{"sf1_id":788350,"sf2_id":null,"title":"The Gifted One Ch 1","author":"Draro","words":2332,"posted_at":"2014-11-27T06:10:00.000Z","tags":["Adventure","Clean","Magic","Male","Story Series","Werewolf"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/788350-the-gifted-one-ch-1","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/788350","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=788350\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"A werewolf is caught and brought before a minor lord in the hopes of finding the rest of the pack so the humans can exterminate them. This is his tale.","content":"           A/N: Now that this is posted, I will get to work on ToS. Expect to see an update in the next couple of days. Also, the first paragraph will make sense a little bit later. I like having the character like that but I don't want to write the entire thing that way, so he got magicked for your convenience. To avoid possible confusion, the werewolf is the speaker.            One last thing, if you can think of any tags that should be here but aren't, please add them. Thanks :)***************************************           Alright, alright, I'll\ntell...What did you do to m-m-me? Why can't I talk like I normally do? You put a\nspell on me so that I sound like you? Fine, whatever, guess it will make it\neasier for this lord to understand me.\n \nAnyways, I will tell you\nmy story. This story began long before my time, it began several generations\nago with the appearance of the Wise Old Woman.\n \nMany generations ago,\nnine I think it is now, the Wise Old Woman entered the cave my pack was living\nin. She is said to have had white hair that fell to her knees and she hunched\nover, never standing straight. She had a stick in one hand and the other behind\nher back. Her eyes were black and danced with their own fire. \n \nWore? No, no one today\nknows what she wore, such things are not important to werewolves.\n \nAll eyes fell upon her as\nshe hobbled into the cave. \"Gifted Ones,\" she said-\n \nMy pack is made of Gifted\nOnes. Other packs have Cursed Ones, this make sense? No? OK, I will explain\nGifted Ones. Gifted Ones are werewolves who were given the choice to either\naccept the gift of the Wolf or to continue with their lives. A Gifted One can\nnot pressure a human to accept the gift. Once the gift is offered, the wolf\nsays nothing until the human decides. If the human accepts the gift, he becomes\nmuch stronger than before, much faster, has better senses, and is in control of\nhimself. He does not lose his mind. Gifted Ones form tight packs and tend to\nkeep to themselves except to gather new members.\n \nCursed Ones are the\nwerewolves your stories are made of. They do not ask if the gift is wanted,\nthey force it on someone. Anyone who is given the gift but does not want it,\nbecomes a Cursed One. They are stronger than Gifted Ones, faster and have a\nthirst for blood. A Cursed One does not know who it is or remember old friends.\nIt hunts and kills without thought and can only be stopped by death. Their\npacks are large but they almost never work in teams larger than three. If the\nentire pack decides to attack, their numbers will seem endless. \n \nThe final difference\nbetween Gifted and Cursed Ones is their wolf form. A Cursed One's wolf form is\na man-wolf hybrid. A man with fur, claws, fangs, paws. A Cursed One is forced\nto change during the full moon, though that is not the only time they can\nchange. A Gifted One's wolf form is that of an actual wolf, only much bigger.\nFlesh is not created or destroyed during the change, so a Gifted One's wolf\nform has just as much muscle as his human form, and is just as tall on his hind\nlegs as he is as a human. Also, Gifted Ones are never forced to change, they\nonly change when they want to.\n \nNow that you know the\ndifference, I can tell the story. The Wise Old Woman hobbled into the cave and\nsaid \"Gifted Ones, you are the last of your kind. The Cursed Ones have spread\nfurther than you know. If you do not change, you will not last another year.\nYou must cease your visits to human villages. If you do not, a human will\nbetray your trust and lead an army to this very cave.\"\n \nThe Alpha then spoke and\nsaid, \"How does this save us? The pack can not live without new members and\nwerewolves are incapable of breeding. If it is a choice between dying in battle\nand dying off through old age and lack of hope, we choose battle!\"\n \nThe Alpha howled even\nthough he was in human form and the entire pack followed suit. Numerous human\nhowls mixed with wolf ones for a time. Finally they quieted down and the Wise\nOld Woman spoke again, \"I know you can not breed, that is why I am here. To the\nSouth, over the mountains and across the plains, you will find the World\nForest. Do not enter the World Forest or you will never find what you are\nlooking for. Instead, you should live at the foot of the hills where the woods\nbegin. In the woods near the hills, you will find these.\"\n \nShe held up a blue acorn\nand continued \"Inside of this acorn is very powerful life magic. If you use it\nas a component in a spell that I will teach you, it will allow one wolf to be\nable to breed for one night. You will need two for every mated pair. Its magic\nwill keep the female from shifting forms while pregnant as that would harm the\npup. With this, your pack can live a life completely separate from humans and\nnever fear them. Do you accept my offer?\"\n \nThe Alpha thought for a\nmoment before barking out \"Yes, we accept. Even if the magic is a lie, it is at\nleast a hope. Teach us the spell.\" And so, for generations, my pack has lived\nwithout humans. We caused no trouble to anyone and had no news of the world.\nWhich is how we liked it. The only downside to breeding is the fact that for\nwhatever reason, each generation's connection to the wolf inside grows weaker.\nIt used to be that a Gifted One could change whenever they wanted. Today, we\ncan only change once a day. As such, we actually spend very little time in one\nform or the other. It is up to personal preference which an individual will use\nmost often.\n \nUnfortunately, our peace\nwould not last forever. It was just about two months ago when it happened.\nHumans, an army of humans invaded our village. Our hunters were our only line\nof defense, and they fell left and right. Things looked bad, but my Alpha came\nup with a plan. \"Arishi!