Wayward Wolf - Completed

The Legend

 

Chapter 26 - The Legend

After Qillaq and I got to talking, he understood more about what I was capable of. I told him all about Duke, my dreams, and the two rogues. After a few short demonstrations of what I can do - a trick with water and lifting leaves off the ground, minor stuff, - he nodded and told me to follow him.

We were walking with a few other people down to what seemed like the river from before. It was where the cliff diving was, more or less. Except, the part he was leading me to seemed to have a huge waterfall.

"Can I ask you something?" I spoke to Qillaq as we walked.

"Yes," he said simply.

"Why are you helping me exactly? I mean...from what I understand I'm supposed to be saving the werewolf race basically. Don't you guys hate werewolves? Wouldn't you want me dead as much as anyone else?"

He smiled to me. "If you truly believed that, you would not have come to us."

He had a point. "I suppose. But you're the only ones who seem to know exactly what I am, so it wasn't so much a choice as it was a lack of options."

"You are the Shunkaha. The chosen one. The wolf spirit, as you would call it in your language. We do not hate the shifters. It is werewolves that we don't like, the ones that transform under a full moon and are true monsters. They are all gone now, extinct, thankfully. Shifters, or werewolves as they call themselves now, are originally nature's creatures. Just like you, they are a product of nature. They are not monsters. We do not fear them like the moon werewolves. My kind worked hard to kill off the moon werewolves, with the help of Henry."

"Hank?"

He nodded. "Yes. Hank," he chuckled. "That's how we became friends. We worked together to rid them of the earth. There weren't many, and almost all of them were here with the Shifters, thinking they were the same kind. But they weren't. They were evil. We succeeded and this is a safer place now. You, Alex, are meant to save the Shifters, not the werewolves."

Huh. So Mason and all of them...they're Shifters - not Werewolves. Never knew there was a distinction between them. Guess I was wrong. Wonder why they don't call themselves Shifters? Is it just because they see themselves as werewolves because of modern society, or don't they know there's a difference? No. They have to know. Hank knows, so they all must know. Maybe they just don't care

Whatever - moving on now.

"So you're alright with Shifters then?"

"Yes," he said as we continued to walk. "They are also humans. They, being Shifters, did not necessarily have to take the form of a wolf. But it's in their genetics. There are other Shifters out there that take the form of many things. Some choose to stay in that form permanently, as there is peace that comes with their true form. Others shift back like your friends, content with living in two forms that have one soul. You are not that much different from them. When you transform into Shunkaha, you too are shifting in a way, but you remain human because that is your true form. Shunkaha is the energy inside your soul. That is why you talk to it in your dreams and not in reality. It cannot talk to you outside your soul, that is impossible. It is one with you."

"Ya, that makes sense. In truth, though, I'm glad I don't turn into some wolf. I prefer two legs to four..." I chuckled and he joined in, along with a few other men walking behind us, carrying hiking sticks and arrows. 

I wonder why they carried arrows with them. But Qillaq was their chief - their boss - so it was probably just to protect him.

"Here we are," Qillaq said and we pulled up at the side of a waterfall. There were a few large rocks that lead into and under the waterfall it seems. But the water looked like it was heavy, thrashing against those rocks and others in it's way near the floor of the river.