Wolf Legends Ch. 03

Chapter 3 - The Change

((Disclaimer: Fair warning, This story, while eventually will turn erotic, starts out telling a story, as any good story teller will do, sets you up with a history, a back ground something to chew on. I promise though that if you stick with me you will not be disappointed. Also the legends and people in this story are of my own creation, they are not based on any other legends or stories or people, they have no basis of fact, just what lay inside my head. ))

His sleep was troubled with dreams. Running through the forest first on two legs then his nose lifting to the air and the scent of something so scintillating that he couldn't help but follow it. Soon he realized he was on four legs rather then two and racing after a small deer. One caught half way between baby and adult. He pounced on the small prey caught the back of it's neck, and started to pull backwards, but then that deer changed, no longer was it a deer but instead a snow white wolf, much smaller then himself and female. He let go, startled by the change. His gaze fell on the snowy little wolf and then she changed again this time it was just a face under his mammoth paws a familiar freckled face older, more mature but still young and vibrant and full of stubbornness and mischief, a face surrounded by coppery curls that had darkened and matured from the girlish curls he knew so well now.

He jerked awake with a sharply indrawn breath. He blinked his dark eyes rubbing the sleep from them. He was once more sitting beside his fire inside the cave, out of the elements for it had begun to rain. He wondered briefly if his friends had been lucky enough to find shelter for the night, for they too had been sent into the forest to complete their tasks.

He sat up and added a few more pieces of wood to the fire then stared absently into it wondering the meaning of his dream. Wondering who the white wolf had been and suspecting it was Fawn. But why her? Why a Female? A white Female no less. Perhaps that was precisely why. He shook his head a little bit and huffed. Even when on his path to adult hood that tiny little redhead was on his mind, interrupting his dreams.

Slowly his eyes drifted closed and once more he began slip into a deep slumber. This time when he dreamed he was already a wolf. He stood tall, huge compared to the normal local wolves. His fur was a dark ebony, inky black and around his neck still in place was the wolf's claw necklace given to him by Fawn. He lifted his huge shaggy head and howled, a deep lonesome sound. His dark ears perked forward and he listened intently.

Moments passed, hours it seemed, and then his head arched back and he howled again, this time he was answered by a higher pitched howl, but it was a voice he knew well. He gave a wolfish grin and trotted off in that direction his huge paws leaving deep indents in the dirt, indents that his long bushy dark tail swiped away. Soon he met up with a silvery male wolf. Drake. He nudged his shoulder good naturedly. His head lifted and Drake's dipped acknowledging him. As soon as that acceptance was made Logan felt his mind expand and envelope that of Drake's.

"About time you showed up Drake, I was beginning to wonder if my dreams had been wrong." His voice echoed in his own mind and he knew that Drake had heard him.

His laugh could be heard and he shook his shaggy grey head. "I was beginning to wonder if Brother Wolf would visit me. Already I had accomplished my task. And I was just waiting. I don't think He has reached Silas or Seth yet."

Logan shook his head and grinned. "Lets go find out." Then tore off at a run with Drake hot on his heels. It was then that he realized he was no longer sleeping, nor was he human. He let the spirit of the Wolf fully over take him then, rippling muscles bunching and rippling as their feet tore into the ground, free in ways they could not imagine in their human forms.

He skidded to a stop sniffing the air. He hunkered down in the bushes calling Drake to a stop. "Silas is not ready. He is still working on his task. Come lets go check on Seth." Drake nodded his head and moved slowly away heading off in the direction they had seen Seth take. Soon they burst into a tiny clearing barely big enough to hold them both and Seth who had indeed changed already, he was a tall brown and grey male, slender where Drake was husky, neither of them taller then Logan, who was taller in his human form as well.

Logan grinned at Seth and nudged his shoulder in greeting. Seth growled playfully and jumped against him tugging on his ear. Their barks and growls rang out the three of them messing around, but it was not until Seth dipped his head submitting to Logan as his Alpha that their minds expanded once more pulling Seth into the pack as well. They could now feel what each were feeling, could hear each other's voices in their minds, talk to each other through a form of telepathy.

By Midday Silas had joined them, his coat a dusky black, not quite as dark as Logan's and his frame was smaller then all the others and yet still unusually large for the wolves in the area. For the next day and a half the four wolves spent the time working out their pecking order, Drake became Logan's Second or Beta, and Silas and Seth shared the Gamma position. They also spent the time practicing shifting from one form to the other.

Late on that second night they all once more met at the ceremonial clearing. Each presented the completion, or the lack of completion of their tasks to the elders. Four of them, failed in their tasks and would have to return the next year. Two of them were given new talismans one of strength one of wisdom and were each accepted as Men of the Tribe.

