“Floaty! FloatyBoat! We need your help!” 

“Hunh, what?” Floaty, who had been living true to his name and floating on his back and staring at the sky startled, splashing for a few seconds before realizing the Icy Region Deity swam in front of him.

“Oh, Haukea! Lovely to see you, do you see those clouds? Those one’s look like bunnies!” Floaty said with a grin. 

Haukea sighed, but took the time to look and nodded. “Yes, yes they do. Since you seem to have nothing else to do however, we need your help,” she replied, gesturing to the shore where King stood. 

“Sure, what’s up?” Floaty asked, tilting his head. 

“It’s the Solstice! And this year we are making sure we stay active. The winter months can make it hard to keep in shape, and well. I admit I have eaten too many cookies, and could use a good workout,” Haukea explained. 

“So….” Floaty trailed off, and Haukea nodded. 

“Winter Sports! There are so many good things you can do in the winter. Snowboarding, skijoring, hockey, all kinds of things! So I need you and King to go and help me let everyone know the plan,” Haukea grinned. 

“Awesome!” Floaty exclaimed, already making for the shore.

King didn’t look entirely pleased to be working alongside Floaty, but she was used to Haukea calling upon her after the last Solstice. 

“Did you catch all that, King?” Haukea asked as they came to the shore. 

“Yeah, I got it,” King replied, a bit grumpily. “Bring on the Solstice cheer round two, wahoo.”

Haukea smiled at King’s less than enthusiastic response. It was in stark contrast to Floaty’s nearly bouncing energy over the task. 

“Here is the plan. You will go to the Swamps, the Desert and the Mountains. I’ll take Icy, Windy and Plains,” King turned to Floaty and said in her no-nonsense way. “Feel free to stop into the other regions if you want.”

“Sounds good!” Floaty agreed with an enthusiastic nod. “I can’t wait to bring on the Solstice spirit!” 

“That makes one of us,” King muttered then tossed her mane. “Don’t take too long, we have a lot of ground to cover in preparation.” 

“Aye, aye captain!” Floaty said with a salute, before trotting off down a road he seemed to pick at random. King huffed an annoyed sigh and followed on behind, muttering under her breath a bit. 

As they headed off, Haukea smiled with anticipation. It was going to be a great Solstice! But maybe she should call upon Jagmeet… just in case there were any injuries. She didn’t want Anevay’s level of chaos to happen after all. 

All in all, Haukea hoped for a wonderful (and injury free!) Solstice filled with winter fun! But first… maybe a few more cookies.