Jack Frost and Ash Adair
High above the city, high above the blaring sirens, flashing lights, the loud people talking, cold, winter wind rushed by. No one would be around to feel it, but the passengers of a 747 airplane, heading to the west coast, got ice across their windows as this wind blew by them. A young child, no older than three, looked out the window, his stubby nose pressed against it to watch the dancing flakes go across the windows, when he noticed something strange. A young man, with startling white-blonde hair and glittering blue eyes, rested just outside the window. He carried a curved wooden staff and had it gripped lightly in his hand as he walked on the edge of the airplane wing. The young man turned his head slightly, looking back toward the boy. He dropped a pale eyelid in his direction, simulating a wink, and suddenly a large blockage of snow covered the window. Because of the high speeds and winds, the snow was gone in an instant... but so was the young man.
Jack chuckled under his breath as the wind carried him away from the plane, heading in the direction of the nearest city. "
Let's have a little fun, shall we?" he murmured and tapped his staff against his leg. The curved, spiraling, wooden staff glowed a bright white-blue for a brief moment, and suddenly, snow began trailing behind him. He knew it was early, and he hadn't traded with Autumn yet, but who really cared? He sure didn't. As he spun over and around, he created icy clouds, filled with water, that would allow snow to fall for days. He took existing clouds, not filled with a ton of rain, and touched a hand to the outer edges of it. The cloud's water droplets froze and he saw, as he continued to fly by, fluffy flakes of frozen water begin drifting down toward the surface of the Earth.
He loved to have winter as his season, being one of the four Season Deities, because it was wearing people could have the most fun. Snowball fights, sledding, snowmen, Christmas... all of those came in the wintertime and he allowed for it to happen. Of course, he would mess with snow during some of the other seasons as well... but that's beside the point. It was now winter, now his time to show what he could do. He flipped his wrist and the wind paused, holding him steadily in the sky. He drew up his staff and flicked it, and suddenly, a rushing wind came from the East, bringing with it more clouds to be frozen to create snow. Jack grinned and looked down toward the city.
Though he was high above the surface of the Earth, he noticed small children laughing and running around, trying to catch the snowflakes in their tongues. He drifted down slowly to Earth, landing on top of one of the taller buildings so no one would be able to see him. The bigger children giggled as they began picking up the bigger piles of wet snow and began hurling them at each other. Teenagers looked up at the sky with disinterest before going back to staring at their phones. Jack frowned and tapped his staff again, this time against the side of the building. The frost slid down the building rapidly and went onto the sidewalk, slicking in the path in front of the groups of teenagers that just got out of school. One tripped and fell, breaking their phone as well as maybe a bone, but that got the attention of the others and the others began laughing before helping the poor girl up.
Jack smiled and laughed at his own little prank before looking back at the children. He was about to jump down and join in on the fight when some slightly movement out of the corner of his eye made him turn. He looked down to the street, just down a little bit, and a familiar cloaked figure, covered by a hood, stood at the edge of an alleyway. Dark green eyes flashed up to the Winter Sprite on the rooftop before looking toward the children. A large, hooked scythe was behind the figure's back and Jack took a deep breath before launching himself off the rooftop and back into the air. He knew what was going on.
The figure had disappeared almost instantaneously and Jack knew where they were going. He dodged to the West, flying on the cold winds, his bare feet dangling in the air. He noticed the barren hills on the slight outside of the city and curved himself downward toward it. He saw the cloaked figure again, but this time its hood was down, exposing a handsome young man with dark brown hair and a drawn scowl. Jack sighed and landed carefully on the ground, the grass freezing under his feet.
"
You know you aren't supposed to kill them. Or harm them. You should know, anyways. You created the rules." The deep bass voice rumbled out of the young man, who didn't look much older than Jack.
"
No, that's your job, isn't it, Ash?" Jack snapped back and Ash narrowed his dark eyes at him. He just shook his head and leaned up against the nearest tree. "
Why'd you call me here?"
"
It seems that you have broken one of your rules yet again, Jack," Ash rumbled. "
You forgot to exchange with me formally."
"
There's a reason for that-"
"
Jack..."
"
Fine, fine..." Jack flipped his hook around and held it out to Ash. "
Do you, Ashthelic, relinquish the power of the Season of Autumn and Nostalgia, to me to bring Winter and Fun to the land?"
Ash flipped out his scythe, the hook facing toward Jack. "
I relinquish it, my brother Jokul. The season is now yours." They hooked the blade and the wood together. As soon as the metal met the bark, multiple images jumped through Jack's mind of Amare talking to an older man, of Amare taking a stuffed animal from him, of the old man changing into a spider God. Brontes... Jack jerked his staff away from Ash and stared at him. From the look on his face, Ash saw the same thing.
"
Did you...?"
His bass voice was soft. "
Yes."
Jack stepped back, confusion, excitement, fury all coming across his mind. He stumbled back a little bit after tripping over a branch. "
I gotta go. I gotta find Thallie. She needs to know..."
"
Go, brother. Do what you need to do." Jack nodded and whistled. Immediately, the wind picked up and carried him into the air, taking him back toward the city. Ash's dark eyes followed him and he shook his head. "
Just don't do anything stupid."
