#wolfling

Jeffrey Catherine Jones — Savage Sword of Conan, vol. 1, no. 5 frontispiece (April 1975) Source

But previously: Jeffrey Catherine Jones “Wolfling” by Gorden R. Dickson (1969)

Have a doodle of a simple Hoshi wolfling since I was preoccupied with other things. I’ll be entering the biggest and most important week of my life next week. I’m very nervous-

But still acknowledge the moon, for he’s always hearing.

As for my moon, I’ll be much closer to him soon.💕 For now, I’ll be howling at the giant round cheese ball in the night sky.

[ID: a rectangular flag with 9 vertical lines. sizes in this order from left to right: thick, thin, 5 thick, thin, thick. colors in this order from left to right: dark grey, blue-grey, grey, blue-grey, light blue-grey, blue-grey, grey, blue-grey, dark-grey. End ID]

Wolfling: a genderling subterm; a gender connected to the word ‘wolfling’ and / or being a wolfling.

Etymology: wolf, ling

Pronounced: wolf leen (wolf ling)

@revenants-gender-systems , @oneofmanyarchives

Wolfling by Gordon R. Dickson, cover by Maelo Cintron (1980)

It was early summer in the fourth year of Marwin Grayling's self-imposed exile, and the grass of the foothills was warm under his bare feet. He walked towards no particular destination, trending northeast, keeping above and away from the dirt road that paralleled the mountains in this wild country. A solitary hawk passed over his head, its cries swallowed by the wide emptiness, and he smiled as he watched it fade into the distance.

He heard the river from a distance, a low growl of water. Cresting a ridge, he saw it, snaking its way down from the mountains, swelled by the previous day's rainfall into a churning grey monster. It certainly wasn't usually this fast, not with such a wide meander. He sat down and pondered it for a while until movement caught his eye.

A man was walking along the other side of the river, head down, dangerously close to the rushing water. At the distance, Marwin could make out only broad details: green headwear, long dark hair, a generally ragged appearance. As he watched, the man paused and crouched down by the water.

What could he be doing? Marwin watched intently as he pulled out a waterskin and started to hold it in the current. Unbelievable. Did he have a death wish, or was he really that ignorant? Marwin leapt to his feet suddenly, struck by a thrill of fear, certain he was about to watch a man die. I have to warn him-

But before he could say so much as a single word, the current tore the waterskin from the man's grasp. He leaned forward instinctively, trying to catch it, and overbalanced.

"No!" Marwin cried, skidding down the slope, as the stranger disappeared beneath the water.

He would like to believe that he acted on pure impulse, without a thought behind it, to explain why he'd do something so rash for a stranger. But there was enough thought behind his actions for him to channel the magic through his body instead of setting it free, and the result was better-controlled than his magic had been in months. A metre-wide dam of ice exploded across the river with a sound like a crack of thunder, and the gray water crashed against it.

Marwin was already running when the exhaustion hit him, and he stumbled and gasped a curse as the world wavered around him. But he had to keep going, to be there at the dam to pull the stranger from the water.

Or maybe he didn't have to. A hand suddenly emerged from the water, reaching for purchase on the ice, and then another, and then a ragged, soaking wet figure pulled itself out of the rapids. Marwin stared dumbly as the man climbed up onto the shore, rubbing his hands together, breathing hard.

"You... you did that?" he asked, pointing to the ice dam, punctuating the question with a loud cough. He had a pleasant voice, even so, and although his face was blurry Marwin got an impression of striking pale blue eyes and a curious smile.

Yeah, he tried to reply, but his mouth had forgotten how to talk and his feet weren't on solid ground anymore. He grimaced, shook his head, and collapsed.

***

A cool breeze ruffled Marwin's hair, and the familiar warmth of a small campfire brought him slowly back to reality. He groaned and tried to sit up, taking in the heaviness in his bones, the ache in his muscles, the pounding in his head. The sky above was dark and full of stars.

"I hope you're not cold," said a familiar voice. "I didn't want to go digging through your pack, and I didn't think you'd want my blanket after it'd been in the river."

Marwin found that he wasn't cold, although the grass under his back was cool. The fire was enough. He tilted his head and looked at the stranger's face, lit by dancing flames. Pale blue eyes, ringed by dark circles; mouse-brown hair tied back from his face with a green bandana; a four-day beard and a melancholy smile. "Um... I'm okay." His own voice was strange to his ears. He so rarely had any reason to use it.

"I'm glad. I'm guessing it was you who made that ice dam, eh?"

"Um... yeah."

"Well, thank you. You definitely saved my life; I would've drowned if you hadn't been there. I owe you a great debt."

Hearing it spoken so plainly gave Marwin a start, but he found that he didn't want to think of why he'd done what he'd done at that moment. Because he was happy he'd done it, and he knew happiness couldn't last, and any moment he spent questioning it was one less moment he could spend feeling it. "It was nothing."

"No, it was amazing! I've never seen magic like that before. So fast! And I know that it hurt you, and you still did that for me, a stranger to you. I owe you my life. How can I repay you?" He paused suddenly and smacked himself in the forehead with a laugh. "I forgot to introduce myself. My name's Orion. Orion Wolfson."

"Oh. Orion," Marwin echoed, a smile spreading slowly over his face. "I'm Marwin. Uh, Grayling. And you, you don't have to repay-"

"Just think about it, okay?" Orion's expression was earnest. "I'll still be here in the morning, I don't have anywhere to be. I can be useful."

"O-okay." What else could he say to that?

Orion smiled at this acceptance of his terms, then laid down on his back, crossing his arms behind his head. Marwin mimicked him, dragging his pack over to serve for a pillow, but found himself unable to go back to sleep. An unfamiliar sort of nervousness had his heart racing. I should tell him. Tell him I'm dangerous, that he shouldn't stay until morning. Tell him!

Wolfling by Lazycow, Zolionline, Cyborgjeff & PypeBros