How the wolf found her heart

## Overview

This story is told in communities of varying kinds as a way to explain death and loss to the young. It is, however, thought to have originated with hunting communities and is sometimes attributed to Erastil's clergy though it remains popular among Pharasma's for obvious reasons.

## The Story

Once upon a time, there was a family of wolves who lived in the woods. For many years, they lived in peace and happiness with plenty of game to eat and safe burrows to sleep in. Two children of this family, a sister and a brother, were especially close. They got along and always knew that they would be able to come back to their home and their parents to rest at the end of the day.

Even as time went on and the brother and sister found mates and had families of their own, they would still come back to visit their parents. But one day, the sister wolf came back and found that her parents were no longer there. Asking the other members of the pack that lived there, she head that they had gotten old and died. But when she heard this, a terrible pain struck her. It was like something had managed to steal her heart right out from her chest, and nothing can live without a heart.

Hearts are things that have to do with feelings, and so she went to search for where she felt like she might find it.

First she went to the den where here parents last left. Arriving, she saw a place that was both too empty and too full. It was almost like she could smell the delicious game her father and mother brought back, hear the yelps like laughter she and her brother made when play-fighting each other. Yet try as she might, she couldn't find her heart there and so she moved on.

Next, she tried to look for her heart at the glen where she first caught a rabbit after months of trying. She could feel the fear that she would fail, the thrill of the chase, and the pride of having brought back her first kill. Yet for all the feelings that she found, she did not find the heart that held them. Still, having found more feelings she thought her heart must be close and so she continued on.

Finally, she happened upon the old hill where her parents met and where she herself had found the wolf whom she loved. She remembered the curiosity upon seeing him, the joy of nights spent playing with him and the simply peace of going to sleep with someone you love by your side. Yet even here, her heart was nowhere to be found.

It was quite late by now, the stars had come out and the forest and grown grim and dark. She howled, howled with all her might and sorrow at knowing she would never see her parents again. But when she looked back down at the paths she had walked searching for her heart, she saw something. Her children, her husband, and her brother came walking up the trail. Even the friends she had made while she lived in this place were coming to see her.

Looking at them all, she realized she hadn't lost her heart at all. It hadn't died, nor been taken from her chest by some trickster or spirit, her heart still lived on because she had them. She had the journey, she had the trail leading from place to place in her heart, and she had many happy days head of her with the ones she loved and to whom she could always return for the rest of her days.

For we are never truly alone in this world, and who we are could never be without who we have been.