In the Emerahl Wood a chilly wind blows through the trees.

The sky is grey, a stark difference to the previously blue sky.

It's almost noon and yet the sun barely peeps through the clouds.

A fiery red figure can be seen dashing through the woods, unaffected by the cold.

It's a fox.

The fox dashes through the forest as fast as it can, occasionally stumbling, sliding and getting whipped by the undergrowth, but constantly pushing itself faster. It suddenly comes to a stop and slides low, fires on its body burn so low and dim it looks as though they might go out at any moment.

It begins to walk foward silently, its every movement carefully chosen to avoid the bramble and forest debris on the earth.

It nears a large bush and carefully peers around it.

In front of it, a little to the right, is an emerald green fox preparing to pounce. Its green flames burn dimly, sticking close to its body, but still a little warmth spreads into the air.

It is only then the red fox looks past the green one and notices the subject of its focus; a brown rabbit with a big red mark on its back.

The rabbit is facing away from the green fox. The fox stares at its back, leaving no chance to see the giant teeth and protruding jaw this rabbit has.

The red fox takes a step forward, relaxed, and red flames flare as it suddenly shoots forward like a bullet.

The green fox jumps back bewildered, green flames flaring in defence ready to act.

That was until it noticed who was standing before it.

"How?" The green fox question, bewildered.

"Hrmph?" The red fox questioned back, voice muffled by the rabbit in its mouth. 

The green fox laughs at the sight of the red fox now covered in dirt, flames spiriting round its body, standing with the rabbit in its mouth.

It spits the charred rabbit out of its mouth, "how what?" It asks, now comprehensible.

After controlling its laughter the green fox wonders, "How did you get the rabbit before me? How come you're so fast and also how come I didn't feel your fire until you launched forward?" She pauses and adds, "Cú," sweetly.

"Well I try to be as fast I can, always." The red fox ponders, staring up at the grey sky, "I guess I'm just fast," he says smugly and then adds, "Emer."

"Well, Cú, how come I couldn't sense your flame? I had no problem finding it miles away the other day," she cocks her head sideways.

"Well, Emer, I wasn't trying to keep my flame hidden that time, was I?" He cocked his head sideways, mimicking Emer.

Emer's green flames flared and withdrew repeatedly, "Hide your flames? How does that work."

"Uhh, that's not important right now," Cú walked towards Emer, "how come you were hunting a fanged rabbit? Their teeth can easily harm us. They can chomp right through a branch as thick as our body."

Emer snorted, "Thank you, mother dearest, for the warning. Had I not hunted fanged rabbits before I might be scared right now."

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"Oh," Cú stood sheepishly.

"You were worried I'd get hurt though?" The green fox giggled and walked towards the rabbit.

"No. No, I was hungry." He nodded and thought about the faint mark on his side from his first encounter with a fanged rabbit and shivered.

"Cú, you know it's okay to care for your friends." Emer frowned.

"Yeah yeah, Esna tells me enough about friends and caring." Cú wandered, not facing Emer.

She flicks her tail over the rabbit, bathing it in a soft flame. Almost immediately the smell of roasting meat fills the air.

"How come you're here anyway? I thought we were all meeting at the pond after noon." Emer questioned.

A frigid breeze blew through the clearing, the foxes covered in flames were entirely unphased.

Small critters scampered to hide from the cold winds.

"Snow will come today, I can feel it." Cú glanced at Emer standing over the meat, "This will be Esna's last day out of her nest until the snows end, most likely." Cú looked down.

"Oh? I still don't really understand why you came to find me." Emer looked confused and a bit sad.

"I want to make a firelink with you, to keep Esna warm during the winter, and when she leaves her nest again we'll know!" Cú said animatedly.

Emer cocked her head, interested.

"Okay, I like the sound of this. Wait, have you made a link before? How did you hear of firelinks." Emer fired off question after question without thinking, then glanced up at Cú's pained face and her heart tumbled.

"Ah, well none of that matters anyway, let's start now."

Cú nodded, still visibly upset. 

He didn't understand why the words stung, but they did. 

"Well, I've never made a firelink before, I never had someone to make one with, but it doesn't seem hard." He said quietly while walking toward Emer and the roasting rabbit.

"Maybe this is a silly idea, what do you think Esna would think?"

Emer looked up,

"I think this is a wonderful idea Cú," she perked her ears up and flames grew along her,

"where's your fire, where's your spirit, where's your focus! You need a lot of each to firelink. At least that's what my paren- I mean that's what the old old foxes tell me." Emer walked slowly, each step flaring green fire out in all directions as it grew along her body.

Cú nodded, 

"You're right! Fire and spirit and focus, I can't wait to see Esna's face when I give her my present."

He walks forward; the once gloomy fires flaring brightly, growing with each step.

"Now follow my lead." Emer smirks.

For a time in a small clearing in Emerahl Wood blasts of green and golden red flame can be seen. Heat radiates from the area alongside shouts of "You're doing it all wrong! Now we have to start all over."

"You're a bad teacher, ugh!" 

And occasionally laughter.

From the north great blasts of icy winds roll through the forest, bringing with it the firsts of the snows.

The snowclouds looms near the core of the Wood, already blanketing almost all of the north side of the forest in snow.

Back in the clearing two foxes lay slumped on the ground, a devoured rabbit lies off to the side and between them lies a circular flame.

The flame pulses with golden-red and emerald green flames. Sometimes intertwined, sometimes pulsing erratically, sometimes alternating entirely from colour to colour and sometimes creating beautiful blends of the two.

Emer raises her head and eyes the firelink,

"We finally finished it, I can't believe you have such poor control over your fire Cú."

Cú lays staring at the firelink,

"It's so cool. This was worth the hard work and my control over my fire is fine." He pouts, flaring flames.

"Hard work? This is how they teach infants in the clan to control their flames better, you really do need to work on it." Emer chides and then turns and stares at the firelink commenting,

"It's so beauitful,"

as snowflakes begin to drift down around them, melting long before they can hit the foxes. 

The snowflakes shimmer with golden-red and emerald green light as they flutter through the air.