Secret of Frost and Moon

Answers, without Answers

Alaia Skyhawk: Gah, I was in such a rush to put up chapter 1, that I messed up the title. I've fixed it, and the story title is actually "Secret of Frost and Moon". Sorry about that, lol :P

Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians, the Guardians of Childhood, or any related characters etc. This story is written purely for entertainment purposes.

~(-)~

Chapter 2: Answers, without Answers

His screamed question echoed into empty forest, and the Moon stared down at him in silence. Even the winds had died down, creating an eerie scene of utter stillness.

Jack didn't move, refusing to until he got an answer. He'd died, and now he was somehow back from the dead! Confused, angry, and admittedly... frightened. But still he refused to move, to stop staring at the silent and mocking Moon, until a whisper of movement at the cover of his eye made him flinch.

He turned his head to look, but saw nothing but trees. Then it came again at the corner of his other eye, and in moments he was on his feet with his gaze searching the forest around the pond.

"Who's there?"

He almost felt like mocking himself after he said it. If someone was there, they weren't going to hear him. No one back in the village had, so why should it be different here?

A woman's voice whispered behind him, so close it could have been at his shoulder.

"It is different, because you and I are of a kind. I see you, I hear you, and I can answer at least some of your questions."

Jack spun round, but again found only empty air.

"Who are you? Where are you?"

She spoke again, but remained unseen. Close, and yet hidden from his sight.

"I am Mother Nature, and I am all around you. What form I could take to stand before you, is unimportant. I am here to explain that which you need to know, and nothing more."

Jack's tension began to lessen, although he still clenched his staff tightly. It was amazing to think how he already clung to his strange new powers, when in a situation where he feared he might have to defend himself.

"Then tell me, why am I like this? Why me? What am I even supposed to do?"

Something stepped into the moonlight at the edge of the lake, but beyond the blurred glimpse of a woman's face, the figure was like mist. So transluscent, so indistinct, that he could see the forest through her. She was hiding herself from him, he could tell.

She regarded him solemnly, her eyes a faint glitter upon the misty image of her face.

"To answer your first question, you are now a being of spirit. Someone chosen upon their death, to rise again and serve a higher purpose. Specifically, you are the Spirit of Winter, which means you would normally answer to me."

Jack frowned.

"So you're the one who chose me?"

She shook her head.

"No... I created the Spirits of Spring, Summer, and Autumn a very long time ago, but my counterpart, the Man in the Moon, asked that he be permitted to chose who would be the Spirit of Winter. For Winter's snow reflects the silver light of the moon, and casts that radiance through even the darkest of nights. And so, that makes you his 'child', not mine. Even if your duties, for now, will be given to you only by me."

Jack began to advance towards her, but stopped when he met a wall of the same force that had prevented him entering the home of his family. That discovery made him scowl.