Winter Workers

Winter Workers

By Oridian

Synopsis: A greater spirit of Winter is called to take up a new responsibility for the season. Winter needs more spirits, and those new spirits aren't going to make themselves.

Once upon a time...

---

At the edge of an old temperate forest, where the trees met the coastline, a small section of the world twisted and crumpled in on itself. Fallen leaves went flying as wind blew in all directions, and the air crackled with static and the crisp scent of ozone.

The portal stabilized in a few seconds, forming a perfect sphere of elsewhere. The sun had been starting to get low over the horizon, but this part of the forest was illuminated by bright light from the portal--the beams of sunshine came from the same sun, but took a roundabout course to first visit another part of the planet before arriving here.

Two creatures emerged, one after the other. Superficially they resembled wolves or large dogs, if an observer could only see their physical forms. But arcane energy and deep magic ran through both creatures, and on longer inspection, even their physical forms had oddities.

The first wolf had fur of a clean, pristine, snowy white all over much of his body, with only a scattering of light grey shading over his back and ears. The white wolf strolled out from the portal with a quick, almost impatient trot.

The second creature looked more like a normal grey wolf as she hopped out of the portal and curiously glanced around. She tapped a paw against the sandy beach, then scampered forward to catch up to her companion. As she moved, suddenly that grey fur had lines of gold and silver that traced out geometric shapes over the wolf's body, and in the next instant that fluffy tail split to become two, then four tails, then eight, shifting hypnotically with each step. But then as she caught up, she looked like a mundane animal again--with fur of humble grey, and only the one normal tail.

The first spirit made a slight flick of his ear, and the portal imploded with a zwump sound. "Not the cleanest gateway I've ever made," he muttered.

"It was good enough! It got us here with no problem." The second spirit bumped her shoulder against his as they walked together. "It's good to be back in the north. I like the smell of the northern forests--that fresh, earthy scent."

"I'm just looking forward to getting back to work." The white wolf, whose name was Anori, glanced up towards the forest that ran up against the beach. The leaves on the trees were in numerous shades of yellow and orange and red. "Look at the trees."

His companion--or more accurately, business associate or colleague--nodded. Her name was Mikansu. "Pretty colours." She shook herself from nose to tail, and suddenly there were streaks of vibrant orange and red running through her grey fur.

Greater spirits could control their form, and some choose to change their appearance frequently whereas others just found a look and stuck with it. Anori was of the latter category. He noted Mikansu's colourful fur with a single raised eye. "Yes indeed, but what I meant was that preparations have already begun. Some of the trees are already starting to shed their leaves."

Mikansu shook herself again, and her fur shifted back to grey. "Perhaps the boss will get that timeline he wants. Now where's our welcome party?"

As if on cue, there came movement from the forest line. Three spirits emerged to meet them, all with different forms. One resembled a treant--a tree that had pulled itself from the soil and taken humanoid form, with thick rooted legs, mossy branching arms, and a gnarled face amongst the bark--while the other spirits took the form of a squirrel and a hawk, both perched on the branches of the much larger treant.

The treant spirit dipped its moss-covered branches in a slow bow. It spoke in a loud voice that nevertheless sounded like a whisper, with words rustling like leaves in the wind. "Behold, the vanguard of Winter arrives, and we bear witness. Greetings to you, Winter workers! I am Falhazel, representative of the northern continental forests. On my shoulders are Hasteos and Vee, who will speak for Autumn."

The squirrel waved her tiny paw, while the hawk just fixed the two wolves with his sharp raptorial gaze.

Anori returned the greeting with a bow of his head. "Good evening. I am Anori." Sitting back on his hindlimbs, he gestured towards the other Winter spirit. "This is Mikansu."

Mikansu bowed cheerfully. "Salutations!"

Anori continued. "We're the greater spirits of Winter assigned for this task, and we look forward to working with you to prepare the interseason handover."

"Awwk, yes, greetings. Good to see you again, Anori," squawked the hawk, then he flapped his wings and hopped down to one of the lower tree branches to stare curiously at Mikansu. "Forgive my poor memory, but have we met before? You weren't on the Winter advance team previously, yet you seem distinctly familiar."

