I waited. The moment was almost here. It was almost time for my greatest achievement yet. Father would be so proud.

There was a small cracking sound. There! Right there! A hairline fracture in the ice! The ice split more and shattered into a gaping hole, chunks of ice floating in it, and a body floated out of the water, rising higher and higher.

Now! I flew in between the fledgling and the ball of light hanging in the sky, blocking any and all messages from the moon. I levitated the newborn creature up into the air in front of me using the wind, only slightly concerned for their health. They were coming out of a frozen lake in the middle of a forest, but they were perfectly dry. They would be fine.

I cocked my head to the side slightly as I received the moon's transmission. Hm, I thought. Interesting.

I spoke loudly to the gasping and spluttering figure, still uncertain if it was a boy or a girl. "Jack Frost." Oh, yeah, it's a boy. Duh, his name is Jack.

I waited for more words, but they didn't come. Was that really all that the moon was going to tell this boy?

He was now eye-level with me. "Poor baby," I murmured absentmindedly, stretching out a pale, thin hand to brush a spindly finger against his cheek. He jerked slightly and I yanked my finger back, pale face flushing. "Sorry." I gently lowered him back down to the frozen lake, and the hole sealed over again under his feet. I dropped too, landing on the ground in a crouch, my shepherds crook just brushing the ground. I cracked the ice, but small webs of frost were creeping from his feet, silvery and gleaming, repairing the ice. I stood and pushed the hood on my cloak back slightly, looking at him with wonder and awe. "So that's what you can do. Do you know anything else?"

He looked slightly apprehensive and startled, as if he forgot I was there until I spoke. He shook his head, silvery-white hair flipping.

"Do you know how to talk?"

He made an odd movement with his mouth, then stuck his tongue out and licked his barely-pink lips before opening his mouth, revealing straight white teeth. 'Pearly' wasn't really an apt description for them, they could maybe only be compared to freshly fallen snow. They sparkled and shone in the quicksilver trickling from the moon. "Yes." He said the word carefully, as if afraid of saying it wrong, but he continued faster when I gave him an encouraging nod. "Yes, I know how to speak."

"Good. Can you tell me anything about yourself?" I had to proceed carefully, not prod too much in sensitive areas but nudge just enough to get the questions flowing.

Apparently that approach had failed. I'd already struck a nerve. He looked like he was thinking, trying to remember, but he couldn't. He looked to me, a stricken and scared expression on his strong features, and started walking carefully. I noted that his feet were bare and his pants torn at the hems, his calves wrapped in tan leather strips.

He almost tripped over something, a small clatter echoing through the clearing. I looked down and noticed a staff much like my own at his feet, but his was wood and mine was metal. He prodded it with his toe and sparkling frost spread over it for a second, then faded. Once it showed no sign of malice, he reached down and lifted it in both hands, cradling it in open palms, then abruptly closed his long fingers around it with a sense of possession, like he thought I was going to take it.

I held out my own staff. "Look. Hey hey hey hey, I'm not going to hurt you. Yes, I know, that's what they say right before they hurt you, but I swear, I won't touch you. Okay?" He nodded slowly. I knelt and set my staff down on the ground, maintaining contact by two fingers. "I have my own staff. I wouldn't need yours. Do you want to look?" He nodded again, eyeing me warily.

The boy took another step forward and crouched across from me. His eyes were a beautiful shade of blue. He looked at my staff, then his, then back to mine, comparing them. He stretched out his arm and laid his hand on the metal. A warm tingle ran down my spine, but I ignored it and nodded encouragingly. "I channel my powers through this staff. You do the same with yours. Do you feel that? That thrumming, throbbing, power longing to be set free?" He nodded, his eyes wide. "I use my staff to let that out. That's me, that's my power. When I let go-" I pulled my hand away and he looked confused, like someone had taken something away from him for no reason. "My power leaves the staff. The staff is an extension of me, but it holds absolutely none of my power. I just use it as a guide, to show my energies where to go."

I grabbed my staff again and his face lit up like a child's on Christmas. I tried to ease it from his grip, but he didn't let go. "Hey, I need my staff back." I tugged a bit harder and his face became slightly desperate, and he held on. "Jack. Give. Me. My. Staff." He looked sad that I was going to take it away.

I picked up his staff and tossed it. He jumped up and caught it in midair, and I stood quickly, my staff right next to my body.

He looked over and pouted slightly.

"I'm here to train you. So let's get training." I jumped up high and the wind caught me, cradling my thin frame. "Try to jump." He jumped, but nothing happened. "Jump higher, and imagine pressure under your feet," I insisted. "It'll work."

He looked skeptical, but he closed his eyes and jumped. The wind swept him up into the air. His eyes opened in shock as he lost his concentration and the wind dropped him. He crashed through a tree and bounced off branches, finally hugging one and staying like that. Then he slipped from that branch and smashed into a snowbank, making a comical silhouette in the fresh snow, like a snow angel but face-down.

I sighed and put a hand to my temple. "This might take a while..."