A short story i wrote

[Lumikant]

i wrote this story as a backround for a Werewolf: The Apocalypse character. What do you guys and gals think?


The wind tore throught the trees, creating an eerie whistle as the snow fell in the darkness. A large grey wolf lowered his head an sniffed at the air above a depression in the snow. Raising his head he howled. Not the wailing keen normally associated with wolves but an angrier, more personal sound.
Several more wolves approached the large grey. One by one they lowered their muzzles to the ground. There were now five wolves standing in the trees, inspecting the depression in the snow. A smaller female wolf raised her head, "It reeks of the wyrm, Blood-Spiller. One thinks the tree-butchers have some assistance."
Another wolf, this one with several scars over its snout shook its head and snarled. It walked in a slow circle around the depression, sniffing the air several times. "One smells old blood and earth," it snarled again, "Perhaps the man things have a leech with them. The smell is faint however, it could have just passed near here."
"Tsalks, Baor, return to the cairn and tell the warriors there to make ready. One is familiar with this scent. It belongs to a leech who names himself Rainokami. Long has he consorted with the Wyrm." The largest wolf pondered for a moment, then began to speak once more, "Tsalks, after you have delivered your message, gather the pups and get them somewhere safe."
Tsalks, a wirey female with gnarled fur, understood Blood-Spiller's concern. Among the pups of the pack was a young garou, Blood-Spillers own son. "One will do as you ask Reav-rhya."
The two garou nodded their heads and ran into the trees, disappearing in the snow and darkness. The three remaining garou gathered once more around the depression in the snow.
"This does not bode well. One likes not the signs. Much has one heard of the leech named Rainokami." The scarred wolf snarled as he spoke, "Perhaps we should seek him and end him. From what one has heard we would do the Wyrm harm with this ones demise."
The female, speaking with a hint of rage then began to speak, "Yes, let us show him the might of the Get. One's teeth and claws ache for release."
"Let us hunt then! My klaive yearns for vampire flesh."
With that the largest of the wolves ran deeper into the forest on the trail of the vampire, followed closely by Ahnders and Khel.

---

"One smells smoke! They are burning the trees!"
Around the three wolves a think haze of smoke was quickly developing, obscuring vision and sense. Khel, the female, coughed slightly then quickly said, "The scent of the Wyrm is all around us! Its so thick, one can not tell where it is coming from!"
The wolves stopped their run and looked around them. The situation looked bad. Behind them, and to their flanks the forest was aflame preventing travel, and in front of them the sounds of many men, tree-butchers, could be heard. To add to the problems, thick smoke from the fire was obscuring their senses, preventing them from keeping clear of the large groups of men, or worse, the Wyrm-Tainted vampire. Blood-Spiller sighed.
"We have been cut off from the rest of the pack. Our paths have been blocked, and we have only one course of action left to us." With a snarl and the queer sound of bone changing shape the wolf stood up on its hind legs, and began to grow. Soon the beast was over nine feet tall, covered from head to heel with corded muscle and thick fur. In one of his massive paws he held a gleaming Klaive. The other two garou, following his lead also changed their shapes.
"Rainokami-ikthya!! Come to me!"
Blood-Spiller's howl pierced the night. Its anger and violence were matched only by one thing. His scream of pain as a silver-headed arrow tore into chest. Several more followed, one biting deep into his throat, silencing his howl eternally.
The remaining two garou were cut down quickly in the rain of silver.

