Title-- The Panthera Walkers: Prologue
Total Wordcount-- 2,172
Rating and Warnings-- G; no warnings.
Species and Characters-- Lupos (wolftaurs). Mentioned are Panthera (feline anthros), Avans (parrot anthros), and humans. Characters? An old Lupos shaman. In a little bit, I'll put up the webpage where I'm compiling all my worldbuilding for easy reference. <3!
Summary and Notes-- Part one. WHOAMIGAWD TEH EXCITEDNESS!!! *squee^<3* And this is just the prologue, so no, the entire novel won't be told like this. Oh yeah, and the typical disclaimer--this is a rough draft. Forgive any typos, plot holes, grammatical mistakes, or anything else non-shiny in it. Praise and encouragement only, except when pointing out literal typos or grammatical errors. =D



"Come here. Sit down, by the fire. Warm your bones--you look exhausted. Here, have a drink. No, don't worry, it's just water. Nothing that'll make your head pound in the morning.

"Where do you come from, stranger? I don't recognize the stitch of your armor, or the make of your blade. No matter. So long as you're not out to kill us, you're welcome to share our fire and our food. Don't look so surprised. I'm not a savage any more than you are.

"I was just about to tell my clansmen a story from long ago. A story of the Elderwar... or, more accurately, how it began. So here, take a bit of jerky and some travel-bread. Relax, stranger. All I ask is that you stay quiet while I speak. Fair enough? Good.

"Once upon a time..."


Once upon a time, there was an eternity, an infinity of nothingness--except for one bright point of light that burned insatiably. Hush, my kindred--you may know this part of the story, but our guest does not, so I will tell it anyways.

Once upon a time... that light, who was Father Sun, felt the loneliness that any spirit feels when there are none to share the darkness. The darkness itself was Cousin Eclipse, but He spoke little, and was naught but Father Sun's opposite. So Father Sun created Mother Moon to be His mate and to soothe His unending loneliness. After Their joining, Mother Moon gave birth to Sister Earth, and then to Brother Sky. Father Sun shone upon them all, enlightening His mate's silver face and warming His daughter's body. Excluded from this family, Cousin Eclipse grew jealous, and periodically hid Mother Moon's face from Her children, or even blocked Father Sun's light--but Cousin Eclipse was not as great as the Sun and Moon, and He could only bring the darkness to Earth and Sky for a little while before the light broke past.

Centuries ago, the Lupos and the Avans were the only two races of any note on Aahu. We Lupos lived in nomadic clans, while our feathered friends preferred great cities. Granted, we were rivals, but there was never any real hostility between us, even when we competed for the same prey, or the same lands. We had lived peacefully with the sophisticated Avans for as long as we could remember, despite their occasional scorn towards us--they thought us little better than tool-using wolves that had evolved a simplistic pack structure into what we could call a clan. But those were usually the highest-born, and we had little to do with those ones anyway.

The greatest Lupos clan was the Azrah clan at the time, led by Azrah Darkhowl. Darkhowl was a mighty brave, a warrior with no equal, and a leader who was well-loved by his clansmen. The Azrah were the first to ever settle in one place and claim a territory--near the Six Lakes region, a lush forested land. It is the Azrah that began to build our culture into something truly magnificent; they created the fine weapons, the sturdy armor, the efficient tools that we have since honed, improved, and continue to use. Darkhowl was a hero to all Lupos for what he gave our race, and it was he who won the Avans' respect at long last.

Cousin Eclipse hid Mother Moon's face one night and whispered to Darkhowl that there were enemies in the darkness that had come to slaughter his clansmen. Enraged by such a threat, Darkhowl took a party of his most powerful braves and rangers to crush the danger before Father Sun could rise and allow his foes to see the dark wolves in the dark forests. The battle was fierce and furious, as Darkhowl and his clansmen caught the sleeping encampment off-guard, and when dawn broke, there were Avan bodies littering the blood-soaked earth like fallen leaves in autumn. Horrified, Darkhowl froze, and three badly-wounded Avans escaped on their gryphon steeds--and then Father Sun was hidden from the Lupos' sight again by Cousin Eclipse, who whispered malicious words in Darkhowl's ear. 'The Avans wish to kill you,' He said seductively, 'and they will crush your clan underfoot if you do not prove your strength to them now. Kill them, and they will not bring war to you.' Darkhowl was doubtful for a moment, until Cousin Eclipse added, 'They plan to kill even your pups. You are the mightiest Lupos alive! Destroy them before they bring violence to even your young and your old!'

Darkhowl, infuriated once more, made an example of the Avan bodies scattered throughout their encampment. When a party of Avans came a few days later, they saw their kindred plucked naked of their beautiful feathers, dismembered, with their eyes stabbed out, their beaks crushed, their skulls on pikes. There was no end to the horror that they saw--the atrocities that Darkhowl and his clansmen had committed. Still, the noble Avans tried to understand, sending emissaries to Darkhowl to demand an answer for his terrible deeds. The emissary's head was returned with no eyes and no head-crest. It was the final line drawn in the sand--the Avan forces engaged Darkhowl's braves in battle.

Again, the sky darkened with Cousin Eclipse's opaque blackness, and the Avans--who could not see so well without light--were defeated. Only one escaped to bring news of the battle to the nearest city.

