Chapter 11

Storytelling from the Past

Disclaimer:

Toboe: Hey yah! I don't own the wolf's rain cast (I get really tired of typing that) So that's all. Love you and hope you enjoy. This tis a long one…. Now One With The Story!

Edited and Replaced Friday June 29 07

Klaue slowly rolled his head back and took a deep breath. His great uncle was talking to the others and he had no interest in their conversation. He closed his eyes and raised his head up to the starry night. His brown wolf ears twitched as he listened to his Uncle talking to the others. It had only taken a second for the others to understand the bond between these humans and these wolves and to realize that it was disrespectful for them keep their human illusions up during an important meeting.

"Enough," said Priester, "It would be better if I told you everything and tonight is the first of day of our Festival as Klaue no doubt told you. If we don't hurry we will be late."

The others looked at each other confused but followed as the old wolf walked off. Klaue fell in step next to Kiba as they winded thought the crowds who respectively parted for the elder.

"Is he always so vague?" Kiba growled.

"That is what my mother used to describe him."

The old wolf looked over an old grizzly grey shoulder at them.

"I may be vague but I'm not deaf."

---

"My dear people," The old wolf said. He was on a long platform that was only a foot or two off the ground. There was a large pile of soft blankets in the middle with a large bowl of strange smelling liquid next to it. The elderly wolf had curled up in these and was now addressing his pack. Aside from his bed there were three thick blankets on the sides of him. Taking Klaue's lead none of the wolves had sat but were gazing out around the crowds in amazement. The majority of the crowd was wolves, who were mostly grays with white, red, and black markings but a few of full colors twined in. Many of them had striped of colorful fabric twined into their fur. What really surprised the wolves were the others. There were humans, about half as many as the wolves. They were dressed brightly and lay scattered among the others. Some were even sprawled on the wolves or scratching heads. In the far back there was a fenced of area with horses penned in. There were even a scattering of birds, cats and, dogs. For one second they even caught the tell tale glimpse of a fox. All these creatures were all starring intently at Klaue's uncle. Hige guessed there was at the least four hundred creatures. It was so startling that one being could command all these living things of all different races.

"Tonight, before we tell of the story I must introduce five good creatures to you all. Our brother Klaue has been searching for his sister after they were attacked and his sister stolen. He has since joined the fabled Paradise Seekers. Let me introduce Kiba of the white pelt, Tsume the cross scar, Hige the collared one, and Blue the black hellhound. They are searching for their pack brother Toboe the howling pup and Kawa together."

Kiba and Tsume starred coolly as the crowd cheered, howled, barked, chirped, squawked, and neigh their approval. Klaue and Blue avoided their eyes and got as close to blushing as a wolf can get. Hige smiled and stood a little taller, immensely pleased with himself while Tsume acted like he could care less.

"They have joined us for our merry making and for them and our other guests I will tell of our tale in their language for they do not have the pleasure of knowing our tongue." He took a deep breath and spoke the opening of any story for his people, be it big or little, short or long. As he spoke he seemed to glow with an inner radiance.

"Our history is ageless, as our bones make the soil, our tumult the mountains, our tears the rivers. The stars will never forget the mistakes, triumphs, and sorrows of the past and they will always remind us. I, as the storyteller, am thus letting the ocean of our knowledge bleed unto you. Listen well, be you cub or elder, as the stars speak through me tonight!"

---

Kawa looked around her into eager wolf eyes waiting for her to begin.

"Normally the storyteller has a bowl of herb laced water but I think I can make an exception"

The glares from her pack mates stopped her and she swallowed and began.

"Our history is timeless- er I mean ageless, as our bones make the soil, our tumult the mountains, our tears the rivers. The stars will never forget the mistakes, triumphs, and sorrows of the past and they will always remind us. I, as the storyteller, am thus letting the ocean of our knowledge bleed unto you. Listen well, be you cub or elder, as the stars shall speak through me tonight!"

