Three Brothers

This is a story I heard from the grandfather of the pack that adopted me.

I heard this story only once, and it was when I wondered aloud to my foster sister, Good Eyes Esther, about why when it was time for cooking, the fires were outside and never inside, and why despite the bitter cold no fires were ever lit for their heat inside the shelters in the caves. Pale Cloud Coshee, her grandfather, heard me and told me this story about the three first brothers, the firstborn of the Sun and Moon; the great-grandfather and the two uncles of all kin there are alive today.

He didn't tell me their names that day; I discovered them later. It wouldn't be proper to tell you their real names as they are among the departed deities. If you show me that you have moved into the kin, we may talk more about that. At that time you'll understand why I name them as I do. As I said, he only told me this story once; few elders I met since then would speak of it, though the traditions of fire are followed by every pack as far as I know.

This is what the elder, Grandfather Pale Cloud Coshee, told me:

Loop was the oldest of the three brothers. The Sun whelped him and nursed him; his fur was golden like no other wolf has had since. But all of the kin have golden eyes like his. He was shown all the ways of the domain of his father, the Moon. He rarely spoke and though he saw the secrets of the world, he disliked their use and relied on his own strength, power, and wits to do whatever he wished. But because of what his brothers did, he is now Ghost Wolf, who we will see in the world beyond.

Leek was the middle brother, who was born after the second time the Moon visited the Sun and covered her. The youngest brother, Loit, was born of this union as well, but he was not whelped until the Moon had gathered up Leek in his arms and showed him to what would be his domain: the great expanses of shadowed woods, the lands that give life to the witches and spirits of the world, which remain dim even in the depths of the day. Leek was colored like a proper wolf, with a handsome grey and white coat and a striking black mask around his eyes. Those eyes knew the secrets of all of the cousins, both those we hunt and those who compete with us. Loop walked on four legs and almost never on two, but Leek often walked on two as we do. "Two for the kin, four for the cousins we hunt" is the saying we have from him.

After Loit was born, his mother the Sun embraced him and loved him most of all. His fur was nearly burned away as she cradled him to herself. He never learned to walk on all fours, and always stood taller than his older brothers, and was only able to alter himself to have a thin, wispy coat. Despite being different from them, he loved his brothers and learned what he could of their ways, mimicking and aping them as best he could with his nearly bare skin and slow, two-legged gait. There was much he could not know, as his eyes were always weak from gazing at his mother and his nose never developed properly from being cradled and swaddled by her for too long. Many secrets of his father's world as well as the shadowed woods were hidden from him. But he learned many other secrets that are lost to us, taught to him by the Sun's family: secrets that could move mountains, change the course of disease and age, and how to travel to and from the heavenly world. Even from a young age, it was well-known that one day he would take the place he now occupies in the sky.

This was when the seasons still changed over the face of the Earth: instead of eternal ice, there was a season for love; one for frolics and easy hunts; and one for the Great Hunts. Then came the icy times, and they were only meant for sleep. The cycle would repeat again and again. This was because of the Changing Witch, who drew her power from her brothers and sisters, the winds and the clouds, and from the crashing restless waters of the Sea, who was her mother, and the shadowed woods.

Now, Leek found the cottage where the Changing Witch lived. It was the season of love, and all growing things across the Earth were blooming and stretching up to the sky in ways we never see today, with our world locked in ice and cold. The Changing Witch was not a daughter of the Sun and Moon; being an outsider made her more interesting! And Leek knew something of her ways because his territory included all of the shadowed woods. He rubbed his face in the flowers of the field to make his scent more appealing, and a small dust from those plants also covered part of his handsome black mask. He altered himself to stand on two legs, and scratched on the cottage door.

The Changing Witch opened the door, and there was a handsome young Wolf! He smelled of the growing things of the world, which pleased her. "Come in, son of the Moon," she said. "It's a pleasure to have visitors. Tell me, do you know how to play Divvy?"

Of course he did; so he sat with her and played the game with her for the entire afternoon and evening. He was very skilled at the game, and he sometimes refused to press his advantage when he could have done so. This allowed the Changing Witch to win the game more often than she should have expected against a skilled player.

"One more game," said Leek. "And I have a wager to make with you!"

"What do you wager," she asked.

"I ask for a feast," Leek said. "I've spent so much time with you I haven't had time to hunt. Will you provide for me a feast to satisfy my hunger? And then let me lie here after I've feasted, with you in your chambers?"

"And if I win," she answered, "you must promise me to teach me the secret of the Sun and the Moon: how they govern different realms yet share the sky without their clans warring with one another."

"I agree!" The game began, and Leek with his skill made the game exciting for the Changing Witch, making her think she might win. But he won easily in the end, and gathered the winning bones and tokens to himself with his largest, toothiest smile. "A feast," he said. "A victory feast, and then to your chambers."

