Mean Seasons 41 Act of Loyalty
Jack walked confidently among the reindeer, searching for his own among them. Snowdrift was a standout, but for some reason he couldn't find the buck.
He accidently stumbled onto the huge red buck's space without even realizing it. Sunburn snorted at him and pawed the ground. Jack held his hands up and backed away, not wanting to start anything.
However the large buck had every intention on starting something. When the boy turned his back, Sunburn lowered his powerful head and charged, bellowing his dominance. Startled, but acting on long-forgotten instinct, Jack used his staff to hook the reindeer around the neck and force him to change course.
"What the heat is wrong with you, Sunburn?!" he protested as he had to repeat the move twice more, and still the chestnut reindeer refused to yield.
A misstep caused Jack to lose his balance, and he fell, the staff landing several feet away. With eyes filled with desperation, he reached for the conduit, only to grunt as his hand was stomped on by the hoof of the snorting reindeer. Sunburn reared up and came down hard, the winter sprite barely getting out of the way. Again and again the thundering impact shook ground where his body had been seconds before.
Suddenly, Jack felt as though his spine had been snapped in half. He gasped, sucking in the chilly air as his body curled up on itself. He had felt this before...and his eyes widened in horror as they landed on his staff, wich was under the buck, in two pieces.
He couldn't move anymore. His strength had been ripped from his body, making him completely helpless as Sunburn charged forward, antlers down to impail him like a hotdog on a grillstick. He braced him self, closing his eyes and tensing, waiting to be skewered...when it happened.
A white flash knocked into the red buck, sending him rolling away in the snow. Furious, Sunburn roared and collided with the smaller Snowdrift, each of then determined to win the duel. Jack watched in awe and horror as his white buck led the much larger aggressor to the edge of a cliff face.
"No! Snowdrift! SNOWDRIFT!" The Guardian hollered as the red reindeer tangled his antlers in the much smaller buck's horns, determined to throw him over the side. The little buck shot the winter sprite a longing look, his cloudy blues tearing his heart to pieces, then he shifted his weight, tangling their antlers, and Jack watched in horror as the sudden shift forced them both off the side.
"NOOOOOOO!"
Gathering every ounce of strength he had, Jack pulled himself to the edge of the cliff and looked down. To his horror and heartbreak, both bucks lay motionless. He knew Sunburn would get up eventually, but his eyes filled with freezing tears as he looked at the odd angle of Snowdrift's neck and body.
"Why did you have to do this, Snowdrift?!" he wailed, rolling off the edge himself. Wind slowed his decent as much as possible without his staff, but he didn't seem to notice. He crawled to his baby and cuddled the head against his body, stomach-wrenching sobs erupting out of his throat.
North found him like that several hours later, and gathered the boy in his arms. Unsurprisingly, Jack's arms refused to let go of the snowy head in his grip. "Come Jack, let buck go." The Russian said gently, prying the arms loose. The boy slumped against him, and North carried him back up the cliff, his heart aching.
It was never easy losing a four-legged friend. Especially one raised from birth, one cherished and protected.
He was not surprised to find the winter spirit more solemn and less perky in the oncoming weeks, avoiding the pens except one, which he sometimes found Jack sleeping in, a look of agony frozen on his face.
It would be a long while before Jack Frost resumed his position as the Guardian of Fun. A very long while.