North Pole City Tales 02 - The Heart of Frost by Charlie Cochet Page A

breaths, feeling cold the likes of which I’d never felt. It had taken seconds. When I opened my eyes, I was stunned to find myself alive, especially since everything else had been… disintegrated. There was nothing left for miles but the dirt of the earth beneath us. Trees, the snow, the lake, everything was gone. And he stood there in the middle of it all, his expression blank, and I had never been more scared of anything or anyone in all my life.” Rudy wiped the tears from his eyes, remembering the heartache as if it had been yesterday. “I called out to him, and when he looked at me… there was nothing but emptiness. He… didn’t know who I was. Worst of all, he didn’t care. He just walked away.
    “Jack was going to be a pilot for Kringle, you see. It’s what he’d wanted. His father had other plans for him. He wanted Jack to follow in his footsteps and lead the North Pole’s army. That day, Jack joined his father and the toy soldiers as their General. Without Jack, the Frost War wouldn’t have been over so quickly, but what everyone saw, what Jack did during that war, it’s where his reputation came from. Jack showed no remorse, no regret for anything. It was nothing more than a duty he was performing. He wiped out an entire army without a second thought. With his strength, he could have disabled the enemy’s army, but instead, he chose to annihilate them.”
    Tim’s fingers squeezed his own, and Rudy closed his eyes, taking what comfort he could from his sweet friend’s voice. “That doesn’t sound like Jack at all. I mean he’s grumpy, but he’s also kind. He smiles and laughs, shows compassion. I don’t understand.”
    “I didn’t either, at the time. When I was accepted by Kringle to join the Rein Dear Academy, I was so excited, but at the same time, I was terrified, because Kringle had asked Jack to teach me to fly. I didn’t know what Kringle saw in me, but he decided I would become the next captain, and for reasons unknown to me, he wanted Jack to teach me personally. It was true no one was better at flying than Jack, but he was… well, let’s just say, it was a rough start. Whatever friendship we’d once had was nonexistent, as if we were meeting for the first time.
    “Not long after getting started, I was on the brink of quitting. I had tried, really tried, but Jack was brutal. He was trying to break me, and he didn’t care. As far as he was concerned, I was unfit for the position. I was nobody, a strange little elf with strange bright hair from some remote village of nobodies. We were at each other’s throats day in and day out. One night, I went to see Kringle to tell him I just couldn’t take it anymore. He stood up, asked me to walk with him, and I did. I followed him out into the hangar where Jack was working on his plane. Kringle handed me a snow globe. There was nothing in it but water and snow. He asked me to look at Jack through the globe. What I saw left me speechless.”
    Noel’s eyes widened. “What was it?”
    “What did you see?” Tim added curiously.
    “His heart was completely encased in ice. Whatever had happened that day at the lake, it had frozen over his heart. Kringle said he chose me not just because he believed I was capable of leading the squadron, but because of my heart. He missed Jack, and he had no doubt in his mind that I was the one who could melt the ice around Jack’s heart. It was tough.” Rudy let out a tired laugh, recalling all those years with terrible clarity. “He wasn’t the Jack you’ve come to know. There was no one more stubborn, more infuriating, more ruthless than him, but I refused to back down. I was determined to help him. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but I didn’t leave his side for a moment, no matter how irritated he became. It went on for days, weeks, months, years, decades.
    “Somewhere along the line… I had fallen in love with him, despite telling myself I shouldn’t, that it would only lead to