Thank you everyone that interacted with "Winter" during this. I know it wasn't as big as my previous ones and couldn't involve as many as I would have liked, but I needed something to work through some finer issues and this tactic pulled it off.

Community Involvement / FINISHED

To portray Winter as explained in part one, Iaurdagnire has been given to another player for the period of one week to roleplay as Winter, starting Monday and ending Friday the 18th. During this time I will have no control over what they do in forest, just as Dag has no control in the story. However, I will be observing and documenting any interaction here.

I hope this will be fun and different (: any problems, you can post here or contact me on msn: dagnire@yahoo.co.uk

A note: Remember that Winter is, well... Winter. One expects him to be cold (;

You really are a piece of work... what is it you hope to achieve from taking what isn't yours? "Taking? I borrowed you fair and square, and if I want to explore being one of you... then I wish to do that."
There is a small deer dancing erratically at the ruins.
"Hm. Clearly a lunatic." No.. they're having fun entertaining that fawn. A lot of us do that.
"The point of it?" To laugh and have fun.
"If I were to dance it would be much more dignified... who are these insolent creatures running around me?" That is Illrose, Jack, and the small doe is Nightshade.
"Such a thin little doe, that Nightshade."



Through no encouragement of my own, I walk to Dandelion Hill. The deer dancing at the Ruins follows and bows before me. I look at her, ignore and walk by.
That wasn't pleasant of you, Winter. Why didn't you bow back? "Pardon? I need not bow to such. I am Winter - they are to bow to me."
Suddenly a spell was cast, and my pelt changed. Winter wasn't expecting it, and I taunted in disgust.



"The disgrace! I'll teach them to-" -If you're wanting to have a taste of my world, you're making a poor effort to try it. If you don't like it, sneeze the spell off.
Surprisingly, Winter listens. I sneeze off my pelt and continue walking. The deer at the Ruins follows again and walks with me.
"Ah, that is more like it. Others following me... the respect I deserve." They won't stay for long.



I was right.
"Charming..." What do you expect, dear Winter, when you give nothing in return?
"I give them more than you can comprehend."
Suddenly I am ambushed.
"This doe, why is she cuddling me." That is Kaoori, a very dear friend of mine. You must treat her nicely.
I pull away; my touch is cold and it is uncomfortable to be touched by those warmer.
"I will do no such thing. Look how thin she is; she is weak." She has only just had a fawn.
I walk around her and away.



You cannot ignore my friends! "I can do whatever I wish."
Kaoori is persistent. I trot and run all over the forest to try and get away from her. I shout at her, stamp my hooves, and then I lower my antlers. I cannot stop myself.



You dare lower my antlers at her. "I do not want her here, I want her to leave. If she can't understand, she is stupid as well as weak."
Despite everything, Kaoori continues to follow and chase me. Nothing I do seems to curb her.
"This Kaoori is an irritation..." Doesn't her persistence remind you of someone?
"Hmph."
I end up on the bridge, and I stop to look out onto the frozen Pond. This is where I stay, and a sad Kaoori sits on the grass, staring.
"Frozen water is the favourite of my trades. There is nothing more beautiful."
Cloud arrives and both he and Kaoori approach. Kaoori bolts, and Cloud makes a quiet retreat when I give him nothing.





"... Can I help you?"
Another small deer moves right up to me and tilts his head.
"I don't remember the forest having this many small deer. It is rather worrying... perhaps my coldest frosts have not been severe enough to kill them off." You see size as weakness?
"Of course. Only the largest, and therefore strongest survive." What about me? You said yourself that my species were not good enough to survive. Yet, they were giants.
"Victims of a freak situation. You cannot control the occasional extinction." Yet, you try.
"The four of us keep the world functioning. End of discussion."




Any sign of company is left behind as I walk towards my usual sleeping spot. There is a crunch of frosted grass under hoof, and I look down. I decide it is comforting to rest on the small grass-topped hillock and bask in the cold emanating from me.
Solitude. Are you pleased? "No. This forest is hardly the picture you have painted."
It isn't my fault you don't like being treated as an equal. Will you return me in exchange for guidance? You will need to listen to me in order to get whatever it is you want out of this.
"..."