\" he roared at me, \"You need to take as many pack\nmembers with you as you can and run into the World Forest. The humans will not\nfollow you, now go!\"\n \nI managed to round up a\nfew of my pack mates and turned and started for the World Forest when I heard\nsomeone scream my name. I looked back and saw my mate being ran down by the\nhumans. I was enraged and scared, and I almost forsook the pack I had following\nme to save her. I was dragged kicking and screaming into the World Forest with\nthe other survivors and I cried when I lost sight of our home.\n \nI knew that anyone who\nenters the World Forest will eventually find themselves in a forest somewhere\nelse completely. Maybe even across the ocean. I cried as I followed my pack\nmates in a daze, unaware of what was going on because the image of my mate's\ndeath haunted me. \n \nAfter what seemed like\nweeks traveling in the same forest, we finally came out onto one of the other\nsides. The first thing we did, after setting up camp, was look for the acorns\nthat granted us our independence from humans. Though we did not expect to find\nany, it was still a blow to come up empty handed.\n \nFor three weeks we dared\nnot venture far beyond our new home. We built small huts in a circular clearing\nto protect ourselves from the elements. In the center of the circle was the pit\nfor the bonfire that would be lit on special occasions such as coming of age,\ngiving birth, and dying. The bonfire was lit the first night and unless we have\nbeen attacked, it has not been allowed to go out yet. The flame is to live one\nday for each pack member who died. It will be nearly a year before it will be\nturned to a different purpose. \n \nWe were fortunate to find\na stream about an hour East of our village. The stream, however, was the only easily\nnoticeable landmark we could find early on. The area is flat but we grew up living\nat the base of a hill with different kinds of marks. We would eventually find\nothers, but that is not important. \n \nWhat is important is what\nthe new Alpha said a week ago. He gathered us around the bonfire one night and\nsaid in his deep booming voice, \"Brothers and sisters, we have been forced from\nthe land given to us by the Wise Old Woman. As you are all aware, this means\nthat we no longer have the capability to breed to keep the pack alive. We must\nonce again find humans willing to accept the gift or face extinction. I have\nselected five of our number to go out into the human world and recruit new\nmembers for the pack.\" \n \nHis eyes lingered on me\nfor a moment as he said \"It will be dangerous, especially as we have not\ninteracted with humans before, but I have faith in you. Arishi, Garina, Moenna,\nSalis and Yres see me here tomorrow at sunrise. I have a gift for each of you\nbefore you leave.\"\n \nI only had to wake up a\nfew minutes early to make it on time. Unlike you humans here in the city, we\nwerewolves wake with the sun. Nonetheless, I was nearly late. The sun had only\njust peeked out from beyond the horizon right as I bowed to my Alpha and said \"Arishi\nis here, and he is not late.\"\n \nHe grunted and nodded at\nme before he spoke. \"The five of you will be venturing into unknown territory\nto recruit new pack members. Remember, though, this will be dangerous as the\nhumans fear us and they will kill you if they find out what you are. I do not\nexpect you to return any time soon as you must gain a human's trust before\noffering him the gift. Do not offer it in the presence of other humans and do\nnot offer it if you are not sure how the human will react to it.\"\n \nHe took a deep breath and\nclosed his eyes before continuing \"If any human asks you where you come from\nsimply say that you came through the World Forest seeking to escape an\naggressive neighboring tribe. Tell them that in the Forest you lost the rest of\nyour tribe and found yourself in the woods around here. Oh, and make sure not\nto use the term \"pack\" as that will probably get you killed.\"\n \nHere he paused once again\nand gestured behind himself as he said \"Behind me you will each find a pack of\nsupplies. I do not know how close the nearest human town is so I advise you to\nhunt for yourselves for the first couple of days. I also have a very, very\npowerful object for each of you, but you must not tell anyone, not even other\npack members, understand?\"\n \nWe all nodded our heads\nas he began to walk into the woods surrounding our village. In a low voice he\nsaid \"You are all aware that the ritualists of the pack can use more magic than\njust the breeding magic, correct?\" \n \nThere was no pause for us\nto respond either way as he just kept talking. \"Well what most pack members do\nnot know is that each ritualist creates for themselves an amulet. This amulet\nallows them to change into their wolf form without having to remove their bags\nor clothes. I was never told where the clothes and other items go when you\nchange, but when you change back to human form, they will be exactly where you\nleft them. This gives them the ability to leave the village surreptitiously and\nto have all of their medicines on hand all day. The five of you will each be\ngiven one of these amulets to borrow. You will return them when you get back.\"\n \nWith a menacing glare he\nhanded each of us a leather cord with an amulet attached. The amulet was in the\nshape of a wolf's paw. Mine was made of birch wood and had what my mother had\ntold me was red moss agate stones for the pads. It was about the size of a\nnormal wolf's paw print. \n \nBy now the sun had fully\nrisen and the rest of the pack was beginning their morning activities. The\nAlpha said \"Whatever happens, return safely.\" \n \nThe others had already\nchanged into their wolf forms and barked a \"yes.\" I was still looking at the\namulet and snapped to attention and said \"Arishi will return, he promises. He\nstill has to perform the ceremonies for his mate, he will return.\" A tear slid\ndown my cheek as I said this, but with everything that needed doing, I made\nsure to grieve on my own time. \n \nI slipped the amulet over\nmy neck and headed south, changing shape once I was out of sight of the\nvillage. Once the five of us had disappeared, the Alpha howled and we responded\nin kind before running off to begin our journeys."}