Jack and The Snow Beast – Part Two

So, while his father was sleeping off his headache, Jack wrapped up as warm as he could, putting on an extra warm woollen shirt under the one he was already wearing and packed a bag full of provisions like dried salted fish and potatoes thinking that, even if he didn’t get hungry, maybe he could feed them to the snow beast then Jack set off in the direction of where the little bird said the Snow Beast lived.

It was very hard travelling through the deep snow and ice and over jagged rocks for a little boy like Jack, even with all his thick winter clothes and hat on, Jack still felt cold and the snow got deeper and deeper the further he went so that his feet sank in it up to his knees and each footstep was a gargantuan effort.

Thankfully, Jack had thought to pack a pair of skillets and, when he tied them to the bottom of his shoes like snowshoes, he was able to walk over the deep snow without sinking into it.

Then, after only a few hours walk, Jack came to the place where the bird claimed it had seen the snow beasts cave.

Unfortunately, thanks to its powerful hearing and sense of smell, the Snow beast had seen Jack approaching and ‘little boy’ was the Snow beasts favourite food, so stretching out its jaws wide it waited at the entrance to its cave hoping that its teeth that looked just like golden icicles would lure Jack into the cave and into its mouth.

But, wisely, though Jack saw the long golden icicles and didn’t at all suspect that they might be long, Snow beast fangs, he didn’t want to enter a dark cave without a torch and so placing his friend the little bird upon the branch of a tree, he used a box of matches from his pack and he set fire to a dead branch that was lying nearby and holding it like a torch, entered the cave.

The moment that the torch flame touched the top of the Snow beasts mouth it let out an enormous roar of pain and terrified, Jack dropped the torch and ran back out of the cave.

Then, suddenly, to his horror, Jack saw the giant Snow beast emerge from its cave and, as it stood up, Jack realized just how gigantic and frightening it was; ten times taller than the tallest man Jack had ever seen and with glaring, dark red eyes.

Reaching into his pack, Jack threw everything he had at it; potatoes and fish; a fork; a spoon; a tin plate and a tin cup; then he threw the skillets that were tied to his feet and last of all his empty pack but the terrible Snow beast only laughed; deep, rumbling, deafening laughter, as it lumbered towards him.

“Quick!”, shouted the little bird on the branch of the bare tree nearby, “Run! Run!”.

But the way that Jack had come was blocked off by the towering monster; all he could do was climb up a steep rocky, snow covered slope and it was hard because he was already so tired and his hands and feet so small but fear of the terrifying, furry beast behind him drove him onwards and he climbed higher and higher.

When the beast saw him climbing, however, it just laughed even louder than before, “Ha!”, it boomed, “These are my mountains and I climb them as easily as a cat climbs a tree” then it moved
slowly, and with thunderous footfalls, towards the slope up which Jack was clambering.

And, when Jack reached the top of the slope and he looked down he saw the Snow beast at the bottom of the slope beginning to climb.

“Quick! Quick!”, shouted the bird to Jack, throw something; “a rock, a snow ball, anything!”.

But there were no rocks or stones nearby; nothing except deep snow and so, in an act of desperation, Jack rolled a snowball but this only made the Snow beast roar even more loudly with laughter, “Do you expect to kill me with that puny thing?!”, he asked.

Looking at the snowball in his hand, Jack realized just how silly an idea it was; killing a giant Snow beast with only a snowball and, dropping the snowball on the ground he cowered and trembled, believing that it was the end of him.

But, just then, something very strange and wondrous happened; the little snowball started rolling downhill and, as it rolled downhill, it quickly started to grow in size, getting bigger and bigger and bigger until it was so big that it was the size of a boulder and, hitting the Snow beast between its glaring red eyes, it knocked him off of the edge of the mountain and down into a deep dark ravine.

“You did it!”, said the little bird, “You slew the Snow beast!”.

Jack couldn’t believe it but it was true and then he went into the cave and picked up one of the enormous gold nuggets inside and, putting it into his pack, took it back with him to show his father.

However, the reaction he got from his gold hungry father was not what he had expected. He had hoped that, with that gold nugget which was as big as a pinapple, his father would be satisfied and they could finally go home but his father just said, with a greedy glow in his eyes, “Go home? Are you crazy?! With all that gold in that cave that could be ours? No. We’re not going home. You’re going to show me where that cave is and you’re going to swear never to tell anyone else about it”.

Then his father made him spit and swear that he would never tell another soul about the cave.

This did not make Jack happy, “If I’d have known you were that greedy, I never would have told you about the cave. All I want to do is go home to my mother and my sister”.

But his father was adamant, “Jack. I need someone I can trust! There’s none of these prospectors round about here that aren’t vultures. No, you’re staying here with me. Besides which, there’s nothing so sinful about gold. Do you not know your bible? The baby Jesus was himself given gold
by one of three wise kings and that means it can’t be sinful”.

Jack was neither convinced nor consoled by this, however, and at that moment the only thought in his head was, “Run away. You’ll find your way home somehow”.

But just then, through thick flakes of falling snow, Jack and his father saw two figures approaching;
one was a woman and the other a girl whose hand she was holding and, as they got nearer, to his jubilation, Jack saw that it was his mother and his sister and, instinctively, he ran towards them, throwing his arms around his Mothers waist and embracing her tightly.

“Mummy!”, he said, starting to weep as she hugged him tightly.

His mother had come to take him back, she had used the tiny amount of gold dust their father had sent her and bought a steamship ticket to the Yukon.

“I never should have let you take him with you”, she said angrily to his father, “This is no place for a young boy to grow up. He should be in school where he can have an education that will give him a certain future”.

“But Katy”, said his father, half emotional seeing his wife and daughter again but also angry at the way she seemed to be interfering with his dreams, “Jack has just discovered a hidden treasure house of gold; we could all be rich beyond your wildest dreams”.

“My dreams are very simple ones”, she replied, “A quiet life of modest comfort and a happy home for my children. I don’t care about being rich or about gold”.

The determined prospector wouldn’t listen but, thankfully, neither would his mother and, leaving a contact address with his father, she seized hold of his mittened hand and led Jack and his sister away.

Life after that was wonderful for Jack. His warm, loving family home was a lot better than a shack
in the middle of an icy wasteland and he loved to tell his mother and sister about how he had single handedly defeated the terrible Snow beast.

But there was one thing he had forgotten. He had forgotten to say goodbye to his friend the little bird.

However, one Christmas, many years later, as he was playing in his front yard with his sister building a snow beast out of snow, a little bird that looked just like it fluttered down onto the branch of a nearby tree, “Is your name Jack?”, it asked, “Jack who slew the terrible Snow beast of the Yukon?”.

“That’s me”, said Jack happy to see the bird that he thought he recognized as his old friend, “And I remember you”.

“Oh no”, said the bird, “It’s not me you remember, It’s my great, great grandfather. The story of how you and he defeated the snow beast has been passed down in our family for generations and his last
wish was that, if any of his descendants were flying past your house that they should say hello. He wanted you to know that his wing healed up and he was able to continue with his life”.

“I’m very glad to hear that”, said Jack as the bird shook his hand with its wing, “My life has got better too and I’ve learned that you should never give up hope”.

“Oh certainly not”, said the bird, taking to the air and flying off towards the sunset, “We birds live upon hope”.

Then Jack's father came out and told Jack and his Sister to come inside for Christmas dinner. Jack's
father no longer cared about Gold anymore, for he'd found something even more precious, the love of his family.