Loch walked into the school lobby, heading for the storage closet just off the entrance. He opened the doors, seeing the pile of coats, hats and gloves. There were shovels but most of those were still kept downstairs.

  A couple people walked out of the cafeteria, a man and woman. She had her arm through his, leaning against him. They both stopped, startled, seeing Loch stepping out of the closet with an arm full of coats.

  “Lord Lochlan,” the man said. “What?”

  “It’s starting to snow,” Loch told the man, not bothering to correct him on the title. “Help me get these coats, gloves and hats out to the guards.”

  “Uhm…,” he said, glancing at the woman.

  “Of course,” she replied, disengaging from the man. She reached into the closet, grabbing some coats.

  With the two, the man a little reluctant, the three moved back outside. Loch stopped, looking at the snow already accumulating on the ground. About an eighth of an inch in a matter of minutes. This first snow was going to be a major storm. The woman handed the two door guards each a coat, hat and pair of gloves.

  “Head over to the wall,” Loch told the other two. “I’ll take the guards around the pastures and the fields.”

  “Yes sir,” she said.

  The man grunted.

  Loch felt bad, figuring he had ruined what the man had hoped would be a pleasant night.

  He moved through the fields, handing out the winter clothes to each guard he found. They had tested all the clothing already, making sure the guards could still fight while wearing the jackets and gloves. The one negative was how quickly the clothing could get ruined. They didn’t have much, and losing one was going to be costly. The harvesters and scavengers had gathered a lot of clothing, more than there were people in the Clan. They had even started grabbing any material they found that could be used to repair the jackets. The tailors had started working on furred line leather and hide clothing, along with insulated wool.

  By the time he’d handed out his first load of coats, there was a quarter inch of snow on the ground. Grabbing more from the closet he saw more people appearing in the lobby. Stepping back, Loch asked a couple to hand out the rest of the coats. There were still a few in the fields and more along the wall and shore out back. Some of the people coming into the lobby had their own coats and gear. They’d heard of the snow fall and wanted to go out and see it for themselves.

  Handing off the last of the coats from the closet, Loch followed the crowd out into the front yard. He stood on the top of the steps, looking up at the sky. It was a pure white-out. All he could see was the falling snow, blocking the night sky. The flakes were thick and heavy. It was going to be a wet snowfall.

  Moving down a couple steps, Loch held out his hands, feeling the snow touching his skin. It felt different from snow Pre-Connection. He lived in New Hampshire, Loch knew snow. It was just part of living in the northeast. But this snow was different. He let some collect in the palm of his hand.

  Concentrating on the snow, Loch thought he could sense a large amount of Spirit within the snow. That made sense. There was ambient Spirit in the air, why wouldn’t it be in the snow? He hadn’t felt Spirit in the rain, but that made sense as the rain fell too quickly, not having time to collect the ambient Spirit from the air. Snow was frozen rain, the air so cold that it slowed the fall of the rain and turned it into snow. Since it was the air freezing the rain, the air was transferring Spirit into the snow.

  They had feared that the winter was going to be brutal and Loch feared how bad it would be.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  ***

  Loch moved through the yard, laughing at the people frolicing. It had been a while since he’d seen the Clan members having fun like they were. Piper and her teenage friends were actually building snowmen. It had been a couple years since the last time she had wanted to make one.

  A couple of adults had snow forts under construction. There was a large pile of snowballs already stacking up.

  Loch smiled as he walked around, picking up some snow and smoothing it into a ball. He saw Darren Holmberg near the gate in the wall, talking with some of the guards. He had a shovel in hand, motioning with it as he talked. Loch held the snowball, pulling his arm back and let it fly. The snowball crossed the distance, slamming into Darren’s shoulder. Snow exploded, covering his head. He cursed, turning sharply and looking for who had thrown the snowball. Loch kept walking away.

  He made his way around the back of the building. The school’s back was pretty empty. He could see some candles burning in the barracks and bunkhouses. Loch was surprised to see a small group gathered around the forge. All the people that used it were there, pushing the snow out of the work area. There was a roof but the sides were all open, the snow blowing in and covering the tables and the forge itself. There was a lot of cursing from the men.

  Clyde Baxter was the blacksmith, a large man that had arrived with Liam Doherty and the horses. He’d been a farrier but had been able to get the Blacksmith Class. The large man was glaring at the forge, poking at the coals to try to get them lit again. Lloyd, the new Glassmith was there as well, the only one that didn’t seem to be cursing. He was leaning out from under the roof, watching the snow fall and gather in his long hair and beard. Jeff Johnson, the Crafting Councilor and Clan’s Tinker was standing at the edge with Patrick Verner.

  Jeff saw him approaching, motioning Loch to join them.

  “We made a big mistake,” Jeff said, waving at the open area. “With all the preparation, we never thought about the snow blowing into the forge.”

  Loch looked around, cursing silently. It was a big oversight. The forge was a large area, the roof held up by evenly spaced posts. The roof itself had gable ends with steep sides, designed so no snow would gather on the shingles. But the walls were all open. The wind blew the falling snow into the forge.

  “We can get some carpenters putting up walls in the morning,” Loch said.

  “Not the best idea,” Clyde muttered. “Too flammable.”

  “Will that be a problem with the weather?,” Jeff asked.

  Clyde shrugged.

  “Not sure but should be wet and cold enough to keep it from catching fire that quickly,” Clyde said. “I think it’ll work for this winter.”

  Loch sighed, glad that was easily solved.

  Hearing a strange scraping, he looked behind him, past the forge, seeing a couple of clan members pushing shovels with a pile of snow in front of them. They stopped when the pile got too much, throwing it to the side of the paths they were making. One was in front, the other following behind to widen the path, a third behind those two to pick up the bits they left behind.

  “You guys good for now?” Loch asked, looking over his shoulder at the gathering of crafters.

  There were some grunts. Loch shrugged and walked away, continuing through the snow down to the lake. He looked at the footprints his feet were leaving in the fresh snow. There was already an inch and more kept falling.

  Reaching the shore, he looked out across the dark lake, watching the snow land on the water and starting to gather. The fishermen had said the lake seemed to have plenty of fish and some even looked forward to ice fishing. Loch wondered what Unfay would do during the winter.

  Ripples spread across the water, coming closer to the shore. Loch shifted, watching it. The Dragon Turtle was typically friendly but who knew how he would react with the first snow. The ripples came closer, the large turtle head poking out of the dark water. Loch could just make out the massive head, but the yellow eyes shined bright.

  “Good evening,” Loch said. “Do you hibernate during the winter? Hope you won’t mind us fishing through the ice.”

  The Dragon Turtle just stared.

  “Okay, guess you won’t mind.”

  Loch used his foot to clear an area of snow, sitting down in front of the turtle. The two just watched each other for a while.