“Boy! You need to run now!” the king shouted.
A boy with tousled white hair and fearful ice eyes stood at the door, frozen in place.
“But sir…” His quiet voice trailed off, eyes big and round with shock.
The man, his sir, his somewhat father turned to him with brown eyes blazing. King Torn crossed the room in two strides of his massive booted feet, and grabbed the boy’s hand opening it up roughly.
“Take the crystal. Hide it, and never return here ever. Do you hear me?” Jack nodded.
He had never been so scared in his life despite him growing up alone and on the streets giving him a few rough edges. Who was after them? What would happen to the king? Where would he go?
“Go now using the side door and run. Sneak away to the borders of Springly and hide. Change your name, and your face. Don’t trust a soul. Go now.”
The king clapped him on the shoulder, and Jack turned and fled.
Silver light from the half moon bathed the castle through the open windows, and gray clouds swirled around the bright moon, bursting with thick and sticky snow flakes. Jack raced down the steps and glanced around. Shouting came from the other side of the hall, and the thumping of feet came fast toward him.
Clutching the crystal with its silvery chord—which was said to be made of a full moon’s light—he unlocked a bulky wooden door, and slipped inside.
Jack slipped on the steps, and stumbled into the empty servant’s quarters, heart pounding in his ears. The servants of the king had abandoned their places in hopes to escape a fiery fate. Jack didn’t know what would happen to the king’s loyal servants and guards that stayed behind to protect him, but he knew it wouldn’t be good.
His head snapped up as he heard pounding at the door and aggressive hissing. What in the lands was that? He had heard rumors of Shado’s minions, but Jack hadn’t actually believed them. Maybe he should have… then he might have been more prepared.
Jack, shaking with fright, ran through the servant’s main room, and threw open a door that went directly out into the back of the castle. He cast his eyes back at his new home as he ran through the thickening snow, his boots, and socks becoming sodden wet with the white powdery stuff that blanketed the ground.
Jack watched as the king’s room, that he had only been in minutes before, burst into flames. Turning back around, he scrubbed a tear from his face, and ran into the woods surrounding the Winter Palace. Jack’s heart weighed down heavily at the thought of the king dead… murdered. That place and life had still been so new to him. And now he was losing a home for a second time.
Shado would win, everyone would lose. Gasping he ran, and didn’t stop though his legs protested and his throat closed up until he was at the border.
There he allowed himself a moment of rest.
His fist opened to show the crystal that had been jutting into his calloused hand. He was Winterdom’s last hope now. Only he knew of the few secrets the king had told him in his short time there, and only he had the crystal. People would be after him. The king was right; Jack needed to go back to his old ways. He needed a new name, a new face, a new reputation.
Jack looped the crystal around his neck, and tucked it into his shirt and by the fading moonlight he waded his way through the Frozen River, the border between Winterdom and Springly.
Jack Frost was no more.
YOU ARE READING
Truest
Fantasy(I wrote this story when I was fifteen and it's held a special place in my heart ever since. I started uploading it in 2015 and never got around to finishing it. Recently though, I've gotten back into Wattpad and thought I might as well just release...