---

The fight for the cairn went much the same way. The scores of men armed with silver headed arrows and compelled by a vampire burned the forest around the cairn to the ground, then slew the vastly outnumbered warriors from afar. Of all those slain only the four pups and Tsalks survived.
Tsalks took the pups safely away from the now falled cairn and began to raise the pups as her own. She taught them to hunt, how to fight and how to survive. Within a few years they were almost fully grown. She brought them to another pack of wolves and asked the Alpha if he would accept the adolesant wolves into his pack. He graciously accepted her request. However she kept one of the wolves with her, the son of Reav Blood-Spiller, Alpha of the once great pack of Dread Trackers.
She slowly began to teach the garou what he was. She taught him of Gaia, the Wyrm, the moon, his rage and of the Get of Fenris. She trained him as Reav would have, teaching him the ins and outs of battle and leadership, the odd ways of the man things, and how to fit in amoung them, and teaching him of the quest of his pack, to keep the northern forests safe from the Wyrm's influence.
Over many years she trained him, and he absorbed it all. During his training he grew massive, even larger than his sire. He was fleet of foot and powerful. Combined with his training he was a formidible garou, but he still lacked the greatest of his powers, that of changing. Tsalks knew that she was growing old, and soon would be of no consequence to the young garou, and knew she had one final task to complete.
She took Orvin, as the garou was known to a large clearing and began to tell him the story of his fathers death. Orvin was moved not only to tears by the tale, but moved to extreme anger. He began howling. He howled like his heart was reft from his chest. That his father, a Spirit Warrior, was killed by such an act of cowerdice hurt him more keenly than any blade might. As he howled he began to change. Slowly at first, his limbs began to elongate, and his fur got shorter, more dense. His skin thickened and he rose to his hind legs. He began changing faster, his neck and skull changed slightly to allow him to look around without craning his neck, and his paws grew to massive size. Soon he was in his full Crinos form. He lifted his head as close to the moon as he could bring it and let loose a howl that shook the fabric of the umbra.
Orvin was filled with uncontrolable rage. He tore about the field, destroying anything he came near. Tsalks had wisely retreated to the rim of the field when he began his transformation. For nearly ten minutes the young garou screamed about the field, and when his rage was finally spent he fell to the ground, reverted to wolf form, and slept.

---

"Orvin, awaken.." the old garou gently slapped Orvin's face, "come awake now. You must learn of what you have done."
The younger male garou slowly opened his eyes. His body ached as if he had been torn asunder and sewn back together with a dull needle. He stretched his tender muscles and stood. "One feels... feels like something has torn within me. One knows one is garou, but one no longer feels wolven like one once did.."
Tsalks chuckled grimly, "Now my adren, you know what it means to be garou. You have tasted the Wyrm-work within you, and used it for your own. From this day forth you must always keep your rage checked, or it could have dire consequences." Tsalks paused for a moment, then continued carefully, "One has told you how to fit in amoung the men things, and one has even shown you several of them. I need you now to become one."
Orvin whimpered in confusion, then said, "One does not understand. One can not simply become a man thing." To his great suprise, Tsalks did then become a man thing.
"Just concentrate, picture your manself in your mind, and become it. It will happen."
He began to concentrate. For several minutes nothing happened, then he slowly began to shift, first into a larger wolf, then into the raging creature he had been in the field. Slowly he began to loose size once more, but instead of becoming more wolfen his fur receded and he became manlike.
"Excellent Orvin, you now have much more to learn, but one has little time in which to teach it..."

---

Tsalks then began teaching Orvin the intracacies of changing his shape, even how to change individual parts of his body, to whatever form he desired. She then taught him the language of men, as she knew it. Two more years passed as Orvin struggled to learn all he could about his shapeshifitng powers and of the world of men when on the eve of the full moon Tsalks asked him to return with her to the field where he experiance his first change.
When they arrived Tsalks face was filled with sorrow, and tears streaked her face. She quickly went over the Gathering of the Departed with Orvin to make sure he knew it well. She then asked his assitance in completing a Rite. She told him of the Rite of the Winter Wolf. Orvin steeled himself to his duty in the Rite, locking back his tears behind a door of rage. Before begining the Rite, she told Orvin that she heard in passing that Rainokami had traveled southwards to Prague, but that is all she had heard of his passing.
Then the moon reached its apex in the sky, Tsalks and Orvin began the Rite. It was a small gathering, so Orvin did his best to sing all the tales of Tsalks that he heard when he was a child, and that she had spoken to him of. His anguised voice raised in honor for hours. Finally, he could bare it no longer, and fell silent. Tsalks kissed Orvin on the crown of his skull and silently walked from the field...
The following night Orvin began the Gathering for the Departed. Although he was alone, he could feel a great many spirits around him as he went through the rituals involved. When all of the rites were complete he tilted his head back and howled deeply at the full moon. As if in confimation that Luna heard him, a single star fell, marking the end of one life, and the begining of another...

[[Syl]]

Lycanthropy has never been my cup of tea, but the writing is pretty sound technically.

[Lumikant]

in Werewolf: the Apocalypse werewolves arent lycanthropes. They are an ancient race created by gaia to protect the earth from evil.