The Origin of Roh-Shan

Water Wolf

The setting sun casted long, jumbled shadows across the forest floor. Haider stayed close to the shore for as long as he could while the sun was still out. Thankfully, the wolf had the same idea.

He'd recognized the wolf from a trip to the zoo a few years ago. It had been just a cub then, but it was his favorite animal at the zoo. Separated from its family at a young age. Haider felt a connection to it.

All grown up now, the animal stood nearly 7 feet high at its shoulder, its head and neck easily adding another 4 feet. Light blue fur covered his back, tail and shoulders, as if a blanket had been draped over him. It extended a little down each leg, most of the way around his neck, and one darker blue stripe down his forehead. The rest of the fur was white, fluffier around the chest. Those distinct colors, plus the webbed paws, scales around his nose and eyes, small fins on his elbows, forked tail, and gills on his neck, marked him as a purebred Water Wolf.

Now, with patches of fur missing from small burns, prickers and leaves stuck to him, exhausted and hungry, the wolf had trekked nearly 3 miles through the woods and found a small cave next to the shore, deciding to settle in for the night.

After noting where the wolf had taken refuge, Haider set off in search of food. Expertly picking around the poisonous berries and nuts and selecting the edible ones, he gathered them in his shirt until the little pouch he'd made was overflowing, and eventually came to a familiar tree. He carefully dumped his pickings at the base of the tree, and scaled it with impressive speed considering his disability.

High up in the tree, a small sack sat nestled among a clustering of branches, tied to one of them by its drawstring, right where he'd left it. Haider untied it and looped it over his shoulder, climbing back down with expertise that comes with having done this many times before.

He slid down a root and dropped onto the packed dirt. The sun had fully set by now and the last traces of light were disappearing fast. He quickly stashed the nuts and berries in the sack before the predators could come out, and took off back towards the cave near the shore.

The wolf was right where he'd left him. Haider climbed a rocky hill nearby to observe the wolf for a while, trying to figure out the best way to get food to him without scaring the animal or putting himself in danger.

After a short stakeout, Haider figured the best plan was to just approach it straight on from afar, giving the wolf ample time to notice him and react.

He pulled two half-gourds from the sack, filled one with fresh water from a nearby creek, and the other with some of the nuts and berries he'd collected.

The boy lifted the bowl of water with his left hand, and with no more free hands, turned to his right side, focusing hard on the ground. He shrugged his right shoulder a few times, working out the muscles. Then, loose rocks skittered across the ground and rose to meet his shoulder, lining themselves up in the perfect shape of an arm, albeit, more muscular than his left one. Focusing, he lifted the bowl of nuts and berries with his new rock arm, and started off across the rocky ground leading up to the cave, uneven dips and crevices in the rocks raising to meet his feet.

~

The wolf saw him approaching, and grew defensive at first. When the boy stepped up to the mouth of the cave, the only exit, he crouched, lowered his tail and growled.

But the boy set down one gourd of water on the ground, dumped some nuts and berries from the other next to it, and carefully walked away, coming to rest in a nearby rock crevice, his right arm dropping away.

Haider watched the wolf for a reaction. It took nearly 20 minutes for the wolf to trust, but finally he drank the water in one slurp and picked at the tiny nuts and berries. Not exactly a wolf's diet, but Haider was pretty sure wolves were hunters, not scavengers, so presenting him with a dead animal wouldn't be too logical.

When the wolf had finished, Haider slowly approached, taking the same path he had before. This time, the wolf didn't growl. He watched the boy with suspicion, ears turned forward, but less defensive than before. Haider reached the mouth of the cave, holding his palm up to show he meant no harm, the sack slung around his shoulder.

Up close though, he realized just how big the animal was, and how easily he could get ripped to shreds. Less than 10 feet from the animal now, he became hyperaware of every little sound around him, and stayed on the balls of his feet, ready to turn and run. He also curled his fingers slightly, still an open palm but ready to raise a wall of earth if need be.

Five feet away... three feet...

To Haider's surprise, the wolf extended his snout the last few feet to meet his hand. The boy froze as the wolf sniffed it. He sniffed up Haider's arm and then his teeth were inches from Haider's face. He could only stay frozen and pray it ended quickly.

A rough shove knocked Haider out of his frozen fear, as the wolf nudged his scaled snout under the boy's arm, asking to be pet.

Haider let out a quiet, relieved laugh as he rubbed the animal's nose, which it gladly nuzzled into. Of course. This wasn't a wild beast, this was an animal raised in captivity, about as domesticated as a wild animal could get.

After a few minutes of scratches, the wolf was still eyeing Haider carefully. He slowly moved along the animal's side, and reached for a large pricker that had gotten stuck there.

As soon as he touched it, the wolf recoiled sharply, a small growl escaping again, but Haider moved quickly and pulled it out, relieving the animal of the uncomfortable needle in its skin. Thankfully, wolves were on the smarter end of the animal spectrum, and soon understood that what the boy was doing was helpful.

Haider worked his way around the animal, pulling prickers out and brushing leaves and smaller pine needles away, gently stroking the wolf's fur as he went. He noticed old scars marring one side of the wolf's left ear.

After pulling out all the prickers and brushing most of the dirt from the animal's fur with his fingers, Haider had one more trick up his sleeve. He opened the sack and produced a small tin of medicinal healing cream. He dipped his fingers in and held his hand up for the wolf to smell first. Then he carefully rubbed it onto a burn on the animal's shoulder. He knew the cream felt especially good on burns, with its cooling properties. After treating all the burns he could see, Haider closed the tin and placed it back in the sack, leaning against the cave wall.

The stars were out now, the waves lapping gently at the shore, with a chilly breeze coming off the ocean. Haider shivered and pulled his tunic closer around him, bringing his knees to his chest, and settled in to sleep.

After a long time of listening to the breeze and the waves, the wolf stood halfway and turned around to place his back at the mouth of the cave. One webbed paw reached out and pulled the boy's sleeping, shivering form into the cover of the wolf's insulating fur.

~//~