Prologue

2603 Words
"Gather around, little wolves. It's time for a story. Join around the campfire and hear the tale of how the pack began.' The old wolves called for the little ones to tell them a story. A story they would hear for years to come and one day pass down to their young so long as the pack would remain. 'There was a time when only werewolves and humans roamed the earth. The old gods we worship saw the potential for their greatest creations among the new world and placed a tribe of men on the barren world. Their creators wanted to see what kind of life they could make. The tribe did well at first. With the influence of the gods, they established a language, laws, and structures for living. They set sacrifices and days to honor each god and set a single day of prayer in which they worshiped the god of gods, Logan. Above all, they created a hierarchy that could keep order within the small mass of people. All was going well and the small tribe began to grow rapidly, expanding from a mere twenty to almost a hundred tribe members in three years. They taught themselves how to farm and raise animals for food and the gods rewarded them with wild animals they could use as a food source so the domesticated animals would not run extinct, but the tribe got sloppy after their gifts. They began to forget to sacrifice and to pray to those who gave them life and became self-involved with the world they lived in.    Most of the gods and goddesses were forgiving when a sacrifice was forgotten. They knew tribe was but a test and they were meant to make mistakes. Flaws were bound to be made. The tribe would beg forgiveness and they often gave it. Sometimes punishment was warranted but they would take it with little issue and life would continue on, but one goddess was spiteful and filled with hate for the tribe. She was waiting for them to slip so she could punish them to the fullest intent. It had been a mistake when the tribe had forgotten to make the sacrifice to her the night she allowed her sister to raise the moon in its fullest form. In her eyes, she deserved a sacrifice for not using her powers to force them to live in a world of darkness at night and letting them live in fear. As a punishment, she hid the full moon for the three nights the full moon should hang. She hoped they would see the beauty in both her darkness and in the moon but they only cried because they could not feast under her sister's stars. It was not that they were afraid that the world was dark or that the moon had disappeared, but that she had hidden the beautiful sky. Seeing them weep over her sister's stars and the moon she hung and not learn their punishment only upset her more. How could they love her sister’s contribution to the night and not the darkness it hung in? She vowed she would take her revenge on them and after some time she had. The next moon cycle came and along with it her wrath. From her lips came a curse as they feasted and worshiped the moon. “Hear my words and head them well. You forgot who brings the night and the darkness that holds your precious moon and stars. So this curse I lay onto you. Night creatures, you will become like the wild beasts you hunt, cursed to forever walk the world in my image. You will walk this world as the animals you are. You will walk forever as wolves to always honor and remember you who made your life possible. To remember who cursed you. You will forever mourn the moon for three nights as I cover it in darkness. You will do it to honor me! As much as the elders of the tribe and the creators begged with the goddess to stop, she would not forgive them. One by one, they were forced into a form of what the gods themselves were. They became wolves. Sable, the goddess of darkness, basking in her glory as they raised their heads to the moonless sky and howled in sorrow. She would watch them suffer day and night so long as the curse held, but her twin sister, Selene, goddess of the stars and moon, would not let them suffer. On the night she hung the moon in its fullest form she called on the wolves that were once the mortal tribe. They came, each one's sorrow lifted in seeing her hang above them. Sable watched from afar scowling as they lifted their heads and howled at Selene in love. Selene taking pity on them spoke with pain in her heart but in hopes to ease their punishment. “This curse I cannot remove for what has been spoken onto the universe cannot be undone. I can, however, ease your suffering. I say unto the universe that these men and women shall not forever roam these lands as beasts of the night. This punishment does not fit the crime that was done. It is the work of a wrath filled goddess!" Selene said with hate, though she knew this would drive her sister crazy, ruining a perfect curse, but Selene would not allow the tribe to be brought to any more harm. “Hear my words and heed them well. From this night until your death, you will have the choice to wander as a man or as a beast. You will be able to shift into the form of your choosing, except on three nights to pay the debt to my sister. You will be forced to turn on the nights my moon burns brightest in the sky where I will protect you and where you can run under the beautiful night sky. What I have spoken shall be and can not be undone. Tonight will be the last night you are forced to remain a beast for when Nomad rises the sun you can once more be human!” In relief and thanks to the goddess, the wolves raised their heads and gave a howl. The curse had been unbearable, stuck inside the body of a mindless animal who only lived to hunt and kill. Now they would only remain these beasts for three nights and three nights alone, but this infuriated Sable. The goddess of darkness came at her sister ready to strike, but Selene knew better than to expect her sister to take this lying down and was ready for her. Stronger and with the backing of the other gods, Selene could take her down with the perfect punishment already in her sights. “As for you, my sister, you shall be punished for harming the ones we once loved. By order of the King of gods, you will be forever trapped in the moon. I hereby strip you of the powers you hold so dear and forever place you in prison where you will watch my wolves, my children, walk the earth. Forced to watch them not as the beasts you created, but as creatures that love us and will be loved by us.” That night as Selene locked her sister in the moon and the wolves raced under its brilliant light, and the next night they threw a feast of their kills in her honor. No longer were they cursed to be beasts, but that is not how these wolves came to be what they are today. What remained after Selene’s gift shocked even her. Traits of their animal side remained in their blood even in human form. Their senses were heightened in great ways. They could hear and see for miles ahead of them. Tracking was easy with their new sense of smell. Hunting became easier seeing and smelling like an animal, but it wasn't just their senses that seemed to heighten or grow. They could run longer distances without getting tired at intense speeds. Where it took a normal two-legged to heal for weeks, they could heal almost as instantly as it occurred. What was the most shocking was even in the two-legged form they seemed to be unkillable. That was all well until the gods decided it was time to populate the world with something other than the wolves. To try again with a mortal form. With Sable’s curse, they had no choice but to give their world life like their first creations. Placing three new tribes of the two-legged creatures on the world once again, they had high hopes they would surpass that of the original tribe. That was so long as another god didn’t become vengeful and curse them again.  