The Prelude

My first memories are rather sketchy. There was warmth, and food. Both came from mom. There were others besides me and mom. Some small like me, some bigger, more distant. But most important there was mom. I ate and slept. Then later, I started to play with my littermates. There was enough food, mom was there, everything was all right. I soon grew bigger and stronger than all of my littermates, and when we played, I was always the boss, just like mom was the boss of the big ones. Those were fine days and I was happy. But one day there was a funny smell in the air, and mom and the other big ones were very nervous. They ran around and howled and yipped a lot, and I knew that there was danger. I hid in the den with my littermates. Outside there were loud noises and the big ones yelped in pain. I heared mom yelp too, and I crawled out of the den to help her. But when I got outside, there were tall, bad smelling animals that walked on two legs, and I could not hear mom or the other big ones. One of the two-legs came for me. He made weird noises that hurt my ears and then he picked me up. Suddenly the ground was very far away and the two-leg looked at me and made more funny noises. I tried to howl for mom and bite the two-leg, but mom did not answer and the two-leg just shook me until I was very dizzy. Eventually, the two-leg put me down again, but the forest and the den had disappeared. There was wood and dead grass and something cold and hard. Everything smelled of the two-legs and then the ground started to shake and tilt. My paws could not get a hold on the smooth ground and I slid back and forth, bumping against the cold hard walls. I howled for my mom, but the only answer I got were the weird noises from the two-legs. Then the ground settled a bit, only to start shaking again while a loud noise drowned out my howls and an absolutely awful smell filled the air. I cried and howled until I could howl no more. Then I tried to dig my way out of this hard den, but the ground was smooth and hard and I could not get through. I curled up in the corner, shivering from fear and cold. The smell made me sick and the noise had all but deafened me. I do not know how long this lasted, it seemed an eternity to me and I felt absolutely miserable. When the noise and the shaking finally stopped, I was so weak, I could only whimper for my mom, but she did not answer. Instead some two-legs picked me up again. They carried me into some kind of very big den that smelled of two legs and many things I did not know. Then they put me on a very cold, smoot surface and prodded and pushed me. I was much too weak to resist, even when they hurt me with some pointy things. Eventually they carried me outside again. I could smell other wolves, but they were not those I knew. The two-legs put me down in a small den made of wood. Then they placed something in front of me that smelled like food. First I did not want to eat, because this was not from mom, but I was very hungry, so I ate some. Then I slept, but not very well. I was cold and lonely, and though the other wolves answered my calls for help, none of them came to comfort me. When I woke up again, I walked out of the den to look around. Mom and the others were still not here. I called for them, and other wolves answered. I could smell them near me, and I started to run towards them. But suddenly something hit my nose really hard, and I stumbled backwards, yelping in pain. There was nothing to be seen. I could not figure out, who had hit me, so I walked forward again, more slowly this time. There... something touched my nose again. It was cold and hard. This time I could see something, but it was confusing. It was like thin strands of grass woven together but they were much harder than grass, and cold. They hurt my nose and my tongue when I tried to gnaw through them. The other wolves were somewhere on the other side of this barrier, I could see them, but I could not get to them, and they could not get to me. I tried to walk into a different direction, but every time I had walked for a time, I hit another barrier. Each time I howled and barked in pain and anger, and the other wolves answered, but they did not come to me. This situation did not change any time soon. Every day the two-legs would come and bring food. Sometimes they would catch me and take me to that big den, where they did things with me that hurt. But I could not escape from them. They could always pass the barrier, but I could not get through, and there was no place to hide from them within the fence. Most of the time when they came, I ran to the farthest corner of the compound and snarled at them. They just made funny noises at me, put down the food and left again. The other wolves always greeted the two-legs with happy barks and wagging tails, but I did not like them, I kept my distance as best as I could. I ate their food, because there was nothing else to eat, but that was all the sympathy that I was willing to give to them.

