“What’s going on?” Lolo asked the fifth or sixth maid she’d seen hustling past The Great Hall in a matter of just a few minutes on her way to dinner.

“Shh!” The maid hushed her and pulled her over. “Matron is setting up a surprise party for tonight, and we don’t want a certain someone to know.”

“Who? Who is this party for?”

“The Bear Tribe leader of course!” she whispered.

“Why? Is it his birthday or something?”

“I’m surprised you didn’t know! Yes, today is Tribe Leader Tragen’s birthday.”

“Where is the party being held? Where’s Matron?”

“The west courtyard.”

“Where the crowning ceremony was held?”

The maid had to think about it for a minute, but eventually she nodded.

“Thank you!” Lolo said, excusing the maid.

She ran to the pavilion, looking for Standig. He was already eating with Fortus and Jadu. Ulana was probably still cleaning up after training.

“Standig Tragen!” Lolo said, walking up to the table. “You’re in so much trouble.”

“What? Why? What did I do?”

“Do you know what today is?”

“No….” Standig said cautiously.

“Today is September twenty-fourth.”

“Ok?”

Lolo raised her eyebrows and gave him a minute to let the date register.

“Oh.” Standig’s chin dropped to his chest. “I completely forgot.”

“And you didn’t bother to tell me so I could help you remember,” Lolo scolded, putting her hands on her hips.

“What’s significant about the twenty-fourth?” Fortus asked.

Standig looked up to confess. “It’s Philige’s birthday-- his golden birthday.”

“Did you know about the surprise party?” Lolo asked.

“Matron told me last week. I meant to tell you all, but I forgot after we made some progress with your meditating,” Standig said sheepishly.

Lolo rolled her eyes. “What time is the party at?”

“We’re supposed to be there by 7:30.”

“That gives us, what? Just over an hour?” Lolo sighed. “I’ll see you all tonight.”

Running back home to actually bother getting dressed up, Lolo ran into Ulana and gave her the news.

“Nice of Standig to pass the message along,” Ulana laughed. “I’m going to get some dinner. I’ll see you there?”

Lolo nodded and continued up the hill. She changed quickly and pondered while she fixed her hair and make-up. It was a Wolf Tribe tradition to celebrate birthdays with gifts, but with less than an hour to come up with something, Lolo wasn’t sure what she would be able to find that Philige would actually use. He spent so much time dealing with tribe leader things in meetings and in his study, and then what time he had left, he spent training with the military so he could lead his tribe in battle too.

She had some turkey feathers that she could make some quills out of. That was something at least. Pulling out her dagger, Lolo got to work cutting nibs into the feather tips while she racked her head for better ideas. A dozen quills in, inspiration struck, and Lolo took off at a run for New Pahaad after tying the quills together with one of her green hair ribbons.

“Shanti! Shanti!”

“Lolo? Is everything ok?”

“Yeah. I’m fine. We’re all fine. I just wondered if you could help me with something.”

“Does it have anything to do with all those quills?”

“Actually, sort of. It’s my back-up plan. Today is Philige’s birthday, and Standig didn’t bother to tell me about it.”

“Of course not,” Shanti laughed. “I was actually just about to head to the Leader’s Lodge for the party.”

“In the Wolf Tribe, we like to give gifts to people on their birthday. I was hoping you might have something I could use.”

“What do you need?”

“Philige likes gardening.”

“I didn’t know that!”

“I’d hazard to guess that most people don’t,” Lolo laughed. “I was wondering if you had any extra gardening tools that I could replace for you.”

“Actually, I have some old tools that just need to be cleaned up and the handles replaced. They’ve been sitting in the shed for a while, and I haven’t gotten to them because I have other tools and it’s low priority.”

“Can I take a look?”

“Sure,” Shanti said and led her to the shed.

“Is this a pruning hook?!” Lolo caught sight of the C-shaped blade immediately.

“Yeah! It just needs a new handle and a quick polish. And it could probably stand to be sharpened. If that’s the tool you want, you could just have it. We are super far off from having a need for it as all of our trees are still saplings.”

“Really?! That would be amazing. I hate to be short with you, Shanti, but, if I’m going to get this ready for tonight-”

“Go!” Shanti laughed and shoved her friend out the door.

