Jack had to pass on the proffered candies when he learned what they did, laughing it off as oh, so you want me to melt! and giving them instead to children. The night air was still cold enough that the heat from the fires didn't bother him, so long as he didn't get too close to them.

"Hey, look at you go," he said, sitting in the snow as he listened to a small toddler tooting very energetically on a whistle with no discernible tune. But the Winter Spirit was encouraging anyway. "How about an encore?"