Winter Workers

"I know. Mikansu told me. Do you know what about?" Anori replied.

"He's been having ideas again. Ask him yourself," Siga said, and she gestured over her shoulder, towards the swirling grey clouds where Hazak was flying.

Anori headed over, slowing down his run into a brisk walk that still had some urgency. Coming towards Hazak, he tried to bow his head, though this gesture was somewhat harder to perform while balancing a levitation spell on all four paws. While Anori could fly, it wasn't his preferred method of movement--portals were just easier. "Lord Hazak. Did you wish to speak with me?"

Hazak's eyes had been closed, but now they snapped wide open. For a moment they glowed with pure white light, but then after a blink they returned to their normal bluish hue and he glanced at the wolf spirit. "Anori, yes. You are just the spirit I wanted to see. I have been thinking," he started.

As the Lord of Winter, Hazak frequently came up with many creative ideas for his beloved season--most of which were good, some of which were brilliant, and some of which were terrible. All these ideas generally started with the words, "I have been thinking". Anori's tail puffed out slightly, but he let his boss continue.

"I think we need a cloud operations department! Scope would be... delivery and optimization of advanced weather systems, acting as master planners and coordinators for all storm events, working with the regional spirits to rapidly deploy inclement weather conditions," said the dragon.

A new department and an organizational restructuring--certainly doable. Anori relaxed slightly, as much as was possible while balancing on a levitation spell high up in the sky. "I have heard about something like that in other seasons."

"Exactly!" boomed Hazak. "It all started with Monsoon, of course! It was too much trouble for their regional spirits to plan out their own storms, so they transitioned to centralized planning and orchestration of large-scale weather patterns. Apparently it has been a wild success. Just last year, Summer did the same with their own thunderstorms, and they tell me that performance indicators have been looking very strong. They forwarded me one of their reports."

Anori tilted his head. "Monsoon and Summer have much more storm activity than we do."

"Bah, but that need not stop us. We must keep up with the latest innovations. Think of how many blizzards we could have if we could do deploy them at scale. Yes!" Hazak grinned with cool pleasure at the idea. Then he glanced at Anori and frowned. "No, but that wasn't what I wanted to speak with you about. I'll get Branos and her team to look into the new department structure. Let us speak about something else. Come, come. You lot, take over the storm, please. One of you... the blue bird, take the lead."

The blue jay let out an enthusiastic chirp. Hazak cut off his outpouring of Winter magic and folded his wings shut, dropping rapidly down through the clouds. The group of lesser spirits quickly readjusted their formation and increased their own magic, though the storm's overall strength did lessen without the Winter Lord.

Falling out of the sky, Hazak landed on the snow-covered side of a mountain. With wings still open for balance, he slid down the mountainside until it came to a flatter section of ice. After a few seconds, Anori dropped down beside him. They were standing a top of a frozen river--a glacier.

"I've read your report on the Autumn-Winter transition. Well done. But I have further questions."

"Did I miss something?" Anori asked.

"Not about the transition. But..." The ice dragon pointed a claw towards a different mountain--the one Anori had been working on earlier. Near the top of that mountain, a wolf could be seen dancing around the summit, guiding the snowfall. Hazak's tone was neutral and flat. "The greater spirit who joined us from Spring--Mikansu. She's been shadowing you for almost a year now. Tell me what you think of her."

Anori hadn't expected the question, and it took him a moment to collect his thoughts. "Mikansu is... she is very strong with her magic, in both weather control and environment manipulation. I've not had many opportunities to observe her direct interactions with animal life. Though when it comes to management of lesser spirits, back in the southern continent she seemed fully capable of overseeing the regional team we were working with--"

Hazak cut him off with a wave of his wing. "Anori, I'm not asking for your professional assessment of her. What do you think of her personally? Can a spirit of Spring learn to work in Winter? We are different seasons. I know she has the magical power, but does she have the character for it?"