Lolo ran back to her room to clean and sharpen the blade. It didn't take long, but she probably only had ten minutes left until the party. Maybe she could scavenge the long pole she needed along the way, and, worst case, she could just find one tomorrow. Tying a second ribbon around the pruning hook, Lolo ran toward the west courtyard with both gifts stuffed in a bag at her waist.

The courtyard was full of people, soldiers, servants, members of the council, guests, the whole of the Leader’s Lodge! Nearly a dozen maids were sweeping one last time before Philige was brought to the party. The brooms! They had long handles.

Huo Lohse searched the crowd for Matron and found her fussing over some last minute details.

“Matron, can I have a minute?”

“Huo Lohse Lang! You’d be perfect!”

“Sorry?”

“Would you go collect the Bear Leader for his party? Give him some phoney excuse to come with you. The people he is with are in on the surprise.”

“Sure! But before I do, Matron, may I have one of those brooms?”

“Whatever for?”

“I need the handle for a gift for Philige.”

Matron laughed. “Certainly!”

Lolo worked to take the head off of the handle of the broom and then fix the pruning hook to it instead. “Perfect! Matron, can I leave this along with my bag here.”

“I’ll just put it off to the side for you.”

“Thanks!” Lolo said and took off for The Great Hall while Matron chuckled to herself.

“Philige!” Lolo burst into The Great Hall without thinking. He was in a meeting with three of the council elders. “Oh! Uh, sorry,” she blushed.

Philige just laughed. “It’s alright, Lolo. What can I do for you?”

“Er.... Can I talk to you... in private?”

“We can be done for the night, Bear Leader,” one of the elders smiled, and all three of them collected their scrolls and left.

“Sorry,” Lolo bowed as the elders passed her.

“What’s up, Lolo?”

“Could we take a walk while we chat? It helps me think.”

“Alright,” he grinned. “I could stand to stretch my legs.”

Lolo led him outside and meandered casually westward.

“What did you want to talk about?”

“Meditation,” she answered automatically and then immediately kicked herself for it.

“Meditation?”

“Yeah. A huge part of our primordial training is just a bunch of meditating.”

“Ok?”

“Well, I suck at it.”

Philige stifled a chuckle. “I’m sorry, Lolo. I didn’t mean to laugh.”

“No, no! It’s fine. I’ll own it. I really am the worst meditator ever.”

“How can I help?”

“Well, the reason that we have to meditate so much is because it helps us gain spiritual energy, but I was wondering, is meditating the only way to do that?”

“Hm,” Philige thought. “I’m not sure.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I haven’t studied spiritual energy in great detail, but I would imagine that meditating is only one of many ways to develop your spirituality.”

Lolo was intrigued. “Do you have any ideas?”

“Well, we know that nature has many spiritual properties. I’d imagine that spending time studying it would have some effect. For you as a wolf, perhaps studying the night sky would be especially meaningful.”

“It’s interesting that you say that. I recently realized that my most meaningful spiritual experiences all happened at night. Like when I howled for you.”

“I’ve wondered what that must have been like for you,” Philige admitted.

“While it was happening, I felt calm and powerful. Afterwards, I was a little embarrassed, but that’s a separate issue.”

He laughed. “Well, apart from struggling with meditating, how is training going?”

“It’s going well, I think. Jadu’s been studying his book, and Fortus has been working us hard. As you know, King Ukhaan sent our armor recently, so we’ve started training in it a couple of times a week. It’s super heavy. Especially Standig’s armor, but he’s also the biggest person by a significant margin. It gives us a really hard workout though, and we’ll appreciate being used to fighting in it when we have to go into battle someday.”

“I haven’t seen your armor, Lolo. Durfein made it, right?”

“He did! We’ll have to make it a point to show it to you sometime,” Lolo smiled. “Durfein was really talented.” Her smile drooped.

“I’m sorry, Lolo.”

“For what?”

“I know that you and Durfein were close friends.”

Lolo shook her head to dislodge the growing melancholy there and find her smile again. “So, how have you been Philige. I feel like I’ve barely seen you since that first week in July.”

“Just busy. Between the council and my military training, that’s kind of my life right now.”

