"Jacks, time to wake up. Floor is not good place to be sleeping," A booming voice echoed into the back of the Jacks' minds, stirring them from their not so peaceful slumber. Brulant opened his eyes, then glanced over at Frost, who was staring back at him with the same look of worry and guilt. They needed to help their human counterpart before things really started to get messy.
"If you are still tired, beds are made down hall," North offered, but Frost shook his head, trying to focus on his surroundings.
"No, thank you North," Brulant supplied, then pushed himself from the floor, Frost doing them same. "I actually think that I want to get out and grab some fresh air. It's too cooped up in here," Brulant said, stretching out his cramped limbs and becoming satisfied as he heard his back and neck crack. Then, without speaking another word, began to head for the window at the end of the workshop. Frost followed right behind silently. Their mental connection helped in a way that they no longer needed to speak to convey what the other was feeling. They needed to get out, and that was that. Any longer in this space and they would begin to feel claustrophobic.
"Do not wander far!" North warned behind them as Brulant opened the window and jumped out easily, Frost following quickly behind.
Once the two spirits were in the air, did they finally let out a deep, and calming, sigh. Neither had felt those feelings in years, and it had reopened a few old scars from remembering how pained and gone their third self had been.
"That was too gloomy for me. I felt like I was suffocating back there. How about we do some experimenting with our powers, let off a little steam?" Frost nodded, thinking that exact same thing as the two raced through the skies and into the clouds above, finally reaching the sun after a few minutes.
"Alright," Brulant began, holding his staff lightly in his hands behind his head, never consciously aware of having it, the staff nearly being an extension of himself, like an extra limb at this point, "How about you show me what kind of magic you can work up?" But Frost hesitated.
"I don't think that's a good idea. What if Mother Nature-"
"Mother Nature can't do anything. How about you make it snow or something. You told me you could do that, right?" Brulant leaned back against his staff, a smug smirk creeping across his face, and waited for the show to start. Frost mumbled something incoherent under his breath, then sighed and waved his hand in the air, producing a few snowflakes.
"There, are you happy?" Frost stared over at Brulant, who had begun clapping slowly, and Frost frowned, a twinge of irritation at Brulant's cockiness beginning a slow boil in the pit of Frost's stomach. He began to fly over to Brulant, until he heard a slow echo matching Brulant's rhythm from his hands. A few sparks flew from his fingertips and he raised them slowly, small bolts of lightning dancing into the open air before him. Frost fell a few feet, but caught himself, and backed away from Brulant, trying to avoid the sudden electric charge that was stirring up the air around him.
After gathering energy for another minute, Brulant clapped his hands together, and sent a rather large lightning bolt screeching into the clouds below him. He glanced up at Frost, a smug smirk spread across his face, as a sudden boom of thunder followed a second after. Frost leaned back on his staff, staring at his counterpart, and let slow smile finally push its way onto his face.
"Not bad," Frost commented, pretending not to be impressed, and he checked his nails nonchalantly, rubbed them on his hoodie, then whipped his staff around, aiming for above them. A thin streak of white and blue energy buzzed into the atmosphere and then hail began to fall heavily onto Brulant, who ducked out of the way and flew over the Frost, who was laughing heartily and pointing a finger at the frazzled Brulant. Brulant frowned, rubbed his hands together, blew into them, and grabbed onto his staff, pointing it directly above Frost, and Frost, for his part, pulled his staff back around and pointed at the same place. And thus began the friendly, not-so-friendly fight between the two spirits. Ice flew through the air, lightning streaked by over the cloud tops, and thunder followed quickly after. The sun began to set just as Frost let go a thin sheet of ice, throwing it like a Frisbee, and Brulant just barely dodged as he countered it with a small disk of his own, which was packed with a dense heat, comfortable to Brulant, but, if he were to feel it like a human, might have caused second degree burns. He charged it with a bit of electricity for extra measure, and dodged another ice ball before letting it loose. It hit its mark and Brulant let out a yell of triumph, throwing his hands into the air and letting out a quick burst of energy into the atmosphere, creating a few sprites, which dances lazily just within the atmosphere.
When Brulant looked back, after he expelled his leftover energy, he glanced at where Frost had been just seconds before. When he could not find him, he spun a full circle, suddenly aware that he may be trying a counterattack, but was surprised when the surrounding air was empty of all life. He glanced up at the outer reaches of the atmosphere again, watching as his little carrot-shaped sprites finally began to die out, and then looked down at the boiling clouds a few hundred feet below him. He caught sight of something blue slip into one of the clouds and out of sight, and Brulant finally became aware of the silence that has followed after his last attack. The two had been throwing mental insults at each other the entire time, and Brulant panicked at the silence that seemed to consume his mind.
"Frost!" Brulant yelled, then dove down into the clouds, right where he had seen Frost disappear into just seconds before. He pushed past the clouds, hoping to find him on the other side. A few seconds of diving through the white clouds, he finally pushed through to the other side and shivered at the sudden change in temperature. A snowstorm was boiling below the clouds and the wind whipped past him, trying to keep up with the swirling fronts that were pushing through the pole. Brulant did a quick circle, trying to spot blue among all of the white, and, right before panic was about to set in, finally found it.
Jack, can you hear me? Brulant yelled mentally, and flew forward, hoping against hope to receive an answer, and when there was none, he quickened his pace and dove for the Spirit of Winter. Brulant kept sight of Frost, and noticed, as he got closer, that Frost did not have his staff, and he was limply falling through the air, giving no resistance. Brulant tucked his arms into his body and streamlined toward Frost. Brulant reached his hands out now, almost close enough to touch him, and grabbed onto his hoodie just as the two hit the ground.