The Pack stood at the edge of the firelight, Logan and Drake at their center then Silas to the left, and Seth to the Right. The Elders approached them almost warily. They knew that something had changed in all four of the boys, each were taller, each were more muscular, each looked more assured of themselves, more relaxed, more at ease in their own skins. They spoke first to Logan.

"Have you completed your task?" the words spoken almost in unison by each of them.

"Yes Elder, I have completed my Task." A grin curved his lips and he stood a little taller. Against his bared chest the dark wolf's claw gleamed in the firelight, the stone warm against his skin.

"Prove it." They again spoke in Unison as was custom.

"I have nothing to prove, Elder, my word should be enough." Logan spoke in a low smooth voice that held a ring of authority to it.

For a moment they hesitated debating his words then nodded. "Agreed, we have seen proof enough" Their gaze then turned to Drake and again they asked. "Have you Completed your Task."

One by one their tasks were presented, one by one they were accepted and each boy stepped into the shoes of a Man rather then a boy. Once more the bowl of tea was passed around and the ceremony was competed. With whoops and hollers the boys ran off into the night each one in the direction they had entered the circle from off to find their clothes. The newly accepted Men were met by the village and greeted with a feast.

The moment Logan came into view Fawn launched herself at him and he caught her deftly in his arms and swung her around with a grin. He kissed her forehead gently. "Thank you for behaving." He told her quietly. Then hefted her onto his shoulders as he had done when she was little and walked into the crowd welcomed home by their People. He was treated especially well, and when they heaped food on his plate again and again, he would pass it around to his Pack, making sure they ate first. Then he himself dug in with Fawn sitting at his knee as she had since she was just a tiny thing.

There was a new protectiveness about him now over the child at his knee. A pull that seemed to have strengthened the moment she had landed in his arms when she had greeted his return. He wondered at it at first but then in his heart he knew. He thought that perhaps he had always known. He grinned a little bit then laughed at a joke that was being passed around the fire.

They celebrated late into the night. Most passed out there at the fire's edge in the center of the village. He woke with the morning streaks of dawn to find Fawn's tiny body snuggled into the warmth of his chest. He lay there for a while letting her sleep, watching her. He brushed a curl away from her sweet freckled little face and felt her stir a little then settle. He had been bound to her from the moment he met her. And now he knew why. With a smile he bent and kissed the top of her head then wrapped his arms around her, lifting her sleeping frame from the ground and slid easily to his feet.

He slipped off into the night towards her house. Inside he made sure her Mother was sleeping soundly then tucked her into her bed. He bent his head to whisper into her ear. "Tomorrow my Little One we will go Hunting, and I will show you what only the Pack has seen." She murmured softly in her sleep and turned towards him as he started to step away. She curled her fingers into his dark hair holding him there effectively. For a while he lay there beside her quietly watching her sleep. His mind wandered back to his dreams a few nights before and he wondered, and not for the first time, if she was the white wolf in his dream. It was almost unheard of in the Legends that any of the females were chosen by Brother Wolf to run with Him not since the quarrels and he took his spirit from all females.

The calm in his soul though told him that it would eventually be so. That eventually Brother Wolf would join with Fawn, just as Logan himself would join with her, though in a totally different way. Finally she released her hold on his hair and he gently slipped away pausing next to Maria's door and whispering a quiet. "Good Morning Momma Maria." He gave her a crooked grin and watched as her brow raise.

"Momma Maria is it now?" She whispered back then shook her finger at him. " You better watch it young Man. I will take a switch to you just like I do to her." He laughed low and grinned. "Are you hungry? Would you like some breakfast before you head home to your Momma?"

He thought about that a moment then shook his head. "Nahh we had plenty to eat last night and Momma would be cross with me if I didn't eat with her this morning." He stepped into the room and kissed her forehead and whispered. "Thank you for Understanding."

She smiled and patted his cheek gently. "I have known it was to be since she was tiny and told me that Brother Wolf would walk with you one day. She knew before anyone else realized. Go on now before she wakes up and holds you to that hunting trip she has been planning for and drags you off before your Momma gets a proper hello." He grinned again and left silently a new grace and lightness to his step despite his hulking size.

He paused on the path well worn between Momma Maria's house and his own, and looked back peering through the growing light into the window he knew belonged to Fawn. He gave a devilish grin when he saw her face in the window waving at him, her head surrounded in a blazing riot of red curls. He waved back then loped down the path to greet his Mother and prepare himself for the Hunt ahead.

(( Ok here I am stuck. Would you like to see the hunt? Or would you rather I skip ahead a few years and get on with the story? Please let me know what you would prefere, Thank you))