---

There was a time long ago, when wolves were free from any worry or doubt. They lived in peace with the animals around them, from the smallest mouse to the largest horse. In thus they prospered. The land was green and plentiful and hunters never needed to kill. They were guarded by the mother of creation, the moon, and she filled the land with food and water and the creatures rejoiced. They called this place Paradise.

Everyone was content, but one day a young wolf came to the great mother goddess.

"Oh Mother," He cried, "I am tired of this life; forever I travel the same paths as I have always travel though these woods, day after day. I wish you would show us something new, somewhere different. I quest for more."

"Do not grow greedy child," The mother spoke, "I have made a land of perfection. What more could you quest for?"

"It is not just I! Many of us are also restless. We seek something more Mother."

The mother sighed and touched her child's head gently. They were her first children and when talking to any of her offspring she took their shape. Her coat was of moonlight and her eyes stars but now her eyes were troubled. She had created her children with no malice and now she was afraid. What would happen to her child if he continued down this path?

"My child, I will show you the way to another land, one not only of my making but other forces. The creatures of malice and hate. It was not made only with love as this land is."

"Please Mother" Wolf begged, ignoring her warning" Show me the way!"

With a sorrow laden sigh she raked her sliver claws through her fur. Long strands of silver hairs twirled around it and with one final sigh she spun them around the base of a small flower that grew next to her. It was a lunar flower, a flower of hundreds of light pink petals that only bloomed in the moonlight. It glowed palely and the young wolf took a step back.

"This will be your portal to Earth, my child" The mother whispered sadly. She leaned over to the glowing flower and blew gently on it. The growing mass started to elongate and thicken, the leaves twining together, the petals lengthening. The wolf's ears flattened onto his skull and he looked up at the creature that now stood before him. Her skin was white with the palest ting of pink and her eyes unseeing red. She stood upright like a bird but she had no tail, feathers, beak, or wings. Her petals had formed long thin pink strands of fur that only formed on her skull.

"This is the Flower Maiden"

The creature turned to Wolf and spread her arms. Suddenly the world changed for the wolf. He was at the base of a tall mountain. The land was covered in thick trees. They didn't look unfriendly and the wolf turned to the maiden. The flower maiden stood before him, head sagging, and arms bowed.

"Take me back! I have to show the others!"

Again the maiden raised her arms and he was looking at silver form of the Goddess. She smiled joyfully at him, the heavy burden on her chest rising.

"I take it that world was not to your liking my son"

But her happiness faded as she saw the gleeful look on the wolf's face.

"No my Mother! It was beautiful! I have come back to show my brothers and sisters!" With that he bounded down the hill, the flower maiden's hand grasped lightly in his jaws.

"STOP!!" The goddess wailed, "My son! Do not bring my family into darkness!"

But the wolf didn't hear her and she could do nothing. Her power blossomed on free will and in thus she could do nothing to stop the decaying of her world. All she could do was watch as the wolf tainted all her children with his world. Slowly they massed around him and he called to the flower maiden to raise her arms and become a gate way once more. Only the Goddess noticed the growing slump in her arms, the profound bowings of her head. The Goddess watched as her daughter grew a tracery of green lines. She watched as she fell to her knees in exhaustion. And she watched as the last of her children disappeared. She had not even acknowledged the farewells, and 'See you soon' of her children. Instead she turned and went to the earth.

Her daughter lay slumped on the ground. The goddess wailed as she saw what was happening but she couldn't do anything to help. In this world she could do little unless it was a full moon.

"I am sorry my daughter," she cried out into the wind. The maiden had heard her and raised her vein streaked head.

