Winter Workers by Oridian

Winter Workers

Oridian, Bareback, Breeding, Canine, Corporate, Coworker, Cuddle, Cuddling, Doggystyle, F/M, Family, Feral, Heat, Impregnation, Knot, Knotting, M/F, Magic, Magical, Male/Female, Nature spirit, Non-Anthro, Pregnancy, Pregnant, Scent, Shapeshifting, Snow, Tie, Tied, Winter, Wolf, Wolfpack, Wonderous, estrus, fairy tale, season, spirit, spring, springtime

Winter needs more spirits, and those new spirits aren't going to make themselves. Get to it!

A greater spirit of Winter is called to take up a new responsibility for his season. Long nights, cold days, and so much snow, it makes you want to cozy up with someone, doesn't it? (24,044 words)

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 andMikansu 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.

Mikansu shivered and her fur puffed out as magic flowed from her too. "Ah!" She gasped, then slumped down next to Anori and leaned against him, breathing heavily. "Ah... ok... we're done," she panted. "I don't... wow that's a rush. Back when I was in Spring, we... we had a whole team to open major portals. Six spirits at once. Nine sometimes. Never did it with just two." She gave him a slightly dazed grin. "Damn, we're good."

Anori made a small nod. "So we are." Now that the spell was complete it wasn't necessary for them to be so close, but it didn't do any harm. In fact, the weight of Mikansu's body against his side felt faintly pleasant in a warm, comfortable, distracting way as her fur brushed against his.

As the two Winter workers watched, the seawater started to ripple back and forth as if the entire cove was a bowl being swirled back and forth by a giant. Then suddenly the waves neatly cancelled each other out, and the water became flat and still. Spirals of frost spread fractally across the flat surface. Simultaneously the air started to ripple at ten different spots closer towards the beach, and then multiple portals opened just above the freshly formed ice. Each was a spherical region of_elsewhere_, offering a view to the southern continent where the forces of Winter were assembled and waiting.

"Absolutely perfect!" Mikansu muttered smugly. She nodded to Anori. "And now... do you want the honours?"

"We can both do it." The two Winter spirits drew a deep breath, raised their heads, and then together they let out a long, drawn-out howl that echoed across the entire cove. "Owwwoooo!" At their summoning, the other Winter spirits advanced forward and out of the portals.

Anori strolled back up the beach, having walked across the now ice-covered cove. Meanwhile all the portals were wide open and Winter spirits continued traversing through--they marched through in groups and headed up the beach, where they exchanged greetings with the waiting Autumn spirits.

Anori didn't have the latest count, but he knew there were thousands of Winter spirits, even though they had the least numbers of all the seasons. Like the Autumn spirits, Winter sprits mostly took on animal forms, with a particular emphasis on creatures adapted for cold environments, often with thick woolly fur coats.

Anori was looking for one spirit who should have been easily recognizable, but whom he did not find. "Where is the Winter Lord?"

Mikansu reared up on her hindlegs to glance around. "Lord Hazak isn't usually_subtle_. Is that him over...? No, no I was mistaken. Perhaps he hasn't come through yet?"

Anori shook his head. "The Winter Lord usually leads the charge and is the first one through the gateways. Let me ask around." He trotted forward towards the spirit who had been first through the portal--another greater spirit who was on the beach, with the form of a large feline. "Siga!"

Siga resembled a snow leopard, but the black rosettes on her grey fur were all moving in slow circling patterns. As a greater spirit of Winter, she had also worked as part of the Winter advance party previously, and even with Anori before. Now she was gesturing about and directing groups of lesser spirits as they marched through the portals, spreading them out across the open space of the beach.

Siga paused when she heard her name called, and she beckoned for another greater spirit to take over her role. "Anori! There you are. Good morning--wrong, excuse me--good_evening_ to you. And you too, Mikansu. Good job with the portal array. Where's Hazak?"

Anori shook his head in confusion. "Why are you asking me? You're his second-in-command. Was he not with you on the other side of the gateway?"

Siga had a graceful, easy tone. "Second-in-command is such an overstatement. I prefer to think of myself as... more like the Winter Lord's aide or secretary? And I take it from your question that Hazak hasn't arrived yet. No, he wasn't with me on the other side. He decided earlier today that instead of using one of the portals, he would take the scenic route."

Again Anori shook his head in disbelief, and now Mikansu did too. "The scenic route? What is the_scenic route_? You mean over the ocean?"

Siga nodded. "If the Winter Lord wishes to fly intercontinental instead of taking a portal, who am I to stop him?"

Anori blinked. "Siga, you are second-in-command of Winter. I think it is entirely within your right to call out the Winter Lord when he gets silly ideas."

Mikansu looked thoroughly amused by this exchange. But then her smile faded and she hurriedly nudged Anori's side with her paw, glancing back over her shoulder. "Hey, hey! The big bear is coming!" she hissed.

Anori smoothly spun around and dipped his head in a bow. Mikansu and Siga bowed as well. "Lord Quiwin," he politely acknowledged.

The Autumn Goddess, the Lord of Fall, grandest spirit of the harvest season, Quiwin, stomped up with her heavy gait. She resembled a huge brown bear, but with eyes of startingly sharp orange colours, like flame. An entourage of Autumn spirits trailed behind her curiously.

"Anori, Mikansu!" she boomed in a voice that was warm, deep, and regal. It was gravelly, but commanding. "Most impressive work on that portal. And to you, Siga, my welcome to the north. Now where is Hazak? Everyone waits for him before we commence the feast."

Anori made a good effort of glancing around. He swept his gaze across the coast, and even tried reaching out with his magic to sense the surroundings, but of course the Winter Lord wasn't here. "Unfortunately the Winter Lord has been delayed on route."

"His loss then. Let the feasting begin!" Rearing up her hindlegs, the Autumn Lord let out a deep, resonant roar that echoed across the cove, like the thunderous rumble of an Autumn storm. Magic poured out from her, and suddenly the numerous wooden tables were filled with food. This led to barely controlled chaos, as both Winter and Autumn spirits went to get a meal. Some of them quickly sat down at the tables, whereas others grabbed food and walked, flew, or just teleported off to eat it elsewhere where there was more space.

The Autumn Goddess gestured with a massive, clawed paw. "Anori, Mikansu. Come. Join me at my table. Let us eat together."

Anori hesitated. "I appreciate the offer, but we should monitor the portal array for stability..."

The bear let out an amused grunt. "Your work is done and it is well done. Siga can monitor the portals. So come, take a rest and fill your stomach instead. You two have worked hard enough over the past fortnight."

