By: Chris Gilman
My name is Keith Bewulf, some of you now me as ‘Speaks With Fenris’s Wisdom’, and I was born human. At least I thought I was. I grew up as an orphan since my parents died in a car wreck while they were bringing me home from the hospital. They died without teaching me anything about my heritage and I was to grow up without knowing of my true place in the universe that I belonged to.
I grew up being passed around from family to family. No one seemed to want me for long, no real reason, only saying that I just didn’t fit in. I was a very large kid, always larger than my classmates were and with a stronger build. I never broke bones and even though I had the size, I never went out for football or any other sports, they just didn’t appeal to me. I did have a short temper though, and wouldn’t put up with a lot of teasing, this got me in fights every week, or more often sometimes. However I didn’t like to see senseless violence and had been known to stop others’ fights and settling the matter in another way. If a bully were picking on the underclassmen, then he would find himself facing me in a fight, without the aid of his buddies. I developed the reputation as a lone wolf and trouble, some even going so far as to call me a bully myself, but never to my face. I had no friends while I grew up for these reasons, even those I protected didn’t want to be around me because I scared them with my size, strength, and almost uncontrollable rage. Those were the roughest years of my life, or so I thought.
Then, when I turned thirteen, things changed in more ways than I could have ever thought of. I had been staying with a family for about six months, this was the longest that I had stayed with a family and I thought that they might actually try to adopt me with the way we hit it off. Maybe with this family I would finally fit in. We had a small party for my thirteenth birthday, and later that night I got the biggest present of my life.
There I was lying on my bed listening to music when I dozed off and dreamed. In my dream I was no longer a human, I was a wolf. A large gray wolf with bulging muscles that bunch and stretch as I run along under a half moon high above in the sky. I ran through a forest, the trees flying by faster than I could believe possible. Soon, one by one other large gray wolves joined me. Together we ran, hunted, and played. We howled at the moon and sang our songs of triumph. It seemed like we did this for many hours and eventually we grew tired. One by one the other wolves left me there in a clearing by myself. Finally they all left me alone and I lay down to sleep under that strange half moon that kept drawing my attention.
My eyes jerk open when I awake almost as if I have wakened from a nightmare. I can remember the dream vividly and my muscles ache like I had been running for real. I stretch my arms and legs, and that’s when I realize that something is definitely wrong, I am not human anymore. I am the large gray wolf that I just dreamed of and my clothes are hanging limply on my body or shredded around my room. I am so startled by this that I let out a long howl of surprise, must have woken my foster parents. Hank, my foster father comes running through my door with his service revolver ready and stops when he sees me lying there on the bed. I whimper and hide my face under my paws, thinking he will run screaming at seeing a wolf in his house, maybe even use his gun and shoot me where I lay since I was a monster.
But what he does, is not what I expected him to do, he puts the gun down and starts laughing. My eyes grow wide as I watch him as he shifts forms and soon he is a wolf like me but somewhat larger. His wolven mouth opens in a wolfish grin, his tongue lolling out to one side. He shifts once more and is now in a hybrid form of man and wolf. Standing half again his original height he towers over me and finally speaks in a deep growling voice that I can understand clearly. "Well it seems that you have finally found your true heritage young pup. You are a Garou, a werewolf of the tribe Get of Fenris. Now that you finally know of your heritage we can introduce you into our society. We had to be sure of what our senses told us about you, and it seems we were right. We will not let the forces of the Wyrm get control of you, and turn you to their evil ways. Now we must also begin your training, young Philodox, to fight those same forces of the Wyrm that would destroy Gaia, our mother." At the puzzled look on my face he explained as I lay there and learned about my true heritage. I was a Garou, a Werewolf, a Get of Fenris, and a Philodox.
"Being a Philodox means that you were born under the half moon, and as such your life’s duties have already been chosen for you. You will be a mediator among the Garou; a judge, jury, and if need be executioner. As a Get of Fenris though, you have another role in our world. You will grow strong and fight the evil forces of the Wyrm that threaten to destroy our world much as an Ahroun might. We are at the front line of the fight against the evil forces that try to destroy our mother Gaia, and we are the backbone of all those who fight against the great Wyrm. Backing down from the challenges of such is not an option for us, we will gladly die if our foe dies with us." With that he walks over and pats my head in a reassuring manner. "The caern’s Philodox will teach you more young one, but know now that you once more have a family, and we will raise you as you should be. We will never abandon you."
