Translations for quotes in other languages besides English are located at the bottom of the chapter in numerical order. I recommend reading the chapter all the way through first perhaps for the greater effect of suspense. Although the choice ultimately is up to you the reader, either way should be okay. With or without the translations I believe the overall sense I'm shooting for is maintained.
At least I hope so? Gulp.
Chapter 3***
Somewhere down deep within the Ice Cap of Greenland, a young geologist named Jackson Timmons was on a quest. A quest that involved the exploration of some of the worlds' most dangerous ice caves.
At his side was the lovely Laura Goldstein, whose blonde hair and blue eyes were known to be able to charm a man with just one accurately placed blink. Jackson Timmons was no exception to this, in fact he had fallen in love with sweet Laura the minute she had said the word 'rock' which when it came to geologists was pretty much the first moment he had laid eyes on her.
Speaking of having his eyes on her, Jackson couldn't believe he had not wanted Laura to come? What had he been thinking? Up till the time they had arrived in Greenland Laura and he had fought like cats & dogs, about her attendance.
"It's too dangerous Laura," he had said.
"Jackson Timmons! I have been studying ice formations my entire college career and this is my first chance for a real expedition! You will not keep me from coming!" she had argued back.
"Laura, do you even know how to use spelunking equipment with ice?" he had been foolish enough to say.
Her reply having been nothing but a solemn stare had cleared that question up very quickly.
Now in the present they were both fully engaged in the wonders of the Ice! It's ridges and rims telling them the ancient secrets of the Earth gone by.
Not to mention the wonderful view Jackson was getting from below Laura as he watched her make her way down after him to this new level of the ice. A level that he had measured to be well past 700 ft below the earth's surface and still they could go further down. He couldn't believe that not another scientist had come to this area? It was a geologist's dream come true, new undiscovered territory. A rarity in modern times!
He felt a wave of excitement course threw him, for all he knew, he and Laura could find gold, in here. A dinosaur's skeleton or how about another frozen mammoth? They'd be set for life and he could marry her right on the spot!
He grinned at the idea thinking they could even use the mammoth as the centerpiece behind the altar. Laura could wear gold earrings. It would be wonderful! The tricky part would just be getting the locals to allow them to do it.
For reasons he couldn't understand the locals had tried their best to steer the two Americans away from their destination. Going as far as poking holes in the tires of their vehicle, to vandalizing their equipment and even begging. The begging had been particularly frightening.
Jackson could still here the sound of Laura opening the door just yesterday, to a little old woman bundled in cloths, who kept repeating the words,
"Pas på denforbandedested, hvorMadnesshviler. Forstyr ikkedet."1.
Whatever it was the old woman had been tyring to say, had been sadly lost upon both Laura & Jackson, for neither of them had taken the time to become fluent in Danish before starting their trip.
Thus, the little old woman of Thule descent had found herself politely ignored, her parting words to Laura being, "Denforbandedeløgnder.Venligstagtmig.Jeg frygter fordig." 2.
Then as if things couldn't have gotten more uncomfortable, early this morning nearly the whole little village had been standing in the road blockading it. They had been shouting words violently at them, arms waving, some had even pressed their palms right on the car windows glass, "Må ikkegå!Dummeamerikanerelytter tilos!
Den mørkeenehvilerder!
Hvis du vågnerhende, at hunvil tage dig! 3.
Duvil ikke vende tilbage! Madnessliggerder. 4.Madnessskal sove!
Kundødengårder.Døden! Amerikanere! Doden!"5.
Luckily, Jackson's friend Gerald Dean, who was their resource manager had been able to convince the local police to clear the area, allowing the two geologists to continue their expedition without any more trouble.
Thus Jackson Timmons found himself counting his blessings for good old Gerald Dean. Still he couldn't help wondering if Laura like him was curious as to why the locals had even wanted to prevent them from coming here?
It was true the icy cavern had been filled with unexpected twists and risky climbs, but these things were commonplace no matter what cave a person went to, even without ice. No what was mysterious was that some ice formations had looked dare he say structural? As if there had been "colossal human" built paths once?
'Almost like large walkways & broken staircases made out of the ice?' Jackson mused to himself internally as he heard Laura finally land beside him.
"Oh! Jackson! Can you believe were here? I don't know about you but I couldn't help but notice how much sulfur is embedded into these walls. Do you know what that might mean?" shared Laura enthusiastically, her blue eyes wide with joy.
Jackson smiled at her observation, he had noticed, "It may mean that we could have found an extinct volcano buried here beneath the ice."
"Exactly! Oh, just imagine if on our very first expedition we find a volcano Jackie! Think of the amount of research we could get, the funding from the national museum," Laura prattled on as she began to poke and prod the icy walls reaching into her sack about her waist for a plastic bag.
If there was one thing Laura loved it was gathering samples.
Jackson often imagined that without her samples Laura would cease to function at all. He was sure of this because when they had tried to board the plane to Greenland, Laura had caused the monitor in the airport to beep so much that the airport staff had basically asked her to strip. Before she was finally allowed to press onwards, much to her annoyance.
It had been extremely funny to Jackson at the time, but when he started finding sand samples tucked in odd spots in his luggage also? His amusement had begun to get a little thin.
He watched Laura for a few more minutes dig out some shards of ice with sulfur bits before he turned to study the icy surfaces around them himself.
The cavern was truly enormous, 700ft below the crust of the earth with multiple layers of ice jutting out like broken staircases leading all the way down into a deep abyss that appeared to stretch on forever to the planet's core.
Marveling at their location he walked just a little ways further down the ledge they were on when something caught his eye?
Jackson tried squinting, "What's that?"
"What's what?" said Laura behind him.
"That?" he said, as he whipped out his flashlight to shine it on the object a few feet away.
The light from the flashlight glittered off the dark walls of the cavern, the frozen ice displaying an array of colors that sparkled, the way the sea sparkles under the sun's rays.
It was gorgeous until Jackson began noticing a sort of dark "vein" like texture that was frozen throughout all the ice coming from the lower abyss beneath them?
