"The Runaway Shadows, or A Trick of Jack Frost" is a twentieth-century fairy tale, a fantasy short story written by L. Frank Baum, famous as the creator of the Land of Oz.
The story is one of a small cluster of Baum narratives that involve his fantasy land the Forest of Burzee and its exotic denizens.
Jack Frost comes upon the Prince of Thumbumbia and his cousin Lady Lindeva, who have insisted on being allowed to play outside despite the bitter cold.
They prove impervious to an attack by the ferocious tiger Kahtah; but a passing Ryl (a member of a fictional species invented by Baum that appears in several of his works) convinces the shadows to return to their humans.
The Earl Highlough,[4] the "chief man in all the kingdom," comes to investigate — though by this time the runaway shadows have returned to their young master and mistress.