Untitled Fantasy Prologue

High in the crisp, clean air of night, the moon hung full and round, outshining any star and daring any cloud to obscure its majesty. Around the moon shone a double Druid’s Ring. Together, moon and rings appeared to the common people who may have seen it as an eye looking down on them.

Many feared this sight; others never knew it existed. Astronomers of the various religions each thought of it as baneful or beneficial, depending on their deity. Druids and rangers, though, saw it as a sign of changes to come, one cycle ending and another beginning. The fact that it was doubled showed a major event on the horizon.

They held private rituals, some in an attempt to divine what the changes were to be. Many spent time in prayer asking their god or goddess for the strength to face what was to come with courage. Others sought within themselves a center of calm and contentment intent on passively accepting the change whether for good or ill.



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In the woods, at the top of a hill, a lone she wolf roamed through the snow looking for some small morsel to take back to her cubs hidden and well protected from both the cold and predators. She, too, had seen the Druid’s Rings and offered up her song to the moon in appreciation of the beauty and extra light. Then she turned to the matter at hand and continued with her hunt.

The snow on the ground was pristine, bright, and trackless. She Wolf knew, though, that that did not mean food could not be around. To her sharp eyes, a burrowed ridge indicated something traveled below the layer of snow. To her alert ears came the sound of the tunneling creature. To her keen nose arose the scent of something that would make a tasty if small meal; it would have to be enough for her young. They would be grateful for anything she brought.

She Wolf continued tracking her hidden prey on soft paws which were covered in snow turned icy by her body heat and the cold air. She stopped when it stopped, moved when it moved, waiting for the moment when it would come too close to the surface of the snow. She knew that whatever she tracked in this manner would eventually come up and try to escape over the snow which was quicker than trying to go through and under it. She Wolf had developed a measure of patience hunting in this fashion as it paid off more often than not.

Her ears pricked at the sound of snow exploding further ahead than she was watching. In the instant that she saw a moving blur of black amid the fallen white she was off, chasing the animal she had been tracking. The figure dodged left then right as it realized She Wolf was gaining. It tried to confuse her into making a wrong turn so it could escape into the trees. She Wolf had other ideas. Left, right, left, left, right. The chase twisted and turned across the hilltop and through the snow that sprayed up and twinkled in the moonlight like stars coming to bed on the soft cold ground.

Finally, in an intuitive jump, She Wolf moved left just before her prey did. In an instant she had it by the neck. Strong jaws clamped tight to keep it from squirming free. Soon the pressure became too great and the creature died, its neck snapped. Tonight, She Wolf’s cubs would eat.

She Wolf turned and began heading home, her prize held aloft proudly as she trotted. Not even the taste of warm blood that trickled across her tongue would cause her to claim this morsel for herself. Her cubs would eat first even if it meant she would not eat until tomorrow.

About halfway back to her den her sharp ears pricked up at a sound unlike anything she had heard before. At first she tried to ignore it and continue on her way. The new sound could be a threat. Better that she gets back to protect her young. But as she got closer to her home the odd sound became louder. She Wolf turned to look for a way around the strange noise, but every time she turned back toward her den the sound was still there ahead of her.

Curiosity finally got the better of She Wolf and soon she began heading directly for the sound. As she got closer she came across some freshly made tracks. Above the scent of her cubs’ meal she caught a whiff of another odor, one she knew all too well. She became wary, even slightly skittish – man was near.

She Wolf darted quickly away from the tracks and slunk back into a thicket of bare trees and brambles which tugged at her coat and the creature in her mouth as if trying to snag both from her. She stopped and dropped the creature she carried and began to search for the feared scent in the still air. She could not find it. She crouched and waited, listening, testing the air for her enemy, but after several minutes the only thing she detected was the continuing, strange sound that now grew sharper, more insistent then quickly died down to what sounded like the whimpering of her cubs. She Wolf picked up her catch and continued on searching for the origin of the sound.

She emerged from the thicket and looked around. With the aid of the full moon and the brightened night snow her keen eyes saw something dark moving slightly under a tree not far away. Cautiously she approached it.

She saw fresh tracks in the snow and again smelled the scent of man. When she followed the track line with her eyes she saw it led straight to the bundle. She also realized that the strange sounds came from the same bundle.

Wary of a trap, She Wolf approached the bundle moving parallel to the man tracks. A few feet from the bundle she set her catch down on the snow then approached slowly, ears and eyes keen to any movement around her which could indicate trouble.

She Wolf now eyed the bundle she had been drawn to. It moved just then startling her. She dropped down to a crouch and circled around this oddity. Looking, scenting, listening, circling. A stray thought crossed her mind – her den was just a few easy lopes away.

She looked around and spotted the tree that marked the location where her cubs were hidden and saw only her own tracks coming away from when she had left earlier that night. The man tracks went no where near there. Good, she thought then turned back to the bundle.

It still lay at the base of a tree. It’s movements were slowing and becoming fewer. She Wolf instinctively knew this was not good. As she neared, she saw that the bundle was made of fur. She became even more curious. Then, through a hole she saw movement. She nosed back the fur enlarging the hole. There, inside, she found a man cub. Its eyes were closed and it shivered as the cold air touched it’s skin more directly.

She Wolf rose up and looked back in the direction of the man prints. Nothing was there and, she realized, nothing would be coming back. She turned back to the man cub and without thought nuzzled the fur closed again. Then she picked up the bundle as carefully as she could and carried it back to her den.

As she went she decided that her catch tonight would not be enough, she would have to go out again. But that would have to wait until the sun was out the next morning. The rest of tonight would be spent in keeping herself, her cubs, and the new foundling warm.



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High overhead, the moon continued her journey through the clear sky until She Wolf made it back to her den. When she was safely inside with her newest cub and her catch, the druid’s Rings faded, first the outer then the inner. The moon then allowed clouds to move in and cover her like a blanket, soft and warm in her winter sky bed.