AN: This is the fic for my Sanctuary AU comic! You can find it and other drawings for this AU with /sanctuary-au in my tumblr (petitcastellan). It's a page, not a tag, so just copy that and paste it after my url! :)

You can also find Snowflake's (my OC) and Jack's design in that link, or in my deviantart (kuramachan5).

Big thanks to Karla (charlotteandcheese on tumblr) for being my beta! And Sammy (inthewestwing on tumblr) for helping me with some things in the fic (she was also the one who put me in the Hijack world. 3).

I hope you enjoy this story!

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Once upon a time, a Child of the Moon returned from the death. It was a miracle, they said. Oh, Odin above, how they said. But the blessing that the Spirit in the Moon gave to that child became brutal. And a nightmare it was when the child froze it all. Since then, the legend crossed the seven seas, told by mothers to children, by children to friends. Until one day, the legend had become true again.

- Prologue -

Bright lights of fire. Loud noises of swords and things being broken. Screams.

Jack Overland, a boy from an ordinary family of an ordinary village in a forgotten island, who was about six years old, woke up by warning cries coming from outside his house.

He had no idea of what was happening, but as soon as he stood up on his bed, his mother came running to him with a fur coat and a blanket. She seemed desperate.

Jack tried to ask what was going on, but she shut him up by dressing him with that coat and quickly wrapped him with that blanket. It was a cold winter night.

"Promise me you will not look when we go out of that door." She demanded, looking straight at her son's cognac eyes.

And he was so scared. Why was everyone screaming? Why was it so bright if it was night? Why was she so scared? But, Jack just nodded, and wrapped his arms around his mother's neck and hid his face there. Her long, brown hair was smelling so good... like always. It was a soft mixture of the hot chocolate she makes him every morning, and the pink roses they grow in the garden in the backyard. It was comforting.

With her son in her arms, she ran to the back door, trying to be as silent as she could, and left her house - that had just been put on fire by a big, bearded man - to run to the frozen forest.

Jack was trying his best to keep his face hidden, but he couldn't resist when a terrible cry came from the village. Raising his head a little, enough to see the house, the terror embraced his heart.

The whole village was on fire. Men and women were trying to protect the houses and themselves by fighting with swords, axes, in the best viking way. But it wasn't enough. There were too many enemies, enormous men with horrible faces and clothes. They were claiming that island and didn't want anyone there. Anyone.

Jack's eyes got wider when he noticed his father, an ordinary shepherd with a not so strong frame, on the ground. He wasn't moving, and his clothes were painted red with blood.

"DAD!" The kid screamed and started to cry, drawing the attention of both his mother and his father's murder. The man smiled with his yellowed teeth, and the pure pleasure of killing and destroying everything was clear on his countenance. Jack would never forget that face.

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They were almost entering the frozen forest when four of the men started to hunt them. The woman was trying to run as fast as she could, but it was a little difficult to do so while holding her six years old son in her arms. She needed to save him and she was realizing that she couldn't do it completely by herself.

Passing by numerous trees, she was able to scape from those men. At least for enough time to hide the kid and speak to him.

Putting him in the cold ground - the snow covered half of his shins -, she adjusted the blanket around him and held his shoulders. She was kneeling to be able to look her boy in the eyes. "You have to listen to me."

Jack was trying to be quiet, to not say anything and, especially, to stop crying, but he was too scared. "Who are them, mom? What they want? And... and dad... dad..." And cried more. He couldn't believe he would never see his father again. They were so, so close and Jack loved him so much...

"Listen. Listen! You need to be as quiet as you can, Jack." She took the dagger from her belt and put it in one of the boy's hands. "Do you remember when your father taught you how to make fire with this and a rock?"

Jack nodded. The crying hiccups were making it hard to speak.

"Great." The woman sighed. At least her son was going to be okay if he got hungry or too cold. "I want you to run to that direction..." She pointed to the South, which was behind Jack's backs. "And never look back. No matter what you hear or see, just do it."

"But, mom-"

"Just do it!" She whispered through her teeth, and sighed. "Hide in the trees. I know you love to climb them."

The boy looked down, still crying. He didn't want to do any of that. He just wanted to go home and see everything okay, to see his dad and play games with him and his mother. He didn't want to be alone. To say goodbye.

Heavy steps were starting to come from their left side. The invasors were almost finding them.

Jack tied the dagger in his belt made of fabric, under the fur coat, and looked at his mother. His swollen eyes were begging for her to stay with him. But, she just held his face with her hands and kissed his forehead, hugging him tight after it.

"I love you." She whispered before breaking the hug and forcing the kid to run away.

