Jack's Journey of Self Improvement

[Jack Frost]

It was a dark, freezing night in the forest. Earlier in the evening snow had begun to fall, and the ground had already been coated in a fresh layers of white snow. Concordia forest was split into four sections by two long winding roads that intersected in the general center of the area. Underwood, a small robust town centered around trade and lumber, had formed on this crossroad. This was where Jack's rebirth had happened. Or so the voice told him.

The slender silver haired young man had spent nineteen years with his elven "Family" without a care in the world. Several events had forced him to leave, now he had returned to the area. He was not here to visit old haunts, he wasn't here to see old friends or family. He wasn't even setting foot in Underwood. He was here to find solitude in the forest.

He had been brutally defeated multiple times in the citadel, he had injured several of his comrades in battle on accident. He needed to refine his fighting. He was here to study in silence.

[Jack Frost]

It took Jack several hours to find what he needed, a small clearing with several large trees at its edge. He glanced up towards the sky and saw the clouds blocking the stars. It was almost pitch black, and Jack would need to rest. He quickly snapped multiple branches off of the stronger trees and set up a lean-to to sleep in. He removed his bag of holding and lifted out his sleeping bag, made of a heavy wool, and unrolled it. He quickly crawled into his bag and drifted into a light sleep.

...
The following morning Jack awoke to the empty silence that was the forest in winter. All of the birds had migrated, and the lack of their caws and crowing made Jack slightly uneasy. He crawled out of sleeping bag and exited his shelter. The clearing he was in was about twenty feet long in diameter, and his tracks from the night before had been covered by the nights snow. Jack had little time to observe much more before his stomach growled.

He grabbed his bag of holding, which was a simple leather satchel that would hang off of one of his shoulders, and then removed a small bread roll. He ravenously devoured it and then decided it was time to get started. The first order of business was to set some snares to catch a rabbit. Which he went about rather quickly. His "father" had taken him hunting once, and had taught him how to do so, but several years of disuse had put him out of practice.

It took several tries to get them set, but once they were he moved to the next item on his agenda.

[Jack Frost]

Jack grabbed several large, rotted branches from the forest on his return to his makeshift camp. When he did arrive back he started to clear away some snow to set up a fire ring. Once he had set the fire ring up he quickly set up a small cooking fire, ready to light if need be, and looked around. He would need a place to study...

As he glanced he noticed a chair, more specifically a throne, made of ice had formed. Royalty needs a throne... said the voice in his head. He scowled, "About time you butted in..." He murmured taking a seat on the throne. He removed the bag of holding from his shoulder and fished through its contents, removing two tomes. He quickly cracked open the one that had "volume one" scrawled on the spine in a cold, gold font.

So it begins... both he and the voice muttered to themselves.

[Jack Frost]

Jack flipped past the first three chapters of the book that covered the skills that he had already obtained. As a refresher he ran through each skill. The first was the most basic. He closed his eyes and growled, forcing them open really quickly. His vision sharpened, revealing every molecule of water in the air to him. He raised his hand to look at his face, and watched as the molecules rippled and flowed with the movement. He grinned and watched the water flow in his own body. This skill was interesting to him.

He smiled and found himself focusing on a group of molecules about three feet ahead of him. He sighed and willed the molecules to freeze, forming a baseball sized ball of ice. He willed it to move towards him, shakily at first, but then he got a steady movement going. He stretched his hand out and dropped the ball into his open palm, releasing his mental grip on it.

A self satisfied smirk crossed his face, his eyes beamed with success as he tossed the ball up and down. Mid toss he grasped the ball mentally and threw it into the woods at an average baseball pitching speed. It sped into the silent forest, a silent thump was all that cut through the silence to let Jack know that the ball had hit a tree and stopped moving.

satisfied? the voice asked. Jack, who had been ignoring it for the most part decided to reply. "Yeah, but why the hell is it so hard to do some of this?" he asked adjusting his spot on the frozen throne. Althanas was not created in a day Jack, I Father Winter, lord of ice, know that. You for some reason are not a direct reincarnation of me. Something went wrong, you developed your own personality. Your own mindset. You have not yet achieved immortality, if you die outside the citadel you will remain dead. I have come to believe that your divinity has shattered into four pieces. I can feel their presence. We will locate them when I find them. For now just train...

Jack nodded and yawned. "shattered divinity..." He muttered mindlessly. Something resonated inside of him, but the feeling would not manifest itself in a interpretable way. He then decided it was time to move on. Time for his next task.

