Conri

Courtier Tales: Conrí
subtitle: Spirit Brother Wolves

note this tale is told as part of the Two Wolves legends cycle though it is focused on a different pair.

There are some things that are spoken as if they were legend. And then there are some things that are truly legendary. But when it comes to the story of Spirit Brother Wolves those two things become one and the same. And this tale is how they began.

There are times when no matter what a person does they stand out. And this was the case of Ciar. Even his name marked him out from his brethren. You see Ciar was a black wolf and his name itself was defined by the color of his fur. Now normally that would not be a problem except for the fact that Ciar lived in a world of white snow. If he was black and white then perhaps he would have fared better but no he was just black with a little gray here and there. The only white thing about him was having a whitish gray chin which was pretty much insult to injury. Ciar had problems hunting in the snow as he stood out like only a black moving object could on a field of white. In other words Ciar hunting always ended with failure. Cair became the butt of all jokes. The only time he was able to succeed in a daylight hunt was in the short months of spring and summer. That was a problem and Ciar soon came up with a cunning solution: Ciar would hunt at night.

It seemed the perfect solution and as soon as he got a hang of it it worked. Ciar was able to hunt without being betrayed by anything but the light of the full moon. However while that meant that Ciar was able to finally provide for his pack it did not bring him up in the ranks and it marked him as even more of an outcast. The pack was slowly but surely moving away from viewing Ciar as a part of the pack. And in time Ciar was rejected and chased from the pack. Now that was a powerful blow to a wolf but to a wolf who had learned to hunt alone under the light of the moon and stars it was not as devastating. He took to traveling outside of the pack territory as he was no longer allowed inside it. It was among these travels that Ciar meet another traveler, a dragon called Conrí.

Conrí was a bit of a strange dragon and taken to wearing a gray wolf pelt. The head of which covered his own with the wolves fangs sewn into the pelt. What parts of his face that were exposed from under the pelt were an odd green like they were covered with some sort of warpaint. The origin of that pelt was unknown as the dragon had never said where it came from or responded to any question about it. He also wore a yellow kilt trimmed with white fur the doeskin belt also held a small pouch of herbs and other things. Conrí's wings were covered by a yellow banner and he wore a gold and yellow shoulder guard trimmed with the same white fur. Conrí was a bit of an oddball himself. He did not fit in well with dragons even his own kinsmen the tundra dragons.

The pair took to each other almost at once and soon traveled from the colder lands to ones that had a bit longer spring and summer. Rather then jumping right to winter there was an actual season of fall. The pair still hunted under the light of the moon and because they were that way they made others a bit nervous. It was like they were the ghosts of the night.... and like ghosts they seemed to leave little trace of their passing.

It was because of their behavior that they ended up seeing what others did not. It was also because of that they were able to see something that some people did not want to be seen. There was a small group of people who were up to no good under the light of the moon. Conrí and Ciar watched the group puzzled by what they were doing and soon found that they were trying to move stolen gold through the area. Now the pair had two choices: to turn their backs on the people who had already abandoned them or to do something about the problem at hand. And to them the choice was simple: action. Now the spirit brothers knew that they could report what happened but they also knew that they would not likely be trusted and could even tip someone off. But they also knew that if they caught the people they might possibly somehow become part of the issue. Still they would not left this issue be left alone. They soon were setting up traps. Traps that would slowly whittle away and trap the people who were using the night to cover their sins. And in less then a half cycle of the moon it worked and they had them all trapped like cattle in a lot. Then they tricked the people into recovering the group. To mark their work all they left was two symbols: a bone gnawed with the pattern of two wolves and an amulet of stone carved by dragon claws of the same image. That soon became their mark and they gained themselves something that they had not excepted: a place in the legends as the Spirit Brother Wolves.