And there's only the music

That plays on and on,

Yes there's only the music

The heartaches are gone

We can stand close together

While the world dances by

'cuz there's only the music

Between you and I.

-Heather Alexander, "Only the Music"

Chapter 1

Thank You For the Music

Mother says I was a dancer before I could walk

She says I began to sing long before I could talk

And I've often wondered, how did it all start?

Who found out that nothing can capture a heart

Like a melody can?

Well, whoever it was, I'm a fan

So I say

Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing

Thanks for all the joy they're bringing

Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty

What would life be?

Without a song or a dance what are we?

So I say thank you for the music

For giving it to me

Abba, Thank You For the Music

The wind slowed and Jack tumbled out of the air onto 'his' lake. For a minute he thought he had it, then his foot slipped and he went sliding across the frozen water, laughing and tumbling the whole way.

Flying was harder than it looked. At least this time he hadn't been dropped into any trees or run into anything.

It might be easier if someone were around to explain something, anything, to him, but for now, he'd just have to keep trying on his own.

He was about to give it another go when he thought he heard something from the village, carried to him by an obliging wind. Like the elephant's child, Jack had to know, so he leapt into the wind.

He'd been mostly avoiding the village since that first night that he rose from his lake and found himself walked through, but tonight he chanced it as the noise he was following grew stronger and his curiosity demanded satisfaction.

Jack followed the noise until he found the house it came from and stared hungrily through the window to watch the people inside, trying to ignore the frost that formed when he leaned too close.

Words came to him, though he didn't know how he knew them - fiddle and music and, strangest of all, dance - as inside, couples passed each other in lines, moving quickly along to the bright, cheerful music that warmed the room as much as the fire in the hearth did, taking hands and letting go, spinning around each other in patterns and laughing.

Taking frequent glances through the window, Jack began to copy the dancers. Without a partner to correct him, it took him awhile to catch onto the pattern and the cadence of the steps, so he began to make up his own, admiring the frost that spread under his feet, caught up in the spell of the music and the dance, cape flaring out around him as he spun, adding twists just for the fun of feeling it flare around him.

Without knowing how he knew them, the words flowing without conscious thought to match the singers inside, he began to sing along. Laughing, he bowed and dipped, his song faltering as he danced and needed to catch his breath.

Eventually the dance ended and the party broke up, the people calling out cheerfully to each other as they began to bundle up and head into the night and their respective homes. Kicking off from the ground before anyone could walk through him, Jack flew back to his lake, still humming the snatches of music he could remember.

Landing on the frozen surface, he kept humming, practicing the dance he'd learned until he was sure he would remember it, the steps coming easily now as if from a half-forgotten dream.

When he was sure he would remember, worn out and laughing, he fall back into a snowdrift and called down more snow to cover him like a blanket, hugging his staff to his chest and dropping off to sleep to dream of a room full of dancers sweeping him off to join them in their dance, welcoming him with open arms and quick, clever feet.

Every day Jack practiced, on his lake, in the air, to any scrap of music he could hear or remember.

He practiced his balance and flying and eventually fell less and less until he could walk along roofs and branches, even along the ridgepole of the roof itself as easily as the ground, and then until he could dance along them as if they were as solid as the earth itself.

As winter ended in 'his' town and the weather began to warm, the wind urged him to let it take him away and, as the last of the snow melted and he began to feel restless, he did, letting it carry him to other countries where the snow still fell.

They danced differently there, and as he watched suddenly Jack knew – he was going to learn them all even if it took him the rest of his seemingly immortal life.

A/N: The elephant's child is from Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, "How the Elephant Got Its Trunk" and it was "filled with 'satiable (insatiable) curiosity". Just like Jack, really.

Somehow, this sorta grew on me, both from wanting to do that next to last bonus and the idea of having each chapter be tied to/inspired by a song. It's not finished yet, but I wanted to start posting what is done. I hope someone likes it so far.