[Alue]

Having been giving the training rank of artisan, Alue had possibly been neglecting his role as a halo. The way he saw it, no one was running to his den asking for help. He checked on Phillip, having kind of claimed the elder as his own patient to look after, and made sure his stores were stocked and that he was up to date with anything that was going on within the halo ranks. Before he had been doing above average as a halo, and now he was just doing average. It felt bad, but he couldn’t stop himself from getting excited as he went out foraging for random items. The things that interested him the most were crystals and rocks. He almost always carried the crystal Kestrel had carved out, filled with basic herbs out of anxiety, and commonly compared what he found to it, and what he tried to do. So far, he had not done so well in trying to copy his friend. He had started with some basic rocks and crystals, and ended up ruining them. He felt he was making progress, but it would be easier if he could learn from someone.

   But right now, he wasn’t thinking too much about crystals. Winter had really started to set in, and the cold somehow brought life into his bones. The summers had been hot, and had drained him. But when he felt the soft cold breeze roll over him, he felt the excitement burning in his marrow. For what, he wasn’t sure. But it had always brought forth happy times. It was really the only season that brought back old memories that he had almost forgotten, and it brought some happiness to his heart. Even if life was no longer the same, the reaction remained. One of the things that stuck out about winter had been sledding. With his newish interest in crafting, he knew this was around the perfect time to seek Puffin out, learn how to attempt to make a sled. As a child, he had learned about sledding, but it had been the humans that made the sleds, not the dogs. Now they lacked humans and Puffin had made up for it, and Alue wanted to continue along with him.

   They had already set up that the lesson was to happen today, and were planning on meeting where Puffin had been working on sleds. Alue had ventured into the forest where the other worked before, but not that far. It felt almost haunted, if the walker didn’t know who made the sleds. Now as Alue walked further into the forest. As he went, it was almost like walking through a show. As he went along, the sleds progressively changed, progressively got better. In all honesty, it made the boy feel a little more confident. Everyone started somewhere, and the starting point was not really pretty. But it was something, and the more they worked, the better they got. Alue knew the first sled he’d work on would be awful, but it would help him learn. He sped up as he saw the other dog standing not too far off. When the half dog approached, he dipped his head happily to his friend. “Hey, Puffin.” He started. “This forest, it’s cool. You made them all? The sleds, that is.” Small talk before the lesson. Alue had too much anxiety and couldn’t just leap into something.