Crystal Winters

Chapter One

"Darkness. That's the first thing I remember. It was dark, and it was cold, and I was scared. But then... then I saw the Moon. It was so big, and it was so bright. It seemed to chase the darkness away. And when it did... I wasn't so scared anymore." -Jack Frost

The first thing she saw was shadows.

Well, not really. That would be the closest way to describe it in one word.

Really, it was the absence of light, a suffocating kind of blanket that surrounded her and promised to never let go, and she was its now, and what was light, why couldn't she see, where did everything go, why, where, what-

And then there was light. It was so bright, silver light that shone down and protected her and chased the shadows away. Her fear flickered out as she was wrapped in its embrace.

The light was cold- but she didn't feel that.

Suddenly, she was in the air. There was a stillness, as if everything had gone silent for some reason, acting on some instinct.

Her head snapped up towards the sky.

There. There was the light source. It was so big, and its brightness made her eyes water until they adjusted. It was circular and absolutely stunning-like a big sphere of silver held together by a thin layer of glowing white fog.

She stared at it questioningly. What is happening? Where is this? What is going on? Where am I? Who am I?

The last question seemed like it should have scared her-she didn't know her name! Wasn't she supposed to know things like that?- but the light was calming, and she couldn't bring herself to feel even the slightest bit of fear within its embrace.

Your name is Crystal Winters, and you are a frost and ice sprite.

The voice rang in her head, melodious and smooth, and calming, oh everything was so calming. But it was so confusing, and shouldn't she be scared?

She looked up at the sphere of light-the moon, she suddenly realized. She was so sure that it had been the moon that had just spoken to her, but... that should have been impossible.

Well...it's not, apparently.

The moon's glow started to fade.

"Wait!" She cried out, almost desperate, "You have to explain! What's going on? What happened?"

The moon's glow faded, going from brilliant silver to a dullish white. It was gone.

She huffed, a little annoyed. She knew nothing, absolutely nothing, and the stupid hunk of rock in the sky had just told her name and that she was some sort of sprite.

Suddenly, she was dropped from the air and landed on the ground. She luckily had managed to land on her feet-her bare feet. Why where her feet bare? They should have some sort of protection, shouldn't they?

Oh well.

Frost, in intricate swirly patterns, spread from where her feet had touched the ground. She jumped back, but where she landed, more frost spread.

She realized she wasn't cold.

As she crouched, she tentatively touched her fingers to the dirt. Immediately, frost bloomed out, spreading in curling tentacles until it reached out for about one meter in front of her. Staring at it curiously, she kept her hand down and tried to feel the cold. Wasn't she supposed to feel cold? Frost was cold, right?

Ice-not frost, ice- started spreading out from her hand, in the same manner as the frost had. She once again jumped back, but before she could stand up, she was in the air again.

There wasn't a stillness to it this time. In fact, the wind blew heavily around her, as if...

As if it were the one holding her up.

She wobbled slightly, about as much as you can wobble when you are supported by nothing but air. How was she flying? That wasn't possible.

Then again... Making frost and ice should be impossible.

She once again got just a little annoyed at the moon. She knew nothing. Right vs. Wrong? Nada. Impossible vs. Possible? Nothing. Anything else other than her name (and she didn't even know if that was her name, after all, the moon could have lied to her) Zilch, zero. Her mind was blank, and she had no idea what was going on.

Crystal glanced at the moon again, mouthing 'Crystal Winters' once. The name rolled of her tongue, and fit like a glove, like it was meant to be her name. It was meant to be hers. But then the glove turned scratchy and irritated her. It still fit-almost perfectly- but it wasn't comfortable.

Sighing, she set off to explore. If the moon wouldn't tell her anything, she would have to figure it out.

-

It was just after dawn when she came across more people. The wind (she had decided that it must have been the wind picking her up into the air) had helped her fly north of where she had woken up, and she had discovered a town. Once they had gotten within a mile, the wind stopped and almost dropped her, but caught the falling girl quickly enough.

"Why- "the question trailed of as Crystal realized that the wind wouldn't be able to answer. She blinked, before coming to a resolution.

"C'mon, I have to figure out what's going on." She called out to the air, still in a slight daze from the adrenaline of being up in the air. The wind, however reluctantly, slowly carried her over and gently set her down in a snowbank. She fell over sideways, because, however gentle the wind was, it still couldn't set her down so her center of balance was just right. She rolled up and blinked powdery snow out of her eyes, barely registering the fact that no, this wasn't cold at all. Standing up a little shakily, she walked over the nearest person, an old lady sitting on a bench covered in a deep purple blanket.

"Err...Hello?" she said from behind the bench. The women gave no sign that she had heard her. "Ma'am... do you think that you could... you could...um..." She trailed of from her sentence, not sure how to form the words and get her meaning across. The woman still gave no sign of hearing her, just continued to watch a kid playing on the monkey bars in front of her. Maybe her granddaughter?

Crystal moved in front of the woman, hopping over the bench and landing about a foot in front of her.

"Hello?" She waved her hand in front of the woman's face, hoping to catch her attention.

But the woman seemed to stare straight through her. The woman stood up, though, and Crystal felt a flicker of hope, before she called out, "Suzy! It's time to go in!"

The child, Suzy, whined a bit before she reluctantly swung down and started to jog over.

Crystal turned around to ask the child something-maybe the old women was deaf, and couldn't hear her, or didn't understand her? But the child didn't see her and continued to closer.

She wanted to move out of the way, so the child wouldn't run into her or slip on the ice that was steadily spreading out from her feet, but something kept her rooted in place, as if there was glue holding her down. She wanted to move, her instincts were screaming at her to get out of the way, but she remained stuck in her position like she was having a nightmare. The wind picked up dramatically, a warning sharp and clear in its whistles, but still she couldn't move.

The child continued to run, until she ran right through Crystal.

It hurt. It was like she was being crushed from all sides, the breath being squeezed out of her. A piercing pain bloomed in her chest, as if someone was taking a dagger and twisting it between her ribs. She doubled over, coughing and sputtering, before she collapsed to the ground.

The child and the old woman walked away and started laughing.

The wind sped around her but lifted her gently off the ground and swirled around her in a comforting embrace, even as she was gasping for air. It carried her gently, but she was vaguely aware of how fast they were going and was so thankful because she just wanted to get away from there. She could feel her eyes slipping close as she tried to get more air, but she didn't care.

She closed her eyes, exhausted, the pain only numbing slightly by now.

She fell asleep in the winds embrace.