"Is this relentless flea a lover of yours?" Don't be so ridiculous.
I look at her, unimpressed.
"I am having a hard time understanding why on earth she is set on following and touching me. You are positive?" Kaoori is a sensitive doe. She is acting on her emotions; as far as she can see, her friend is being a... I have a far too vast a choice of words to use.
"Not a thinker then."



I make myself clear about what I think regarding her buzzing around me. She bows, cowering, and I seem pleased so walk on. Kaoori follows, and I accept her but for a moment. I threaten her and plough my way through the frozen snow to the other side of the forest, near the playground. Kaoori's persistence is still evident, and I am more forceful.
You mustn't touch her! "She is numb and doesn't know when she is not wanted, I am sick of her."
Kaoori eventually runs off, and I am left alone.
'You are a wretched season.' "Oh, so you remember?" But apparently, you do not. I taught you many things that day about what makes the forest. You're not even trying, and still my friends try to see you.
"Only because they think I am you." Then how is that not the perfect excuse for you to interact with them?
"Do you ever stop talking?"



I head in the direction of the Idol, turn and see Kaoori coming up the brow of the hill. Frustrated by her presence, I move to the Pond to watch over my frozen mirror.
"Will she not leave." She is just sitting, observing. There is no harm in that.
"The harm is that it- hello... there is a Caribou coming towards us. He is limping." That is Toukan... He suffers from an old leg injury.
"How very interesting..."
He bows, and I approach him. We exchange smells, and I back away to look at him, ignoring Kaoori who stood up.
"A true winter-faring species, strong even with injury. This forest is lacking predators compared to elsewhere... but I am impressed." Oh you are?
"I will allow him to be in my presence."



I start to walk up the valley. Toukan is hesitant, but Kaoori staying true to form follows. But she made the mistake of running ahead of me, a complete disregard for my authority. I roar and lower my antlers.
"Insolence!"
Toukan comes to Kaoori's aid and taunts at me,
You need to stop this. "He is siding with her, the scrawny little sparrow... how damning. I cannot accept this treachery." Then let us leave before you hurt someone. You are clumsy with my antlers... and rash with your decisions.
"You blame me for this, do you?" No. I blame you for not trying in the first place, and I blame her for continuing on what is clearly a lost cause. If you carry on threatening her, there will be more to come to her aid; that is how it is here. One deer gets on an others nerves and persists, and others will defend and attack whoever it is they see showing the aggression. And who is the aggressor here?"
"... She cowers before me." You see.
I sit abruptly on Dandelion Hill, paying no attention to others.



"Then, what do you suggest I do." You must be calm. If she tries to touch you... shake your head. If she is sitting quietly, what reason do you have to drive her away?
"You think I should act by will of her? Never would I do such."
Kaoori appears again, sneaking up and sitting by a tree.
"She follows and invades without any thought. It is reckless, and I don't care if I am the one set upon for her own foolishness."
I get up and rush over to her,
"One way or another, she will learn. I must frighten her."
I tower over Kaoori. I stamp my hooves around her, rear and force her away.
Stop!



We part, and my actions seemed to work. She didn't come back. I am at the pond, drinking.
My first thirst.
My first taste of the coldest water.
"..." You've never had to drink before...
There is a stunned silence as I take another long drink before turning to the nearest tree. I hazardously scrape my antlers up and down it and tear off the bark to eat.
"This... isn't so nice." No... How do you know that is what to eat?
"I am Winter. I know what it is all the animals need to survive me." I see...



"What are they doing?" Ah, playing in the pond. It is fun to make use of its enchantment, on occasion.
"They'll catch a death of a cold in my water... how unfortunate."
I take a long... long walk to the birch forest. I climb Red Hill, attracted by plummeting temperature. When I reach the top, someone in the distance catches my eye.
"The name of this doe?" That is Ravyn.
"Ah yes... curious creature." You know of her?
"We know names here and there."



I sit down, and I feel my eyes are heavy. But I do nothing about it. Virgil finds me in no time, and takes in interest as to why I have not greeted him as usual.
"What a scruffy looking stag..." This is Virgil.
"Oh yes... Virgil. He is a close friend of yours."
I stand and taunt at his attempt to sniff me. He backs off and sits a short distance away.
"Well would you look at that... He did as he was told." Virgil is the most instinctual deer I know. I doubt he will be of any trouble to you.

