[rd][fic][Rise of the Guardians] Mark of Snow 2/?

[sakon76]

Mark of Snow 2
by K. Stonham
first released 17th January 2013

The winter Jamie was nineteen, he had managed to save up enough to go on a ski weekend with some of his college friends. He was pretty good at cross-country skiing, but skiing on slopes was a whole different matter. He had fun, though. All of them did.

Up until the point when they realized they were lost, and it was getting dark, and fresh snow was starting to fall.

Jamie panicked for a minute. He didn't have enough gear. None of them did! They were going to freeze to death overnight, and it wasn't going to be ironic, just tragic.

Jack, he thought, wishing for the winter spirit who'd always watched over him in this season.

But Jack wasn't here, and Jamie was.

The snowflake in his chest was warm, and that calmed him. "Right," Jamie said, and unstrapped himself from the skis. He started stomping around in a circle, compacting the snow.

"Jamie, what are you doing?" Ron asked, staring at him.

"I," Jamie said, "am building a shelter. You guys can either help, or panic. But helping would get it done faster."

Like his words were a magic charm, one after another the others got out of their skis and started packing snow. There were probably tricks and refinements to igloo construction, but none of them knew them. Most of them were from areas where it snowed during the winter, however, and were old hands at snow forts. "Spiral," said Tracy. "Keystone construction." She had a grin as she laid snow bricks.

It was almost full dark by the time the capstone was laid, and when they all crowded inside, it was pitch black. Someone shivered. "I wish I had my lighter," Tom's voice said in the dark.

"Who needs a lighter?" Beth asked. "We can keep each other awake telling scary stories."

Jamie shook his head. Even before meeting the Boogeyman, he'd never loved the horror genre. "I think we're all scared enough, Beth. Maybe fun stories would be better."

"You got one?" Ron asked.

"Heh." Jamie laughed, his hand touching his chest. "Do I ever. When I was ten, I met the spirit of winter. Jack Frost."

By the time he finished recounting the story of the events around that Easter, the igloo felt marginally warmer. And so, he imagined, did everyone's spirits.

"Awesome story," Tom said.

Beth's voice was a little more cautious. "Jamie, you don't really believe all that happened... do you?"

Jamie smiled into the dark. "Of course I do. I see Jack every winter. You can think I'm crazy if you want, but it's not going to change what I know to be true."

That, unfortunately, proved to be kind of a conversation killer. "Come on, guys," Ron said. "It's late. No one's going to be looking for us at this hour. Let's all just try to get some sleep."

Murmurs of agreement came around. Jamie ended up lying down, his back to the warmer huddle inside the structure, facing the entrance tunnel. He was cold, and his stomach was pointedly reminding him that he hadn't had supper, but somehow he wasn't worried. He tucked one gloved hand under his behatted head, and let the other rest on his chest. Over the warmth of the snow mark.

He woke some time later to cold fingers nipping at his nose. "Psst, Jamie."

He blinked his way awake. The interior of the igloo was glowing a bright, pale blue. But better than the light was the white-haired figure it revealed, crouching and holding his shepherd's crook and smiling like he'd just won a prize.

"Jack?" Jamie said groggily, pushing upright.

"Sorry it took me so long to get here," Jack apologized. "I was over in Pakistan when you called."

"Called?" Jamie rubbed at his eyes, trying to wake up enough to make the winter spirit make sense.

"Yeah." A pale finger poked at Jamie's chest, at the snow mark over his heart. "You called. I came."

"Oh. So that's what it's for?"

Jack nodded. "Among other things. We can officially dub you 'the boy who will never freeze'."

"...I am not awake enough for this conversation," Jamie decided.

"Mm? Jamie, who're you talking to?" Tracy mumbled.

Jack raised an eyebrow. Jamie grinned. "Jack Frost," he said.

"That's nice." Her eyes fluttered open, then closed. Then open again as she shot upright, eyes flickering about the now-lit igloo. "What the fuck?!"

Her screech woke the others. "What?" and "What's going on?" and "Tracy?" tumbled over one another.

"Why is it glowing?" Tracy demanded. "Snow isn't bioluminescent!"

Jamie and Jack exchanged a smile. "Jack Frost," Jamie explained simply.

"So, you want to head back to your resort thingy?" Jack asked.

Jamie straightened up. "It's snowing out," he said, ignoring the others.

"Storm blew away in the last hour. Imagine that." Jack gave a sly grin. "The moon's full, and you're less than a mile from the place, if you feel up to a moonlit ski."

"I'm in," Jamie said, and headed toward the tunnel.

"Jamie, where are you going?"

He stopped and looked back at Ron. "I'm following my friend back to the resort. You guys can come with, or if you want to stay, I'll lead the search party here in the morning."

"You're crazy," said Beth.

"The best kind," Jack agreed, unheard by her, and led the way out of the low tunnel, leaving the igloo in darkness behind them.

Jamie heard yelps, and grinned as he heard the others scurrying after them.

He followed Jack, and the others followed him, and the mutterings about Jamie's dubious sanity cut out around the time they all came in view of the golden lights of the resort. When they were just at the patio, Jamie unstrapped himself from his skis.

The others were staring at him. "You're really not crazy, are you?" Beth asked.

"Never said I was." Jamie set his skis on a bench.

"There really is a Jack Frost?" asked Ron, who had lived in SoCal all his life up until college.

"Yup." Jamie popped the "p" sound, pleased with himself.

From behind the group, Jack stared at him. "Jamie, what're you doing?"

"Getting you some new believers," Jamie replied.

The other four turned to see what Jamie was looking at. He enjoyed, more than he should have, the way their eyes all went wide. The way Jack flinched at the sudden attention, however, wasn't quite as amusing.

