Wahkan
Contents
Ages
Five millennia ago there lived the greatest Garou warrior. Rou took the alpha position amongst the Garou by might of will and might of claw. All cowed before mighty Rou and he led the Garou through many glorious battles. They say that in him the spirit of lupus was the strongest and this spirit of fire was passed down to the spawn of Rou. It would either consume them in the womb or make of them the mightiest among the Garou. And so it was that all the offspring of Rou rose to be the most revered Garou.
The Lore of Rou
“Spawn of Rou heal us all.
Bleak future, wurm wails strong
Garou blood dilute we fail and fall
Spawn of Rou blood runs deep
Lupus sprit imbued heart
Homid cunning clear mind
Spawn of Rou blend these as one
At odds with ourselves since time long gone
Still not whole but can be reborn
Spawn of Rou heal us all”
Salik. Great warrior. Father cut down too soon
Salik lived up to his birthright as a spawn of Rou. His renown among the Garou in his tireless pursuit of the wurm was legend in his own time, and rightfully so. For no Garou could match his physical strength when enraged, nor the speed of his claws striking, nor his single minded fury when the wurm was in sight. Many feared Salik because of his rages and his power, and all longed to fight evil with his claws and fangs at their side. The aspect of the wolf surged in his blood like fire.
Wahkan, the sacred one
As with all the descendents of Rou, Salik had few offspring born. But hopes were high for them; not for three generations had a spawn of Rou failed to fulfill his Garou rite. And so the elders watched closely Wahkan born of wolf and sure to be a warrior as mighty as Salik, some even guessed that with the tide of rising spirit in the bloodline that Wahkan might rival Rou himself. It did not take long for the disappointment to set in. Among his wolven brethren, Wahkan was weak. He never was the first in the hunt, he never bested other wolves with his physical prowess. The elders speculated that for the first time in 75 years, the Rou bloodline had birthed a failure.
Something strange happened. Wahkan was a tender 18 month old wolf, just leaving his adolescence, when he suddenly took the mantle of the alpha male in the pack. Typically in wolf packs young strong adults depose aging alpha males through tried and true bloody battle. None of the watchers saw the event, but there Wahkan emerged without a scratch, and strangely the elder nine year old alpha appeared unharmed and even stranger, stayed with the pack although deposed. Perhaps this spawn of Rou had some new spark that the Garou failed to recognize. Salik remained skeptical of his wiry wolf son. Nevertheless, Wahkan deserved increased attention by the watchers. Wahkan remained alpha male despite the fact that several other males in the pack were clearly his physical superior. They sometimes got their hackles up, but a somewhat subdued snarl from Wahkan with head tilted and tail raised quieted the upstarts, as if he possessed some preternatural sway over the other wolves. They followed Wahkan’s lead, the pack prospered. A few years later, one of the watchers noticed a strange nightly wolf dance. Perplexed, he described it to one of the Garou elders and piqued his interest. Watching Wahkan perform his nightly ritual, the elder recognized in it a distinct parallel with the rite of cleansing, which wards away the wurm taint. Legend says that the rite of cleansing arose from the primitive wolf spirit, later adapted by the Garou to its current form, but that was thought simple folklore. Now, the lore appeared true as Wahkan apparently tapped unknowing and ancient memory. This spawn was possessed of a changed spirit of Rou.
The change
Feeling strange since last moon. Not sick. Different. Others know. They stare. They keep distance. Strange. Not bad. Natural, but new.
Two legs came. Took me. Snuck up. Unnatural cunning. Should have known. Seen them watching for years. Caged in this small space, no room to run. Feeling strange. Others here. Two leg cubs. They feel strange to me. Another wolf, also strange.
PANIC strange changing. Pain! Growing out, growing in, eyes dim, mind opening.
Shadow Pine Caern
It took me a long time to learn to speak with my new two leg mouth. My hominid mouth. Took a long time, at least a week. They tell me that this Salik is my father, and I know. I have always known. I have seen him for years as a hominid from afar, watching. And I knew even then as a lupus. He is respected by all the Garou here; he is a great warrior. Salik says I have a brother and a sister, born human but surely Garou to be, but too young yet. He watches them too, only babes. He says that I am young yet, only ten years old, which is so strange. I was old as a wolf, now am young as a man. And I have much to learn, there are things here beyond comprehension that do not grow in the forest. How Dio handles them all I will never know.
. . .
Seven years gone now and I have learned much of the human world and much of the dreaded wurm. It hunted down and slew my father, Salik gone on a year now. If only I were there, but then I would be dead as well, I will never be that warrior. My bloodline is strong, I feel it within my lupus heart, but different from the warrior blood of past. Elder Uloque thinks that this generation has changed the blood of old. Perhaps, we will wait and see. With Salik gone, the mantle of Rou falls to me, and with it, stewardship over my younger siblings. They show much promise, they are bright and soulful. I do not sense the taint of wurm in them in the least.
Life in the Shadow Pine Caern invigorates me. Our cause is righteous. And I feel the inner wolf loyalty pulling me to avenge my father, despite the fact that I knew him for only three years. Only three years! In my life before the change three years was an eternity. A third of a life in three years. Time is different for me now. There is a lifetime to fight the wurm. We will devote our lives to it’s destruction, because that is the will of Gaia. That is our calling. That is our instinct.
I sometimes feel that although I am young, it sometimes fall to me to tend this flock at times, as I did my old wolf pack. Some are quick to anger, especially the Underdog. I find that quiet coaxing with inner strength works well, lets him return to reasoning. Somehow he reminds me of One Whisker from the old pack. I wonder what became of him, he would have never been able to lead the pack as alpha, although he was the best hunter. I suspect Grey Ears assumed that mantle after I left. But my mind wanders.
The Children of Rou
Nine summers as a wolf with no father. After my arrival at the Shadow Pine, I finally knew him and he taught me the ways to fight the wurm for six winters and five summers. I learned much of their vile ways and grew from an old wolf into a young boy, then again into a man.
Salik also taught the lore of our bloodline. He believed in our nobility of birth to the very depths of his soul. But I knew the my father, and it was not his lineage that made him great, it was the man he became. I have always felt that ancestry is less important than action and heart. It is not the origin of the wolf that makes it noble, but the cunning of the hunt, the movements of the pack, the grace in the wind. Although blood does not make one noble in my eyes, blood does make one family. And to a wolf the pack is all.
Philip and Sharon, the twins were babes in their mothers arms when first the young boy that was Wakahn laid eyes upon them. I felt instantly that their fate was mine. One thing is certain, the blood of Rou knows the blood of Rou, and our fates intertwined. We, who were father and brother, played the role of uncle and cousin. It was a strange time, as I learned of the depth of depravity and chaos which threatened to consume the world from Salik, but then an hour later witnessed the innocence and lightness of being within Philip and Sharon. They grew in man’s world, acquainted with their strange uncle and his friends but unknowing of the truth of the Garou world.
Their mother, Cindy, a remarkable woman of poise and grace. Salik swore that he never told her the truth, but I could see in her eyes that she had a deeper understanding.