[Jack Frost]

He flipped further into the book and read an advanced section talking about the more advanced techniques that would be covered in later books. This made Jack grin. With time he could freeze people solid mid-step, raise towering spire of ice and bring them crashing down upon his enemies. as he read he began to grin more and more. A sick sense of pleasure crossed across his face, contorting it with a sinister grin.

He quickly flipped to the next challenge he had. He began to delve into the theories of how ice magic worked for most people. The author, Vladimir Silvermane, theorized that there were three types of ice mages. Those who could freeze ice out of sheer will, those who had a natural talent for it, and elementals. Will users could be legendary, but very few had the mind power able to perform many great feats without going insane. Those with a natural propensity for ice magic were rare, and often kicked up quite a storm historically
Many would assume that these "natural" users somehow could trace their ancestry back to an Ice elemental, or one of the nine illegitimate half Thayne children Father Winter, the great lord of ice himself, had left behind. Guilty...
Jack heard Winter mutter softly. He chuckled and continued on to read about Elementals. Elementals were forces of nature personified. The greatest Ice elemental was Father Winter, he was also the first. He left behind ten heirs. One was born a legitimate Thayne, named Gale. Gale however has never been encountered by a normal human, so his existence is a well guarded secret. The nine other children have been classified as "the founders" of modern day arctic creatures. They are immortal, and are often found accompanying great ice mages as familiars.
The most famous are the ones that seemed to have disappeared. Among these are the sly penguin Jolly, the wise bear Polaris, and the Lone wolf Fenrir. These three rose to infamy with their adventures with each-other and several alleged reincarnations of Lord Winter. The other six are less known, and a rarely sighted. Most of their children are elementals, and the regular animals people have grown accustomed to are distant descendants and have lost all magical properties.

This caused Jack to pause. "Winter..." He spoke aloud. "Could Gale and the others have the shards of my divinity?" He asked, his sinister grin drooping into a scowl. By the Thaynes...

[Jack Frost]

The mental presence that was Winter faded away murmuring to himself, Jack caught two names that struck a chord. Blair and Demetry. Something about those two names made him decide it was time to check his snares. He set his tome down back on his throne and rose to his feet, stretching as he did so. He adjusted his hair, which still stood in spikes and adjusted his jacket.

He strode forward to the edge of his clearing and glanced upwards at the cloudy sky. A dark figure soared high above in the clouds, higher than any bird should be at. Jack disregarded the information and continued onwards. He found one of his many snares had been set off, but a bloody mess on the ground showed that his kill had been stolen by a predator.

He quickly trudged through the trails of the forest ignoring the icy wonderland checking each of his snares. At each snare he found that they had been set off, and the game they had captured had been stolen. The elemental was not in greatest mood as he approached his last snare, which was the furthest from his clearing. Not able to see the sun Jack had no clue what time it was, but he assumed it was around midday, his stomach growled as he smelled fresh blood.

He approached his trap and froze. A rabbit hung delicately by his snare, and in front of it stood an arctic fox. It's teal eyes teemed with energy as it stared Jack down. It continued this staring contest for two seconds, then snatched his rabbit and ran.

"Oh no you don't!" Jack roared angrily. He tore down the snow covered trail after the nimble white fox, who seemed almost glow as it ran. Something clicked in the back of Jack's mind, and his mind exploded in agonizing pain. Pure absolute pain ran across every fiber of his body and being.

...

[Jack Frost]

Jack awoke about an hour later, half covered in the snow. His stomach growled hungrily, and he forced himself to his feet. The white fox was gone, and had probably already eaten his rabbit. The youth scowled and trudged back towards his camp. To the average person it would be bitterly cold, but Jack felt none of it. Instead he returned to his campsite and sat on his hard throne of ice. It was time to think about getting food. Perhaps going into town if he absolutely had to. As he sat and sulked something in the back of his mind reminisced on the past. Had he dreamed when he had passed out? The answer avoided him, slipping away every time he thought he had a clear grasp on the answer. The thought process was agonizing, and Jack decided to put it off.

"Winter..." Jack muttered to himself in an attempt to draw out his past life's consciousness to the surface. He listened to the old man growl and speak up. What?!? he growled. Jack, who had taken some offense to the rudeness growled. "What should we do?" He asked slightly confused. His stomach growled, alerting both consciousnesses to the fact that they were running on empty. What happened to the snares? The old man asked, oblivious to the adventures Jack had already undertaken.

"Some fox stole them!" Jack growled leaning back in his chair. It was beginning to get dark, and the Ice Mage had not eaten since breakfast. Winter scanned Jack's memories, and let out a slight chuckle. It looks like our job has gotten easier... the old man mused. A look of confusion crept over Jack's face. "What?" He asked.

Then the white fox appeared from the forest and stared him down. It appears we've met our first elemental...