"Character?" Anori took another moment to try and figure out this line of questioning. Both wolf and dragon watched from afar as Mikansu worked her magic on the adjacent mountain top. "Well. She is... wise in the ways of Winter, albeit through the lens of her former season." A faint smile crossed his snout at the thought. "For example, you see the way she's manipulating the snowfall there? Very delicate control. But she controls the layers so that when the Spring thaw comes, the snow melts slowly and will feed the rivers gently rather than a faster flood. That doesn't matter for Winter, but it matters for Spring. She's good as a Winter spirit, but she thinks differently compared to the spirits who have been with us for centuries, for millennia."

Hazak huffed. "Hoh. I see what you mean. But it is not a bad trait to be thinking ahead and keeping in consideration how we can better interface with our adjacent seasons. Some fresh ideas might spur innovation."

"True, yes. Overall, I'd say she seems to have adapted to Winter well, even as a former spirit of Springtime." Anori glanced at his boss. "Why do you ask about Mikansu?"

Instead of a direct answer, Hazak threw another question. "So do you like her?"

"She's easy to work with. Good at communicating. We worked together well as the vanguard of Winter, if I might say so."

Hazak nodded. "Right you are. So then let me explain. I am starting a new strategic goal for Winter. I want to grow our numbers. For too long we've been running lean with our recruitment exercises." Hazak gestured around at the snow-covered landscape. "Our winters have been getting milder and milder each year. Autumn ends later and Spring comes sooner, leaving us with less time for Winter. I want the cold to bite! I want to push the frost line closer to the equator. That is the impetus."

Anori didn't quite have an opinion on this. "Well, yes. The limiting factor for our operations is personnel count. If we had more spirits, we could get more done in Winter."

"Exactly! We have the least spirits of all the seasons! Even the dry season has more spirits than us--what do they need so many spirits for? It's just Drought. No rain, no snow, no storms, just Drought." Hazak snorted out a puff of cloudy, freezing vapour. "No, no. We need more spirits. Mikansu is only the first. We will be recruiting from the other seasons, as well as upskilling the most talented of our existing lesser spirits into greater spirits, and of course pulling in new spirits from the wilds. But our existing spirits need to help out too. Especially the greater spirits."

Anori nodded. "How can I help?"

Hazak looked pleased. Both of them were briefly distracted as the snow on the adjacent mountain finally reached its limit, and a huge avalanche began sliding down the slope in a billowing cloud of powder. From such a long distance, it took a fraction of a minute for the sound of the rumble to travel through the air and reach their ears. At the top of the mountain, Anori could still see Mikansu carefully riding the avalanche and guiding it down, keeping it from burying too many trees.

Hazak spoke up. "Anori, you are one of our season's best. I need more spirits like you. Do you get my meaning?"

"Not... exactly. What do you need me to do?" Anori asked.

"I want you to take initiative with this strategic goal. Think about how you, personally, can help swell our numbers."

"I can... reach out to my contacts in other seasons to see if they have any interest in joining Winter?" Anori suggested.

Hazak chortled out a small cloud of frosty vapour. "Hmm, that's good. Do that. But no, that wasn't quite what I was thinking for you. Ah, there are certain things I can order you to do, and certain things I cannot," muttered the dragon, which was an odd and suspicious statement. "Let me ease you into it. Come, come." Waving a wing, he opened a portal around them both.

---

With a dizzying blur of motion, the two Winter spirits suddenly dropped onto a forest floor. It wasn't the same forest however--the trees were shaped like cones, and their branches were adorned with evergreen needles rather than being bare. They had moved deeper into the continent and further to the east, so it was later in the day and evening was underway. Yet the sky was brighter than before, because even though the sun was coming low on the horizon, they were near the outskirts of that huge storm earlier. The sky above had only a thin layer of grey clouds, and tiny snowflakes were just beginning to fall.

But this wasn't just the middle of nowhere. They were at the edge of a large meadow of tall wild grass, surrounded by forest in all directions. At the edge of the meadow, half-obscured behind thick bushes, stood a circular structure built from stone, with a conical roof--an old shrine to the forest and nature, constructed by humans decades ago but then forgotten as their nomadic tribes moved elsewhere.

