[Kallile]

High in the Tuun Mountain range--somewhere quite central where the temperature remained calm and moderate year round--a gathering was taking place. The location seemed to be ever shifting, for no mortal being had ever happened upon the small outdoor court room and it's throne. The room was rather not a room, but a clearing within a grove of giant beech trees whose branches all had grown centrally towards the center of their self-formed circle to create the illusion of a ceiling. A fire pit rested in the middle along with a fell felled logs that had been worn smooth from use.

The throne sat empty now--the wood ashen and crumbling from its eons of service. There was a rustling of leaves from outside the grove and hushed voices.

"Where the hell is he?"

"January!"

"Oh don't you patronize me, February. November is late, the language is warranted."

[Kallile]

February burst into the court room in a huff, bringing with him a flurry of chilled air. "The nerve of her!" He scoffed to himself as he floated over towards the barren throne. His demeanor shifted, though that was hard to tell from his featureless face. Iinstead it was the way his wings drooped in this form and the way the air around him seemed to warm once again as he approached the lone figure still inside.

"October? We need your brother, where is he?

The figure beside the throne shifted, touching its arm. The throne seemed to glow for a second where it was touched but it quickly faded.

[Kallile]

"October? Answer me this instant! It's been nearly a week an your weather still holds. We need your brother at the throne so that his month may truly begin."

"I am aware, February," the voice called back as a rather large beast stepped into the light in the middle of the court room. His deep voice boomed even though he spoke softly towards the much smaller Guardian. "November is not one to be late without cause. I trust in him to be here shortly."

February sniffed delicately and crossed his arms. October was technically still in charge with November's absence...but that didn't mean he had to like it.

"The rest of the assembly is getting anxious. He'd better make an entrance soon."

[Kallile]

"Would this be a bad time, then?"

Both figures turned away from the front entrance, looking behind the throne to where a large Kasuga pushed his way through the smaller saplings who were on a mission to grow up and make something akin to walls. The court room became rather illuminated at his presence--pulsing with new life as the true ruler came forth.

October smiled heartily and went to greet him.

"November, my brother! It is never a bad time. Did weather delay you?"

The newcomer shook his head slightly with a frown on his face. "Nothing so simple as that, I'm afraid."

February, arms still crossed, angled his head so one could plainly tell he was shifting his attention. "I am so pleased for the family reunion but please....November...let's get this month's proper Guardian on the throne at last so we can get rid of these warm days."

[Kallile]

The Kasuga nodded his head, striding forth to meet the throne at what might have been eye level. The glorified chair was certainly old enough it had taken on a personality of its own or, more accurately, had taken on the personality of those who sat on it.

"It has been a long year, my friend. Let's make this time even better than the last." November whispered to the throne as he clambered up into the seat.

As soon as his hooves touched the wood, the throne began to morph. It elongated and widened to allow for the massive Kasuga's girth and length. The once ashen wood darkened and hardened from the spot of November's original touch until a right apple wood frame replaced it entirely. Small symbols in blue began to etch themselves into the reborn wood to match that of the Kasuga's patterning and at the tops of both posts, blue fire burst forth.

The trees bordering the grove suddenly dropped all their leaves, leaving a clatter of voices to complain all at once.

"November's here!" finally called out the chipper voice of June. The general consensus was one of grumbles, though October deeply chuckled from his brother's side.

"Good to see you back, I'm sure everyone will file in shortly."

[Kallile]

True to form, everyone did begin to file in slowly. A few decided--for reasons that were their own, to remain out in the newly chilled autumn air. November watched those few stragglers creep in from his newly claimed throne, a cool mist now beginning to seep from the base.

"Welcome back, everyone. I see not all plan to join..." He raised his voice just a little higher here, to be heard outside,"but there are matters at hand that need seen to. Now then, October, will you enlighten me to your month's events?"

There was a whine from the small crowd.

"Ah, November, you see, there's a problem with..."

The congregation turned to look at the Mekkayena who spoke up. She instantly shrunk down, eyes darting from face to face. "Its just...I didn't..."

