Winter Workers

The large wolf growled at him, but then suddenly she stopped and relaxed. Her posture eased and she cocked her head, with her tail even making a slight wag. She seemed to be the leader of this group, because the other two wolves followed her example and also calmed down. Perhaps they did recognize him for what he was--not another wolf trying to invade their territory, but a greater spirit of Winter.

"Greetings! Eh..." Anori opened his mouth to say something, then he changed his mind and closed it. There was no point talking. The wolves did have a beastly intelligence in their gazes, but they weren't civilized. They wouldn't understand anything he said. Closer now, Anori felt his nostrils twitch as he caught the scent of the wolves. Their scents all were unique in a manner only a canine nose could discern, but there was more to it. They smelled enticingly female in a way he hadn't thought about in a long time. Wolves were seasonal creatures--they had a specific time of year for mating, and it was now that time. Anori could really smell it.

What a scent. It washed over him, enticing him, tempting him with thoughts of doing something oh so very primal. He took a step forward into the shrine, but the large wolf moved faster and she came over to sniff at him. Anori kept still as the female wolf boldly sniffed him all over, nosing at his neck, his head, at his paws and his side. She even sniffed at the notebook which he carried slung around his neck and shoulder.

"Arf." With a short bark, the wolf seemed to declare him acceptable. The smaller, dark furred wolf also padded forward to curiously investigate Anori. She even dared to lick at his face, which made him flinch from surprise--though Anori was a wolf, he was first and foremost a greater spirit, and it had been a long time since he had experienced such animal instincts and behaviours.

Distracting himself, Anori glanced around the shrine and now he noticed that there were old, discarded bones lying at the side of the room. Evidently these were remnants from past hunts by this wolfpack. Though it surely hadn't been intentional, leaving those bones behind had fed a trickle of magic into the shrine, enough to attract the notice of nature spirits like him. Sitting back on his hindlegs, he unslung his notebook and put it away into a pocket dimension--he wasn't going to be taking notes on whatever happened next.

Suddenly the first, largest wolf let out an annoyed growl. "Grrrr." Anori twitched, but she wasn't growling at him. Instead she spun around and darted back across the shrine, towards that hare carcass that had been left on the ground. The third wolf, the one with the injured hindlimb, had begun sniffing at the hare, and now the first wolf returned to reassert her claim to the food. The wolves both growled at each other, but then the injured wolf flattened her ears and let her tail dip between her legs. She stood back to wait for her turn, while the first wolf sat down to begin tearing at the carcass with her teeth to get at the meat. Wolfpacks did share their food, but still there was a hierarchy for who deserved first pickings.

The second wolf, with the dark black fur, also looked longingly at the meat, but she didn't contest for it. Instead she continued sniffing at Anori. He didn't mind, even if it was an animalistic thing to do. Just to be polite, he briefly sniffed back at the dark-furred wolf, which made her ears perk up. She then licked at his face again, before staring pointedly at the hare as the first wolf ate.

Resource scarcity was such a mundane, mortal concept. Anori found the thought of fighting over food a truly primitive idea. Sitting back on his haunches, he waved a paw and muttered out a spell phrase. "Irman sovuhaz krailocom."

The hare carcass shimmered, and for a moment it completely blinked out of existence, much to the surprise of the wild wolves. They seemed even more surprised when in the next moment, the meat reappeared and multiplied. Instead of just one hare there was two, then three, then four appearing around the shrine--plenty to go around.

Anori watched with amusement as the wolves reacted excitedly to the abrupt appearance of more food. They barked at each other, and quickly began biting into the meat as if to confirm it was real food--and it was as real, warm, and bloody fresh as that first hare carcass had been. If it had been a live hare he wouldn't have been able to duplicate it, but multiplying dead meat required just a minor push of his magic.

He wasn't done yet. Even as the wild wolves began hungrily tearing into the hare carcasses, Anori went to the brown wolf with the injured hindlimb. Her ears flattened and she lowered her posture as he approached, backing away submissively from the food she had been eating. Anori had no way to explain his benevolent intensions, so he simply spoke another spellword and let the magic flow. "Rejorin."