"You're... Jack Frost?" Tracy asked.

"Ah, yeah," Jack replied.

"Wow," Beth, a Comparative Religions major, breathed.

Tom swallowed. "Thanks for the rescue."

"You'd've gotten back here fine in the morning," Jack said. His eyes flickered to Jamie. "I just expedited things." He pulled up his hood with a nod. "Anyhow, I better go. Montana needs some snow."

Jamie, who had been anticipating his retreat, scooped up a handful of snow and packed it even as Jack turned and took that little hop-step that meant he was going into the air.

The snowball nailed Jack perfectly between the shoulderblades.

He spun, wide-eyed, tearing his hood back down. "What was that for?" he demanded.

"You're many things," Jamie told him, "but a coward isn't one of them."

Jack took that. Absorbed it. And then a smile stretched across his mouth. "Well, if you're going to be like that, Jamie...."

Jamie laughed as the snowball hit him.

Within minutes, it was a six-way snowball fight.

Half an hour later, laughing and high on endorphins, they all tromped into the resort lobby, where five of them were greeted with enthusiastic relief by the staff. Jamie and Beth made for the hot chocolate machines, drawing six cups while Ron and Tracy explained the evening's events, leaving out any supernatural assistance. Ron beelined for the fireplace, Jack following amusedly behind.

Eventually, they were left alone to wind down and warm up.

Jamie passed Jack his mug. He snickered as the others stared at the frost creeping across the pottery, the steam instantly vanishing. Jack smacked his shoulder. "Stop that."

"Never."

"You really have known each other since you were ten," Tracy said.

"Yeah." Jack slurped at his cold chocolate. His eyebrows went up; he regarded the cup with surprise. "Almost as good as North's."

"North?" asked Beth.

"Santa Claus," Jamie told her.

Ron and Tom exchanged a wide-eyed glance. "Wait, you mean Santa's real?" Tom asked.

Jack shrugged. "Pretty much every one of us you've ever heard of is real."

"Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, Sandman..." Jamie listed.

"Holy shit." After a moment, though, Ron's gaze focused on Jamie. "So why do you get special dispensation, man?"

Jack snickered. "Jamie's speeeecial," he sing-songed. Jamie shoved at him; it didn't break the winter spirit's grin.

"Special how?" Beth asked.

Jack sipped at his drink again. "Jamie was the last light, the last believer. And my first believer. So he gets all kind of favors."

Tom was staring. "Wait, you mean that story you told us--"

"Absolute truth, every word of it," Jamie said.

"Holy shit," said Tracy, and apparently Jamie was perfecting the art of conversation-killing, because it died after that.

Eventually, Beth yawned.

"We should get to bed," said Tom. "It's, like, half past three. And it's not even finals week."

"You guys go ahead," said Jamie, waving them off. "I'll be up in a bit."

"Don't wake me," said Tom, standing. He paused, looking at Jack. "Um, thanks for coming to rescue us."

Jack just shrugged and smiled. "Like I said, you'd've been fine by yourselves."

"It's been nice meeting you," said Beth, staring a little again. Jamie practically could see the cogs in her head turning, trying to figure out how the world really worked. He wondered if he was going to get pounced next term and used as a source for her papers. "Will we see you again?"

"Sure." Jack nodded at Jamie. "I visit him all the time."

With more good-nights and lingering glances back at the pair of them, Jamie's school friends eventually went back to their rooms.

"They seem like good people," Jack commented.

"Oh, they are. I wouldn't be out here with them if they weren't."

"Heh. Which reminds me, now they're gone, I wanted to try something." Jack took Jamie's mug out of his hands, set it down by his own. "Give."

Raising an eyebrow, Jamie held his hand out, palm-to-palm with Jack's.

Jack's dark eyebrows knitted together. Slowly, he moved his hand back--

--gently pulling something inside Jamie, a weird twisting sensation connected to the snowflake in Jamie's chest. Jamie gasped, eyes flying wide as his other hand fisted against his chest.

Blue flickering light, and a sense of cold, flared out a few inches from his hand, reaching toward Jack.

Jack stopped, letting go, yanking his hand back. The connection snapped.

"Wh--what was that?" Jamie asked.

Jack was looking at him, blue eyes concerned. "Did it hurt?"

Jamie considered, then shook his head. "Not... hurt. It just felt kind of like... kind of like pulling taffy, I guess." He could still feel the sensation down his arm, a tingling entirely different than pins and needles.

"Not hurting is good." Jack picked up Jamie's mug, handed it back to him, took up his own again. "Gives me a reference point for where to go in North's books for some more research."

"Research?"

Jack smirked. "What do you think I've been doing the last couple summers?"

"You. And books," Jamie said flatly.

"Laugh it up, college boy. You're not the only one who can read."

"But... why?"

Jack shrugged. "I want to find out what that," he said with a gesture of his elbow toward Jamie's chest, "can do. Before we both end up in trouble because of it."

Jamie paused, a thousand bad scenarios flashing through his mind. "Pitch isn't back, is he?"

"Nope." Jack slurped more cold chocolate. "Doesn't mean he's the only one out there, though."

"Oh." Jamie stared into the fireplace for a while, until Jack nearly pushed him over.

"Come on, kiddo. You're falling asleep on your feet. And I really do need to hit Montana before dawn."

Jamie sighed, and pushed up, gathering abandoned cups to return to the drinks station. "You're right. Talk more later?"

"Definitely."

Jamie paused before heading back to his room. "Jack?"

The spirit paused.

Jamie smiled. "Thanks for looking after me."

Jack grinned. "Like I said, you're special, Jamie. In more ways than one."