Briefly forgetting the small red gleaming objects he had seen in the dark across from them, a second ago, he studied the strange "veins"? Thick black vines of sand, sulfur, maybe, wove their way through the ice almost like roots of some kind.
"Hey Laura? Have you ever heard of a plant that grows out of ice?" voiced Jackson, he was getting goose bumps.
He hadn't gotten goose bumps since he was eight and believed the Boogey Man lurked in his closet.
"Well, there are a few types of plants out there that grow very well in a tundraesque climate, but this far down? Perhaps their prehistoric?" commented Laura now looking at the "veins" as well.
Her hand coming to the one closest in an attempt to touch it.
A shudder passed through Jackson.
He didn't know why he kept referring to these vine like roots breaking the natural layers of the ice up as "veins" but for some reason he couldn't shake the word.
There was just something very "vein like" about them.
They even looked like they could be pumping blood.
All of a sudden he felt a nervous prickling tension start in his stomach, if he had not been a man of science perhaps he would have recognized this instinctual reaction for what it was.
Instead, Jackson kept gazing around the cavern until he saw the two gleaming red objects again. This time they looked distinctly closer, the tension in his stomach tightened.
The cavern that had looked so marvelous minutes ago, began to feel too enclosed. All his life he had never understood people who suffered from claustrophobia but now something deep within him combined with the increasing goose bumps on his arms was telling him to start climbing back up the mile they had climbed down.
"Laura," he found himself whispering. Why was he whispering?
"Oh. Jackson I can't believe we're actually here?! Judging by these markings I just found, why Jackson we could have stumbled upon a serious historical goldmine!" Laura kept rambling happily as she began walking further down the ledge jumping onto another platform a little lower then the one Jackson was still standing on.
This place was amazing!
"Laura," Jackson whispered again, those red objects were getting closer. Was it just him or were the "veins" around them in the ice moving?
"Really, Jackie this time tomorrow we could end up on National T.V," continued Laura not noticing how the ledge beneath her feet was beginning to crack slightly as dark roots twisted their way into the ledge under her.
"Laura, Laura I…I…think we should finish for today," said Jackson his eyes locked onto the two now blood red orbs that were directly across from him. He felt an unknown terror seep into him, through the layers of his snowsuit.
"What? Jackie you can't be serious? We've only just started," Laura asked in shock.
The ledge beneath her was now filled with dark roots that were twisting their way deep within the ice under her toes. Cracks began to grow larger all along the trails the roots had made into Laura's ledge.
A small amount of steam rose out of the cracks.
Ice began to drip.
"Laura don't argue. I know it's crazy, but trust me something's wrong," cried Jackson, still gazing as those unmoving glowing orbs.
"Your darn right something's wrong," Laura yelled, stomping her foot in added frustration.
CRACK.
Jackson spun around!
"LAURA!" he screamed in fright!
Laura was stunned! She had no idea what she was looking at? Nearly the entire icy ledge beneath her feet was now covered in dark roots that were writhing like slow snakes. They weaved in and out of the ice all around her, she felt herself grow cold. The vines were breaking the ice.
"LAURA DON'T MOVE!" ordered Jackson!
The ice was cracking beneath her. She could see the cracks growing wider. They had no idea how deep this cavern was! No idea what these vines were?! She stared at the darkness of the abyss now visible through the thinning ice. Steam began rising from the ledge. She felt a distinct squishiness beneath her that hadn't existed before.
That very well should never have existed.
"Jack…" she whispered.
CRACK.
"Laura, listen don't move! It's going to be okay!" said Jack.
He couldn't afford to panic now, the ice looked to be held together by those "vein" things alone! One false move and his Laura would be lost to the abyss!
CRACK. CRACK.
"Jack…Jackson," cried Laura tears falling from her terrified blue eyes.
"Listen Laura! It's going to be okay Laura!" said Jackson as he made his way closer to her. Simultaneously tying a rope around his waist before plunging his pick into the wall of ice above his own ledge.
"Look I'm going to set up our climbing gear, all you have to do after I get this pick set is throw me your rope," he started to explain, when he caught an indistinct image near his reflection in the ice!
He froze.
His eyes grew wide.
A dark figure floated in the ice's reflection, behind his own, two red eyes stared at him out of a gaunt feminine face. Dark veins stretched out from it's body like the branches of trees making terrible skeletal like shapes.
"JAAACKSON!" screamed Laura in pure terror!
He tried to look at Laura but he couldn't take his eyes away from the formless figure reflected in the ice!It was as if two strong hot hands held his face in an iron hold! He felt his body grow incredibly warm, sweat pouring from his pores.
"See me," he heard the figure hiss inside his skull.
"JACK! HELP ME! JACK!" screamed Laura.
"See me," it hissed again.
"Laura," came Jackson's quivering voice.
The figures reflection grew even closer, Jackson tried to look away, he could now feel his skin peeling off from the heat where it held him in some sort of vice like grip with invisible claws. He put all his strength into turning his head to the left, from the reflection towards Laura.
He regretted it instantly.
The ledge under Laura was gone. Ice was melting from the cliff's side now.
Jackson wanted to throw up at the image he was seeing. His dreams of the future flying out of his mind forever. As he watched in a morbid fascination as the Creature's Veins twisted around Laura's body crushing her, like anacondas. Exploding from the walls of the cavern in all directions, grouping in mass from the darkness that lay beneath them.
He looked on in horror, as it appeared that where Laura's skin met the Veins her flesh melted under contact.
The air taking on the scent of burnt flesh.
"Ahhahahhaaah," came a soft terrible hissing chuckle.
"JAAAAACKIIE!" Laura screamed as she thrust her blood covered free arm out towards him!
"Laura!" he cried, tears falling from his face.
He began to feel something tugging on his legs.
He looked down to see Veins wrapping around his own body!
"Fri..end..ss. Come. See. Me," echoed the sinister voice in his head.
Jackson Timmons felt a terrible premonition fill his whole body. The last word he heard from the locals replaying in his mind as he felt himself pulled downwards, deep into the darkness of the abyss.
"What had Doden meant?" he thought.
…..Laura screamed.
(((((((((Line Break)))))))
"JAAAAACK!"