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Jack had lost the notion of time after a while in that forest. He was too tired to continue running, and the tears were making his vision a little blurred. He continued his escape by walking through all that snow, and tried not to think about his parents and his village. He needed to be quiet, he couldn't cry anymore! Or those men would easily find him and kill him.

But, when he found a glade in the forest with a big, dark lake, all his body froze with awe by what he saw.

There was a dragon there. It was as big as a young brown bear, but its wings were extremely large, even if they were folded on its backs. The tail was long with two fins on the end. The dragon's backs had a line of large thorns, starting big from the shoulders and finishing really small on the middle of the tail. And more thorns could be seen on the head, but these ones were extremely big. It looked like a very charming king's crown.

Jack had never seen a dragon before. These creatures barely flew around his island. He was mesmerized! And by the dragon's color, too. Under the moon's light, it was an intense sky blue. The head was a dark cerulean, as much as the tail, paws and wings. And there were small flakes all over the dragon's face, wings, head's thorns, paws, tail and fins. The kid thought those were snowflakes, but, when the dragon moved its body, it got clear that those were part of its skin.

"Wow..." He whispered, just realizing he did it when the dragon's thorns moved in alert.

Closing his mouth with both hands, Jack looked around, searching for a place to hide, but it was too late. With a loud screech, the dragon ran in his direction. Its wings were now open, making it look more scary.

The boy tried to run, but his legs betrayed him. He could just take five steps backwards until he fell on the snowy ground. The dragon, that was originally 49 feet away, was almost reaching him now. Its intense blue, feline eyes were fixed on its target.

But, the dragon suddenly stopped running when it heard a weird noise. Where was it coming from? Moving its head's thorns a little, the dragon noticed that the noise was coming from the small creature in front of it.

Jack was crying again. His head was now hidden by his arms and his body was curled in a fetal position, but it was still possible to hear his sorrowful and scared cry.

The dragon was frozen in the same position for a moment, without moving a muscle. The thin black lines in the big, blue eye globes changed to an oval ball. Its paws started to slowly move foward as the snout started to search for smells.

Why was that creature making that sound? A sound that looked a lot like baby dragons whining for food or because they were scared. And when the dragon's snout started to run around the boy's body and blanket, the sound intensified, which just made the dragon sniff him even more.

With a frustrated growl, the winged creature backed off a little. That was a baby. A damn baby! The dragon felt a terrible guilt for realizing that it attacked a so undefended creature.

It made a sound that seemed like an apologize and looked around, searching for the baby's parents. No one was there. The dragon then assumed that the baby got lost or its parents didn't want it anymore.

Jack just moved his body when he heard the four heavy paws walking away. Putting his arms and hands on the snow, he looked around. The dragon was coming back to the lake. "You... Y-You didn't kill me." He said, surprisingly stopping crying.

The dragon ignored him. It was just too busy taking one fish from the pile it had fished before Jack appeared. And, when the creature finally chose a fish - the biggest from the pile -, it came back to the kid and threw the dead animal on his lap.

"Eww!" Jack tried to back off and take the fish away, but it was too big! And that scary dragon was staring at him. "I am not hungry."

The dragon tilted its head, confused, and made a sound that could be interpreted as a purr. A purr from a giant cat. The baby should eat! It was crying, then it must be too hungry!

Jack finally took off the fish from his lap and looked at the dragon. He was still scared and sad, but that creature was so... amazing! It didn't kill him and now it was offering him its food. "You... You scared me, dragon. My mom just..." He stopped, feeling he would cry again. And the last thing he wanted was that scary thing sniffing him again. "A lot of evil men attacked my home and killed my dad. Mom said to me to run away, and I think she... I think they took her, too." Well, forget it. He was crying again.

The dragon purred one more time. For some reason, it could understand what the baby was saying. Not completely, of course. But it still could understand how sad the smaller creature was feeling.

"Now I have no one. I don't even know where I am." He tried to wipe off the tears from his pinky cheeks. "And who are you?"

The winged animal sat on its rear legs and snorted.

"Are you a boy or a girl?" No response was given to that. So, Jack sighed, and looked at the dragon for a few seconds. "I think you can't understand me, but... If you are a boy, like me, move your head like this." He slowly nodded, trying to teach the blue animal what to do.

No response, again.

"Okay..." He pouted. "If you are a girl, do what I showed you."

The dragon stood still for a second, but, for Jack's surprise, it moved its head the same way it was taught. And that made the kid smile. "So, you are a girl dragon! Do you have a name?" And, one more time, the dragon didn't move. But it was still sorely staring at the boy. "Alright... You have a pretty color and a lot of white flakes on your skin. So, I am going to call you Snowflake!"

The creature snorted again and nodded. Apparently, that name sounded really good. And the positive reaction just made Jack's smile get wider.