The shrine was made up of a single circular room, with one doorway and several smaller windows, and its interior only had a small stone alter that was covered in dust and dirt atop its smooth surface. Hazak squeezed his way in. He barely fit through the doorway, and the shrine was small enough that the huge ice dragon took up a full third of all the interior space.

Anori peered in through the shrine's entrance. Faint echoes of magic were present within, but nothing of any strength or interest. There was also an odd scent to the place, but it didn't bother him. "What are we doing here?"

"Just examining some old infrastructure. This used to be a sacred place. Human hunters would rest here, and offer their prayers and trinkets in exchange for a blessing of nature to guide them on their hunts. Now the humans don't live in this part of the forest anymore, but this building is still connected to the regional magical grid."

"It was never disconnected?"

"It was. Yet this year it reconnected itself. A trickle of magic comes from it every few days, for a most interesting reason." Hazak stepped out of the shrine, and then he walked over to the forest and sat down next to the pine trees. "One of our lesser spirits came to investigate, and then reported back that... well, just wait and you'll see. Give it a few minutes."

Anori sat down beside Hazak, and the two of them waited, watching the shrine. A chilly wind washed through the meadow, swaying the tall grass and the tree branches, and ruffling Anori's white fur. Even as dusk approached, his wolf eyes had no trouble seeing through the dimming light.

After a few minutes of nothing, Anori was on the verge of pointing out that they both had better things to be doing rather than sitting around and staring at scenery, when finally something happened. Out from the forest, three canine creatures strolled forward. They walked on four legs and had thick fur in varying shades of grey.

Anori let out a soft chuckle. "Wolves."

"Precisely," Hazak said. The wolves appeared to be returning from a hunt, because the lead beast carried a dead hare in its jaws. It was the largest of the three creatures and had fur of a light grey. The second wolf following right after was the smallest, and it had darker grey fur that was almost black in some places. The last wolf was medium in size but was thinnest, and it moved with a slight limp in its hindlegs. The three wolves--one large, one dark, one injured--entered into the shrine and then sat down within, using it as shelter.

Anori observed the creatures with mild curiosity. They were quite large, close to matching or perhaps even exceeding his own size. "A different kind of hunter is using the shrine now. So that's why there is still some magic about the place. The leftovers from their hunted game count as offerings." Anori grinned, but then he tilted his head as he thought about it. "Do you see them as trespassing? Want me to chase them off?"

Hazak shook his head. "No, I want you to do quite the opposite. You do recall what I said about how we need more spirits for Winter? Now, in that shrine there, those wolves are--what is the phrase--bachelorettes? They are all females, each young and unmated, and you are going to change that last part."

Anori's jaw moved silently as he struggled to find words. Hazak and his mad ideas. "Excuse me. Wha... But... What? Are you serious?"

"Is there a problem?" Hazak looked amused. "You are a wolf and you are male. We've found a pack of female wolves in one of our shrines. This is therefore an opportunity."

Anori sputtered. "Bu-but... no, I'm not just a wolf. I'm a greater spirit of Winter!"

"Oh? So you think such a task would be beneath your station? You require a pairing of higher standards? This can be arranged."

"That's not what I meant. I just... I... uh..." It was a rare experience for Anori to be lost for words.

Hazak continued, undeterred. "We used to run these sorts of assignments more often, back in the last era. And you did participate back then, didn't you? Has your sexual preference changed? You can tell me in confidence. I shall speak of none of this with the other greater spirits."

Anori shook his head. "No. No... I'm just busy. We're underway with our season. There is so much important work to be done, rather than... than this..."

"It's only greater spirits that have this problem. Spirit Resourcing department gave me the statistics. Lesser spirits don't have any issue pairing up with each other, or breeding with just about anything that will let them do it. It's only greater spirits who get fussy."

"I'm not being fussy," Anori stubbornly replied.

"You are." Hazak lazily yawned. "Otherwise what's the problem? Is your physical form unable to perform?"

"I certainly can!" Anori insisted.

"Good, then please do. You are hence commanded. Go make some new spirits."

Anori had a deep respect for Hazak as the Lord of Winter, and he also agreed that the season did need more spirits, but the idea of him having to personally resolve this problem in this specific way was just so unexpected. "What if those wolves don't want me to?"