"I know, September," November finally said softly. "But the world's creatures have survived before on less. We will do what we can. Now, October..."

[Kallile]

October cleared his throat and stepped up to the throne. The ancient furniture still glowed softly in his presence--the hint of him still within November's new found reign. "Right, brother. My time went by quickly as usual--temperate days with moderate rainfall. Vegetation was kept as plentiful as possible but there is little long-term storage for the smaller creatures. We need another temperate month where growth might still exist."

September shrunk even further in embarrassment until her belly was on the worn dirt floor beside the great fire pit. November didn't spare her a glance, knowing the female would only doubt herself more.

"The heart of autumn does reside within me, but I will see if I can keep December's cold at bay a little longer. Hopefully the fauna takes proper advantage to store." He turned back towards the crowd, his floating eyes scanning each face. "Thank you, everyone, for your hard work to this point. While we wait for the others, does anyone have anything they would like to say?"

[Kallile]

Her peace was about to come to an end, and it was the bittersweet moments like these that seemed to drive January forward. December had been just as lazy and lackluster as November had been and the weather than been horrid. But she would see it righted...she always did. It was her curse and her blessing in this life.

January paced before her throne--a pile of snow-covered branches that stretched upwards like finger bones from the meeting room floor. She was alone, and that was how it had always been. She, the first born, the first chosen. It had been her loneliness that drove the winters of old and only with company did they subside. With each new charge she took under her paw the seasons of the year had grown and taken life of their own as each of the eleven new masters helped to shape it. But behind it all, January was the driving force rather she was spoken to by her peers as their 'mother' figure or not.

[Kallile]

The logs situated around the fire pit were empty and covered in frost--completely hostile looking to anyone wishing to rest. January looked to them with cold eyes, thinking to the days coming where those same logs would be warm and welcoming--ready for those who reigned here to gather and share their stories. January rarely told hers to the others, perhaps only to February when the pair shared the cold season of so called 'love' together in their own distant ways. The little spirit she had created out of the snow and ice that first year to temper her loneliness, he had been her fast friend in their shared coldness. She paced towards the fire pit, her massive paws barely leaving tracks in the snow leftover from her blizzard just a few days ago. She regarded the empty pit cooly, breathing out. As the hot steam escaped from her lips the barren pit sparked to life with white and blue flames that burned not hot, but cold as the snow that surrounded them.

February would be returning soon, it was time she said her story to the same audience of dead trees she held year after year.

[Kallile]

"It was abandoned once, this place that is now home. I was born here, somewhere on these mountains, to parents I have never met. They left me to freeze--a newborn in these snows wouldn't last long," she paused, closing her eyes and letting the memories wash over her. She'd told the stories thousands of times and she would tell them thousands more. "But I did not perish. Instead, I opened my eyes. I saw before me a world not yet made--a world of white and ice. No mountains, no trees. Only white. And from the moment I began to see the vast emptiness I began to dream as all children do--of things to play on, or challenges to conquer. And so the trees began growing and the mountains began pushing themselves up. And when I discovered a thing called thirst a river began running to quench me."

She paced around the cold fire, her eyes open now and narrowed to slits as if she were in a trance.

"For days I shaped the world to my desires, I made my life, I built my throne and declared myself Queen of the World....and yet I was lonely."

[Kallile]

She kept pacing in circles, eyes open but seeming blind as she walked the path she had walked so many times. Her voice grew louder and she spoke the practiced words, her footfalls becoming heavier and faster until she was almost running. "For days I built, for days I played, and yet nothing else came to be. So one day I built something new, with my own paws. I build a funny man...but I had never before seen a face. And so, when I shaped his head I left his face blank for I didn't know where to put extra pieces. I breathed life into him as I breath life into the cold fire burning now and he became a new month. He called himself February, and together we continued to shape the world we knew. He wasn't as strong as me, and though he tried his trees were only bushes and grasses, his mountains only hills, his quenching rivers only streams. But his winters were just as fierce as mine."

