There was a sense of unease in the hall now. Many of the villagers were now looking at him and the chief was busy rubbing his eyes. He himself wanted to forget about all of this until the howl was heard. It was clear now what everyone wanted, and Grishka smirked amused that she had annoyed the old man.
Zen just sighed in response to the mass of peer pressure. He took of his hat, revealing his short near white hair. He pulled down his scarf, revealing his shaven, handsome face. Grishka and the other women blushed for a moment. Zen took out a pipe stuffed it full of herbs, lit it and began to smoke. He blew smoke rings and then began to talk.
"Before the Empire..." he said "Before the Church of the Hammer, numerous gods reigned upon the earth, craven idols, magical beings and dark beasts whose shadows stretched down the generations in a trail of fear, sacrifice, blood and sometimes devilry. Here in the north there was one in particular who was commonly worshipped. They called him the Horned God, the Horned Wolf, the Lord of the Black Hunt, the Great Hunt, the Father of Werewolves and Man-Beasts..."
"Get to the point..." said the dark haired fellow.
"Shush, Mylik..." said Grishka
"His name...is forgotten..."
"Seriously...?" she, now disappointed.
"Not all 'gods' make their names known, nor care to be worshipped, like Ymir on his cold mountain, but aside the point. In the old days, long since passed, when the tribes of the North were new and man first sought to conquer nature, dark gods did he worship. The Horned One is, was one of them, and he loved the hunt, the thrill of the hunt, of the chase and the kill, thus, as men wished to be great hunters, they turned to him to teach them his ways. His ways, however, were not just the hunting of animals, but of also men. His warriors wore the wolf and bear skins, engaged in savagery and some say even cannibalism."
"So why is it that we do not know his name now...?"
"For a time, the clans warred, far more than they do in this era. There are clans of these regions whose bloodline have been bled dry, or bred out and absorbed into others and with them went the old ways. As competition between man and nature and man and man died down, the savagery of the old ways became...an inconvenience. Calmer gods of nature were called upon to take his place, the Earth Mother, the Sky Father, ancestral spirits..."
"That is interesting..." said the blonde haired man Grishko "But it says nothing of where these beasts come from...!" Zen puffed a large smoke ring, and blew again, somehow making arrow shaped buff of smoke.
"There are many tales of werewolves, but the first man beasts were a boon called upon by the people of the North. They asked the horned one for the power and savagery of beasts, of wolves and bears. He obliged and the first werewolves and werebears came to be..."
"To hunt animals....?" Asked Mylik.
"To hunt men...This was the time of great clan warfare and any advantage was taken. 'Honor' was much more...subjective back then it seems. Regardless when all the raging blood was bled out, and the innocent blood, cooler blood rose to take command of the clans. Political marriages were had, oaths were made and the relative peace of now started. This did not sit well with the Horned One, they say, and those he had blessed once before, those that survived, he turned his blessing into a curse. The elites of the northern tribes, became the scourge of the North. Many a line of chiefs, descends from the slayers of these beasts."
आप पढ़ रहे हैं
The Traveler: Name of the Wolf
काल्पनिकA traveler is on his way through the northern regions, when he finds himself engaged in the problems of a village. It seems there is a wolf problem and not the kind that runs on four legs.
