Winter Workers

In unison the two pups spun around and ran as fast as they could. They hurriedly backtracked their path through the forest, but in their haste they got turned around and went in an entirely different direction. This mistake led to encountering a far greater threat--height.

Running around a large bush, suddenly the two wolves found themselves on the edge of a river canyon. The opposing canyon wall wasn't too far away, but there was a sharp drop down to the rushing water below, as the river curved its way through the narrow canyon.

With too much speed and not enough agility, both young wolves were unable to stop themselves and went right over the edge. The brother had enough momentum to make it across the narrow gap, and he barely managed to grab onto a tree root which was jutting out from the other cliffside. The sister was less lucky--she tried to hurriedly come to a stop, but only lost enough momentum to ensure she wouldn't make it across. Instead she tumbled right into the middle of the canyon and into open space.

The riverbed below was filled with churning, rushing water, and it approached with great speed. There wasn't even time to scream. The young wolf pup flailed her limbs in a panic, but then her form shifted. Her forelegs became wings, while grey fur became brown feathers, and then suddenly instead of a wolf pup it was a fluffy little eagle chick spinning through the air. She flapped her wings and tried to fly, but lacking practice and strength, this only marginally slowed her descent.

Right before she would have crashed into the river to drown, a neat sphere of elsewhere opened up right below her. Though the young spirit didn't know what was happening, she tumbled through the portal, and then it snapped shut in an instant.

Her brother had been struggling to hold onto the tree roots jutting over the canyon wall, and he hadn't seen what had happened. But when he looked around, he couldn't find his sister. "Jin? Jin! Are you drowning?!"

A second portal appeared, just above where he was hanging from the cliff. A wolf's paw reached out and grabbed the young pup by the scruff, carefully lifting him up and away through the portal.

---

Anori dropped his son on the grass, not unkindly, then he gestured with his forelimb and the portal imploded. "Hasdell!"

Lying on the grass, Hasdell panted tiredly. "Dad...!"

Right beside him, his sister Jin was also sprawled out on the grass. She was still in that eagle chick form, with wings awkwardly splayed out and feathers all in a mess. "Not my fault!" she squawked.

Anori turned to his daughter. "Jin!"

Jin struggled to her feet, then she shook herself all over and changed back to her wolf pup form. "Not my fault," she repeated. "You said to... to look after him! But he was running away, so I had to run after him!"

Hasdell glared at his sister. "She was chasing at me first! She bit my tail! So I ran! Ahghhhh!"

"No! You slapped my side with your tail! Ahhhhhh!"

Anori allowed the two siblings a few seconds of cathartic yelling at each, then he spoke up and they both fell silent. "Alright! So what have we learned today? How will you avoid this trouble in the future?"

Rearing up on his hindlegs, Hasdell tried to imitate the way his father had gestured with his forelimbs. "You should teach me to do the portal magic like you?"

"I will teach you both, but your mother and I already told you that you can only learn it when you're older."

"Why not now?" Hasdell asked.

"Because you're not ready yet. You haven't even learned basic magic. I don't want you to accidentally portal yourself down into the planetary core."

Hasdell was unconvinced. "But I won't! I'll be really careful! I'll only portal myself upwards!"

"Then you'll might end up in space, which is just as bad."

"What's space?" Jin asked, jumping into the discussion.

Anori tried to explain it simply. "Space is a big black empty place high up above the sky, where there's no air so you can't breathe."

"How about... how about you teach me magic, and if I mess up and portal into space, you can just make a portal too and come bring me back?" Hasdell suggested.

"But then I would have to go to space, and I don't want to go to space," Anori replied. Before Hasdell could keep press the topic further, Anori turned to his daughter instead. "Jin? What about you--have you learned anything from today's adventure?"

Jin's tail wagged. "I need to learn how to fly!"

"If you want, but that's not the lesson. The simple lesson is--don't go running at full speed around corners when you don't know what's around the corner. If you want to run fast, do it in a place which is big and open."

In unison, both wolf pups nodded and went, "ooohhhh!" as if this was some great wisdom being shared. Anori almost sighed, but instead he laughed softly.

