Ch. 10 – I'm Sorry
Jack frowned as he flew around the world, becoming more and more upset. Children, who should have been playing in the snow he was bringing, time and again ran into their homes as soon as the first few flakes reached the ground. The few who didn't, who stood defiantly, angrily, in his snow, were quickly ushered indoors by terrified mothers or over-protective fathers.
There weren't very many little children. Most of the time the youngest child was around eight or nine. The few he saw that were younger than that appeared sickly, many wrapped up in quilts by roaring fires as mothers fed them hot soup. The elderly, too, were in short supply, far less grey hairs and wrinkles among the older humans than Jack had ever seen in his many years.
It was, he knew, because of him. And as he heard yet another mother wailing in despair as her child was interred in the frozen earth, he knew that there was nothing he could do to atone for it.
No matter how many white Christmases he gave, or perfectly sticking snow for snowballs and snowmen, no matter how many children he made smile with his games and fun, there was nothing he could do for those children who had died, or those children who would never feel the loving embrace of their grandparent, again.
By the time he reached his (Mother/Brother) lake near Burgess, Jack's heart was so heavy with grief he wasn't sure how the Wind was still able to carry him.
He alighted on a rock, the very same rock he had sat on before when the Easter Bunny had accused him of trying to ruin Easter. The frozen waters of his birth glistened in the sunlight, beckoning to him, urging him with a mother's calm love and a brother's teasing smirk to test the strength of the ice, to paint the glossy surface with his namesake…
…but he just couldn't. In every sparkle of sunlight on the ice, he saw the vibrant life of a child being snuffed out. In the icy surface he saw the face of Death, a deceptively young face, pallid, with dull snowflake blue eyes overshadowed by dark eyebrows and bone-white hair.
With a sigh that bordered dangerously on a sob, Jack tapped the base of his staff on the frozen surface, covering it in ferns of frost and completely obscuring his own reflection.
"I'm sorry." His whisper was caught and carried away on the Wind. Jack wasn't entirely sure who he was apologizing to. Perhaps Mother, who's calming influence had been a balm to his love-starved soul. Or maybe Justin, whom Jack had doomed to death because of his own mistakes. Maybe he was apologizing to Piper, Kayla, Ryan, William, and Emery, the Snow Friends he had failed to save. Or Nicholas St. North, who felt Jack was so naughty he didn't even deserve coal, or E. Aster Bunnymund, who's holiday Jack had ruined. Possibly he was apologizing to the children he had hurt or killed with his absence, or Snowdrop who couldn't cry, or the Moon for not being a very good Spirit, or the other spirits for being a nuisance. Heck, maybe he was apologizing to Tommy Rawhead for not letting the Child Devourer have a taste of his own icy cold flesh.
Or, most disturbingly of all, maybe he wasn't apologizing. Maybe he was just stating a fact, that he was a pathetic creature who couldn't get anything right.
Jack didn't know, and as the silence of a Winter deadened forest pressed in on him, he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.
A flurry of snowflakes heralded his departure as he leapt into the Wind's embrace and hurried home. If he was going to make amends, he was going to need help.
**************The Author is Much Ashamed Now*************
A/N
Um…yes. That's the end of this chapter. It's very short, barely more than a drabble, but I think it gets the point across. Jack's sorry.
I do apologize, too, for A) The shortness of this chapter, and B) The long wait for this update! It's crunch time at school, and between that, work, family, and applying for a new job as co-editor of my school's Literary Magazine (which I desperately hope to get!) I'm a bit overwhelmed. I almost didn't post this, because it's so short, but I wanted to give you lot something to tide you over until I'm able to devote more time to it come the summer (I hope. If I get this co-editor job, I'll be juggling two jobs until summer's end, at which point it'll be the editor job and back for my FINAL year of school!...for my BA. Then I've got to get accepted into another university in order to get my MA in Marine Archaeology. Which I'm so very excited for!)
Anyway, as this chapter was so short, there's really no notes for the chapter itself. So…Allow me, if you will, to inform you of a grievous error on my part, that Kaylessa was sweet enough to point out:
While, yes, Antarctica has a perpetual night and a perpetual day, and the P. Night takes place during the Winter while the P. Day takes place in the summer, I failed to take into account the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. I've been writing the last several chapters set in the Perpetual Night, so the Moon would always be visible to Jack; the last few chapters were in December, which is Winter…but only in the Northern Hemisphere. Antarctica is in the Summer, so really during this time, Jack should have been dealing with nonstop daylight, not endless night.
If I were a less busy individual, I COULD go back and rewrite the chapters to reflect either the appropriate month or the appropriate lighting, but, as already stated, I'm a bit swamped. SO I'm going to content myself with acknowledgement of my error to you, my dearlings, and a promise to try harder to pay attention to the geography of the areas and subsequent weather/seasonal patterns. But I'm a Historian-In-Training, an Archaeologist at Heart. Not a Geographer, Meteorologist, etc. History.
Oh look a bit of awesomeness is approaching NOW
HERE'S THE WINNER FOR LAST CHAPTER'S CONTEST!
nique17 (who wasn't logged in, but put that name up as a nickname, so…yup): You were correct, my dearling. The line about children wanting to play can be found (frequently) in my dear Esse's fanfic "In the Silence." Yes, this is not the first time I've exalted the greatness of her fic, and likely won't be the last. It's such a marvelous fic that I can't stop! This, of course, means you've won a RotG fanfic, written to your specifications (as best I can), with your plot in mind, with your characters of choice!
However, I must make note of this: I do NOT, absolutely DO NOT, right stories that are yaoi/yuri/slash. I'm not saying you, nique17, are going to ask for a story like this, but as you're the first person who's ever won one of these, I felt I should let future possible winners of other such contests know. This is a note that will be repeated to any winner, so don't feel like I'm singling you out, dearling.
I alsoam not given to curse words in anything I write, unless the emotional response is one that I feel merits a bit of salty language. This takes into account not only the story itself, but the character's psyche – Is this someone who, in this situation, would let slip a naughty word? – So, don't expect such things in your story, and please don't request them.
That being said, What is your wish, my dearling?
ANYWAY
Next chapter I'll put in the detailed lists of Story Favorites, Story Followers, Author Favorite, Author Followers, and Reviewers, as well as answer the reviews from this chapter. Again, time constraints.
My love and respect to all of you people, though! Until next chapter!
*waves enthusiastically*
OH! Bit of spoiler for next chapter: How do you suppose Toothiana heard about Jack's white-as-snow teeth?