Came a voice across the winds of the North Pole.
"FRRRROSSSST!"
Heard the Yeti's who stood guard outside a legendary workshop. One named Phil shook his head. It had to be a Friday.
Jack Frost always made trouble on Fridays.
"JOKUL FROSTI!" boomed a thick Russian voice! Before a large carved wooden door was swung open to reveal a tall big-bellied bearded man.
Across from the doorway, laid the wonderful now icy remains of what had possibly been a fantastic Christmas kitchen. Where small little beings, called Elves, wearing large golden bells scurried around trying to get metal spoons from being frozen to their tongues. A task proving to be near impossible for the poor 1ft jingle, jangling creatures who had taken to try rolling, tugging, pulling and scolding hot water to save themselves from tongue use deprivation! A horrifying thing to be sure when this particular kitchen was a cookie fanatics dream!
Needless to say they weren't having much luck. One elf had even had the most unfortunate fate of trying to lick frosting from the inside of a bowl bigger than themselves. A case that led to the result of the poor thing to be left pretty much in a permanent handstand position.
The bearded man couldn't help but stare for a few moments at this new element of chaos he'd walked into. 'You would think after 299 years, I would know by now to expect this,' he thought to himself. Trying very hard to ignore the inner devil he held inside his soul that wanted to go grab the one responsible and haul them to the Yeti's!
He realized he was forgetting why he had come in and "nudging" a helpless jingle-jangling spoon stuck elf out of his way, he made a path to the far corner of the room. Where plenty of mild chuckling could be heard from the strange figure that resided there.
Jack Frost or as North, liked to call him by his original name Jokul Frosti looked to be somewhere around the age of fifteen. In truth North estimated that the lad had to be closer to the age of 385 years old, approximately. North guessed this, because it had been exactly 315 years ago when North had first discovered Jokul Frosti.
If North closed his eye's he could still visualize the small ten-year-old looking child. That stood outside in a blizzard staring into other people's homes with a face full of longing desperation. He could still see that same small boy later being scared out of his wits at having been caught, then trying to sneak into said people's houses soon after.
North smiled at the memory of how during that legendary first meeting with Jokul Frosti, the boy had thrown a snowball right in his face, in an attempt to distract him from catching him.
But sure enough North did catch the little troublemaker, and after learning a few things about Jokul had then taken it upon himself to take care of the lad. A task that had proved nearly impossible, partly due to the boy's wild nature that caused the lad to go flying off for weeks on end around the world, and more so because much as North hated to admit it. He had just been too busy. Between running his duties of bringing the Wonder of Christmas to the children of the world and his obligations as one of the Immortal Guardians of Earth, on top of monitoring all Elf & Yeti activity, not to mention his own Sorcerer responsibilities as a descendent of Merlin, well the sad fact was that when it came to raising a child, North's attention had been nothing but divided.
In short he had set out to be a kind of father figure to the lad, but had instead become rather an honorary Uncle of sorts. Still despite the lack of consistency in North's parenting, he had at least been able to provide some form of stability for the child over the last decade or so. For if nothing else the boy knew that no matter how many times he stole his sleigh, hijacked gifts, froze elves or wrote on Santa's List that North would still be there to help him if he needed it.
Yes. For whatever it was worth North had taken the strange child under his protection. Which was ironic considering that quickly after Jokul's arrival at the North Pole it became very clear that the boy could easily defend himself.
'Frozen Yeti's could attest to that,' thought North in amusement.
Why the first two days Jokul Frosti had lived in North's workshop had been nothing short of an adventure! Some of the Yeti's still insisted on receiving counseling from that first week alone.
Still the boy had a certain amount of magic to him that eventually always caused a soft spot to grow over any problems the boy may have ever created.
The thing was North mused internally, was that Jokul Frosti despite being troublesome, tricky, and mischief incarnate had other traits that were just too good to be overshadowed by the ones that weren't. For instance Jokul was brave, kind, giving, and to North's eternal surprise incredibly loyal, (when the lad desired to be).
On a physical level the boy was very strong, yet due to his lankiness, long fingers and ethereal exterior Jack appeared delicate for a lad. A misleading set of features, North knew especially. For Jokul had plenty of sinew like muscle, that had more then once been used to beat a Yeti named Wallace at arm-wrestling every New Years.
North supposed it didn't help that Jokul's skin was paler than snow sharing an overall blue tint giving him yet another added apparition like affect that was sometimes mistaken for illness.
For the longest time the elves had followed Jokul with thermometers at attempts to take the lads temperature. North still grimaced over how many elves had gotten colds after that ordeal.
North sighed at the recollection, often had he found himself in his spare time wondering over the last hundred years just what Jokul Frosti was? In secret he had even tried to find Jokul's kin without the child knowing but no matter where North had looked, nothing could be found.
Nothing.
Nothing, but a small hunch, North had only recently been considering, yet the chances of it being true were so slim? The idea though, even if just a hunch, filled North with awe!
(Mini Line Break)
"Hahaha..oh. oh..don't try the water again! Hahahah!," came a chuckling voice in response to a poor elf's desperate attempts at freedom from Stuck On Frozen Spoon Tongue Horror.
Snapping back to the present issue North spoke with his heavy Russian accent, "Jokul! See you've found vay into kitchen! And look already, alvays mischief! What am I to do with you!" stated the bearded man, as he crossed his arms, gazing up at the small figure.
One of the elves with a soup ladlestuck to its tongue began jumping up and down in front of North, incensed! North could only shrug his shoulders at it.
"Hey there North! Hope you don't mind I stopped by. Thought you could use a visit." came a young slightly, cheeky yet pleasant male voice.
"Visit? Oh. Ho. Ho. HO..That's a good vone," laughed North gripping his belly in amusement, "Ah… Jokul you broke in my office." North finished seriously.
"Broke in? Me? Now why would I do a thing like that?!" exclaimed the youth from his perch, eyes that could have been two perfect untouched jewels from the sea shone in mock atonishment.
"I VILL TELL YOU WHY!" proclaimed North in equal ethusiam finger pointing to the sky in emphasis, "But first you must guess what I found on my list a few minutes ago!"
