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Echos of Juena

The Advance

Foreword:

In the third generation of the advance the dire wolves had become little more than dogs compared to their ancient brethren. In the early days beyond the first generation of the first retreat; wolves the size of castles were known to exist. By the advance they were all but extinct, killed or bred in to mongrels with little of the glory left behind by Blessed Juena.

During the advance the most important people were the wilderkin, powerful men of beast lineage that scouted and trail-blazed for lesser men. One such man triggered the fourth generation of the advance, it should be taken as a cautionary tale for the destruction it wrought. His one action nearly brought the advance to its knees and could have meant the extinction of human kind.

Hunter and Winter

Shewolf

Pod was agile and quick, born third generation removed of sparrow tribe blood. His great grandmother had been taken prisoner shortly after they made landfall. It was her wits that kept her alive and also brought about the concord between human and beast. From that capture his grandfather had been born, half sparrow tribe, half human with wings too frail to fly but speed enough to chase the wind. Pod's mother had been mostly human, with only a hint of feathers over her stomach and a trail along her spine. He himself only possessed the speed and wits of his lineage but appeared for the most part human. He also inherited his father's wandering feet, unable to stay put for more than a few days; ever with a sense of struggle and excitement.

On this day he found himself bounding through an ancient oak and elm forest, a noisy place with beast and animal of all different type. They had just breached the mountain line not a year past and it was Pod's job to see what was beyond. It had been perhaps five thousand years since man had set foot in these hills and the world had been left untouched. The line between beast and animal had so blurred that he doubted there was a species that did not possess the touch of Blessed Juena.

By mid day he found himself in a dark part of the forest with a narrow stream cutting through solid rock. He was sitting in a valley, well below great cliffs, the tops of which were covered in ancient spruce and pines. Down here though was a ruin. It was little more than a tumble of stones, but he recognized the square cut and pattern of its layout, "A mill once stood here." He murmured to himself as he spied the outline of what might have once been a dam, feeding water to a wheel, "People lived in this valley."

He explored further up the river until he found evidence of a town, little was left but moss choked foundation stone; likely it had been wooden structures, built early in the pioneering days. He had come across other such places in his travels, it was hardly news, but he felt a connection with these ancient people; lost so long ago. He continued to explore, hoping to find something else of interest, something to tell him who these people might have been, but it had all gone to dust eons ago.

He left eventually and followed the stream westward, toward the mountains. He had another few hours of sun yet and hoped to get himself to higher ground before the night beasts decided to leave their caves. He was half way up a hill when he stopped, startled. Off in the distance he saw a patch of white, standing stark against the dark browns and greens of the primeval forest. Cautiously he made his way toward that spot of brightness and came across a wolf.

She was huge, as large as the largest horse Pod had ever seen. Her fur glistened like sun speckled stone and her eyes shown blue as they stared at him. For a moment he thought to run, then the next to slay her, but then his eyes truly saw her. She was injured, her leg trapped under a fallen boulder and it looked like she had been there for many days. He made his way to her side and saw that she had been digging at something when the stone came loose. He circled her and her head kept a wary watch but made no aggressive movements.

He sat and watched her as the sun began to set and thought, "What should I do? I have never seen a wolf of your like before. Aye plenty of dire wolves and even a few sun dogs. But you, you are something unique, something new. I wonder--would you be grateful should I set you free?"

Those indigo blue eyes just stared with an intensity that rivaled a sage and a cunning that rivaled an assassin. She might be his greatest foe, though he had slain wyrms and furbolgs, harpy and lizard folk; none seemed so terrifying yet alluring as she. At last he surrendered to his kinder half and with a careful placement of stones and a branch, he wrenched the boulder up and off that trapped leg. He had thought she might limp away, or even lash out, but instead she was gone like lightning from a clear sky. He was left to only wonder with the scent of her filling his nose; something musky and earthy.

Echo

That night he camped above the river falls and feasted on fresh fish. His fire burned hot and high in the dark of the night, to keep back what might lurk. He was not afraid, but he was also not stupid, intelligent beings would be drawn to the flame while night creatures would stay away. Either way he had to sleep light and so he awoke late, after the moon set, to the sound of a rustling leaf not far from his head. He sat up and stared out in to the dark; it stared back with two glowing blue eyes, like two ghost flames haunting the dark.

