The Elemental's Curse

Zima

Jack Frost, the Guardian of Fun, was bored once again. The elves were hiding from him and the yetis weren't in the mood for a game of tag. His siblings and mother had gone back to the Treehouse Palace to try and find out if there was a way to protect elementals from the curse in the large library. And the Guardians forbade Jack from even going anywhere on his own within the workshop.

So here he sat, in North's private office, watching North carve new toy models out of ice with a bored expression. North knew it was only a matter of time before Jack would become desperate enough to try and get out.

"Jack?" he spoke up, catching the sprite's attention. "Would you like to help me design toys?"

Jack's eyes lit up in excitement. "Really?"

"Of course," North smiled. Jack suddenly looked like a little child who had been offered the entire cookie jar on the kitchen counter. "Come, pull chair over. I'm sure you'll be natural."

Jack quickly pulled his chair over, setting his staff in between their two seats. North pulled out some papers from a nearby drawer and showed some of them to Jack. They were designs of new toys he'd really wanted to make but couldn't figure out how to bring them to life. Jack quickly took on that challenge, excitedly taking the papers and studying them.

North began to sneak peeks at Jack every few minutes, watching in curiosity as Jack twirled two of his fingers in front of him as he solely focused on the design on the paper in his other hand. Ice was forming out of thin air, slowly taking on the shape of the toy that Jack was looking at.

Not wanting to disrupt the work, North waited until Jack put down the paper and smiled at his finished work, scooting it towards North for review.

"Jack," he inquired. "Where did you learn to do that?"

"What, this?" Jack replied, taking the replica back and setting it with North's other finished models. "If I concentrate hard enough on a single image of something, I can make an exact replica of it with ice. It's not too hard, actually. The only hard thing is keeping my concentration going long enough."

"Would you mind trying it on the rest of those designs?"

"Anything I can do to help, North."

North watched for a moment as Jack began working on the second toy before turning back to the ice sculpture he was working on: a winter-themed teddy bear. He was planning on personally making this one, and only one. It was going to be Jack's present come Christmas. Of course, Santa was going to give him tons of presents, but North - who was practically his adoptive father now - was making this especially for his new-found son that he'd been wishing for his entire immortal life.

Then an idea popped into his head.

"Jack!" North practically shouted, grabbing a blank piece of paper and a pencil from nearby. Luckily, Jack had just finished the replica he'd been working on, so when he was shocked out of concentration, it didn't ruin the replica.

"What?" he asked, thinking he'd done something wrong.

"I have wonderful idea!" North continued sketching excitedly, looking up at Jack every couple of seconds in concentration. "I have found way to get you new believers!" He held the paper out to Jack. "Jack Frost statues! Look just like you, no?"

Jack looked at the paper in awe. The statue version of him was standing tall and proud, showing off his signature smirk, his hoodie decorated with all of the frost patterns, his exact pants, even his staff clutched in both hands. He was standing on a little pedestal that read Jack Frost: Spirit of Winter & Guardian of Fun. Jack finally let a smile slip onto his face, and he looked up at North, who was excitedly waiting for his opinion.

"You should do all five of us," Jack suggested. "Each with our own statue. And put them together in one big present."

"Brilliant idea, Jack!" North said, getting even more excited by the second. He grabbed more paper and sharpened his pencil. "I shall get to work right away! Maybe add Baby Tooth into Tooth's designs. You finish other toys."

Jack could only smile at North's excitement as he turned back to his assigned project. He moved the one he had finished over with the other completed projects and began on the next one.

XXX

It was only when North decided the designs were perfect that he turned to look at Jack. The winter sprite had finished all of the designs and was now fast asleep, head on his hands on the desk. North could only chuckle; he could've sworn Jack said it didn't take much energy to make replicas, but he did do a lot of them in the past few hours.

North carefully gathered the child into his arms and secured him; Jack didn't even budge. The elves grabbed Jack's staff and followed North down the hallway. North passed his bedroom, then stopped at the next room over. Opening the door carefully, he walked in and surveyed the room with a smile.

It was a bedroom he'd had designed especially for Jack. It perfectly represented a winter wonderland. Glass snowflakes made a chandelier hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room. A desk sat in front of the single window with paper and drawing pencils. A closet door stood closed; behind its doors was an empty closet, waiting to be filled with new gifted clothes. A shelf was filled with Jack's favorite books that he'd discovered in North's library in the past year. And of course, there was a king-sized bed with tons of fluffy, white pillows to represent snow. The sheets were a sky blue.

North carefully set Jack on the bed and covered him up. He patted Jack's head and gently ruffled his hair before smiling and leaving the room to continue his duties before retiring to bed himself.

As soon as the door closed, Jack's eyes burst open. He smirked; his plan had worked. He quietly crawled out of the bed, grabbing his staff that the elves sat next to his bed, and hurried to open the window. He quickly admired the room before looking towards the bedroom door, a slight twinge of guilt bringing hesitation into his mind. Sighing, he turned and leapt from the window, letting the wind catch him and carry him out towards his destination.