"An Ink Blot?" asked Jokul Frosti smugly.
"HA. Guess again." Replied North.
"I'm on the nice list!" said Jokul a wicked grin filling his face.
North merely let out a few jollies at that one, "Nice List! Bah! Not in a million years! You give up?"
Jokul smirked a little, pretending to let out a yawn, "Let me sleep on it!"
"Frost," said North criss-crossing his arms matter of factly. Causing a slight flex of the muscles under the tattooed limbs he had with the words Naughty on one side and Nice on the other. North tapped his foot as he tried to gain an authoritative stance that would grab the boy's attention.
The boy only yawned again & this time North watched, as the lad seemed to float away to the top beams of the kitchen. He narrowed his eyes as Jokul settled himself on one beam closer to the kitchen windows. For all purposes the boy appeared to be actually getting ready to go to sleep but North knew this trick.
Jokul was feeling uncomfortable.
He internally marveled at fate's fickleness. That he Santa Claus, or North Guardian of Wonder whose job it was to expose children to the wonder of life away from the serious grimness of the world. Now had to initiate what would no doubt be a serious conversation with a child.
"A very lost, 385 year old child, who even with your influence has lived a life of almost complete and constant solitude. A lonely existence even with us Guardians," North reflected sullenly to himself.
"Jokul," North began slowly as he ignored yet another spoon-crazed elf, "You broke into my office. I vound frost on my magical parchment which I distinctly spelled so it could NOT vecome icy."
There was silence from the beam above.
"You have not snuck a peak at my List since you was at least 150 years vold. The last time you did so…was vecause you had accidently broken one of Sandy's Dream Bottles," North said. He watched the lad very carefully noting the slight hardness of Jokul's shoulders. The tightening of the grip the boy's hand had upon his precious staff.
Most especially though, North paid extra close attention on the lad's face, the slightest flicker of the eyelids on Jack's eye's could mean a range of things from guilt to defiance. For over the last 300 hundred years North knew for a fact that the boy tended to be more like an animal. No doubt as a direct result of his life of isolation. Jokul's first language was spoken with his body. Every feature, every small movement of muscle, every tilt of the head, twitch of a finger meant something coming from Jokul. In many ways this made the lad an open book, but North knew better.
Oh for the most part Jokul was nothing if not himself why when Jokul was excited his eyes would grow wide to the point where they would shine like two emerald icicles. His grin could go from being mildly mischievous to simply curious in just one blink. While in irritation the lad's face would sharpen, his eyebrows would draw together and his jaw would clench.
In anger the boy's normally attractive light-hearted playful exterior would slowly replace itself with a magnetic intensity that scared even North sometimes secretly. Yet in sorrow the boy's eyes would glisten, and his entire body would tense up like a spring waiting to be sprung.
Often when the child was sad North would find the boy drawing images in the large windows of one of his factories spare rooms, for comfort, instead of talking. The boy was contemplative in melancholy, and was the only person North knew who could say hundreds of things while saying nothing at all.
Which was how North knew that someone who could speak the language of silence could also master the tongue of the spoken.
Jokul Frosti appeared an open book for all accounts, but like the invisibility that hid him from the world, North understood that much of the child's inner self was plagued by mystery, and equally unseen, even from him. A being that had known Jokul for 315 years.
In this current instance North could read uncertainty within the lad's crystal eyes. "Uncertainty and anxiety," North observed mentally with a deepening frown as the boy seemed to shrug a bit. Then slowly floated back down to the floor of the kitchen. Staff still gripped tightly North also noted. Clearly something was deeply bothering the boy.
"Okay..North," began Jokul softly letting his gaze focus on the hardwood kitchen floor, "I'll spill."
North leaned down to give the boy some gentle encouragement by putting his large hands upon the lad's shoulder. He was alarmed to find that Jokul was shaking just a tiny bit?
"Jack?" North queried using the new name Jokul had made for himself over the years. Hoping it would help solidify the lad's confidence a bit.
"North….I," began Jokul again slowly, "I was seen."
"NI FEGE SEBE!" North cried shocked in his native tongue, "CRIKEY!"
His outburst was accompanied by the sound of multiple crashing spoons falling to the floor freely, as Jack's concentration was disrupted. Every elf in the kitchen gawked at the two legendary figures in shock. Tongues hanging out in silence at the enormous fact that JACK FROST HAD BEEN SEEN!
The yeti named Samson who held head chef position had come back from his lunch break early due to being informed that his kitchen was a mess. Fell into a faint right there in the doorway at Jack's announcement.
Jack Frost himself flinched a bit at the clattering noise in the kitchen but his eyes still remained downward. He was still coming to terms with his new situation. Still trying to cope with the fact that only ten days ago he had been seen, heard and even touched by another human being.
Jack wasn't even sure if he was human at least not entirely?
Regardless the fact was that try as he might, his world had changed, and that had frightened Jack. So he had decided after four days of flying in circles around much of North America that he would go for the one Guardians help he could always rely on….North better known as Santa Claus.
North for his part was completely stunned. Of all the things North had expected of Jokul to say, being seen was the very bottom of the list! Still what a wonder!
"Ho! Ha Ha! This is splendid! Elves prepare some music! We must 'ave celebration! Coco for everyone!" cried North jubiliantly, "Samson! Samson! Off the Floor, ve must contact the other Guardians!" He then with a loud laugh picked Jokul up in his arms in a large bear hug.
"I knew it! I knew vone day you'd be seen!" Swinging the lad back and forth like a rag doll, going into the bellowing of an old Russian Song for Victory from his childhood.
"North! North! Wait," cried Jokul as he was swung around the kitchen while trying to remember how to maintain breathing, "North it's not what you think!"
At that North plopped the lad down on a kitchen stool, his eyes still twinkling in excitement as his belly shook in jolliness, "Ho! Ho! Jokul Frosti! What not what I think? You are at last believed in! Tell me how the child came to see you! No doubt it vas a surprise!"
Jokul with a now very ruffled exterior, tried to regain his equilibrium. It always shocked him how he could pull off the craziest aerodynamic stunts but two minutes being swung by North would give him dizzy spells. Why he'd even dropped his scepter!
