The New Spirit

Emily Jane watched the earthling children from far away in the clouded night skies as the loneliness stabbed at her repeatedly. In some parts of the world, the people below were showered by her tears, others beaten by her anger. However, through all these mixed emotions she was feeling, there was somehow a glimmer of hope, and that hope let the sun shine and nature flourish. This was an average day for Emily Jane. It was an average day for Mother Nature.

No matter how old or how wise she may be, Emily was still just a scared, helpless child on the inside. A child who had lost everything and only wished to be with her family once more, but it was not to be. Her mother was killed when the Dream Pirates attacked her home and her father had forgotten her.

Emily laid atop a large cumulus nimbus cloud somewhere above Brazil as her long black hair draped over the side. She wore her usual long, forest green dress with flowers pinned all over it. Each flower she added to her dress had a purpose.

Some days when her emotions got out of hand, a natural catastrophe would strike somewhere on the earth. Emily grieved over the mess she made and picked a flower from the area to represent all the innocent lives that were lost. When victim's funerals were held she often cried for them, causing a gentle rain to fall upon their graves. It was tough being Mother Nature.

The beautiful nature spirit pulled a puff of the cloud close to her, quickly formed it into a pillow, and rested her head on it. She closed her eyes and willed the wind to sing her to sleep. Wind whistled a few tunes into her ear, but suddenly retreated much to Emily's surprise. Wind had always honored her requests, why was she rejecting to tonight? Perhaps Wind had thought she'd already fallen asleep?

Emily opened her eyes, "Wind, come back to me. Sing me another song." She was baffled when Wind didn't answer her calls, and decided to look into it.

Emily Jane followed the trails of the wind for hours until she found herself above a small icy pond. She could see by the tall pine trees around the pond that Wind had been restlessly pacing the area.

Mother Nature decided to go to the surface to investigate. She focused her mind on the forest below and let herself fade from the cloud, onto the ground below.

All was covered in at least six inches of snow, and like she noticed earlier, the pond was frozen over, for the most part at least. Emily swiftly noticed the large splinter in the smooth surface. The hole was about three feet in diameter and very jagged around the edges, but what she couldn't get over was how nervous the wind seemed.

Emily was about to confront Wind when she suddenly heard a little girl crying. She turned to face her. The girl looked very young, no older than seven. She had medium length brown hair, brownish gold eyes , and wore a small colonial dress that was also brown with a maroon waistband. The girl picked up a small candle and held it close to her face, revealing her red eyes, most likely from crying.

Since Emily was invisible to the girl she really couldn't comfort her, but she stayed with her anyways. She knew the look on her face, it was one of loss, one thing she could relate to. Even if this child didn't know of her presence, she couldn't bring herself to leave the girl all alone on a cold night like that.

After about an hour she picked up the candle and headed off towards a nearby village. Emily was about to follow her to ensure she had a safe trip home, when something, or someone caught her eye. She couldn't believe it, there on the other side of the pond stood Tsar Lunar, the man in the moon himself! It had been centuries since Emily last saw him and made her all the more confused why he showed up so abruptly.

The spirit of nature cautiously walked towards Tsar who stood at the edge of the frozen pond. Emily studied him; he too seemed sad. "Hello my dear" he said without looking up.

"Tsar Lunar, what brings you down to the surface on this frigid night?" Emily asked curiously and crossed her arms.

The man in the moon sighed and at last looked up to meet Emily's gaze, "It's a long story."

Emily Jane cocked an eyebrow, "I've got time." She very much wanted to know why Tsar was upset, this was in fact the first time in her immortal life she'd ever seen him upset. It was as if all the light had been sucked out of him.

"Do you know how I once said that no one else would be chosen after the dark ages?" Emily nodded, she remembered a day when he sent that message to all the spirits he had chosen.

"Well I've lied."

Emily furrowed her eyebrows, "what do you mean?"

Tsar took a deep breath, "I said that because after the dark ages I thought no one would be able to remain innocent and true, but I was wrong. One boy defied all of my assumptions. His name was Jackson Overland.

"I hoped that as he got older he would remain pure of heart. I made plans to let him live a long happy life and have a family, then if he was still pure of heart, I would choose him to be the last spirit." Tsar fumbled with his pocket watch a bit.

"So what went wrong?" Emily asked, "Did he give in to the darkness?"

"No," Tsar said, "he died young, fourteen and drowned under the ice."

A tear escaped his eye, "I don't know what's better, to make him a spirit now or let him continue on from this world.

"I fear that he'll be needed in the future when darkness rises."

Emily sighed, she knew what he meant by 'darkness'. He meant her father, just didn't want to say it to her already broken soul. "Then do what you must." She said.

"But I can't, I can't bear to give a child that responsibility! He won't be able to take it, he'll want to be with his family, to be part of them, not watch them grow old and die!" Tsar exclaimed.

An idea came to Emily's head, "Then take his memory." Tsar stared at her with wide and horrified eyes, "What?"

"You can do that, can you not?" Tsar nodded, "I can, but that would be tortuous."

"No, don't you understand? If he doesn't remember them, he won't grieve over them! Simple as that!"

He shook his head, "It won't work, the guardians would find out, Toothiana would return his memory and who knows how he'll react!"

Emily huffed, "Listen to me, old friend. You know you'll need him one day. Make him a spirit, take his memory, and do not tell anyone of his existence." Tsar stared at her; her idea terrified him. "I understand it doesn't seem like the best choice, but sometimes there is no best choice. My f-father will come back, and he's going to be more devious and cunning than the last time, so I suggest you take this opportunity Tsar." she finished firmly.

Tsar thought for a few minutes and finally let out a defeated sigh, "Alright, but I'm giving him control over the wind and winter weather because this was your idea. So no more blizzards or wind to sing you to sleep, Mother Nature."

Emily narrowed her eyes, "fine, but don't come crying to me when there's more 'natural' disasters than ever this century!" And with that, Emily faded back into the forest as lighting struck a few miles away.

•••

Tsar stood there blankly for a few minutes after Mother Nature stormed off, literally. Soon after he let his own form fade as he transported himself back up to his home on the moon.

He quickly gathered materials and potions and mixed them all together. After chanting a few spells the surface of his home began to glow brightly.

Next he pulled a lever and holographic images began showing. They all showed Jackson and his little sister playing and having fun. Tsar silently cursed as he swiped away the images and locked them into a small box made of moonstone.

For the last step of the process Tsar went over to a telescope and watched as his new creation gently touched down on the ice and sealed it.

The little man cupped his hands around his mouth and whispered, "Your name is Jack Frost."

A/N: And that's all! Hope you've enjoyed! Let me know what you thought of it! :)