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The winter-spirits that Ya-Shuur called iceflies were taking a lot of interest in Ya-Shuur's herder-wolves this cold season. Swarms of the little ice insects were swarming them. This caused some of the herder-wolves to bark and roar. Their barks were extremely loud and were usually enough to scare off predators. But the iceflies did not seem to register them. Now and again a herder-wolf would whips its tail around and accidentally hit a few of them or snap its jaws swiftly and destroy others because they were very aggressive towards anything foreign and unfamiliar and this was the first time they had seen iceflies. There were also a lot around the big she-wolf and around Ya-Shuur. They flew around his horns and some of them sat on it and started making little sculptures on them. Ya-Shuur looked at them. They were made of snow and ice and had wings of ice crystals with a span of one foot and they flew very easily. They looked around from two spindly protrusions on their heads and walked around on small legs that looked a bit like icicles. Some of them had two wings and some had four and some had more but they were always and even number. It was the same with their legs and with their eyes as well. They had made a lot of little sculptures around the landscape of flowers and grass and sometimes little creatures.

In the trees there were some crows with eyes of glowing coal that watched Ya-Shuur and his herd. They followed them everywhere. They had followed them down to the south when they went into the Forestlands and then again when they visited the Mud Spires. And they had kept following them when they went again to the Lakelands. And they had come with them again here to the Snow-Lowlands. Ya-Shuur had grown used to them but found them very strange as they didn't really have any reason to be following them. They did not need him for protection and they did not eat from him. They just followed him and his herd everywhere. It didn't help that there was something odd about their shape. They seemed almost like shadows and not real.

His herder-wolves were now all grown up. They were huge creatures and Ya-Shuur was easily able to ride one. From snout to tail-tip they were 8.8 metres long and 2 metres tall on average. Some were entirely white and some were entirely black and some where mottled. Their skin was very hard and difficult to cut and their bones were strong. None of them had ever broken a bone even though some of them had leapt from huge heights. But maybe that was also because they could fly and that had something to do with it. They were very good trackers and had tracked lost goats across the island. They were also very fast both when running and when flying though they were much faster when flying. Their bite and teeth were very strong like their sire's and they could open their jaws far wider than was normal for a wolf. They were digitigrade and their claws were also thick like their sire's. Unlike wolves their huge claws were protractible and their paws were more versatile. Most importantly though they were very obedient to Ya-Shuur and very intelligent. So with good training they had become brilliant herding animals though Ya-Shuur was sure that they would excel in other things if they were reared to do them instead. On the other side to their absolute loyalty was their suspicion and hostility to anything foreign. Anything other than Ya-Shuur, the goats, and the fellow wolves immediately received hostile attention from the herder-wolves. Because Ya-Shuur had trained them not to kill but scare off potential predators they knew not to attack immediately. But their natural suspicion set in if a stranger did not go away after being warned in which case they became lethal. They were strong on their own but were even more effective together because they were natural pack animals because of their wolf ancestry. Like wolves they were monogamous unless their partner died in which case they got another partner.

Ya-Shuur was now able to leave the herd completely unwatched for weeks and know that his herder-wolves would be able to take care of them. 

[hider=Summary]Ya-Shuur sees some winter-spirits which he calls iceflies. He also sees some shadow crows. The herder-wolves are now grown up and are good herders and their abilities are described in more detail.[/hider]