Everyone, being the Immortal Guardians, assumed it was just a stupid tree branch but to Jack it was something extremely important. Despite it's humble exterior it was in essence a part of Jack himself and much more then just a simple piece of wood. It was the one and only thing in the world that Jack truly owned. His only connection to his memories before the lake, and a crutch for his control over a portion of his powers. So to keep it safely hidden in plain view Jack privately allowed everyone to think it was just a wooden staff.
Not having it in his hands made Jack panic a moment. His eyes shooting to the floor space under the table before he quickly found his scepter being picked up by a curious elf. Who looked like it was about to lick it?
Jack's instincts kicked in. A quick twitch of the fingers and the elf was blown clear off the floor to fly straight into a pile of cookie batter that was residing peacefully on the kitchen counter's top shelf. Knocking said batter off the shelf and onto the floor.
"Yaaaaarghooooo!" said the elf.
"Plop." Replied the batter.
"Whoops," muttered Jack.
Staff or scepter back in hand, Jack then glanced at North who had been too busy instructing the other elves in his happiness on how to make proper Cocoa, to notice Jack's tiny accident.
Jack hadn't really meant to send the little guy flying in the air, but when it came to Jack using magic that was anything but ice related. Well things never quite went the way Jack wanted them too.
This was all right though because he was working on it.
Two seconds later three more elves suddenly flew across the room to land in cookie dough, flour, and butter respectively.
FLOP.
PUFF.
PLOP. GLOOP.
Jack stared in ill-hidden worry at the Elf- missiles he had just accidently created. The tiniest frown forming on his face.
Jack looked at North quickly in embarrassed dread. Only to see that North had moved from hyped up elves over to the chef yetis passed out form. In North's efforts to wake up the sleeping Samson so that they could all celebrate the Seeing of Jack Frost with proper yeti Coco, North had decided that clapping his hands loudly would do the job.
"Samson! Samson! Wake up! We must ave Coco!" shouted North to the passed out Yeti.
The fact was that the Elves just couldn't handle making Coco. They were too easily distracted by marshmallows.
At North's distraction, Jack let out a sigh of relief.
'Right. I'm working on it. I'm figuring it out,' Jack thought to himself sternly wanting to deny his own lack of control, 'Focus Jack. Note to self Elf-missiles. Worry about my other magic or whatever later.'
"Well, you see North the thing is…."Jack hesitated, as North's attention swiveled back from a rising Samson to the boy sitting on the stool, "It. Well it….The thing is."
"Yes? Jokul go on!" shouted North merrily.
Jack took a deep breath.
"It wasn't a child."
CLANG.
THUD.
Samson's body hit the floor just about the same time that North's cheery mood evaporated into alarm. For a split second North's mind denied even the possibility of what his ears had heard, ' a child seeing Jack was one thing but being seen by an adult was quite another.'
'What does this mean?' North thought to himself.
"Are you certain Jack?" asked North forgetting all about Samson. As he went to the kitchen cabinets himself, to make him and the lad some Cocoa, they were absolutely going to need some with the way this conversation was headed.
Jack sat sullenly in silence on the wooden bar stool at one of North's long flour-covered tables that resided closest to the stove. He was a bit nervous about telling North everything but wasn't that why he had come back here? Jack mulled over his indecision deciding enough was enough. He needed advice.
(Line Break)
North put a small red kettle on the stove, waiting patiently for the lad to speak. He didn't have to wait long. The minute North pulled out two Gingerbread shaped mugs Jack began explaining the events that had occurred ten days ago.
"I'm not really sure how it happened. I had just finished helping Tooth find one of her missing fairies, you know how she looses track of them every now and then," began Jokul, as North listened closely, taking two candy cane stirrers out.
Registering once again the unusual fact that Jokul Frosti could find one of Tooth's so called Fairies, no matter where they were, when Tooth herself couldn't. It was one of the many details that North had gathered to form his little hunch about Jack.
For the truth was that although Tooth carried traces of the legendary Fae blood within her as did her tiny sisters, a fact proven by the wings alone. She herself was not Fae. Not in the sense of what all of Merlin's descendents had been raised to understand. In fact Tooth the Immortal Guardian of Childhood Memory, and her small sisters were more closely related to the tiny woodland Brownies of old. Or the littler known folk that had once been called Ellyllons two different subspecies that shared remnants of Fae blood but were not Fae themselves.
Not full Fae.
Not the Fey of Avalon.
An ancient race of beings that had once been both masters and creators of the Realm of Earth. Otherworldly creatures that had according to Merlin's Journal had all but vanished even during his lifespan, in the days of King Arthur. A people whose powers had been so intertwined with the energy of the world that Merlin had theorized that it was to the Earth's very life force they had all returned. Never again to grace the light of day with their presence save in story and myth.
"To become nothing more but children's bedtime tales," Merlin had written in his Journal for his descendents. Yet despite the words of his ancestor North also known as Santa Claus couldn't help but question his forefather's written notes on the Fey?
"Why would the supposed Ancients of Earth abandon their home? Why would the very first of Earth's people simply disappear when they made up part of the planet's life? What of The Lady of the Lake and with her The Sword of Avalon? "
Merlin's notes made little to no sense in regards to these questions. In frustration North was certain after scrutinizing his ancestor's journal countless times within the last 200 hundred years that Merlin had not known the real answer either and had only accepted these strange entities disappearance as part of fate's design. Which North had decided was nothing short of his ancestor's laziness and a blatant attempt to ignore the more grisly aspects that North himself had found upon his own search for answers.
"North? Are you even listening?" came Jokul's exasperated voice.
Yes. His own findings on the Fey had proven two things, the first was that the Fey had been beyond powerful in magic and had possessed almost a complete divinity with the cosmos. A fact that had made early humanity it seemed extremely envious. The second was that most if not all of them and any other species with connections to them had been brutally hunted down by humanities jealousy or so it would seem.
In his most recent studies of the subject North had found a breadcrumb so to speak, of something far worse. Which had led him to another conclusion for his ancestor's silence on the subject of the Ancients of Earth leaving.