Mikansu looked thoughtful. "Vee, is it? I believe we worked together on a... storm surge training exercise about a decade ago? It was a cross-collaboration between Spring, Autumn, and Monsoon. At the eastern island chain."

The Autumn hawk spirit nodded his head as recognition dawned. "Yes, yes of course! I remember now. You used to be a spirit of Springtime, yes?" Then the bird's feathers frazzled out. "Oh! But you transferred from Spring to Winter? If you were looking for a transfer, we could have taken you into Autumn. Not that there's anything wrong with... with joining Winter instead. But Winter is Winter. No offence."

"Winter has its perks." Mikansu glanced at Anori. Her tail wagged slightly.

Anori kept his calm, professional expression. "The cycle turns. The warmth of Summer must be contrasted by the chill of Winter." Sitting back on his hindlegs, he took out a notebook that was slung around his neck with a leather strap, partially covered by his white fur. Anori unclipped his pen from the notebook's cover, and with a well-practiced flick of his paw, he flipped to an empty page. "Speaking of Winter, could we get a quick update on Autumn's preparations for the handover?"

"To business!" declared the hawk spirit. "The Goddess of Autumn sends her apologies for not being able to welcome you two herself, as she had a different meeting scheduled with the regional overseers. We've been moving frantically. Rumour has it that the Winter Lord has been pushing for the seasonal transition to be advanced by two weeks?"

Anori kept his expression guarded. "Yes, I can confirm that. When the rest of the Winter spirits arrive in a fortnight's time, we're supposed to kick off Winter immediately."

Vee, the hawk spirit, and Hasteos, the squirrel spirit, exchanged an exasperated look with each other. Falhazel, the treant spirit, had closed its eyes and currently was doing an excellent impression of being just a normal tree, even as Vee and Hasteos were perched on its branches.

"That's a very early Winter," Vee noted, turning back to Anori.

Anori bought himself a few seconds as he scribbled the current date on the top of his notebook page, enough time to think of how to respond. "We're not forcing it on you. It's not just us at Winter who are pushing to accelerate the timeline--the Autumn Goddess is fully onboard with the idea as well. Or at least, that's what the Winter Lord assured me."

Mikansu had a wolfish grin. She smirked at Anori, then at the Autumn and forest spirits. "If upper management commands us to move the transition, then what choice have we but to move it? Winter comes early!"

The Autumn hawk spirit let out another faintly dismissive squawk. "Baaahwk. Easy for them to say they want things to move faster, but all the delicate details of manipulating nature are dumped to us to figure out. I'm not working my lesser spirits overtime. I can guarantee we'll have the trees shed their leaves by the time that cold-hearted Winter dragon boss of yours arrives here, but there won't be any snow yet. I'm not dropping the temperature until all the birds have migrated south."

Anori held back a sigh. If it had just been him and Mikansu, he might have let that sigh out, but it would be too unprofessional in front of the Autumn and forest sprits. "Thank you, we'll work with what we have for now."

---

Anori strolled across the hilltop. With each step his paws left behind the mark of frost, briefly forming snow prints on the ground before the still-warm Autumn temperatures quickly melted the snow.

Standing precisely at the apex of the hill, he spread his four legs and got into a stable stance, then the Winter spirit began to work his magic. He chanted softly, repeating melodic words at a precise cadence as he recited one of the songs of nature. "Zhahli kyora, jorak kyora. Venthysi kyora, nythysi kyora..." Words had power, songs had power, and even the movement or positioning of one's body had power. Anori reached deep into himself to unlock his power of the season, and then he cast it out into the surroundings.

From this vantage point he could see the domain of nature. It was the forest and hills around, the sky above, the mountains in the distance, the waves and the choppy sea, and even the scattering of boxy structures which marked out a human village near the coastline. All of it was deep in the grasp of Autumn--the trees were increasingly showing bare branches as they shed their leaves to the ground, while wild animals hoarded food or began their migrations. Even the not-so-wild animals were preparing for the change of seasons--the humans in their village were making their harvests, collecting the bounties of Spring and Summer to stock up silos with produce, preparing to make it through the harshness of Winter. And Winter was coming, very soon--today, as a matter of fact.

