Author's Note- Just a head's up, this is not a happy chapter. It has Canada in it though, and Canada always makes things interesting.
Disclaimer-I do not own Hetalia or Rise of the Guardians, nor have I directly participated in any Christmas Truces.
The Sniper In The Pines
Jack Frost hated war. He hated the death and the despair, the disease and the starvation. Still Jack had long learned that war seemed to be a needed aspect of humanity and had come to peace with its existence. That was until the current war, the great bloody war that was crawling its way across an entire continent leaving destruction and decaying corpses in its wake.
The sheer scale of this war was larger than anyone had seen before, and it was quickly exhausting all of its participants. There was weariness in General Winter's eyes as the Spirit conjured storm after bone chilling storm, throwing all of his might at both forces in the hope that he could stop a war that was rapidly spiraling out of control. He failed, because every time a country fell another one would take its place on the battlefield. Jack had tried to aid the great General whenever he got a chance, but the fact was, Jack was simply too weak to change the tide of war. That was until something tipped the forces in his favor.
It was Christmas Eve, and all had grown quite on the Western Front. The air was cold and spirits were low and young boys and men dreamt of the warm fires of home. It was in this heart breaking moment when a single German voice rose in an old familiar Christmas hymn. As the first song quieted then a group of British men opened their mouths in yet another carol praising the season. It went on like that long into the night and impromptu concert between the two enemies. Then cautiously a few soldiers began to cross the No Man's Land to meet the men they had been trying to kill just a few short hours previously. By the next day Jack was even able to cox of few men to start a playful snowball fight in the middle of a war zone.
Then out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a soldier perched in a tree hanging back from the party that had developed in the No Man's Land below. Just looking at the man's tired eyes it was clear he needed a little bit of Christmas magic, so Jack collected a big handful of the cleanest snow he could find and flung the snowball upward. The sniper in the tree ducked.
"Would you mind not throwing snowballs at me, I am not in the mood to play." His voice was quiet and slightly annoyed.
"You can see me?" Jack asked amused.
"Of course I can." The man in the tree shrugged. "Believe me half the time people think I am invisible, but I am not. People are just very good at not seeing what they think is impossible."
"I can understand that, but why are you not joining in with the festivities?"
"Because it is hard enough to kill a stranger." The sniper admitted quietly. "You can pretend that a stranger is simply a target to practice on. It is nearly impossible to pretend to ignore the face of someone that you actually know."
"Isn't that a good thing?" Jack pressed. "Maybe this type of truce can help stop the war."
The sniper simply stared at the spirit with sad eyes, after a long moment he spoke. "You do realize that what happens on this battle front is only a small of the greater war. In the end what the soldiers choose to do rarely have an impact on the overall outcomes. We are simply pawns, drafted from our homes and taught to kill, and dropped halfway across the world in order to die in a conflict that most of us don't fully understand."
Jack didn't know how to respond to the little speech, but he couldn't leave his young man alone. Not when he was clearly hurting so badly. "Do you mind if I at least sit with you for a while?"
"I don't." The sniper shrugged. "Company might actually be nice for a little while. The name's Mathew by the way. Lt. Mathew Williams, officer in the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada."
"Jack Frost." The Winter Spirit took the proffered hand. "Bringer of winter and all that kind of stuff."
To the spirits pleasant surprised when the sniper didn't throw a fit, but simply motioned to a limb on the tree. The two invisible people sat for a day in comfortable science observing the truce below. They watched as men for opposite sides of the war sang carols to each other, play games, and even exchanged small gifts. With each gesture of kindness Jack's heart soared with happiness, but on the neighboring tree limb the holiday cheer seemed to have the opposite effect. At times Jack could almost swear that he could see his quite companion weeping.
It was not until the sun had set and the last of the Christmas festivities ended that Jack understood why Mathew was racked with despair. At the stroke of midnight of Christmas Day the white flags were lowered and everyone prayed for the peace to last. It did for a few long heart beats. Then a single shot rang out from the familiar pine tree and a patch of snow on the other side of the barb wire was snow was stained red. The truce was broken and the peaceful night air shattered by the sound of halfhearted machine gun fire.
By the time Jack could finally drag his eyes away from the battlefield before him, the sniper in the tree was gone. With tears ice tears in his eyes and despair in his heart he realized that Mathew was probably already traveling to another section of the battlefront to reignite this bloody, evil, terrible war. Yet he hated war with a renewed passion, couldn't find it in him to hate Mathew. After all, that lone sniper was just a bound to death as Winter Spirit seemed to be.
End Note- I love the story of the Christmas Truce. It is a wonderful example of the goodness of humanity, but too often we forget to talk about what happened before and after that historical truce. As I was writing this piece all I could think was poor Canada, he knows that in order for the war to finally end he was going to have to destroy this little moment of peace.
Next Chapter-The Soldier Who Had Not Lost Hope- Fast Forward to WWII and yet another cold battle front. In the Italian Alps, Jack Frost sits a spell with a freezing soldier who dreams of a belly full with pasta and prays for a best friend's safety.