The Changing Witch clapped her hands and the green growing things of the world immediately became like hooks of iron and rock in the lips and teeth of the cousins who graze and nibble on them, and she drew forth those she believed would please Leek. He had his fill, and released more than half of what the Changing Witch had gathered for him. This pleased the Changing Witch all the more, and she eagerly accompanied him to her own chambers.

As they lay together, the Changing Witch stroked Leek between the ears and said "Promise me that you will return to play again." She still believed that she might have beaten him, if only luck had been on her side. (Only the very foolish believe their skills will always prevail against luck!) And she greatly desired to know the secret of peace, as she and her sisters of the Sea warred with those of the Earth. And truth be told, she felt great affection for this visitor!

"I promise," said Leek. But he had a different idea.

He found his younger brother Loit. If you ever hunger, go to the cottage of the Changing Witch," he told him. "She loves to play Divvy, but she isn't very good. You can bet her for a feast, and she'll provide it if you win! Put pollen from the flowers of the field on yourself so you'll smell as I did, and if she asks why you look different, tell her you learned something of Changing when you played last, and changed to be more like her, with no fur. Give yourself an outline around your eyes that looks like my mask. Afterwards, tell her you'll change again, and we can send Loop in for his share after you."

Loit had been hunting with Loop, but mostly getting in his older brother's way; and Loop would eat most of what they caught. Loit could hunt by himself in his own strange way, but it pained him to do this at times when his brothers could observe him. Because he loved and respected his older brothers, he wanted to do as they did. So he went to the Changing Witch's cottage after preparing himself as Leek had instructed, and knocked on the door.

She opened the door but before welcoming him, noticed he had no fur. "You seem different today," she said. "Are you really the son of the Moon who played with me?"

"The Moon is my father, and the Sun is my mother," Loit said. With her eyes I was able to perceive something of your magic. So I changed! And I can change again. After today, you will see me in yet another guise. But today, would you like to play Divvy again?"

She did, as she had in mind her own goal. And Loit offered the same bet as Leek did, except he did not ask to spend the night with her in her chambers. This offended the Changing Witch but she said nothing.

"Let's play seven games. The winner must win four games, like there are four seasons." He held up his hands, which were smooth and soft like the Changing Witch's hands, and put up four fingers on one hand, three on another. "Then the loser must provide!" This offended the Changing Witch even further, being lectured by this hairless two-legged wolf about her own role played in the world! Loit's directness also displeased her; she remembered Leek playing many games for the fun of it, not for filling his own belly. But she believed Loit and Leek were the same wolf, so she agreed, provided Loit would accept her terms. He didn't even listen to them, but waved his hands and said "Yes, yes, of course." He didn't expect to lose, after all: what did he care what she wanted?

They played, but Loit did not allow the Changing Witch a single opportunity to get ahead. He won the first game easily, and as the second game came to a close he began to mock her. "You're not very good at this," he laughed. "I'm getting bored, and that makes me hungry--but it doesn't matter, because I'll be eating soon!"

He very easily won the next two games; the Changing Witch never had a chance, and she knew it. It was humiliating. "You could use a lot more experience against unskilled opponents" he told her. "That is, players at your own level. I've won! And now, my feast!"

She performed the same trick she did for Leek, bringing many of the hunted cousins for Loit. And Loit greedily devoured as much as he could, and tried to take even more than that with him, to save for later. All the while he continued to mock the witch, boasting that he might as well stop hunting and just come back to visit her to eat every day.

When he finished, he belched and went on his way. "I said I may change the next time you see me," he said over his shoulder. "Be ready!"

"I will be ready indeed," said the Changing Witch to herself.

He found Leek and Loop together, and joined them. "It was just as you said, Leek! I had my fill, and more." He nudged Loop in the side and said "You might want to go easy on her, I was pretty brutal."

"Just rub your face in the flowers," Leek told Loop. "Challenge her to Divvy and tell her you want to make the same bet: a feast, and then the night with her."

"You spent the night with her, brother?" Loit was amazed. "I forgot to ask for that! I want another chance!"

"You've had your chance," Loop said. "And you thought with your belly, which in some circumstances, is wise. That's rare for you! Though I feel it is distasteful to rely on her for sustenance, because you said you would return changed, I'll visit her tomorrow." Loop planned to apologize to her for being used by his brothers, and then go hunt for himself: that was his simple and pure way.

Loop visited the flowers, covering himself with their pollen, and made his way to the Changing Witch's cottage. He sat on all fours, and huffed at the door. It opened before he had a chance to take another breath.

"You're back," said the Changing Witch in a very flat tone.

"Maybe she's angry at losing," thought Loop. "I'm back again," he lied. "I'm here to pass the time playing with you again."

"Oh? I thought you would be bored playing against someone who needs practice against unskilled opponents," she answered.