"Hey North, you know I froze the mayor of New York," stated Jack his tone light despite his irritation, "I also built a giant snow man on top of the Empire State Building."
Whatever had befallen the Fey and all variations of their kind in Earth's early days, one thing was certain, there was barely anything of them left.
North kept on stirring the hot chocolate in the Gingerbread mugs, his eyes staring into the Chocó lately depths, as his brow drew into deeper puzzlement.
If anything Tooth's kind was possibly a third or fourth cousin to the Fey of Avalon, the last living off shoot of the species. That had only managed to survive perhaps due to their largely hidden home. Tooth Palace. That was North's guess anyhow though he speculated if Tooth's powers as an Immortal Guardian of Earth granted to her by the mysterious Man in the Moon also had something to do with it?
He couldn't be certain but he had the strong desire to ask the Moon at his next opportunity. Hopefully "Manny" would send back an answer in his dreams. Maybe Tooth herself knew something that he, Santa Claus, did not?
"I don't believe this?!" Jack yelled rising from his seat. Waving his staff in a small circle of annoyance, filling the air with a chill that had nearby elves running out the door in a hasty retreat!
After the spoons being stuck to their tongues earlier trying to wrap presents was looking safer by the second. The cookie dough could be eaten another day! Jack Frost was getting angry and after many years the elves with their jingle-jangly little brains had managed to learn one important thing. When Frost was angry it was time to "run up the chimney!"
"Right well.. as great as this has all been North I really think it's about time I head out," said Jack as he finally lost patience with his would –be Uncle's inactivity, "I'll stop by again sometime."
What had he been thinking? Mused Jack to himself in an irritated huff, coming to North for advice, if the Guardian of Wonder wasn't busy with making toys he was working with the Yetti's or staring into snow globes. Jack was halfway to the Kitchen's main window when North thanks to one elf's brave ankle bite snapped him from his thoughts of Fey.
"TOOTH! YEARGH! OWW! HO! JOKUL WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" yelled North in alarm spilling Coco and trying to shake the elf off his boot.
"Don't worry I'll be back soon, " shrugged Jack lazily as he kept walking giving North just a quick smile of confidence as he jumped onto the window's ledge.
"JOKUL WAIT!" cried North in a panic! He couldn't let Jokul leave yet not when he still didn't know whom it was that had seen the lad!
"JOKUL YOU AVE TO TELL ME WHO IT WAS!" shouted North as he finally shook off that one blasted elf!
Jack ignored North's protests and unlocked the Kitchen window, with just a flicker of his other kind of magic. He ignored the remaining elves behind him who were now running towards the window ledge. Tripping over the spoons that had fallen to the floor earlier making loud jingle sounds.
As the window opened fully Jack Frost felt a rush of cold air brush lightly over him like a gentle caress. The wind was calling him now. The air for one brief moment smelled of pine, cinnamon, and the far off Northern Sea. The mingling scents pulled at Jack's senses, there was no going back now.
He just had to fly!
"JOKUL! WHO WAS IT?!" shouted North sensing the boy's departure.
Jack Frost closed his teal emerald eyes for a second as he breathed in the wintry air of the North Pole. He then turned back around into the kitchen to find North quickly making his way over to him with a worried frown. He realized somewhere that he should have been worried as well. But it was odd it was as if somehow all of his previous fear had just melted away.
The minute Jack in his telling had realized he was being ignored by North he had recalled Tony Stark's initial reaction to him. "What do you mean no one see's you? I see you?" the man had said to him.
I see you.
They were just three little words, but for the last ten days those three little words had haunted Jack Frost over and over. To the point where Jack had gone and made a blizzard in Seattle that was breaking records, just as a means to distract himself.
Now though, looking at North's worried expression all Jack could feel was a guilty excitement! Someone in the world could finally see him! Someone else could finally talk to him, beside a Guardian. Someone who didn't have Guardian duties to distract him, a smile began to spread across Jack's face.
"I could have fun with this," thought Jack as his smile morphed to a full-blown cheeky grin.
"JOKUL FROSTI! I KNOW THAT GRIN! YOU STOP THERE!" shouted North as he made a leap for the window.
North's jump came too late though. Jack Frost had already gone out the window and was now rising with the northern winds to the clouds above. A playful grin upon his face as he whispered to the air his desired destination.
North slowly pulled himself back up. He could only watch in concern as the lad flew far out of his reach, only turning back once to shout, "I'll be back. Lay off the Sugar Cookies for awhile!" before continuing his flight.
North took a deep breath as he reached out to pull the Kitchen window closed. He then stood still for a moment watching as the small mysterious figure of Jokul Frosti flew farther away. When North could no longer make the child out he turned back to his Kitchen to find Samson the Yeti Chef and seven elves to be staring at him.
"Vell, everybody, show's over, back to business," commanded North.
Like practiced clockwork the elves began cleaning the messy remains of the Kitchen as Samson began washing all the dirtied spoons.
North himself made his way back to his office. His mind pondering over the recent events, namely Jack Frost being seen by an adult, and what could come from such a thing. He couldn't help but feel a strong sense of foreboding?
Seeming as if in agreement his belly grumbled.
(Major- Line Break)))))*******
Everything hurt.
Everything ached.
The air that rushed past his body was cold, but the vines burned.
"I can't hear Laura screaming anymore" his mind spoke.
"I can't hear anything," he observed sorrowfully.
As once more he vomited at another violent twist.
There was only the sensation of plummeting and spinning.
For hours Jackson Timmons felt his poor body spun like a roller coaster ride as the tunnels of ice rose all around him, the wind rushing by his ears. His stomach now constantly rolling over, as he felt his blood drain from his bodies wounds that the coils of the veins had inflicted upon him. His ears popping for a third time as he was spun yet again in an alternative direction.
Down, down, down, down, the vein-like roots took him.
Down deep under the Greenland Ice Cavern where no sunlight could ever hope to reach.
Down to the bottom of the freezing abyss.
Finally like a miracle the world stopped spinning. Jackson Timmons felt himself thrust onto a cold hard uneven surface. He felt the skin on his hands get scratched by the impact.