Jumping off cliffs, running headfirst into trees, eating every berry or mushroom they could reach (including the ones they had been clearly told were poisonous), and investigating all the wildlife they could find in the forest (which meant antagonizing squirrels, woodpeckers, sparrows, foxes, badgers, bears, and now a moose too).

Sometimes it felt like his children spent every free moment trying to get themselves killed. A normal wolf pup would have spat out berries that tasted poisonous and stung the tongue, while these two had happily kept scarfing down enough to poison even a greater spirit. Likewise, a pair of normal wolf pups wouldn't have sprinted off from their pack and tumbled into a canyon just because they liked running.

However--as Mikansu liked to remind him--Hasdell and Jin were not stupid, and certainly not suicidal. What they were was curious, and utterly naïve. Wild animals or lesser spirits would have had some natural instincts to avoid danger, but not greater spirits, and certainly not these two. They had just enough magic to be troublesome.

Jin shook herself from nose to tail, and a shimmer ran over her body as she shifted her form. Any greater spirit could change their form, but the longer one had been accustomed with a particular form, the slower it would be to make a major change. However for young spirits, that meant that changing form was as easy as breathing. Though Jin defaulted to a wolf form like her brother and parents, she had never spent even a full day without trying a change--now she turned into some sort of awkward, long-legged bird with a downward-curved beak and bright pink feathers--a tiny pink flamingo chick. For a moment she swayed on her slender legs, waving her wings for balance, then she promptly fell right over into the grass.

"Eh hehe!" Hasdell laughed mockingly at his sister. "You're a bird! You look dumb!!" he insisted. He altered his form, and then all his grey fur turned pink. "This is you!"

Jin raised her head. "But that looks good?"

"Oh?"

"Yeah! Look." Jin changed back to a wolf pup, but then she also started changing her fur to bright colours as well. Whereas Mikansu also liked to change her appearance, she did it well--but neither of the young spirits knew subtlety or aesthetics. Instead, both of them tried to see who could make their own fur more hideously bright and vibrant, with a rainbow of clashing colours, then all manner of weird patterns like stripes, dots, or chequered shapes.

Watching with amusement, Anori let them play. There had been a period of a brief few months after the two had been born, where things had been peaceful and simple. Before their eyes had even been able to open, before they had even been named, the two children had spent most of their time sleeping or trying to nip at their mother's teats for milk. At the time they really had been exactly like real wolf pups, just defenceless, vulnerable, and adorable. But then they had developed with rapid speed. Their eyes had opened, they gained a little bit of size, then they had suddenly started learning how to walk, how to talk, and how to use magic.

The two siblings started tussling with each other--wrestling and trying to bite the other's throat, with their fur still in bright, ghastly colours. Anori kept a careful eye on them, but he didn't intervene. It was only play, not a real fight.

A moment later, the two wolf pups had brawled and rolled their way over towards Anori's feet, which was enough to illicit an unspoken truce. Jin tried to bite at her father's legs, then Hasdell joined in too, and together the two pups tried to shove and drag him down from his stand. Anori held his posture with ease, and it took only a minimal amount of exertion to resist their combined best efforts. One day they'd be big enough to knock him down, but that day was years away.

Movement came from the side. A full-sized adult wolf came strolling through the forest, walking with a graceful strut--Mikansu. Even the mere sight of her instantly put a faint smile on Anori's face. Mikansu smiled back at him as their gazes met, and her stroll became a quick trot.

"Hey there, good-looking!" Anori said.

Mikansu laughed. "Hey yourself, handsome." She bumped her snout against Anori's--just a quick, affectionate peck between two mates.

Their two children had been so engrossed with their play that they hadn't noticed Mikansu approaching, but now they both barked and ran towards her. "Mum! You're finally back!"

Bending down on her forelimbs, Mikansu nuzzled and licked the two pups' faces. Hasdell hugged Mikansu's foreleg and rubbed his face against it, while Jin excitedly hopped up on the spot. "Yes, my dears. I see you two are trying a new look!"

