The Winds were whispering.

Wind especially.

Wind hated to tell his friend the news he bore. He didn't want the boy, young as he was, to fear for his life.

Again.

Yet he had no choice. He had to warn Jack Frost...

A new Summer was on its way.

When Wind found his friend, he was lounging under his tree, enjoying the cooling air around him. Spring had been gracious as an apology to the Winter Spirit, she agreed to have one week out of her season for him to literally chill at his lake, and the surrounding woods.

Wind hated to wake him with news that could send him into hiding, but he had no choice.

Jack woke with a smile as Wind tugged his hair. "Hey Wind! Wanna fly?" he asked, grabbing his staff.

His face fell as his friend whispered in his ear. "What? Already?"

Wind cursed as the look of excitement changed to absolute, complete terror. "A new Summer..." Jack panicked, trying to bury himself in snow.

"Well aren't you being paranoid today!"

The winter sprite stopped his trembling and slowly came out of the small snow-cave he had made to look up to see Pitch Black smirking down at him.

"Was my fear so powerful it drew you out?" he wimpered, "Sorry. I hope you weren't doing something important."

The Boogieman waved him off. "No, but I am extremely curious. Why are you so spooked? Your fear of harm is powerful, Frost, but I have never seen it burning this strong before. Why are you leaking out fear through every pore in your body, even your core?"

"Because." Came the soft, shaky answer "I don't want to be used as firewood, burned, tormented...I was broken before, but even that is more tolerable than being ambushed and left to melt in the desert surrounded by flames!"

Pitch chuckled darkly "Ah so you heard the news then, that there is a new Summer. You have never gotten along with that particular season, have you Frost?"

"You have no idea." Whimpered the answering groan.

"Care to enlighten me?"

Jack groaned. Only Pitch Black would ask to hear stories of his torment under Summer...ALL the Summers. Still, he supposed that talking might ease the fear he felt. With the King of Nightmares there to feed off his terror, perhaps it might actually take away some of his anxiety...

"Wich do you want to hear?"

"Well now that you mention it, what is this talk of firewood?"

There was a pause.

"You really are sadistic aren't you...ok well that particular instance started in my season, believe it or not..."

ROTG

He flew around, his laughter being carried with Wind as he enjoyed the joy of being completely and utterly free. He whipped about, letting Wind toss him in the air and catch him again, cackling merrily.

His merry jaunt was halted as a low, crazed chuckle reached his ears.

"Winter! How nice of you to frolic in my territory. Your freeze is causing the humans to shiver, and it is my duty to keep them warm."

He snorted. He was not intruding in her season, she was intruding in his. "Your point being?" he asked snarkily, leaning on his staff.

The girl with the red dress and fiery hair giggled menacingly, stroking his cheek with a flame painted sharp nail, "Well it means, dear Winter...that I light their fires. But I have a slight problem..."

He was suddenly grabbed and shoved in a sack.

"I'm all out of firewood!"

With terror, he woke up ten minutes later, in a fireplace, to find the sack had already burned off, and his flesh crackled like kindling as flames licked at it. The pain was indescribable, he doubted he would be conscious much longer...if he really was about to only pass out. His throat he guessed after several attempts, was too charred to scream as the pain and heat continued to lap at him.

"Awe look, he burns so beautifully!" Stacy Summer cooed, very pleased by the sight of Jack Frost lit up and smoldering in her fireplace.

"Let me out please!" he rasped, unable to stand the heat and flames any longer. His skin was turning a normal flesh tone, which for the winter spirit, meant he was good as melted. He noticed, ironically, that the one thing feasible for actual firewood, his staff, was not in the inferno with him.

Summer cackled "Let you out? But you make excellent kindling! And it smells and looks so pretty!"

She poked him with his staff, stoking the flames, and he screeched, the contact with the fire on his staff sending new kinds of agony coursing through him. He was soon mercifully blessed by the soothing relief of unconsciousness.

ROTG

"I woke up in a snowdrift, not knowing or caring how I got out of there, but I stayed at my lake for a long time after, both licking my wounds and nursing my courage. I learned later during a Season Meeting that April Showers, that decade's Spring, had rescued me, then dumped me in the arctic so I could heal."

Pitch cringed. Once upon a time, he would have gloated at the boy's almost death. This time though, he was deeply disturbed. The Summer that now writhed in fear in his realm was a nanny compaired to Stacy Summer. He knew that most of Frost's terror stemmed from being roasted alive, and she, much like himself would have done, had preyed on that fear.

"How many times did she set you ablaze?" he asked timidly.

"Oh? More than I would like to remember." Came the answering whimper, "The last time she did, it was in front of the other seasons, during a meeting. She got turned into a Fey because Mother was so ticked off by it."

Pitch put a hand on the boy's shoulders, feeling the trembling of a fear that should have died when his torment ended. He wasn't sure how to comfort Frost at this point, so he simply ate the fear until it calmed itself.

Relief and thanks shone in the ice-blue eyes, and the man knew he had done the right thing. But he had to draw more, or Frost would retreat into himself.

"Tell me another, Jack Frost. What other fears have you buried that came to light when you heard this news?" he prodded.

Jack shuddered

"Well there was this other time...with Sammy Summer..."