Geri.
***
Three years.
Our charge was three years in our home. Three years in the Silverstream Forest. Three years in our distant world. The longest and shortest three years of my existence.
Our existence.
My pack was small. Composed entirely of Chor residents. Former residents.
Katheryn was a human who appeared like a run-of-the-mill winter wolf when transformed. She was currently in attendance at the Bardic School of Announcing for the sake of bringing life to the many recordings of fantastic fights hidden in the Archives.
Lemeia was also a bard, but a strifling with blue-black fur and horns that seemed to mirror her ears. A Show Host, she was. Although she gave no hints as to what type of shows she'd be hosting.
Rhonda was also a human. But one with gray-blue tones to her fur coat that seemed to stand on end at all times. She was on the path to becoming an artificer, like Ed. Specializing in mechanical engineering to make ludicrously fast vehicles.
Penny was a dwarf. Also an artificer in training but with the intent to become an architectural engineer. More like a squat mastiff than a wolf was her appearance. Or, if a wolf, a short and stout one with a braided 'beard' hanging from her snout.
Norsh was a halfling. A corgi-like wolf with blue and white markings that truly made one think she was one of the stout-legged pups. She didn't even have a tail. A boon, in her eyes, as she was a pilot who devoted her all to merging the likeness of a fighter and an artificer in quite a unique way.
Lula, a deep gnome and a bard in the School of Sponsorship, appeared as a wolf-like dog that stood nearly as tall as Norsh. Her fur, however, was a deep black with white tones paired with ice-white eyes without pupils. Strangely of all, her tail was the fluffiest and was permanently curled inwards to form a loop atop her bum. A Shiba, Amun said she was.
And then there was me. A big-ass winter wolf. The matriarch of the Winter Wolf Conclave. Like Blude and my brother, I led us to Amun's home to reunite with our children. A place I both knew and knew not existed.
Hidden in plain sight within the second sun- as the denizens of the surface called it- existed Eotrom. A mirror to the mortal realm. Tucked within that mirror realm was a mirror of the first world outside, complete with the same name. Mani. A layered world, it was, wherein a forest of silver sat beneath the barren surface. And more sat within that silvery expanse.
There, in the Silverstream Forest, we received the same lessons as my brother in both flesh and spirit, taught by a different celestial wolf. Lycaon was the name of his spirit's first son. One of them, at least. The name of my first daughter was Lupa. A wolf of colossal proportions with fur whiter than snow could ever hope to be.
Though we were separated from the summer wolves, we were similarly made to come to terms with the beasts inside us. We were trained by the hands of Amun, Etan, Lupa, and sometimes Doyle, and thus were made to come to terms with our dual natures. Our twin powers.
The power of winter. Of wood and sterility; dying and stagnation. Of the moon. Ice. Despair.
The power of spring. Of flowers and fertility; youth and growth. Of the dawn. Air. Hope.
It didn't take long to realize the extent of our new lives. Mastering them, however, was another matter entirely.
We did so in my world. Brigid. An orb with a floral band of deep dales and winding rivers around its midsection, capped with glacial fields, boreal forests, treacherous tundra, and frozen mountains.
That was where we lived. That was where we hunted. Played. Trained and eventually warred against Amun, Etan, and sometimes Doyle. And when we weren't we were on our scattered moons, woven for every purpose and pleasure imaginable. Except living.
Like everyone else, we received the blessing of the Divine Engineer to assist us in learning, and yet still took months to become experts in the fields Amun imposed on us. Science, Technology, Reading, and Writing. Engineering. Art. Mathematics and magic. A bit of history and a lot of philosophy from both his native world and ours.
Like everyone else, we then spent months upon months on our mechanical moon, developing skill after skill. Far more skills than our summer and autumnal counterparts.
While they learned how to build and operate those large and lumbering tractors and trains, we remained on our first mechanical moon, wherein we became enraptured evermore with the vehicles created by Ed.
We studied and toiled to learn how to operate, maintain, and fabricate them, adapting them to scream through the land, skies, and seas at ludicrous speeds, for we were rangers. There was no place we were not meant to traverse. We were rangers, unburdened by distance through virtue of the fueled, magical, arcane, and celestial vehicles we created on our Blue Moon.
In turn, that formed my chosen industry. Aerospace Engineering. In turn, that created the Blue Steel Motor Company and Blue Peak Aerospace Industries.