Anori was tempted to decline again, but Mikansu looked hungry and curious, and so he nodded agreement. "Very well." Strictly speaking, Anori and Mikansu were Winter spirits and they were not obligated to obey a command from Autumn, but it was hard to turn down the offer of food.

Anori padded forward with Mikansu right beside him, and the two wolves followed Quiwin as she stomped over towards the largest, biggest table on which platters of steaming food were waiting. Many of the most powerful and senior spirits of Autumn were already waiting, but there was space for them to join in. The spirits were already eating, snapping up food with their jaws, picking grain with their beaks, or even (if they had exotic forms) just absorbing the energy and sensation of the meal without really having a mouth.

Long, long ago, the tables would have been filled with the natural bounty of the forest--nuts, berries, or wild game meat--plain, simple, and raw, all conjured by the power of Autumn. But in recent times, things had started to change. Those cloaked Autumn spirits mounted on horseback who represented the civilized realms were increasingly pulling their influence, and now the food was served on silver platters, rich, cooked, and magnificently seasoned. Anori cared little for humans or for civilization, but he definitely acknowledged that Autumn feasts tasted much better now.

"Eat," Quiwin told the two Winter spirits. "To bring the Autumn-Winter transition to today has been a major undertaking. Everyone in my season has been working extremely hard, but your efforts over the past two weeks deserve recognition as well. I'm sure it must have been difficult to work alone, separated from your season, on such a monumental task."

Mikansu darted her head out to grab food off the table--a roasted leg from some sort of large bird--a turkey, perhaps. She casually leaned against Anori as he sat beside her. "Oh, we weren't really working alone!"

Anori nodded, and he also took a paw's worth of grilled, seasoned nuts to eat. "Yes, I have nothing but good things to say about the Autumn transition representatives. Vee and Hasteos have been helpful and cooperative."

Quiwin dipped her head, then she ate half of an entire pumpkin, raw, in one huge bite. This made a big_crunch_, which wowed some of the lesser spirits and made Mikansu snicker. "You work well with us. As you surely know, Autumn would always welcome you if you wanted to join us long-term, rather than merely over the transition period. Your talents would be well used."

Mikansu had been gnawing on her turkey leg, but she glanced curiously at Anori. He smiled politely. "I appreciate the thought. But I'm satisfied with my position at Winter, and I'm not looking to make a change soon."

"Fair enough," replied the Autumn Goddess. "But know that my ears are always open if you want to explore opportunities."

Before the conversation could continue, one of the greater Autumn spirits stood up and pointed a gloved hand towards the ocean. "Splash over the water! Wings approaching."

Mikansu chuckled. "The boss is here, fashionably late," she murmured to Anori.

Anori turned back to the Autumn Goddess. "Our apologies, Lord Quiwin, for the interruption to your meal. Please excuse us..." Leaving his food on the table, Anori pushed up into a stand and trotted forward, joining a growing crowd of onlookers. The array of portals was still open and groups of Winter sprits continued steadily marching through, but now the movement slowed as everyone turned around to stare out over the ocean. Even those already seated at the tables turned around or stood up to get a better view.

In the distance, a spray of water was visible and getting increasingly large. Anori padded forward onto the frozen beachfront and stepped out onto the ice, then he sat back on his haunches and reached into a pocket dimension. He liked to keep his notebook and pen slung around his neck, but there were other useful things he carried around. Out from thin air he pulled out a short, collapsible telescope made from gleaming copper metal, and extended it smoothly, before raising it to his eye.

Mikansu trotted over and sat beside him. She'd brought along her turkey leg, carrying it in her jaws, and now resumed nibbling on it. "That's Hazak, I assume?"

"Indeed." Anori lowered the telescope after confirming the identity of the approaching group. When Mikansu gently prodded his side with her paw, he passed over the telescope to let her have a look too.

Coming in fast and low over the waves was a huge dragon with scales coloured a pale blue and white, with wings flapping hard and kicking up a spray of water from each downstroke. Flying alongside in neat formation were a quartet of snow owls and a cardinal, trailing behind the dragon's wings. Instead of flying straight into the cove, the Winter Lord turned sharply at the last moment and flew along the line of the beach. The dragon opened his jaws and spewed frost upwards, causing a flurry of snowflakes to pour down along the beach as he flew, eliciting cheers and roars from the Winter spirits, and even impressed gasps from some of the Autumn spirits. The dragon circled around the whole cove, then approached again.

With a tremendous gust of icy wind, the Winter Lord touched down on the beach. He held his wings open for a few seconds, enough time for onlookers to admire, and then he folded them shut and strolled up the beach on his four legs. "Winter has arrived!!" he bellowed, which got another loud cheer from the Winter sprits.

"Wooooh!" Mikansu happily cheered along--Anori was more stoic. "He does know how to put on a show," Mikansu noted with a grin.

"You are correct," Anori agreed. He hopped up to his feet and strolled forward to greet their boss.

Potent, icy magic radiated from the Lord of Winter and invigorated the crowd of lesser Winter spirits who had gathered around him. They eagerly followed after him, and some of the bolder of the lesser spirits even dared to scutter up his massive legs to perch atop his back and his furled-up wings.

However, Anori, Mikansu, Siga, and the other greater spirits of Winter were not so easily charmed by the flow of magic from the Winter Lord as lesser spirits might be. As greater spirits they were powerful as well, and thus their loyalties to the Winter Lord came not from his considerable raw power. Instead, Hazak had an easy charisma and a knack to leadership, as well as a striking vision of what he wanted the season to be. Despite the harshness of the season he led, the spirits of Winter were well fond of their leader.

As Hazak strolled up the beach, Anori bent his forelegs in a half crouch and bowed his head. Beside him, Mikansu followed his example. Whereas lesser spirits showed adoration, greater spirits showed respect. "Winter Lord. Welcome to the northern continent."

"Anori! There you are!!" Rather than returning a bow as was proper, Hazak trotted over to Anori and used his forepaws to scoop the wolf up into a hug, balancing on his hindlegs and his tail.

"Ouugh--aarrrgghhh..." Trapped in a hug by the large dragon, Anori winced from the sheer unprofessionalism of it all, but Mikansu caught his gaze and she laughed.

Of all the different leaders of the seasons, the Lord of Winter was ironically the warmest--Hazak treated all his spirits kindly. Though the hierarchy of command was still present, and his orders had to be followed, Winter was a small enough season that it felt like everyone could know everyone. "What an excellent portal array you've set up here! We've been missing you already for these past two weeks!" Hazak thundered.

