Frost's Touch (Book One of the Eternal Warmth Trilogy)

XIII. Dripping Trees

                                                                                     XIII

                                                                          Dripping Trees

     Iana gasped when Jack jumped from her window but did not fall. Instead, he flew to the tree beside her window, and sat on a branch with his back to her.

     Things just keep getting weirder and weirder.

      Iana sighed, and dressed in the appropriate clothes.

      When she was done, she walked down the stairs and out of her house and waited at the trunk of the tree for Jack.

      Iana didn’t want to interrupt Jack. He was so peaceful, sitting there, on the branch looking out at nothing. His eyes, oh his electric eyes! They were lost somewhere, you could tell by how he seemed to be focusing on nothing, but at the same time everything.

       “Jack?” He didn’t look down. “Jack, are you okay?”

      Finally, after a couple seconds, he looked down at her, and gave her a sad smile.

     “Sorry,” he said, floating down to where Iana was, “I was just thinking.”

     “That must have been a deep thought,” she breathed. Never had she seen someone so lost in their thoughts, and she wished that it could be her. To get away from the world, even though it was only in her head.

     Jack chuckled, and shook his head, “yeah, it was.”

    They both started walking, and Iana led Jack to a path in the woods that she found when she was young.

    They were both silent for a few minutes, and every time Iana opened her mouth to speak, she was unable to form words, she continued to stay quiet.

     A couple minutes later they came to an old creek, and once Iana saw it, she smiled. It was one of her favorite places, and only she knew about it.

     Well, now Jack too.

     Iana sat down a big boulder by the small waterfall, and turned towards Jack. She patted the space next to her, and when he rose his eyebrows at her, she spoke.

    “Come on, sit down.”

    Jack nodded, and slowly sat down next to her.

    Iana turned to face him completely, and crossed her legs Indian style, looking at the bottom of her hoodie and played with a frayed edge.

    “When did you find this place?”

    His voice startled her, and she looked up at him.

     “When I was four,” she said, “so what do you have to tell me?”

     “How did you find it?”

     “I got lost. Now quit avoiding my question.”

     Jack breathed deeply, “wow, you don’t miss anything.”

     Iana shook her head, “nope.”

     Jack looked up at the grey sky, and she was reminded of how he stopped the rain from raining.

     “A long time ago, there was this girl. Lillian. Most beautiful girl I knew back then. We fell in love, or at least I thought we did. And when I told her that I couldn’t be with her, and she did something bad to me.”

     “Bad?”

     “Bad.”

     “How bad?” Iana was starting to worry.

     “It’s bad enough that you’re involved.”

     “Okay, how about you tell me what leads up to me being involved. How’s that?”

     “Well,” Jack started, “she kind of cursed me.”

     “Curse you?” She asked

     “Put a spell on me and tore my soul in half.”

     “How, I thought witches didn’t exist, or were extinct!”

     “Well back in my time the Gods were very worshipped and extremely powerful. And they would bless the most eligible people of their liking.”

     “Wait, your time?”