Seasonal Love

First Frost and Last Ember

1708- Colonial Burgess at the first frost
"Jackson and Emma Overland! You be careful out there, you hear? The wolves are mighty hungry this time of year." Ember Overland, Jackson's wife scolded with a slight laugh. "I'll be joining you at noontime meal with food."
Jack smiled as he ran off with his younger sister, leaving his laughing wife for a fun time teaching his sister how to skate. It was almost noon. Ember was packing the basket when she had a terrible feeling. 

Something was wrong. Something happened to Jackson. She dropped the basket of food in her haste to the pond, a dark figure in the shadows urging her to hurry. Emma's screams for her brother to come back carried to her on the wind, her heart knowing what had happened. She held Emma as the girl clung to her, the men of the town could not see his body. Emma did not weep. She knew that she would have to be strong in the coming months. She was now a widow with no family but her sister in law whom she would provide for. She arranged for Emma to marry a young boy of the Bennett family and would be seen talking to thin air.

"Ember, is the boogeyman real?" Emma asked one night.
"Of course he is! He is the guardian of courage. Without fear, we would not be safe. If you did not fear the wolves, they would eat you. Without fear, we would never fear thin ice. The boogeyman protects us and helps us to face our fears. Now go to sleep, love." Ember saw the movement of the shadowed man and smiled. She knew that the town would come and take her soon. The ice had melted and the summer heat was unbearable. 

The only place with ice was the Burgess pond, frozen completely solid. Some of the children claimed to see a young man with a shepherd's staff playing on its surface. Ember always called him Jack Frost. Witchcraft, cursed, unholy. That is what the people of Burgess called it. They came for Ember as the summer peeked. Emma never saw Ember burn, never knew that they had originally came to take her, never heard the cries of the people when they realized what they had done, and never buried her sister.

Pitch Black watched as Jackson, a believer of his, died saving his sister. He was the sole witness of the birth of Frost. He tried to soothe Ember as she died. He knew that she would be the one to balance out Jack Frost. He led Frost to Ember as she awoke as a spirit by the tree in the center of town that would forever bloom in her honor.
Jack and Ember knew each other. They knew they were married just as they knew that the sky was blue. 

"Love is a promise, not an emotion." They whispered as they flew around each other with a smile. A summer spirit chose that moment to attack the two. Frost, the seasonal spirit and the king of seasons, used not only his ice but he also used fire. Ember, the seasonal Queen, stopped her angry husband from completely wounding the sprite.
"Jack, stop! Good. Now listen up, sprite. We are the heralds of Summer and Winter and Spring and Fall. Mother Nature will not interfere with how we will serve our Lady and Lord. Tell her that her time to sleep has come. A new force has awakened and I caution you to spread word of this to the court. The Winter Solstice is the time to gather." Ember hissed before telling Jack to let the sprite go. The sprite dashed away, quick to heed the words of the powerful duo. The first frost and the last ember may have passed but the Fall was upon them. MIM, they had a lot of leaves to start painting.
This was started for:
SydnieClark