Everlasting Snow: Chapter 10

Fast.

Extremely fast.

That’s all that you can manage to think as the wind pushes at your back and a bit from below you, hurling you through the air at a fantastic speed.

You must look like nothing but a little moving speck in the sky to the people on the ground.

Jack is laughing and flying beside you, enjoying every moment of the flight. He glances back at you a couple times, giving you an “isn’t this fun?” sort of look.

As if by instinct, you have your arms extended for balance, legs slightly apart. You have a death grip on Jack’s hand, though. You’re surprised that he hasn’t let go or told you to loosen up—you’ve gotta be hurting him. You slowly grow used to the feeling of flying. You begin to take in the snow-covered scenery below you as it zips by, looking as far left and right as you dare.

It’s even better than having the window seat on an airplane.

“Hop on!” you hear Jack call to you. You look over to see that he’s standing on his staff, riding it like a snowboarder rides a snowboard, clutching it in front of him with his free hand.

You inch along his arm, grabbing onto the different parts of his sleeve. The wind provides you with a little help as you move sideways. Your feet find the coarse wood and you hold onto the sides of Jack’s shirt, pinching his cloak down to the points of contact so it stops whipping your face.

He looks back over his shoulder at you. “All set?”

You nod.

And just like that, you’re sent into an aerial snowboarding course.

You have no idea what kind of magic is letting you stay on the staff as you shoot forward even faster, taking dives and loops in and out of the clouds, Jack “woohoo”-ing in front of you as if on a rollercoaster.

You can’t help but enjoy it just as much as he is.

The ride is soon over as Jack levels out his staff, slowing down to the previous pace. “We’re here!” he informs you. He reaches behind him to his hip and takes your hand again, removing the staff from beneath the both of you and holding onto it normally.

As you begin to descend, you look below you.

There’s a forest underneath you, each of the trees dusted with snow. As you progress, the trees begin to thin and you see that he’s dropping into to a clearing. There’s a lake here that’s completely frozen over, surrounded by snow-caked banks. Less than a mile away, civilization buzzes, completely ignorant of the beauty that lies so close by.

He sets you down on the bank, the snow enveloping your bare feet. You barely notice the cold, lost in the lake’s serene splendor.

Jack has taken back to the air and is skating along the lake, his staff held out behind him, the hook less than an inch from the frozen surface. Ice travels along the staff’s indentation from where he holds it to the tip, leaping onto the lake and spreading out like swirling leaves.

“Good as new,” he says as he lands a few feet in front of you. He doesn’t sink into the snow at all, leaving no footprints. He holds out his arms, indicating the entire clearing. “What do you think?”

You give him a small smile. “It’s gorgeous. I didn’t know that Jack Frost ‘lived’ anywhere.”

“I told you I was going to teach you all about me,” he says as he smiles in return. “It’s pretty exciting, having someone to talk to who talks back.”

A question nags at you. “Why do you call this your home?”

He turns around towards the lake. In a flurry of wind and snow, he perches himself on the top of his staff in the same position he was in when you first saw him. You walk up and stand next to him, looking out on the frozen water as well.

“It’s…where I was born,” he tells you in a sad, yet nostalgic voice.

You look up at him, utterly confused. All you can picture is some lady coming to the side of a lake to birth a baby Jack Frost.

Ah, wait. He isn’t human.

“Born…?” you ask.

“Yeah,” he says quietly. “The first thing I remember is darkness. It was so dark, so cold. I was confused and scared.” He sighs. “I floated up through the water of this lake, breaking through the ice that was on the surface and came out into the air. I had no idea what was going on.” His voice becomes less sad. “But then I saw the moon. It was a full moon that night. It was so big, so bright. Just looking at it calmed me. I wasn’t scared anymore. It reassured me. He—the Man in the Moon, of course—told me my name...Jack Frost.” He hops down from his staff and rests it on his shoulder. He looks up at the daytime moon. “That’s all he’s ever told me, though,” he adds in a low voice. You pick up a tint of dislike and disappointment.

“I’m sorry,” you quietly apologize, looking over to him.

He snaps his fingers and whirls around to face you, becoming his cheery and lively self again. You’re caught off-guard and are taken aback. “Maybe he sent you! Maybe he made you able to see me so you could help me answer my questions!” He grabs your shoulders, sending a chill throughout your body. “To figure out why I’m here!”

You’ve never seen more expectation or joy in someone’s eyes.

He lets go of you and walks a little bit way from you, biting the joint of his index finger. “That’s gotta be it!” He looks up to the moon again, smiling, hands put out beside him in an “aha” moment. “Isn’t it?!”

Before you can say a word and express your doubt that you can help him find out why he exists, especially since you just met him and barely know him, he turns to you with what has to be the second oddest question he has asked you yet.

“Do you skate?”

Befuddled, you nod. You’re only a winter guru who loves the season and everything to do with it, one of those things being ice skating.

“Excellent,” he says, crouching into the snow with his back turned to you, arm wrapped around his staff as he works with his hands.

Your head is swimming as you wonder what he has in mind.

Don’t send me on an ice skating thrill ride, you plea in your head.

Nevertheless, you smile. Your personal fiction story has continued on.

This is so much fun.