"Yes, thank you. We've been... the season transition is ready, if you want to..." Anori tried to say, but Hazak cut him off.

"Of course it's ready! I told you to push it forward, and I had absolutely confidence that you could get it done. Oh, if only I had more spirits like you, just imagine what our season could do," Hazak loftily declared. He finally put Anori down on the beach, before throwing a wink at Mikansu and gesturing at Anori with his paw. "Mikansu! You're lucky I put you with Anori. I told you--he's good, isn't he?"

Mikansu was grinning. "He's very good."

Anori blinked. "I--"

"Don't be so modest!" Hazak boomed, before Anori could even be modest. "Your Winter work is the best."

Personally Anori did not consider himself motivated by the need to seek validation and praise from others. He did his work because the Winter season was essential, and he did his work_well_because he could not tolerate it being done any other way. Nevertheless, a faint smile crossed his snout when Mikansu grinned at him, and it did feel good to have their accomplishments acknowledged.

Like a chaotic Winter blizzard, Hazak swept noisily onwards up the beach. He joked and he thundered with laughter, and his mirth was contagious. "Is that you, Siga? I hope you weren't jealous when I said Anori was the best of the greater Winter spirits? I meant excluding you, of course! Hohoho. You should have joined me on the flight--it was most rigorous! What do you mean you don't have wings? Get some wings. Or I could have carried you? Maybe next time. Ah, Quiwin! So good to see you again. Have you put on weight? I see you started the Autumn feast without me!"

Anori shook himself from head to toe, getting his white fur back into a neat, proper condition. He glanced at Mikansu, who was still standing beside him. "You did good too. We were a good team together."

Mikansu raised an eye ridge. "Were, past tense?" she casually asked. "The season is only just starting, Anori. We have plenty more work to do together." With another sly grin, she turned away and headed back up the beach, with her tail brushing against Anori as she slid past him.

A Winter blizzard swirled around the forest, reducing visibility to near zero as thick snow poured down from the clouds. Autumn was gone now, as were the Autumn spirits. It had been a week since the handover, and the cold season was well underway.

A wolf with fur of pure white stood atop a mountain, careful chanting out a spell. A normal wolf would have been frozen solid in such harsh conditions, but Anori felt none of the cold even as wind and snow threw themselves against his body. Being in the middle of the icy storm made him feel alive, as he let his magic flow outwards, directing the snowfall over the forested mountain range.

What did manage to distract him was a portal carving its way out of the air right beside him. Another Winter spirit stepped out--Mikansu, who had bright, highly reflective orange stripes in her grey fur today, making her just a little more visible amongst the snowy whiteout. "Hey, hey! Anooori!" she yelled, making herself audible over the wind. She scampered over to Anori and bumped her head against his shoulder, which definitely distracted him from his magic. "Hazak wants to see you."

Anori bit off his spell midsentence. "Does he? Very well. Where is he?"

Mikansu nodded upwards. "In the cloud, about five klicks south of here."

"Got it. Take over for me, would you?" Anori gestured around the mountain summit. "Control the snowfall in this region."

Mikansu nodded. "Sure, whatever you want."

"Just layer it all down, slather the whole mountain with snow. But you have to watch the temperature and humidity--right now the conditions might cause an avalanche." Anori paused. He sat back on his haunches and briefly checked the notebook that was slung around his neck. "Actually, strike that. I think we're overdue for an avalanche on this mountain's east face anyway."

Mikansu cocked her head. She tapped a paw down against the mountainside, and Anori could sense her sending out a thread of magic to examine the snow-covered slope. "But that'll knock down a lot of the trees in the valley."

Anori shrugged indifferently. "That's Winter--things break, things freeze, and things die--that's what we have to do. If you don't want to trigger the avalanche, I can help you do it later. I'll be back once I've seen what Lord Hazak wants from me."

Mikansu hesitated and she shifted her weight between her paws, but then she nodded agreeably again. "It's what we do. Ok, sure. I can do it."

"Very good then. See you later." With a_shove_ of the magic within him, Anori leapt upwards and ran into the sky. His paws stepped on air like it was solid ground, leaving glowing white paw prints that shimmered into snowflakes, dusting down onto the landscape below.

In the middle of a dense blizzard, the Lord of Winter hovered in place, his wings beating steadily as water and snow and magic swirled all around him. Flying in formation around the ice dragon were a dozen lesser spirits who took the forms of birds, including snowy owls, blue jays, and a cardinal--all of them directing the magical power that Hazak was pouring into the storm, spreading it out into the vast surrounding storm clouds around them, and adding their own power as well.

Siga, the snow leopard greater spirit, was also nearby, sitting on a cloud top slightly further out. Rather than directly feeding the blizzard's strength, she was guiding the storm's direction on its pre-planned course. She nodded an acknowledgement as Anori came running by through the sky. "Hazak was looking for you!" she yelled.

"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.

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?"

"I probably shouldn't have shaken it off," Anori admitted. "But it just seemed too animalistic to be giving in to instincts like that. Too_mammalian_."

"Oh? But you are an animal, a mammal. We're all mammals here in this shrine." Mikansu hopped to her feet and stepped a bit closer. "You could always have changed your body form to be one of those... wisp spirits if you don't like being an animal. Be a glowing, floating ball of energy if you don't care for a beast form. Yet you stayed a wolf."

"I like having paws. I like having fur. I like having sharp eyes and good ears," Anori replied.

"You like that part, but you don't like the dirty, disgusting, biological,sexual part--reproductive organs and instinct?" Mikansu smiled--or maybe it was a smirk. She imitated Anori's position and pretended to thrust her hips back and forth at thin air. "While you're breeding that wolf there, are you going to close your eyes and think of Winter? That's what gets you excited? You're turned on by doing work for the season?"

Anori laughed too, but he shook his head. "No, I'm not. I guess I don't really think of anything? It's not about thought, but about instinct and sensation. Or maybe you'd rather I be thinking of_you_?" he joked.

That comment made Mikansu slightly flustered, which possibly indicated it was true. She glanced around the shrine, at the grey and brown wolves. "Over in Spring we're experts at this. Winter is the season of cold, bleak, harshness, but Springtime is about regrowth and new birth. That's why I know the runes for fertility and life." Mikansu gestured at the wild wolves. "And like I told you, it's hard for a greater spirit to successfully pair with some random wild creature. You've got too much magic, and they have just a trickle. Maybe a decent chance with a lesser spirit, but still not good odds. Let me help you out." She sat down, and then gestured sharply with her paws.

