When I came to, I knew I wasn't myself. Wolves have a natural habit to curl up when they sleep, and the way they curl up isn't something any human body can replicate without being very flexible.
I didn't open my eyes at first, instead listening intently to try and find out what was going on. I found almost immediately that my hearing was incredibly sharp. I could almost build a mental picture of the surroundings, just by listening.
Nearby me there were some other wolves dozing, or breathing very lightly. There was a slightly stronger breather not far from me. I guessed that must have been a sentry, just to keep watch.
I was certain by the faint echoes of the sounds that I was in some kind of cave, and I could hear movements outside, rustling the grass and other plant life. I could even hear the wind whispering in the trees far above and away from me.
What was more amazing than that was my sense of smell. Humans, as you probably know, can't smell all that much, but now it seemed like I could smell everything. I could tell that the other wolves with me were young pups, and the sentry was an adult keeping watch over them. I was probably with them because I was still new.
I could tell there had been at least two other adults come in and leave this cave, and I could even tell roughly how long ago. If my new senses were right, it had been a little over two hours since I'd blacked out.
I decided it was probably time I got up again and found out what had happened to me, so with a yawn, I opened my eyes and looked around.
It wasn't so much a cave as it was a den. I hadn't been wrong in guessing what my nose and ears were telling me either.
"You are awake," the adult she-wolf said. "It is about time."
I was surprised to find I could understand her perfectly. I knew it wasn't any language I knew – or at least knew before this had happened. What was more surprising was that I knew how to speak it myself as well.
I nodded to her, then looked myself over. There was no question I was a wolf, but... I know I'm young, but it looked like I was just a young puppy like the others. I was older than that, surely?
"What bothers you?" the she-wolf asked.
"It is how I look," I answered. You'll have to forgive how odd it sounds, but the language is fairly formal, and it doesn't translate very well. A lot of words don't actually have any counterpart in any language I know.
"You look like a wolf. Is that not expected?"
"But I am only a pup?"
"That is not a matter to concern yourself with. It is the concern of our pack-leader to decide when you may go through the right of passage to become an adult, and receive your name."
"I have a name already."
"Your name is that of the man-things. You have no wolf name until you are an adult."
"Then how will others know who I am?"
"We will know. Just as you will know us without needing to know names."
"What should I do now?"
"Whatever you choose. Do not leave our sacred grounds though. It is not safe for one who is new to the family."
I figured the first thing to do was to find the chief again and find out some more about what was going on. I knew now that he wasn't just the chief, he was the pack-leader.
I scrabbled up and out of the tunnels from the den to outside. I had to use my own claws to keep my grip on a steeper bit, which wasn't easy. I wasn't used to this form yet.
I made sure no one else was around outside before I shook the dirt out of my fur though, and in the faint light from the moon, I gave myself another look over to see myself better.
Rather interestingly, I found my fur was coloured similarly to what I normally wore in most places, and in the rest it matched my hair.
While I was busy looking myself over – noting I had a tail as well – another adult wolf joined me.
"What is it that you are intending to do, pup?" he asked me. Again, I know it sounds strange. Try to bear with me.
"I seek to know more about what has become of me and what I am."
"You are a werewolf," he answered. "And a member of the pack of Kieran. What more is there to know?"
"The pack-leader gave me the chance to join that I might lend my aid in the war with the mortal enemy," I replied. "I wish to know the more that I could not be told before becoming a part of the family."
"It is well that you seek such knowledge, but you are the human that joined us on this night, and must learn of other matters before you may learn of those matters."
"What is it that I must learn?" Respect for the adult wolves was something that seemed built-in to me now. It just came naturally that way.
"You must first learn about yourself and what you may do. Then you will be ready to take part in the Hunt."
"And after the Hunt?"
"Then you may be ready to know more. I will join you while you grow used to yourself for your own protection."
Well that was nice of him. I didn't think there'd be any trouble I couldn't handle though.
I spent most of that night just wandering around. I met the wolves who's duty it was to patrol the edge of our grounds – not the clearing, but the actual edge that defined where the forest stopped, and our lands started. My guide and I joined them for a ways, then came in with one of the hunting parties that had brought down several deer for the pack.
I'd missed out on dinner, so I was hungry, but when I tried to get some for myself my guide stopped me.
"The pack-leader has the first choice, then the adults. The one who is watching over the other pups will bring the share for them to the outside of the den. You should wait there if you wish to eat now."
"Would I be allowed to find you again after to continue to learn more?"
"I am sure you will have no issue in doing that."
With that, I scampered off to wait with the others. I was only small – scampering was probably the best way to describe it.
While we waited, I began to worry what would happen if there wasn't enough left over for us. They had brought in several deer, but I had no idea how much they'd eat.
My worries were set aside when we were brought almost an entire deer for us. There weren't that many of us, so we all had plenty to eat. It was raw, but I guess being a wolf must have helped a lot, because it was a good meal.
I had to rest for a bit afterwards, so I wouldn't make myself ill. Wolves get indigestion a bit easier than humans do, I've since discovered. It gave me some time to try and clean myself up a bit. The she-wolf keeping us safe watched me try to clean up somewhat clumsily, then sighed and came over. She picked me up by the scruff of my neck, placed me down on a small rock, held me down lightly with one paw, then cleaned me herself. It was a bit embarrassing, but at least I ended up cleaner.