Hank and his wife adopted me the following week and introduced me into a caern and its sept. There the sept’s Philodox trained me in the litany, and it was there that Hank began training me to fight the Wyrm and its minions. Hank being a police officer and ex-Special Forces member trained me well in all forms of combat armed and unarmed. I grew proficient in all of these forms and many more that no human could ever understand. In time I faced my rite of passage and joined the sept.
When I turned 18 I followed in Hank’s footsteps and joined the Army. There I quickly passed the tests and joined the Special Forces as soon as I could. Eventually I earned my position in the Green Berets and Hank was as proud of me as he would have been of his own children had he had any. After serving my term I returned to find my caern and sept gone. My adopted family had not been seen in six months and I could find no trace of them in their house or at what was left of the caern. I never found any trace of them and the Garou that I contacted in the area would not tell me what had happened even if they knew something. With a heavy heart I headed out on my own and fought the Wyrm. Once more alone, and once more without a family. In my wandering I found Dallas and established a job as a cop where my training would be an asset.
There I also found a new personal enemy. In Dallas I found a group of Black Spirals, or should I say they found me. Out on a standard patrol a small gang confronted me when I answered a call of domestic violence. When I stepped out of my car I saw them standing there over the body of a young youth they had apparently just beat the crap out of. I had never seen them before, but they seemed to know me. "Look here, we have one of the chosen of Gaia." How could they know that? Then they shifted.
"Oh Shit!" Well, no one wants to live forever. Looking around I don’t see anyone so I shift into Crinos, the only form I can fight Black Spirals in. The ones who hadn’t shifted yet pulled guns and started firing at me. I took two slugs and staggered as the pain of silver shot through me, damn. I pull my backup gun as I duck behind my car and slip in a special clip I kept for just such cases, silver hollow-points. I peak over and fire four shots into one dropping him quickly and watching him worm on the ground as he died. My fire though also got his buddies to take cover.
The one who talked before called out to me once again. "Come on now Keith, don’t you want to join your family?"
Sick bastard, trying to lure me out so they can kill me. I pop off another shot and they return fire. My car is starting to look like a sieve with the rounds they keep pounding into it. Well, today looks like a good day to die.
I stand and fire off the last of my clip into the group I can see. Finally my gun clicks empty and I jump over the car to engage them in hand-to-hand. Two more fall before they can react to my moves. They are too many for just me though and I start to lose ground. A lucky shot goes clean through my leg and I drop as my leg buckles under my weight.
The leader steps out from cover and smiles down at me. "Looks like we win again." They start laughing and all I feel is the urge to rip them apart limb from limb, but I know that I have had it. I am slowly dying from the number of silver bullets I have taken and I can’t do a thing.
Then a howl splits the night air, the howl of a Garou who has just spotted his prey. This is soon followed by another howl from the other direction and I know that I will not die alone at least. A Get of Fenris battle howl is calling the Wyrm creatures to their death, I hope I get to watch.
Two Ahroun jump off of nearby buildings and bracket the Black Spirals. One a large red Fienna and the other a large gray Get. The Black Spirals are too confused to use their guns and the weaker ones die quickly under the assault of the two warriors. Then there is only the leader left.
He grins at the two warriors and backs away, "You may have saved these two, but I will be back for them both soon." With that he turns and disappears.
After he is gone my saviors revert back to homid and work on patching me up. They take care of me and summon a healer to help me with my wounds. The force still wants to know how I got my car shot to pieces without taking a single scratch.
In time these other Garou introduced me to their caern and I joined the sept. We also formed a small pack of warriors, into a war pack with Fenris as our guiding totem. There I stay till this day as Philodox of our pack and with my valiant allies to defend the pack, the sept, the caern, and mother Gaia. May Gaia have mercy on those who should cross our path or try to stop us. And may she help me find those responsible for the disappearance of my caern and my family. Most importantly, let me kill the one who brought us together, he seems to know something.