"Hnng!" The injured wolf let out a pained yelp, and instantly the other wolves were back on their feet, hackles raised and teeth bared as they faced Anori, worried that he was attacking one of them. The injured wolf scampered to the other side of the shrine, but as she was running she appeared to realize what Anori had done--she nosed at her hindleg, which was now healed. She made hesitant steps around the shrine, now without any limp.

Anori went back to his own hare carcass and sat down. He hadn't expected to get any thanks, because of course these were wild animals, but he did get thanks anyway. The healed wolf padded over towards him and began frantically licking at his face, which made him snort from amusement. Not to be outdone, the dark-furred wolf left her own food to come over and nuzzle at the other side of Anori's snout.

At such close proximity, Anori could smell the scent of bloody meat that the wolves had just been eating, which clung to their mouths and lips. But each of the wolves also had their unique scent, which meant he could have told them apart even with his eyes closed.

Things swiftly escalated. Just as he was lowering his head to bite at his own hare carcass, the dark-furred wolf starting nosing about under his tail. "Oh!" Anori grunted in surprise and he jerked back to a standing position, which only made it even easier for the female wolf to begin nudging at his underbelly. It was crude, but he couldn't deny the shiver of desire that ran through him.

Anori hadn't even needed to do anything. He had only used a tiny amount of his magic to give them some food and healing, and apparently that was enough to get the interest of a wolfpack. Not that it was too surprising, given the circumstances. It was the middle of winter which was peak mating season for wolves, and Anori could smell that fact. These wild, female wolves had a primal intelligence to them--they knew that he was a wolf and they knew he was male, despite the fact they lacked his sophisticated mind or his mastery of magic.

The dark furred wolf clearly had something she wanted. She licked repeatedly at Anori's face, then nuzzled at his underbelly and even licked at his sheath. Greater spirit or not, his body reacted to the physical touch--Anori's heartbeat quickened, and a tingle of pleasure flared from his groin. Blood started rushing to intimate places, and without looking he could feel his reproductive organ begin to engorge and push out from the furry sheath that normally kept it protected.

"Arffr, hhmm?" The dark furred wolf barked at Anori, and then she excitedly bounded a few steps away from him before flicking up her tail and exposing her groin. A most crude gesture, yet Anori found himself entranced. Was he really going to do this? Well, it had been an order from the Winter Lord.

Anori took a step towards the dark furred wolf, but then another bark interrupted him. The larger wolf with the light grey fur had noticed what was going on, and now she came over to assert her own claim again. She and the dark wolf growled at each other, but there wasn't any fight. The dark wolf was smaller and so she backed off, with her ears folding back and her tail reluctantly drooping.

Instead, the grey-furred wolf sniffed at Anori and peered at him, then she too presented herself to him, offering a raised tail. Instinct screamed at him to get moving and get mating--Anori swayed slightly on the spot as he felt a deep urge to mount the wolf, get himself in her, and hump himself senseless to relieve that increasingly pent-up need that was building in his underbelly.

And yet, he still hesitated. There was a choice here. The grey wolf was large and strong, bold and dominant. Yet the dark-furred had been more curious, more eager for him, and first to take initiative. Even the brown wolf, the one formerly with the injured leg--she was sitting by the side of the shrine, biting at a hare carcass but watching the proceedings out of the side of her eye--she was also a possible choice.

Anori had his free pick of a mate. And in fact, there was no reason he only had to pick one. Nothing was really stopping him from just breeding all of the wolves in turn, if he so decided. Going with his instinct, Anori moved towards the dark-furred wolf, which made her ears perk up and her eyes brighten. Something about her just seemed a little more acceptable--he couldn't quite explain or justify it. The other wolves looked a little disappointed as they went back to eating the hare meat, but they continued to watch as that dark-furred wolf raised her tail to Anori again.

It was the scent which was driving him forward. The scent of wolf female in heat was like a magnet, drawing his attention to one particular part of her body. A good sniff filled his nostrils with that maddening odour, flooding his brain with pheromones that sent his arousal skyrocketing. Anori's fur puffed out, and his hips twitched from a mad need to thrust.

