"But what is this Essence in the end? The Essence is what makes you... you.

It's a container for all your experiences, those experiences that makes us different from one another, even if we look the same.

These experiences will be accumulated into Essence, the Essence will make the Elementals grow and mutate, diversify them. At the moment of death the various Elemental Spirits will slowly leave the body, ready to become something else again. The Essence instead will join Ego, where anyone with the know how could access the experiences within."

-Bee May, the faery of knowledge

"What in essence is Essence."

Sidon and Fianna woke up while it was still dark like every single day.

"Big guy, I know the pelts are soft but you need to check on Little Wolf."

Said Fianna.

Sidon grunted and tried to get closer to her.

"Now."

Ordered Fianna.

"Son, come here."

Said Sidon to the air, then he waited for a little.

"He's not in the house."

Sidon concluded and tried to get closer to his wife again.

"Go check like a normal person."

Said Fianna with a smile.

Sidon grunted but, got up from their confy pelts, put a pair of pants on and left their room. Sidon checked his son sleeping room, it was a mess like always, because Little Wolf did not need to sleep unless really exhausted his pelts were piled on a corner of the room, on a side of the room there are some sticks made of hardwood, as Sidon knew that his son could damage the hardwood with his nails, he asked him to make some extra staffs for the hunters rectuit to use as practice spears and if he had time he could make some pointy spears or work the hardwood so it would be easier to the caretakers craftmen to make bows out of it.

Sidon taught his son how to work the hardwood while being human, sure his nails were shorter and it was harder but, the boring repetitive work would help him focus when his istincts would make him feel lost and, they would save some steel utensil if Little Wolf helped.

Little Wolf was not in the room, that was good. Then, Sidon checked the cold room, some times when Little Wolf would get tired but not yet sleepy or did not fall unconcious in the first place, he could just eat to get his energy back. Unlike a normal person, Little Wolf would get energetic istantly after eating a meal. When Little Wolf was two snows old, he disappeared from his room and ate the entire food supply the family had in the cold room, just because no one was awake and he was bored. Little Wolf does not need to eat but, he likes to eat anyways because he does not like feeling sapped after doing something.

Little Wolf was not in the cold room, that was good. All the food was still present in the cold room, that was good too. Sidon left the house and circled around it, no Little Wolf around, that was good. Finally, he checked the last spot, the roof, Little Wolf was not up on the roof either, that was good. Sidon jumped down from the roof, ran inside the house, ran into the room he shared with his wife, dropped his pants, joined her under the pelts and started kissing her face, her neck.

"Little Wof?"

Asked Fianna.

"Not around."

Said Sidon.

Fianna started kissing back her husband, with a child that never slept it was hard to find some intimacy, so they had to wake up early and hope their son would be somewhere else playing around.

The sun was rising in the sky, the village was waking up, to spend another day in isolation. It was not really much different for many of the villagers they just had to work and survive, they were good at it. Mary rushed from the caretakers longhouse to the First Hunter's house.

"Is Little Wolf here?"

She asked.

Fianna and Sidon came out from their abode a little sweaty and with big smiles adorning their faces.

"No he is not, what did he do this night?"

Asked Fianna, still smiling from ear to ear.

"Nothing that I can think of, I can't find Annabelle, she was not sleeping with me and she was not with old Stria, it's too early for her to be around, so I thought that Little Wolf talked her into doing something with him."

Explained Mary.

"I'll ask around."

Said Sidon and with a nod of his head he was off.

Fianna and Mary walked togheter to the caretakers longhouse, even if both their child were missing, it was safe inside the village and they had other children to watch. They still asked all the villagers they met to spread the news and send their son and daughter back to their families.

Sidon walked around the village, he checked the hunters and their training, asking any person he met on the way if they saw his son or Annabelle. Finding nothing he got up the walls, he circled the entire wall, asking the night guards if they saw something outside the village, or if they saw or heard of the two teenagers, no one he talked to saw them. This was becoming strange even for Little Wolf's shenadigans so, Sidon walked to the scouts longhouse, Michaelle was already with the caretakers so Brielle would be free to help him.

"Hey Bri, I have a work for you."

Said the Frist Hunter.

"Hey Sidon, sure tell me, what can I help you with?"

Said Brielle.

"My son disappeared, no one I talked with saw him, Annabelle disappeared too, I think they are togheter somewhere."

Said Sidon.

"They finally got to that age, they might be somewhere hidden being sweet with each others."

Shrugged Brielle.

"Yeah, Annabelle has become a nice young girl but, Little Wolf is still a child. Sniff them out for me, will you?"

Said Sidon.

In the exact moment those words left the First Hunter's mouth, howls started coming en masse from the forest around the village, something was happening and it was big.

"Please, find them fast. I have a bad feeling about this."

Said the worried father.