"You haven't even tried. And as you said yourself--you are a greater spirit. Those wolves would be honoured you would deign them with your presence. Go, go. Get to breeding. Aren't you canines supposed to be fond of humping things?"

"That's a stereotype. And a generalization." Anori bristled, with his fur puffing up nervously. He could have refused, but Hazak was right--they did need more spirits, and at the moment he couldn't think up any proper reason to disagree. "This is... It's been so long since... But fine! Just... just give me a moment."

"Whenever you are ready. I'll give you some encouragement in the meantime." Extending a claw, Hazak started tracing out shapes in the air.

Anori could recognize the magical rune being drawn--it was a symbol of life, energy, productivity, and such things. It was not a type of magic commonly used by Winter. "That's really not necessary. Don't you have more important things to be doing--hey!" He exclaimed as the spell snapped around him. Lines of snowflakes leapt from the air and landed on him, tracing the rune on his fur. A rush of warmth and energy flowed through his body, which only partially dissipated when he shook himself all over to dislodge the snowy rune. "Oi. Hazak! Stop that! You can go fly back to the storm now."

Hazak nodded, pretending to be solemn when he was visibly holding back a grin. "I shall leave you to it, Anori. I trust you shall put as much effort and enthusiasm into this task as you do with all your other work. And do have fun!"

Anori was again speechless. Sitting in the grass, as a light dusting of snow continued to drift down from above, he watched silently as Hazak leapt into the air and then flapped away. For a long moment Anori just sat there, then he sighed and stood up.

---

Anori was strong in many different types of magic, but one of his particular strengths was with portal gateways and teleportation magic. It would have been trivial for him to open a portal to bring him across the field in an instant, however he instead walked slowly. That gave him time to think about the task he was about to perform--but this wasn't something that needed thinking or planning or analysis--it required wild instinct and impulsive action.

As he slowly strolled through the field, procrastinating in just a tiny way, Anori suddenly felt another tingle of magic as snowflakes drifted out of the air and clung to his fur, reforming that same magical rune from Hazak's spell. The white of snow blended in with his white fur, but there was no missing that tingle of need that ran throughout his body. Anori resolutely shook himself again, shaking off the snowy rune and its arousing effects. He really shouldn't have shaken it off--after all, if he was going to do this, then a little touch of fertility magic wouldn't be a bad idea--but he was just being stubborn.

Anori stopped just outside the abandoned shrine, standing beside the wall. "Right then," was all he could think to say. Then he stepped into the entryway. The wolves had heard, seen, or perhaps smelt him coming--they were on their feet, with hackles raised and teeth slightly bared in an alert, cautious posture. Sheltered from the snow and the wind, the inside of the shrine was noticeably warmer than outside. Now the Winter spirit and the wild beasts both looked at each other for the first time.

The three female wolves were all fully grown but young, with slight variations in size and posture. The largest was even slightly bigger than Anori, especially with her fur puffed out and her hackles raised. She had fur of a healthy light grey, and defiantly met his gaze--eye contact for a wolf was a challenge. Anori considered himself obviously above petty territoriality or fighting for some primitive concept of dominance, but he clearly noted the boldness of this wolf. She showed no fear, despite the sudden arrival of a new stranger.

The second wolf had dark fur, almost black in colour. Her appearance was so dark that she partially blended into the shadows of the shrine, aided by the fact that she was smallest in size. Anori felt a flash of amusement, contrasting that dark fur against his own white colour. That second wolf's posture showed more curiosity towards Anori rather than aggression, despite her smaller size.

The third wolf looked most nervous. Her fur was also greyish, close in colour to the first wolf, but with just a tad more brown mixed in. Anori had seen her limping earlier, and though now she stood tall to try and hide it, he suspected some sort of injury to one of her hindlimbs. Her tail was drooping between her legs and her ears were flat against her head--she clearly didn't want a fight, but then again, Anori didn't think any of the wolves really wanted a fight. Wolves instinctually knew to defend their territorial hunting grounds, but fighting was best avoided unless absolutely necessary. An injury in the harsh wilderness could easily become deadly for wild beasts.