Snow

And when the fire reaches the heart of the shadow lands, it will bring the light of a thousand suns. The whole world will be reshaped in our image. We have the power to burn the world.

-Fifth reincarnation of Blaze. Battle of the Kolde


"I hate the snow," grumbles Alex. Every time a snow flake would land on him, it would turn to steam. "I hate it, hate it, and I most definitely hate it."

Siku looks over and sees he's angry. "What's wrong?"

"It's the snow. I hate snow. I wish it would all just… go away."

Balto chuckles slightly and says, "You're the only pup who didn't actually want to play in the snow. Why is that?"

"I'm a fire wolf. It melts."

Balto shakes his head and says, "Well… that explains a lot. I bet you would rather jump in a mountain then, right?"

Alex frowns and shakes his head. "Why would I jump in a volcano? I would die as soon as my body hit the magma."

Huayra stops and looks at Alex. "Wait, so you're saying you are a fire wolf, yet you can't survive lava? How does that make sense?"

"Lava isn't fire. It's melted rock. Fire wolves don't do so well with rocks."

Huayra rolls his eyes and turns back around, continuing to walk.

Alex brings his head down in shame, being embarrassed, when he smells something. He keeps sniffing the snow and fear is evident in his eyes.

"Osa don…"

The group stop and Siku asks, "What is Osah don?"

All the sudden, a little amount of snow, about the size of a baseball, hits him in the face. The group starts to laugh… and Alex starts to scream.

"GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF! GETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFF!"

Balto sighs and brushes the snow off of Alex's face with his tail. "There, nothing to- What in the hell is that?"

A brown spiderlike creature is latched onto Alex's face, holding on for dear life.

Alex, who had his eyes closed, looks and sighs. "Oh… it's Osai ko. Hello!"

The spiderlike creature, after relaxing, climbs on top of his head and lies down.

"What is that," asks Siku, disgusted by the spider… thing.

"It's Osai ko. It means the dumb one in the Water dialect and dumb grabber in the Flame dialect. They are attracted to heat. They make good pets… and I also heard they taste delicious… but the downside is that they drink blood, but they drink the blood of things that are extremely cold… or dead."

Siku nods her head and looks at Huayra… and says, "Um… Huayra… you have one of those things on you…"

Alex looks towards Huayra and glares at it. "Osa don! The mind controller. Hold still and I'll get it off."

Huayra, a little panicked, holds still. Alex smiles and, as the osai ko crawls on his tail, he flicks it off, managing to hit the osa don and knock it off in the process.

The osai ko, after landing in the snow, jumps up and runs back towards Alex, crawling up his leg and standing on top of his head.

Alex looks up and smiles. "I shall name you fluffy!

The others laugh and they continue walking, though Siku is a bit disturbed with the spider creature.


As they continue walking through the snow, Siku feels something nuzzling her neck. She stops and looks over to see Alex, smiling at her. He seemed… drugged.

"Oh Siku, you look so pretty! I like you a lot!"

Siku starts to blush and asks, "You do? Well… I like you too."

Alex starts to giggle in excitement and falls over. Siku looks at his stomach and sees some weird leech like thing.

"Ew! What in the world is that?!"

Balto turns around… and nearly throws up. He was expecting one of those spider things, not… not that.

Alex looks at his chest and starts to laugh. "Heh, ooh, look, a kiro don! I love these things! They make me so… so… lovey! Yay…"

Siku pokes it and it detaches itself from Alex's chest before jumping into the snow.

"Maybe we should get out of the snow."

Alex stands up and rubs his chest. "Ow… that hurt. I hate kiro dons. They make me so… so… sedated. I don't like it."

Siku rolls her eyes and they continue walking.

"Hey, where's fluffy?"

All the sudden, he yelps and turns around to see Fluffy is on his hindquarters. "Hey, no biting Fluffy. Bad Fluffy."

Fluffy lowers its body and lets out some depressing noise. Alex sighs and says, "Alright, you can climb on my head. But no biting."

Fluffy perks up and races to the top of his head and stands there.

Rusty looks back and laughs. "I see you have yourself a friend there… kinda creepy."

Alex rolls his eyes and says, "Don't listen to him Fluffy. He's jealous because he didn't have an osai ko crawl on him."

Rusty turns around sighs. No point in even trying to communicate with him.

Alex looks at Siku and says, "Siku, do you want to hold him?"

Siku shakes her head. "No, I'm good."

"Awww, please! It's good luck if he stands on the female that the owner is attr- I mean… uh… it's good luck if he ends up liking you… yeah…"

Siku sighs heavily. "Fine. You can put him on my back. But if he bites me, Fluffy will not see tomorrow."

Alex quickly nods his head and places his snout on Siku's back. Fluffy climbs off his head and onto Siku's back. He then runs on top of her head and sits.

Alex smiles at her. "Aww, he likes you."

Siku chuckles slightly, her eyes looking up at Fluffy to make sure he didn't do anything.

All the sudden, Fluffy jumps and lands on Alex's back. Alex sighs and says, "Well… I guess I'll be-"

Fluffy climbs down his leg and disappears under the snow.

"Never mind."

Siku moves closer to Alex and says, "Thank goodness. You didn't neat Fluffy for affection. You have us, but more importantly, you have me."