The dark-furred wolf was small, perhaps around four-fifths of his size, and Anori briefly wondered if he was even going to fit. Yet she stood firm as he mounted her from behind, with his chest against her back. His forelegs wrapped around her body, and he shifted about on his hindlegs, trying to get their hips aligned. Each brush of his tip against his partner's hindquarters made him ever more desperate for penetration. Even as Anori clambered on top of the dark-furred wolf, the other three wolves were watching from where they sat around the shrine. He needed to breed.

But then he stopped. The other three wolves--no, that was wrong. There were supposed to be two other wolves besides the dark-furred female he was mounting, but now there were three. There was the small, black-furred wolf he was still mounted on, and then watching them was the large wolf with grey fur and the brown furred wolf who previously had the injured leg--and then the was the fourth wolf, also with black fur, who was sitting at the side of the shrine.

As filled with lust and arousal as his thoughts were, Anori was quite sure his memory was still functional. Now the dark-furred female had a near twin, with fur of identical colour but larger and matching Anori in size. The grey wolf and the brown wolf glanced at that new wolf, but they didn't react with familiarity as if she were part of their pack, or hostility as if she were an intruder wolf, but instead with that same cautious respect with which they had treated Anori because of what he was.

Of course.

Anori dismounted from the female, which earned him a frustrated grunt from her, but instead he strolled across the shrine to that fourth female wolf. She had been biting at a hare carcass, pretending not to watch him. Now her gaze met his, and there was far too much intelligence for a wild animal--far too much curiosity, far too much recognition. There was spark in those eyes.

Being a wolf was a popular body form for Winter spirits. Out of the season's greater spirits there were dozens who took the form of a wolf, but somehow he just knew that it was, "Mikansu!"

Mikansu grinned. "Anorrri!" She rolled his name, letting the word linger in her mouth. Then a shimmer ran over her body, and thin streaks of rainbow colour were running through her dark fur. "How did you know it was me?"

"Of course I would know," Anori muttered, even though honestly it had just been a reasonable guess. "What are you doing here?"

"Watching the show, obviously." Lounging on her side, Mikansu smirked at him, looking as smugly amused as he had ever seen her. Her gaze shifted, deliberately, towards his groin and the red, veiny length of his partially unsheathed erection. She stared for longer than what would be polite, which was any time at all, and then grinned at him again. She licked her lips, then let her tongue dangle in a pant. "Mmmh, that's a sight. Don't let me interrupt your fun."

Anori felt like he should have been embarrassed, yet he wasn't. Not at all. "I'm not doing this for fun. The Winter Lord ordered me to do this."

"Really?" Mikansu chuckled. "Hehe. What, did he think you were overworking yourself, and order you to take a break and relieve stress? By, ah, mating with some wild wolf females?"

"Oh no, not at all. If I were taking a break from work, this wouldn't have been my first choice."

"Then what would you want to do?"

"Probably... travel? I have old friends in the other seasons who I haven't seen in too long. It would be nice to visit their seasons and catch up in person, instead of only exchanging correspondence." Mikansu nodded agreeably, but Anori shook his head and refocused the conversation. "No, but the point I was making was that this..." he gestured a paw at the three wild wolves, who were curiously watching the two spirits converse. "This is a duty. A specific order from the Winter Lord. Our season needs more spirits, so he wanted me to try and... breed these wolves."

Mikansu let out a bark of laughter and her expression lit up. "Hah! Really now? I suppose that could work, but I'd be surprised if it did. You're a greater spirit! You have so much magic running rich through your soul, so much more than them." She grinned at him again. "But go on, then. Try."

"Are you... just going to watch?" Anori asked slowly.

"Is that a problem?"

"I suppose not." Anori glanced back at the wild wolves. They definitely didn't know what to make of this development. He didn't know what to make about it either.

Mikansu was watching intently. "Are you going to do it?" Her gaze narrowed slightly as she peered at Anori. Hopping up to all fours, she strode over towards him. "Hey, are you wearing magic?"

Anori sighed. "The Winter Lord might have done something--oh!" He yelped in surprise as Mikansu prodded at Hazak's spell, which immediately retriggered it--a flurry of snowflakes leapt in through the shrine's entranceway and flew straight at him, landing in his white fur to once again trace out that rune. A jolt of energy ran through his body and he felt a flash of hot arousal again, at least until he managed to shake the rune off his fur.