Until this point he had kept his eyes closed but at that the necessary need to know where he was. He forced himself to open his eyes, the minute he did he screamed!
Bones.
Bones beneath his bleeding hands.
Bones surrounding him on all sides.
Hundreds upon hundreds of bones lay before him. Cast in a strangely blue subterranean light, he could not identify.
He lost a part of his mind as he gazed upon the mountains of bones that went on and on. Letting loose a choked sob as he realized that nearly all types of living life on Earth from human to elephant to one horned creatures were mixed together here in this place, this place of death.
He tried to swallow, but found his tongue had decided to disappear. He kept on staring at the bones across from him. Their hollow eyes and open jaws given an eerie life-like suspension of eternal agony. That for one split second he could have sworn had come back to life to move closer to him! Frightened as he was, he couldn't help soiling himself a little as he picked up on another unwelcome detail of his new location.
Entangled in all the bones were the Dark ugly Veins, the same that had brought Laura and him down to this cold pit of doom.
"Laura" he whispered, where was Laura?
He tried to stand, but due to prolonged fear combined with the rickety surface he stood on he fell back down instantly. Pain shot through his skull as he realized his fall would cause a lump to form on the back of his already bruised skull.
"Laura," he wept, "Laurraaaa."
An image of her sitting with him in a café where they went on their first date flashed before his eyes, her blond hair held back by a pink hair clip. Her smile filled with laughter at one of his poorly construed jokes.
Two hot hands holding his skull as her body burned from that thing's Vines!
"I have to save her," Jackson said, as he struggled to his feet once more his desperation for his companion giving him the strength to ignore the deceased underneath of him, "Laura I'm coming."
He had no idea what this terrible thing was that they had awaken. No knowledge on how to save Laura from the same fate as all these other people that had entered here before them, but it didn't matter, to Jackson. He loved Laura, and he would save her, or die trying.
His focus on saving Laura gave him energy to move through the wasteland of human bones that looked in the strange light like they had been fused together by a great amount of heat.
As he climbed through the bones he couldn't help but note the sulfuric residue that was embedded in some of them. Why? He could even smell sulfur in the air. In desperation to keep his mind distracted as he continued his journey towards where he prayed the strange blue light was originating from, he tried to study the hollowed out ceiling formations above.
This place was extremely old he realized. Even with the blue light the entire cave was very dark making it hard to see but he couldn't help but identify what he knew to be deep layers of the Earth's crusts.
"Were so very far down Laura," Jackson whispered to himself, noting how even in the ceiling they were skeletons of the deceased. As if some tar like substance had flown over and singed everything?
"Maybe you were right about the volcano Laura. This whole place is like a pyre," Jackson later said, as the skeletons he began climbing after a few hours began looking increasingly like Pompeii Victims.
(Mini Line Break)
Slowly Jackson made his way beyond the bones to what looked like some sort of huge 400ft cathedral entrance. He gazed in awe at the two humongous torches that stood on enormous marble totems on either side of the entrance. Both well lit by strong blue flames. As he stepped closer he eyes shifted to the great staircase that led to the entrance. It was entirely carved from ice, and it was melting.
Jackson gulped. He would have been lying if he had said that in that moment he didn't fear going forward. He would have been lying if he said that in that one second he had not thought, "I should save myself." Instead of following his instincts he pressed on placing one foot on the stairs.
Gigantic skeletons that couldn't possibly be human covered in ice loomed against the walls when he walked through the entrance. Their gargantuan skulls gazed down upon him as he walked making him feel like some queer little bug that was about to be stepped on for trespassing. Upon making his way he observe red the large circular room he had entered where in the center a humongous stalactite met a stalagmite. A pool of dark blackish water lined around the stalagmite's base.
Jackson couldn't help his own amazement. There was no way the ice in this chamber was naturally made, and yet it had to have been natural to last so long?
As Jackson stared at what could easily have been the greatest wonder of the world he felt the dread from before creep it's way back into him times ten.
Dark Veins coiled out into the stalactite portion of the ice formation. They ran their way into the ceiling stretching up and up to the surface above that he knew would eventually lead back to the hills of bones. From where the Veins began there in the center of the joined stalagmite and stalactite formation was the figure from before.
Jackson took a step back, but he found himself enthralled once more by the …woman before him.
Frozen in the core of the ice the pale skinned woman looked like she was sleeping. Her dark hair spread out in a halo around her as if blowing in the wind. A bright blood red crown of stone sat upon her head, it's metal twisted with the small details of miniature skeletons that seemed to have been melted into it. In each skeletons hands were beautiful multi-colored jewels.
Her sickly thin arms were raised to chest level where they crossed each other. Her hands thinner then her arms ended with long black claws in place of nails. That matched her torn medieval gown.
All of this was nothing though to Jackson, for he could only keep looking at the bone like things protruding from the side of where the woman's ribcage was. As if the ribs had just kept on growing, right out through her skin? Where they locked with more bones that appeared to be coming from the woman's back. Bones that as the eye traveled along them began to turn a darker brown until reaching a blacker shade.
Her bones to his disbelief were the Veins.
And when one looked back at the woman one saw that in between the bones, closer to the woman, was a type of thin translucent skin that grew with the bones.
To form the remains of what appeared to be shredded wings.
Jackson had not been sure before when he and Laura had first been attacked. But standing here, with his mind trying to block out what exactly it was he was seeing. He couldn't help but recall the memory of his sister Margery decorating her room with hundreds of winged woman in his youth. His scientific mind begged him not to listen as a word danced upon his lips, but the bones and skin were clearly attached to this woman's flesh! The flash of an old Disney movie where a boy asked the audience, "Do you believe?" played in his head like a song.
He felt himself stop breathing momentarily.
It was impossible. It was completely unscientific. It was nothing but myth. It wasn't even myth, it was fantasy rubbish like Tolkien. There was no truth to it. It just could not be. Yet he found himself speaking it despite himself.
"Fairy," he whispered in shear shock.
"Fairy," he said again as his eyes swept over the frozen woman.
This discovery would change everything, absolutely everything.