The Days went by, and I grew bigger and stronger. Sometimes I tried to break open the fence, but always the two-legs came to fix it again. At least they stopped to take me to that big den, though sometimes I slept very deeply and dreamed that they took me there, and after such a dream, the smell of the two-legs was all over my body. One day the two-legs brought one of the other wolves through the barrier. It was a young wolf that was more like my father than my mother. He smelled very much like the two-legs, but he was friendly and at last I was not alone any longer. I had grown very big and strong, much bigger than the other wolves, and the two-legs rarely bothered me any more, which suited me just fine. But I wanted to get out of this compound and run though the forest that was on the other side. I could smell it, I could hear the animals in the forest, and the wind sang to me to follow him, but I just could not get through the barrier. I tried, again and again, but it was too strong to break through, and too tall to jump over. The male wolf could not understand me. He seemed happy here, and though he was good company, he just did not hear the call of the wilderness as I did. The winter came, with snow and cold, then the spring came again, and the next summer. All my efforts to get out of the barrier had failed so far, but then one day, I figured out, how the two-legs passed through the barrier: They always came in at the same spot. At this spot there was a kind of box, and when the two-legs touched that box, the barrier at this spot would open for a moment. When one of the two-legs came through the next time, I was ready and sprinted by the two-leg through the open barrier. The two-leg gave a big shout and ran after me, but I was faster. I ran along the other barriers, and the other wolves behind them barked in excitement and ran around, but I ignored them. I ran towards the forest, but was stopped by yet another barrier. While I was searching for a way through this barrier, the two-legs had all come out of their big den and were running after me. I snarled at them, and they stepped back. But then one of them pointed a kind of stick at me, there was a funny sound and I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder. I tried to run away again, but I got very dizzy and weak. When I could walk no more, the two-legs approached. Two of them picked me up. I tried to resist, but I was too weak, and my body would not respond to my wishes. They carried me back to the compound where the male wolf was waiting. They put me down there and quickly left the barrier. The male wolf licked my muzzle. He did not understand what had happened, and neither did I. All I knew was, that I had almost been free, but because of some trickery of the two-legs I had been caught again. I fought against the weakness in my body with all my strenght, and soon I could get up again, and eventually the dizziness passed. But of course the barrier was once again closed, and from now on, when the two-legs came inside, they were always very careful, and they always carried the sticks that hurt and made me weak. The days passed, and eventually the leaves turned red again and the first snow came. By now I was fully grown and much bigger and stronger than any of the other wolves. Something else had changed too. The male wolf, who had been merely a playmate up to now became intensely interested in me and I felt like returning the feeling. Until I noticed the two-legs watching us. I did not feel like doing these apes a favor, so I chased off the male wolf again and again. That seemed to puzzle the two-legs, and one day, three of them entered the compound, armed with long sticks and the short ones that hurt. They were after me, but I had no intention of getting caught. When one of the two-legs pointed the stick at me, I jumped forward and attacked. My teeth easily ripped through the weak skin of this ape, somehow I was surprised, how easily he fell. The two-legs were weak and helpless without their sticks! While I was still tearing up the screaming ape, I suddenly felt something slip over my neck and then my breath was cut off as I was jerked away from the downed two-leg. One of the other humans had slipped a noose on a long stick around my neck and was drawing it in. I snarled and tried to get at him, but the stick prevented it and also I was running out of air. I howled a challenge with what was left of my breath, and the male wolf, who had so far been ignored by the two-legs because he was thought tame, suddenly jumped up and attacked the man who was holding the stick. The man shouted in surprise and dropped the stick. At the same moment though, I felt the familiar pain from the drowsiness stick in my flank, but I was not going to let them catch me this time, not now, that I had finally learned how weak they were. I gathered all my strenght and raced for the door to the barrier. The noose was still around my neck and the long stick was dragging and bouncing behind me as I hurled myself against the barrier as I had done in vain so many times before. This time though, it gave in. Maybe the two-legs had not closed it properly, I did not stop to worry about that. There still was the second barrier to overcome. As I raced for it, I felt a second sharp pain in my flank, and I sensed the weakness thet always accompanied this pain rising up inside my body. No! Not now! Before me was the second barrier, behind it the freedom of the wild beckoned. I gathered all my strength, everything I had, something deep inside of me howled, then I jumped. I do not know what carried me over the fence that day... the spirits of the air... maybe. With the long pole trailing behind me, I cleared the fence in one gigantic leap, and then I ran. I ran and stumbled, the diziness was finally taking its toll and the pole got entangled in the bushes. Weak and disoriented I tried to shake it off, I probably succeeded somehow and then stumbled on. I could barely percieve my surroundings and I was getting weaker every second. Then I ran right into another, bigger animal. The bear was not happy about this and roared his disapproval, but I was too weak and disoriented to evade him. His paw struck me on the head, ripping out my left eye and hurling me several meters through the air. I landed heavily on the ground, the pain was intense and I felt my senses finally fog over. Somehow my last though was, that at least I was dying in freedom. But then something awoke deep inside me, a rage and strength that I had never felt before. It felt good though, somehow familiar. Suddenly the world was much smaller, and the bear who had just seconds before been a giant to me, was now a small animal, cowering in fear. My claws ripped him apart as easily as they had the ape before. And when he did not move any longer, I trotted off into the forest. The weakness had passed with the rage, and I was finally free. FREE!

The story goes on in " I am a Garou "