"Aho, that's fun! Although that's only a partial spell, and it's not precisely the correct rune." Mikansu stood beside Anori, facing the opposite direction, and she shameless sniffed at his groin. Sitting down, she began to trace shapes on his side, in his white fur. "Vinitros, life, is fine, but you really want to be stacking vinitrodas for the maximum fertile, virile, potent effect--"

"Nooo thank you, that's not necessary." Anori hurriedly pushed away her paw and resolutely shook off the rune. "Mikansu, what are you even doing here?"

"I just came to see if you need help with anything. And I think you do." Mikansu grinned, then she gestured at the wild wolves. "Go on. Do it. You're stalling, Anori! Are you going to do all three, or just one of them?"

"I really... don't know..." Anori muttered. He hadn't been particularly enthused about this whole assignment in the first place, and Mikansu's presence made him feel even more uncertain. He was a greater spirit and a Winter worker--his strengths were in controlling nature, manipulating the weather, and overseeing the season with his magic. To be directly interacting with nature on the scale of individual animals was more a task for lesser spirits. And to be physical interacting in this specific manner was altogether different. Earlier it had been easier to give in to animal instincts and try to forget about being a greater spirit. But Mikansu's presence reminded him of just how different he was compared to the wild wolves.

Mikansu seemed to find amusement from his hesitation. She casually strolled over towards the little, dark-furred wolf and sniffed at her. The wolf politely sniffed back, but looked nervous from the angle of her ears and tail. "You were going to do this one first, right?"

"Yes." Making a snap decision, Anori chose to act fast before hesitation and doubt would increasingly erode any chances of this assignment being completed. "It was an order--an assignment from the Winter Lord. I have to do it. The Winter season needs more spirits." He trotted forward and went behind that dark wolf again, and she obligingly barked and raised her tail for him. In a smooth motion he reared up on his hindlegs and then mounted onto her back--his arousal had been fading slightly, with his erection half softening to partially slip back into his sheath. But being in a mating position like this, holding onto a fertile female, pushed it back up. His tip brushed against the wolf's hindquarters, slipping against her fur.

"Yeah, good choice. Slightly better odds of a successful breeding. Not very good overall, but still better than nothing," Mikansu casually noted.

Anori paused while still clutching onto the small dark wolf, on her back but not penetrating her, in what was probably a terrible tease for a wolf bitch in heat. "Uh... why? Why are the odds better for this wolf instead of the other two?"

Mikansu laughed again, a melodic sound. "Oh ho, you don't know? So it was a subconscious decision! You silly, magnificent white wolf--head in the clouds, paws in the snow, so strong with magic of the season that you miss the obvious things..."

Anori's mind raced, quickly trying to understand what he was missing. Why had he picked the smaller, black-furred wolf instead of the other two? The three wild wolves were all in the midst of their fertile season, and after he'd healed that brown wolf they were all equally healthy. There was no obvious physical reason that a pairing would be more likely to be productive, as far as he could tell. But then he figured it out--and Mikansu was right, that it was obvious and he was silly for not having noticed.

Anori glanced down at the dark-furred wolf and spoke directly to her. "You're no wild wolf. Those other two are true animals, but you're a lesser spirit of Winter, aren't you?"

The dark wolf glanced up and met his gaze. "Arf," she barked, and she made a slight nod of her head.

Anori held back a sigh. "You're the lesser spirit assigned to this region of the forest, I assume--the one who discovered that this shrine was being used by some wild wolves."

"Rarf!" replied the lesser spirit agreeably. She waited for a moment, then hesitantly moved her hips, trying to see if he was still going to get on with the task of mating. Even Anori didn't know if he was going to--he didn't really want to, but then again he didn't not want to. They would both enjoy it.

"I guess we can... do this assignment. I suppose," Anori muttered to the lesser spirit.

Mikansu was calmly sitting by the side of the shrine, leisurely watching him, and her presence didn't make things any easier. "If you want to do this assignment properly, why did you shake off that life rune?"