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Wargheart

This is a story of the Lost.
Of the first shape changer.
There have been five total shape changers in our history.
Fish-Bone-Tongue
Koragnak Bear-Breath
Chita the Witch.
Mo’ber the Warrior.
But first of them all was Wargheart.
Long ago, far to the north, where ice ruled and the sun was weak, my people lived.
We fled to the North to avoid the cursed Dead. It was a harsh existence, and many died, but enough survived. There we lived for many generations, isolated and far from the humans and the rest of the Syndar race.

There we lived in relative peace, until one day a hunter saw the sun glinting off of shields in the distance. Humans had come to the north. They wore red and bore a white lion on the shields. We came to them, and spoke with them. What words they said has been lost, for the humans found us strange and alien, and we were insular and not used to others.
The meeting fell to bloodshed, and we were at war for the first time in many generations.

We kept them at bay, but we could not drive them off. We did not know what to do. My tribe is small, has always been small. To attack full force was to risk the annihilation of our tribe, but to do nothing was no option either. Finally, one young shaman, called Blackeyes, stood up and asked, “What about the Warg?”

You see, long ago, when my tribe first wandered to the northlands, we were allied with the great wolves, the Warg. They fought next to us, and the greatest of our warriors were even allowed to ride them into battle.

When we came to the north, our tribes fell away. We competed for the same food, and there were no great enemies to unite us. No one had spoken with the Warg in many years, and it had been far longer than that since we had fought side by side. Some of the old accords remained though, and we did not hunt each other as we might have.

The elders agreed that this idea might work, but none were brave enough to venture to the Warg dens. None but Blackeyes.
So Blackeyes slipped away to where the Warg denned.

When he came to their dens, the Warg surrounded him, snarling and growling. Then the biggest Warg Blackeyes had ever seen spoke.
“I am the Great Warg, leader of this pack. Why have you come before us?”
“I am Blackeyes the shaman. I have to tell you news. War has come to the North. Humans are here, and we would renew the bonds our peoples once had, and fight again.”
The Great Warg laughed.
“This we know. My people are not blind. Tell me, why should we give our lives for you?”
Blackeyes answered quickly.
‘Because when they are done with us, they will come for you.’
‘The humans are slow and stupid! They cannot catch us. We are faster and stronger. No! We will not die with you anymore.’
‘Then you are cowards, and it is you who are stupid!’ cried Blackeyes.
The Great Warg snarled and attacked BLackeyes, knocking him down.
‘Watch your tongue, little greenskin!” The Great Warg thundered. “For the sake of our people’s shared past, I will not kill you for your insults. Here! I will give you a warning though. Never show your face among us again. We will kill you and feed you to our pups if you do! ‘
And the Great Warg raked his claws over Backeyes’ face, laying his flesh open. Blackeyes stumbled away, half blinded by blood. Before he was out of sight though, he turned back.
‘I will eat your heart, old beast!’ he promised.
The Great Warg chuckled.
‘You may try.’

Blackeyes was enraged. He bandaged his wounds, and found a place, high above the warg dens. There he watched and studied the warg for three days. Finally, he came up with a plan. He knew how he would avenge himself on the Great Warg, and destroy the humans in the bargain.

He crept back to the human encampment, and captured a human guard. He bound the human, and dragged him back to the warg dens. Blackeyes waited until the warg went off on their nightly hunt, leaving the Great Warg, too old to hunt, and a female warg to guard the dens and the pups.

Blackeyes took the human, and after untieing him, flung the human onto the Great Warg. The Great Warg was surprised, and angry. A human! He attacked the human with a great howl. The female warg rushed past Blackeyes’ hiding place, not seeing him until too late. He cut her down with the human’s sword, and turned on the Great Warg. The Great Warg was still savaging the human, blinded by fury. Blackeyes struck, piercing the Great Warg in the eye. The Great Warg screamed in pain, towering over Blackeyes. Then the Great Warg collapsed at Blackeye’s feet, the warg’s ruined eye staring sightlessly at nothing, pouring blood onto the ground.
‘I promised I would eat your heart, beast!’
Laughing, Blackeyes carved out the Great Warg’s heart, and ate it whole.
But he was not finished yet. He had to move quickly, before the wargs came back. Blackeyes quickly skinned the Great Warg, carefully keeping the warg’s claws, teeth, and skull attached, and then buried the body under where the human lay dead.

Blackeyes then put the warg skin on, hooking his fingers into the claws, and looking out of the sockets of the skull, and dropped to all fours. He stalked around like he had seen the wargs doing, growled and snarled and barked they did. Then Blackeyes walked into the warg dens, calling out as he went.
‘Little ones! Little ones, where are you?’
The warg pups came out of the shadows to him, and sat at his feet.
‘Grandfather! What has happened? What were those noises?’
Blackeyes smiled with the Great Warg’s jaws. His plan was working.
‘Come here, little ones, all of you. Grandfather shall protect you.’
He killed them all.

When the warg returned, they found the female and all the pups dead, and the Great Warg covered in blood.
‘What has happened!’ They yowled.
‘Who has killed the pups! Who has dared hurt you?’
‘Look!’ howled the Great Warg. ‘It was humans! See his body? I killed him, but I was too late. They have come to destroy us! We must avenge the pups!’
He leapt up and danced and ran around the warg, working them into a frenzy.

‘See how his anger makes him strong again!’ they marveled.
‘We will fight! We will destroy these humans, and eat their corpses!’
And the warg pack ran off, following the Great Warg to battle. With fearsome howls, they fell upon the human encampment. the fighting was fierce. The humans were numerous and desperate and trained. The warg were frenzied and furious, but they had not been to war in many, many years.
In the end, the humans were routed, but at great cost the the warg. Most of them were dead or dieing. A few of them survived, and slunk off to lick their wounds, but they were never seen in those lands in number ever again

The Great Warg went to the Lost caves and waited outside. The Lost, who had watched the fight, came out to him.
‘Grandfather Warg!’ cried one of the elders. The Great Warg laughed.
‘Do you not recognize me?’ he asked, and suddenly Blackeyes was standing there, dressed in a warg fur.

From then on, he was known as Wargheart, and this is how he became the greatest of our shamans, and brought to us the art of skin changing.

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