A mighty howl pierced the night. The pack of wolves were howling to a perfect, round moon. They were doing this to celebrate the birth of a new cub, but not a cub like any other. That they, the future leader of the clan had been born.
"Ok" said the leader of the clan, Shadowclaw. "I will ask Old Grandpaw to tell me our son´s future." Pearl, the cubs mother, agreed.
Old Grandpaw was the clan´s magician. He could tell the future, cure people and make potions. They entered his cave. The clan lived on a mountain over a rocky forest, and had various caves were the different members of the pack lived.
Old Grandpaw´s cave was dusty and full of glowing mist. At the center the old wolf was lying down. His straggly fur had once been dark gray but now was covered in scruffy, white strands. "Hi." he said, in a deep voice. "So you want me to read the future of your pup."
He held the pup and sank into a trance.
"I see wealth, I see strength. I see a powerfull spirit and lots of self confidence. But there are shadows and he might take a while to find the light... I see a future in which he will find somewere were he fits, and he will save a land one day."
Shadowclaw and Pearl looked at each other. This was most certainly a weird future, probably related to black, dark magic and secrets, but they hoped their son would learn to control these unusual gifts.
Soon their worries were over. They named him Greely and he was a rather normal wolf... Only not quite the same as the others. He didn´t like fighting games and wasn´t into hunting, but somehow he gained the respect of all the other cubs.
One day, his father told him: "Greely, you must hunt and fight more. We wolves have to fight for our rights and territory, and if you spend all day hunched over those strange books Old Grandpaw lends you you will never get those abilities."
His answer was: "It is okay, father. I will asist to the fighting tournament tomorrow and I assure you I will win. Then you will see how I can fight and defend a territory."
Shadowclaw agreed. He knew Greely never practised his hunting or fighting, but somehow he had a feeling everything would be all right.
And he was right. At the hunting tournament there were about fifty young wolves, ready to show of their might and pride. The eliminatories were done, and soon it was Greely´s turn.
The crowd became silent. Everyone knew the other wolf was a great fighter and none of them had seen the leader´s son fight before, but somehow they had a feeling he would win.
And they were right. When the match had started, the other wolf ran towards Greely, but the youngster muttered a spell and Greely´s shadow suddenly moved and tripped the other wolf. Frustrated, the oponent growled and clawed at Greely. The crowed gasped, imagining how his claws must have sunk into Greely´s heart and ripped his flesh.
But Greely wasn´t there. He was siting under the shadow an old tree casted, and smiled at how angry his opponent was.
Blinded with rage, he pounced on Greely, but some sort of dark matter appeared, blocking everyones eyesight. When it faded away, Greely chuckled at the sight of he other wolf, who was embedded on the floor. The crowd cheered as Greely was named best fighter of the pack.
Time flew by, and soon Greely was a young adult with some outstanding dark magic skills.
One day, he came out of his cave in the middle of the night and sat on the top of the mountain. He started howling at the full moon.
He was worried. Something was menacing the clan. No one else noticed it, but Greely new something evil was going on. And that was the reason why he had woken up at midnight. To invoque a spirit that would help him.
He drew an invocation circle on the ground, casted a curse on it and started the ritual. After a while, the torches he had put arount lit. Greely smiled. That was a good sighn. The spirit was there and wanted to help him. He got a stone and put it on he circle. It wasn´t a normal stone, it was a beautiful green gem that he used in his magic. The stone glided through the circle towards some runes. Greely was communicating with the spirit. He found out many things about it. Apparently he was called Zios. He knew what was happening to the land and was willing to help out. So Greely told him he could feel free to materialie right there and then. So that is what Zios did.
"Please, help me." said Greely. "Something is terribly wrong. Can you please help me to figure out what it is?"
"Naturally." replied Zios. "I believe that menacing energy are phantoms, for it doesn´t seem to be normal magic nor a spell. Tell you what, you can come to Jamaa. We are looking for alphas and will love to have you as one. Jamaa is very near to here, so it will be easy for you to still see your clan and I will protect them."
Greely was extreamly grateful and he acepted the offer. So now he is an alpha like the others. But those pesky phantoms are still menacing Jamaa. We might need Greely´s and the other´s help soon...