The two wolf pups both had their fur in a ridiculous bright pink--completely contrary to any reasonable principles of camouflage or aesthetics. Mikansu laughed, and then she changed her own fur colour too. She had been in the natural mixed-grey shades of a regular wolf, except for her limbs which were all a pale white colour, making her look like she was wearing long socks. But then a shimmer ran over her body, and streak of pink mixed into her grey coat. Unlike the two pups, she made the colour look spectacularly good.

"Woah!" Hasdell looked amazed, while Jin nodded her head approvingly too. "Yeah!"

Mikansu winked at Anori. "You're the odd one out..."

Anori sighed, but then he reached for his magic and let his form shift. Speckles of pink appeared in his otherwise pristine white fur--very subtle, yet even that minor change was silly in his opinion. But Mikansu smiled warmly, and she licked the side of Anori's snout. "There you go. Now we're a matching family."

The two children were less impressed, and now both of them were jumping up and down on the spot, tails wagging excitedly. "Hungry! Did you get food?"

A plain leather satchel bag was slung around Mikansu's shoulder and neck, and now she took it off. "I hear you."

Anori peered inside her bag as Mikansu opened it. "Good hunting?"

"The usual." Mikansu sat back on her hindlegs and starting removing things from the bag. "I have... beams of first light from a sunrise, pure dew from a spider's web, skimmed rainbows, and a cache of acorns lost by a squirrel. Oh, and here's the best thing--an ancient chunk of deep permafrost from the highest mountain peak, frozen since the last ice age."

"I want the ice!" Hasdell scampered over and jumped, using his jaws to take the large white chunk from Mikansu's paw. He nibbled at the ice. "Gnamgh..."

Jin was unimpressed. "Is that it? That's all energy stuff!"

Anori nipped Jin around her neck--gently but firmly, not hard enough to hurt. "Don't be ungrateful. Your mother worked hard to get food for you. Eat your energy."

Jin turned and stared up at her father. "I am grateful! I am very grateful! Thank you mommy, I love you! But energy doesn't fill my stomach."

"It enriches your soul and feeds your magic, which is better." Anori picked up one of the sunbeams, which in harvested form resembled a thin, flat strip of gold, and he munched on it. "Mmh. I'm eating energy." He nodded towards Hasdell. "See? Your brother doesn't mind eating energy either."

Hasdell was grinding his teeth on the chunk of ancient permafrost, with his tail wagging with excitement. "Can I eat all the lost acorns if Jin doesn't want them?"

"You two have to share," Mikansu insisted.

"Mediocre!" Jin muttered--it was a word she had heard her father say before, but which she didn't quite understand the full meaning of, except that it was vaguely negative. She glared at him, then the little pup turned and glared at her mother.

Mikansu sighed. She and Anori exchanged a look, and he nodded. Mikansu reached into her satchel bag again. "Fine. I also stopped by the mountain shrines, so I have some food offerings which were left there. There's bread, oranges, and some milk and honey."

"Oh, yay! That's better." That got Jin looking happy, and Hasdell perked up too.

Anori took some of the sunbeams and extended them towards Jin. "You can't eat junk food all the time. At least eat your sunbeams first, then you can have the offerings."

Jin began eating the sunbeams, now with all hesitation gone.

"Listen to your father," Mikansu said. While the two pups ate their food, she strolled over and sat down besides Anori. She leaned against him and rested her head on his shoulder. "Anorrri."

Anori leaned back against her. "Thanks for getting the food."

Mikansu nodded. "Of course. Is tomorrow also my turn, or is it your turn?"

"It'll be my turn to gathering food, but it doesn't really count. Tomorrow's a special day."

"Oh yes, right! I'm very much looking forward to it." Mikansu's fluffy tail wagged, brushing against Anori's. "How was it today? Did these two behave?"

"The morning was good. I took them to a windy hilltop, on that island across the bay. Taught them some basics about the wind--how it blows, how it flows, and how we maintain it. The afternoon, I let them play. But then they got into a little trouble. First they ran into a moose, then they ran off a cliffside."