"This one knows that." And she collapsed. Thousands of tiny pink seeds scattered everywhere, able to drift in the wind till the end of time, or until they found their own paradise. The animals soon came back, having their fill of this strange world, ready to go home to find a large furrowed tree and countless unbudded flowers where the flower maiden once stood. They wept and prayed but the goddess couldn't help. Through angry tears the goddess watched as days flew by and they gave up hope. Her horses, sheep, deer, antelope, and other plant eaters discovered the need for food and begin to eat the plants that flourished around. She watched as, after days of hunger, a lion turned to the lamb that was next to him and slew it. She watched as the predators tasted their first blood and as the plant eaters fled. The reindeer, caribou, and seals to the north; the zebras, wildebeests, and antelope to the south; and the deer, horses, and rabbits to the east and west. She watched as the predators migrated, looking for their friend turned meals and a few plant eaters came back once they realized that most of the meat eaters left. The only creature that remained was the young wolf. He slept under the tree, ate around the bushes, and drank from the still pond at the far end of the mountain. He talked to the Goddess even thought she couldn't respond.

"Oh mother what can I do? No one will speak to me. They call me the tainted one. Because of me the pack all broke up. Our white brothers following the caribou, the red ones the zebras, my kind, the grey ones, the deer. So many left and it wasn't just them. What can I do oh Mother!!! Please make me another Maiden so I can right my wrong!"

Even thought this wolf had created so many hardships for her children her heart went out for him. On the night of the full moon, the night when she had the most power, she came to him.

"Here child, I will create a messenger. While I can never send you back to the land you once knew I can at lease give you this."

She took a deep breath and created man. There were two of them, a man and a woman.

It took awhile for things to go wrong. The humans now had children, and their children, children. The 'tainted' wolf had long sense passed, but had claimed a mate and his bloodline stayed with the humans. It started to go wrong as she watched the people call them 'dogs' and treating them with no respect. Her plans didn't work. She watched as hundreds of years went by, and the ancestors of that first wolf were wolves no longer. They were man's tool. Dogs.

One night, so many years from that horrible night, a young silver female wolf prayed to her. Wolf's didn't often pray any more and the goddesses sorrow increase ten fold when she hear what her daughter said.

'Oh mother. I ask for you in pray a way to save our people. We are being hunted down. Our brothers the lions are all dead and the tigers are just lingering. So many of us have died out. Please can you help us? I have always been told of a Paradise. And of the flower maiden who would lead us there. Show us the way!"

The mother fought to descend. Here, in this land, she had a hard time coming to her children. Instead of the strong wolf form from before, she was now a pale imitation.

"I will my child."

That young wolf was the first to receive a human illusion.

She traveled as the goddess' messenger, teaching her illusion to the wolves, speaking of a time to come. One with another flower maiden.

---

Priester cleared his throat and lapped at the herb laced water before returning to the excited four hundred or so pairs of eyes that watched him.

"That wolf was Edalviss. She was one of our own. As the wolves split over six hundred years ago they became so distant that even our languages twisted. Most of the wolves have again intermingled as our world decays."

Then he stood up and spoke the traditional ending to a tale.

---

"We can only hope that, whether it be told afresh or spoken of again, that you have heard the true story. Never forget the mistakes of the moon, or the sacrifice of the flower. Listen and learn my children."

Kawa shook her head. She couldn't believe that she had remembered that all. At first she couldn't remember all the words but then they seemed to flow. Smiling warmly at her family she likened it to a trance. Ibis was curled next to Toboe's side her head nestled in his side, her eyes closed in slumber. The wolf's eyes were half closed and he looked like he was on the verge of sleep. Sano and Danflor were slummed against each other. Kawa's heart went out for the little girl. She so plaintively liked him more then a friend, but he was too thickheaded to notice. Danflor's squirrel-like ears twitched as he gazed tiredly at Kawa. Sprawled next to him was Chris. The little wolf had taken a liking to the bigger wolf and treated him like an older brother, with admiring attention and love. It made Kawa so very happy that he was fitting in, for she was sure that his parents were dead. Jack and Lif were lying close together next to Sano. They were the best of friends and both of them had their eyes closed in slumber.

"Good night"

Toboe: Yeh I am almost done! Soon the editing will be over and I will post the first chapter!