The Pack
Harry awoke in the morning to find himself in a cave of some kind . A fire was in the center of the large cave-room and there were furs lying on the ground. He sat up and looked at his arm; it was all bandaged up. He just KNEW there were humans in this forest.
"He's awake! He's awake!" someone yelled. It was immediately followed by a kind of yipping howl . The person ran back to him and held up a bowl. "Here, it's water," he said. Harry saw that it was a boy, probably around a year older than him, wearing tan colored pants with a crude leather belt and a dagger hanging from the belt . Harry grabbed the bowl and drank the water.
"Thanks," he croaked. "What happened?" he asked.
"Is your bite okay?" the boy asked, ignoring his question.
"Yeah, I think so," Harry said.
"Here, there's new clothes for you that Torra made for you," the boy said, holding up some pants that were similar to his . "You were asleep for a while, but we've got some food over here," he pointed to a bowl of meat and fruit, "in case you're hungry," he said.
"Where am I?" Harry asked. "What happened? Who are you?"
"I'm Milford Grayveson, you can call me Ford," he said, holding out his hand. Harry shook his hand and took in Ford's appearance. Ford had blond hair, cut short but long enough so that it didn't stand straight up, and tanned skin.
"I'm Harry, Harry Potter," Harry said.
"I'd better start from the beginning," Ford said. "You know what a werewolf is, right Harry?"
"I...I think so," Harry said.
"Well, as soon as that bite clears up a bit, you're gonna be one," Ford said.
"What?" Harry asked, "But werewolves aren't real," he said.
"Aren't you a wizard?" Ford asked. "Dismas said that he found you, with another werewolf, near a wizard's house . But, he could be wrong... he is a little senile."
"A werewolf?" Harry asked again.
"Yes, Harry, I thought we'd gotten past that part. A werewolf. You're going to be a werewolf. Lucky for you, last night was the last full moon for a while, you get to learn a little before your first transformation," Ford said.
"Transformation? Into a w-werewolf?"
"Harry, get it in your head. You got bitten by a werewolf, in less than a month, you will transform into one . Until then you have to learn a little about the rules. " Ford held up a pair of pants. "Here's your clothes, after you're dressed you have to go to see the Alpha, and then I'm to hand you over to Dymphna. She'll teach you about the rules and the rites and what-not," he said.
"Alpha? Like in a wolf pack?" Ford nodded.
"Now get out of those clothes, they're far too large for you."
The Alpha Male's cave was the farthest to the left, about a half a mile away, and was decorated with large colorful flowers outside the entrance . Ford told Harry that the flowers were replaced everyday, though Harry couldn't figure out why he needed to know this.
"So you go straight in there, and Alpha will be waiting," Ford said, giving Harry a light shove. Harry stumbled on his feet, and then walked into the dark cave . He soon was in a room, like the one he had been in, only with one fur blanket on the floor. A rather large man with a beard reclined on the blanket, eyes closed.
"A-are you the Alpha Male?" Harry asked . The man motioned him to sit on the fur next to him . It was silent for a few moments before the man's voice broke the silence.
"Your name?" he asked.
"Harry Potter," Harry said. The man nodded.
"I am Odyn, of the Red-Talon pack," he said.
"It's nice to meet you," Harry said, trying to be polite. Odyn looked down at Harry.
"You are very young," he said.
"I just started primary school," Harry said.
"Yes, very young," Odyn said. "Still a cub," he said. "You may go now. " Harry immediately scrambled to his feet and ran quickly out of the dark atmosphere of the cave. When he got outside, a girl was waiting for him. She was about thirteen or fourteen, wearing a rather shapeless tan smock with no sleeves. On a belt around her waist hung the same type of knife that Harry had seen Ford wearing, along with a pouch. Her hair was dark and long with many gray strands, and her skin was browned with white patches, her eyes were brown. She wasn't paying any attention to him, but eating a piece of dried meat.
"Hello?" Harry asked.
"Oh, Harry, right?" the girl asked, handing the meat to him . "Want some?" she asked. Harry shook his head . "You're choice," she said, putting the meat in the pouch. "So, I'm Dymphna, I'm supposed to show you around a bit," she said, brushing off her hands. Harry noticed that her nails were pointed like claws.
"You're to tell me the rules too?" Harry asked.
