Secret of Frost and Moon

Snow Woman

Alaia Skyhawk: Well here's the next chapter :)

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.

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Chapter 20: Snow Woman

For two days after recruiting Cernunnos, Jack spent his time working with Mother Nature to create a new home he could offer to the Selkies. It turned out to be a lot more work than he'd expected, although admittedly she did most of it. The only real part he did was to cast the Power of Winter into a section of glacier that edged on the ocean. What resulted was a section of ice that would never move, never change, and yet the glacier either side of it would continue to creep forward and break off into the sea as it always had.

Beyond that point, Jack's input was mainly aesthetic, as Mother Nature carved out a vast collection of interconnected caverns within that chunk of ice. Those all linked to a central, larger cavern, where an underwater tunnel gave access to the sea. After that had been created, and she'd lined all the main caves with a floor of soil and rocks, and created alpine and evergreen plants to make it less like a hole in a chunk of ice, Jack got to work on his own touches.

Holes in the ice above the caverns, which let light in but no snow from blizzards, and only the most gentle of breezes to freshen the air. He also created a large Ice Mirror at the rear of the central cavern, set within an arch of rippled ice which bore the snowflake-crest of the Winter Sanctuary at its peak. After decades of practice, he'd mastered his mirrors to the point that portals of this size were no problem to him.

Mother Nature left after that, as he created a matching portal, to link to the prospective new home for the Selkies, in another of the side-caverns in the sanctuary. He also created a handful of little homes, that any Selkies who may in time come to keep watch here when he was away, could use. It might be wishful thinking at this point, since he'd not seen nor spoken to the Selkies to make his offer, but it wouldn't hurt for him to be prepared.

And when all that preparation was done, he only had one day of Northern Winter remaining. Ariko would be starting her rounds in less than twenty-four hours, which meant if he wanted to seek out Yuki-onna before the Winter Spirit ducked into whatever place she went in the other seasons, he had to go now.

The touch of power Mother Nature had left on him, to guide him to the one he sought, hadn't yet faded to the point he could no longer use it. It led him to Japan, to the side of one of the many mountains there, to a ridge-line where a solitary figure in a tattered kimono sat perched on a rock amid snow that was just beginning to show signs of melting... Except in her immediate vicinity, that is.

Jack kept his distance, frowning a little at that. If she was radiating enough cold to offset the rise in temperature that came with the impending arrival of Northern Spring, then that would certainly contribute to her reputation. Any human who lingered close to her, would collapse from hypothermia in a matter of minutes.

He drifted lower, closer, and paused again. She had her back to him, sat with her arms wrapped around her knees. Her gaze seemed to be fixed on a village on the slope below, where the distant specks of people could be seen moving around. He also noted that she rocked back and forth ever-so-slightly, as if caught between the desire to go down there and try to speak to people, and the knowledge that if she did she would certainly cause them harm.

Jack's frown deepened even further, when he glided down to within a few feet of her and became close enough to hear her muttering to herself. She seemed to alternate between thinking aloud and posing questions to herself, which she then answered. By this point he might have labelled her as insane, if not for a cautious peek at her face from above, revealing she wore an expression of desperate loneliness. How long had she been like this? How long had she been left alone with no-one to talk to?