To Long For

Ch. 2 The Pond

It's six o'clock in the evening, and a young woman calls out "Jack Frost" for the third time. She was at her favorite childhood pond.

Where was the man of winter? It was supposed to snow for the past couple of weeks.

Was he taking a break from winter?

Was he dead?

Was he, kidnapped by some supernatural bad guy?

Wait! Why would anyone think of such things like that? And also, his powers were always wintry; he couldn't take a break from winter even if he wanted to.

She decided to try another day and began to walk back to her home that was nearby when a flash of light stopped her.

She turned to see what it was and saw a large colorful, swirling orb. Her curiousness got the best of her, and she walked toward it, but not too close.

A few seconds after, a body was spit out of the swirling light, she saw a head of white and brown hair. When the figure rolled on the ground and stopped in her direction, she instantly recognized the face.

"Jack Frost," She walked up and bent down closer to him? She put her hand on his shoulder.

Jack looked up after he felt a touch on his shoulder.

Oh no! Jack thought to himself. She can see me! Someone who isn't a kid can see me. I must no longer be invisible.

"Who are you? How can you see me," Jack asked weakly?

"It's me, Irma."

Irma? Jack thought to himself. "Irma," he said aloud? "Y-you can still see me?"

Irma smiled and nodded, then with concern asked, "What happened to you?"

Jack sat upright. "I don't know. But I'm becoming mortal."

"What?" Irma was shocked at the news.

As Jack spoke with Irma, he began to notice his heart rate and pain begin to subside. He straightened his back, regarded the pond, then thought to himself, Maybe it's this pond? I'm not so sore anymore.

Jack stared back at her and asked, "You were gone so long. Where did you go? I tried looking for you."

Irma touched his shoulder once more. "I will answer your questions later, but first since I'm here, maybe I can help you find out what's wrong."

"North," he began, "is looking into it. But something pulled me here to this pond."

"North?" Irma asked with a confused face.

Jack smiled. "Also known as Santa Claus."

"Oh okay," Irma smiled, "What do you think pulled you to the pond?"

"Well, all I know is that's where I became Jack Frost."

"Really?" Irma gazed over at the pond. "Wow."

"Yep," Jack said, eyeing in the same direction.

"So, how long have you been Jack Frost?" She asked, turning back to him.

"Over three hundred years. Which makes me 329 years old."

"That's amazing."

"I was eighteen when I was reborn into who I am today."

"Eighteen?" Irma said in astonishment.

"The Man in the Moon saw how I was with kids and the heroicness that I did by putting my life in harm's way of saving my sister from that exact pond. So, he brought me back to life as the Sprite of Winter. I'm also known as the Guardian of Fun."

"There's a man in the Moon?" Irma asked, again confused.

Jack laughed. "Well, a magical being, anyway."

"There's so much that I don't know about you. And I'm glad I'm finally getting a chance to."

The two smiled, happy that they got a chance to see each other after all these years.

Jack and Irma looked long into each other's eyes without realizing it. Then Irma looked away and cleared her throat.

"So, since you believe the pond led you back here to stop you from becoming human, what do you plan to do?"

Jack took a breath he didn't know he was holding and answered, "I think I need to go back into the pond." He shrugged, "I don't know what else I can think of to do."

"Guess I should get out of your way so you can do what you need to do," Irma said, standing up.

"Please stay," Jack arose and gently grabbed her by the wrist. "I would like us to catch up more after I'm done here."

Irma smiled shyly then said, "okay. I would like that."

Jack returned that smile and began to walk to the pond by himself.

As he walked away from her, Jack began to feel that same pain again, although it wasn't as bad as it was earlier because he didn't scream. He went down on his knees; his teeth clenched, and his eyes shut tightly. He held his chest.

"Jack," Irma yelled, running up to him.

Between each heavy breath that he tried to catch, Jack told her, "My feet are cold. I'm cold." He looked up at her, scared.

She embraced Jack trying to comfort him.

"Maybe this isn't what you're supposed to do," she said. "Why don't you come over to my house and figure out something else on why you were pulled back here to find a cure." Then she added, looking into his eyes, "Hopefully, North can find something before it's too late."

Jack was becoming confused: When Irma was nearhim, he felt fine, and when she was away, he was in agony. So, he agreed to gowith her. He allowed her to help him balance, but he didn't want to knock herover, so he put most of his weight on his staff.