Thus began the Elderwar. The Avans could not forgive or forget such unprovoked savagery, and the Lupos would not let their strongest chieftain and his clan stand alone. But the other Lupos clans never knew that Darkhowl had attacked first, and Darkhowl himself was unaware that his own god had betrayed him and cast his entire race into a ruthless bloodbath. Darkhowl and his clans were crushed over twenty years after that first eclipse; then, and only then, did a few Lupos and Avans who still fought for peace piece together what had happened. The story spread to the Lupos and Avan peoples, but it made no difference to them--the Avans did not believe in the Lupos gods, and the Lupos could not lay down their weapons and accept defeat and death. The humans, who before the war had been a minor race that leeched off the trade and benevolence of the other two races, began making a profit from the hostilities, acting as neutral traders and merchants. Those Lupos and Avans who sought peace were discreetly murdered by the humans, who made it seem as though the enemy had committed yet another act of bloodshed. By the time the two races found out that humans engendered the warfare, the neutrality of their traders was too important to risk by avenging those assassinated.

It is a sad story, knowing that we Lupos were so easily led astray... knowing that Eclipse would strike at us in His anger at being excluded from our gods' family. And even now, centuries after that first strike, the Elderwar rages on.


"Ah yes, you're expecting me to continue, aren't you? About the Panthera, and how they came into the war. Very well. I'm sure our guest could use the knowledge, as well, looking so surprised to be hearing all of this to begin with. Heh, no, I mean no insult, stranger, take your hand from your hilt. Have a mug of mead and sit back again. Let an old shaman tell his tales around a fire, won't you?

"Hm, where to begin. Ah yes... about fifty years ago..."


About fifty years ago, the humans enslaved the largest clan of a minor race that we called the Panthera, with whom we'd had little dealings, thinking them unintelligent primitives. Turns out they aren't--turns out they're just as keen as we Lupos, but their culture was very limited, being as they were nomads... like we had been, before Azrah Darkhowl claimed that first territory. Even though they're felines, they lived in clans--tribes, they call them--and worked together to survive.

Anyway. The humans wanted inexpensive drudges, witless guards, a little more muscle than they had themselves. The Panthera... the Walker tribe... resisted and fought the humans, tried to escape. The humans, thinking themselves wise, taught the Panthera the Lupos tongue; as traders, they know both our language and Avanic, and they keep their own native tongue a zealously-guarded secret to non-humans. Our language was easier for the Panthera to speak, being as we are both furred mammals without beaks such as the Avans have, and should the Panthera ever successfully escape and beg sanctuary from the Avans, the Avans would kill them for speaking our tongue, rather than harbor them. I suppose the humans thought we would not grant safety to fugitives and risk their merchants turning against us, too.

A small section of the captured tribe escaped and fled north, into Lupos territory. Meeting up with a hunting party of three--a shaman, a brave, and a ranger--the Panthera pleaded for the strangers to not reveal their location to their human pursuers. Concerned and curious, the Lupos guided the twenty-some felines deep into their lands and hid them away, allowing the Panthera to regain their strength and tell their story. These three Lupos were of the Tehar clan, led by Tehar Suncaller, a young and ambitious shaman whose life and clansmen were dedicated to ending the Elderwar and establishing peace between us and the Avans. Without letting any other Lupos clan know of the Panthera's location or even existence, the Tehars guarded and aided the Walkers in rescuing more of their enslaved brethren. After a few years, the Panthera leaders approached Kieran Whitestar, Darkhowl's descendent and the leader of the most populous and powerful Lupos clan, and asked to be allowed to live in peace in the Six Lakes region, which was the border between Tehar and Kieran territories. The news of the Panthera's escape and unexpected intelligence swept the Lupos clans, and rumors reached the Avans through the humans that the Lupos had gained an ally in the Elderwar.

Whitestar inspected the Panthera, challenged them to complete tasks for her and the Kieran clan, tested their strength and hearts, and finally approved. She allowed them to have free run of the Six Lakes territory as a neutral neighbor, and the Panthera seized the chance to begin rebuilding a shattered, previously-secret culture. The humans still hunting for the escaped slaves began raiding the area, trying to exterminate the Panthera--but the Tehars and the Walkers together managed to survive each battle. And soon after, the humans let slip to the Avans that the Panthera would build their numbers and then fight the Avans--and the Avans, too, turned their attentions to crushing the few Walkers that lived in Six Lakes.

That nearly brings us to the present. The Elderwar continues, despite the efforts of the Tehars, many Panthera, and even some Avans to end it. The humans still prosper as neutral suppliers, traders, and merchants, with many relentlessly hunting down any Panthera they can--in vengeance, and in a dogged attempt to re-enslave such valuable living resources. Combat training in all four races is a way of life, and the Avan raids on Lupos and Panthera settlements is nearly a weekly event. The Walker tribe has carved a stronghold from Six Lakes with the help of the Tehars, and they have begun crafting a culture from what they remember of their own nomadic lore and what they've learned from we Lupos. Because of the hostility of humans and Avans, the Panthera are constantly teetering on the brink of extinction, and resigned to their believed alliance with all Lupos in the Elderwar, many have begun openly aiding the Lupos in battle. Despite it all, the Tehars and the Walkers seek peace, while Kieran Whitestar and the other major Lupos tribes fight to defend their right to live and hunt, and while the Avans strive to avenge the comrades fallen in battle and crush what they see as an unforgivably savage race.


"Yes... there you have it. Our history, and theirs, all in one night, around one campfire. Don't look poorly upon us, stranger. We seek to survive, to protect our families and our lands. If the Avans wanted apology from us, or any service to pay for our past mistake, they would have it. But they wish revenge and justice, which only spilled blood can offer--which we will not willingly give. The Elderwar will continue, I think, far beyond the end of my life, and of yours.

"And, if you were wondering, my name is Tehar Suncaller. It is I and my clansmen who fight so hard for peace... we and the Panthera Walkers."