Snowflakes rushed in through the shrine's entranceway, pulled by Mikansu's magic. "Mikansu, what are you...?" Anori tensed up, but instead of landing on his fur, the snow traced out white lines onto the side of the dark-furred wolf he was still mounted on. The wolf yelped as a rune of fertility formed on her fur--she was a lesser spirit of Winter, which meant she had some experience and knowledge with magic, but probably not like_this_.

The lesser spirit jolted out of Anori's grasp and frantically shook the snowy rune out of her dark fur. She threw an uncertain glance at Anori, then Mikansu, and then she hurriedly scampered out of the shrine with her ears flat against her head and her tail between her legs. The other two wild wolves were quick to follow, fleeing as well. Whereas they had been tolerant and accepting of Anori's presence, Mikansu's magic had unnerved them.

"Sorry!" Anori called after the lesser spirit.

Then it was just the two greater spirits, together in the empty shrine. "Whoops!" Mikansu didn't sound apologetic at all.

"So much for that," Anori muttered. He glanced at Mikansu. "You could have warned that poor lesser spirit before you spelled her up. And you've scared off those wild wolves. So you can be the one to explain to the Winter Lord why this assignment failed."

Anori turned for the shrine's entranceway, but Mikansu was faster. She darted in front of him, blocking the way. "Anori? Could I be so bold as to suggest the assignment hasn't failed yet? There is an alternative solution."

"Is there?" Anori paused. "But how... ah." His gaze swept across the other greater spirit, with a new perspective. He admired Mikansu's skill with magic, and it was easy for them to communicate and work together. But this was something else.

"Some random, dumb wild wolves don't deserve you anyway." Mikansu strolled--no,strolled was too mild a word--she strutted over towards him with head raised tall and proud, moving with her graceful ease. "You look so_intense_when you're thinking hard."

That comment made Anori feel self-conscious, which was a rare experience. His appearance was simple and functionary, fitting the season. "I... hope that's a good thing?"

"I like it." Mikansu leaned in close to Anori and sniffed at his face, and that made his breath catch. The wild wolves hadn't had this effect on him. "Want to do something... mammalian? You and me, I can show you how we do it in Spring."

Anori's fur puffed out, and a shiver ran down his spine. He'd been working with Mikansu for almost a year now, letting her shadow his work so that she could learn and observe the ways of Winter--such a thing was usually done for lesser spirits who had finally passed the threshold of power and skill, enough to become greater spirits. However, Mikansu was not some novice spirit still figuring out proper magical spells--she was already a powerful spirit of Spring, who had chosen to move to the preceding season instead. He wasn't quite a mentor to her, but more of equal who was showing her the ropes.

No doubt the learning had gone both ways. Anori had found it fascinating to hear from Mikansu about the many ways that Spring was similar or different from Winter. And there were certain realms of magic which Winter barely dabbled in, but which Spring was well known for--new life, rebirth, fertility--now it suddenly occurred to him that perhaps this fact, more than any other reason, was why Winter was so short of spirits while Spring had the greatest numbers of all the seasons.

There was much he could learn from her. There was much they could do together. But he'd never thought about it that way, until right this moment. "I would be willing... more than willing. I would be honoured, if you don't mind."

"Oh, I don't mind!" Mikansu slid against him, rubbing her body against his. It made it almost impossible for him to keep still. He turned and pressed his nose against her shoulder, then sliding up the fur of her neck, and his nostrils filled with her scent. After all the time they had spent working together, he had a certain familiarity with her presence, but there was so much more intimacy possible.

Mikansu nuzzled back with her snout and lapped at his face, and then they were kissing. It was wet, sloppy, and animalistic in the right way. "Mikansu," Anori panted needily.

"Heh, I like it when you say my name like that. All... taken aback." Mikansu grinned. "You're always so_composed_ and reserved. But there are times when you become engrossed with your spellwork, enough that your passion shines through. That's when I really enjoy watching you and working with you."

The two greater spirits were alone in the shrine, isolated in a quiet forest as snow slowly drifted down outside--no one to judge, no one to observe, just the two of them together, gradually wearing down any inhibitions or hesitations. Anori kissed her again, and he lavished her muzzle with licks, before lightly nibbling at her throat. He growled softly. "Grrr... You shouldn't feel obligated to do this. It's not_really_ an assignment of Winter work."

"Hah, you think I'm doing this for the season? After all the time we spent working together, you don't feel the... the electric sense, that connection we have?"

"We do work well together," Anori admitted.

"We could do far more than_work_. I want this. Not as some professional obligation for the season, but I want_you_." Mikansu watched him, her eyes bright and curious. "You and me, together, becoming a proper pair of two--then a family. I've wanted this for a while now. For so long I was unsure whether I would get it." Mikansu closed her eyes and dipped her head, leaning her forehead against his. "You deserve this. I deserve this too. Shall we...?"

With a silent nod, Anori sniffed again at Mikansu's face, taking in her scent. Then he moved down her body to sniff about at her rear--such a basic canine action, but despite all the time the two greater spirits had spent working together, this was the first time Anori had properly sniffed Mikansu's rear.

It was Wintertime--the breeding season for wolves--and Mikansu smelled like it. The wild female wolves had also stank of fertility and sexual pheromones, but to sample that scent from Mikansu made Anori go a little cross-eyed. She was a greater spirit of Winter, earnest and capable and personable, and it sent a shiver through his body when she lifted her tail for him. His tongue darted out to lick at that spot of warm, fleshy wetness, and that made his partner grunt approvingly. "Yes..." But then she took a step back, pushing her rear away from his snout and bumping against his chest. "I'm ready. Let's do it."

Anori licked his chops, and he could taste Mikansu's scent on his own face. "How should we do it?"

Mikansu glanced over her shoulder and grinned at him. "Like animals!" She wiggled her rear and her tail wagged. "Chase me, mount me,breed me."

To hear Mikansu talking in such a primal, unprofessional manner definitely crossed some wires in Anori's head. The burning need inside him surged. "Come here!" he growled. He lunged forward and tried to climb over her, but Mikansu replied with a playful bark and leapt out of his grasp.

"Rah! Anorrri," she murmured, grinning widely. She padded around the shrine, staying just out of his reach, still keeping her tail up and her hindquarters pointed to him in a deliberate temptation. "Come on. We're animals! Get your teeth bloody and your muscles warm. Feel your heart pounding."