"Well, okay. Apparently you know more about this gig than I do," she said, holding out her hand for him to shake. "I'm from the Glass Walkers, a cliath with nothing better to do than run around doing errands for nearby tribes. ' Course none of them trust Glass Walkers so the errands aren't big ones," she said.
"Glass Walkers?" Harry asked. "Are those like the Red-Talons?"
"Oh, no," Dymphna shook her head. "Completely opposite. Red-Talons won't even HIRE Glass Walker cliaths. They're all about pure-breeding and human-prejudice and that stuff. I'd better explain from the beginning, as I was pretty much told to, but completely ignored," she said.
"Yeah, you should." Harry said.
"So, in werewolf-ness, there's a lot of old lore. Load of bollocks if you ask me, but since I'm supposed to teach you and all," she took a breath, "when were you born?" she asked.
"What does that have to do with werewolf-ness?" Harry asked, adopting her word.
"Everything, now when were you born?" Dymphna repeated.
"July 31st," Harry said.
"Five or six years ago, am I right?" she asked.
"Five," Harry said.
"Hm...I think that was a Crescent moon, you're good at magic?" she asked.
"Magic doesn't exist. My uncle used to tell me all the time.," he said, wincing at the thought of his uncle.
"Ah, little Harry, "magic" doesn't exist, but wizardry does," Dymphna said. "I'd be an excellent witch myself if my father wasn't a werewolf, stupid odds. I was born under the Crescent moon myself, so welcome to the club."
"So if you're mag- a sorcerer, then a werewolf bites you, then the werewolf erases the magic?" Harry asked.
"Not exactly. Here, sit down, Harry, this'll take a while to explain. There's a nice patch of green right there." Dymphna sat down on the grass and Harry sat across from her . "You see, if a child is born half werewolf, half human, then there's a one in ten chance that he'll come out werewolf, you're too young to understand the statistics like that, so here. " Dymphna grabbed a few sticks from the area and put a few down . "How much is that?" she asked. Harry counted the sticks.
"That's ten.," he said. "I'm not stupid, you know."
"Aye, indeed. So, you'd understand this. Pretend that these ten sticks," she gestured to the ten sticks, "are little babies, you've seen a little baby before, right?"
"Yes," Harry said.
"So, then those little babies are newborns, all of them are either half werewolf half human, or half werewolf half wolf. You still with me there, Harry?" Harry nodded . "So nine of those babies," she took away one of the sticks, "will turn out pure human, maybe with magic, maybe not . You get it?" she asked.
"It's a little confusing. Why does one half werewolf and one not?" he asked.
"That's the odds that are so stupid. One in ten, so nine are normal happy-wizard-muggle offspring, one's moody-not-normal-werewolf-offspring . Of course there are no mudblood werewolves so there."
"Mudblood?" Harry asked. "What's that mean? What's a Muggle?"
"Don't say that word," Dymphna said.
"So what does it mean? Is it bad language like Dudley always uses?" Harry asked. Dudley always used words that he'd picked up from staying at his Aunt Marge's house, like 'bollocks' or 'arse'. Of course when Harry used the words, he was punished.
"Well, to some people it's bad language. But we really shouldn't be getting into that right now. So, we've got the sticks thing down..." Dymphna scratched her chin trying to think of another thing. "Ah, yes, the Litany."
"Litany?" Harry asked.
"It's like werewolf slang for "rules. " There are very few, but they're very specific. The first and foremost is respect the territory of another. " She smiled at Harry. "You know what that means, right?"
"Don't go to someone else's house without asking first?" he asked.
"Something like that. The Law: Whenever a Garou," she stopped at Harry's look of confusion. "A Garou is a fancy word for 'werewolf'," she said. "So, whenever a Garou approaches another werewolf's territory, he must announce himself first and ask permission to enter . The traditional method involves the Howl of Introduction, reciting one's name, sept, totem, tribe, and home tribe . A few packs also insist on a visitor's lineage, establishing whether he is pure bred. In addition to these precautions, a werewolf should mark his territory, whether with scent or clawed sigils, to keep peace with other garou," she said.
"Howl of introduction?" Harry asked . "What's that?"
"It's mostly only during wolf form, and then it comes naturally, so you don't have to worry about that," Dymphna said. "The second rule is submission to those higher than you. Cub to a cliath, cliath to a gov'ner ," she said.
"What's a cliath?" Harry asked.
