"Gather around my 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 or 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. 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 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 with the fullest intent. It had been a mistake when the tribe had forgotten to make the sacrifice to her the night she rose 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, 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 for 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 beasts of the night, 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 who made you. 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 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 where you can run under the beautiful night sky. What I have spoken shall be. Tonight will be the last night you are forced to remain a beast for when Nomad rises the sun!'
In relief, the wolves rose 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. Selene knew better than to expect her sister to take this lying down and was ready for Sable to strike. 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 prison you 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 and will be loved.'
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 they called humans on the world this time, they had high hopes they would surpass that of the original people. 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 in order and new human traits. They started to know what they wanted and how to achieve them. Dreams became a thing and those dreams became unspoken desires. Their creations now knew more than just how to tell stories, sacrifice, and created new life. The gods eventually stepped back letting life take what form it would. They would only influence them when they needed to or answer prayers that needed to be answered overjoyed that the small barren world had flourished on its own.
Years passed and the tribes gave the world the name earth, but they were pleased with what they had accomplished with little work. 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 job became jealous. Things began to get out of control. It started with the wolves when they were forced to turn on the three nights owed to Sable. They were killing the humans and acting like the beasts Sable wanted them to be. Then came the creation of other creatures of darkness that wanted to destroy the world the creators had come to love. Ari had taken over as the goddess of darkness and 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. It was time to once again for the gods to step in and help the tribes who were in fear for their lives.
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. With some discussion, they gave the hunters a new way to kill the vampires. Wood from any common tree 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 and so came the first of our kind to gain full control over her wolf, 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 her help we learned to control our animalistic beings and live alongside the mortals as their protectors for our bite can kill any vampire who dares harm a human.
The hunters and the wolves formed a pact so no hunter would ever harm a wolf unless a wolf harmed a mortal. We eventually even formed a pact with the vampires in New Orleans so long as they do not pray on the humans of New Orleans. We all had to come together as more monsters and creatures tried to take our lands, but we have a hope that one day we will all live in peace together instead of as enemies. Fear not my little ones for you miss understand, We will live on through you and through your children and their children but listen well.
The tale of how the werewolf came to be had been told by others over the years and it is constantly changing having pieces added to and 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, but only one pack knows the truth. The pack that was still here in the lands they were turned, the lands that became New Orleans know the truth, The pack that told the story to their young to put them to sleep and make them strong. It was this pack that gave their hero her reasons to find a home in their lost city, even if she doesn't know her history is here. We will remain for centuries to come and with the help of our future queen, this land will be ours once again and peace will befall. Sleep well little ones and always remember where you came from."
The old ones smiled watching 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. She didn't know it yet but this was her future and they were waiting for her, waiting for their wolf queen.