Again, the dragon, now called Snowflake, took the big fish near Jack and offered it to him, purring one more time. That baby was alone and she decided she would take care of him now.

"Fine, fine. If you insist... I will eat it." Jack left go of his blanket and stoop up. "I just need wood and a rock to- Hey! You are a dragon! You can make fire!"

Suddenly, Snowflake looked a little sad. Jack was going to ask what the matter was, but the dragon opened her mouth and started to create a light smoke from her throat. Then, she shot an enormous energy as blue as her eyes on a rock away from Jack.

It startled the kid, especially because he was getting strong and bad feelings towards big fires, but... there was no flame in there. Two seconds after Snowflake had closed her mouth, the rock was looking weird. It seemed to be... frozen!

Jack gasped. That dragon couldn't make fire. Instead, it could freeze things! He had no idea that a living creature could do such thing. "Wow... Okay, now I understand why you got upset."

Snowflake looked at him, opening her mouth and closing it a few times, like she was trying to speak something or agree with Jack. It just made he smile again.

The night was starting to get better with that new friendship, but something startled both dragon and boy. Loud noises started to come from some part of the forest. It was them. The evil men finally got there.

Snowflake growled in the noises' direction and looked at Jack, who was now trembling and about to cry again. She needed to keep the kid safe.

So, before the boy could even think, the dragon took the blanket on the ground and threw at him, gesturing with her head that he should wrap himself again. And, when he did, she walked toward him and lowered the front of her body, again gesturing to him, but to make he climb there this time.

Jack was too scared. He looked at the forest, where he already could see the light of torches and the men's silhouettes. They were really there.

Without thinking twice, Jack climbed the dragon's backs and tried to hold her neck as tight as he could. When he was sure he wouldn't fall, Snowflake opened her wings and pulled her body out of the ground with her paws, finally flying away from there with a very scared child on her neck.

That was the last time Jack would see his island.

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If someone dared to ask a six years old boy how he imagined his life would be, this would never be something anyone would ever hear.

Jack and Snowflake were living together now. The dragon decided she would take care of him, who was her baby now - and no dragon would ever deny that. They would stay in an island for some days, eating fishes - Jack cooking his ones with the method his dad taught him -, sleeping in caves, living there until the island proved to be too dangerous and they had to move.

There were days that Jack cried for missing his parents and his home. There were days that he didn't say a single word. He suffered a big trauma and was dealing with that alone. Well, not completely alone. Now he had a dragon... that was taking care of him like a mother would.

Snowflake, even for a dragon, was really caring and protective. She seemed to be very young and Jack would wonder why she was alone, but she still had the strenght and patience to take care of a human child. Or a baby, as she saw him.

Sometimes, they would play until Jack was so tired he would sleep all night. Sometimes, they would just sit near the ocean and look at the stars in a complete silence.

And it continued like this until the next winter.

Jack was coughing really hard for a few days. He didn't want to play or eat, and it was making Snowflake really concerned.

Sitting in their new cave, the dragon purred worried, looking at the kid - who was still lying down on his bed made of leaves and wrapped in his blanket. She touched his forehead with her snout, and got startled by how warm it felt. It wasn't normal!

"I am fine, Snow." He coughed a little more. "I just need to sleep a little more."

The dragon whined a little, worried. But she didn't know what to do other than lie down near the kid and block his body from the cold winds.

And it just got worse as the days passed. Snowflake tried to give Jack some medicinal herbs, but it seemed that those were useless in humans. The kid was getting severely ill and she couldn't do anything to help. Not even make a bonfire to keep him warm!

In the end of the week, she came back to the cave with a few fishes in her mouth. Jack was eating a little and drinking water, so she just hoped it would help him. The snow wasn't falling outside and the sky was surprisingly clean for a winter night.

She put the fishes on the straw basket Jack had made to keep his food, froze them with her cold plasma so they wouldn't rot so fast, and walked toward him to check if he was awake.

Jack wasn't sleeping, but he wasn't awake, too. The fever was so strong in that night he couldn't even keep his eyes open and his mind working so well. His lungs and backs were aching and it was difficult to breath, so he was making a weird, but low noise while his chest painfully moved. He was feeling so weak he couldn't even care about the pain anymore.

Snowflake sniffed him before purring. She was so worried about her boy... The dragon, one more time, laid down around him and left what seemed to be a sigh.

"Snow..." Jack finally opened his eyes and searched for his dragon. When she noticed it, she stood up just so they could look at each other's eyes.

The kid coughed again and touched the winged creature's snout. "You are the best thing that happened to me. And..." He coughed again and tried to breath more air than he was getting. It just made the dragon whine in concern. "This year was really good. You're... You're a great mom." He smiled for a few seconds before closing his eyes again.

