As the seasons change

~1

My paws sink into the soft

white powder snow with almost no noise. All around me was the sound of the wind

dancing though the lifeless branches and the few small animals that wake up

early in their winter sleep. It was the first day of that the snow had a wetness

to it and the rivers started to move for the first time this year. It still had

a long way to go but it was the first sign of spring. I knew soon the spring

rabbit would come and I would be pushed in my human skin. I was part of the

four main spirits, the winter cat and took the form of a bobcat. We were

responsible for the seasons of North America. The other spirits were the spring

rabbit, summer deer and the autumn fox. I was happy when I was choose to be one

of the spirits but as time gone by, the others would tell me stories about

children playing and amazing thing they saw. I couldn't wait to see them. When

my turn came, I didn't see this. People retreated to their warm homes, they

didn't like my cold. Every now and again you would see people play in the snow

I bring but only for an hour or two but then go inside. I didn't know what I

wanted but I wanted more than this.

As I walked left a trail

of frost behind me, the slightly wet snow freezing. I was the white bobcat, now

a legend, the myth being if someone locked eyes with the bobcat and showed

disrespect, the bobcat work turn them to ice. Even though it was true I control

the winter even in human form, I couldn't freeze them. I heard the snap of a

twit and I turn gracefully. I saw it was Luke, aka the spring rabbit. He was

small with a lazy air about him, but he was a very fast runner. He had mousey

brown hair and dull black eyes. It was hard to tell where the pupil started and

the airs ended.

"Hey, Oakley, how's the winter been" he said disinterested. I closed my eyes

slowly and nodded. "Time to get back in your own skin" he said dropping a

backpack full of clothing. He pulled out a shiny electric blue gem on a silver

chain, the same as my eyes, and carefully backs it round my neck, my ears twitched

when he put it on. I felt no pain as my bones broke and shifted inside me,

changing their length and thickness, until I was a naked, 16 year old looking

boy with white hair and electric blue eyes.

"Where are we" I asked my thick German accented coming though a little horse.

"Your really close to the new house unlike last time, had me walking around for

days" he said starting to strip as I put on clothes. I didn't feel the cold but

Luke did, he started shivering.

"You sure made this one a cold one, didn't you" he said, he pointed me to the

house and I took almost see it thought the trees. When he had finished

stripping, everything except a necklace just like mine but his was a leafy like

his eyes.

"Good luck with spring, don't wipe away my work too quickly or the rivers won't

hold" I said.

"Ok mom" he said jokingly, a lazy smile touching his lips. "Good bye".

"Auf wiedersehen" [good bye] I said forgetting to speak English but Luke was

used to it. He took out his necklace and handed to me. He shifted into a brown

rabbit with black eyes. He ran off only turning back once to see me scooped up

his clothes and shove them into the backpack, before running fast and disappear

from sight. The wind shifted its course and my heightened senses picked up a foreign

smell. It wasn't human but it was familiar, I knew I had smelt it before but

where.

The new house was not as

big as our lasted one. It was just big enough to comfortably live with four

people, but there would only never be three at one time. It was sad that we

could never all get together and have diner. When I use Luke's key to get in

the door I only had time to shut the door before being pounced on. Shaun was

the autumn fox, a tall, strong, football player with fox red hair and piecing

green eyes. He was normal happy, friendly and almost too hyper, the complete

opposite of my depressed, cold-hearted nature.

"OAKLEY, YOU'RE BACK" he shouted putting me in a bear hug.

 "Du bist ein voIlidiot, roter Kopf" [you

are an complete idiot, red head] I said and put an elbow in his stomach and he

let go.

"Still as frostily as never had" he said coughing, "And it's good to have you

back" he whined like a 5 year old.

"Stop fighting, Shaun, he just got back" said Taylor, the oldest looking and

the summer dear. He had thick dark brown hair, tanned skin and soft brown eyes.

He always made it feel like summer when he was in a room. Taylor looked 20

years but he was way over 500 years like me, Luke and Shaun.

"Hey bro" I said, he wasn't me brother but we were in the same care home, and

he looked out for me. "What's the new school like, roter Kopf?" I asked Taylor.

"They have a great football team with a lot of strong players and this time

it's a werewolf school" he said and it dawned on me.

"So that's what I smelt in the woods" I half asked, "Do they know about us" I

asked.

"Not that I know us, But one of the pupils at school saw you and they went

around telling everyone they saw the white bobcat, do you remember seeing

anyone around Christmas" Shaun asked.

"Nien, I don't remember much when I'm a cat unlike you, it's all instinct to

me" [Nien means no in German].

"Oh well, I filled out your paper work and you are now my cousin from Germany,

Oakley Ross and I'm Shaun Ross" he smiled proudly.

"Thanks but I'm going to stick with, roter Kopf" I said walking upstairs to my

room, pointed out be Taylor.