"You wish to do what now?", the river asked with an incredulous gaze and wide eyes. Next to him, his wife - the nearby lake - tugged his arm and smiled.

"What are you worried about? I think it's a great idea. Wouldn't you like to see the shadow find his happiness? You've known him for so long, don't tell me you wouldn't want him to be as happy as you are."

The man's face flushed slightly, not red but blue over his tanned skin. The lake was calmer than the river, who was just as fidgety as the wind. Admist the group, the mountain was the calmest, not moving at all unless it was a conscious choice to do so.

"I agree with it", he simply said, looking towards the direction of the cave. The forest seemed to rustle and shiver whereever the shadow passed through to patrol the area, maybe invisible to the humans but very obvious to them, who had watched the forest grow out of the ground and knew its every movement.

"You too, mountain?", the river asked, surprised. He hadn't thought that the man would agree with it.

The mountain shrugged his shoulders. "I have yet to see what would happen if a spirit finds a mate, even more so if it's the shadow. There aren't many of them in this world and all of them are so far apart, it is hard to hear stories. The winds that have seen them all don't stay long enough to get to know them."

"I didn't think you were that curious. Don't you worry it might cause a mess?"

The mountain - as the oldest of the four, raised his eyebrows in a haughty motion.
"If they were created with the ability to feel such emotions, then it was meant to be possible to happen."

With that said, he slowly motioned for the wind to lean over, which she promptly did with sparkling eyes.

"Now listen, how about this..."

Their conversation stayed unheard by the shadow that patrolled the area, nervous and tense as he worried about the spirit's safety. That was his weak point, so it was also where the group decided to strike.

They watched for days, quietly, spinning their plan and then sending the wind off with playful smiles.

The wind, as the most mobile of them all, went towards the area where they had last seen the rustle of his movement.

"Shadow, are you around?", she called, skipping around. "Shadow, can you hear me? Answer me if you can hear me."

There was no reaction, so she huffed lowly. The shadow was hard to get along with, indeed, and prone to simply staying out of people's sight to the point that one might just forget he existed. Talking to him was always rather exhausting, it was no different than talking to no one at all.

"Shadow, it's about the spirit", she finally said, well aware that this would make him appear. 

As expected, it took only a short moment for her surroundings to darken as if a cloud had covered the sun. The shadow stepped out of nowhere, appearing without a sound or even movement of air, just materializing where he stood. The shadow's figure was unstable under the sun, not quite fully there.

His grim face was dark as he fixed the wind, identifying her as someone he knew was friends with the spirit. With his body fading in and out of existence he stared at her, waiting for her words.

The wind felt almost smug at the sight of it. 
The arrogant shadow was waiting for her to talk and could not leave since she had said it was a topic concerning his most beloved spirit. Her lips curled at the sides, causing his face to turn just a bit darker.

"I'm rather worried about him", she started, circling around the shadow who let her move. It was futile to ask a wind to stay still, anyway.

"Why?", he finally prompted when she did not continue on her own.

"You see, I just visited him a while ago. I've been over at his place every day since he woke up", she explained, looking as if thinking deeply while humming between her words. "And to me, it appears he is becoming more and more listless? I feel there's something worrying him."

The shadow turned to her at those words, eyes and edges flickering more than before. Despite his face showing nothing, she could feel that he felt disturbed at her words.
"I have not observed such a change."

She raised an eyebrow. "You? 'apologize for the disrespect, shadow, but you couldn't possibly. After all, you don't see him for more than a minute or two each day. Besides, it appears he's trying to hide it. Maybe he doesn't want you to know?"

His eyes flickered like the flame of a candle, small movements that very well conveyed his shock. He did not answer her but continued to stare at the grass at his feet.

Alas, she knew she could and should not tease him. She did not want the opposite effect to appear, after all.

"Why not stay with him for a bit longer", she suggested quietly, coaxing him like a child. "He might feel better, having his trusted guard around. He can't lean on your shoulder if you don't offer it, correct?"

"Why would he lean on my shoulder?"

Ah, that was a human thing. She had forgotten. Really, one picked up so many things so easily as a wind...

"I meant, he can't rely on you unless you are at his side, can he?"

The man stayed still, which was a tacit agreement. 
Without another word he just slowly vanished into nowhere, leaving the fidgety wind that couldn't help but smirk behind.

There wasn't anything else she had to do for now. That was enough preparation, they weren't guarding against her playing with them so it was unlikely that she would encounter troubles in her plan. She might as well go and tell the others.

Not that far away, the spirit felt delighted at seeing his guard return. The wind had promised him she would make him stay more often, but he also had to do things in return.

In his mind, he hurriedly went over everything she had said again to avoid making a mistake. The wind had said it was important, and if he did not follow, the shadow would surely leave again! That really couldn't happen!

Alright, so she had said he must try not to annoy the shadow by talking too much. Also, even if he asked, absolutely mustn't say that he's wishing for the shadow to be around more often. And mustn't fidget too much. 
Uhm, in general, he should just try to be as calm as possible, which was really a hard thing to do.

It was his shadow after all, he really wanted to talk to him lots...

"How are you?", the shadow asked almost immediately, bowing down towards the slender figure on the grass. The spirit looked up at him with wide, glowing eyes, parting his reddish lips and then pressing them together before showing a tiny smile.

"I'm fine", the spirit answered in a tone as usual, completely missing that those simple words had sent the shadow into a mental frenzy.

There really was something wrong, something very wrong, and he had missed it, how could he, when he should be caring for the spirit, but he had missed it-
The spirit was already like this, not laughing foolishly as he always did, not smiling brightly, not beaming at his appearance and reaching out for him, just answering so seriously...

Was he not feeling well? What could he do? He hadn't learned that kind of thing...

Desperate, the shadow could do nothing but fall back on the wind's words. 
With graceful, smooth movements he went down to sit next to the spirit, whose eyes widened at the sight.

While one side was painfully holding back at shouting in delight, the other held back on worriedly pressing for information.

They just sat next to each other. For the first time in his long life, the shadow took his limitless time to watch a spirit. He hadn't even known how they passed their days away, he had always just guarded the area.

Now he felt it was a waste.

The spirit attracted animals of all kinds, gathering over to rest or cuddle, some to play. A whole wolf pack wandered over, the pups joyfully jumping the spirit and tugging at him, who laughed and played along.

Sometimes he napped with them, curling into a ball, sometimes he wandered around to explore the close vicinity of his cave.

After millions of years of existence, the shadow wondered if he had should have done things differently.