Final boss: "Out of the shadows emerges a 6'-tall goblin astride a huge, horse-size worg." (Scott Rosema for "Tallow's Deep," AD&D adventure by Steve Gilbert and Bill Slavicsek, Dungeon 18, July/August 1989)
“This beast is no gift, brother,” Curze yelled, staring at the giant wolf in the middle of the party room.
“Nonsense!’ Leman patted the large wolf, which was almost as large as him. ‘Torvi is just as strong and competent as her brothers.”
The wolf yawned, and laid on the ground. She was mostly white as Fenrisian snow, with flecks of ash throughout her chest. She closed her eyes and appeared to go to sleep.
“She’s so big!’ Lyra exclaimed in fascination. ‘Are you sure we can have her here?”
“It’s Fenrisian tradition that a pregnant female be watched over by a Fenrisian wolf. They’re very intelligent and will do to protect you from any harm that should – Emperor forbid – occur,” Russ said.
“Does our father know about this… this… ridiculous tradition?” Curze spat.
“Konrad! Your brother has come a long way –”
“To bring a giant beast into our home, Lyra!”
In an instant, Torvi was awake, alert, and snarling at Curze. Her growls shook the room.
“Easy now, girl,’ Leman said, gently rubbing the wolf’s fur and getting her to sit back down. ‘Torvi is also protective of me as well.”
“Konrad,’ Lyra turned to address him. ‘You have a few months before your next mission, but even less before the baby arrives. You’d be able to know if anything happens before then, get comfortable.’ She grabbed his hand, and looked longingly into his eyes. ‘For me?”
Curze squeezed his eyes shut, a pained expression across his face. “Fine, we’ll keep the beast’ he said. ‘For now.’ He looked to Leman ‘If it does anything to my wife, the dog will become a pelt.”
“Fenrisian wolves are good with families, especially children. But I also doubt you could hurt her if you tried,” Leman teased.
Lyra cautiously walked forwards towards the wolf, who sniffed her hand as she placed it nearby. Leman showed her how to handle the beast, where to pet it, and Curze just stood there hoping she had not gone crazy. “What does it eat?” He asked.
“What any wolf eats, brother. You have plenty of meat, I know,” Leman responded.
Alex ran his fingers over the scruff on his chin as he walked deeper and deeper into the remote woods. It was a shame he couldn’t grow a full goatee, but at least this looked good on him. You’d think he’d be more hairy, considering his natural form was an enormous wolf, but magic worked in mysterious ways. At least he had a human form… his grandfather and grand uncle did not. It was convenient for travel, meant human hunters wouldn’t mistake him for a dangerous animal, nor at full size see him as some horrible monster. Sure he could shrug off gunshots, but they still hurt.
He continued through the woods, looking at the lush plant life around him. Once he passed into her territory, the plants always seemed more vibrant. He liked it, he was glad his little sister was flourishing way out here. She had gotten too overwhelmed in the city, too overwhelmed by the social behaviors of the werewolves he worked with. Made sense, foxes didn’t live in large packs like wolves. That had been the hardest part about taking in her after her parents were killed, kitsune and monster wolves had very different social structures. But his family owed her parents a debt, taking her in was the least they could do.
He could now hear hints of movement. She was definitely sneaking up on him to pounce. He’d seen her hunt rabbits and squirrels, she absolutely could move truly silent, but it seemed when she was pouncing for play she often got too excited and gave away her position. But he played along. Pretending he didn’t notice. He wondered if she’d pounce in fox form or her more human form. He heard footsteps… she was in human form.
And there it was, arms wrapped around him from behind, the sound of three fox tails wagging. “Hey Avisia… it’s good to…” He paused as he turned to look at her and saw what she was wearing. “Avisia… what they hell is that?” He heard her laugh, “You like it? It was a gift. Some humans wanted safe passage through my woods, gifted me some tasty foods and this hooded cloak!”
Alex sighed, “Avisia, I told you before I hate red hooded clothing. Reminds me of that damn twisted story about me. Take it off or I’ll put you in time-out. I’ve warned you plenty before.” The young woman let go of her hug in a huff, “Maybe if you actually told me the story I’d understand. I found the human’s version of the story… but I wanna know what really happened.”
Alex sighed, “Fiiiine… but I’m turning back to wolf form to lay in the clearing. And you are taking that damn thing off.” He glared at her, relaxing more once she removed the hood and put the cloak over her arm, just wearing a simple tan dress. Alex started letting himself revert to his natural form. Fur covering his body, snout forming on human face, body morphing to move on four legs. But he kept his true size contained, remained only as big as a bear as he started walking. His sister walked along side him, and because she had listened and took the hood off, he figured he may as well tell her what really happened. “You’ve heard that silly ‘little red riding hood’ story… you probably came across it in one of the books in the house. But you also know me. That I don’t go around making a meal of humans. There’s a reason the tale ends with the grandmother and girl unharmed. But the whole thing was a misunderstanding and then that idiot hunter or woodsman or whatever made an exaggerated story of it.”
“The woods I was in that day were not so lush as these. More sparse, less underbrush, but a thicker canopy. Made them heavily shaded even in day. I was looking to get a deer to eat, when I could smell something unusual. Baked goods. I knew the area, so figured someone might be heading to visit an older woman, a healer and witch in the woods. I occasionally talked to her, and she had helped with some of the werewolves we work with, providing medicines to help them stay calmer. I was fond of talking to her. Figured if she might be having a visitor I would walk the trail to make sure it was still clear after the last big storm. So I followed along it, using the fact I am so large as a solution to moving any oversized tree limbs out of the main path.”
