#;to keep

Once, there was a Keeper whose clan lived by the Vimmark Mountains. For years she struggled to bear a child, as every one was stillborn. Each night she would pray to Mythal to deliver her a child safely, and with each child, her hope faded.

One night, a wolf came to her in a dream. “I can give you a son,” He said. “Only if you promise him to me twenty years from now.” The Keeper thought this offer unwise, but she knew she would never have a child on her own.

Hastily, the Keeper agreed. The wolf chuckled, licking his chops hungrily. “The son I give you will be handsome and strong, a mage liked by all he meets. Twenty years from now, bring your son to my statue guarding two trees. Fail me, and I will swallow your son whole.”

As promised, the Keeper soon became heavy with child. She gave birth to a healthy boy after exactly nine months. She named him Drynne, for the keeper would never forget the promise she made to Fen’harel.

Drynne grew to be strong and wise. The clan adored him, and he grew to be very handsome. He learned magic and his magic was strong, and he learned to use it quickly; until his skills rivaled those of his mother.. Every night a wolf would follow him in his dreams, steadily approaching as he ran. One night,  the wolf was close enough to touch.

“What’s your name?” He asked, and at once Drynne knew this wolf to be Fen’harel.

“Drynne.” He said. “And you are the Dread Wolf.”

At this, Fen’harel laughed and laughed. “Clever boy... What a strange name you have.” And as the wolf paced, the keeper’s son would watch. For it was bad luck to look away from the Dread Wolf in his territory. “Do you know that your mother promised you to me?” He did not, and Fen’harel’s laughter shook the very Fade around him. “After twenty years, you will be mine again.”

When Drynne awoke, he told the Keeper his dream. At this, she became very pale and confirmed what the Dread Wolf said to be true. But the Keeper did not want to return her son to Fen’harel and prayed to Mythal and to Dirthamen to find some way to keep her son. At once, Mythal appeared to the Keeper. Even She could not provide aid to the Keeper. “Spill his blood over the altar, and you shall have him longer.” And as the goddess gave the Keeper her jeweled dagger, she said, “But once you do, the Dread Wolf will always have his scent and will never be far.”

On the twentieth year, the Keeper took her son to the altar guarding two trees. Over it, she slit the wrist of her soon and let him bleed over the altar with Mythal’s dagger. After the first drops of blood spilled over the altar, the wound healed and disguised his scent from the Dread Wolf.

For five years, they ran from the Dread Wolf, and for five years he grew ever closer. On the eve of his twenty-fifth birthday, the Dread Wolf caught up and chased him through the Fade before he was swallowed whole. The Keeper woke to find her son dead and the promise she made twenty-five years before fulfilled. From then on, the People have known never to make a promise to the Dread Wolf they don't intend to keep.