisted beneath his friend and felt the bones of his ankle grind together.
"Jack!" Justin's anguished voice rang in the spirit's ears and head. Jack stilled and looked into the melting eyes of his friend, watching as tears dripped down the other's cheeks. "Jack," the voice was calmer now, but no less anguished. Jack hiccupped as he got his sobs under control. "Jack," Justin's head rolled on his neck before Jack stilled it between his pale hands, "Jackie boy, I'm sorry." Snow white hair flopped as the boy shook his head violently. Justin stopped him before Jack could respond. "Hush, little one, hush. Now listen," His right forearm slipped out of the joint, the left arm following soon after at the shoulder, "We both knew this was going to happen, Jackie boy. We both knew I wouldn't survive," Jack's sobs renewed and Justin soothed him again. When the child was once more reduced to hiccups, the Ice Friend continued, "We both knew it. But Jack…I love you. I wouldn't trade our time together for anything. Don't cry, Jack, please don't cry. You gave me life, Jack. Life! Even when we knew I wouldn't make it to next year, you gave me life. You brought me fun! You have a gift, Jackie boy. A wonderful gift. Don't let this destroy you. Come on, little one. Hey. Hey! Look at me!"
Jack had bent over Justin's form and hidden his face in his friend's shoulder. At the stern order, he returned his snowflake blue gaze to Justin's clear icy eyes.
Justin smiled. A crack split his left cheek from the corner of his lips to his ear, but still Justin spoke. "What do we do when we fall down, Jackie?" Jack's lip trembled as he remember the words a big brother had asked his little brother one day after the smaller had fallen off a horse. Pressing his forehead against Justin's nose so they remained eye-to-eye, Jack murmured his answer so softly the crackling of Justin's melting body swallowed the words. "What was that?" A teasing tone entered his friend's, his brother's, voice, "Speak up, Jackie boy. What do we do when we fall down?"
A great shuddering sob tore through Jack's form as he repeated his answer. "W-we get b-b-back up. We tr-try again-n-n."
Justin smiled wider and another crack spidered across his face. "That's right. We try again, and again, and again, until we get it right. You'll be alright. You're Jack Frost! You're the Bringer of Winter, the Giver of Snowballs and-"
Another crack sounded, more jarring than the others. Jack cried out in horror when he felt something shift under his hands and he hurriedly pulled back. Another scream tore itself from his throat as he watched Justin's lower jaw split and fall to the mud beneath them.
He screamed again and again as Justin's body continued to shatter. Pieces, big and small, broke away until Jack was left with nothing but a partial head in his lap and a few chunks of ice across his legs. Justin's eyes crinkled, seeming to smile sadly, and Jack heard clearly, one last time, "We get back up, Jackie boy. We always get right back up." Then with one final crack, the head split open.
Spring had come. And Jack was alone once again with his tears and his dead.
************Spring Brings Life and Hope; Unless You Are Winter' Child*********
A/N: Ah…look at that…I lied. Sorry, dearlings! I had meant for the Mystery of Snowdrop to be revealed in this chapter, but…it wasn't. Oh well. Next chapter, then! Or perhaps the one after…And I've gone and left him sad and crying again. Why do I do that to you, Frostie Toes!? I don't like you being all sad and alone. It breaks my little black heart…Mayhaps next chapter will be happy...er…happier. *shrugs and walks off to contemplate the meaning of life*
Anyway: By this chapter, Jack's been Jack for a little over 70 years. The blizzard from the last chapter? Yeah, that was the infamous "Blizzard of '68." Jack died at the tail end of the 1600s, let's say 1697. He met Sandy in 1703, built his Snow People in the winter of 1707/1708, and continued to build them until the winter of 1767/1768, when they were cruelly destroyed. His emotions were out of control as he was in a sort of catatonic state, and thus the Blizzard on Easter Sunday in 1768. That is my head-cannon. So there.
The idea that Jack was not born (human Jack) in Colonial Burgess but in a small village that later died of some sort of nastiness, and another village that would later become the Burgess founded by Thaddeus Burgess is an idea contemplated by me since the film, and brought to life in her fic "In The Silence" by dear Esse, whom I never knew existed before that fic, but love because her Jack is so very similar to how I saw Jack as being after his 'birth.' Love her. Love the fic. Love my little Frostie Toes.
Jack's blushing blue thing? He's cold. He's a Winter Spirit, with cold blood. So blue makes sense to me. If it doesn't make sense to you, go create your own head-cannon! …Love you, my dearlings!
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