Time passed and their little creation began to form on its own as it had with the first tribe. They taught themselves to farm and created languages for each tribe. They created their own species of animals through cross-breeding and domestication. New crops formed, a new structure came to order and new human traits formed. They started to know what they wanted and how to achieve them without the gods’ influence. Dreams became a thing and those dreams became unspoken desires. Their creations now knew more than just how to tell stories, sacrifice, and create new life. The gods eventually stepped back letting life take what form it would. They would only influence them when they needed to or to answer prayers that needed to be answered. They were overjoyed that the small barren world they had chosen had flourished on its own.  Years passed and the tribes gave the world the name earth, and quickly began naming the things around them. The gods watched as new creatures and species grew up around their tribes and formed societies of their own and all was well until the first tribe became jealous of the gods new found favoritism.  These tribes were messing with the old ways and that didn’t settle with them. They made new religions and worshiped false gods. They didn’t honor or protect what was original and sacred to the original tribe the gods once loved. So they turned on these new creations in order to teach them a lesson. It started out small but then things began to get out of control. On the nights the wolves were forced to turn their animal like instincts took over. They would kill the humans and act like the beasts Sable wanted them to be. Through their rage and hate came the creation of other creatures of darkness from the new goddess of darkness. She created creatures that wanted to destroy the world the creators had come to love. Because of them Ari eventually became known as the mother of monsters because of how she used the powers she was given. She had become too strong for them to take the powers from her and she created many monsters over the years. The worst of these creatures were known as vampires, our natural enemies. It was time once again for the gods to step in and help the tribes who were in fear for their lives because of the monsters. Because of us monsters now roamed and we had to be punished yet again.  First they put a natural element that could hurt and kill the night beasts, silver. Then came human-like beings known as hunters. These were humans with enhanced capabilities which would allow them to fight the beasts and kill them. However, there was not enough silver to be found to keep the beasts at bay and the threat of the vampires was far worse than that of the wolves. Selene, our mother, offered us peace in exchange for our help. Some of the original pack liked the way the beasts made them feel and refused to help. They ran off to form their own packs and continued to kill. You see, some of us can choose to be evil, some of us can choose to be good, and that is what sets us apart from a lot of other tribes. The gods knew what had to be done with vampires and other monsters now out weighing the original threat. With some discussion, they gave the hunters a new way to kill the vampires. Wood from any common tree as long as it was straight through the heart. Along with longer days to use the sun to hunt them down, and the wolves redeemed themselves asking their mother goddess for help to control their urges to help them. She decided someone had to have power over them with the most self control, an alpha. With help of her goddess, so came the first of our kind to gain full control over her wolf and our first alpha, Maharet. No one knows what happened to the woman, but it is rumored she had a child and that one day a child of her child's child would come to save our lands. With Maharet’s help we learned to control our animalistic sides and live alongside the mortals as their protectors. As a reward for changing how we lived and what we had become in spite of what our nature told us to do, the gods gave us weapons against vampires so the hunters could hunt the other creatures.  We are stronger than vampires, our bite can kill them like it is almost poisonous and we can smell them from great distances. The hunters and the wolves formed a pact so no hunter would ever harm a wolf unless a wolf harmed a mortal. But times changed and the vampires changed their ways. We eventually formed a pact with the vampires in New Orleans, so long as they did not pray on the humans that lived there we would not harm them. We all had to come together as more monsters and creatures tried to take our lands but even with their help we could not win back our city, but we had hope. A hope that one day we will all live in peace together instead of as enemies, all monsters of all kinds living in peace in this great city. That day will hopefully come soon, for our city is in danger. But fear not my little ones we must have hope. We will live on through you and through your children and their children so long as we understand our past, but listen well. The tale of how the werewolf came to be has been told by others over the years and it is constantly changing. Pieces have been added and others removed. It is told by all kinds of people, man and beast, but mostly the hunters that hunted them. They want us to sound more vicious than we are and more animal than we were, but only one pack knows the truth. The pack that is still here on the lands they were turned from, the lands that became New Orleans know the truth. The pack that told the story to their young to put them to sleep and made them strong.’ The old one stopped talking and smiled. The pack watched the little wolves fall asleep to their words, saying a silent prayer to the gods above before the parents took their young to their beds. The old one hummed a song about the old days and watched the fire die with the face of their future dancing in the flames.
Free reading for new users
Scan code to download app
Facebookexpand_more
  • author-avatar
    Writer
  • chap_listContents
  • likeADD