In turn, we created a second mechanical moon, wherein we melded our craft and our knowledge of ranging with our lessons in witchcraft just like the summer wolves were doing with their herbs. With the help of Iris, we installed sensors and scanners in our vehicles to target, track, and assess the injured from afar. With Reina and Rickley's help, we installed facilities that could treat the worst of wounds whilst keeping them in a serene state of mind. When combined, we practiced rescuing trauma patients with the utmost haste.
When combined, we solved the age-old problem associated with witches moving their patients by creating a unit of first responders. Celestial First Responders with bestial natures.
Even after Katheryn took over the Spring Witch Comet Service and the moon, Swicks, we forged on. We took our skills and wove a third mechanical moon. Not for the sake of industry or witchcraft but for the sake of fun. We took it upon ourselves to learn how to build supportive infrastructure on the prior moon, if only to build continent-spanning racetracks and circuits on the new moon, Squeal.
In this, we adopted a mirrored industrial role to the likes of Ed, wherein we constructed icy roads, wooden racing tracks, sky circuits, and waterways for both business and recreational purposes centered around speed. For the fast movers we created and thus would use to save those worth saving and kill those worth killing. Both in ways that only Rangers could.
So it was, we went on our paws, our ground vehicles, through the air, and across the water, racing. Mastering the use of our creations. Pushing the limits of engineering further and further until we eventually created the first fleet of super and then hypersonic aircraft.
In turn, Lemeia and Katheryn organized, hosted, announced, and broadcasted the debut of the Winter Wolf Racing League to the ManaNet with a celebratory race. Then, we got back to work.
Halfway through our charge, our professional tasks had been accomplished. Thus we turned our snouts towards our arcane moon to fulfill the supportive duties for ourselves, the Legions, and the Troupe.
Dubbed Castle Wintercrest- or simply Wintercrest- our first arcane moon was an operator school and licensing center run by the mind of Norsh. It was the first of its kind. Not a course to learn the basics or even the advanced methods of vehicle operation akin to the ones organized by Imperators Ed and Duke. It was a course for the extreme aspects of vehicle operation. How to build them. How to maintain and repair them. Most importantly, how to operate them in the most dangerous environments imaginable.
To that end, we made a copy of our racing moon and filled it in its entirety with so-called Catastrophic Arcane Territories. Raging seas. Burning badlands. Chocking forests. Every vehicle in our fleet was tailored to fit every biome imaginable and scaled to operate within every level of danger one could think of.
Through this, we and in turn, the Troupe, became experts in using the locomotive tools provided by the Legions. Moreover, it gave us the industrial prowess needed to produce them en mass and in turn distribute them to the Legions and beyond. To that end, we made a sister moon to the Blue Moon and automated them both, relegating the first to a world of research and development while this one, Hora, became our primary manufacturing and distribution center.
The time for our final world to be woven came by the start of the final year of our charge. It was linked to the aforementioned moon by the Divine Engineer's essence infused inside its core. But not for the sake of manufacturing. It was for our roles within the Legion.
Though we would later learn our combat roles within the Elven Devil's Troupe, we knew non-combative roles in both warfare and peacetime. Thus we began training for it in earnest. The job was simple. We were rangers. We roamed the fringes of society, acting as scouts, deterrents, or even spies. Our job, in short, was reconnaissance.
Therein lay the purpose of our final moon, Eiar. A machine-sized celestial body turned into an extension of our minds thanks to Iris. The result was a communal mind shared by my conclave. A tap of computing power we could drink from and in turn us to connect to Simion and the entirety of the three networks. A world of sensors, transmitters, receivers, and other devices linked to us and our equipment for a sole purpose. Cartography.
Our moon, coupled with the scattered Legionaries' data, Iris' game, and the Map function of the various networks showed not just the Legion-explored realms in real-time. It showed the territories of those who called it home. It showed their relations with each other and their laws. Their cultures and languages. Their imports and exports. The things they had in supply and demand. Their prowess with technology and magic. The resources and creatures found within.
Seeing as Lula's bardic specialty was sponsorship, she fit perfectly in the moon's core, wherein she scanned the peninsula from shore to shore in search of potential racers, legionaries, winter wolves, or any number of other things. In turn, tagging them to be sought out by any who found them interesting.
By the blessings of our God and the power born within us, we accomplished these tasks. More so, we excelled at them.
But still, there was one task left to master. One thing left to train for.
War.