Mikansu flinched, even as she sat against his side. "A cliff?"

"It was just a moment ago, not too long before you got back. They tumbled right off a cliff. Both of them went straight into a river canyon." Anori gestured with his paw, miming the two children falling. Then he sipped some dew, which Mikansu had collected in a small glass bottle. "I used a portal and caught them."

Mikansu took the bottle from him and drank some of the dew. "That's a relief."

"Every day the learn new things. One day they'll learn enough self-mastery to not need rescuing." Anori rested his head against Mikansu, and for a long while they two of them just sat together, enjoying the moment. Their children were ravenously devouring the food, but at least they were sharing with each other.

"Tomorrow's the big day," Mikansu finally said.

"Family day at the beach." Anori nodded towards the two wolf pups. "They'll enjoy seeing the portals."

---

In a secluded cove bordered by limestone cliffs, the forces of Autumn stood assembled. All along the beach were numerous greater and lesser spirits from Autumn, with the various forms--animals big and small, treants, humanoids, glowing balls of colour, and everything else.

Anori and Mikansu strolled leisurely along the beach, enjoying the sense of lively festive energy that filled the surroundings. Hasdell stuck close and repeatedly walked between Anori's legs, getting in the way as he peered nervously at the different Autumn spirits. "There's so many of them. Wow. Wow."

Rather than take the wolf form of her parents or brother, Jin currently took the form of a tiny meercat, and she was perched on Mikansu's back and clinging on tight. But with each of the Autumn spirits that they passed by, Jin tried to imitate their form, so she was constantly changing--in short succession she was a little hedgehog, then a fox cub, then fledgling woodpecker. "This is great!" she chirped excitedly.

"These are Autumn spirits," Mikansu explained to the children. "They are spirits just like us, but unlike us, they serve Autumn. It is the season of harvest, of migration, and of shortening days."

Anori continued. "But we are Winter spirits. We follow after Autumn, just as Spring will follow after Winter. Winter is the season of snow and ice. You'll see soon."

The four of them sat down on the beach, at a spot with a good view of the whole cove. Right at the coast, the Winter advance team was busy with work. This year it was three greater spirits--a polar bear, a sea lion, and a tall emperor penguin that waddled about. They had already frozen a strip of sea near the beach, and now they strolled about on the ice, working their magic together as they opened the portals gradually.

Anori watched their colleagues do their work. "Look, it takes three of them. We were able to do it with just us two," he muttered smugly to Mikansu.

Mikansu smiled. "And they're doing the portals one by one! We did the whole array all at once."

Jin hopped over to Anori's back and perched on his head to get a better look. Meanwhile Hasdell nudged at Mikansu's paw until she picked him up and carried him. "What's that? Oh! That's magic!"

With a rumble like thunder, the portals started to open up and Winter spirits began to march through. This time, unlike last year, a massive ice dragon was the first to come through. Mikansu and Anori both rose to their feet, then dipped their heads in a respectful bow. "Winter Lord!"

Hazak strolled up the beach, and he flared open his wings with a wide, toothy grin. "Winter's here!" He winked at the Goddess of Autumn, the great bear Quiwin, who rolled her eyes, but then he turned and went right towards the wolves. "What have we here? Anori! Mikansu! We've been missing you in Winter! You haven't sent me any letters in months! But that's understandable, because I see you two have been busy!"

Anori rose from his bow. "This is Jin, this is Hasdell. Children, this Lord Hazak--he's the leader of Winter."

"Hello, young ones." Hazak bowed his head at the two little spirits.

"Hello wow you are very big you must eat a lot," Hasdell noted, staring up at the ice dragon.

Jin was equally awed. "What are you!? How come you have four legs but also wings? That's six! Are you an insect?" Her body blurred, and then she took the form of a tiny ice-blue dragon hatchling. "Weird!"

Anori and Mikansu laughed, as did Hazak. "Welcome to Winter, all of you," Hazak said.

Mikansu just grinned, while Anori nodded. "It's good to be back." He gently nosed at his two children. "You two will have a lot to learn, in time."

---

THE END