Over the Shadowlands, it rains.
As it rains, there is a Dream.
Once upon a time, after the fall of the Great King of Beasts, there was a girl woman widow demon wolf Hunter.
She lived happily in the woods with a slave swordsman crusader prince Scholar.
Hard lives they had led beneath that King's yoke, yet together they found peace in the forest in a small cabin. Among the boughs they found balm for all their many wounds.
The Hunter roved the deer trails, set snares for fine pelts, caught small game for their dinners. She fixed the roof when it leaked, and mended the fence for the gardens when too many rabbits found their way through - always to turn them loose in the woods after, for they were her favorites. She was swift in her step and like a shadow through the trees, her arrows seldom missing their mark in bringing swift ends.
Wait.
The Scholar delved into his studies of the world, writing long into the evenings by firelight. He talked at length with those that passed through their woods, sharing knowledge, and teaching the children his arts both old and new. Some days he would teach them of the sciences or history, others he would teach them of the blade, still deft in its use. He was cunning and bright, and there was little his mind could not grasp if it was set to task.
Wait, no -
Many children found safety here too. Their sons, their daughters. They gamboled and played over hill and dale, splashed through great rivers, and played at their games; playing pretend as noble knights, as fierce hunters, gallant princes and great beasts of fiery claws. Together the Hunter and the Scholar gave these children a life they only once could have Dreamed of, loving them each so dearly.
It was there at last they found peace in that wood. No longer hunted, no longer haunted by the shadow of the King of Beasts, slain as he was by the Scholar, that great crusader of -
Stop.
That's not how it goes.
That's not how any of it goes.
I will tell you a tale far more real, far more important.
Lean in close, children, and I will tell it to you:
I will tell to you how Wolves are made.