"I'll give you a pounding!" Anori retorted, and he could hardly believe what he had just said. It was play--not professional, not necessary--but just silly fun. He dashed forward and Mikansu ran again, both of them laughing as they circled around the shrine, him chasing her. Anori hadn't been so singularly focused in a long time. His vision was narrowed and his ears pointed right towards Mikansu, and he felt driven to chase and catch his mate. Multiple times he would almost grab her, only for her to struggle out of his grasp.

"Why... why aren't you on my back yet?" Mikansu teased him, panting with her tongue dangling out. "A wolf stud like you, don't you want to breed me?"

He did. Anori feinted left, then right, then he leapt off the shrine wall and right towards Mikansu. This time he was fast enough. He tackled her side and shoved her down to the ground, then he clambered over her and bit her scruff with a low growl. "Grrr..." After a moment, a flicker of uncertainty pushed past primal instinct. "Sorry, was that too rough?"

Lying on her side, Mikansu's chest rose and fell as she panted. She grinned up at Anori as their gazes met. As Anori stood over her, he felt her tail wag and bump against his hindlegs. "That was good. Oh yes. That was very good." Rolling onto her front, she stood up and rubbed her side against Anori's. "Ok, seriously though, let's get started with the mating part. I can't wait any longer."

Anori concurred. He moved instinctually, driven by a mad need. A portal gateway blinked open around him then closed again in an instant, in what was the least efficient, shortest distance teleport he had ever done in his entire life--in one heartbeat he was standing beside Mikansu, then in the next he was behind her, lunging forward to mount her body.

In physical form, Mikansu didn't feel too different from that wild beast earlier--warm flesh and soft fur, and a very pleasant scent. Yet Anori found it vastly more pleasing to be on her back instead, wrapping his forelimbs around her midriff. This was_right_, for her, and for him, and he was filled with an intense need like he hadn't felt in aeons.

Mikansu stood firm and steady as he shifted about on her back, getting into just the right position. He tightened his hold--one paw around her torso, the other paw on her shoulder--and then he pressed his hips forward and pushed himself in.Bliss.

"Grrrahh..." A deep grunt came from Anori's throat, while Mikansu's jaws dropped in a silent exclamation. There was warm, wet friction as sensitive flesh slid against sensitive flesh, in the most primal of behaviours. He put himself inside her. "Mikansu...!"

Mikansu still had her eyes closed, but she pressed her hips back against him. "Oh yes. That fits right... That is just what I needed. Keep going."

He did.

Anori relished the sensation. He went wild, letting ancient primal instinct seize control and dictate action, as if he were nothing more than some animal. His body had wanted this for so long, but his mind had suppressed the idea--but no more. "Mikansu. Ah,Mikansu... I want you. I want to breed you."

Mikansu threw her head back, bumping her ears against his chin. "Yes. Do that. Absolutely do that." She let out another soft, pleasured gasp, and then she shuddered all over even as Anori kept clutching onto her from behind. "Ahh..."

His erection felt almost painfully stiff, and every stroke he made in and out sent a tingle of wonderful sensation. Warm, wet, a little messy, but instinctually gratifying. The pleasure built, climbing upwards at an extraordinary rate. If asked a few days ago, Anori would have claimed he had no need for such primal, mammalian action, but now he wanted it more than anything else. It felt right to be coupling with Mikansu, humping into her, shoving himself deep. They were_animals_.

"Anori," Mikansu gasped. Anori blinked his eyes open--he had closed them without thinking, so focused was he on the raw physical sensations. Yet it wasn't just about the sensations--the knowledge that he was coupling with another greater spirit,Mikansu, no less, was an absolute thrill.

Mikansu turned her head and glanced over her shoulder, making eye contact for just a brief second, and then she raised a forelimb before slamming it down onto the stone floor of the shrine. A burst of power went out from her, making the air tingle and causing Anori's fur to stand on end. "Anorrri," Mikansu said again, rolling his name with her tongue. "Vinitrodas undine dak'tau?"

The spellwords echoed around the shrine and in his ears, and Anori's thrusts slowed as he curiously observed the spell snap into effect. A gust of wind rushed in from the entranceway, again carrying a flurry of snowflakes that lodged themselves amongst their sides--the snow traced out runes that were hard to distinguish on Anori's white fur but more easily visible in Mikansu's dark fur.

"Oh! Huurrhh." Anori groaned as his arousal skyrocketed even further, driven by those magical runes. His erection throbbed and his hips sped up again, humping mindlessly without thinking what he was doing. The motion of his body fed into the spell, generating even more magic that filled both Winter spirits with yet more lustful desire.

"Vinitrodas, vinieeroptrat, das," Mikansu continued, singing out more words of power. More snow rushed into the shrine and clung to their fur, making that first rune more complex in form and drawing out yet more runes across their sides, their limbs, even their necks.

"Ahhhkkk..." Anori made a choked, overwhelmed sound and his forelimbs clutched tighter around Mikansu's torso. The pleasure blew to such a breath-taking level that he thought he would instantly climax, yet somehow the spellwork held him back. Instead of blasting over the edge, the growing ecstasy soared to astonishing new heights. Every movement, every thrust, was so sweetly pleasurable that Anori closed his eyes and buried his muzzle amongst the soft fur of Mikansu's scruff. His length felt so stiff and sensitive that his pace slowed down even more, just to keep from being overwhelmed. "Mikansu! What was... oh that's so good... so... ahh..."

"Heh. That was basic. Ever a lesser spirit of Spring could pull off an arousal spell like that. I'll show you some real magic." Mikansu's tail brushed against his underbelly as it wagged, and then she forcefully slammed her hips back against him, making Anori mewl from the sheer overwhelming sensation. "Give it to me. Your essence, yes, but also your power. Feed the spell."

"Ok... ok... ahh..." With eyes closed and snout buried in Mikansu's fur, Anori gasped. All his mind was enraptured by intense sexual pleasure, but he managed to find some fragment of concentration to do as Mikansu asked. Instinctively he reached for his power and released it, sending magic pouring out from his form in colourful tendrils of energy.

Mikansu rocked her body and tossed her head from side to side, gathering up the magic and feeding it with her own power, before sending it spinning around them in a spell so complex and intricate that Anori couldn't tell what it did. The magic swirled around the shrine like a tornado, filling the whole space with intense power that made the air crackle, yet instead of having any effect on either of the greater spirits, the spell just continued to function on its own.