"I'll get to that after the rules," she said . "A few tribes and clans, like the Bone Gnawers, don't do this, in their eyes all wolves are equal; then again another tribe, the Get of Ferris, only bows to a higher werewolf if the higher werewolf can royally kick their arse," Dymphna said.
"What tribe is this?" Harry asked.
"This tribe is the Fianna of the Dark Forest. Odyn joined this tribe when his mate asked him to, the Red-Talons were too fierce for her, so he obeyed and soon he was the strongest out of all of the Fiannas and he became leader," she said.
"What's the next rule?" Harry asked.
"The third rule, and the last of the important ones, is 'Ye shall not eat the flesh of the humans'. It was established in 1988 during the beginnings of the big diet craze. Of course a few tribes already had it in motion with the growth of cities in the west in the 1800s, too much law enforcement not to be caught," she said. "Then all of the rules don't matter anymore, but you'll learn them anyway."
"Diet craze?" Harry asked.
"Too many humans eating preservatives, so the flesh wasn't as succulent. And of course you could get a disease eating a human who had one ," Dymphna said. "And then we go onto the Moots."
"Moots?" Harry asked. "Ford told me that Dismas found me during a Revelry after a Moot."
"They had a moot last night? Hm.. I'd known that I'd've come sooner." Dymphna said. "Anyway, a Moot is sort of a party, though Fianna's hold Moots that are far less fun than Glass Walker Moots. They say Moots are to reinforce a tribes political power, I say it's a way to get drunk on a Sunday night and not be guilty."
"And a Revelry comes afterwards?" Harry asked.
"A Revelry is when, after the drunkenness, everyone runs off the pentup energy. Personally, I think it's just a way to get rid of the werewolves that are too old, if they try to keep up too much with the young wolves then they might die."
"This happens during a full moon?" Harry asked.
"Well, you see what happens, is that a Moot goes on during the day, and then when the sun sets and the full moon comes out, we all run ourselves crazy for the night."
"Oh, I get it now," Harry said.
"That's about all you have to know, pretty much. You'll learn the rest in your studies," Dymphna said.
"Studies?" Harry asked.
"You have to learn to read and write, and do math and all that, right?" she asked. "Then of course there's the tales you have to learn, and how to perfect the howls even in human form. After you finish, when you're about my age, then you get to go through the Rite of Passage."
"Rite of Passage? You haven't told me about that yet ," Harry said.
"Crap, I forgot. The Rite of Passage is when a cub, someone like you, gets to become a cliath, someone like me," she said. "It's very complicated. Sometimes if there's only one cub that has finished their schooling and has to do the Rite of Passage, then the Alpha, Odyn in your case, sends him to another pack where he may find a few more cubs that are about to go through a Rite of Passage, which usually is an extremely dangerous journey."
"What did you do for your Rite of Passage?" Harry asked.
"Keep in mind that tribes are very different, so my Rite of Passage was to gain two thousand dollars in the stock market ," Dymphna said.
"So that's not how mine will be?" Harry asked. Dymphna shook her head.
"A Rite of Passage is just to make sure that you can survive which what has been taught to you. Glass Walkers hid as successful humans in the Muggle world, so they have much different Rites of Passage," she said. "Then after that, you become a cliath, which is basically the end of schooling and the beginning in the "working world", you have to run errands for the wolves in your clan or in another clan, thus I am here. After that you get a real job as something in the clan, a warrior or a provider or something. But usually you have to be adult to get that."
"I'm afraid I'll forget all of this," Harry said.
"Don't worry, it's drilled into your brain over the years ," Dymphna said. "Here, it's something from a cheap antique shop, I just thought it looked pretty cool." Dymphna drew an old looking necklace from pouch. It had a tiny crystal in the shape of a crescent moon for a pendant. "It'll look good on you, though it might be too girly, you can barely see it though on your skin," she said, handing it to him.
"Thank you," Harry said.
"No problem, that two thousand dollars had to be spent on something other than drugs and booze for the Moot next week," she said. "How about we go back to the pack, you can get something to eat. It's not right that I can see all of your ribs!"
"Dymphna?" Harry asked. "What if I don't fit in?"
"Don't worry, you'll be great. Pack a few pounds on and you'll be the most handsome five year old in the history of the Fianna," Dymphna said. "Plus, it's the creed that a pack must accept a new werewolf. Be not prejudiced," she said, getting up. Harry got up and stood next to her.
"Do you really do drugs?" he asked.
"Nope, but it's what the money goes to in my tribe," she said.