Many moons ago, we faced down an especially cruel Long Night. One where the cold came before the snow, the land froze so bitterly that even the forests went silent; one could not hear even the cry of one bird. The shamans asked the spirits relayed to our hunters that they must venture further south than ever before.

The strongest hunters and their sons went on expedition to the fringes of the broadleaf where food might still be found. As the darkness fell into the Long Night and the cold clutched us nearer to the grave, daemons roamed from the veil of spirit. One such monstrosity struck out at the party, separating a father and his two sons from the rest.

The Father was wounded and both sons were scared, however, one was brave. The brave swallowed his fear went for help despite the chilling dark. The fearful younger one, stuck in his tracks, left everything to the older.

The brave one made his way back through death and cold to bring back the other hunters, yet when they returned the brother nor father were to be seen. Something had happened they thought, but none could tell what until they heard a blood-curdling howl. No ordinary howl, no, this was one that made that made the skin pale and ice run through one’s veins.

After returning home to recover, they bore out to venture far into the broadleaf again, seeking prey until they encountered a beast like no other. Fur black as coal, eyes like burning embers, tooth and claw that could mark even stone, and above all else; intellect tainted by hunger. It slew or injured many hunters with a flurry of claw and tooth, leaving few survivors.

Back in the village, the injured hunters thrashed and growled into the night until they burst from the medicine lodge as similar monstrosities. Reports from other settlements came in, that it had ravaged Brudvir and others as it had grown brazen enough to attack even towns. Survivors from many attacked settlements in the broadleaf found their way to us for safe haven. Beasts and the dark alike driving us to necessity.

We told them of this monster, and they told us the same that they’d lost kin and packs of half-beasts now roamed their land they pleaded for our mightiest hunters to finally lay them low yet we relayed our own concern; That many of them are still our kin, whether they have become monsters or no.

Together in our grief the chiefs of our tribes, the wise women, and the shamans considered what could be done. How they could be saved. Stories of yore told that these beasts would succumb to silver, yet no hunter had the strength or speed to match them to kill let alone to capture and seek a cure.

It was then that our Kypiq brothers, brought up elixirs that would grant strength for life, and offered this to those that would save them. Among the mightiest, the brave brother volunteered. He had survived many encounters with these beasts, and most of all he knew that the first was his own kin and blood.

The elixirs made them different; stronger, faster, more agile, something more than what they were. With the fury of the spirits, they claimed their quarry. Yet, when they found the original beast, they were again thwarted, despite the elixirs and silver spears forged by their Hrothi brothers. However, the beast had watched and waited and knew the limits of their reach, the extent of their speed, and that they were still menn made to be broken. Thrown through a tree, cleaved by a wicked claw, dealt with as mere annoyances until it bore down upon a familiar smell. . .

The brave brother’s survival had never been a mistake, it had always been an act of mercy from what humanity lingered in the eyes of the beast. And yet the brave brother pressed on as the last, spear in hand and determined to end this foul nightmare born of his kin. The beast broke his weapon, and thrust it back upon him with a snarl and foul breath until with a single tear shed the brave brother said, “Mother’s waiting for us back home.”

The beast’s malice broke, the despair in its eyes apparent, a howl of grief as it knew that it still had family despite this curse. Together they walked home, one a mann the other a wolf.