Snowflake whined one more time, louder and sadder now, and laid down again near the boy. But, this time, she rested her two forelegs around his body in what should be a hug and lowered her head to look at him. She would watch over him all night.

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The dragon couldn't tell when, but Jack suddenly stopped breathing. And moving. His lips were as pale as his skin, making a contrast with his auburn hair.

She stood up again, growling in awe and concern, and poked the boy's backs a few times with her snout. He wasn't waking up. And a feeling the dragon never knew she could have hit her stomach like a giant dragon's tail. She was so scared, so worried and so sad she was almost desperate. She screeched and tried to wake Jack again, but it wasn't working.

No, he... He couldn't be gone. Snowflake couldn't accept it. She couldn't imagine her life now without her adopted offspring.

Whining and screeching really loud now, she left the cave. Her mind was working so fast she was breathing loudly, too. The dragon looked back at the cave and, looking at the lifeless Jack, her heart just got tighter. She couldn't accept it.

She flapped her wings and growled in sorrow again, until an idea appeared in her mind. The chances for it to work were almost null, but she wasn't thinking straight.

Snowflake walked foward a little more and looked at the moon. It was so big and so bright in that night... As if it was calling for her.

It was said that dragons were magic creatures. They couldn't make it or control it, but their souls could comunicate with magical entities and even spirits. And Snowflake was almost begging for it to work.

There was a tale among humans that once, a long time ago, a child was given life again by the moon. However, the said child held a big power also given by the moon. A power that, one day, destroyed a whole island and everything in it. Snowflake wasn't sure if it was true. Humans had a so vivid imagination... But, she was so desperate she didn't even think twice before trying it.

The dragon, concentrating all her strenght and soul, started to roar as loud as she could to the moon. And it was a so sorrowful and somewhat angry that no creature would dare to search for whatever was making that sound. And she kept it for hours, asking the Spirit in the Moon for help, until she was so tired and her throat so dry she couldn't make any sound anymore.

She looked at the moon full of hope and expectation for a long time, but once again that feeling hit her stomach. So, she just laid down where she was, rested her head there and closed her eyes. It wasn't exactly physical, but it was hurting really bad. Worse than everything she had ever been through.

But, suddenly, a noise was coming from the cave. Snowflake opened her eyes and moved her head's thorns in alert. It was a cough.

Running as fast as ever, she entered the cave again. Her heart was beating so fast it seemed to explode. And what she saw made it even worse.

Jack coughed a few more times until he finally sat down on his improvised bed. He seemed confused and his vision was a little blurred, but he still could see the dragon. "Snow?"

Snowflake was so happy she couldn't stop moving her body, even if she hadn't had walked again. Jack was alive. He was alive! It worked!

When she finally ran to him, she sniffed his face and licked it, making the boy laugh. Oh, it was so good to see him! But, when she stopped and looked at him again, she finally noticed something different.

Jack was still pale, but his hair wasn't auburn anymore. Instead of the intense brown color, it was now a bright silver. So bright it was almost white. And his eyes, that used to be a beautiful cognac brown, was a vivid azure now. They seemed to have an unusual aura impregnated in them. As if all his soul and another nature force was in there. It was just... really vivid. You could look at them for hours and still could feel amazed by the color and by how intense they were. Like a clean ocean in a sunny day.

And now, they looked confused. "What is the matter? W-What are you so happy about?" Jack asked a little worried, even if he had a big smile on his face - that he was trying to dry with the blanket. Apparently, he didn't know he died. Nor he remembered he was severely ill for days.

Snowflake purred and touched her snout on Jack's face again. She couldn't speak like a human and maybe she could never explain what she did, but she hoped the boy would understand anyway. And, above everything, she hoped he was going to be okay. His hair and eyes concerned her.

Jack hugged her head and smiled a little more, until he felt something strange. He didn't know what it was, but he felt he should go outside.

So, with the help of his dragon, for he was still a little weak, he stood up and walked until his feet were touching the snow. There, Jack looked at the moon and stayed in silence. His now blue eyes were shining with the white light coming from the satellite.

Snowflake looked at him, then to the moon and then to the kid again. He seemed to be listening to something. Or to someone.

When it apparently finished, Jack looked at the ground for a few seconds before looking at the dragon again. He then gave her a tender smile and hugged her again, his tiny arms being able to only hug one of her legs. "You are an incredible mom."

Maybe the moon told Jack the truth. Maybe it told him something else, too, because the kid got a little quiet after that. Snowflake would never know for sure. The only thing she knew was that now Jack was back, alive and even healthy again! It was enough for her.

And for Jack, too. Even though he felt like his fate was now traced and the destiny reserved a lot of more adventures and surprises. That was just the beginning of it.