There's Ice in His Veins (A Jack Frost Fanfic)

Chapter 5: Lunatic

"There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls." -George Carlin

***

"Who knew water could be so freaking loud?" I shout to Jagalan over the noise of the waterfall we found. It was thin, but tall, and clear blue water rushed down into the stream.

We venture around towards the back of the fall where the entrance to a cave would hopefully be.

"Do you see anything?" Jagalan asks when we're in the grass behind it.

I blink water mist out of my eyes and spot a hole on the other side. "There! We have to cross the stream to get to it."

"It's not that far a jump," Jagalan decides, and leaps across the ravine before I can respond. She lands light on her feet and waves me over. I do it the easy way and make an ice bridge across the stream, taking my time as I cross.

"There's an easier way for everything, Jack," I say to her, hitting her lightly on the head with my staff.

"Well, Jack, I think doing things the harder way is fun sometimes."

"Opinions, opinions; lead the way." I follow her to the mouth of the cave, and the sunlight illuminates it enough that I can see that it's a drop, not a straight shot. "Would you prefer the hard way here, or shall I improvise for us?"

She shakes her head at me but allows me to carry on and make ice stairs, so we don't have to jump. I let her go down first and she does so slowly, being careful not to slip. I trail one step behind her and we go deeper and deeper and it gets darker and darker and colder and colder.

Jagalan almost slips near the end, but I catch her and keep her upright. When the stairs end I light a lantern that we...borrowed...to see where we're going.

"Amethyst will most likely be on any side walls. It's purple and steeple shaped," Jagalan tells me, examining the dripping walls.

"Will it be on the ceiling or the floor?" I ask.

"Yeah, because gems grow from seeds, Jack," she says sarcastically, which is surprising but also pleasing.

"How was I supposed to know?"

She doesn't answer, and I take the opportunity to keep the conversation going.

"It makes sense that you're a selenologist; you're as pale as the moon after all."

"And you're not?" she retorts.

"I didn't say I wasn't," I say. "I like to think of us as the dynamic duo. I'm the moon, and you're studying me."

"It's technically true."

I glance at her sideways, and she's grinning as she traces the wall with her hand. I grin too, mostly at myself, and switch the lantern to my other hand, so she can see well, and so I can trace my hand on the wall like her.

The wall is cold, but I barely notice as it doesn't match the temperature of my skin. The rock gets rough, and a sudden pain makes me wince and stop walking.

"What's wrong?"

I look down. My palm has a gash across it from a jagged rock, and it's bleeding steadily.

Jagalan starts rummaging through her bag for gauze, and as she searches, I groan but not from the pain. The dizziness starts again and my gums hurt along with the backs of my eyes. Jagalan looks up and gasps but doesn't move.

The cut on my hand slows it's bleeding and I clench it, ready to hit something. I aim for the wall first, remembering all that's happened to me. Losing my family, my friends, my life, and now living as an outcast. Rock crumbles down as I hit it, and I feel a resistance on my arm, pulling me away from the wall.

"Jack, stop!" Jagalan shouts. I swing to hit her and manage to just miss as she ducks. "Jack!" She shoves me, and I feel my back hit the floor; Jagalan moves to pin my arms down, hovering over my head. "Jack! Snap out of it!"

I kick her aside and scramble up, ready to hurt someone. I successfully push her to the ground once she stands again, but she kicks my own feet out from under me. I rip at the ground and pull up chunks of stone to throw at her, but she pins my hands down and throws the rocks away herself.

I reach for more, wanting nothing but to bash her skull in, when I hear her say something and suddenly, there is a pair of warm lips on my cold ones, and I forget everything. I'm not Jack, I'm not Mad Jack; I'm lost in space as nobody with no madness and no worry. The warm feeling leaves and I'm back on Earth, and I feel myself fading, and the aches are back again as I shift back to normal.

When I get up Jagalan is breathing heavily across from me, and I realize I am too, and we're both silent.

"What did you do?" I ask, hoping the answer is that she kissed me.

"I tried something."

"Which was..."

"I gave you a distraction," she says.

"Well it definitely worked."

She touches another strand of hair that I assume turned black with the last episode, and the heat of her hand is so comforting.

I lean in before I can think (and if I thought I probably would've done it anyways) and press my lips to hers again, longing for the feeling that everything is okay and warm. She pulls away too soon, and I stifle a groan.

"We need the amethyst; it's getting cold down here."

I nod and follow her some more until we find the purple stone, chipping it off accordingly and stowing it in her bag.

"So did you kiss me because you wanted to or because I was going berserk?" I ask slyly.

She hesitates. "Both. So did you kiss me because you wanted to or because you wanted to?"

I laugh. "Because I wanted to really badly."

She laughs with me, but we're silenced as the flow of waters reaches our ear.

"We're not that close to the entrance yet..." I trail off because we're suddenly ankle deep in water.

"It's flooding, we gotta go," Jagalan says, walking faster through the passage. I follow, freezing the water as we go to make it easier, but the water is flowing in too fast, and I can't keep up.

When we reach the hill we need to ascend, it's up to our chests, and Jagalan's hands are trembling and her lips and fingers are losing their color.

I quickly make a staircase and usher her up it, and we reach the top just as the water would've gone over our heads.

"Are you okay?" I know she's not, but it's the polite thing to ask.

"Just cold," she says. "Frostbitten, maybe."

If we weren't in this situation, I would say she's flirting, but there's seriousness in her eyes and I feel helpless; I can't help her.

"I'll be fine. We just need to keep walking."

I nod, trusting her, and help her along in the snow, but we only make it so far until her legs give out from the cold. The water didn't affect me of course, and I can see her eyelids start to flutter.

"Stay with me, okay?" I say softly, lifting her up and carrying her to an uncovered rock. I immediately start building a fire, and despondency shoots through me as her eyes close and her breathing weakens. I touch her cheek and it feels cold against my skin, and that's saying something. I hurry to make a fire, cursing the moon for giving me her powers instead of the sun's.