The Beginning

Wolves are going extinct, they said. There’ll come a time when wolves will be nothing more but a distant memory of Ireland. A time where they won’t prowl around the countryside any longer, or howl at the moon for they will be silent. That’s what the humans say, at least. But there’s a village, deep inside the woods, where this rumor seems to not be true. A secluded village, where the humans inside are rotting in poverty and hunger, for they cannot go out to the forest to hunt for their meals. But, this isn’t a story for those who live in the village, but of the ones keeping them inside. The wolves.

No human knows this, but these wolves aren’t just any ordinary wolves. All the humans see is a large, four-legged beast that feeds on their livestock and, on occasions, on the villagers themselves. But when you are brave enough to go deep into the forest, you’ll find that the wolves have their own little tribe. A tribe of werewolves, the last pack of the country. It was a small pack, for even they were at risk of being hunted by the same humans that feared them. It wasn’t explicitly said, but these lands were wargrounds between the humans and wolves, both fighting for resources.

In this pack of wolves, during a cold winter night, Ulf was born. He was the new addition to a little family of four - a father, a mother, and his two older brothers. All was well, he had a healthy childhood as a little wolf youngling. A healthy relationship with his family and with the other wolves. Though, his relationship with his brothers and father bittered a bit when Ulf had failed to catch a squirrel when he was still learning how to hunt. He was told to climb a tree by his brothers and to try and hunt the squirrel - but this resulted in him falling down, fracturing a wrist and a slow growing fear of heights. Having strict survival rules, and failing a simple task, he little wolf was shunned by his father for the time being as he could not walk. He remembered those days clearly, how he spent each day for the next few weeks with his mother and the other she-wolves, getting groomed and watching them do their own thing as the men went out to hunt.

As time passed by, Ulf grew to be worthy to be part of the pack. No longer the stupid little pup that fell off a tree. He was now capable of hunting, fighting… He had also gotten himself a mate, with whom he had his own pups with. All was well, until that one fateful day of his 29th summer, where a young girl would turn his life upside down.

Ulf has hunted down deer, rabbits, and cattle from the village they were so in war with. But never had he had the chance to hunt down a human. None of them could. The humans were to be feared with how advanced their weapons were. But this one human was small, defenseless… A child, perhaps? If he could get his hands on human meat, perhaps he’ll be seen as the bigger wolf. Strong. Smart. Perhaps be placed as alpha in the place of his brother. With this in mind, Ulf stalked down the little girl in the red cloak, using the nearby shrubbery as a camouflage. Once the girl had settled down in the grass and was distracted enough, he launched at her, pinning her frail body down to the dirt with his large paws. Hungry eyes stared down at her big green eyes, growling. He hadn’t noticed it before because of her cloak, but this girl was skin and bones. He couldn’t possibly show this to his people! Might as well dig up the grave of some dead person and bring back a bag of bones.

His attention was brought over to the little basket she carried, giving off a sweet scent. He sniffed it and was filled with curiosity. Never had he smelled anything like this before. Transforming back to his human form. He rummaged to her basket and pulled out whatever it was and took a bite out of it, not exactly enjoying the taste of it and tossing it away. Geez, no wonder this girl was dying. Is this seriously what the humans are feeding their young? The girl whom he looked at as food is nothing but a pitiful girl. This gave him enough reason to essentially kidnap her and take her to the nearest cave - forming a sort of den, much like the she-wolf would do when they have their own pups. He planned to feed the girl, get her as fat as he possibly can before presenting her dead body to the pack.

… Or at least that was the plan. But Ulf grew a soft spot for her. Naming her ‘Red’, teaching her how to hunt for her own food, how to fight and defend herself… Basically, everything he taught his own children, he taught her. The thoughts of eating her slowly disappeared until he just saw her as his own child. This was a secret from his family and he made sure not to let it slip. Of course, it was getting quite bothersome to go back and forth from the tribe to this child, but if he brought her there with the current alpha, she might get killed. Thus why, on his 31st winter, Ulf attempted to challenge the alpha for the title. This, again, resulted in a really bad injury and banishment from the tribe, leaving his mate and his pups behind. This little bump on the road, however, gave him more time to spend with Red and teach her more survival tactics.

Not so long after his banishment, Ulf comes back to the cave after some hunting to find Red attempting to eat a weird object. He dropped everything and just rushed over to stop her, but instead, both of them ended up touching the object. Everything happened to fast, that Ulf had no time to analyze what had just happened. A flash, pitch darkness, and suddenly he’s laying down on grass in the middle of a large village with tall buildings.