"Keep going," Mikansu murmured. "Anori, I'm... almost there. Ah, anh, ha..." She was either moaning from pleasure or chanting out rhythmic incantations to feed her spell work--perhaps both. On his part, Anori was almost delirious with pleasure, and so filled with lustful need that he_had_ to get it out. Raw magic flowed openly from his body in a torrent, more than he'd use to create a Winter blizzard, more than he'd normally use in a week, more even than the portal array he'd created with Mikansu earlier.

Magical energies whirled around them in a spiral of potential and power, and for a brief moment Anori lost his sense of self. He could feel Mikansu's mind, and shared sensation washed between them both. He was seeing double, feeling double. Two were one--a winter spirit with another winter spirit, one animal thrusting into another animal--and it was hard to tell where one body ended and another started. The magic spun quicker as it tightened around them, forcing them together, letting their souls briefly brush.

That moment of maximal intimacy held for just a brief few seconds, then it all became overtopped by pleasure. Anori felt the sensations peak out, and despite how intense they had been before, now the pleasure spiked to a blinding high. No more thrusting, no more talking, no more anything--just instinct, and instinct made Anori shove himself as deep into Mikansu as he could go, then he held on tight to her body as he_exploded_.

"Hgrraanah..." An incoherent sound came from Anori's throat as he lost voluntary control of his muscles. The sensation was warm, wet, liquid ecstasy pouring out of his body in sticky, supremely satisfying spurts, shooting into his partner right where it had to go. It was just indescribably pleasurable as his body ran through ancient reflexes, transferring his essence to his partner. Magic thundered around the two winter spirits, swirling and exploding like fireworks. Mikansu groaned too, and he could feel her clenching around him, as they both endured climax.

Slowly, gradually, that intense high faded down to something more tolerable and Anori's thoughts begin to restart. A warm afterglow blanketed his mind, leaving him warm, fuzzy, and numb. Mikansu shuddered, but otherwise she remained still, standing firm with legs rigid, resolutely taking his weight as he remained lodged deep inside her. The proper canine behaviour would have been to dismount and turn himself around, but Anori was so lightheaded that he stumbled on his hindlegs before toppling sideways. "Ooh..."

"Woah!" Mikansu let out a surprised laugh as they both tumbled to the ground, groins still locked together.

"Sorry. I... that was so..." Anori blinked as he tried to clear his thoughts. Suddenly he was utterly lethargic and sleepy, and all he wanted to do was to curl up somewhere warm and safe to nap. Lying on the stone floor of the shrine, he spooned against Mikansu, hugging her back against his chest. "Mikansu..."

"Ahha... hehehe. By the powers of the moon and the sun, that was an_experience_!" Mikansu giggled. She leaned back against him, and her paw brushed against his as it rested over her torso. "That was fun. We could have been doing this months ago. I wish I'd asked you earlier. But then again, all that anticipation made it even better, I think? What do you think?"

Anori just groaned. "Mnrahh..."

"Ahaha. Yeah, I think you enjoyed that too." Mikansu let out a happy sigh, but then suddenly Anori felt her tense up. Raising her head, she bumped her snout against his. "Uh, hmm. Anori? Look at that."

Anori blinked his eyes open and tried to get his thoughts straight. The first thing he saw was Mikansu's face, which was a nice thing to see. "You're so pretty. I'm not supposed to say that because its unprofessional, but I like your face."

That made her laugh again. "Hah, why thank you! I like your face too." Mikansu licked Anori's snout, but then her gaze sharpened and she peered up. "Look at that, though."

Anori turned his gaze upwards. A whirling vortex of magical energy was rising upwards, gradually spreading out into huge waves of colour that covered the whole sky. The magic continued to rise upwards until it reached the storm, where it caused branching bolts of lightning to arc through the clouds in its wake.

Finally the vortex passed beyond even the upper atmosphere, and in majestic silence all that energy exploded into wispy, slowly pulsing waves of green energy that filled the night sky, occasionally showing red shades too. Aurorae weren't normally visible at this latitude, but they'd blasted out so much raw magical power that the night sky had been set alight.

"Wow. Did we do that?" Then Anori realized something else--the sky shouldn't have been visible at all. They should have only seen the stone ceiling of the shrine, but now they could see sky and clouds and trees. "The shrine is damaged."

The shrine was more than damaged, it was demolished. The magical outburst had blown apart the simple structure, and its constituent stone bricks were now scattered all around the field.

"Ahahah, whoops," Mikansu muttered. She didn't sound apologetic at all. "What an evening."

Anori tried to get to his feet, but then he found he was still joined at the hips to Mikansu--his erection was still rigid and throbbing, while her groin muscles clenched down on him--in typical canine form, neither of them was going anywhere for a while. Nature wanted him to stay here for a while longer, and make absolutely sure that he'd bred his mate.

Mikansu let out an unhappy grunt when his movements tugged on that point of contact. "Noooo, hey don't do that."

"Sorry." Lying down again, Anori hugged Mikansu's body against his. Admittedly it was extremely comfortable to feel her warmth against his body, as her fur brushed against his. "What was that last big spell you did? The one that used all that magical power?"

"My spell? It wasn't my spell. It was_our_ spell, and oh, Anori, I think you know exactly what we did," Mikansu happily replied.

With a grunt, Anori bumped his snout against Mikansu's neck. "That's a vague response..."

"Hahaha.That was a taste of the oldest, most primitive form of magic--the one that existed before all others, before anything else--creative magic."

"Creative magic?"

"Yes. You must know the story?"

"I know many stories. Which one do you refer to?"

Mikansu laughed, contented but amused. "The_first_ story, the story of life. Once upon a time, the world was nothing but dead, formless chaos. But then from that vast field of lifelessness emerged a tiny portion of perfectly ordered_pattern_. And that_pattern_ was special for it could replicate and creating more pattern like itself. With vast speed it spread across the chaos and filled it, but in doing so the perfect order became impossible, and the pattern turned against itself. Different patterns emerged and competed against each other, growing ever more complex and capable, adapting and balancing to the everchanging environment. Living, reproducing, dying--again and again and again. Forever it will continued, never to end! The cycle turns eternal."

Mikansu went still, and her voice got lower. "That is the grand game. All are in it, yet none can ever win. The best you can earn is a chance for a fragment of your own pattern to continue in the next round. Those who choose not to play lose by default, and their pattern will be lost to time. Be productive, or be forgotten."

There came a long moment of thick silence. Anori blinked. He wasn't sleepy anymore. "People say Winter is the dark season, all about death and coldness, but I've never heard any Winter spirit get that existential! Is that what Spring spirits think about? Goodness."