Anori was reasonable satisfied with the progress. The Autumn spirits had worked diligently and done as much as could be expected as they rushed through the end of their season, while he and Mikansu had done their own best to coordinate and prepare for Winter's arrival.

Even as Anori continued to chant his magic, he felt a shift of the wind as another spirit arrived on the hilltop. Without looking, he knew it was Mikansu. After a year of working together, he could recognize her energies easily. "Whispering to the weather?" she casually asked.

Anori ended his chant, and the magic snapped into effect. "Just some wind." As he had commanded, the wind gradually picked up, washing across the hill and making the bare trees sway. It ruffled Anori's white fur.

Mikansu's fur was ruffled too, and she blinked her eyes. Today she had fox colouration--her fur was brownish orange over her body, but the fur over her limbs was tinged to black which made her look like she was wearing long socks or gloves over all four legs.

Mikansu sat down on the grass, keeping her paws in view, which made Anori realize he'd been staring. "Should we head to the cove and prepare for the arrival?" she asked.

"Hmm." A few hours still remained before the rest of the Winter spirits would come. Anori had knowledge, intuitively, of the current exact time of day--he could sense the precise motion of the world as it spun on its axis, pirouetting through day, then night, then day again in its eternal cycle around the sun. Mikansu knew the time too, obviously--she was a greater spirit, just like he was--but Anori suspected that she was simply eager about the huge piece of spellwork they were soon to create. It had been two weeks now since they'd left the southern continent where the rest of Winter currently remained, to undertake this mission to the north as the advance party. Soon they would be bringing over the rest of the Winter spirits to join them.

"There's still some time before we'll need to create the arrival portals. But you can go to the coast first. The Autumn Goddess will be setting up the traditional welcome feast. You can see if they need any help," Anori suggested.

"Food sounds fun. I'll see you there." Mikansu stood up and strolled closer with her graceful stride, and she peered at him with an amused look. "Don't play with the winds too long, Anori. Come soon."

"Don't worry. I'll be there well in time to ensure we get the portals set up," Anori assured her.

"Hah." Mikansu tilted her head and gave him a look, as if he had said a joke, but then she turned around and strolled away, with her tail briefly brushing against his side as she went. And then he was alone again, left with his magic and with the weather.

Not for very long though. There came the flapping of wings, and then a hawk landed heavily in the grass right beside him. It was Vee, one of the greater spirits of Autumn. "Heck on me! It's so windy today. Terrible conditions for flying." Standing up, the hawk fluttered over and peered up at the white wolf. "Wait, did you do that? Anori... Anori!! Were you messing with the weather? Don't tell me you're doing a cold snap already. The squirrels and jays are still preparing their food caches. At least wait till we've officially handed over the season before you freeze them all to death."

Anori focused his willpower and managed to avoid rolling his eyes. "I wasn't doing a cold snap, or even a cold front. Just a little bit of wind."

Vee flipped open one wing and casually preened his feathers with his beak. "Sure, whatever you say, friend. Just remember that if you cause another population crash, you Winter workers will be the one explaining that to Spring, not me..."

---

The two wolf spirits waited on a sandy beach, in a secluded cove bordered by limestone cliffs and trees which had shed their leaves. Aeons past, nature spirits had slowly built this cove over many cycles of erosion and weathering, all for a specific purpose--this whole coastline was on the edge of the continent, and the cove directly faced a similar coastal inlet which lay far across the ocean on the southern continent. Anori and Mikansu had arrived here two weeks ago to start preparations, and now they would bring over the rest of their season.

The afternoon sun was obscured by grey clouds hanging low in the sky, and the sand felt cooler under Anori's paws than it had a few weeks ago. Taking a deep breath, he sat back on his haunches and prepared to reach for his magic. "I'm ready when you are."

Mikansu tilted her head from side to side in a stretch, then she rolled her shoulders and nodded. "Let's do this. An array of transit portals, coming right up." She sat down as well, and after a moment shimmied closer to Anori until she could lean against him. Physical contact wasn't strictly necessary to work a spell together, but it did help. Together, the two Winter spirits began working their magic. "Aperi portam, connoctum tymportam..." Anori chanted words of power at a steady pace while Mikansu hummed along, letting the spell resonate and grow in strength as they both fed it energy.