My stomach hurts, and I shift my body feeling uncomfortable. I tilt my head and smell the air, and notice there are a fair few around me; one doe in particular is closer than the others, and I can see her from the hill.
"Hm. They'll be born before the day is out." Who... Trees! How wonderful...
"Why so sad?" I know your view on weakness all too well by now.
"You think the fawn is at risk being born in this weather? Well, that is partially true. But my Winter children born in the cold, providing they survive, are the strongest off all." ... My, you do have double standards.
"Young life is weakness, but that is how any life starts. That does not mean I should want to extinguish it before it has shown its worth." Your laws are surprisingly sound, Winter.



I walk down from Red Hill, scuffing my hooves through the snow lazily.
What is the matter? "This stomach quakes... and vision is blurred."
You drank and ate rather too quickly, didn't you. And you have not yet slept.
"Sleep? Only mortals sleep." Well... the bulk you are dragging through the snow appears to be mortal, don't forget. You will need to sleep.
I continue to spite myself, and am met with something beautiful.
"She is?" That is Geisha... a quiet friend of mine. Do be nice to her...
She bows, and we exchange scents. But she nuzzles me, and my reduced tolerance due to my stomach ache has me taunting at her and leaving. She follows, though.



Hm-hm... It is always the quiet ones who can be the most indignant. She didn't like that.
"Then she can leave me alone."
I sit down in some frostbitten flowers, cranky, tired. Geisha follows and cautiously sits with her back to me, before getting a bit too close. I move a short distance away.
"Despite her disrespect, I am not feeling well to chase her away."
It happens again, so I taunt and walk away.
Sit down, sulky. "Then you explain this to me."
What is it you find about others sitting but a short distance away so unpleasant? You let Virgil sit closer than her yesterday. "Virgil was obedient. This doe friend of yours is not, and I will accept none of it."



But no harm is done. They are confused by you... me. Show some understanding, and let them sit with you rather than shoo them away. They might understand not to come close as to touch... but at least they can still be with you... me.
"You miss them." I do, yes. You are cruel to them...
Spyrre trots quite quickly to me in the distance. She is none the wiser, and is far too flamboyant in her actions. I am displeased by her display, threaten, and move away.
"Another one of your blasphemous friends?" Spyrre... I haven't been able to see her for a long time... I miss her...



"Hm. Another small one." ... You need to try harder.
"Excuse me?" All you're doing is pushing my friends away. They do not please you? Well, you do not please them. At all.
"Why must they insist themselves upon me? They show me no respect. Nuzzle and chase a perfect stranger without thought of them? It's-" No, you in body are not a stranger. You are a cold foreign mind within their friend, and it is their right to seek you.
"This... is... strange."
I cannot help it. I close my eyes, and my head nods until it is on the ground.
I experience darkness, and a transition into nothingness.

When I wake up hours later, I feel strangely calm and maybe even a little disorientated.
"I feel... better. That is what sleep does?" Even the most foul moods can be calmed by sleep... Tell me, do you feel less... stressed?
"Stressed? I do not know the meaning." Are you feeling less frustrated than before? Do you think you can listen to me with more effort...
"My frustration is only that others do not do right by me."
I sigh inwardly as a young female bounces up to me, giggling and laughing.
"..." This is Leea. She's very happy, isn't she?
"If that is what you can call that... strange bouncing. Why is she doing that?" Because she is happy to see me. Despite the taunt you just gave her...
"Her fault, not mine."
Leea follows me wherever I go.
Hm-hm...



"What are you laughing at?" You don't know what to do, do you!
"No... I just... Why doesn't nothing I do make her go away. At least with the others they looked as if they had been told off, and rightly so! But this one doesn't seem phased." Leea is a little diamond in this place. I don't think there is anyone one or think that can stop her from being happy and wanting to laugh and jump with others.
"... Too much jumping. It looks weird." I bet you couldn't bounce around like that. You have barely mastered running.
"Why would I engage in such indignant prancing?" So you are honestly telling me that your rushing, utterly schizophrenic winds are any different?
"Certainly. Commanding the wind is an art, and is not comparable to such..."
When I sit down at the bridge, Leea is over-zealous with her skipping and falls off into the water.
"... Clumsiness. Aha, justice for her silly behaviour." I think you'll find that folk around here are never penalized for doing what makes them happy. She is unfazed by me... you. You're cold to her, yet, she will still bow to you. A very pretty and courteous bow, too; what does that say about her, hm?
"That she is naive for thinking I will suddenly accept her."