"Ok that might just be me. Most of the... fertility and productiveness of spring is just down to needy, horny instinct. Animals don't think about_legacy_, they just do what they want, and what they want is to hump each other." Mikansu's tail flicked, brushing against Anori. "And I did, or do, very much want you to hump me."

Anori was still thinking. "Generative magic. So you mean... we... we just..."

"Oh yes. Yes we did! You and me, Anori. You and me." Mikansu let out a pleased sigh. "Ahhh, Anorrrri. I like saying your name. It's fun to drag out. Or to moan. Haha," she giggled, then looked thoughtful. "How many do you think there'll be?"

"How many what?" Anori asked.

"How many in the litter of pups we just had the pleasure of making."

"Oh." Now that lust no longer dominated his mind, Anori felt a sense of deep clarity and perspective. Had he just, with no planning or even real consideration, decided to_breed_Mikansu and create new life with her? Hopefully he wouldn't come to regret this. Currently all he felt was a sense of warm, relaxed, lovely affection for Mikansu as they lay together. That was surely another mammalian trick--flood the brain with happy chemicals to make him emotionally bond with his new mate--not that Anori minded at all. He'd spent a year with Mikansu, working with her in various places as Winter swept around the world, but now their relationship was becoming something else.

Mikansu took his paw and moved it to the flat of her belly. "Have you done this before?"

Anori bit his tongue and shook his head. "In the last ice age, I did pair up with lesser spirits several times." Things had been simpler back then--he had been a much less powerful spirit, barely past the threshold for even being a greater spirit. Acting like an animal had been easier than it was now. "I've sired a few litters of lesser spirits, but never any greater spirits."

"Yeah, I'm the same. Had a litter of lesser spirits once, but this shall be a first for the both of us, because I want to make some greater spirits. How many children do you want? The spell isn't fully set yet. I can push the number, within reason."

Anori thought about it. Raising a lesser spirit was even easier than raising a normal animal--a lesser spirit had the body and the instincts of an animal, but with an added dose of rudimentary intelligence and magic that made them all the more quickly independent and survivable. But a greater spirit carried true intelligence and wild magic, and that required proper, slow nurturing. "I'm not sure. Maybe we should have talked about it before... before all the sex."

Mikansu let out a bark of laughter. "Hah. We're talking about it now. Sometimes you just need to kick off a project before you get into all the planning and details. And we burned a_lot_of power in that creative spell, so there is potential. In Spring, for spirits with a wolf form, not a dog or dire wolf form, the all-time record is_twenty-five_in a single litter."

Anori let out a choked cough. "Ahkkem. How would that even...?" He briefly had a mental image of him and Mikansu being_surrounded_ by a swarm of little, barking wolf pups. "No, no that's far too many."

Mikansu nodded. "I concur. Cause if we push the number too high, it'll spread the magic out thinly and some might end up being lesser spirits, or not even spirits at all. I want_greater_spirits. Average litter size is maybe... four to eight? I feel like with four or five, I could guarantee most of them are greater spirits."

"It's not just about what our magic can do, it's about what_we_ can do. Since neither of us has done this before, how about we start with a smaller number?" Anori countered. "How about just one pup--one new greater spirit, for us to raise together?"

Mikansu shook her head. "Not just one! Three? We haven't raised greater spirits, but we've both done lesser spirits before. Surely it shouldn't be that much harder?"

"Are you sure?" Anori made eye contact with Mikansu. "We're making_greater_ spirits. They could very well end up smarter than us, with more magic than us. Is it a good idea to be outnumbered?"

"Now you're making me feel like for all my Spring experience, maybe I still don't know enough..." Mikansu muttered. "Ok,two. Two pups for our first litter then. Then if they both act mischievous and run off, you can chase after one, while I chase after the other. And if this works out... maybe another litter in time?"

"Now that's a plan."

It was calm and quiet for a while. Aurorae continued to dance across the night sky, partially obscured by grey clouds that sent snowflakes drifting slowly downwards. Then Mikansu spoke again. "Should we fix the shrine?"

Anori waved a paw and tried to use a repair spell, but the various stone bricks barely shifted from where they lay scattered across the snowy field. He shrugged. "Wheysiu dikialo... Eh, whatever. The shrine wasn't in use anyway."

Mikansu laughed. "That's probably the first time I've ever heard you say_whatever_. So casual! Are you out of magic? You really spent it all for me?Inside me..."

"I'm not out of magic. I'm just... a little low on willpower right now."

Mikansu looked pleased. She reached a paw back and patted Anori on the neck. "Aww, did I mate you so good that I knocked the workaholic trait out of you?"

"Maybe temporarily. I think I really like you." Anori sighed, and he hugged Mikansu against his body as the two Winter workers relaxed together. "Cuddling is also nice."

"Mhh, yes." That peaceful, pleasant moment stretched for a little longer, but then Mikansu suddenly perked up and raised her head. "Did you see that?" she murmured.

Anori had not, but before he could even say anything, there was a flutter of white wings. A snowy owl flew over the demolished remnants of the shrine and landed on the one portion of wall which was still standing. "Frozen fractal flakes of snow, what on earth happened here!?" hooted the owl. With her large yellow eyes she surveyed the surroundings, before her gaze fell upon the two wolf spirits. "Who's that over there? Who's been messing around here? The whole shrine is gone! And there are aurorae across half the continent. What happened?!"

Mikansu lowered her head and tried to hide behind Anori, who was in between the owl spirit and her. Anori recognized the owl as one of their fellow greater spirits of Winter--but he wasn't sure how to respond. With Mikansu it had felt comfortable and easy to let his formal professionalism slip away so they could just_talk_, but with someone else, it suddenly felt embarrassing to get caught like this.

The owl flapped over and landed on a closer piece of stone brick. "Haikron, is that you? No, wait, Anori! You of all people...? What was that huge burst of power earlier? Did you do that? And hey now, hold on a moment, is that Mikansu with you? What have you two been_doing_--?"

Anori shared a glance at Mikansu, and they both nodded. "Let's get out of here," Mikansu murmured.

"Good idea." Ignoring several pointed questions from the owl, Anori pulled open a portal around himself and Mikansu, and in an instant they were elsewhere.

A few weeks later...

Anori paced around nervously in the snow. He had been putting off this conversation, but now the time had come for them to confess. "I hope he doesn't mind. The Winter Lord has always been very understanding, but all the Winter spirits are so busy that I feel a little guilty about this."

