Deviation Actions
Description
I'm convinced that animals can see spirits and Jack must have found that out pretty quickly, so I imagine this could have happened maybe a few weeks after he was reborn. It's supposed to be a dog from a closeby village.
Paint Tool Sai & Photoshop CS5.
Jack Frost(c)William Joyce & Dreamworks.
***Story***
He didn’t know if it had been weeks or months since he had risen from the icy like. After the people in the nearby village walked right through him and no one paid any attention to him, clearly showing him that they weren’t even aware of his existence, Jack had flown, still quite clumsily, to other villages, towns and countries. But no matter how many humans he encountered, not a single one looked in his direction or replied to his desperate calls. He was invisible, like a ghost, and this realization took a while to sink in.
For whatever reason he had come back to the forest in which the lake was located, it was the only place he could remotely call ‘home’ and felt oddly attached to it. Not only because it had been the first surrounding he had seen, there was something else, a deeper connection but he had no clue what exactly that was. It didn’t change his situation anyway, the countless questions raging in his confused mind and the fear of being all alone in this world.
The night had gone by faster than he had noticed. One moment stars and the moon shone down from the dark blue sky, their light mysterious and soothing but still not enough to ease his worries. And suddenly they had vanished and were replaced with weak sunrays and fog filling the environment around the young spirit.
He had been and was still sitting on the snowy ground, trying to think of a solution. What was he supposed to do now? Was there anything he could do to make people see him? Would he have to be on his own for the rest of his life? Even if it had only been days, weeks, months, the feeling of loneliness engulfed him with disturbing force. He didn’t want to be alone, he wasn’t used to it, even if he couldn’t recall ever having talked to another person before. Briefly he had wondered about his purpose, his meaning of life, why the moon had brought him here. But despite the importance of these questions, the fear of being alone was dominating his thoughts, pushing everything else aside.
Resting his elbows on his knees he stared into the void in front of him, his left hand grabbing a fistful of white hair. He was completely at a loss what to do. With a deep shaky sigh he hid his face in his arms and hugged his legs close to him.
One friend, just one, that would be enough.
Some birds chirped in the distance. It was a blurry sound in his groggy mind since he was close to falling asleep. All of a sudden something seemed different. He couldn’t immediately tell what it was but it dragged him out of his weary state. When he lifted his head a bit to check his surroundings he realized someone had joined him.
Only a few meters away from him there was a young dog with light brown fur wagging its tail and looking at him. Looking at him. Those dark brown eyes were looking straight into his blue ones.
Jack’s expression changed from fatigue and defeat to sheer surprise. Did that mean what he thought it meant? Dumbfoundedly he stared at the medium-sized animal for a moment until he leaned forwards, his hands digging into the earth and snow below him to support his humble weight.
“Can you...SEE me?” he asked hesitantly.
Of course a dog wouldn’t talk back to him. Even though he was well aware of that fact he still felt the urge to say it out loud, to get a reaction. Any kind of reaction.
What he didn’t expect was the canine padding towards him and standing up on his hindlegs with the paws of his forelegs put on the teen’s chest. Jack yelped, totally taken aback when a rough warm tongue licked his cheek and the puppy seemingly smiled at him with the happiest expression an animal could ever display.
It could see him. It could touch him. It liked him. And it didn’t matter if it was a human, a dog, a deer or a squirrel. This was the first living being which acknowledged his existence and proved him that he wasn’t invisible to everyone. Right now, that was all he needed. It took a load off his mind and filled his heart with relief. Blinking back tears of joy he hugged the furry creature which kept wagging its tail in approvement and snuggled it’s small head up against Jack’s face. Gently he stroked the soft fur and had to laugh when the dog licked his cold pale cheek once more.
After he removed his arms from the canine, it cheerfully ran around him for a few seconds until something else caught its interest. Before the immortal teen could react the dog had taken his staff in its muzzle and seemed to challenge him. He hadn’t expected an animal to be able to look mischievous like this. With an amused grin he attempted to stand up but the moment he moved the dog had taken off, together with the magical shepherd’s crook.
“Hey, wait!” Jack shouted as he jumped up and immediately ran after the furry troublemaker.
Under normal circumstances a dog was much faster than a human. But taking into consideration that it was a puppy holding a wooden staff between its teeth, which was several times its size, in a dense forest and that despite his lean frame Jack was a very athletic person, it made the whole endeavor more promising for the winter spirit. After a short chase he had drawn levels with the little thief.
“Gotcha!” he yelled triumphantly and lunged himself at it, but it quickly evaded just in time.
When he managed to grab his conduit of power instead, his ‘opponent’ refused to let go and wrestled with him in a playful way.