Cloud walks slowly onto the bridge and sits near me. Leea also bows to him, then sits the other side of me. I am pinned by the two.
"She bows to him too. What is the use of a bow when it is flung around so freely? I remember long ago when bows were reserved for the highest of creatures, a show of unquestionable respect and honour for being in the higher's presence. But this, this is-" -A bow is a hello. A greeting that must always be returned lest you are thought of as rude. It can be the formal acknowledgment, a precursor to the greeting of someone new. But, like I said, a lot of the time it is a hello. And that is always nice.
I let them sit with me. They are the closest yet.
Very good... "Three... Two... One." Hm?
I roll my eyes. Leea got up and decided to nuzzle me, and that was the straw that broke the camels back. I taunt and leave, but both of them follow.
"You see? If I let anyone close, they will take liberties. Give an inch, they take a mile. I'm happy that Kaoori took the hint and has not sought me today." Kaoori... I hope she can forgive me... /
I stop and look back, and wait for them before I start to walk.
"... I don't know why I did that." Guilt.
"Guilt?" You know my friends are being hurt by you...



"Ah, no-no. Look, they are following me, and I am leading them. Mn, much more like it."
When I stop and sit down, there is a lot of seat-switching as Leea can't seem to understand that I do not want her to sit so close. Cloud impresses me. He sits in front, facing me, obedient.



"Guilt... nonsense. They showed me respect, so I can afford to be a little more tolerant of them." I'm amazed Leea is still here, the amount of times you have threatened her today.
I look past Cloud to the flower patch.
"Tolerance does not mean I will ever do that."

"This Leea is very intent on watching over me." Well, she cares. I don't think she ever saw my... more dangerous clashes with you. Her mind is free from all that, optimistic...
"Optimistic. A nonsense-word." Nonsense?
"You live, or you die. You cannot hope or look forward to anything else." ... For something striving to collect my life for what it contains, you are all very much hung up about a beginning and an end.
"That is our business. You are the in between we attempt to understand." I'm finding it hard to understand any motive from you at present.
I walk around to free myself from Leea's "keep", only to find Kaoori at my heels once again. I do not chase her, though. I let her be, and allow both her and Leea to follow me.



This is going well. "I suppose..."
Kaoori tries to nuzzle me from behind, and I stamp at her like I am shooing away a rodent.
... Was going well. Oh, Kaoori. "Hardly my fault. It boggles my mind how something with such little brain and little brawn survives for so long." That is a cruel thing to say, Winter. Kaoori is dear to me... I cannot blame her if she thinks her actions could bring me back to my normal self.
Kaoori runs off, and I am confronted with Noelle.
Ah... Noelle. "Noelle?"
Noelle jumps around me, nuzzling before I can get the chance to defend myself.
"What on... n-no!"
She is far quicker, and I trip and stumble like a newborn trying to dodge and get her to stop.
"Never have I been faced with such... such-" I-I'm sure if you stay still and shake her head, she will st- "Dishonor! Indignity-"
Noelle nuzzles one-too-many times.
"-... The shame of it." We play this game sometimes... but...
"What? You? You will do anything to please, won't you." ... Why won't she stop?



I lower my antlers, roar, shake my head. But nothing works. Furious, she shifts and adorns antlers of her own. But though taunting, she avoids attack after attack. Leea does her best to get in between, follow, bow to Noelle. She shakes her head, but Noelle ignores her.
N-Noelle you have to stop! ... Why won't you listen to Leea...
I foam at the mouth, exhausted trying to catch her. My head hurts from swinging my heavy crown back and forth in the hopes of clipping, breaking her legs.
... Why are you ignoring her warnings...
I need to rest, and I have no choice but to start walking.