Mikansu was sitting leisurely on large flat rock nearby, and she peered upwards at the clear blue, cloudless winter sky. "Don't feel bad. You know this is standard protocol, right? I checked with Branos. There's a leave entitlement for this."

"Well of course it won't be very practical for you to keep working when the moment comes, but for me--"

Mikansu shook her head. "I get maternity leave, but you get paternity leave too."

Anori blinked. "Wait, really? Then... how come no one ever seems to takes it?"

"Are you asking me how come the greater spirits of Winter never seem to get each other pregnant? I really don't know. Maybe everyone's just too busy? Cause it isn't for a lack of sexual desire. Have you seen how much time Siga and Kamilia spend with each other? There's some serious sexual tension between them."

"Kamilia? He's Siga's aide, so of course they spend a lot of time together. And yes I agree they work well together, but they wouldn't... wait, or would they?"

Mikansu smiled a wolfish grin. "And_you_ were only supposed to teach me how to be a Winter spirit, but we worked so well together that..." Letting her voice trail off, she patted a paw against her belly. Today her fur was a pale white colour that matched Anori's coat. And though her physical form showed no obvious signs of it, things were happening.

Anori didn't think any of the other greater spirits had noticed yet, only him, but buried deep in the bright raging fire of Mikansu's magical energy was a barely noticeable distortion. There was this tiny bit that was part of her, but not fully her, because it was part of him too. The seed had been planted, and that miniscule spark of life was now smouldering. They'd done that,together.

"Oh yes." Anori felt a flush of warm affection, and he walked over to touch his snout against hers. Mikansu darted out her tongue to lick him, which quickly become a proper kiss.

But then came the flap of large wings, and the Winter Lord flew over the treeline and landed in the snowy field beside them. The downdraft from the ice dragon's wings kicked up enough snow to obscure how the two winter spirits had been embracing each other.

"Winter Lord!" Turning towards Lord Hazak, Anori bent his forelimbs and bowed his head, while Mikansu hopped up from her rock and stood beside him.

"Hello, hello! Sorry I'm late, my last meeting ran overtime," said Hazak. He smiled warmly at the two wolves. "Anori, Mikansu, good to see you two again. I do so enjoy chatting with my greater spirits. But this time you said there was something important to discuss?"

"There is a personal matter that we need to inform you of."

"Yes?" Hazak prompted.

"I just thought you should know that..." Anori drew a deep breath, then he gestured to the wolf spirit beside him. "Mikansu and I are in a relationship. Not just the usual co-worker relationship, that is. Personal. I mean romantic."

Hazak didn't look as surprised as Anori had been expecting. "That's good."

"Is it good?" Anori asked. Then he quickly added, "Uh, yes! Yes it's good for me. And her.Us."

Mikansu was less professional about it. "Damn right it's good. I'm taking Anori. He's_mine_now."

Hazak laughed. "Good for you two, then. You both always worked so well together--I can't say I'm surprised that this happened. May you bring each other happiness." A wry grin crossed the ice dragon's face. "So when will you be making some new greater spirits?" he teasingly asked them.

"Ah. About that..." Anori muttered.

Mikansu wagged her tail. "We're way ahead of you on that. Speaking of which, Anori and I will need to take a hiatus from Winter after this continent's season."

Now Hazak did looked surprised. He frowned at both Winter spirits, then he focused his gaze on Mikansu, peering at her spirit form, and he also saw that tiny distortion in her magical energy. "I see. That is... that's incredible news. Congratulations! Of course you have my full support to take your leave from work responsibilities. I was going to assign you two as forward vanguard again for our next move to the eastern hemisphere, but no worries. Wow... I'm impressed. Congratulations again. Do you mind if make an announcement about this to the other greater spirits during the next weekly meeting? Just to keep them informed."

"Heh. Let them all know." Leaning over, Mikansu placed a sloppy, affectionate lick right on Anori's snout--he flinched a little from how unprofessional it was to do that right in front of the Winter Lord, but Hazak looked amused.

"You two really do set the example for what our greater spirits should do." Hazak nodded to them both. "How long will you be on hiatus? Three months? Six?"

Anori spoke up. "We'd like one year, if the season can make do without us."

Mikansu smirked. "It will make do."

"Quite right--we will," Hazak agreed. "Take the time you need. But just make sure that you do come back to Winter, yes? Don't go transferring off to another season..." He waved a paw at Mikansu. "We need you both here. Don't you dare steal Anori over to Spring!" he said jokingly.

Mikansu nodded earnestly. "I've had enough of Spring--the pollen makes me sneeze. I really like it here. Winter is cool and quiet. And there aren't many people, but everyone's friendly."

Anori smiled. "We'll be back next year. We won't follow you when you when Winter moves off to the eastern hemisphere, but we'll rejoin you next year when Winter comes again to the northern continent here. Both of two and, hopefully, a few more little sprits."

"I look forward to meeting them," Hazak said, and he dipped his head in a low, respectful bow towards them. "Do keep in touch!"

Two wolf spirits darted through the forest, weaving around tree trunks and leaping over gnarled roots. Red and orange leaves were littered across the ground, shed from tree branches which were now bare, but the two spirits paid little attention to their surroundings as they ran. One wolf was chasing the other, playfully nipping at the other's tail--but then in another moment it was the other wolf spirit chasing the first one, as they both enjoyed the simple pleasure of speed.

Suddenly they came into a forest clearing and almost ran headfirst into another creature--a large moose had been nibbling on the bark from a tree, but the abrupt appearance of two small wolves made it hurriedly lift its head, showing off an impressive rack of antlers.

The wolf spirits were just as startled and they hurriedly came to a stop, with one wolf crashing into the other's side. By comparison, the huge moose made it all the more apparent how small the wolves were--they were young, tiny creatures, barely more than puppies. They hadn't even reached the stage of having a lanky, adolescent, half-adult appearance. They were just pups, and even a large fox could have outsized either of them.

"Ow!" yelped one of the wolf pups, as his sister crashed into him.

"Hey!" grumbled his sibling. "Watch it!"

"You watch it!" A squabbling playfight would have broken out, if not for the moose's presence.

Regardless of their tiny size and the consequent lack of threat posed, the moose still reacted defensively. "Grrrah!" With a loud grunt, it lowered its head to display its antlers and took a few quick steps forward. It wasn't a true charge, only a show of might, but it was enough to make the wolves flee.

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."

And they lived happily ever after.

THE END

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