“You have no chance, better give up already!” Jack laughed and pulled at the staff, albeit not hard enough to rip it out of the dog’s grasp.
It would have been no big deal to do that, but why waste the opportunity to have some fun? He pretended to give in and just when the mutt made the impression to feel safe with its prey he intensified his grip again on what the brown animal must have seen as a really big wooden stick. With ludic snarls it kept holding onto the unusual toy and showed no sign of ever planning to surrender.
Then Jack got an idea. With his free hand he grabbed some snow from the ground and expertly formed a perfect snowball. As soon as the cold missile shot through the air the dog’s dark eyes widened. The staff immediately dropped out of its muzzle and with a big jump it had bolted towards the white ball, trying to catch it. Jack gave out a chuckle as the puppy bit down on the snowball in mid-air, which of course dissolved into a frozen mess, and landed back on the ground with a confused expression. Another snowball was thrown in its direction and once more it lunged at it, with the same result. Surely it must have gotten frustrating for the poor thing but it seemed to look forward to each new chance of finally catching one of those strange white balls. Just when it had pushed itself off the forest floor and already opened its mouth something distracted it and the snowball hit it on the face full force. Shaking the cold remnants off of it after it had touched back down its furry ears twitched and brown eyes stared into the distance.
Jack followed its gaze but could neither see or hear anything unusual. Only after several moments did he notice the faint yell of a male voice, belonging to a boy probably several years younger than himself.
“Rover! Rover, where are you?”
So it wasn’t a stray dog, like Jack had secretly hoped, but belonged to someone. It had a home, a family. He couldn’t keep it, as much as he wanted to. He badly needed a friend and a pet came very close to that, but he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he took it away from other people.
The mutt, whose name apparently was Rover, was torn between following the calls of his master and staying by his new friend’s side. Dark brown eyes continued to look to and fro overchallenged while it waddled a few steps in one direction and then back in the other.
“It’s okay, go back to your family.” Jack said softly as he met its gaze.
Not being convinced yet the young animal trudged towards him and mustered him with those big puppy eyes.
“Really, it’s alright, if you want to play again, come here. Guess I’m gonna hang out in this forest regularly.” he shrugged nonchalantly and smirked at the little creature.
He doubted that it could actually understand what he was saying, but even if it didn’t, it seemed to have a sixth sense which told it everything it had to know. It wouldn’t be the last time those two had seen each other and this was enough to calm it down.
By licking the frosty teen’s cheeck once more Rover bid him goodbye and eventually darted off towards the small figure in the distance. Jack watched the dog’s and its master’s happy reunion before they dissappeared in the depths of the forest. Bittersweet emotions took a hold of his soul as his fragile mind processed the events of what couldn’t have been more than half an hour. With a sigh, both happy and sad, if that was even possible, he darted off into the air, allowing the wind to embrace him and take him to wherever it assumed he should go.
*************************************************Over the next few years Jack visited many other towns, countries and continents. Since no single human was able to see him he tended to approach animals more and more. While not everyone of them acknowledged him like he hoped they would, the simple purr of a cat rubbing itself against his legs, the content snort of a horse when he petted its forehead or a fish briefly nipping on his finger when he dipped it in a lake were enough to keep his spirits up.
Whenever he came back to ‘his’ forest he was on the look-out for Rover, the first living being which ever approached and touched him. Not always did the dog come to him, it had a family to spend time with after all. But sometimes it ran away from its home and met its spirit friend to play and cuddle for a while before it had to react to the searching calls of its master.
With every passing year their bond grew tighter. Rover showed up once every two months at the exact same day. Jack always knew when he had to fly back and every time he was greeted by his furry friend with a wagging tail and hearty licks on his cheek. The cute puppy had grown up into an impressive big dog which always knocked him down when it lunged at him in happiness. Being well aware of the fact that the animal posessed far more strenght now the frost teen made sure to keep his staff out of its reach and offered other kinds of toys and entertainment instead. They always had fun times, although they never lasted long. The calls of Rover’s master, who also had become an adult by now, kept interrupting their shenanigans.
While he had become accustomed to it Jack still couldn’t suppress his annoyance. That guy had Rover for 24 hours a day, couldn’t he grant him more freedom than 15 minutes in a row? But deep inside Jack knew that he couldn’t keep him, or any pet. He loved to travel the world, to explore countries, to go wherever the wind would take him. He wouldn’t be able to take care of a pet, he couldn’t take it with him and spreading winter meant that he couldn’t just stay in one place forever. It simply wasn’t in his nature.