"God. It's a real fairy," he said to himself.
"JACKSON DON'T SAY IT!" came a loud scream from his right.
"LAURA?" he shouted as he turned to face the direction her call had come from, 'how could I have forgotten about Laura!' he scolded himself furiously!
"JACKSON RUN! RUN JACKSON!" Laura shouted her voice filled with conviction.
"No! I won't leave you!" he shouted back, desperately!
"LAURA WHERE ARE YOU?" he hollered.
Before Laura could respond, Jackson felt droplets of something on his forehead, he looked up and felt sick.
Laura was hanging from the ceiling, by the Fairy's Branchlike bones, her blood and tears dripping onto the floor below, "Jackson leave me! You have to go! Someone has to warn everyone! YOU HAVE TO WARN EVERYONE! EVERYONE!"
"NO LAURA, I WON'T LEAVE YOU WITH THAT FAIRY THING!" screamed Jackson.
"DON'T SAY IT!" screamed Laura back.
"Laura!"
"Heeeheee," hissed a soft laughing female voice.
"NOOOooooo," wailed Laura.
"Njerezore Little. Njerezore Little," the inhuman voice began singing.
Jackson felt a force pull his body around like a puppet. He heard Laura screaming her head off above him, as he was brought face to face with the woman in ice whose orange glowing eyes were now open wide. Her gaunt yet attractive visage twisting into a menacing smug smile.
Jackson felt a wave of irony hit him as he realized he was below thousands of feet of ice but was so hot his skin was starting to bubble.
He instinctually screamed at his body began to burn from the inside.
The woman's smile grew to the point where it elongated her whole face, sharp teeth gleaming as she spoke, " . Njerezore Little. Nje pak. Seeeeee meeee. Little human. See me."
"Ahhhhhhhgh!" Jackson screamed as he lost feeling in his feet.
"Yes…See me. Free me. Scream," the monster hissed in his mind.
"JACKSON!" screamed Laura somewhere.
"Scream for me nje pak," laughed the fairy woman.
"DON'T KILL HIM PLEASE!" begged someone.
"Scream for Mab ," it sang merrily.
Jackson Timmons felt an unholy amount of pain as the world he knew began to fade.
The last thing he heard was the awful sound of ice cracking.
The last thing he felt was fire.
((((((((( Major Line Break))))))))))))))))))))))))
Pitch Black was down in the darkness of his lair reorganizing his latest projects when it hit him!
A Fear so powerful that he ended up falling to his knees in alarm.
It gripped him strongly from the very core of his being, his dark heart pulsed erratically. As he felt a mortal man and woman's fright consume him, he caught flashes of the source of their terror play amongst his mind.
Dark Vines choked him, burning him! Mountains of bones piled all around him. He hung from the ceiling as he watched a friend's fallen form be devoured by fire. A pair of red orange glowing orbs under dark eyelashes stared back at him. Instantly knowing him.
"NO!" cried Pitch as he shook himself from the vision, his body of it's own accord scrambling to get away from those horrible eyes. He ended up crab walking right back into his Operations Table. Where he sat for 20 minutes, trying to restore breathing normality.
Never in all his years had he experienced such a full sampling of Fear. "I'm even sweating!" he chuckled to himself, "What was that?"
Whatever it was, Pitch Black picked himself off of the floor and gazed out at the darkness of his lair. A foreign sensation of something watching him crept up his spine to the base of his neck.
Suddenly the Shadows didn't feel all that empty anymore.
Translation:************************************** *****************
1."Beware of the cursed place where Madness rests. Do not disturb it. "
damned lie there. Please heed me. I fear for you. "
not go! Stupid Americans listen to us!
The dark one resting there!
If you wake her, she'll take you!
will not return! Madness is located there.
must sleep!
Only death is there.
Death! Americans! Death!
Njerezore Little means: Little Human in Albanian.
Nje pak means: Little One.
Disclaimer: So I do not own the following: Avengers & all characters related nor do I own the Rise of the Guardians & all things related. Sob.
I do own Mab…and any original OC's alongside the basic plot idea I'm making here, that's it.
Other things to note: This is not a complete crossover. I can't stress that enough. In order to make things make sense & actually create a believable Avengers Guardian Universe I must alter things. For instance Jack's appearance, for the most part he looks just like he does in the film but to be believed as Loki's son's I had to give the character more physical traits that could be shared by the father, example: having the dark roots of Jack's hair visible & of course his eyes.
Another note: I know some things are confusing, but I promise that it will all make sense by the end of the story if we ever get there or at least with a few more chapters. I have a plan, I swear. Also there is no possible way for me to please everyone. You read at your own risk, I apologize if that's harsh but well, there you have it.
Moving on at long last I finally finished another chapter and let me just say that this one was excruciatingly difficult! I might add! I had to start it over twice! At one point I was even about to drop the whole thing in moody aggravation especially considering I'm not getting paid for this. Then I realized that I just couldn't do that to all of you SAINTS really you are Saints to even pick this thing up much less read it! I COULD KISS ALL OF…SWEET BABY JESUS…169 OF YOU following this!
I am truly humbled. Really. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Your support encourages me!
Well, this chapter is quite long so I'm going to wrap the disclaimer up now. Again I apologize for the massive wait in between updates but I work a full-time job up to nearly six days a week sometimes,6-8 hours a day that takes it's toll. So please remember to treat this fic not like your daily dosage but rather as a fun little tidbit.
I may not update often but I try to make up for it with full chapters.
Lastly, this chapter also is a good indicator for how dark/slightly mature the story potentially will be at times. However I don't want to have to change the age rating so I will try to keep it to only about this level of violence etc. etc. etc. when necessary. The story itself will perhaps ultimately end up in the PG-13 realm.
*For those of you wondering about Thanos…I am undecided on whether or not to bring him in as of right now. I may or may not. You shall have to wait & see."
"For those of you waiting to see more Loki. You may have to wait a bit more."
"For those of you who want faster updates…..I will do my best."
Love..Stella Limegood.
And Thanks.
P.S. Other fics have not been abandoned but seeing how everyone likes the two Avenger ones those shall be focused on primarily.