Anori flicked his ear as he felt something. Had he imagined it? No, there it was again--a light drizzle had begun, with tiny water droplets falling from the grey clouds above, so sparce and faint that it didn't even deserve to be called rain. Then a larger droplet splattered right between his eyes, making him flinch. He stumbled over a few words of the portal spell, but concentrated on the magic and continued--Mikansu was more distracted as she glanced at him and chuckled, but her laugh was melodic and it fed the magic too.

Even as they worked, Anori let a fraction of his attention drift to observe their surroundings. The spirits of Autumn were out in force. There were hundreds of them in all manner of different forms--some looked like treants and blended in amongst the forestry, while others resembled animals big and small. There were sparrows, squirrels, deer, rabbits, owls, foxes, horses, a snake, a raccoon, and even plenty of critters which didn't quite belong to a forest. A crocodile covered in glowing blue scales chatted leisurely with a monstrously large pill bug that was many times the size of a normal insect, while a pig with wings argued against a pair of nymphs. There were even more exotic forms on display--swarms of fireflies that flashed in rainbow colours, glowing balls of burning energy that floated in circling orbitals, and even a trio of cloaked spirits who were mounted atop horses and were the guardians from the nearby human settlements. In the festive spirit, one of those cloaked spirits appeared to have replaced their head with a jack-o'-lantern pumpkin, carved with a grinning face that glowed from within.

These were Autumn's spirits. A few were greater spirits, but many more were lesser spirits--greater spirits had more intelligence, magical power, and responsibility, whereas lesser sprits had accordingly less of such, but it was a continuum. The weakest of the lesser spirits were hardly more than animals with a touch of magical talent, but at the other extreme, the strongest greater spirits could do wonderous things with their magic--as Anori and Mikansu were about to demonstrate.

As for Autumn, their lesser spirits had mostly come from the coast and forest nearby, while the greater spirits ranged from all across the continent, each representing their different regional zones. And yet all this was but a mere fraction of Autumn's real power. There were vastly more spirits who were too busy or too shy to turn up now, and remained in their assigned areas, waiting until their replacements from Winter would come to relieve them of their duty.

The Goddess of Autumn was also present, of course--her form was that of an enormous brown bear, regal and proud as she sat at the forest line, surrounded by her subordinate spirits, greater and lesser. Numerous long, rectangular tables carved from wood were laid out across the beach, empty of food for now, waiting for Winter to arrive. In the overcast afternoon, lanterns hung from tree branches or were placed on the tables, casting out pools of warm light around which the Autumn spirits were gathered. Everyone was watching the two Winter workers and waiting for them to do their job.

No pressure. They both continued to pour magic into the air, building the scaffolding to link two distant points of the world. When Anori felt the spell had been sufficiently fed, he glanced at Mikansu as she sat beside him, and the two wolves nodded. In unison they stood and started walking along the beach in opposite directions. The air thrummed with energy around them. As scattered droplets of rain drizzled downwards, the liquid froze into tiny chunks of hail around either wolf. Anori had stopped chanting, as now he focused on motion--he paced through the snow, weaving from left to right in a careful pattern, leaving behind paw prints in the sand that shone with unfading white light.

It took him several minutes to walk all the way along the beach as it curved around the cove. Without hesitation he continued out onto the water. The ocean froze into ice underneath his paws, and the waves turned aside rather than splashing him. Ahead of him, he could see Mikansu approaching from the other side of the cove. A trail of glowing prints marked where they had each walked in an arc around the cove, and now they closed the gap across the water to finish the circle.

Finally the two Winter spirits met each other, standing on a small patch of ice that floated in the mouth of the cove. Energy was now filling the entire cove, and the focal point was right on the two of them. Anori forced himself to breathe--a tremendous weight of anticipation and suspense filled him, as the spell was fully built up and ready to go. When he reached Mikansu and their sides touched again, the spell activated.

Anori let out a sigh as the pent-up magic emptied out of him, surging out like a lightning bolt. "There it goes..." In an instant it felt like a tremendous weight had lifted off him, leaving him feeling light-footed and ecstatic, yet also tired and drained in a good, satisfying way.