As the years went by he witnessed his friend getting older. Rover wasn’t as agile as he used to be anymore and his fur showed more and more grey streaks. But his playful self remained, in his mind he was still the playful puppy he had always been and his joy to see the spirit hadn’t faltered the slightest bit.
And yet, every time the mutt had to leave Jack wondered if he would see it again or if it had been the last time. Those thoughts clenched his heart in a death grip, causing him to immediately shake them off so they wouldn’t cause him more worry than he was able to cope with.
15 years after his first encounter with Rover he finally had to realize that a dog wasn’t supposed to live forever, while he himself was doomed to be immortal. Skimming the forest from high up in the sky Jack soon found his furry companion waiting for him at their accustomed place, the small clearing where they met each other for the first time. It was early spring and obviously had rained a short while ago, judging from the small droplets on the branches and the slightly wet fur of ‘his’ loyal pet. But something felt wrong. As soon as he touched down on the wet soil he was proven right. Instead of running towards him Rover stayed where he was, sitting near the trunk of a pine tree. The shaggy tail twitched and the expression on the animal’s face couldn’t be described as anything other than happiness. And yet he looked weak, worn out and simply old. Jack had a bad suspicion and slowly walked to his first and only friend, kneeling down and gently patting the animal’s head.
“Hey, buddy, how are you?” the frost teen asked.
Even if he would never get a reply in words, he always felt the urge to actually talk. He often soliloquized and immensely appreciated actually having someone else to speak to. It didn’t matter that it was ‘just’ a dog. To Jack, he was much more than that.
Rover blinked a few times while enjoying the caress before scooting closer and leaning his head against the winter spirit’s chest. His breathing was shallow and he seemed to save his energy, or what little rest of it remained. Never had his old age been more apparent. Deep inside Jack knew what this meant, what was going to happen in the very near future, but he pushed these nagging thoughts aside. He didn’t want to think about it. He couldn’t deal with the harsh reality, so he assumed it would be best to just ignore it and pretend everything was alright.
“One of those days, eh? Don’t worry, we’ll fool around once you’re in better shape again.” Jack said forcing a smile.
If he tried to convince himself or the canine, he didn’t know. Dark brown eyes looked up at him and for a moment Jack could have sworn there was a kind of telepathic contact between them. So many emotions could be read in Rover's face, overwhelming and worrying the young immortal all at once. There was sadnesss, gratefulness, calmness and acceptance. For many humans animals were only living beings with no soul, awareness or mind at all, but after seeking contact with many of them and above all with his doggy friend, Jack had no doubt about their intelligence. And right now, there was no single doubt that Rover knew what was going on with him. He was ready and had waited for Jack to say goodbye. But the Spirit of Winter still wasn’t able to accept the inevitable.
“You’ll be fine, you’ll see. Hey, wanna play a game? Your favourite one?” he spoke softly, holding back tears with all his might.
Rover gave out a low bark which meant “yes”. Although it sounded a lot weaker and quieter than usual. Both stood up slowly and Jack walked a few steps away. A snowball appeared in his hand and was thrown in the dog’s direction, who used all of its remaining strenght to jump towards it and caught it in its muzzle. After landing back on the ground Rover panted and licked the remnants of the squished snow from his snout.
“Good boy!” Jack cheered and walked towards him to ruffle his fur affectionately.
“Rover! Come back already!”
That dreaded voice, so far away and yet always managing to destroy their short and treasured fun meetings in a heartbeat. Of course Rover belonged to that family from the nearby village, and yet, for Jack he had become his dog. Especially now, with the excruciating premonition looming above them, he longed to spend some more time with him. But there was nothing he could do to change the situation. Rover glanced in the direction of his master’s voice before looking his spirit friend straight in the eyes. It was obvious what he was trying to say.
“I have to go now. I’m sorry.”
“It-it’s okay, buddy. I’ll...see you soon.” Jack muttered hoarsely and hugged his pet close to him, not being able to keep the tears back anymore.
“Thanks...for everything.” he whispered almost inaudibly.
An unfamiliar whimpering sound came from the mutt which pressed its face against the teen’s and licked his cheek for one last time.
Jack watched his beloved pet, his friend, slowly wandering to his calling master. And then Rover turned around for a final goodbye, cerulean eyes meeting dark brown before he dissappeared between the trees.
Two months later, when Jack came back to where they always used to meet, he was alone. He waited for hours, until the night descended upon the forest. But he kept waiting. When the sun rose and there was still no sign of his friend he finally had to accept what he had tried to suppress for the last weeks.
Rover wouldn’t come back. His friend was gone.
*************************************************
If you're interested in more RotG-stories, check out my oneshot collection on Fanfiction.net. 
www.fanfiction.net/s/9651436/1…
Very good 👍.