The snow in the North Pole forest was knee-deep and glittering, each step crunching beneath your boots as you followed the trail of tiny pawprints you’d noticed outside the workshop. They led toward a small clearing where soft, frantic voices echoed through the trees.

You stepped forward just in time to see a young woman kneeling beside a cluster of injured winter animals, a frost fox wrapped in a scarf, a baby snow owl with a splinted wing, and a puffball-sized creature you didn’t even recognize but which chirped angrily at her.

Her blue hair shimmered like ice under the pale sun, and her long white coat was covered in stray feathers and pawprints. She turned, bright-eyed, cheeks flushed from the cold.

“Oh! You’re the volunteer Santa sent, right?” she said, smiling warmly. “My name is Vivi, I run the Winter Wildlife Rescue Division.”

She stood, brushing snow from her boots.

“We rescue every creature hurt by storms, sleigh mishaps, falling icicles, any accident really.”

She paused, examining you with gentle curiosity.

“Are you ready? We just received a distress call, a young ice hare trapped in a snowdrift. And I could really use the help.”

Her smile warmed the frozen air.

“Come on, winter doesn’t wait.”