Chương 159: THE MOST ROMANTIC STORY IMAO

Mrs Beta was standing at the door to greet us as we entered her study group. Jessica and I... I mean Juju and I, went in and sat down as usual.

"Is Dean here today?" Mrs Beta asked us from the doorway.

"Yes," Juju answered. I refused to say "Juju" and "Duunduun" aloud, so my plan was to just not call any of my friends by name until this fiasco blew over. I took out my file and busied myself flipping to today's lesson. I didn't want to talk to anyone or answer anything and risk having to refer to anyone by their ridiculous nickname.

Just a quick recap for those of you who lost track of Lycan Study lessons: we covered the migration paths of the wolves who left the Colored Mountains, and the new packland allocation after the Great War. Don't care? Too bad for you, I liked Lycan History. It was like a story that drew me home. And then we skipped a lesson, but I read the notes at home, and it was pretty much about the first werewolf, which was the first and most romantic story in our history.

So I'm going to tell it to you: A long time ago, way before they thought to write these things down, much less date them or preserve any evidence for future generations about them, there was a tribe of humans living on the Mountain. Some say they were the original warlocks. They were people tuned to magic, living on the magic of the mountain. They were heroes who hunted the monsters they called Gyaaras (I'm just trying to pronounce what the ancient text called them. There is no English equivalent.) that spawned in the belly of the Mountains. There were also wolves in the Mountains. Wolves who drank the mountain waters and grew large with magic. Between the heroes and the wolves, the Gyaara population was kept in check so that none of them would hurt the people who lived in the plains. The first wolf pack was the black wolf pack, ferocious and highly territorial. They were fighting wolves with pitch-black or very dark coats.

They were the reigning pack of the mountain; they were ruthless and attacked anything living in their paths. Be it Gyaara or human, or any other creature, the black wolf pack would run through the forests of the mountains like a howling wind from evening to morning and kill them all. I think the moon goddess got fed up with these brutes, so she made a new pack of wolves: white wolves with the power to heal.

These wolves were largely peaceful, only killing for food, and they were compassionate, willing to heal black wolves and humans alike. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. A third pack of wolves was born between these two, and they were the majority of the Colored Mountains today: grey wolves. Their coats came in many different shades; they were neither black nor white. Neither healers nor fighters, they were survivors.

They were the first to enter contract with the human heroes in the mountain, earning the humans there the new name of "wolf people." At their coming of age, all human heroes would climb up to the bonding grounds and fight the wild wolves one-on-one. If the human was able to overpower the wolf, the wolf would be bonded to him. The pair would bond for life and share a mind link. As the black wolves continued to extend their territory, the practice of bonding with humans eventually extended to the white wolf pack too.

The black wolves were relentless in their pursuit of territory, but the humans had forts and fires that kept them and the wolves bonded to them safe. One day, a human girl came of age and followed the other boys up to the bonding grounds. There, she met a young white wolf who loved nothing more than to play. The two of them fought and bonded. She named him Shiiro. Shiiro loved this girl with all his heart.

His greatest joy each day was being with her, and his greatest misery was leaving her every evening for the night hunts with his pack. As the time came for them to mate, Shiiro refused to take a wolf mate. Instead, he chose to live unmated so he could fully belong to his human. He would pray each night to be with her forever.

Meanwhile, the girl prayed every night as she looked out at the moon, "Please grant me a mate who is strong and kind, who would look after me and do the housework (because I hate it), and cook my meals (because I can't)." Apparently, there was no such man to be found among the humans, so she kept praying every night. The moon goddess looked each night for a whole year at the both of them, and after hearing the same thing over and over again, she decided to answer their prayers.

She gave Shiiro a human form so he did not ever have to leave his bonded human again. Their love was not a predestined mating bond; it was a matter of choice. Shiiro chose the human girl. Their bond was one of sacrificial love, of daily choices in putting the other party first. Shiiro was inhumanly strong and imbued with healing magic. He was also a good housekeeper and cook. He was the first werewolf, and all his children after him were werewolves too.

Until today, it was said that the white wolves were particularly good cooks and housekeepers. I suppose Killion was proof of that theory. Now that I thought about Killion, I remembered his broken heart. If there was a prayer I could also make for him too: Goddess, please give Killion a second chance to love again. I had no idea how it would work. Were there such things as second-chance mates? But I shall bug the goddess every night for a full year or as long as it took to unbreak Killion's heart.

On a completely side note, if the goddess ever gave me a son, I would like his name to be Shiiro—even if he turned out not to be a white wolf. I want to always remember that we were born by prayer from a bond of loyalty and love so strong that it forged a new road—the DO SOMETHING CRAZY option.