They had reached Alex’s favorite clearing and he sprawled out to enjoy the sun, closing his eyes as he continued the story for his sister, “When I neared the witch’s hut, I could see she was having some issues. Roof damaged, wall damaged, chimney damaged… so she was having to do her brewing outside since the fumes wouldn’t be drawn out properly. I lay down outside her gate to talk to her. Ask if she was staying warm enough with that kind of damage to her house and with her doing her brewing outside. She seemed well, but tired. I asked her about how things were going when we both heard something growling in the woods. We knew immediately what it was- a manticore. A tired old witch would not do well against a manticore… and what of her guest!”
“So I told the witch that if she trusted me, I could hide her in my stomach for safety while I drove away or killed the manticore, but only with her permission as I did not want spells slung at my stomach. She agreed, as it was the reasonable solution. But before I went to pick her up in my mouth, she told me she was expecting her granddaughter to visit, and asked me to keep her safe as well. So I ran down the path after swallowing the witch. When I reached the young woman in her red cloak, I lay down on the path in front of her. I tried to explain who I was to her. Told her to look, surely her grandmother had described me before. To calm down and listen to what I had to say. That we heard a manticore and if I didn’t hide her she may fall to its appetite.”
“The young woman was far more scared, but did hear of me from her grandmother. As I was trying to reassure her I saw the manticore stalking… I had no times for delay and… while I wish she had not gotten so scared as to scream, it was better that than risk the venom of the manticore’s tail. She may not have survived venom.”
“So I turned to face the manticore. Tough bastards, especially since I wasn’t full sized because I hadn’t wanted to damage the forest. But after a few minutes I managed to nail a lethal bite on the manticore. As I tossed it aside and sat to catch my breath… I felt an axe hit my leg. Damn thing was enchanted so it hurt like a bitch. So in a foul mood I wrestled the axe away from the man and pinned him under a paw. Lectured him about how if I hadn’t just finished killing the manticore, he could have ended up killed by the beast for distracting me in such a way from the fight. He mentioned hearing someone scream, so I explained how as a creature of great and ancient magic, I could choose not to use biological functions so I could keep people safe.”
“Once I got out the witch and young woman, the witch explained I am an old friend of hers, and she had asked me for protection because she was too tired to fight a manticore with her magic at the moment. I had thought that was the end of it… until I heard that dang story circulating. To think! Claiming he felled and cut open the grandson of Garmr! Madness. But that is the story that went around, people thinking that us wolf monsters devour people. I mean Fenrir and Garmr might if someone pissed them off, but they mostly just want to co-exist in this new world they came to after Ragnarok. I wish the tales here better differentiated us wolves… and I certainly don’t like being called ‘bad’ even if I am big. And don’t get me started on the pigs and goats things. Preposterous stories.”
With the story over he opened his eyes to glance at his sister… who was wearing the cloak again. “Really? After all that you put it back on? Keep it up and you are going in time out you brat. You are well past adult age for your kind but still act so… childish sometimes.” He was not surprised at all that Avisia stuck out her tongue. So he grew to larger size, tall as the trees themselves and snapped, catching her in his massive maw, although careful enough not to cause harm.
He felt her claws dig into his tongue but he was not letting her out of time-out so easy. His tongue flicked to bap her on the head as she smacked at it. She had probably just been trying to get him to play at a smaller size but this… this time he was teaching her some things weren’t to be teased about. He knew she hadn’t truly meant ill by it, but she had never teased about something he was genuinely sensitive about before. He was sure she would apologize after he swallowed her, as that would make it very clear to her he genuinely was upset about this. But it was just a minor sibling quarrel… they’d be back to playing after he got in a nap to wind down.
After a few more licks with his tongue he swallowed her down. The playful baps and smacks stopped immediately, and as he expected she spoke immediately, “You… you really put me in here? Oh… I thought you were just teasing it like you usually do… I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize it bothered you that much. When you get me out… you can help me collect blue plants so we can change the new cloak to purple instead.”
Alex gave a soft sound to reassure her, “It’s okay Avisia. I guessed you hadn’t realized I was genuinely upset. After a rest I’ll get you back out. But for now let’s just wind down a bit.” He heard a faint yawn, “Yeah, a nap isn’t a bad idea.” He felt the faint movements of his little sister getting comfortable and he settled in to nap as well.
Unfortunately his nap was interrupted after a time, a message from his grandfather. A request… go locate a friend of theirs to invite on a special, somewhat urgent trip. They had located something important and didn’t want anyone to know they had found it before they made their move. But Garmr and Fenrir, the wolves of destruction, had made a friend… and wanted to invite him. Alex was not so destructive as those two, so he hadn’t been as fond of the new friend.
Alex could not travel between worlds himself, he had not gotten magic like that from his kin… but he could tap into his sister’s wild and untamed magic and guide it with his own. Careful weaving of energy… he knew any other kitsune he’d never pull this off with, but Avisia trusted him fully, so gave no resistance to him drawing out some of her magic to weave. The rip, the tear in the very fabric of reality opened before him and he stepped through to go extend the invitation to this friend of his family. Then he could nap with his sister again.