She was running now--circling the fire like a rabid cat as her muscles rippled underneath of her pelt. "But as we built, we found more. Ten more--some alone and some together in pairs and sets. No matter how they came they were all just babes, all knowing their own names but nothing else of life. As we all played and grew each came to control the throne I had build, and each took their turn running the world. My world of white faded into greens, pastels, fiery red, tempered browns...and back to white again."

[Kallile]

"And when December took the throne we were all together, all happy and full of love for the family we had created. The white of the world didn't seem so cold anymore in spite of the snow and the skies lit up with lights that seemed to be made from magic. The stars were born on that month--the first gift ever given. Everything was full of life and love....and then came my turn on the throne again."

She skidded to a fault, her nose dangerously close to the fire she had started which made frost start collecting on her whiskers until the hung down heavy and threatening to break. "The moment my paw touched the throne, the others vanished. All of them--it was the start of the second year of the world and yet we young children knew nothing of it. Alone again I raged and the mightiest blizzard the world has ever seen raged with me, nearly extinguishing all the life we had created together. For weeks it was so until one day...February returned. And then in time, one by one, all of us came back. But the emptiness in my heart was seeded too deeply, for year after year it happened again."

Finally she pulled away as the frost began biting at her nose--retreating back to the throne she had created long ago. She flopped down on it lazily, looking to the fire and the dead looking trees outside that were her only friends. "And so it is meant to be until the end of this world--I begin each new year alone. And in this wretched vigil I keep, each passing year my winters become colder as does my heart. But this burden I will bear to keep the others remembering that first year together, and that first miraculous gift of the stars above...instead of my lonely world of white that I was born into."

[Kallile]

At last the day had arrived, January waited by the entrance to the court room. Her throne of bone-white branches was looking withered and crumbling and growing worse with each passing day. Her lonely vigil was about to come to an end with the first creature she had ever creature. The Quiksylph in question appeared slowly out of the swirling snow, his featureless face void of anything that would indicate his happiness. Though his arms flew open when January came into view and the large cat ran to them for a brief embrace.

"So nice to see you again, old friend. How was your slumber?" January asked as she pulled away and came to stand beside the much taller and slimmer being. February huffed and gave a little shrug.

"Too short as always, but I do enjoy this time of year when there's so much less...drama about," he said with a slight sniff (a sound most interesting when one had no nose) before he angled his head towards January. "And what of your time?"

"There's little use talking about that, come now. Let's get the year progressing properly."

[Kallile]

As they entered the icy court room the frost seemed to obtain a glassier look--much more like the pure crystalline ice everyone enjoyed referencing with winter. It was warmed ice, melting ice, and it followed after February as if he cut through the room like a knife to peel back the clear layers. January took a seat on one of the logs on the fire pit circleand waited for him to take the throne.

February looked over the ancient looking, petrified trees that made up January's throne and chuckled. "You really do need to do something about that, it's so drab," he said before touching one of the branches. Ice spires began to burst from the ground, breaking through the dead tree limbs until there was a monumental throne of ice and frozen flowers in it's place. It was rather whimsical looking...even if slightly morbid for the frozen life of spring waiting within.

"Right then, new business? I see you treated the world to a tantrum again."

[Kallile]

January gave him a cool glance and rolled her eyes. "They've become accustomed to it, you should hear how all the little children beg for my snows." It was one very minute perk to being a guardian of the winter--the amounts of love and hate were at least equal, but she did hold the love of most children.

"Now come on, add your light to the fire to make this finalized. You have very little time to reign you know."

February made a sighing sound and walked over. Though he had no mouth to breathe new life into the fire he really didn't need it--lifting one icy hand he held it over the cold flames and let them lick at his fingers until a single droplet fell free from his body. The fires suddenly leaped upwards and roared, their once cold coloration now intermingled with an icy lavender shade as well. The flames still burned as cold as ice, but the court room was much more illuminated for the two ancient friends to properly see one another.

"Get on with it, I've heard your story for eons. Let's see if you've given it any more gusto this time around."

"My dear January you always make me forget just how much I love my month of peace and quiet," February chided with what one could assume was a smile pulling at the smooth features of his face.