The House Of J (Jack Frost and Wind story)

Found you

This little town had to be it. Adam has been researching for many months and Burgess got more unforecasted snow days than any other place in the country as if winter favored it. He had a strong hunch that the Spirit of Winter visited this town often so this would be the best place to run into him. 

At the age of twenty-nine, Adam already knew spells it took other warlocks a lifetime to learn and it was all due to his passion and curiosity. He would pick an area of magic and study it diligently for years until all its secrets were revealed to him.

He tried to study nature spirits as their magic fascinated him but was disappointed when there were no records to read on them. It seemed that no one kept track of the spirit world or tried to unlock their mysteries before.

Meeting the winter spirit over a year ago was a once in a lifetime opportunity and he did not want to waste that chance. And so he rented an apartment in Burgess and explored different neighborhoods every day, hoping to see a sign of any unusual wintry activity. 

He was growing impatient as he was running out of places to visit, and in fact, it hadn't snowed even once since he got there.

Suddenly, a snowball hit him on the side of the head. He looked angrily in the direction it came from.

"Who threw that?" he yelled, expecting giggles of small troublemakers but saw no one.

He exhaled in frustration and turned back but then yelped, startled.

"It sure wasn't the Easter Bunny," said none other but Spirit of Winter himself, standing right in front of him.

He looked just like Adam remembered him: skinny pale youth with white hair, icy blue eyes, blue hoodie, brown deerskin pants but no shoes, leaning on a long wooden staff and grinning at him broadly.

"Jack Frost!"

"Adam, the warlock," Jack replied. "So, why are you on my turf?"

"I'm actually looking for you. I'd like to talk if you're willing."

"Talk? About what?"

"Well, everything!" Adam said eagerly. "I've always been fascinated by nature spirits and when we met, I had a thousand questions but there was no time for any talk then. So, I've been searching for you since but you're not easy to find. So, tell me. Why Burgess?"

Jack swung the staff onto his shoulder and looked at the quaint town with a smile.

"It was my birthplace. Twice."

Adam's face lit up at the personal information the spirit shared. "Woah."

"And my best friend Jamie lives here. Well, now, two of my friends live here."

While they walked down the sidewalk, Jack tapped random things with his staff and they would frost over. Right now, a mailbox was in the process of growing intricate frost patterns.

"Wait," Adam remembered. "Did you say birthplace twice?"

"Of my human and spirit birth."

"You were human once?" Adam asked in wonder. "How did you become the Spirit of Winter then?"

Jack sighed but explained, "I died. Then, Man in the Moon chose to give me a second life as a spirit. Why Winter? I don't know. Maybe because of how I died? Manny doesn't exactly explain himself."

"Who's Man in the Moon?"

Jack pointed his staff at the crescent moon hanging low over the horizon as if that would explain it. Adam was still confused but decided to not press the issue yet, having a lot of other questions to ask.

He noticed that the spirit avoided other people on the sidewalk, lightly jumping to the side whenever they were about to pass them.

Upon seeing Adam staring at him, he rolled his eyes and explained, "They can't see me and I don't want them to walk through me. It's unpleasant."

"Why can I see you?"

"Because you're magic and I'm magic. I don't know how that works."

Adam pondered at the answer. Maybe Jack didn't know but there had to be an explanation. Luckily, Adam was an expert at uncovering magical mysteries.

"What do you mean by walk through you?"

Jack sighed. "Fine. Watch."

He stood still in the path of a woman approaching them and Adam watched in horror as she walked right through the spirit as if he was a ghost. Jack grimaced uncomfortably and the woman shivered.

"Woah," Adam said.

"I know, it's cold, right?" the woman said to him, mistaking that he addressed her.

"Oh, yeah. That also means that they all think you're a crazy guy, talking to himself," Jack said cheerfully.

Adam was about to ask another question when he saw the expression on the spirit's face change into a mischievous smirk. Jack pointed his staff at the sidewalk and a patch of ice appeared in front of a man about to pass them, making him fall on his butt painfully.

The man groaned, "I hate winter."

"The feeling's mutual," Jack answered, leaving the scene casually.

Adam looked at the man and at the spirit in disbelief, "What was that?"

"That, dear Adam, was karma," and he lightly hopped on top of a parking meter. "A nice perk of being invisible is that you can deliver karma to those who deserve it."

The meter frosted over under his bare foot and Jack bounded onto the next one, maintaining perfect balance.

Adam looked at him accusingly so he explained further, "That guy always bullied Jamie when they were kids. Nasty character." He lept to the next meter. "So, I make an effort to repay him whenever I see him." He landed on the last meter and looked at Adam seriously. "No one messes with my friends."

Adam was surprised. The Spirit of Winter held a grudge.

"You know, you're not at all what I imagined nature spirits to be. You're a lot more..." he wasn't sure how to say it without sounding offensive, "human."

"Thank you. Not without an effort," Jack replied thoughtfully. "I'm always just a step away from losing my humanity."

They walked for a while in silence, Jack lost in his own thoughts and Adam pondering the meaning behind what the spirit said.

"If I may ask, why? I'm just curious why a nature spirit would even bother."

Jack stopped and pointed his staff at a group of children chasing each other in the park.

"For them," his face lit up with a warm smile when he watched them play and laugh, "but also, I'm not ready to lose myself. I like being Jack."

His smile was so infectious, Adam couldn't help but join in.

"They're in need of a good snow day, aren't they?" Jack said, looking at puddles of slush. "I'll get right on that. See you later, Adam." 

And he flew up into the sky, leaving Adam with more unanswered questions.

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A/N: Did you like Adam?

Coming up next, we meet Wind! Get ready.