She gave me one last look over with a critical eye, then lifted the paw on me.
"Go and play," she told me. "Stay out of trouble."
I went looking for the wolf that had been my guide earlier, and found he was with the pack-leader. I somehow knew I wasn't allowed to approach unless I was called on, so had to wait for them to finish.
The chief in his wolf-form was an impressive beast. He was easily larger than any of the other wolves, and had a silvery ruff as a kind of mark of his status as our pack-leader – or a reflection of his hair in his human form. Maybe the hair was a reflection of the ruff. It's hard to tell with werewolves, what affects us in one form also affects the others.
They surprised me however, inviting me to join them. I still have no idea exactly how I knew a lot of things, but I somehow knew that I had to show I accepted his leadership by keeping my tail down. This wasn't easy for me; I wasn't even used to having a tail, let along keeping it down.
He apparently understood though, and without saying anything, asked me to sit. Body language can say a great deal more between wolves. Words aren't always necessary because of it.
"How is it with you, young one?" he asked me.
"I am curious, but content, revered pack-leader," I answered, already knowing the proper way to address him.
"And what is it that you are curious about?"
"He wishes to know more about ourselves and about the mortal enemy," my guide told him for me.
"Perhaps it is well that you learn that," he decided, then nodded to my guide, asking him to leave me with him. "One of the first things a new werewolf should know is his newly found heritage and past."
He then proceeded to tell me of our two creation myths – one for the universe itself, and one for the origin of the werewolves and our hated enemy.
To avoid potential arguments, I won't give you his translation of our universe creation myth – which may or may not be a myth, but that's beside the point. I can give you my translation of the werewolf creation myth though. Mine because it's better than his was.
You'd better be sitting comfortably, and be ready to try and understand this. My translation might be better, but not by much.

In the beginning, men ruled the lands and were content. But the lands did not accept their rule completely, instead giving over that control to the beasts of the land.
The men and animals sometimes clashed, sometimes lived harmoniously, but always there was one creature most misunderstood in those times of old.
The great wolf, wild and proud. The men thought it naught but a savage beast, and scarcely an encounter went past where the men did not flee from its sight, or make a foolhardy attempt to slay it.
And our mother the creator looked upon this, and was saddened. She had resolved herself not to be directly involved, and so did nothing even though her sons and daughters beseeched her otherwise.
Time did pass, and this sorry affair changed, but not for the better. The men began to fashion means of protecting themselves and harming the animals better than they had before. The wolves began to die out, due to the men slaying them, and the men who hunted their game.
Of these men, some few were called knights. These men bore some of the qualities of the wolf, being just and honourable.
But deception and betrayal lay in the hearts of all men, and some knights were not just or honourable.
Now it came to pass that upon a great plain, a knight of both kinds stood against each other with their allies. Also on this plain lay an ancient shrine to our mother. Though it had seen no use for many years, it remained hers.
Troubled by what she saw around her shrine, she chose to accede to the demands of her children and intervene.
The two knights and their allies paused at the sight of her, stood between them and ordering them to shed their arms. She called forth the two knights and spoke with each, learning their side of the tale and silencing the other until she had heard both.
The two knights were mortal enemies, set against each other by an insult the family of one had made against the other long before, so far back that the very insult itself could not be recalled. Forgotten, but it remained the reason the two families fought with each other to that day.
She turned them aside from their self-destructive ways in each a different way.
Unto the knight benevolent, she gifted the qualities of the beast he so resembled, and thus were the first of our kind, the Werewolves, born. The knight, his family and allies shared in this gift, forming the first of the packs. They inherited the customs and traditions of those creatures they shared the gift with, and cherished the gift.
The knight, awed at the power of the one who had bestowed the gift, vowed at once to turn aside and departed the field of battle.
Then she did turn to the remaining knight and his allies. She did not bestow upon them a gift of an animal, but as the universe demanded balance, she had to give unto them something to keep it.
So she cursed them with the thing they thought they would desire most, a long life. But with it came the cost of new ways that they might be brought low. She gave them power over others, but also cursed them, forcing them to depend on those unchanged others for their very life-blood.
The knight believed he had been spurned, punished. He did not vow to turn aside, instead swearing to continue his unrighteous crusade to eliminate his hated foe, and to exact revenge against her by eliminating our kind in their totality. Not until there lay no more werewolves upon the soils of the world would he allow his kind their rest.
And thus were the first of our hated and mortal enemy, the Vampires born.
The knight benevolent knew nothing of this, having departed before our mother had so cursed the other knight. The Great War of our kinds began when the knight malevolent launched a surprise attack on the first pack, slaying many.
From that time onwards, we have been set eternally against each other, both sides sworn to the eradication of the other. There can be no peace between us until we lay dead, or they lay defeated.

And just as that legend says, that vendetta still goes on today, and now I'm a werewolf too, I'm a part of it. My pack-leader made certain I understood that when he explained it to me, and then as it was growing late by then, suggested we headed back home to our town. I was told that I'd return to my normal human self when the moon set.
I still hadn't grown used to running around in my new form, so one of the adults picked me up again and got me there in time.
I had to jump up onto the bed in my room, and being only a small pup I couldn't make it that easily. I managed it eventually, then curled up and went to sleep. It had been a long night – even if it didn't seem like it.