Loop smelled that she was pregnant, and in his heart through the arts that he learned from his father, the Moon, he knew that it would be the cub of his brother, Leek. He smiled at this knowledge, and was distracted by this good news to the point that he did not notice the danger in the air. He didn't bring up anything about bets or promises, and set out the playing pieces. But his grin infuriated the Changing Witch.

The first game was very unlucky for Loop. Sometimes all the skill in the world will not save a player from luck; many have wondered and sang about what might have happened if luck had decided differently on this one game. Loop's bad luck was that he was going to win, and nothing he could do would make the game turn from this outcome.

When this became apparent to both of them, he grinned all the wider at his hostess and said "You almost won!"

The Changing Witch clapped her hands together and the playing board disappeared, swallowed up by the thick growth of grass and flowering plants. "You'll learn a lesson today," she said as she stood. "After the first day, I felt that you held me as something precious. After the second day, I felt you regarded me as your inferior. And now I know it's true: you look down your nose at me! It will not be so."

She clapped her hands again and cold swept down on Loop, making his teeth chatter and his eyes close over with frost. "I cannot see!" Loop staggered around, not from being blinded but from the pain across his face. He could still smell where he was, and of course that is the sense that is the most important, but the Changing Witch did not know that.

She touched his back and robbed him of his beautiful color, turning him completely white. "Walk the paths of the world beneath," she said. "Son of the Moon, I change you. You are Changed. Ghost Wolf, lead the dead to their world."

Loop yelped and ran, but could not find his way back to his own territory. He wandered long, moving far and wide, and discovered the ways of the next world but could not explain them to his brothers until the time came for them to join him.

Leek and Loit both missed their brother, but Loit felt the loss most keenly. Leek found traces of his brother in the shadowed woods, and was able to commune with him. He was able to add to his knowledge the secrets that Loop had discovered about the world beyond, and Leek claimed Loop's original territory for his own. The Moon consented to this, loving Leek as much as he had loved Loop, though his light no longer shone upon his eldest, now Ghost Wolf.

Loit was no longer able to communicate with his eldest brother at all, and the shame of how the Changing Witch had treated Loop, and why she had done so, burned in his heart terribly. The fire of his mother, the Sun, awoke in him and burned away all of the remains of his fur, so he was unable to alter himself from the naked form he had when he was whelped.

"That Changing Witch! I swear she will pay a terrible price for what she has done to Loop," Loit said. He set out to wage war on her, and assaulted the cottage of the Changing Witch with awesome weapons from the family of his mother, the Sun.

She heard him coming, and when she saw him she understood what had been done to her: it was not one wolf, but several, deceiving her. She left her home and confronted Loit. "You brothers used me! You have no shame. Your father should renounce you, you hairless fool!" Loit used a weapon not seen since his ascension, the Ground Jaws: the Earth shook and swallowed up the cottage of the Changing Witch. It was destroyed, smashed to pieces before the Earth closed over it again, faster than any kin ever broke a bone in his jaws.

She fled and as she ran, the seasons changed from the season of love to the season of frolic and easy hunts. Loit gained on her and threw a stick that bit her arm as if it were a snake. This was the first spear; a way to hunt that Loop and Leek had never known, though we use it today when the need is great.

Screaming with pain, she changed the seasons again to the season of the Great Hunts. She began to pull away from Loit, who was never the equal of his brothers on the hunt. Loit's pain of guilt and loss grew until heat greater than the Sun provides on the hottest day was created at his hands. It flowed after the Changing Witch, traveling along the green growing things of the Earth to reach her, taking the form of a raging fire.

She took secret paths known to the tall trees, but the fire followed her and so the tall trees are no more; nobody alive now aside from the gods has seen them. Only the brush trees remained, and they remain today. She fled across the fields where her power was strongest, but Loit's power of fire was stronger; she faced destruction.

She changed the season to the season of ice, in hopes that while the green growing things of the Earth were sleeping, it would halt the fire. But the flames were not natural fire; they could not be quenched. And this is when the heat born of Loit's misplaced fury and desire to punish caught up with her.

"The changing of the seasons is finished," she cried out as the flames licked at her body. "The world is in ice forever! In ice I condemned the golden son of the Sun and Moon to explore the paths of the world beyond! And in ice the Earth will travel into that realm beyond, no matter how long it takes!" And the flames consumed her.

This is what Pale Cloud Coshee, the grandfather of my foster sister Good Eyes Esther, told me: the flames were the weapon that the youngest brother, Loit, used on the Changing Witch. And as deeply as he regretted what he had done to punish her, what was done was done. And now we live in the Icy Earth; it is all that we alive today have known.

Fire is the weapon that left the world as it is now, and it has no part in the home of any of the kin. It's natural to use the tools that our ancestors left for us, but fire must remain outside. It can be used to smoke and grill meats of the hunt, but it is an offense to the Moon, who still feels the loss of his eldest son deeply, to use fire in any other way.