They follow.
"I don't want her here... why follow me if all there is to do is... harass, pick at me like I am a game." ... You are the game. She knows that I do not speak for my own actions.
"And you condone this?" I... do not.
I taunt, try to get her away again. She has the gall to do the same back and continue following.
"Tenacious wretch." Noelle is... headstrong. She knows there is something wrong, and is... testing you... trying to find out what is wrong with me-
"- You have an answer for everything. Always a way to justify someone elses wrong-doing. Why do you defend them? Can you not feel your body ache?"
... I can. But she doesn't know I am still here. There is always a reason, Winter. An animal loses its life in your blizzard, and that is that for you. Reasons are what I confide in, what I find solace in. What keeps me sane. And the things I cannot find, well, I have no use for. An animal that loses its life in your blizzard is the doing of age. Malnourishment. Poor growth. Poor choice of shelter; some reason as to why they end in your time.

"Leea still puts herself between us. Admirable."
You...

Reason...

You... You, yourselves, don't kill... You... facilitate it.
"Perhaps in our purpose. But you... we will always try to kill you."
... Then I must have somewhere along the line given you that desire. That want to kill. The knowledge that... you could.
"Whatever we are is taken from you. You must be correct in your assumption. Are you therefore happy, now that you have found the... forced reason, for your perpetual existence?"

...

I don't want to move today.
... Something wrong? "There are too many rules here."
What do you mean. "Much is expected from you, isn't there, Iaurdagnire."
I suppose...
Here I am, beside myself.
"Individual agendas. Personal, inner-world rules on what is expected from one, but not the other. What is deemed right and wrong in the eyes of themselves. It was not always like this." One cannot be penalized for individualism. You cannot expect everyone to think the same way as you do.
"I see that is apparent now. However, like I have said: it was not always this way." Can you explain?[i]
I grumble as I can see Virgil and Leea sit not too far from me.

"You already know. You have seen it, one way or another. I cannot explain."
Slowly more encircle me. Toukan, Noelle, Aeis, and Virgil's son Bird. They scatter themselves about my resting place.
"Are they afraid, do you think?" [i]I am not a mind reader.
Curious, how they sit. Noelle sniffs me, but retreats.
"I would have thought they would take advantage and try to touch me." Perhaps they finally listened to you. Or maybe, you simply aren't predictable. You cannot react to a brisk winter wind unless it chills you to the bone first.
"Mm... You have a way with words. I like that."



"... You never did answer me." Answer? "Are you happy knowing you are the cause of the your own situation."
I do not believe I am the cause of my situation as a whole. I am to blame for this situation, to every situation where I have been sought to be killed beyond your own laws. Beyond your original agreement to the Gods.
"When you put it like it makes it sound like I - we - are doing something wrong... forced or not, you are destined to die just like everyone else." ... Then do it.
"What?" Kill me. Why don't you do it, now; it will be easy. Throw me through your mirror and let me drown.
"You completed your promise, my snow fell and lasted. I can do nothing to you now, even if I wanted to." Hm-hm, I knew you wouldn't... What is that supposed to mean?
"This experience has been nothing but grief. Being you comes with far too many nuisances, burdens. I thought an intelligent creature would be in the company of such. If this is an example of the forest... I wish to rule it, not be a part of it." Hm... there is a difference between wisdom and intelligence, Winter. Wisdom gives me the capacity to be a friend, to love and be loved; to understand but in a few choice words. Intelligence is what you have mastered, the knowledge of life in the most intimate detail to demand your purpose and that is all. You do not need to know, nor care for the individual life... it is irrelevent.



I get up and stare at any other who stirs and looks at me with a questioning cock of the head. I stand motionless.
"Irrelevant."
I stand for a long time, waiting until they look to each other for guidance on what to do with the... nothing. I trotted away when I could, to the statues. Everything seems more... real, somehow.
"I cannot walk among you and devoid myself of meaning, and I most certainly cannot adhere to the wishes of mortals. While I can be one of you physically, I cannot ever - nor do I wish to - command everything that comes with it. I will remain with how it used to be... how it should have stayed. Under my watchful eye, a creature will live, or it will die. It is of no concern of mine what happens in between." ... I am happy my friends have made you realize this, even if it was hurtful to watch and feel you push them away.
I feel Winter leave my body in the shadow of the statues.