“Do you ever go to your apple orchard anymore?”

Philige smiled widely. “You remember.”

“Of course I remember!”

“Well, to answer your question, yes. I like to spend my evenings clearing my head there.”

Lolo’s grin seemed to be hiding something.

“What?”

She shook her head. “Nothing!”

“What’s with that look?”

“What look?” Lolo feigned innocence.

“That look.”

They rounded a corner and the courtyard erupted into cheers and shouts of “happy birthday!” Philige’s shock was obvious.

“Happy birthday, Philige,” Lolo grinned and quickly gave him a hug so she could get out of the way of the incoming wave of well-wishers. Philige’s eyes followed her retreat, communicating his surprise and appreciation. On the decks above the main courtyard, a band of musicians struck up some lively dance music, and someone tapped Lolo on the shoulder.

“May I have this dance?” Fortus asked with a theatrical bow.

She took his hand and laughed. “It’s been a while.”

Fortus led Lolo to a back corner of the courtyard where they were practically alone. However, with Fortus as her dance partner, they weren’t alone for long. The pair quickly became a spectacle as a large crowd gathered to watch them. The music was fast paced and upbeat, so Fortus led Lolo quickly from dance move to dance move, twirling her around and catching her in his arms in between. By the time the song ended, Lolo was laughing from the fun and her cheeks were flushed. Fortus was grinning broadly as he pulled her into a last dramatic dip, and the crowd around them applauded. A little surprised to have an audience, Lolo smiled bashfully and excused herself to collect her gifts for Philige from Matron.

Huo Lohse found Philige getting some food. He hadn’t had dinner yet. “Philige,” Lolo tapped him on the shoulder from behind, “I have something for you.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t know if you have a similar tradition in the Bear Tribe or not, but in the Wolf Tribe, we like to give people gifts on their birthday.” She pulled the pruning hook and quills out from behind her back. “Happy birthday! This is for pruning your orchard,” she said, handing him the hook, “and these are for all your council duties.” She handed him the stack of turkey feather quills.

Philige looked the gifts over. “I don’t know what to say,” he smiled.

Lolo grinned back. “Here, I’ll go set them off to the side for now. You should eat,” she said, collecting the gifts from him again.

“Lolo,” Philige snagged her for a proper hug, “thank you.”

“You’re welcome!” she said, hugging him back.

Standig found Lolo as she returned from putting the gifts away. “Care to dance?”

“I didn’t know that you could dance, Standig!”

“We learned how to during the Lion Tribe exchange,” Standig reminded her.

“Fair point. Yes, I’d love to dance.” She took his hand, and they found an unoccupied space near the musicians.

Dancing with Standig was awkward when compared to dancing with Fortus. For one, Fortus was an excellent dancer where Standig was more of a beginner. For two, there was nearly three feet of height difference between them. Lolo kind of felt the way she did as a little girl dancing with her dad.

“So,” Standig grinned, “birthday gifts are a tradition in the Wolf Tribe.”

She nodded.

“How come you’ve never given me a birthday gift?” he teased.

“Because we’ve never been together for your birthday,” Lolo rolled her eyes.

“My birthday is coming up in just a couple of months,” he reminded her.

“November fifteenth, right?”

He nodded.

“Is there anything in particular that you want for your birthday?”

“Surprise me.”

“If you say so,” she grinned.

“Hey, Lolo, do you trust me?”

“Yes…?” Lolo responded cautiously.

“You said that you wish you could fly.”

Lolo narrowed her eyes at him. “Your point?”

Something about the way Standig smiled at her made Lolo nervous. “This is payback for tricking me into riding a horse.”

Before Lolo could react, Standig had her by the waist up over his head in a uniquely dramatic lift over ten feet in the air. It was all Lolo could do to keep herself from screaming. Standig spun her around a few times as she clung desperately to his arms before setting her back down again.

Lolo, now shaking from the adrenaline, dropped to her knees to steady herself while Standig laughed. Finally, after a minute or two, Standig decided that he’d better check on her.

“'You ok?” he knelt down to ask, still grinning.

“You… JERK!” Lolo pounced, and Standig allowed himself to be knocked over. Lolo playfully punched at his shoulder and ribs, causing him to laugh all the harder for it.