"Who is there?" He asked with a hand on his sword hilt, ready to be drawn but not threatening. From the darkness a great ghostly white shape emerged and for a moment Pod was sure the reaper had come for him, but it was the shewolf. Her jaws were marred with red of a kill and she favored one leg over the other, but she moved with such grace and majesty he wouldn't have known she was wounded. She stood in the fire light with her eyes upon him and smoke rising between. It clouded his eyes for a moment and he again picked up the scent of of her; earthy and warm. He relaxed and removed his hand from the hilt, then padded the dry ground next to him, "Come to share my fire?" He asked with a crooked smile.

She took a step around the flames and sat with a hushed thump then laid her head upon his lap. It was huge, as large as his torso and likely she could have swallowed him without chewing first. But strangely enough he felt no fear, there was no animosity radiating from her and he trusted his instincts. Timidly he laid a hand to her crown and ran fingers through her long thick fur. It was smooth as silk, each hair as long as his forearm and light enough to dance at the slightest breeze. Though her face hair was shorter, it still occasionally drifted in to her eyes or nose. Eventually exhaustion dragged him back in to the confines of sleep and he laid there, tucked against her large flank, and dreamed.

When Pod awoke he was alone again, but his body ached, stiff from being trapped under her all night. It took him a while to strike camp and work the kinks out of his muscles, but by noon he was heading west again, deeper in to the mountain country. He ate what was left of his cooked fish, though found some of it missing; he didn't begrudge the wolf a bite of his food as long as it wasn't a bite of him.

When again he made camp, higher up on the peaks where the wind blew cold he had a larger meal. Something resembling a doe had strayed across his path and a single shot from his bow had felled it. He was halfway done with prepping it for cooking and smoking when again the wolf came. In her jaws dangled a lizardhare, freshly killed, and she dropped it at his feet. He really wasn't sure what to make of it, but eventually he chopped off an entire leg of his deer and offered it to her. She took it gingerly and ate off to the side; he could only cringe at the occasional crunch of her teeth against bone as she hunted for the morrow.

Stuffed and satisfied he sat and watched the fire crackle. The rest of the meat was being slowly cured in the smoke and should be ready to package up by morning. She had disappeared again after eating without a glance and he wondered what went through that fur lined skull of hers. He laid down to sleep at last with his back to an oak, listening to the pop and sizzle of a green log catch fire.

Some time in the night Pod was overcome by a sudden need, it was sexual yet stronger, like the urge to piss or vomit. Insistent and demanding. His eyes opened to find his vision occluded. There was a heavy weight upon him, and for a moment he wasn't sure what it was. Then the scent struck him, earthy, familiar, yet something else about it that tickled his nose and sent his mouth to watering. The Shewolf had backed herself against him and laid down on top, with her rear against his chest.

He groaned and tried to clear his head but the arousal wouldn't leave him. He squirmed out from under her and came about in a huff; but she slept soundly, not even waking as her rump landed on the ground. He reached up to touch his chest and it came away damp with sticky moisture, "What..." He murmured, then laughed aloud and laid himself down again, along side the giant beast, "I don't believe I am your type, wolf." he told her, then groggily fell back asleep, snuggled in to her warmth.

When he awoke again, she was still there but on her side, her chest to his face and one of those great fore legs curled about his back. Then as he pulled back he realized that wasn't quite true. She was smaller now, less wolf like, almost human in structure. Though still if she stood on two legs instead of four, she would have towered over him like a tree. He laid a hand to her cheek and ran his fingers through her long fur and behind her neck. Indigo eyes opened to his brown, and together they laid there, staring in a strange rapport.

"You are lonely." He whispered, some how he knew it, those eyes seemed so forlorn.

She slid up to a sitting position with nearly human like legs pressed to her chest and fore arms wrapped about them. Her fore paws were closer to hands now, but with giant claws tipping each digit, black as jet. She tilted her great head back to the morning sky and howled, a long slow howl that made his ears hurt and his hair stand on end. Years ago he fought sun dogs, great golden beasts like a Rottweiler the size of a bear. When they howled others answered and came as quick as their long legs could take them. He half expected a response now but all that returned was the droning echo of her sad song as it returned.

Pod signed at last and leaned forward and placed his hands upon her shoulders and stare in to those pools of blue, "No, you are not alone." He couldn't howl like she, but he felt the echo in his heart, urging him, compelling him. She seemed to understand in her own inhuman way and her arms embraced his small body and laid him to her. She was so warm and soft, he felt like he was drowning in a sea of cotton as his head laid to her breast. There was such a sense of serenity in that embrace, of unfathomable peace that just radiated from her. He had warred much, struggled more, and ran most; but always active, always fighting. Here at last he felt the yawning chasm of her echoing heart and fell in to her, to be stilled and granted peace.

Once again that potent scent drifted up from her as her legs parted and he slid between. She held him tight, letting him go no where, like a child clinging to its mother. But within him that hunger built again until the bulge of his erection pressed against her stomach through his woven leather pants. He felt no shame, in fact he felt little more than calm serenity, even as she laid him back in to the leafy ground and pressed her weight down on top of him. Some how she undid his pants without tearing them with her deft claws and his phallus sprang free. It wasn't much, perhaps five inches, a tool to be used never bragged over but when her warmth enveloped him he felt like a god.

She sank upon him, impaling herself and a thrumming whine vibrated through her chest. He clung to her with a gasp and arched to meet her, thrusting up with desperate need. The scent of her had kept him on edge all night long and he craved the contact so very much. She was tight about him, tight enough that he wondered if she had ever mated before. She was hot on him, a good ten degrees above his flesh. She was wet, a cascade of moisture ran down his groin and in to the crease of his rear. Together they found satisfaction, violent thrusts, bites and claw marks contrasting to the sense of peace and joy. Pod found his center within her and for the first time in his life, he felt no need to move on. She cured her loneliness and her heat as she drove herself upon his spire, bestial yet gentle.

When he came at last it was with a joyful cry, muted by the thick fur of her breast. His seed spilled in to her with a few short splashes and satisfied her deeper than anything had before. Her heat began to fade, her fire quenched by his gift, yet she felt no desire to part from him. Even as his penis went flaccid, her tight confines held it in a gentle embrace and she held him trapped under her, almost afraid to let him go. But at last as the sun reached to noon, she climbed off and began to lick him clean. Once more his member sprang to life as her large slippery tongue caressed him, so tender her lips were as they enveloped him, he never felt her teeth, just the warm softness of that lupine mouth. He came again upon her tongue, his body lurching upwards and his hands gripping at the fur of her neck. Then at last she pulled free with a strange expression in her eyes.

Honeymoon's End

For six months they traveled together, running with the wind, hunting, making love under the moon. For six months Pod was the happiest man alive. They roamed the high peaks and low valleys, they swam in springs not touched by humans in thousands of years. For a time Pod even forgot that he had been a scout sent to explore that valley, he knew only the life of a beast.

When at last it came to an end, the Shewolf's stomach was gravid with pregnancy and looked ready to burst. She had resisted his amorous advances for weeks now, which left him confused and hurt; but she had no interest in it. Day by day she drifted from him, until at last, one day during high winter she vanished while he slept, curled up about his fire.

For weeks he hunted, calling to her with a howling voice. A storm rolled through and stole his cry for a time and left him plastered with snow. He never felt the cold though, a gift of his sparrow tribe lineage. Still he hunted until spring thaw, and only then did a howl answer his cry. A familiar howl, yet strange to him. When he saw her, standing in a valley meadow, his heart leaped in to his throat and he ran to her. She backed away and growled as he closed, but she took no action against him.

She was half crouched, in full wolf shape with her teeth bared and indigo eyes glaring. He didn't know what he had done, he didn't understand, but he stayed back from her and waited. Eventually out from the treeline came two figures with deep dark black fur and humanoid appearance. They were tall, bipedal wolves, as large as he and twice as built; one a male, the other a female. He stared with wonder, realizing who he was looking at, his children, "Ours?" He asked of his love, and she dipped her head in response, confirming.

They never got close to him and when he moved to approach, they shifted quickly to full wolf shape and darted off in to the trees. The mother snarled at him as well and came between him and her pups, letting him know where he belonged, "Very well..." He said to her with tears running down his cheeks, "I will return home. Please don't forget about me." And with that he turned his back on his family, and left at a run. When he reached the ridge above the valley and looked back, there was no sign of white to be seen.

Epilogue

Pod eventually made it home again and reported his findings. Though he never admitted any wrongdoing in siring the wolf tribes, he did go to war with them a decade later when they came for Cemphoran City. He supposedly died attempting to break the siege, taken down by a great black wolf. His body however was not recovered suggesting that perhaps he was taken captive or even left willingly.

The war lasted for thirty years until at last the wolves joined the concord and recognized the truth of their lineage. All are blessed under the touch of Juena, even the ill begotten children of a Winter Warg and a lowborn scout.